One of our own, that is, one of the teachers of the English Department, Emi Domínguez, has found and suggested me something that you might find really interesting: a couple of websites where you can learn and practise your English while you listen to music.
If you like music and want to extend your English vocabulary, these might be the websites for you!!!
So what are you waiting for? Click on the people singing below and...dig in!! ENJOY!
REMEMBER: These websites will be permanently available to you on this site through two links under the heading "MISCELLANEA", on the right-handside toolbar. Don't forget it!
A piece of news came into the BBC website today, the death of Miep Gies, the last surviving person of the group who helped protect Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis, and I decided to share it with you, as the tragic story of this girl, who lived for some time hidden from the world trying to save her life, and who wrote a diary months before dying of tifus in a concentration camp, still appeals to us as deeply sad and moving. Please take some time to have a look at this post. Of course, you are very welcome to make any comments about Anne Frank:
MIEP GIES DIES
(click on the photo to read about the death of Miep Gies on the BBC website)
British actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson opened the website ‘Anne Frank Tree’ in the Anne Frank House on 1 February 2006. Before placing the first leaf in the tree she talked about what Anne Frank means to her personally.
“I'm so incredibly proud to have been asked to do this, I can't tell you. I've read the book many times when I was younger and as I got older I reread it and reread it. It's one of those books you should read every few years. Rather like 'All quiet on the Western Front' or 'If this is a man' by Primo Levi. And I suppose like everybody when I think about Anne Frank I get very conflicting emotions because she represents so much of human tragedy as well as human happiness. And so, also I think that when we think of the holocaust we all have that cicatrise in our minds, that scar. And so I wore two things: I wore black, because of that, but I also wore pink, in order to indicate the joys of girlhood. And if you don't mind, today I will dwell a little in the pink. I think one of the things that I love about Anne Frank most, and I think it's also forgotten, because what she represents is so weighty, is how very funny she was. And what a very witty girl she was. I'm convinced that her confinement made her even more alive and truthful and humorous and humane in her writing. More intense than she would have been, had she not been confined. These two little bits I wanted to read to you, because they just make me laugh. She's got terrible flu when she is writing this. It's the 22nd of September 1943, when she says: ‘You know, the worst part was when Mr. Dussel decided to play doctor and lay his pomaded head on my bare chest to listen to the sounds. Not only did his head tickle, but I was embarrassed. Even though he went to school thirty years ago and does have some kind of medical degree, why should he lay his head on my heart? After all he's not my boyfriend! For that matter he wouldn't be able tell a healthy sound apart from an unhealthy one. He'd have to have his ears cleaned first, because he's becoming alarmingly hard of hearing. Anyway, the weather's drizzly and overcast, the stove stinks and the food lies heavily on our stomachs, producing a variety of rumbles.’ Very funny girl. I've always loved her sensitive and unprudish attitude to sex as well, and in fact I think the book is a lexicon on how to grow up and how to be human. Several journalists this morning knew that I was coming to do this and said: 'But why you?' And I said: 'Well I don't know actually. I suppose it's because I happened to be here.' But it may be something deeper than that. It may be to do with the fact that as you all probably know Anne was a huge film buff. She knew about all films, all the stories, all the stars, all the reviews. She knew them all, even within her confinement. And I think that she'd quite like an actress to have done this. But anyway, listen to this, because this is also very revealing. ‘Whenever I come sailing in with a new hairstyle I can read the disapproval on their faces. I can be sure someone will ask which film star I'm trying to imitate. My reply, that it's my own invention, is greeted with skepticism. As for the hairdo, it doesn't hold its set for more than half an hour (ain't that the truth?!). By that time I'm so sick and tired of their remarks that I race to the bathroom and restore my hair to it's normal mass of curls.’ She knew the pitfalls. I don't think she would have been an actress. I think if she'd lived, she would have written books. She would have helped others. She would have used her extraordinary intelligence to organize our thoughts about the world. I think she would have loved generously and without prejudice. I think she would have had great courage. I think she would have spoken up for the dispossessed. And I think she would have tried to storm the invisible barriers that separate human beings and keep us in such conflict. So what I say now is that the only thing we have to remember is all her ‘would haves’ are our real possibilities. All her ‘would haves’ are our opportunities. And the book’s a flame, a torch. We can light our own candles and take them and illuminate our hearts with the incandescence of her spirit. So I'm very happy to be sticking the first leave on the tree, although I have to confess to you now that I'm absolutely useless with computers!”
A new year has started. And there 's a thing that we all do at the beginning of a new year: there are things we want to start doing, things we want to stop doing, or quit doing, things we want to cut down on, things we want to keep doing...that is, we all make a list of NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS.
Here you have a video where the clinical psychologist Jeff Gardere gives us some tips to make a good list of New Year's Resolutions. Take some time to watch it and then answer the questions below:
And now let's practice our listening skills: please answer the following questions on the video(Thanks a lot to one of the teachers of our English Department, Pablo Rodríguez, who found the video and prepared the questions):
1) What three personality traits help you make good New Year’s Resolutions? 2) According to the expert, is it OK to change or adapt your plans? 3) When you resolve to quit smoking, is it a good idea to cross out the days in a calendar? Why/ Why not? 4) Does the TV presenter like involving his family in his New Year’s Resolutions? 5) Using your own words, can you explain what the “buddy system” is about? Why is it important/what is the advantage? 7) Do you think the psychologist is too strict in his theory? 6) In the end, what is the most important thing about New Year’s Resolutions?
Now click on the picture above if you want to learn something more about the history and origins of this tradition.
And now it's time to make our New Year's Resolution list. Shall we?
This year I'm going to... - arrive on time to places. - eat more fruit ...
Please, use the COMMENT option to write some of your New Year's Resolutions!!!
We have closed another term. How did it end so fast? Well, Christmas is here, so I leave you with some interesting Christmas videos and links if you want to stay in touch with English over the Xmas Break.
Now, why don't you visit the NORTH POLE? You'll find stories, games...You can even write an email to Santa!!
What's this? WHAT'S THIS? There's magic everywhere...Discover the moment when Jack Skeleton finds Christmas Town in The Nightmare Before Christmas (Tim Burton):
Do you know the famous story by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol? We have it in our library, available for you. Here you have the trailer of the film that has recently been released:
TO ALL OF YOU, READERS AND FOLLOWERS OF THIS BLOG, MY BEST WISHES FOR THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON AND FOR THE NEW YEAR. MAY IT BRING YOU HAPPINES AND JOY, AND MAY YOUR WISHES COME TRUE.
Our last workshop of the year was about writing. As we have been doing so far this last month, when we have been introducing the different skills, we have seen the basic steps that should be taken when writing a text. Please find a basic outline below. Surely you'll find this extremely interesting!!
To support and expand this, click on the work SKILLSWISE. You'll find yourself drawn into the wonderful world of the excellent English-learning website of the BBC!!
One of the steps in this writing process is brainstorming. We cannot start writing right away. We have to dedicate some time to thinking and to coming up with ideas that afterwards will be organised into paragraphs. Sometimes, having some kind of GRAPHIC ORGANISER helps. Here you have one example:
And finally, we talked about punctuation, which is essential in the correct organization of our ideas in a text. Click on the words BASIC PUNCTUATION for some basic rules and practice.
We introduced this workshop by playing some scenes from the film "My Fair Lady", the adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion" about a phonetics professor who bets that he can transform a girl from the gutters of Cockney-speaking London into a lady by teaching her to speak properly. It seemed only appropriate for this workshop, didn't it? Please take time to watch the following videos:
We also talked about the SPEECH ORGANS involved in the process of producing sounds of speech:
And we recommended some books to work phonetics at home:
We also had a look at the phonetics resources on this same blog. TAKE SOME TIME TO CHECK THE BAR ON THE RIGHT!! There you'll find interesting websites to practise your phonetics and pronunciation!!
It's been quite busy, this last month, so I haven't been able to inform you about what we have been doing in our 2ºNB workshops. But here we are, ready to tell you "what we've been up to"...just in case you might find it useful.
Listening workshop:
We talked about the steps that have to be taken in order to face a listening comprehension test with one or more listenings and one or more exercises.
For some guidelines on LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILLS, click here.
And to practise what we had been talking about, we watched a video of a short piece of news and answered a few questions about it. Please find the video and the questions below:
