Unit 1: Families

Do family trees form a national forest?

Either they do or not, you will need some vocabulary to name the different trees (sorry, I meant relations). Here you have some help:

VOCABULARY: THE FAMILY

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If you are interested in the world of weddings, here is your vocabulary and a funny (in both senses, ha-ha and freak) film about weddings:

WEDDINGS VOCABULARY

CONFETTI (UK, 2006)
(LINKS TO TRAILER AND INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR, DEBBIE ISITT)

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Later in class we saw the evolution of Spanish families from the fifties until recently and the introduction of a new concept: "domestic partnership". Read its definition in the Wikipedia:

DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP DEFINITION

In any case, we stressed that family terms are used by individuals with independence of their legal bonds, and we may call mother somebody who has no blood or legal relation with us but plays that role in our family. This is because, most of all, we are talking about feelings, love and affection.

Here's a song which summarises all the good feelings about being a family. It is "We are family" by Sister Sledge. Watch out for grammar and spelling mistakes in the lyrics transcript.



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Click on the following link to listen to a different version of the same song, but with a slightly different, broader message:

We Are Family Foundation

Which takes us back to a new beginning:
Do family trees form an INTERNATIONAL forest?
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Do you want to leave your ideas about families and family issues? Would you like to show us your family? Are there any interesting sites that you would like to share with us? Send your comments to this entry.

Food for thought, exercise for the mind

All languages are beautiful when they convey beautiful messages. And they do not need to use complicated words or structures for that.

In the following two texts Elisa, one of the students in the CAL group,
gives her opinion about food and "national pride", and Mark Brazaitis,
Peace Corps volunteer talks about soccer, or is it about something
different?

Elisa's opinion:

I hate people that always say their country is the best. I don’t agree with them, because I think that we can find good things in different places.

I like to try new dishes and can we say objectively which is the country with the best cooking in the world?

France has been recognized as a gastronomic reference for three centuries. Is this actually true?. That is true according to the results of a famous contest, organized by the famous chef Paul Bocusse. French chef, of course.

But, what does “the best cooking” mean?. If the best one is the healthiest, maybe other countries or diets could be the winners, for example, the Mediterranean diet or vegetarien diet, as well as the Japanese or Chinese food. And, if the best is the most popular cooking, I think that Italian food would be the winner.

A good meal needs variety and good ingredients, and the best and most sensitive chefs. Although the general opinion is that British food is bad, there is a famous young chef in the U.K, who tries to change that. His name is Jamie Oliver. J. Oliver says that everybody loves having a delicious meal, so people who can cook well, always have a lot of friends. Women love men who can cook, and men love women who can cook. Cooking is a very important skill.

For me, cooking is a very important skill too. In fact, it is not only the tastes of food, such us Proust’s cupcake, it is the memory that is coming back from those tastes. The food becomes a symbol of a happy time.

But, happiness doesn’t live in a country, it can be a citizen in the world. So, eating and being in love, cooking pasta or making sushi together; then, Italian food is the most exciting and Japanese food is the most delicious.

Eating and meeting friends are the times when Chinese or Moroccan or Indian food are the funniest.

Cooking with my children, eating with my family, my sisters and brothers, is when Spanish food is the best in the world.

Sometimes I believe that my mother’s paella is the best paella, but I know that’s not exactly like that. Perhaps that is why we love to think that happiness is very close to us, in some small things, we only have to compose the crumbs of our own cupcake.

Mark's poem: Soccer Until Dusk

You can also listen to the author reading his poem if you click here


What do YOU think? Remember you can insert your comments under each entry.

You may also click on the picture and go to the London Underground page, choose a poem that you like, and bring it to the class.

Unit 1: Sports

New topic, new vocabulary. If you can't name (some) sports in English, this might be your place (for that and for much more):

http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/index_uk.asp

This section is addressed to teachers: http://www.olympic.org/uk/passion/studies/educational/index_uk.asp


To 3rd year CAL students (group B):

If you weren't in class last wednesday this is a good moment to find out what we were talking about:

1) Maradona (God's hand)


2) More details about the "Lorz of the Rings"

3) Ten greatest cheats in sports history (look who's first).

You can still add your opinion under this entry.

Unit 1: More food (and some listening practice)

Would you like to visit a British market? Click on the following picture:

More information about Borough Market in http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/index.php

Can't you name the things you saw? Some help here:

http://www.susancanthony.com/Resources/ESL/4vocfoo.html

You know the names but how do you say more things about food? (vvvvvery useful vocabulary):

http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/blwordgroups_food.htm

Further practice (based on classroom work):

In our class book (New File Intermediate), we read and heard about "Frederick's", a British restaurant in Santiago (Chile) opened by a Briton, Kevin Poulter. This is not just a story, this is real and both the restaurant and the person exist.

Task 1 (further reading)

Surf the net and find more information about Frederick's. You can also find some recipes by Kevin Poulter in http://canelakitchen.blogspot.com/ (they are in English and Spanish) if you search properly.

In class, we also heard a podcast of an interview with Paul Freedman, author and editor of "Food: The History Of Taste". The podcast was released by the University of Yale.

Task 2 (further listening)

Find the podcast and listen to the interview (you might need iTunes software). You can write your comments about it in this entry. Would you buy the book after listening to the interview? Why or why not?