(Avanzado 1) Too old for rock'n'roll, too young to die

That's the title of a song by Jethro Tull, a 70s group. Do you feel you're too old for some things and too young for others?
Well, to know (roughly) how old you will be, this website has a life expectancy calculator that will work out yours after answering questions about your health and lifestyle. The vocabulary may be a bit difficult so if you need to, use a dictionary.When you get the results, check what the website suggests you could do to improve your life expectancy. Then, send a comment into the blog telling the others about how old you're supposed to turn and some advice they gave you to live longer.
And going back to the title of the post, these people below are probably not too young to die, but they're certainly not too old for rock'n'roll! Watch them sing a cover of The Who's "My generation" and ask yourself if you expect you'll be doing these things when you are their age!!! What do you think you are too old or too young to do? Dancing to pop music in public? Have babies? Start it all over again? Get drunk? Settle down? Watch or read comics? Do you feel a bit embarrassed because you like doing things which are not considered suitable for your age? Tell your partners.
See you after the loooooooooooooooong bank holidays, when we'll all be a bit older.

(Avanzado 1& 2) Like peas in a pod...cast

If you missed one of the Friday classes (you probably did, as only a few of you turned up) you didn't hear about podcasts, a portmanteau -some people think- of the words Ipod (Apple's sleek mp3 player) and broadcast. Some others, however, claim that's wrong and podcast comes from the acronym p.o.d. (public on demand) + cast. A podcast is...well, you'd rather watch this video to find out.



Where can you find the podcasts? Probably the best way to download, subscribe to and manage episodes is iTunes. If you haven't got it yet and want to download it you can do it here.
If you are experiencing problems or you're not exactly what I'd call tech-freak, watch this video for troubleshooting.
If you want to browse through the wide array of podcasts available to you, you can either-

1.Once you've downloaded and installed iTunes, go to the Podcasts directory and search for the category you're after. Choose one episode of a podcast to download the programme or, if you really like it so much, subscribe. Problems? If so, watch this video. Otherwise, you might as well skip it.
2.You can also go to some websites which function as search engines for podcasts. Take, for example, Podcast Alley. You can also go to the site and listen to it online, with streamed audio and/or video if you're not interested in subscribing yet.
3.There are also some directories with podcasts specially created for teaching English as a second language. Probably the best is Englishcaster. The good thing here is that you can choose the contents and they're sorted out by levels, target audience, type of accent...

Even though your teacher's explanation has been outstanding -or... hasn't?, do not hesitate to ask him if you can't make head or tail of it and you're stuck.
What do you have to do? Homework (or rather, not more homework, this is fun) for next week is- choose only one of the podcasts you've been listening to and fill in the questions in the file I should already have given out. Do not feel disappointed if you find it difficult, think that some of the podcasts are programmes for native speakers! Choose one that you find suitable, prick up your ears and enjoy yourself.

To finish, why don't you give this one a listen (I'll be watching out for giggles, I'm warning you) then think it over and come to class with a few tips or suggestions?

If you want to check how this audio file looks on a website, you might want to check it here.

That's all, peas in the pod.

(Avanzado 1 & 2) Sing along, it's the jukebox!

If you're a teacher, it's always difficult to choose which song it is that you students will listen to and some of you, barely a few maybe, will even like it!!! You know that I play some music in the background while you're doing some of the activities (for details look out for information and the regular update on the sidebar, at the bottom of the blog-What was the music in last week's class? section), but I'll also play some songs throughout the year because:
a-They're in the book (don't expect much, though, be warned)
b-I can exploit the lyrics to practise vocabulary or grammar we're dealing with in the lesson. Not easy but sometimes a song is clearly about crime, fashion, or whatever, or else there is a lot of passive sentences or phrasal verbs or 2nd conditionals and teachers can use it in class for practice.
But have another look at the title of the post-What is a jukebox, anyway? An old-fashioned gadget that allows to choose with a flick of the finger what to listen to next. Like every year, I've made up my mind that we're going to listen to some songs just for fun, for the sake of listening to songs in English, and that... is your part.
You have to choose the song (if possible) and/or artist (if you just can't decide, you like so much all of his/her/their stuff) you want to listen to in classes. You will have to write a post into the blog about your suggestions. I will check for feedback so that by the end of next week, hopefully, I should have a whole lot of ideas and songs you want me to play.
That's the homework- a collection of students' all-time favourites, that catchy tune you have never been able to get out of your head, that song they were playing when you were lucky to pick up a girl/boy, those lyrics that your poor English prevented you from understanding and always wanted to know what they were saying... Just anything.
Bear in mind, though, that we'll be playing one song every other week or so, that makes a total of about 12 songs altogether. That means you'll have to make up your mind which your definite request is going to be, as only those songs/artists which are most valued by the other students will go into the final selection and be played in class.
Do not forget to write your name (complete with the surname, please), level, and this time the group you belong to, because it might happen that one group chooses different songs from another. Your post should resemble something like this: your name, level Avanzado 1, Group M., my song for the jukebox is...If you want to tell the others why that song is so special, please do.
And that's it. DJ Carl is ready to play your tunes.