(Avanzado 1 & 2) Here's The Caravinagres!

Bob 'the badger' (why 'the badger' and not 'the beaver', or 'the skUnk'*, or 'the squirrel'? You'll have to explain, mate) Adamson has asked me to announce that they'll be playing at the school. And I heard the former Tindersticks drummer has joined the band! Well, I've got three or four records by Tindersticks myself. I'm also looking forward to listening to that Hendrix-like guitar player rocking the stage. Well, this is his message to you anyway by Bob (1st on the right, that's him):

Hi. We're the CaraVinagres. Just wanted to say that we'll be celebrating St George's Day (the Patron Saint of England) with you at a concert in la Escuela on Thursday 23rd of April, 7.45pm. You can hear some of our songs on our myspace site.
See you!

*Sorry but I should have checked my spelling, I meant skunk, not skank, obviously you're not that, I take, Bob.

(Avanzado 1 & 2) Flying penguins (and other stuff)

Well, not so surprising, you might say. After all, vultures were supposed to feed on carrion but this bird of prey reportedly started attacking sheep here in Navarra, despite initial disbelief. Believe it or not, this video is living proof that there are some penguins that can fly. And it's the BBC that provides the footage- camera crews filming near the Antarctic for its natural history series Miracles of Evolution offered a video clip of these flying penguins, which became one of the most viewed videos on the internet. Presenter Terry Jones explained that, instead of huddling together to endure the Antarctic winter, these penguins took to the air and flew thousands of miles to the rainforests of South America where they "spend the winter basking in the tropical sun." Perhaps one of the consequences of global warming? Do you think we could see penguins mingling with the pigeons in the Plaza del Castillo? It may now sound as a stupid joke, but it might turn out to be too true in a few years!



What? You still don't believe it?
Have a look at the calendar...What day is it today? It's April 1st. Or... April Fool's Day!! And of course, this is nothing but a hoax. Brilliantly conceived of and spectacularly filmed, isn't it? Were you taken in by the flying penguins? Of course you're not going to admit it, but I guess a few of you were actually tricked into believing the story.

Can you imagine the Big Ben being given a digital readout? The British National Anthem ("God Save the Queen") replaced by the Euro Anthem, sung in German? And by the way, this video was downloaded from YouTube. Did you know that internal tests have shown that modern computer monitors give a higher quality picture when flipped upside down? Check out the explanation and be prepared to do the flip.
And did you know that this blog is going global? See for yourselves, as the other day I was watching the telly and found this programme and guess what the sentence to get the multimillionaire prize was. But he didn't finally make it. Poor sod...It serves him right, for not reading the blog!















Fascinated by the hoaxes? Go to this link, read through the best hoaxes and send a comment with the funniest or the most ridiculous one.
See you in class.

(Avanzado 1 & 2) This lion can't be a pet peeve

What are my pet peeves? A pet peeve is an idiom that means a cause of annoyance, like, for instance, the English teacher's pet peeve is not having any entries when he posts something and students can't be bothered to answer. It's not that I'm going to tell you off, anyway. By the way, to learn a few animal idioms go to this page and try and match the missing words with the pictures of animals. And anyone who is the teacher's pet? Just kidding...
Since we're dealing with animals and pets (or we're about to, for students in Avanzado 1, that's next week's topic), I just wanted to share a story with you.
This is two friends who along with their girlfriends cared for the lion where they lived in London until it was a year old. Believe it or not they had bought it at Harrod's! Christian's increasing size and cost of care led them to understand they could not keep him anymore. Eventually they asked some conservationists for help, who agreed to reintegrate Christian into the wild in the Kora National Reserve, in Kenya. Christian would even become afterwards the head of his pride.
When friends Rendall and Bourke were informed of Christian's successful reintroduction to the wild they travelled to Kenya to visit Christian and were filmed in the documentary Christian, The Lion at World's End. According to the documentary, they were told that Christian might not remember them.
A video edited from the documentary received worldwide attention more than 30 years after the event, and several versions have been viewed thousands of times. Basically they're all the same but for the music in the background. I'm not a member of RSCPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), but to avoid further damage I deliberately avoided the video with corny Withney Houston's "I will always love you"!!!. Aerosmith is the poor second best...The video below shows the lion at first cautiously approach and then quickly leap gently onto the two men, standing on his hind legs and wrapping his front legs around their shoulders, nuzzling their faces. What did you expect? Some gory footage?
It seems that for some reason I just don't understand some people are experiencing problems to watch the enclosed video. It that's so, just click on this link and enjoy it.



Isn't it emotional? It is indeed... Sorry about that final sentence in the video, though, which spoils the whole a bit.
See you!

(Avanzado 2) Ted talks

Ted is not a person. Actually, I don't even know if it stands for something, I reckon it's probably an acronym, as originally the name is in capital letters, TED. I've been listening to some of these lectures for a few years. I stumbled upon one excerpt featured in another video podcast, got interested and found out about the source.

The first talk I listened to was awesome, very inspiring and exhilarating, by Sir Ken Robinson, especially if you are a teacher. I have to admit that after that the thrill has gone a bit as sometimes the lectures drone on an on unless you're a fanatic or are really into, say computer engineering, or advertising, or anthropology or whatever. But there are still some very good lectures. The Jane Goodall talk for the class is a good example. I think it all depends what your field of expertise is.
Talks are about-25-minute- long videos and the page has got a stunning collection in the archives. Do you remember the how-does-the-news-shape-the-way-we-see-the-world listening exam back in December? You might as well figure out now where the heck I got it from.
Besides the TED page the lectures are also edited as a video podcast, so you can easily subscribe to it via iTunes. Check it out if you want to know about what the eggheads of the world are musing on.
See you.

(Avanzado 2) Places to see before you die

If you've already read the Guardian Weekly article, you now know about some of the 500 hundred places to see before they're spoilt.
Not that I think the Tower of London can compare to Machu Picchu, or the Battersea power station (remember Pink Floyd's 'Animals' album cover? Not likely, I presume) to Halong Bay in Vietnam, or the Greenwich museum to the Taj Mahal, a few of the most beautiful places I've ever been to -way way back when I used to travel indenpendently. Long gone days...

If you want to see photos of some of the places and wildlife (in Britain) mentioned in the book 1000 Places To See Before You Die you've got the link here. If you want to go global find out about any other places in the world in this page. There's one in Spain, guess which.

What are the most beautiful places you've ever been to?

*Photo by Carl, believe it or not

(Avanzado 1) 78 differences

Scientists decoding the human genome have discovered that just 78 genes separate men from women. Only 78?
So Europe is a country and they speak French there, says the bimbo. No wonder then that women can't read maps, or... can they? But, mind you, men can't do two things at the same time, can we?
If you want to read a light-hearted research into the genetic differences between women and men make sure you check out this page, which features some brilliant entries by readers. Then send in your comment either saying which remark was the funniest or feel free to contribute by giving some other differences that you think haven't been mentioned in the article.
For some fun, be sure to check out this video. It features some just slightly different habits when it comes to having a shower.


Are we really like that at all? Next time I have a shower I'll refrain myself from doing those things I usually indulge in...and you'd better, too.
Bye, lads and lasses.

(Avanzado 1) London Calling!

London Calling to the faraway towns...said The Clash. London is calling and we're just going on a trip. Collect the few quid you managed to save the last time, rehearse your cockney accent, as we're off.
The only thing we're going to do today is plan our trip. Some of you will look for accomodation- What do students prefer? A hostel? A low-budget hotel? Some Bread & Breakfast?
Some will watch out for bargains so we can fly cheaper- Easy Jet? Ryanair? British Airways? Where from? And how are we going from Luton/Stansted/Heathrow to central London?
Some others will schedule-are we going sightseeing? Just go and hit the bars? Zoos? Museums? A musical perhaps? A stroll in a park? Shopping in a market? Or rather Harrod's? Do you want to see David Beckham in wax at Madame Tussaud's? The London Eye?
To make things easier, visit London.
To put things in common, we're going to chat so you can make instant decisions. Don't think it over and make up your mind, as we're running out of time.
To finish today's activity, this is the homework:
You have to answer a few questions and facts about London. Go to this webquest and follow the instructions. Who will manage to find all the answers? Solutions next day in class.

See you!

(Avanzado 2) I love to read

If you're into reading (not much, I presume sadly...) one of the things that you might do to improve your skills is make the most of the possibilities that the Internet offers. Too skint to afford that thick book you were craving for, desperate to find out what happens? Not willing to waste any more money on books?
Well, you're not likely then to read the latest fiction but if you just want to read for the sake of it, because it broadens your mind and to learn more English, these are a few websites where you can either download books in pdf. format or else read them online or even get them in e-format if you happen to be one of those early adopters who buy the latest gadget, the newest in-thing, and you have one of those e-book readers that -I foresee- one day will take over paper books, then a relic of the past.
Freebookspot is an online source of free e-books download. You can search and download free books in categories like scientific, engineering, programming, fiction and many other books. No registration is required to download free e-books.
Free-eBooks is an online source for free e-books, you also download free magazines or submit your own e-book. You need to become a Free-EBooks.Net member to access their library. Registration is free, though. You can read Moby Dick by Herman Melville or some Dickens too.
ManyBooks provides free ebooks for your PDA, iPod or eBook Reader. Why not read Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë? This novel is a must! Of course you can find Jane Austen too. And if you're an anticapitalist you can handle The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels...
Planet PDF A small collection of classic novels all in PDF format. You've got some Hawthorne, Fenimore Cooper, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Oscar Wilde, D.H. Lawrence. Ever heard of them? Classics of British and American Literature they are!
Planet eBook -Free classic literature to download and share. You can read 1984 by George Orwell (Big Brother is watching you!) or Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (don't even think for a second it's a book for children, even though you probably read one adaptation when you were little.)

Scribd is just a bit different. It's actually an online document sharing site which supports Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and other popular formats. You can download a document, a slideshow, a book or anything that someone has just uploaded to share with the rest of the world. You need to register to have access to the materials, but it's free. Try typing down, for example, English Advanced Grammar in Use in the Search box and hey presto! What d'you get? 350 pages of free grammar practice.
You might also be interested in Audiobooks. If reading is such a drag just prick up your ears for the words of well-known fiction writers while you're commuting or gone for a jog or a stroll down the park. I'll be supplying you with some stuff next...
That's all.

'I love to read' photograph by Carlos Porto. See his gallery at flickr

(Avanzado 1) Elllo elllo, you say elllo I say goodbye...

Actually The Beatles said Hello, Goodbye, but they might as well wanted to use this terrific website that I came across a couple of years ago, just by chance, probably browsing through the web expecting to find something else.
The page is called elllo (it stands for English Language Listening Laboratory Online) and offers a wide array of listenings, ranging from interviews to listening games. It is probably the best website for improving your listening skills, in my opinion.
I have just prepared a screencast to show you about how it works and the contents you will find there. Now, don't get me wrong. It's not that I think you are clumsy when it comes to dealing with computers, it's just in case you are one of those who say that computers 'don't love you'. If after watching the screencast you still don't know how to use the page, you're in for trouble in this increasingly technological world...
You'll see a slideshow embedded below. Just watch it. You'd better change to the Full Screen mode so you can read my notes. Eer, yes, if you're one of those the full screen is the icon with the arrows...
Then send a comment for feedback- what do you think about the page? Did you like it? Did you do a lot of listenings? You'll have to anyway, as I'll tell you to do some homework about it quite often from now on.



Clear? Then you know what to do next...
See you in class! You say elllo, I say goodbye, elllo elllo...

(Avanzado 1) A turning point

For some gossip...ok, here's my turning point (roughly): When I was living in England after university I broke up with my girlfriend, a girl I had been going out with for...wow, it must have been six years or so!!! I felt miserable, honest.
If I hadn't broken up with that former girlfriend of mine I would probably have stayed in Britain longer. Not that I was having the best of times, broken-hearted as I was, but I'd probably tried to make up for the time I'd lost with some girls I had developed a crush for...Anyway, I decided to come back sooner than expected. If I hadn't come back, I could have met someone back in England. If I'd fallen in love again, I might have looked for a job to earn my living. If I'd started working there, I'd have started looking for a flat to live and perhaps I would even have got married there, and my children would have had red hair and freckles.
But...well, I would never have met you! Sob, sob...
Can you send in a post about a turning point in your life which made it be different from what it used to be before? Something that make you start all over again?
Another thing to do is: There is an interesting dilemma faced by the main character in a film. There is a little girl who gets kidnapped, but she is taken to live in a much better home than her own (her mother is out doing drugs all the time). Patrick, the lead character, finds out about who took her and is the only who knows where she is. He then has to decide whether to turn the kidnapper in and get justice, or keep quite and give the girl what might be a better life. What would you have done?
That's all. Send your comments!

(Avanzado 2) The art of displacement

You might as well have been practicing the flip, the roll, the tuck and strange body movements. Not that free running is popular in Pamplona...yet, so you might become the pioneers.
As you noticed the other day in class, the DVD player was going a bit haywire. I've just been checking the DVD at home and it just worked great. That means it wasn't really my fault (you know I'm a tech-freak). Just in case today 20/Jan we can't possibly watch the video again, here's the homework: just follow this link and then do the listening exercises that I gave you out the other day.
For some jaw-dropping, awesome performances, just watch this video.


Can you beat that?
See you in class...

(Avanzado 1 &2) I elfed myself

Cor Blimey, it's Christmas again! Doesn't time fly? Not that I like Christmas that much or I'm dying to get the tinsel or the mistletoe wreath, but just for a bit of fun and to wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year you might as well have a laugh at these triplets on the dance floor. Mind you, one of them is more like the Grinch, what with that face...
Enjoy your holidays and I'll see you after Christmas. Any New Year's Resolutions, e.g. little lies, like "I'm going to study English!"?
See you!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

(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.

(Avanzado 2) TLK2UL8R

Er...elephants using text messages? If you think that this can only be a joke read the transcript of the BBC article that we listened to in class (October 30) and find out whether the latest gadget might actually turn out to be handy sometimes.
Do you think banning mobile phones (cell phones or cellulars in the US) in some places, e.g. restaurants, would be a good idea? It bugs me when people start speaking loudly so you can't help noticing them, but there are more important reasons to ban mobiles in some other places or to some other people. You have the transcript for the other listening here.
I know this is not South Korea but students are quite alike everywhere. I hope I'm not giving you any ideas about cheating in my exams if you read and listen to another article. Just in case I'll cut you off...

Also, here's the first issue this year of The Guardian Weekly. We'll be doing this some time so as to improve your reading skills, especially if you've set out to get the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE). As usual, it's authentic material, not abridged or adapted, taken from The Guardian newspaper. Just read it for practice. We won't be reading this in class, we'll just deal with problems or doubts (if any, I might be underestimating you...) Click on the link below and download the reading in pdf format (you will need Acrobat Reader, if you don't have it get it here). You have the key at the end of the document so all you have to do is simply check how well you did.
Emoticons_advanced-1.pdf

What's the homework? Send a comment either about noises or situations which bug you, annoying things which really piss you off, e.g. mobiles ringing in the middle of a film, or- send a comment about a time you cheated in an exam, like the students in the article. Did you get away with it or you had to go through the embarrassment of being caught out by the teacher?
Thats's all. CU ;-)

(Avanzado 1) Gossips, gossips!!

Why don't we do a bit of gossiping? We've just read about the things the members of Abba had to go through, the problems they had with the media.
If you really want to see the difference between the so-called tabloids and more serious newspapers, check these ones- The Sun and News of the world online editions with dramatic, big headlines and fascinating stories, and something quite the opposite but a very good newspaper, The Guardian.
This is what you have to do. Flick through a few pages or headlines of the tabloids and choose your favourite juicy gossip to send in a comment and tell your partners about it. Also, page 3 is quite famous in The Sun. You'll have to find out why (but don't get too carried away by imagination, boys)
Finally, if it's not personal, have you ever been the subject yourself of some gossip, true or not? You know neighbours make up stories, acquaintances spread rumours, especially if you come from a village. Anything you were involved in, according to the rumour mill?
That's all. We'll gossip a bit next class!

(Avanzado 1 & 2) There are not sex symbols in the band!

Or there are not six cymbals in the band?
Oops, phonetics is important or else you might be saying something rather embarrassing. Do you like the piss and quiet or the peace and quiet? Or someone asks you after the show what you think of the drummer...or the drama? And what you can see over there is a ship or, rather, a sheep? Have you got two uncles or two ankles?
We've just started with phonetics, so don't fret. You'll soon become familiar with those strange symbols.
Whenever you want to hear the sounds of English language you can go to a few pages I recommend- you can get some practice with vowels, diphthongs, stress or intonation in this Cambridge site, in Fenetiks and Antimoon.
For those who are more into getting a very distinctive American accent (a few cases in Avanzado 2 I can think of), you can try this dictionary of American pronunciation.
Also, you can look up in Howjsay the pronunciation of words you don't know the meaning of or you have doubts about how to say it correctly.
I've got a friend who's got a friend who knows someone...well, it was me, I admit it- Once I happened to be in a flat alone and the plumber came over to fix the heater. He asked me for a cloth with a strong Wolverhampton accent and even though I didn't understand what he might need it for I fetched him a...clock! Have you got any other embarrassing misunderstandings, a gaffe you can recall because of mispronouncing? Send in a comment with an anecdote.
See you!

(Avanzado 2) Tag this question

You are students, aren't you? And I'm your teacher, aren't I? And you want to improve your pronunciation, don't you? And now we've done some exercises about question tags, you can tell the difference between rising and falling, can't you?

Well, go to this page, read and listen about Giovanni's problem and see if you finally understand when and why to use which intonation.
Why don't you send in a comment to the blog telling your partners what it is that makes English a bit more difficult for you?
Was the listening difficult? It shouldn't have...
See you!

(Avanzado 1) What's in a name?

Superman? Arsenal? Gandalf?
You must be kidding! How could you name your child after your favourite football team? Read this article (notice that you can also listen to it at the same time) about parents deciding names on a whim and then send your comment telling if you think it should be allowed to name your child after anything you come up with or if there should be some restrictions.
I remember we had, for example, a female sheep, 'ewe' (Inés) and a 'poem or song' (Carmen) in Latin and another 'ewe' (Raquel) in Hebrew in class. If you want to know the meaning and history of your name, go to this link and find out what exactly you are saying when you say your name.
Then do a game about names. Go to this page and on the left handside you will see different things you can do about this theme- an article, a word game, trivia, links... Click on "word game" and you will learn a few idioms, as long as you can work it out! It's a drag and drop game. You will see different squares and you have to drag them to the grid on the right so you can form sentences. Then send a comment telling the others about one of the idioms and its meaning.
That's all about names!