tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54492966978819283672024-03-13T18:21:17.135+01:00TEACHING & LEARNING ENGLISH - ENSEÑAR Y APRENDER ESPAÑOLA site for those of you interested in teaching or learning English and/or Spanish.
Un lugar para aquellos interesados en enseñar o aprender inglés y/o español.LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-38183754905628796962012-05-29T15:47:00.000+02:002012-05-29T16:17:02.746+02:00THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD IN ENGLISH<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">¨<i>English has no such mood</i>¨, ¨<i>there's no subjunctive in English</i>¨. Possibly two phrases that have come up to your mind when reading this post headline. And I must admit you are partially right, for when we compare the elaborate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjunctive_mood" target="_blank">Subjunctive Mood</a> in languages like Spanish or French to the English subjunctive mood, we realise that the English language has done away with this mood in everyday language and nowadays it is noticeable mainly in three instances:</span><br />
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<ol>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><u><b>mandate subjunctive</b></u></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, which is used in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>that</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-clause sentences expressing <b>a demand, a recommendation, a proposal </b>or <b>an intention</b>. Thus, verbs like </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>demand, insist, recommend, advise, propose, request, suggest, ask, desire, urge, command </b></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>are followed by THAT + BASE FORM</b>.</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><i>The local government demanded that the company pay the homeless families for the damages.</i></span></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>We insist that they apologize publicly for what they said.</i></span> </blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>I urge that the council reconsider his decision.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">You may have noticed that the examples above convey a formal register. This use is more common in the US English than UK English. <b>UK English tends to use THAT + SHOULD </b></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>The local government demanded that the company should pay the homeless families for the damages.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In everyday English you would hear statements like: </span></blockquote>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I urge the council to reconsider his decision.</span></i></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #0b5394; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">“I don’t demand that the government does this for me,” he said. “I don’t feel like I need the government.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"> </span>This example is found in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/us/even-critics-of-safety-net-increasingly-depend-on-it.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">an article</a> I googled.</i></span> </blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2. The <b><u>formulaic subjunctive</u> </b>is used in expressions like:</span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>God save the Queen.</i></span></blockquote>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Long live the King.</span></i></blockquote>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Come what may...</span></i></blockquote>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Be that as it may...</span></i> </blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">3. The <u><b>hypothetical <i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">If I were...</span></i></b></u></span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in which the verb form <i>were </i>is a remnant of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjunctive_mood#English" target="_blank">the English subjunctive</a>:</span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>If I were you, I'd certainly tell him.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>If it were expensive, he wouldn't even think of buying it.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In everyday language it is more frequent to hear <i>If it was...</i> </span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Other <b>interesting sites</b> (and my thanks to the authors for their work) I recommend to you where you can read more about the subjunctive and do some practice:</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/subjunctive.html" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Englishpage minitutorials</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-subjunctive.htm" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">English Club.com</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/subj1.htm" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Study Spanish.com</span></a></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/subjunctive.html" target="_blank">Karen's Linguistic Issues</a></span></li>
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<br />LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-9104470714337625592012-04-21T14:42:00.001+02:002012-04-21T15:29:26.429+02:00JASON MRAZ (two songs with lyrics :O)<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><i>I won't give up</i></span></h2>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">A beautiful mess </span></i></h2>
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<br />LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-54027484377651277062012-03-19T19:10:00.000+01:002012-03-19T19:22:37.586+01:00EXPLAIN, RECOMMEND, SUGGEST<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">These three verbs are very similar in meaning to their equivalents in Spanish (<b><i>explicar, recomendar, sugerir</i> </b>respectively), and shouldn't imply much difficulty by a Spanish-speaker when using them in English. Unfortunately, they do because Spanish-speakers tend to use them applying the Spanish-verb pattern.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So teachers keep correcting their students when they say statements like:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><i>Could you <u>explain me</u> the difference again?</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"> (¿Podrías explicarme la diferencia de nuevo?)</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>I <u>recommend you</u> this film; it's really good.</i> (Te recomiendo esta película.)</span></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>I <u>suggest you</u> that you go and see that film.</i> (Te sugiero que vayas a ver la película.)</span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(The last example needs some more explanation, which I will tackle in this post as well.)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Verbs like <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-weight: bold;">explain</span><span class="Apple-style-span">/</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">recommend</span>/<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">suggest</span></b> need to be followed by the preposition <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b>to</b> </span>before the indirect object <i>(i.e. to whom you explain, recommend or suggest something)</i>, otherwise this object is taken as the direct object. Thus, we can say:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">I <u>recommended him</u> for the job. <i>(</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;"><i>¨him¨ is the direct object)</i></span></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">He <u>explained the lesson</u> in a very easy way so all the students understood it straight away. <i>(¨the lesson¨ is the direct object)</i></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I <u>suggest a coffee</u> before we go in. <i>(¨a coffee¨ is the direct object)</i></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">We must remember to place<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47;"> <b>to</b></span> before the person to whom we are <i>explaining, recommending </i>or<i> suggesting something</i>: </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I recommended the new film to him.</span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">He explained the lesson to the new students. </span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://elblogdelingles.blogspot.com.es/" target="_blank">El blog para aprender inglés</a> has published a very good post on the verb <span style="font-weight: bold;">recommend</span>, which I encourage you to read:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">http://menuaingles.blogspot.com.es/2010/01/como-se-usa-recommend.html</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">For more instances of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>recommend </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i>explain</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> please check these online entries:</span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recommend">http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recommend</a></span><br />
<a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/explain?show=0&t=1328789888"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/explain?show=0&t=1328789888</span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Regarding <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-weight: bold;">suggest </span>I <i>suggest</i> that you read the online entry below (check my own example just given as well):</span><br />
<a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suggest"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suggest</span></a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">So the verb <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">suggest </span>can have three different patterns:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">suggest something (to somebody)</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">suggest (to somebody) that + clause *</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">suggest doing something</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">* clause = (1) subject (should) infinitive</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> (2) subject + verb form </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(present/past, depending on the verb tense of <i>suggest</i>)</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>I suggested a coffee before our visit.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>He suggested (to me) that I should call before leaving.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>We suggested going to the cinema that evening.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>We suggested that he went home straight away.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Lastly, I recommend that you watch this video uploaded by <a href="http://www.englishwithjennifer.com/index.html" target="_blank">Jennifer ESL</a> explaining the uses of <i>advise, recommend</i> and <i>suggest</i>. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-60527966754810705232012-02-27T00:11:00.005+01:002012-02-27T12:07:12.155+01:00After reading THE LOTTERY (1)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is a lot written about this shortstory and I have selected two pieces/links from the web as a follow-up for those of you who would like to go a little bit more into the story itself and the authoress.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first one is <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #4c1130;">The Power of Symbols</span></b> by <a href="http://www.goodwin.edu/faculty_staff/faculty/profiles/Randy_Laist.asp" target="_blank">Dr Randy Laist</a>. He discusses the symbolism in Shirley Jackson's story.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The second link provides more information on the authoress and her story <a href="http://northbennington.org/jackson.html" target="_blank">SHIRLEY JACKSON</a> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You will be able to read about the background to The Lottery and Jackson's "response to questions about the 'meaning' of the story".</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On a coming third post I will write about the way my advanced students and me will tackle this story from a language perspective. The use of verb tenses, adjectives and adverbs, and how the different paragraphs are laid out to walk the reader out of their comfort zone which previously set them in by both the title and the peaceful summer day-scenario. I can still recall the disturbance and unease Mrs Hutchinson's last words provoked in myself. Last but not least, when you read the story a second time, those stones the children are gathering playfully at the beginning become deadly premonitory.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-22254405760108226862012-02-26T19:16:00.000+01:002012-02-26T19:20:15.466+01:00My favourite shortstory: THE LOTTERY by Shirley Jackson<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ever since I did North American Contemporary Shortstory in my 4th year at university I have kept <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-size: large;">The Lottery</span> as my favourite one. There are quite a few more I like but somehow this one got itself "the place" in my own top reading-list and even if others have come along and have also marked the path of my reading, what makes <b>The Lottery</b> so special to me is the disturbing unease I was left with when I finished its reading. Since I am trying not to give away the story itself, I will stop using adjectives to describe my opinion and suggest that you should read and listen to the story yourself -provided that you haven't read it yet!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you google </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Lottery <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">by Shirley Jackson</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, you get 644,000 hits. After some browsing, I have chosen the links below to lead you into the story itself, both in text and audio, and also a film version uploaded on YouTube which, I must say, would never have been my choice. In my opinion some written stories should never be transferred into pictures for it is the reader's own vision that makes them so unique. This is what I also felt when I read <i>Frankestein;</i> the horror Mary Shelley wanted to convey when wording the creature's appearance would never match any visual image created on the screen.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This first link will direct you to the text courtesy of <a href="http://www.classicshorts.com/" target="_blank">Classic Short Stories</a></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i><a href="http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html" target="_blank">Reading The Lottery</a></i></b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This second link features one of <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/podcasts/fiction" target="_blank"><i>The New Yorker</i> fiction podcasts</a>, in which A. M. Homes reads the story and discusses it with <i>The New Yorker</i>'s fiction editor Deborah Treisman:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/2008/11/17/081117on_audio_homes" target="_blank"><i>Listening to The Lottery: </i>Luck of the Draw</a> </b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lastly, here are two YouTube links on which you can watch a film version of the story:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-21352984386819126892011-12-29T17:19:00.000+01:002011-12-29T17:19:41.183+01:00Singing to friendship: COUNT ON ME by Bruno Mars<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Here's a song to say goodbye to 2011 and welcome 2012. </i></b></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>We need to take care of our friends for good friends always take care of us.</i></span></b></div>
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<br />LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-25958348286026661072011-12-28T17:58:00.000+01:002011-12-28T17:59:25.761+01:00Economics, politics and the idiom ¨mad as a hatter¨The field of economics has taken the front line as a daily topic in worldwide newspapers, whatever the language. Obviously, we all know the reason so I will skip any further comment. What's more, due to this fact, many economic terms wander freely in my mind at least in the form of passive vocabulary. I have had to get used to absorbing obscure terms such as ¨subprimes, hedge funds, GDP, bonds¨ -to name but a few-, and yet, I cannot say I do understand the world of economics. To be honest, reading about it hasn't deepened my knowledge in this field; I am still (and guess I will always be) in shallow waters, although I must say the reading has become lighter somehow.<br />
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One of the authors I like to read most is the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/business/14nobel.html?ref=opinion">Nobel Prize for Economics Paul Krugman</a>; for a layman like me I find his writing didactic and it makes quite some good sense. Yesterday reading his article <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/opinion/krugman-springtime-for-toxics.html">Springtime for toxics</a>, published in the International Herald Tribune, my interest in the content was immediately diverted to a piece of language he used as a way to illustrate the toxicity and harmful effects of mercury on the population. Basically, in his article, Krugman welcomes the good news of the EPA's new regulating standards, which also has some economic benefits. He goes on to link this decision to American politics, the second theme he wanted to discuss.<br />
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However, my featuring his article on this post has mostly to do with that ¨language diversion¨ and which I quote next:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">...As far as I can tell, even opponents of environmental regulation admit that mercury is nasty stuff. It’s a potent neurotoxicant: </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b>the expression “mad as a hatter” emerged in the 19th century because hat makers of the time treated fur with mercury compounds, and often suffered nerve and mental damage as a result.</b></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> ...</span></span></blockquote>
Being a teacher and so interested in languages, it simply fascinates me to learn the origin of idioms we have acquired as part of our vocabulary. I knew this idiom but not its origin and, of course, it now makes so much sense. Furthermore, it proves my belief that when you are a teacher, whatever your field or rank, the pedagogue in you emerges constantly in your writing as it is the case of Paul Krugman.LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-53118332922067975282011-11-13T13:07:00.001+01:002011-11-13T23:27:00.532+01:00ELEVATOR PITCH: pitch, one of those ¨tricky¨ words to learn.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>A few weeks ago, when doing an activity with my advanced students </i><b><a href="http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=pitch">pitch</a>,</b><i> the word that has triggered this post, came up in the form of a crossword clue:</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Money in brief followed by an irritation of the skin has very black results.</span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The answer was given straight away in the dialogue where such definition was inserted -</i><a href="http://www.wordreference.com/definition/pitch">pitch</a><i>-, </i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> but it took me a while to come up with the explanation which would associate both parties. Actually, it came right away when discussing the activity with the students.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></i><br />
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Money in brief........</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>p(ence)</b></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>An irritation of the skin......</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>itch</b></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Has very black results........</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>pitch black</b> </span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>A follow-up question was </i><u>what does <i>pitch</i> mean exactly?</u><i> It's certainly one of these words that may trap a teacher in a winding explanation and still leave the student at a loss as there's nothing they like best but a straight equivalent to copy down in their notebooks. </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>You're probably aware of what I mean by now if you have clicked on the word </i>pitch<i> and read the different answers provided by wordreference.com, both in the English definition entry and the English-Spanish one.</i></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Pitch</b> is one of these chamaleonlike words that has sneaked in different theme-areas of life so it gets complicated for a student of English who is constantly seeking for a straight-forward answer to their vocabulary queries.</span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>To mention but a few, the word </i>pitch<i> appears in sports, </i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_(sports_field)" style="font-style: italic;">a football pitch</a><i>, in linguistics </i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_accent" style="font-style: italic;">Pitch accent</a><i> and in sales </i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevator_pitch" style="font-style: italic;"><b>the elevator pitch</b></a><i>. </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>As my students hadn't heard of the </i>elevator pitch<i> term before and the class was about to end I encouraged them to do some research themselves. I also promised I'd come back to it in the near future. Not so sure myself how I'd introduce this in another class I thought I might as well write a post that would feature not only the latter, but also the word </i>pitch <i>itself. Furthermore, I find it really self-encouraging to link both my blog and my teaching.</i></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've selected an article from <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/">Bloomberg Business Week</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">: </span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/jun2007/ca20070618_134959.htm">The Perfect (Elevator) Pitch</a></b> by Aileen Pincus<b> </b></span></blockquote>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And this YouTube video which rides you up in the hope of your grasping its basic idea:</span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-90541168800841375862011-10-29T18:15:00.000+02:002011-10-30T10:25:00.730+01:00HALLOWEEN or ALL HALLOWS' EVE<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Whether we like it or not, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxons#Contemporary_meanings">Anglosaxon world</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> has pervaded Spanish society and is here to stay. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><i>The term "Anglo-Saxon" can be used in a variety of contexts, often to identify the English-speaking world's distinctive language, culture, technology, wealth, markets, economy, and legal systems</i>.</span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One of the many examples is the<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"> festivity of Halloween</span>, which Spanish children are so eager to celebrate at school. My daughter starts to talk about it well before it's due and her main concern is what she will wear on that day. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween">Halloween or All Hallows' Eve</a> is celebrated on 31st October and is considered a pagan festivity by the Catholic world. Spain being a country of so much Catholic tradition began to frown upon this festivity as soon as it made its appearance in our society; something which children, so attracted to anything that means fun and festivity, don't give it much thought. Finding the right disguise so that they can impress their friends is what keeps them occupied the previous weeks. The phrase <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween#Trick-or-treating_and_guising">Trick or treat</a> is constantly uttered on that day. We can now say that Halloween is here to stay and forms part of our festivity calendar. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">This festivity has its origins in the Celt world, a people whose culture spread across Europe more than 2000 years ago. The Celts celebrated the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the Celtic New Year on the night of October, 31st. This time was considered to be a liminal zone in which both the living and the death could merge. To prevent the ghosts from invading the living world, they lit bonfires to drive away the evil spirits. The growing power of the Catholic Church eventually turned it into what we know here in Spain as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints">All Saints' Date</a> (<i><b>Día de Todos los Santos</b></i>) or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints#cite_note-0">Hallowmas</a>. <i>Hallow</i> meaning <i>holy</i> and <i>mas</i> referring to <i>mass</i>. The night before was <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">All Hallows' Eve</span> whose phonetics turned into the well-known <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">Halloween</span></b>. The festivity was soon exported to the United States by the Irish immigrants driven away from their homeland during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)">Irish Potato Famine</a> during the 1840s. Not only did they bring the holiday but the customs that went with it. One of the best-known artifacts is the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack-o%27-lantern"> jack-o'-lantern</a>, a carved pumpkin which is lit inside. </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1nrZ49aNhfg/Tq0Xyma7saI/AAAAAAAABWo/lzbbiXp9Tz0/s1600/bild%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1nrZ49aNhfg/Tq0Xyma7saI/AAAAAAAABWo/lzbbiXp9Tz0/s320/bild%255B1%255D.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">I encourage you to further your knowledge about this Halloween emblem on the highlighted wikipedia entry; tradition and folklore mix. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Last but not least, here is a website full of links related to Halloween for all levels and tastes: </span></span><a href="http://www.esolcourses.com/topics/halloween.html">http://www.esolcourses.com/topics/halloween.html</a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-64708138169830730782011-10-18T13:11:00.000+02:002011-10-18T13:16:33.842+02:00Some more music: THE BLOWER'S DAUGHTER by Damien Rice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="background-color: white;">Many students say that their best way to learn English is by listening to music. Actually, most teenagers show a real interest in English when they need to understand the lyrics of their favourite songs. When you have started studying English in your adulthood, it is a pleasure to be able to understand the lyrics of </i><span style="background-color: white;">that song</span><i style="background-color: white;"> which you simply loved at the time because of its tune. What's more, you may have read the lyrics and felt disappointed as they are not so transcendental as the music conveyed. </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="background-color: white;">Anyway, thanks to YouTube and many passionate people who want to share their passion it is very likely that your favourite song has already been uploaded with subtitles. Yesterday I uploaded a song I had listened to many times but I hadn't seen the singer play it. I thought it would make a nice musical post as well as offer something else to my readers. It is true that you will have to accept my own tastes in music but since you're visiting my blog it is very likely -hopefully, at least!- that you like what I post about. </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>The Blower's Daughter </b><i>is a beautiful song and so is the film </i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlyqGmPXgBI"><b>Closer</b></a>, <i>though I don't recall associating the song to the film, or viceversa, when I saw it at the cinema. Today I had the chance to listen to this song again and on came the YouTube version and the film. As you can see below, I have posted three versions of the song. The official trailer for the film (with both Spanish subtitles and the original version itself) and a third one with the lyrics. It seems <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Rice">Damien Rice</a>, the songwriter, dedicated this song to his clarinet's teacher's daughter with whom he was smitten. Enchanting!</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/5YXVMCHG-Nk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/FUJjAkPLa2c?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ILqjAVWywb0?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-77110033321154759822011-10-17T15:07:00.000+02:002011-10-17T15:07:47.877+02:00A BEAUTIFUL SONG: ONE by TINA DICKOW<br />
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<br />LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-85157878820611832232011-10-12T23:58:00.000+02:002012-02-09T15:36:32.764+01:00WORDS EASILY CONSFUSED BY SPANISH-SPEAKING LEARNERS OF ENGLISH (1)<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv265.shtml"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">specially </span>vs. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">especially</span></a></b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yesterday evening when ending the last class, one of my students asked me if I could enlighten him about his confusion when having to use <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><b><a href="http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=SPECIALLY">specially</a></b> </span>and <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><b><a href="http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=especially">especially</a></b></span><i>. </i>This type of questions are asked by students now and then and I thought I should start a thread of posts under the name <i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0c343d;"><b>Words easily confused by Spanish-speaking learners of English</b></span></i> in the hope that I will help them eradicate some common mistakes. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well, it seems my first choice has proved to be rather awkward. After browsing different websites I have come to the conclusion that what I thought to be ¨an easy piece of cake¨, i.e. explaining the difference in a simple way, seems not to be <i>that</i> simple. May I risk to say that due to the fact that both words are spelt similarly, speakers of English tend even to confuse their usage so no wonder we, non-native speakers, should get more confused.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The best explanation I've found is provided by the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/"><b>BBC Learning English website</b></a> and it's the one I've chosen as a hyper-link to the sub-heading <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv265.shtml">specially vs. especially</a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When looking up both words in <b>Wordreference</b> the translation given in Spanish is rather similar: <i>especialmente, particularmente </i>for <u>e</u><u>specially</u> and <i>especialmente, expresamente</i> for <u>specially</u>. One of the examples given by the Concise Oxford Spanish Dictionary (OUP) is actually the same in both: <i>Why did you choose that one especially? Why did you choose that one specially? </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So my advice is that you use <u>specially</u> when you mean <i>expresamente</i> <i>o en particular</i>:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These shoes are specially designed for toddlers.</span> </blockquote>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Estos zapatos están expresamente diseñados para bebés que empiezan a caminar.</span></i></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We use <u>especially</u> when we mean <i>sobre todo, excepcionalmente</i>:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The dinner that evening was especially planned for the occasion. </span></blockquote>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">La cena esa noche fue excepcionalmente planeada para la ocasión.</span></i></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>English plus</b> also provides an easy explanation for this pair:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000287.htm</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Going analogical now I will write down the definitions given by the <i>Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English</i> of the adjectives</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>especial </b>(adj) particular; exceptional: <i>a question of especial importance; for our especial benefit. </i>in especial, above all. <b>especially</b> (adv) to an exceptional degree; in particular: <i>She likes the country, especially in spring</i>.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>special</b> (adj) of a particular or certain sort; not common, usual or general; of or for a certain person, thing or purpose: <i>He did it for her as a special favour. What are your special interests? Newspapers send special correspondents to places where important events take place. On holidays the railways put on special trains</i>. <b>Specially</b> (adv) particulary: <i>I came here specially (on purpose) to see you.</i></span></div>
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<br />LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-56001350111318045752011-10-11T12:54:00.000+02:002011-10-12T23:59:40.587+02:00IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING AND WRITING SKILLS: LISTEN & WRITE<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.listen-and-write.com/">LISTEN & WRITE - DICTATION</a></b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;"><b>Listen&write </b>is a great website to practise both your listening and writing skills. What's more: it's free of charge!!! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;">You have a wide choice of levels so I'm sure you will find a suitable one to start with and from there start building up your confidence in understanding English. The fact that you can see the spoken words in written form will certainly help you consolidate their spelling via an old technique as it is dictation. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;">There are three modes you can choose from:</span></div>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><b>Full Mode:</b> you need to type in the full word itself and if you spell it correctly it is shown on the screen directly.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><b>Quick Mode: </b>only by typing in the first letter you get the full word on the screen.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><b>Blank Mode: </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;">the text is shown with blank spaces, you need to type in the correct word in the blank.</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;">If you find the listening too difficult I suggest you should use the Blank Mode. You will be able to read the text and work out those missing words in the gap. Then, once you've done this, you can select the Full Mode and give it another try. I find the Quick Mode a bit confusing as it's far too quick! You type in the first letter and it immediately gets it shown on the screen but because you are so engrossed in understanding the next word or words you hardly have time to set in what's being done.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;">Anyway, you're free to find your own mood! Just give it a try & have fun with English! :O)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-68340853857380821412011-10-09T14:36:00.000+02:002011-10-16T11:26:52.856+02:00PHONETICS HELP YOU IMPROVE YOUR PRONUNCIATION<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">English</span> and <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Spanish</span> are two very different languages and we -Spanish speakers- instantly perceive that when beginning to learn our first English words; for instance, personal pronouns <i>I, you, he, she, etc</i>., which differ so much in form from <i>yo, tú, él, ella, etc</i>. Together with this realization comes the attempt to pronounce such words and the verb forms <i>am, is, are</i> and feel at ease with ourselves when we hear the outcome. To spice up the task, we are told that both pronoun and verb form are usually contracted in daily speech, so as well as trying to produce the correct sound we feel visually alienated by an apostrophe, which many times teachers fail to explain why it is there.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">English pronunciation is not easy for a Spanish-speaker, certainly not, and the older we are the harder it becomes. Our speech organs have been trained to produce certain sounds (those featured in Spanish) so the production of new sounds is many times a matter of our natural ability to make new sounds. This is the first hurdle a Spanish-speaking learner of English must overcome and it can become an ordeal if we, teachers, treat all our adult students as standard students who will make it as soon as our instructions are set in; see my previous post <a href="http://luzbego-englishspanishblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/when-learning-english-becomes-ordeal.html">When English becomes an ordeal</a>. I would also like to direct you to a very encouraging post by Scott Thornbury, <a href="http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/b-is-for-bad-language-learner/">B is for a Bad language learner</a>, in which he shuns those that mock other people's attempts to speak a second language even if they sound ¨funny¨ to the ¨experts¨. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;">So, a plea on behalf of the bad language learner: never, never, never mock a second language speaker – even if it’s someone (like George Bush or José María Aznar) whose politics you disagree with. It’s a cheap shot. And, if you are a language teacher, it ill becomes you. It’s your job to encourage second language use, however non-target-like. What’s more, ridicule is counterproductive. There is nothing more de-motivating than being laughed at.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> <a href="http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/">(Scott Thornbury's blog)</a></span></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Both <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indoeuropean">Indo-european languages</a> belong to different families: English is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages">Germanic language</a> whereas Spanish is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin">Latin language</a>. The intonation is certainly different, Spanish is a syllabic language, so each syllable has roughly the same duration regardless of the stress. English, on the contrary, uses <a href="http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/word-stress.htm">word stress</a> and the duration of syllables is not the same. Many times I've heard students ¨complain¨ that English speakers don't seem to make an effort to understand them. They illustrate their statement by saying that they produce a grammatically correct question and, yet, they still get either a puzzled look or a ¨I'm sorry but I don't understand.¨ There's a simple answer to this: they're using the wrong stresses, so their utterance sounds flat and meaningless for the English speaker.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That's why I believe <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonetics">phonetics</a> is such a useful tool for Spanish-speakers learning English. It provides them with a visual image of the sounds so that they feel they are <i>getting there</i>. I know many teachers find phonetics cumbersome and they try to keep their students away from it as much as they keep their own selves. I disagree. Teachers should use phonetics in their teaching in a light key so that their students can use images as a good way to improve sounds. The same way as deaf people can be taught to speak, we must facilitate our learners of English a way to improve their speaking skills. The goal is not for our students to memorize the phonetic alphabet, we would simply add up more learning and frustration in that sense. We should encourage them to see English phonetics as a tool to help them ¨visualize¨ the pronunciation of an English word, or a phrase. The aim is to get familiarized with the symbols so that they can identify the sound. Besides, all dictionaries provide the phonetic transcription of that new word we have just looked up. Knowing the symbols will help us tackle its pronunciation even if we haven't heard this new word before. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When starting to teach new groups (as it was last week) I find teaching phonetics a good way to introduce them into English. A good reason is that it's very likely that they haven't been ¨exposed¨ to phonetics before. It also allows me to ¨expose¨ them to my teaching. I try to be very careful when doing so as I do understand new symbols may simply put them off. I try to make English sounds visual to them and I use Spanish sounds as a model to check on either similarities or differences. A speaker of a second language tends to assimilate those new sounds that are similar to their own language by producing them in the same way as their native language, and this is where we should make them notice those slight differences that, otherwise, will be dragged along their learning. New sounds, on the contrary, are most likely to be imitated as they should be pronounced.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also teach my students something basic as the physiological mechanics of speech production. We actually produce sounds by voicing the air we expel from our lungs. This air that goes through the windpipe or traquea, encounters a first feature which amplifies the number of sounds we can produce: the vocal cords found in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larynx">larynx</a> or vocal tract. They vibrate or not depending on the sound we produce. Thus, we make <b>voiced</b> or <b>unvoiced</b> sounds. All <a href="http://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/intermediate/c_pronunciation/pronunciation01?cc=global&selLanguage=en">vowel sounds</a> and <a href="http://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/intermediate/c_pronunciation/pronunciation01?cc=global&selLanguage=en">dipthongs</a> are voiced; consonant sounds can be voiced or unvoiced. You will be able to check both voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds by clicking on <a href="http://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/intermediate/c_pronunciation/pronunciation03?cc=global&selLanguage=en">consonants</a> and <a href="http://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/intermediate/c_pronunciation/pronunciation04?cc=global&selLanguage=en">more consonants</a>. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The speech organs consist of lips, teeth, tongue, alveolar ridge, hard palate, velum (soft palate), uvula, glottis and nasal cavity, and they all play a role either actively or passively to articulate different sounds. This is a diagram of the different parts:</span></div>
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(Courtesy of <a href="http://rajashaukat.blogspot.com/2011/05/diagram-of-speech-organs.html">http://rajashaukat.blogspot.com/2011/05/diagram-of-speech-organs.html</a> )</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Links to practise English sounds and get familiarize with phonetics:</span></div>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/intermediate/c_pronunciation/?cc=global&selLanguage=en">New English File Pronunciation</a> by Oxford University Press</span></li>
<li><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pronunciation Tips from bbclearningenglish.com</span></a></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/word-stress.htm">Word stress in English</a> by EnglishClub.com</span></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-native_pronunciations_of_English#Spanish"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">English vs. Spanish pronunciation: some tips</span></a></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.stuff.co.uk/calcul_nd.htm">The phonetic chart</a></span></li>
<li><a href="http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/phonemic-chart">Teaching English - Phonemic Chart</a></li>
</ol>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-73132212464598676602011-09-15T15:19:00.000+02:002011-09-15T22:24:05.048+02:00WHEN LEARNING ENGLISH BECOMES AN ORDEAL<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ea6BkrJDTiA/TnHY4WPk_qI/AAAAAAAABWk/g2GWAYQ0Q3Q/s1600/IMG_0760.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ea6BkrJDTiA/TnHY4WPk_qI/AAAAAAAABWk/g2GWAYQ0Q3Q/s320/IMG_0760.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
If I had been given a dime every time a fellow countryman/woman said to me ¨I'm hopeless at English¨, or any other similar phrase, I'm sure I would have a plump piggybank by now. I'm not saying I'd be rich, let's face it, but I would certainly have enough money to enjoy something extraordinary I'd fancy.<br />
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I have been an English teacher for adults for a long time and, one of the remarks that boosts my pride as a teacher is when they say that they enjoy learning English with me, that they don't feel stupid when having to articulate an English phrase in front of me. On the contrary, it is disheartening to hear: ¨I can't, Begoña; I will never be able to learn English¨, and they mean it. </div>
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These days I'm teaching a friend English and the task is becoming Mt Everest climb somehow for him. I am using resources that go beyond the usual methods and approaches, since I understand that his impotence to break through is fully related to having no confidence at all in a likely success. </div>
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Of course, one's ability to learn another language counts dearly in the progress being made but the total lack of confidence simply weakens the chances from scratch. I never found myself in such an extreme situation, and I'm racking my brains on how to instill some confidence so that he doesn't quit. Mind you! I'm talking about someone who is a pro in his work; a very intelligent person whose experience and knowledge is so valuable in his profession. This is my second (I should say <i>our</i> second) attempt to tackle the task. I've driven myself away from any textbook or the standard steps usually followed when teaching beginners; no way to use total immersion in English (that was my first attempt and it ¨scared him to death¨); no way to say ¨you must study by yourself¨, a key factor in the learning process, because he hardly has time off as his profession takes up most of it. </div>
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<b>How to proceed then?</b><br />
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Well, I've decided to be the one riding the bike for the time being while I'm having him sitting behind. I hope that by doing this he will stop thinking that he will fall off the bike. I'm using both English and Spanish, introducing questions (and encouraging answers) which are related to our surroundings, and explaining grammar-bits depending on the needs for those questions/answers. Regarding the emotional factor, I'm constantly appeasing him, persuading him that <i>we</i> can get <i>there</i>, -<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">yes, we can</span>-, not letting him build up in his mind the disheartening ¨I will never make it; I will never be able to learn English.¨ I'm not even using the verb <i>speak</i> here for I think he has convinced himself over the years that he's hopeless at learning English, and will never be able to speak it. His convinction is right now a solid wall against which he is constantly bumping himself. Therefore, I think it's better to focus on the learning process itself, not the goal.</div>
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Furthermore, this hopelessness has resulted in his belief that something must be wrong with him.<br />
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And we are <i>simply</i> talking about learning English!<br />
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Many Spaniards who were taught French at school in the 70s and 80s find themselves cheated somehow nowadays. The world revolves around the English language and they feel excluded. To make matters worse, English is being used as a key factor to shortlist candidates for a job, disregarding the real need of the language for that specific post, which increases their despair due to the scarcity of work and the fierce competition. Parents are set into repairing this error in their children's education by sending them to<i> bilingual</i> schools, by having them introduced into the English language at the earliest age, in the belief that their kids' inability to speak English will never mar their future. They hope to prevent their children from feeling dismal as my friend is feeling now. Unfortunately, when it comes to <i>repairing their own incompetence</i> a great number feel that the last English train departed a long time ago. </div>
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I disagree. </div>
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<b>What's my point in sharing this present teaching experience with my readers, be it teachers or learners?</b><br />
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To the teachers I would point out that we cannot standardize our students with reference to their learning process. In essence, we, as teachers, have our own method or approach to teaching and we try to create a rapport with them in the hope that progress will be quicker rather than slower. We tend to think that if a student doesn't succeed the blame falls mainly on ourselves; however, I see the binomy teaching-learning as a <i>give&take game</i> we play with our students and there should be an agreement regarding the rules between both parties so that goals are reached. The ongoing trust between teacher-student must be a fact. There can be as many different approaches as students and we need to reassess our own in the teaching process. It is true that teaching one-to-one lets you adapt yourself to your student's pace more easily than teaching a group, but the group cannot be treated as a block, as one single mind. There are different styles of learning and we must find a balance in the classroom so that we can prevent dropouts or disappointments. We need to make each student feel that we are teaching one-to-one within the group. </div>
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To the adult learner I would say that a language can be learnt at any age by anybody. What's needed is to be realistic when setting our goals. We need our own needs' analysis and visualize both time and space. Our time of dedication to the task and our own space (our background and surroundings) and depending on these two variables we should adapt our goals and proceed with our learning. We need the teacher to help us find the right track if we feel we can't see it ourselves, after all the teacher is the expert. We need constant encouragement; learning a language is not like learning how to cook a recipe or how to use some new software for our computer. Once we start learning a language we make this task a life companion, somehow. Thus, we need to reset goals now and then so as to avoid frustration. Realistic goals will make us see that we have achieved something, that we are riding the bike ourselves, even if we still need some guidance, or some support so as not to fall off.<br />
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<br />LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-84136527265601298362011-04-03T14:09:00.001+02:002012-06-05T23:20:34.655+02:00STORYTELLING IN PRESENTATIONS. Ms Huffingtton delivers a short but effective one.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Following the topic I began with in my previous post on Presentations, I would like to invite you to watch this second Ted Talk by </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianna_Huffington"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Arianna Huffington</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. Her talk is called </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/arianna_huffington_how_to_succeed_get_more_sleep.html">HOW TO SUCCEED? GET MORE SLEEP</a></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">You may have heard about her a couple of months ago when her widely-read online paper </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">THE HUFFINGTON POST</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> was bought by </span><a href="http://www.aol.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">AOL Inc</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, and she became </span><a href="http://corp.aol.com/2010/05/12/arianna-huffington-bio/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">President and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Well, my post is not to talk about AOL and/or Ms Huffington herself, but to show you the effectiveness of a sound content-message, in which words have been carefully chosen.</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">How to succeed? Get more sleep</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. Certainly the title itself is catchy. When reading it, one wonders how it is possible to be successful in life by having enough sleep. We are usually told that successful people have devoted themselves to working hard and giving up leisure or family time. If you want to be on the top, you must work up the ladder and it won't be easy. A visible instance of this is top-politicians; when they get into power their faces eventually start looking haggard with rings under their eyes, a certain sign of lack of sleep.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Ms Huffington delivers a brief talk (a bit over 4 minutes) that goes right into our inner feelings. She deliberately addresses the female audience with an interesting feminist message that goes away from the hackneyed discourse ¨we, women, are the same as men, therefore we have the same rights¨. Actually, she says the opposite: because we are different, we are better.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What's more, she does not use visuals, no ppt to enhance the content of her talk. The content of her talk uses the power of words and intonation to make it effective. She does this with the best technique: </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storytelling#Aesthetics"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">storytelling</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Her story has a personal drama, some research so you will become better, other characters humourously presented, not to forget the villains, there's also a time line with a past, a present and a future, and there's some learning to do in the hope that we will improve as human beings.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Her storytelling is imbued with simplicity and, yet, it is not simplistic.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Let's look at the use of adjectives, starting by the first sentence:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></span></i></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">My big idea is a very, very small idea that can unlock billions of big ideas that are at the moment dormant inside us. And my little idea that will do that is sleep.</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">big / small / dormant / little / sleep</span></i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(simple opposing adjectives & the issue of sleep)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A pause, to let the audience take in what she has just said with the hope that it will raise their expectations to what she is about to say yet.</span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333399;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This is a room of type-A women...</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">good address to the audience by praising them. Next she tells them a personal story to show her empathy with these great </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">sleep-deprived women</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. Her personal story depicts pain, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I broke my cheek bone bone, I got five stitches on my right eye</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ouch! we only seem to learn the tough way. Then she backs up the story with some follow-up research. So, this happened to me, but it made me go beyond, illustrating myself with sound research so I now feel authorized to tell you why a good sleep is sound advice. A good bunch of positive adjectives the audience will surely like to feel as the definition of their lives, sort of the background music used in films to show the good moments:</span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And I'm here to tell you that the way to a more productive, more inspired, more joyful life is getting enough sleep.</span></span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Pause.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">She certainly delivers her message: a new feminist revolution so that we women will lead the way.</span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We are literally going to sleep our way to the top, literally.</span></b></span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We are set in a time line, with a past story, that of the Titanic, which is used as a metaphor to illustrate the recent present and its catastrophic consequences. Some of the characters have been named, Lehman Brothers. Men who brag their lack-of-sleep virility. Men who have led us to colliding into a crisis of unprecendented magnitude. Those men are the villains in our story. And we must learn out of this so that it will never happen again.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">So I urge you to shut your eyes and discover the great ideas that lie inside us, </span></i></b></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></i></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099; white-space: pre;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">to shut your engine and discover the power of sleep.</span></i></b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-6658062535429332362011-04-02T15:14:00.000+02:002012-06-05T23:18:34.171+02:00TED Talk: DON'T INSIST ON ENGLISH & a good example on how to begin & end an interesting talk.I've been teaching a course on Presentations for the past two weeks and <a href="http://www.ted.com/">TED Ideas worth spreading</a> together with <a href="http://www.presentationzen.com/">Presentation Zen</a> are two useful and enriching sources on the web to learn and illustrate any key issue regarding this skill. <br />
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There is a previous entry on my blog called <a href="http://luzbego-englishspanishblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/delivering-presentation.html">Delivering a presentation</a> where I explain the main parts of a standard presentation, so I invite you to click your way there if you would like to read more about it.</div>
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The aim of this entry is actually to draw your attention to <b>the beginning and end of a presentation</b>. How we should start and end our presentation cannot be neglected during the preparation stage. However interesting our talk may be, we cannot expect our audience to walk out of the room remembering all we have said. Therefore, our message needs to be clear and simple (and by ¨simple¨ I don't mean ¨simplistic¨); we must make sure that they walk out of the room with the right message and not, say, with the lovely slides we have chosen to enlighten our talk, or an anecdote we have given them and whose purpose is simply to entertain. </div>
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There are different techniques we can use to make our start. A personal anecdote, an outstanding fact, a quotation, a catchy question, a joke; these are some of the ways experienced presenters use to start off, with the hope that the audience will immediately feel they are about to listen to something well worth their time. </div>
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Likewise, we need to think of a good ending so that our audience will walk out of the room with a fulfilled feeling; the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_bite">sound bite</a>.</div>
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Patricia Ryan, an experienced English teacher in Arabic countries, delivers a remarkable talk with interesting food for thought. Her talk is called <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_ryan_ideas_in_all_languages_not_just_english.html">DON'T INSIST ON ENGLISH</a> and you can watch it with subtitles in different languages apart from English. <i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This is another good feature of Ted Talks, the talks that have been uploaded to their site can be watched with subtitles in different languages eventually. </span></i><br />
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I would like to draw your attention to the humourous way in which Ms Ryan begins her talk. She actually turns what could seem a disadvantage at first hand into an advantage. She makes fun of her age and her looks to distract the audience from a potential preconception regarding her own appearance, and she certainly succeeds. Just watch her do it!</div>
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I will not discuss the content of her talk in this entry but there is certainly a lot to say about it. Nor will I discuss her choice of slides or body language. There is no other reason that my desire to stick myself to the aim of this post. </div>
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Finally, and with regard to the way she ends her talk I will end my post by eliciting her sound bite: <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;">MIND YOUR OWN LANGUAGE, USE IT TO SPREAD GREAT IDEAS! </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-76811066959797178822011-01-30T10:34:00.000+01:002011-01-30T13:04:52.205+01:00SMALL TALK: WEDNESDAY<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#660000;"><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wednesday">WEDNESDAY...MIÉRCOLES...MERCREDI...ONSDAG...HUMP DAY</a></b></span></div><div><br /></div>Once I read a curious column titled ¨Miércoles¨ in the newspaper El País; now and then it comes to my mind, especially when I get my students to practise the pronunciation of the days of the week. Yes, I admit Miércoles has no sound connotation with Wednesday, but this is a tricky word for Spanish speakers to pronounce with ease. <div><br /></div><div>In his column (I do remember it was a male writer but unfortunately I can't recall his name), the author aimed to restore some credibility to a day that falls in the middle of our weekdays and which seems to be generally overlooked by most of us; or at least, we tend to skip over it in our discourse when making any remarks regarding our weekly life. <div><br /></div><div>This is roughly the essence of his column: we tend to talk gloomily about Monday when Sunday is nearing to its end; once we have managed to walk onto Tuesday we seem to be relieved that Monday has gone by without much distress and, unconciously, we move forward onto Thursday as we start visualizing the weekend, ¨thank god, it's Thursday, one more day before the weekend is here¨....Friday's knowledge that we will soon shake off our working constraints brightens the day up despite a likely feeling of exhaustion; Saturday and Sunday are back and we're in command of our lives again!</div><div><br /></div><div>So, what about Wednesday?! Nothing much to be said about Wednesday!!!</div><div><br /></div><div>I wanted to find <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqze7vUif7M&feature=fvsr">some music</a> related to Wednesday, ...even if the lyrics don't match my post <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqze7vUif7M&feature=fvsr">Simon&Garfunkel</a> are always worth listening to. </div><div><br /></div><div>Have a good Sunday :O)!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><br /></div></div></div>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-34338777875784561082011-01-27T16:49:00.000+01:002011-01-29T13:43:38.478+01:00VERB TENSES vs. TIME REFERENCE<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The other day when teaching the present tenses (<i>present simple vs. present continuous</i>) to my new students I approached this subject from a different perspective. I avoided focusing on the usual way, i.e. explaining form and uses, then do some practice through exercises, and aimed to widen my students' scope in the understanding of verb tenses. I focused on building up a communicative frame in their minds which would help them use the present tenses in a more effective way when communicating.</span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">So, instead of starting by explaining form and uses I drew up a timeline on the board and tried to place them into the three time slots -if I may call them like this-: PAST, PRESENT= NOW , FUTURE. I went on saying that time isn't conveyed simply by a verb tense but that there are other words that can convey time. Here are a few examples to illustrate what I'm saying: </span></span></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">I can go with you </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">tomorrow.</span></b></span></span></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">John isn't coming to the party </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">on Friday</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">.</span></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">I'll send it to you </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">now</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">.</span></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">If I *were you I wouldn't do it. </span></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#FF0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">In the first two sentences above we have a time expression -<i>tomorrow, on Friday-</i> to express future but both verbs are present tenses; the verb in the third sentence is a future tense but we're referring to ¨right away¨, or just immediately after I've uttered this statement. Finally, the last example expresses a hypothesis by means of a past verb tense. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">* <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Regarding this example, I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that the use of the past tense in English places ourselves in the unreal time. The English verb system lacks subjunctive so there are other ways to express this mode. But this is ¨food¨ for a future entry.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">Then, after explaining the uses of both verb tenses in English, I started giving them some situations so that they could respond in a pseudo-communicative way by using the right verb tense. I also introduced the use of the future <i>will </i>for some instances in order to expand their understanding and to avoid restricting to one or another</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">I went round the class addressing different students with situations like the following:</span></span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The door bell rings and you're sitting in the living-room with your mum. Offer to open the door. </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"> </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">I'll open the door.</span></span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">You need to know what time the next train is. What do you say to the booking clerk?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#660000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">What time does the next train leave?</span></span></span></i></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Tell your friend about your plans this weekend. </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"> </span></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">I'm having a haircut on Saturday morning</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">.</span></span></span></i></span></li></ul></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">Therefore, when we teach verb tenses to our students it's important to draw up this connection between verb form and real time. We can't encapsule a language into pills (let's say ¨labelled formulas¨) and expect that students alone will manage to draw up the connections. We must provide those connections, or a means for them, so that they manage to build up an internal system, which hopefully and gradually, will render accuracy in their fluency. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></i></span></span></div><div> </div>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-26483767354551711172011-01-22T14:16:00.000+01:002011-01-24T16:42:26.071+01:0020 LECCIONES APRENDIDAS POR UN GRAN MAESTRO, 20 LECCIONES QUE NOS ENSEÑAN A LOS QUE NOS GUSTA LEERAlthough the primary aim of this blog was to address those of you interested in the English language, you may have been aware by now that I have been gradually introducing stuff related to my own native language, Spanish. <div><br /></div><div>Today, reading <a href="http://www.elpais.com/global/">El País</a>, one of my favourite writers in Spanish, <a href="http://antoniomuñozmolina.es/">Antonio Muñoz Molina</a>, has published an enriching, honest article that, in my opinion, renders 20 good brief lessons for us -keen readers- to enrich our own eagerness. His article is called <a href="http://www.elpais.com/articulo/portada/anos/lecciones/elpepuculbab/20110122elpbabpor_10/Tes">20 años, 20 lecciones</a> and is found in the Saturday literary supplement: <a href="http://www.elpais.com/suple/babelia/">Babelia</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>I discovered Antonio Muñoz Molina long ago when I read one of his best novels <a href="http://antoniomuñozmolina.es/publicaciones/">El Jinete Polaco</a>, in which I delighted myself in reading one of the most beautiful descriptions of the physical communication that two people in love with each other may convey. </div><div><br /></div><div>The features I admire most in his prose are the richness of the language, the use of adjectives, and the melodic rhythm that flows as you read. There is a slight drawback, I must admit: his recurrent theme. He tends to evoke his childhood much too often in many of the novels I have read; but all the same, this doesn't diminish my admiration for him. If you want to know more about him, his <a href="http://antoniomuñozmolina.es/biografia/">Self-portrait</a> is a good start. </div>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-3819897154923600782010-12-20T11:43:00.000+01:002010-12-20T13:38:30.656+01:00ACORDARSE vs. RECORDAR<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;">Yesterday, at an Irish-Dutch-Spanish Christmas party, I got to talk to one of the guests who's married to an Irishwoman. On my telling him that I was both an English and a Spanish teacher, he immediately brought up the subject on these recurrent errors native-English speakers tend to make when speaking Spanish -even if they're fluent in our language. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;">We started to think of a few and he wondered why these mistakes kept cropping up in his wife's fluent Spanish no matter how many times they'd been corrected. In language teaching we usually call them fossilized errors. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;">One of these is the use of the verbs ACORDARSE y RECORDAR. It's very common to hear a non-native Spanish speaker say <i>no me recuerdo</i> instead of <i>no me acuerdo</i>, and we just can't understand why<i>.</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b>ACORDARSE <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">means ¨remember something which we may forget or have forgotten¨, so I should say: </span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>No me acuerdo. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">I don´t remember.</span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Acuérdate de llamarlo. </span>Remember to call him. </span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(Notice the use of to+infinitive when we refer to something that needs to be done).</span></span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Siempre me acordaré de ti. </span>¨I will always remember you.¨</span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br /></span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande'; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); "><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Acordarse</span> is a <a href="http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbo_pronominal">pronominal verb</a>, i.e. we need to use the pronouns ¨me, te, se, nos, os¨ when using it. </span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b>RECORDAR <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">means ¨recall¨ with the idea of bringing back to your mind something that happened in the past: </span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br /></span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"> </span></span>Recuerdo cuando fuimos a visitarlo. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">I remember visiting him. </span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande'; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); "><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(Notice the use of -ing after remember when we refer to something that has already happened). </span></span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Siempre lo recordaré. </span>I will always remember/recall it.</span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">I</span>t can also mean ¨remind¨:</span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br /></span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Recuérdame que le llame mañana. </span>Remind me to call him tomorrow.</span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#990000;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Me recuerda a mi padre. </span>He reminds me of my father.</span></b></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;"><i>*******</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;"><i><b>ACORDAR </b>this verb isn´t pronominal and it means ¨to agree¨:</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#990000;">Acordamos vernos a las 4 en punto.</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">We agreed to meet at 4 o'clock sharp.</span></b></span></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#000099;"><i><br /></i></span></div>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-14450188960377109612010-12-16T11:40:00.000+01:002011-10-10T09:56:33.858+02:00MATTHEW BENNETT'S WEBSITE<div>
As you probably know by now, both <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook">Facebook</a> have become two worldwide communication entities with their own idyosincracies, which is not my intention to discuss in this post. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">My aim</span> is to feature <a href="http://www.matthewbennett.es/about-my-website/">Matthew Bennett</a> and the good work he is carrying out with such generosity on his website/blog. I got to *know Matthew on the ciberspace thanks to Twitter from my first days when I started tweetting. </div>
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For this reason I am writing this post and I truly hope I can contribute to extending his readers with these lines. I have also got him his ¨own place¨ as <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Matthew Bennett's Website</span></b> on my blog. </div>
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If you are interested in improving your Spanish or English language skills, you can join his <a href="http://www.matthewbennett.es/learn-spanish-newsletter/">Learn Spanish Newsletter</a> or his <a href="http://www.matthewbennett.es/boletin-para-aprender-ingles/">Boletín para aprender inglés</a> , repectively, for free and start practising straightaway. I am sure he will not disappoint you. I have read his page <a href="http://www.matthewbennett.es/about/">About me: a quick version</a> and, believe me, it sounds ever so interesting. </div>
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*this morning I heard on the radio that we can say ¨talk digitally¨ according to one of our academics, so I guess I should say ¨know digitally¨ ;O)</div>
LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-17567188282716621422010-12-13T17:30:00.000+01:002011-09-07T00:11:32.101+02:00MY ¨NOBEL¨ WEEK IN SWEDEN<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ht09WFbCbdI/TQd4DGCIQKI/AAAAAAAABVQ/waK3mWeRT78/s1600/IMG_0041.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5550537060311908514" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ht09WFbCbdI/TQd4DGCIQKI/AAAAAAAABVQ/waK3mWeRT78/s200/IMG_0041.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 200px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify; width: 150px;" /></a><br />
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Hi, everyone! <br />
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Last Sunday I got back from Sweden, where I spent a full week in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valbo">Valbo</a>, a locality now part of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle">Gävle</a>. I had been in Stockholm the year before but this was my first time outside the capital and in snowy Sweden. I'd never seen so much snow in my life before and I felt like somebody who's taken to see the sea for the first time.</div>
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Before travelling I thought it would be tough to deal with the cold and so much snow; me, who's never been interested in skiing or winter sports. Cold and winter were defined to me by temperatures above 0 degrees, and mostly 5 degrees would mean ¨freezing cold¨. Now I must certainly redefine myself when it comes to temperatures. What's more, I must say I was happily wrong! I just loved walking in the glittering white snow when the sun was out. I felt so calm, so in awe, and kept trying to breathe in the serenity and silence that the landscape was laying before me. </div>
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On Saturday I took the train down to Stockholm to see the<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBVwcmso8p8"> Terracotta Warriors exhibition</a>, which is being displayed in the city till January, and to do some city exploring on my own. <a href="http://beta.stockholmtown.com/en/">Stockholm</a> is a beautiful city and the harsh winter does not mar its beauty even if one needs to be more cautious when strolling the snowy pavement. Of course, the snow in the city is a different ¨thing¨ since streets and roads get so dirty by the traffic, but when one is well wrapped-up in warm clothes and so absorbed in contemplating the lovely architecture along the water shores, nothing can take away the relish of exploring this city, whatever the weather conditions!</div>
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So there I was...map in hand; frequently turning it round while I looked up from it at the buildings that surrounded me in order to spot the right landmark that would give me a clue of where I was in the printed paper; the same way one sees this virtual drawing pin when using Google Maps app on iphone!</div>
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When I came out of Central Station, I used the City Hall as a ¨guiding star¨ and made a deal with myself in my mind that I would come back to it later on in the day. My first target was the Terracotta Warriors as mentioned before. Unfortunately, this thought wasn't fulfilled this time but I know I will be back there anyway. The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7pRt0N55yc">City Hall</a> (Stadshuset) is my favourite building in Stockholm and has become part of my personal list of awesome buildings! </div>
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Unknowingly, I took the longer route to <a href="http://www.ostasiatiska.se/smvk/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=152&a=731">Östasiatiscka Museet</a> (the East Asian Museum where the exhibition was being held), which is on Skelppsholmen island just opposite the Royal Palace. Nor did it matter to me, as exploring means actually that, discovering the route which will take you to where you are heading but can also unveil what you may not have expected to see. How unaware was I of whom I was about to run into by having taken the longer route!!!</div>
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I went past the Grand Hotel, where all the Nobel Laureates are accommodated during their stay, and kept on my way to the museum, stopping now and then to take pics with my iphone and delighting myself with the views. And JUST THEN, as I had walked over the bridge that brings you onto Skelppsholmen and could already see the Terracotta Warriors displayed on a publicity board, I see a slender tall figure, slightly hunched to shield himself from the cold morning, and walking towards me.....well, not exactly towards me but on the same way as me in opposite direction. </div>
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I just halted and made him come to a halt, and said: ¨I can't believe my eyes! <i>No me lo puedo creer!</i> Are you the person I think you are? <i>¿Es usted la persona que creo que es?</i> Are you Vargas Llosa? <i>¿Es usted Vargas Llosa?!</i>¨ He simply smiled at me with this lovely warm smile and said.....<i>Sí, sí lo soy!!! </i>I was so taken aback by this sudden encounter that I could hardly articulate myself. There I was, being greeted so warmly by the <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2010/index.html">Literature Nobel Prize, Mario Vargas Llosa</a>! We talked for a couple of minutes, he asked me where I was from and what I was doing in Sweden, I asked him bashfully if I could take a picture of him, and he suggested we should find somebody to take a picture of both of us together. Then, I just saw him off walking back to the hotel while I was left there floating in airy Stockholm, disregarding what was going on around me. I spent the whole day recalling that brief moment spent with this year's Literature Nobel Prize and I felt so happy!</div>
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I had listened to, and later on read,<a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2010/vargas_llosa-lecture_en.html"> his moving discourse</a> before the members of the Swedish Academy the previous days, and<a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2010/vargas_llosa-photo.html"> I'd seen him so ceremoniously be given</a> the well-deserved Nobel Prize by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_XVI_Gustaf_of_Sweden">King Carl Gustav XVI</a> during the ceremony which I watched on the Swedish television the night before. Never in my life had I dreamed that I would run into him in a Stockholm street when he was walking on his own. Nor would I have expected to be the receiver of such a warm greeting, which simply confirms what a lovely person he has already shown he is.</div>
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On my way back home, sitting on the train to Gävle, I read his<a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2010/vargas_llosa-speech.html"> Banquet Speech</a> and tears welled up in my eyes. Somehow, I felt I had glimpsed some traces of the bewilderment his main character was experiencing. I, myself, was still in awe by having been honoured with such an encounter. </div>
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<b>Epilogue:</b></div>
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On Sunday I took the plane back to Madrid. At Arlanda airport I met <a href="http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/Mario/Vargas/Llosa/awarded/literature/s/greatest/accolade/elpepucul/20101210elpepucul_2/Ten">Juan Cruz</a>, the journalist who was covering the Nobel Prize week for <a href="http://www.elpais.com/english/">El País</a> and who I had met on the flight to Stockholm the previous Sunday. He remembered me :O) He was flying back to Madrid as well, and so were Vargas Llosa and his wife. I told him about my ¨Nobel anecdote¨ and showed him the pics. Then, while waiting at the departure lounge as flight was delayed, he introduced me to his wife, Pilar, and also to Vargas Llosa's wife. We got to talk some more during the flight. Finally, when off the plane and waiting for luggage, I was once more ¨taken¨ to Vargas Llosa by Juan Cruz and he reminded him that I was the person he had met in Stockholm the day before. Thanks a lot, Juan, it's been so nice to have met you and thanks for being so friendly and warm with me! </div>
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Last but not least, I recommend that you read <a href="http://blogs.elpais.com/juan_cruz/2010/12/una-semana-en-las-nubes.html">Juan Cruz's blog</a> and his articles in ¨El País¨ whenever you have a chance. He is also a writer and I like to listen to his beautiful Canarian accent -and to what he says, of course!- on the radio or the television.</div>
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LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-60677858134715376902010-11-07T21:39:00.000+01:002010-11-08T12:54:26.175+01:00TO DUB OR NOT TO DUBToday's newspaper, El País, featured an article <a href="http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Aprenda/ingles/Brad/Pitt/Angelina/Jolie/elpepusoc/20101107elpepisoc_1/Tes">Aprenda inglés con Brad Pitt y Angelina Jolie</a> that I am sure has arisen many readers' remarks and opinions. This same topic crops up in my classes now and then when discussing Spanish learners' doubtful success in speaking English fluently. There seem to be many arguments to back up the poor fluency of most of my countryfolk when facing a situation in which they need to communicate in English; and among them one that is much agreed on is the fact that we watch TV and films in our mother tongue, i.e. they are dubbed, and consequently, this seems to prevent us from developing better listening and speaking skills.<div><br /></div><div>Even our Minister of Education, Ángel Gabilondo, has remarked that dubbing films affects negatively in our mastering of languages. To complement the information gathered by Francesco Manetto -the author of the article-, there are two other interesting articles. One in favour of not dubbing by Fernando Galván, who writes <a href="http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Oido/acostumbrado/elpepusoc/20101107elpepisoc_2/Tes">Oído menos acostumbrado</a> , and another one in favour of letting the viewer choose by Luis Moser-Rothschild, who writes <a href="http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/realidad/libertad/espectador/elpepusoc/20101107elpepisoc_3/Tes">La realidad y la libertad del espectador</a> .</div><div><br /></div><div>And what's my view in all this? </div><div><br /></div><div>Well, I am more in favour of letting the viewer choose, although I do realise that being exposed to the language, English in this case, will always benefit the learning process. But, let's be realistic in all this, watching all the films and TV series in English will not guarantee that we will speak English fluently and more easily. In essence, the teaching-learning process needs to be approached in a communicative way so that the learner becomes the centre of the learning process and the teacher becomes an interlocutor, a guide, a facilator, an instructor, a trainer. Fortunately, this is happening more and more in our schools nowadays, and the aid of native-speaker assisstants provide a great support to our non-native-speaker teachers during the teaching-learning process. </div><div><br /></div><div>Fernando Galván says that, according to a Eurostat report, half of the Spanish population between 25 and 64 cannot speak a second language, but I think we would be very simplistic if we are to blame this inability to the fact that they have not been able to watch films and TV series in the original version. There's more than that for certain. Right now, and as Luis Moser-Rothschild explains, anybody can decide whether to watch a film or their favourite TV series in the original version or dubbed, and if it isn't available, the blame should be put somewhere else. </div><div><br /></div><div>More and more students of English are taking to this, but a setback appears eventually: they can't move a step forward which is to switch to no-subtitles, so they end up stuck in this situation. I mean, it's ok for them to watch a movie in the original version with subtitles, in Spanish first and, then, when their command of the language improves they move to English subtitles. However, they get so used to relying on this ¨scaffolding¨ that when faced with watching a movie without subtitles they simply miss a great part of it, so they back out and their frustration is initiated again. I am not saying this to support the view that not dubbing isn't effective......IT IS! but I want to make clear that dubbing is not the culprit of our poor listening skill in English. There's more to this, which I will not discuss in this post. I just wanted to offer my personal opinion on this.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the other hand, I do think that exposing children to their favourite cartoons and other programmes in English will benefit them considerably. There is a ¨minor¨ drawback: they will not be very willing to do so because watching TV is an enterntainment for them, not a ¨class of English¨; having to read takes away most of the fun, let's face it! Thus, one almost needs to ¨force¨ them to do so. I have to do this with my 8-year-old daughter, and I must admit I'm not always successful. Mind you! Our children and youngsters listen to a lot of English in their music, so this should also count in their favour. When I hear my daughter singing an English song she likes, she gets most of the lyrics right, and she doesn't understand all of it, so something must be improving then!</div><div><br /></div><div>Scandinavian countries are well-known for their impressive skills in speaking English as a second language. Still, let's not forget that their mother-tongues belong to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages">Germanic languages</a> . Our mother-tongue belongs to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages">Romance languages</a> and this should be taken into account as well, since English sounds so alien to us at the beginning. I have been told that Germany and France dub most of their films -please, correct me if I'm wrong-, and they seem to outdo us when it comes to understanding English. One nationality that I am very impressed with is the Portuguese. It is true that they do watch their programmes in the original version, so I gather this facilitates their better auditory and oral skills, but I must also say something in their favour, their vowel system is richer than ours. I will talk about this in another entry in the future.</div><div><br /></div><div>Least but not last, Spanish dubbing has always shown great professionalism and we cannot wipe them out just because we are made to believe that they are harmful when it comes to learning English. </div><div><br /></div><div>In conclusion, ¨to dub or not to dub¨ should not be the target on which to blame this obstacle we, Spaniards, have when using English communicatively. There is more to it than that! Having said that, we should encourage our students to watch their favourite programmes in the original version because it will certainly benefit their skills. </div>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5449296697881928367.post-86452544763231331722009-09-19T22:56:00.000+02:002009-09-19T23:55:21.486+02:00APRENDIENDO ESPAÑOL (1): Artículos (Articles)<span style="color:#000099;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Artículos indefinidos </span><em><span style="font-size:130%;">(indefinite articles)<br /></span></em></strong><br /><strong>un</strong> (masculine, singular) <em>a/an</em> <strong>unos </strong>(masculine, plural) <em>some as equivalent</em><br /><strong>una</strong> (femenine, singular) <em>a/an</em> <strong>unas</strong> (feminine, plural) <em>some as equivalent</em><br /><br />We use the indefinite article to refer to a person or an object for the first time:<br /><br /><strong>Es una casa. <em>It’s a house.</em><br />Son unos libros de inglés. <em>They’re some English books.<br /></em>Un hombre vino a verte ayer. <em>A man came to see you yesterday.<br /></em><br /></strong>In English the indefinite article has only a singular form <em><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">a </span></strong></em>(<em><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">an </span></strong></em>when the next word starts with a vowel sound –note: vowel sound not vowel letter). We use either zero article or the determiner <em><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">some</span></strong></em> (if we want to express indefinite quantity) when referring to either uncountable nouns or plural countable nouns. In Spanish we have a plural form of the indefinite article: <strong>unos/unas</strong>, which is used with plural countable nouns but we do not have an equivalent to <em>some</em> for uncountable nouns.<br /><br /><strong>Son (unos) libros para el colegio. <em>They’re some books for the school.</em><br />Hay leche en el frigorífico. <em>There’s (some) milk in the fridge.</em><br />Hay (unos) huevos en el armario. <em>There are some eggs in the cupboard.<br /></em></strong></span><br /><span style="color:#000099;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Artículos definidos <em>(definite articles)</em></strong><br /></span><br /><strong>el</strong> (masculine, singular) <em>the </em><strong>los</strong> (masculine, plural) <em>the</em><br /><strong>la</strong> (feminine, singular)<em> the</em> <strong>las</strong> (feminine, plural)<em> the<br /></em><br />We use the definite article to refer to someone or something that has been previously mentioned or it refers to a defined one:<br /><br /><strong>Es un libro de español. Es el libro del alumno. <em>It's a book of Spanish. It's the pupil's book.</em></strong><br /><strong>El profesor no está en la clase. <em>The teacher is not in the classroom</em><em>.</em></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong><br />The use of <span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>los, las</strong></span> when referring to things or people in general has the equivalent of zero article in English. Thus,<br /><br /><strong>Me gustan las manzanas. </strong><strong><em>I like apples.<br /></em>Los elefantes son animales muy grandes.</strong> <em><strong>Elephants are very big animals.<br /></strong></em><br />************<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">Contracciones: A + EL = AL </span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">DE + EL = DEL</span></strong><br /><strong></strong><br />The preposition A (<em>to</em> as its equivalent) and the article EL are contracted as AL:<br /><br /><strong>Vayamos al supermercado. <em>Let's go to the supermarket.</em></strong><br /><strong>Vayamos a la playa. <em>Let's go to the beach.</em></strong><br /><br />The preposition DE (<em>of/from</em> as its equivalent) and the article EL are contracted as DEL:<br /><br /><strong>Es del norte. <em>He's from the north.</em></strong><br /><strong>Es el perro del vecino. <em>It's the neighbour's dog.</em> </strong></span>LUZBEGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275869831640442226noreply@blogger.com0