First day of class after the Xmas break

Hi there!!

How was your Christmas? I hope you all had a wonderful time with your family and friends. This is just a reminder of the first day of class after the break: 

8th January: Group C

9th January: Groups A and B

Happy New Year!!!!

Let's defend the state-run language schools!

I had to share this beautiful video with you. Let's hope our state language schools survive!!!

Los alumnos y alumnas de la Escuela Oficial de Idiomas nos recuerdan los beneficios personales y profesionales de una enseñanza pública de idiomas de calidad. ¡Defendámosla! ¡Que no nos dejen sin palabras!

Iniciativa promovida por los Consejos Escolares de las Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas de Cádiz y San Fernando.

"Emily" by Mika

It was high time I updated the blog... 

Here's the song we listened to last week by Mika. I'm also embedding the French version in case you're curious.

"Emily" (from his album "The origin of love").

And the original version of the song in French with English and French subtitles: "Elle me dit"

Royal prank call ends in tragedy

Have you heard of this unbelievable story? Watch the Euronews video below. 

What do you think about it?

Homework for next week

Hi there everyone!

Sorry I didn't post this before, but here it is, a quick reminder of your homework. 

Do the writing at the end of file 2 entitled A nightmare journey. The instructions are, as usual, in the white box on p. 33 and you have to write about 150 words (170 maximum!). You can hand it in or e-mail it to me in an attached Word file throughout this coming week (10-13 December).

 

Besides, remember to do the Revise & Check section from file 2 (p. 34-35). When you're done, you can check your own answers by clicking here.

That's all for now!!

Thanksgiving

Last Wednesday/Thursday I forgot to mention that America was celebrating Thanksgiving, one of their most beloved holidays.

 

Did you know that it's celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the States, but on the second Monday of October in Canada?

If you want to find out more about this truly American celebration and do some listening practice at the same time, watch the video below and do the activities in this document.

I'll publish the key in the comments section!!!

"Life of Pi" and "The Hobbit"!!

I know this is not related to what we're doing in class, but here it goes anyway. 

I borrowed the book "Life of Pi" from a friend in 2007 and had such a great time reading it that I couldn't put it down!! So I was thrilled when I heard they were making a film based on it!!  

I'm soooooo looking forward to seeing it at the cinema!!! 

"The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey" is coming soon too. I read the story of Bilbo Baggins's odyssey two years ago and enjoyed it too, especially the first half and, since I loved "The Lord of the Rings", I'm not about to miss this one!!!

Did you know Tolkien wrote this book to keep his children entertained??? It's like no other children's book I've ever read; I can tell you that.

 Has anyone else read these books?  
Did you like them?

My advice is: go see them both!! =]

It's a shame we can't see them in the original version though. ='(

How to make invitations in English and more!

Hi there!

Learn how to make invitations in English with this useful and clear document (again, taken from Hot English magazine). Also, feel free to listen to it by clicking here.

Also, if you want to learn very informal words and expressions dealing with money, check this out on the BBC Learning English site.

And why not take this quiz to check your knowledge of related words and expressions?

  

Now you only need the money to invite your English-speaking friends and classmates. =]

Songs about money

Hi there!

We're dealing with the topic "money" in class and this week we watched Ka-Ching by Canadian singer Shania Twain. I wanted to post here some more music videos with the same topic. However, I didn't want to publish the most obvious ones ("Money makes the world go around" by Liza Minelli, "Money, money, money" by ABBA, "Material Girl" by Madonna, "Money for nothing" by Dire Straits or "If I were a rich man", from a musical), so I've chosen a few more original ones:

"Money talks" by AC/DC 

"Fortunate son" (a classic!) by Creedance Clearwater Revival,

"She works hard for the money" by Donna Summer,

"All I wanna do" by UB40 and

"Bills, bills, bills" by Destiny's Child.

Do YOU know any other songs about money? Tell us!

*Sorry about the spelling mistakes in the last video.
** I ain't / you ain't / he or she ain't, etc is a very informal way of saying I'm not / you're not / he or she isn't, etc. It's very common in songs.