Two pieces of news about animals and one word: lifespan.

Today, among many other stories, The Times published two pieces of news about animals, one about genetic manipulation and how it might help developments on ageing research. The other is about sexual abstinence and how it makes some birds more attractive.

In both of them, the word "lifespan" is used. Read the articles to see how and to find which of them was done by a Spanish University. Can you guess?

The Urban Dictionary: defo.

This is an interesting dictionary where you can find terms used by people everyday which are not easily found in more formal dictionaries. It works like Wikipedia and I find the definitions very helpful.

Try with these words: defo, oi or uber. I have heard them and seen them written very often, in the last case in articles and reviews in magazines.

I will add a link for easy access under the Vocabulary and Grammar entry in the column on the right.

Oxford Street and Christmas lights.

Well, I have to say that they had to cover patches with tarmac here and there, as the works have not been completely finished yet. We thought this only happened in Spain, but here it is the same.

Today is the day the Christmas lights will be lit up in Oxford and Regent Street and this attracts crowds in the same way "el alumbrado" does in Seville for the opening of the April Fair, so it had to be ready by all means.


It is a great improvement, though, and it is fully functional in spite of the patches I mentioned.

And I thank the Mayor of London as I always come out of the underground station on the wrong side (I am that silly) and it is crazy trying to cross the street at this point, fighting masses of people in all directions.








Here you are some information about Xmas lights in London, with the calendar for the different areas, as they are not lit up at the same time.


This year and thanks to Disney, Regent Street and Oxford Street will be lit up at the same time (the crossing of these streets is Oxford Circus, above).

Oxford Circus has been decorated with references to Disney's adaptation of Charles Dicken's Christmas Carol, showing today the world's premiere.

Ken Lee

If you are still alive after Halloween and the Day of the Dead, here is something to kill you. Just how far bad English can take you: the "Ken Lee" phenomenon. And the Bulgarian protagonist lives in Spain. Just in case, don't copy her pronunciation:

In the next video you can read (using the subtitles, unless you speak Bulgarian, of course) how the singer managed to achieve such pronunciation. In spite of everything, I would not reject the method, but I would suggest you refine it a little bit after the first steps (phonetics might help here). Oh, and watch out for some mistakes in the subtitles (at least they do not affect communication):

By the way, here is the original song with the "right" pronunciation. Please, learn this if any:

The Day of the Dead at the British Museum

Coinciding with the exhibition about "Moctezuma, Aztec Ruler", the British Museum will celebrate the "Day of the Dead" on Sunday 1st November, just after Halloween, in the way Mexicans do. Click on the picture to see how:

The English Blog

The English Blog, by Jeffrey Hill, is in my list of favourite blogs and the following post is a good example of why. Of course, on top of the interesting posts, there are excellent links and resources for students of English:

AKINATOR: Who is it game? (elementary)

Time for a game.

This is the classic yes/no question game to guess the identity of a famous person? But this time you play against the computer.

The surprising thing is that you think about the person and "Akinator" asks the questions and guesses. Why don't you have a go? You might be able to beat Akinator.

Click on the picture and then on Play. Introduce a name (or nickname), your age and gender. Think of a real famous character and click on Play again. Tip: Try with easy characters first and then make it a bit more difficult for Akinator. You'll be surprised!

Please, write a comment if you found this link useful.

In The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy,

a "mega-selling cult classic", as defined on the back of the 2009 McMillan edition of the 1.979 humorous novel by Douglas Adams, Bethselamin is mentioned as a "fabulously beautiful planet" affected by one of our modern diseases: tourism.



Adams describes the situation as follows: "Bethselamin is now so worried about the cumulative erosion by ten billion visiting tourists a year that any net imbalance between the amount you eat and the amount you excrete whilst on the planet is surgically removed from your bodyweight when you leave: so every time you go to the lavatory there it is vitally important to get a receipt".



Today, The Independent publishes a piece of news about monuments in danger in the UK and, although tourism may also play an important role, it is not always the main cause. Click on the image to read the article.

At the end of the article you can find that the organization who "watches" over monuments in danger gives a list of their World Monuments Watch for 2010. Among them, the historical landscape of Seville is included, but this time it is not tourism the main cause of danger. Can you guess what it is? Click on the following link to find out:

What's your opinion about it?

Off The Hook

The University of Westminster and television

Can you imagine a Spanish TV series filmed at the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Sevilla. I am sure we would not be short of stories to tell...


Well, here in the UK, there is a new BBC TV comedy filmed at the University of Westminster. It is about a group of first year students (freshers) and it can be watched on-line.

Click on the picture to go to the BBC iPlayer and watch the first episode (they are available for a limited period of time and you have a download button too!!). There are more episodes if this is your "cup of tea":

Regent Street cinema project

The University of Westminter and cinema

If you did not know, I'm working this year at the University of Westminster. I have been very lucky and the Polylang, the modern languages programme in which I am collaborating, is based in the original building at Regent Street.

What I did not know is that this was also the site of the first public film screening in the UK with an audience paying to see a film.

Now the University wants to recover the original cinema under what they call the "Regent Street cinema project" with the intention of (in their words) "transforming the birthplace of British cinema back into a multimedia facility and teaching space for our students and the wider community and putting Westminster back in the Heart of London."

Here is a video about this building and its implications for the cinema industry in the UK, which has been released with the campaign:

Here you also have a link to a slide presentation of the project:

http://www.regentstreetcinema.co.uk/

Books and films: Life Of Pi by Yann Martel

Life Of Pi, by Yann Martel (2001)

A few years ago I recommended this book to 4th year students at the EOI of Lebrija, and then knew that M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) had been chosen by 20th Century Fox, who bought the rights, to direct the film version. It seems he dropped the project to direct The Lady in the Water, which did not turn out so well after all... Then Alfonso Cuarón replaced him but also dropped it to direct The Children of Men. After him it was Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, Amelie) who was chosen but he also dropped "after initial exploration". Finally, it seems Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) will hopefully direct the film, which will be released in 2010/11.


I still recommend its reading before watching the movie, as it is highly inspiring and suggestive and I guess the film will have to cut on lots of interesting parts to fit into an acceptably long motion picture. And also suggest you approach it with an open mind and not having read any summaries about it (thus my lack of links to the book reviews). You will have to trust me here.

So, do it and then let's see if the film is up to the original novel. I bet Ang Lee is the perfect choice to transmit the beautiful feelings of the novel but I prefer finding my own viewpoint and then contrasting it, don't you? Of course, you can always try the easy way and just wait and watch the film, but you will probably lose a lot of the nicely surprising moments of the novel.

A curiosity: the Canadian author of the book, Yann Martel, was born in Spain.


Check out this SlideShare Presentation where different people create illustrations for the novel (ideally after reading it ;-))

Life Of Pi Art

View more presentations from Matt Christensen.

MOVING HOUSES AND SCAM

The first thing I obviously had to do before moving to London was to find a place to live. I started looking for a place on the web, as I was still living in Spain, and a word began to appear more a more frequently, and this word is "scam":

SCAM: a fraudulent business scheme

And it was not just a word. I had already discovered the reputation London has for being one of the most expensive cities in the planet but still wanted to find that "bargain" and contacted "flat owners" through different sites. Of course I also contacted people who were genuine landlords but had the opportunity to come across some examples of real SCAMMING.

The funniest SCAMMER was someone who claimed to be a reverend moving away on a mission and for whom money was not important. The important thing for him, he said, was to find someone who took good care of his house while he was away, a house which looked pretty much like a five star hotel room. Others were not that obvious, but I began to identify some of the tricks and to my disappointment, I discovered that it was very difficult to find a bargain in London, especially if you are not there to check by yourself.

Of course, this is not something to laugh about, and some SCAMMERS have managed to deceive people by making them believe they are the real owners and taking a minimum of a 3-month-rent deposit (which can be a considerable sum), and then the real owner had turned up to everybody's surprise (but the SCAMMER, who would have disappeared).

Here are some comments from "Gumtree", a site which works like "Cambalache" or "Segundamano" here in Britain and which provides a lot of warning and even a forum to denounce SCAMMERS, as it is something that escapes their control:



Beware of SCAMMERS. It is already happening in Spain too.

So, what did I do in the end? I followed my tutor's advice and decided to go to a State Agent, but this is another story...

New born blog

About a year ago, I started this blog with a picture of Eros, in Picadilly Circus. It seems his power of attraction captured me and now I have moved to London for a year to take part in a new project.

This blog was originally created for CAL students and it worked well (or that is what my students and other colleagues told me) so I would like to keep it going. However, I will use it as a diary of my stay here and it will not be specifically designed for a profile of students.

But I want to keep the spirit of the original blog in this re-birth, so here is the first entry again:

Teaching is a difficult task. Teaching your subject in English to Spanish students means adding more difficulties, especially if you are Spanish and have to "suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous" English.

This blog tries to offer some help in that task and provide some "arms to oppose" those difficulties. Let Eros (or Anteros?), the Greek god of love assist us with his arrows in this act where love and affection also play an important role.

Now here I am, "trying to" teach Spanish to students of other nationalities and polishing my English. Welcome everybody and , to those who follow the blog, welcome back!

Summer Holidays

Feeling nervous about the exams?

Slow Movement

This time I will insert a video about the Slow Movement before working on the topic in class. It is a bit long (almost 20 minutes), but worth watching. The paradox is that the talker, Carl Honore, speaks really fast.

If you want to listen and read the subtitles, go to 

and click on the subtitles bar under the main window.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, by Mark Haddon

On Wednesday 6th May we had a lesson in which we talked about different aspects of "The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night-Time". The debate was very interesting and many ideas were expressed. The general opinion about the book was very positive. Here I leave you a video of a "rapid review" which reflects some of the things we mentioned in class (we dealt with many many more aspects):

We also learnt that  autism and Asperger Syndrome are not exactly the same thing although they share many common features. We finally watched and discussed some videos from a campaign in the UK which is trying to make us aware of the existence of people with behavioural differences caused by this syndrome.

One aspect we mentioned is how some scenes and ideas might seem comical in the book when that is not the intention of the main character, something which is clearly reflected in some of the videos too.

These are the videos:

Finally, here is an interview with the author of the book, Mark Haddon, which is worth reading.

DREAM HOUSES

Here is an interesting link to a site where you can build your dream house with the help of a famous architect: Frank Lloyd Wright. Click on the picture to get there and then click on "begin your design". You just have to follow the instructions and read the tips.

There are limitations, as you have to choose among the options given, but it is a funny way to learn some vocabulary about different aspects of building a house, using simple language, while you see how your dream house takes shape. This might be a good link for Technology Teachers.

HOUSES

Although we are now dealing with a new topic, in the previous lesson we talked about houses and we could not listen to a song which I promised to upload here, so there you are:

OUR HOUSE, by Madness

(a hit from the 80's)

Back to school

From Monday 23rd March, lessons go back to normal.

If I hadn't slipped, I wouldn't have sprained my ankle

Hi, everybody!

As you know I'm on a sick leave due to a sprained ankle (a serious one, believe me) but I can still post here and want to use my situation to introduce/revise the third conditional in the context of "regrets", one of the commonest uses.

This is the uninteresting story of the sprain (but if you don't read it now and ask me how it happened when I get back, I'll make you read it as homework):

"Last Wednesday I went to the gym after breakfast. I got changed and was ready to start when I felt the need to visit the toilet. On my way to the toilet I noticed something strange in my left eye and as I was passing in front of a mirror, I turned to check if there was something wrong. Unfortunately, this mirror was above a washbasin and the floor was wet. It was when I was turning that I placed my foot in the wrong position and on the slippery floor. And then it happened, my ankle twisted and I felt a very intense pain while the whole weigh of my body fell on it. I had to get a taxi to go to the doctor's and now I must spend 15 days without leaning on that foot. A silly accident with serious consequences. Something to regret. If I hadn't gone to the gym, I wouln't have sprained my ankle...(but I did and there's nothing I can do to change the past, is there?)

Conditional sentences: If + past perfect (type III)

Task 1.

Can you think of other situations in which you could use this structure to express regrets?

You can write a composition beginning or ending with a third conditional and then explaining your story and the reason for your regret. I'll be happy to read it in my (hopefully brief) retirement.

Here you are another story in which someone has something to regret. And it also happens in a changing room! (You can also find it in Yapper, where you can read the subtitles but try first without any help)

But not everything must be about regretting. Watch the following video and send your answer to this question as a comment.

What would you have done if you had been there?

Songs and conditional sentences

We've been working with conditional sentences in class and these are some songs to practise them:

If + present
(type zero and type I)

If you don't know me by now (Simply Red)





You can get it if you really want (Jimmy Cliff)

If + past simple
(type II)

If I had a hammer (Trini López)

If I were a bell (from Guys and Dolls, Doris Day version suggested by María)

If I were a rich man, a classical from Fiddler On The Roof. In this song you will also find some first type and mixed type (second and third) conditional sentences.

More than words, by Extreme (one of my favourite songs). Although the version below is clearer, this group sang this song live in Seville at the Expo 92. If you were lucky enough to see them (I wasn't), here is a reminder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE1XRob6KkU

In the following song, the subjunctive "if I were..." is replaced by the more and more frequently used simple past "if I was...", something considered incorrect from a traditional grammar perspective:


All I want is you (

Barry Louis Polisar), from the film "JUNO"

I also think "If I could" by Seal is a good song for this purpose but I couldn't find a listenable version on the web. Any more suggestions?

Accents

There is a tendency among English students to think that one particular accent or variety of English is "better" than others. In this sense, Europeans mostly support the British accent while people from other latitudes support the American. I personally love accents and think we should enjoy the variety English has to offer in spite of the extra difficulty they might add to the understanding of a foreign language . As a matter of fact, we should not forget that the standard English we try to learn in our school is spoken by a really low percentage of native speakers and that we will have to deal with infinite variations when facing real situations (starting with the Spanish accent most teachers will probably have).

To start with, I would like you to watch a video from YAPPR, a very interesting link for students of English. They have a wide variety of videos (songs, film trailers, excerpts from TV programmes, etc.) accompanied by their transcription and sometimes translation. You can also join their community and help with the translations and transcriptions.

In this particular video an Australian actor, Simon Baker, is interviewed in a popular American programme, the Late Show, where the speaker, David Letterman, comments on the Australian accent while he praises the actor's ability to hide it in the American series he stars, The Mentalist:

As an intermediate student, can you really tell the difference between David Letterman and Simon Baker? Probably not, so why all the fuss about accents at this stage?

More accents? The following link is just about accents in Britain and includes recordings of different conversations from a wide variety of places around the British Isles:

The following one is a link about North American accents which works in a similar way:

So, now the question is: Why do we use "RP" as our reference in class if so few speakers use it in everyday life? Surf the net and find some information about the concepts of "international English", "standard English" and "English as lingua franca" before trying to answer this question.

To express your opinion on this topic, please use the "comments" link below.

ABILITES

Abilities and resolutions are somehow connected, especially when we think about learning new skills. Most of the times, what we can do and what we would like to be able to do are two different things and that means needing a lot of will and effort to gain a new ability. One of these abilities is learning a new language, which is what we are trying to do with English, isn't it?

In class we heard the song "Spanish Lesson" by

Madonna, where she becomes the Spanish teacher in spite of being far from speaking the Spanish language. We have to thank her, though, for her love of Spanish culture and the "type-1 conditional sentence" she introduces: If you do your homework, baby I will give you more.

Here is a link to the song: SPANISH LESSON

And now a little homage to someone who is able to surprise us with his skills on the court. Click on the photo and read the article in the Australian press (The Australian on line):

Appearances

WHAT DOES HE/SHE LOOK LIKE?

This is a link where you can find some vocabulary (a lot, actually) about physical appearance. It is from a site to learn Spanish but the list is as valid for learners of English:

WORDS TO DESCRIBE PHYSICAL APPEARANCE, FROM

FALSE APPEARANCES

Who are these people?

They look like celebrities but they are not, they are Sophia Loren's, Robin William's and Prince's look-alikes.

Definition of "look-alike" (Wikipedia): A look-alike is a living person who closely resembles another living person. In popular Western culture, a look-alike is a person who bears a close physical resemblance to a celebrity, politician or member of royalty.

Definition of "impersonator" (Wikipedia): An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another.

While look-alikes base their skills on mere resemblance, impersonators use make-up and other elements (clothes, wigs, etc.) to look like the person they try to copy but remind us of the person mostly because of their behaviour, voice and/or way of acting.

Who does she remind you of?

Watch the video and you will have not doubt about it:

Students sometimes impersonate their teachers or fellow students. Do you know of any cases? Did they get into trouble? Do you like that idea or you find it offensive?

First lesson after Christmas: presents, resolutions and manners.

Yes, the Three Wise Men won this year in class and most students received their presents on January 6th, or so they told us last Wednesday. This is a cartoon we worked on in this class, from "Cartoons for the Classroom":


When we analysed the items, iPods, Macs and their creators came up, and I promised to upload a link to an interesting speech by Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple. It comes in two parts, both subtitled in Spanish:

Part 1 (time 8:44):



Part 2 (time 5:48):




Then we talked about new year's resolutions and I asked you to send comments to the post on "Christmas diet and new year's resolutions" (24/12/08), writing about your own resolutions. We have received some interesting ones. Someone sent this (I corrected a little mistake):

"I´ll go to the gym everyday to get fit and to lose weight until I look like a model, after that I´ll look for a young and handsome English boyfriend, for speaking and improving my English"

And that reminded me of an advert I saw during Christmas, which I photographed and attach now:



Is English sexy? What do you think?


At the end of the lesson, we talked about "manners" but we could not watch a video about how good table manners may help you lose weight, so here it is:

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!