Chitown

Today we had the pleasure of having an extraordinary visitor to our school. His name: Brian Engquist, whose origins are a mix and match of nationalities –Italian, Swedish, and American, although he has been greatly influenced by our Spanish culture as well.  His talk, a simple title: Chicago –My Kind of Town.

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. ;-)

Blood is thicker than water

The title of this entry is a saying in English "Blood is thicker than water". It means that family relationships are more important than any other types of relationships in life. Do you agree? I partly do.

Family will not deceive you and it's obvious you can count on them, at least most of the times. ;) I do not have a very big extended family but we get on well together. I know my mother's side of the family much better than my father's. However, I would have liked to have much more information about my ancestors or been able to draw my family tree to my great-great grandparents.

What about you? Where did your ancestors come from? Did you ever meet your great-grandparents?


Click here if you want to practise your listening skills. You'll hear about Randall's family history, particularly about his grandmother, Ana María Cavazos.

How was it? Easy or difficult for you?

And finally, if you want to sing and dance with this anthem from the seventies, here's the song we have sung in first intermediate classes.

It's Friday

At last it's Friday or maybe we could say TGIF (Thanks God It's Friday)  as one of your classmates in 1NI taught us a couple of weeks ago. ;)

When I got up this morning, I found out that one of my friends was a bit down so to cheer her up, I whatsapped her a link with a song (which I had previously been sent in the same situation last month) and it really worked. So, just to get you all in the mood of Friday and although we have class this afternoon/evening, listen to this song,  Friday I'm In Love by the British band The Cure.

By the way, you can practise the pronunciation of the Days of the Week. ;)) Hope you like it!!!

Guy Fawkes

Every fifth of November is celebrated Guy Fawkes' Night. English people commemorate the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot. In 1605, Guy Fawkes and some of his fellows tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament but ... what for? 

If you want to find out more about this plot and the festival, watch this video.

Did you understand? Had you heard about this festival before? I really hope you had enjoyed yourselves and learnt a little bit!!!

Let's do the shopping!!!

Hi there,

I'm about to do the shopping. I've already prepared my shopping list, just to avoid buying unnecessary things or those products I would only eat for pleasure instead of fuel. ;-) I've taken my cloth bag, - I'm trying not to use those plastic bags any more and obviously a bit of cash. 

I enjoy doing the shopping, walking the aisles in the local supermarket and visiting the small shops such as the butcher's, the fishmonger's or the greengrocer's where the human contact is still alive and you can chat to the owner while looking at a great display of goods.

But before continuing, let's practise our listening skills.Click here and you'll listen to a conversation about grocery shopping at the supermarket.

Now it's time to leave your comments. How often do you do the shopping? Do you fancy doing it today? What kind of food do you usually buy at the local shops? Do you like supermarkets or hypermarkets?

When you are writing your shopping list, do you consider buying food for pleasure or just for fuel?

You decide :):

Back once again!!! This time just to spend much more time together at least this new academic year which I hope it will be as awesome as the previous ones. ;-)

Well, as you may know, last week it was another "must" on this blog the International or World Smile Day. I bet you smile every day but have you ever stopped your daily life and activities and thought about what things and what kind of people make you smile? That's what I suggest we all could do now.

First of all, I have to say that I like smiling and that I try hard to find situations which can help me do it every single hour of the day. I have lots of reasons for it and I guess you all, too. It can be at work, at home, in the street, when you are alone, a whatsapp or message from a friend, a colleague or an acquaintance or even you can smile while dreaming. 

According to experts, smiling and laughing can prevent a lot of diseases apart from improving our self-image towards other people and make our social life much more rewarding. The thing is that sometimes we don't realise how important a smile can be to change other people's hard day into a warmer one. The power is ours, it's simple; the only thing we have to do is to bring a smile to our lips and wait for a happy face in exchange. Nobody regrets smiling so that's why we all should do it. Time starting now ...

I must admit that you, my pupils, make me smile and laugh my head off most of the times, not only when you are afraid of mispronouncing a word or using new words or expressions but also when you arrive at or leave school and you say "hello" or "bye-bye" to your classmates and me.

Looking at my little nieces playing or listening to them talking or baby-talking is another smiling situation for me. And I could name many other ones such as going to the shops, meeting people in the street, watching a funny sitcom on TV, looking at a billboard near a road, ... look around you and name them.

So, what things make you smile? Who do you usually smile at? Do you enjoy smiling? How often do you do it? Leave your comments -they'll be welcome.

Don't forget to smile. You decide :):

I HAVE A DREAM

I especially like writing the introductions to your own entries rather than to mine. This time we are going to have a look at a recent event, the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King's speech in Washington D.C., thanks to your classmate, Mercedes. She is offering you the opportunity to think and write about a huge variety of topics, such as the importance of historical events like this, equality of rights, honesty, your fulfilled or unfulfilled dreams, or the characteristics of King's speech. Whatever you would like to write about, the sky is the limit.

 I have a dream

Everybody has a dream, everybody dreams about getting something, everybody wants to be higher, richer or happier, … When we were children, in class the teacher always questioned us what we would like in the future. But we all know what one of the most famous meanings of this sentence is.

Forty  years ago, an activist from USA said those words in a massive march while they were protesting for their rights.  Martin Luther King’s speech started with “I have a dream”, a very simple expression which has become a legend.

Martin Luther King was a black pastor who spent all his life fighting against the social injustices suffered by the black people in the USA. He was the leader of an important movement appeared in that country which wanted to get the vote in a democratic system, the same salary for everybody, the difference between children in public schools, … One of the most famous actions was the buses boycott in Montgomery, when another activist, Rosa Parks, didn’t want to lend her place on the bus in favour of a white man. The black society started to organize in a huge movement led by Martin Luther King.

On 28^th August of 1963 he headed the Protest of Washington for Job and Freedom in the Capitolium Square in front of almost 250,000 people. In that space, he pronounced one of the most important speeches of the history. Martin is considered the best speaker of the century even he got to change the world, at least he started.

Thanks to this character, one of my favourite men, today I can say this sentence with another different sense. In my case, to have a dream is not related with something material, for me to have a dream goes further than that. So I have a dream: to be free.

Thanks again, Mercedes for your work and ideas. This space would like to continue having your reflections on different topics, so keep blogging!!! Now the turn is yours. What do you think?