Monday 19 December 2011

It's Christmas time!!

Dear students,
we still have a few days left and a few more exams to sit... but in less than a week it will be Christmas! For me, it means time to spend with my family and to relax after so much work in December... How about you? What does Christmas mean to you? What is traditional in your house? Do you get many presents for Christmas? There's a new film released specially for this time of the year. Watch the trailer and tell me what it is about.
By the way, Merry Christmas!!

Sunday 11 December 2011

A piece of advice...

I know you are very busy these days. Remember that nothing comes for free. Good marks mean hard work, getting up early or staying up till late, not much hanging out with friends, no TV or internet!! If you want to enjoy your Christmas holidays doing very little, study now. It'll be worth it!

Friday 9 December 2011

Another one!!

Can you recognise this place? Have you ever been here? Well, you know you need some practice in describing landscapes... this is quite different from the last one, isn't it? Good luck!

Monday 5 December 2011

Saturday 3 December 2011

The talk

I know you're really busy these days, but here's another short video for you to watch. It's just two minutes long and easy to understand (at least easier than the Jamie Oliver's one :-)
Tell me what it is about... By the way, do you know who the man is?

Friday 25 November 2011

Meet Jamie Oliver


Jamie Oliver is a well-known English chef. He's famous for his television shows, cookbooks and, more recently, his campaign to improve unhealthy diets and poor cooking habits in the United Kingdom and the United States. To be honest, this is really difficult to understand, so you'll need to listen to it many times. Jamie's a real challenge for you, you need to get used to the way he speaks because he speaks very quickly. I want you to write down at least 15 words he says and how old he is. Good luck!

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Thursday 17 November 2011

Vampires


I know that some of you have read The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. Most of you have seen the films. What do you think about the story? Is it believable? Does it matter? Is it for girls only? What is there that makes it so exciting that you can't stop reading? Why are there so many fans around the world?
This is the link to the Breaking Dawn official trailer.

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Creative writing


I want you to write a story. Each student is allowed to write only one sentence a day. It can be a fairy tale, a horror story, a romantic one... It all depends on you!
The beginning is this:

Once upon a time...

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Improve your vocabulary

This is a useful webpage. It is a photo dictionary with short definitions. Have a look at it: photographicdictionary.com
APPLE

Scientific name:
malus domestica

The apple is the fruit of the apple tree. Apple trees are small deciduous trees growing to around 5-12 metres high. Apples may be red, yellow or green. You can eat all of the apple except the core in the middle, which is full of seeds.

Friday 11 November 2011

Checking in


Fawlty Towers was a very popular British sitcom during the 1970s. The series is set in a hotel called Fawlty Towers, run by Basil Fawlty, the hotel manager/owner. Most funny situations happen due to communication problems with Manuel, the hotel waiter. He is Spanish and his English is not very good. In this episode, we listen to the hotel receptionist saying where Manuel is from. Can you tell me the name of the city? How would you describe the behaviour of Mrs Richards?

Sunday 6 November 2011

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Who do we call when the projector doesn't work? Juan Pablo. He's our IT technical support man. There's a British TV series called The IT Crowd. It's based on the IT (the abbreviation for Information Technology) support team in a company. "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" is the first thing they say whenever someone asks for help. It has become a catchphrase, just like in Spanish. The boy in the video is Irish. Can you notice anything different in his accent? The girl speaks standard British English.

Thursday 3 November 2011

Longboarding freeride


Talking about travel, have a look at this and tell me what you think. Is it a sport or a way of travel? What equipment do you need? How far can you go? Can you take luggage with you? Is it environmentally friendly? How do you think it feels? Have you ever tried it? If not, would you like to try?

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Travel

Some of you liked the videos we watched related to travel. They are very interesting although no one speaks English, or rather, no one speaks!! But we got some good ideas in class and we talked about them. We see the kind of activities we can do when we are travelling, the kind of food we can taste and the kind of things we can learn.
You can watch them as many times as you want and I'd love to read what you think about them.
By the way, the boy is Australian, not American...

Click here to watch MOVE
Click here to watch EAT
Click here to watch LEARN

Tuesday 25 October 2011

It's Halloween time



Dear students,
I know you're really busy this week because you have an English test (among other things), and we're not working much on the blog. But you know it will be Halloween next week and I think we should talk about it. We didn't use to celebrate Halloween in Spain, but we do it more and more. People dress up and wear costumes, empty pumpkins, decorate their houses... and have parties!!
So tell me if you are doing anything special for Halloween this year. Are you going to dress up? Are you going to go trick or treat? Or are you just going to hang out with your friends?
In the meantime, watch this video from my favourite TV series of all times, Friends. I hope you enjoy it!

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Don't you love this song?


I first noticed this advertisement (BrEnglish)/commercial (USEnglish) because of the song. I thought it was a beautiful song and it caught my attention. What do you think? Do you like it? Do you know who is singing?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHgQV1oDPOQ

Monday 17 October 2011

Autumn


The autumn is about to arrive. We’ll have to get used to shorter days, colder evenings, leaves falling from trees… We’ll soon get used to wearing coats, boots, scarves and gloves.

Now we are used to wearing t-shirts, even shorts! And it’s October 17th. It’s unbelievable! Get your warm clothes ready because you will need them…

Sunday 16 October 2011

Talking about the past


Last weekend, I did lots of things. On Friday afternoon I went for a walk with my family. Later, we had pizza for dinner.

On Saturday morning, I woke up later than usual. While I was having breakfast, I watched the news. After that, I went shopping with my children. We had a nice day together. We went to the park, we met some friends and baked a chocolate cake. We went to bed quite early because we were very tired.

On Sunday morning, we had our chocolate cake for breakfast. It was delicious! Then we had lunch with friends and spent the afternoon with them. In the evening, we got everything ready for the next day, a school day.

How was your weekend?

Saturday 15 October 2011

Peppa Pig


Let me introduce you to Peppa Pig. Do you know her? You will understand absolutely everything. It's standard British English and made for little children, so try to watch this short episode and then tell me what you think. Click here to watch.

Thursday 13 October 2011

The things I love


I love waking up on Saturday morning, knowing I can stay in bed a bit longer. I love having breakfast: a hot croissant and a cup of coffee. Yummy!
I love going for long walks with my family.
I love reading a good book.
I love watching a good film.
There must be lots of things you love doING...

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Children's games


When I was a child, I used to play a lot in the streets with my friends; we especially enjoyed hide-and-seek. We didn't use to play computer games, because no-one had a computer those days. What did you use to do and didn't use to do when you were a child?

I feel like...

I know you loved this song, or at least you all agreed that more often than not you don't feel like doing anything. Listen to Bruno Mars and think of all the activities you feel like doing... for example:
I feel like hanging out with my friends on Saturday evenings

Monday 10 October 2011

Where am I?


Have a look at this photograph. Where do you think I am?

Welcome to my blog!

Dear students,
welcome to my blog. I hope this is a place where we can share information, talk about interesting topics, say what we like and what we don't...
I'm not very good at computers, but I would like to improve. That's why I have started this blog, as a challenge. You know I always tell you to watch TV in English or listen to music in English. That will be your challenge for this term.
Try to change the audio in your TV set and tell me how you are doing. Is it difficult? Boring? Exciting?
I would like to read your opinions. Good luck!