The first thing Brian taught
us was how to pronounce the name of this mid-west city in the USA “Chicago” and
that was not the only word he demonstrated how to utter. He started talking
about the different nicknames this city has, such as Chitown, The Windy City,
The City of the Big Shoulders, The Onion, … a city which flourished around
small towns and prairies, mainly thanks to the nearness to Lake Michigan as
well as The Chicago River and its two (North and South) branches, among other
things.
Brian’s interesting talk
went through its history and geography, its architecture, art, literature,
music, famous people, food and even sports. Most of its contents were to some
extent intertwined by a simple object: the flag of Chicago with its white and
blue stripes and its red stars.
We have found out how this
city, once completely destroyed by The Great Fire, rose from the ashes,
becoming the Second City in the United States with an incredible skyline and
breathtaking skyscrapers and buildings. He also showed us the connection
between Chicago and Spain by means of architects such as Frank Gehry or Jaume
Plensa, who has been awarded today with “Premio Velázquez 2013” or an artist as
Picasso and his Untitled sculpture that serves as meeting point there,
Downtown.
For an hour or so, Brian
Engquist, to our delight, had injected us the pleasure of visiting an
endless-film-depicted city. And it would be a good destination for our next
holiday, wouldn’t it?
Well, as I don’t want to
make this entry too long, just tell you that I’ve enjoyed it a lot and so have you. Thanks for
your participation and congrats to those who got your prize for answering the
quiz questions correctly. I’m sure you don’t regret having attended school this
evening.
 |
| A group of pupils during the talk |
And more than anything else,
no ketchup on your hot dogs. ;-)
Yeah! it was an interesting talk, the guy was lively and he managed to get the attention of the audience. I learned a lot myself. It was really worth attending this activity.
ResponderEliminarThanks Emi for blogging! Feel free to do it whenever you want to. Your comments will be warmly welcomed.
ResponderEliminarOn Monday I had to work from 15 to 23 hours. If I hadn't worked, I would have gone. For the moment, nobody has told me about this talk. I hope somebody can tell me about its.
ResponderEliminarI'll go next time!!
What a pity, Monica!!! You would have enjoyed it a lot! Don't worry, maybe next time!!!
EliminarI had the opportunity to be in this chat about Chicago and in my opinion it was very interesting. Brian told us many things about this city that I didn´t know, and he made it in a funny way. He explained us about its geography, history, literature, architecture, music...but above all this, the most important thing that we learned is The Cubs are the best baseball team in the world!!!
ResponderEliminarYup, according to Brian, The Cubs are the best!!! But we can't forget its lifelong curse ... ;-)
EliminarIn my opinion, the chat about Chicago was a good experience for the students of the Official School. We coud learn a lot of about the sencond city of USA and it was very interesting for our listening comprehension as well.
ResponderEliminarI think the school must organize more similar acitivities because this kind o experience are very positive and interesting to our learning.
I totally agree with you. I wish Brian could come another day for another interesting talk. Let's hope for the best!!!
EliminarI enjoyed alot with the talk,everything he told us was very interesting,besides the way that he spoke was very funny, now I have a friend who is studying a career of engineer there, and I'd like to visit him and speak about all that brian told us and i want to see with my eyes all he showed in the pictures
ResponderEliminarThat's a great idea!!! To fly to Chicago and be able to walk along its streets and climb to the top of Willis Tower, meet your friend at The Picasso, eat sausages or watch a baseball game at The Wrigley Field. Ufff I wish I could be there now! Or maybe we should wait until the summer. ;)
EliminarI liked It because Brian was nice, he showed his sons and he told fantastic things about his city so his city sems very interisting by its culture and music, I like a lot the blues and the black people from the Mississippi. Although It was a little dificult for me, becase I did not understand every things, but it was terrific. I would like to see Brian in another moment, I am sure that I will understand very much.
ResponderEliminarThe talk was really interesting, I learnt a lot of things about Chicago I didn´t know. Brian is very funny, I enjoyed all along although I couldn´t understand any jokes. I´m pleasantly surprised because I could understand quite a lot!
ResponderEliminarI´d like to have another talk very soon, I encourage the school to do it as soon as possible.
I had opportunity to attend the chat that Brian gave at The Official School of Languages.
ResponderEliminarI was surprised because I understood great part of the chat. I think Brian transmited us very good information about Chicago. Now we know history, architectura, music, food, sports of Chicago. I would like to visit Chicago and I hope The Official School of Languages would organise other chats because I think it´s interesting to proctise our listening. If I visit Chicago some day, I will remember Brians chat.