Bloomsday

These days, nearly everybody is thinking about going somewhere exciting or interesting for their next holiday. What about you? Well, I can't even think about it. However, what I can do is to travel from the comfort of my sofa with the help of Leopold Bloom. Do you know who he is? Let me tell you. He is the main character in a famous literary work, James Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses.

You should know by now that today people in Ireland celebrate Bloomsday, a celebration which has been named after the main character in Ulysses, Leopold Bloom. The action takes places in Dublin, on June 16th, 1904 (It is said that James Joyce chose this date because he had his first date with Nora Barnacle, his later wife, on this day). 

James Joyce

 

It narrates a day in the life of this man, who stops at different places and makes us think about what life is and the things that can happen on a single day. Today people in Ireland even dress as Leopold Bloom and other characters in the book and they stroll along the places Leopold Bloom visits on June, 16th. They stop and read some passages from the novel. They visit the house where Leopold and his wife, Molly lived, the pub where he used to hoist some pints of beer, ... There are a lot of activities to commemorate this. You can check them on the official website.

Leopold and Molly's house

Unfortunately, Ulysses is not a book I would recommend you to read at this stage since it is a thick book, about one thousand pages, narrated using the so-called interior monologue. That means, that the author narrates the events as they happen in the mind of the main character, without stops and using a complex network of symbolic parallels taken from the mythology, history and literature. James Joyce even created a unique language, he invented words and puns. 

Despite being very difficult to follow, Ulysses is an outstanding worth-knowing story. So, if one day, you find it on top of a market stall in Dublin, on a shelf of a library or in a bookshop and you feel like spending some good hours reading it, don't hesitate to do it. You probably won't be deceived.

The Queen's speech

After this pause on the blog, let's have a look at the celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.

As you have probably heard on the news, Queen Elizabeth was crowned in 1952 after her father had reigned for a really short period of time. It wasn't the first time a woman would reign but it is the first time that she does for so long. Queen Elizabeth II is the only queen most Britons have met. In spite of being on the spot, she is loved and criticized, worshipped and blamed for some of the faults made in the past, including when she did not know -or maybe did not want- to handle the situation after Princess Diana's death.

Nowadays, her public image has considerably improved and we can see her showing her feelings in public. She seems to be enjoying all these celebrations. She smiles, claps, shakes hands with her people, ... she even jokes (as you have heard before) and definitely she has proved herself to be that loving old Lady English people adore.

If you want to find out more about the celebrations this year, Queen Elizabeth's life and history, and other pieces of information, click on the official website link.

The history of England has been depicted in many good films. Some of the latest ones are these two:

The Queen (2006) where Hellen Mirren performs a magnificient role as Her Royal Majesty on her most difficult days ever after Princess Diana's death.And The King's Speech (2010) where Colin Firth displays all his talent to portray King George VI's effort to overcome his stammering with the help of a speech therapist.Both films are worth seeing!!!

And finally, listen to God Save the Queen, performed by Brian May (Queen) on top of the roof of Buckingham Palace in 2002, Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee.

What would you do if ...?

What would you do if ... ? This is the beginning of a question we probably face every day in different situations. We are always considering our reactions to a lot of experiences, decisions we have to make regarding all aspects of our life. We try to think about everything logically and we are probably unable to come to a satisfactory reason or explanation for our actions -that's a different subject, though. And it's in those daily situations when we are using the hypothetical second conditional with hypothetical results in our present or future. Let's see some examples:

• What if I saw a student cheating in an exam? 

• If it wasn't / weren't for this blog, I think my pupils wouldn't read or write anything in English.

• Supposing the price of oil doubled tomorrow, what do you think would happen?

As a result, day after day, we go through these hypothetical situations. Even when we listen to music. There are a lot of songs that make us think about what our life would be like if something were different or we could change something in it.

Here's a selection of songs. Enjoy it and if you like one, don't hesitate to listen to its complete version! 

Finally, would you like to write a short comment on what you would change in your life if it were possible for you?

You are allowed to respectfully allude to a wide range of topics: your studies, your personality, the current situation in your country, ... The sky is the limit!

What if you could change the world!!! Try it!!!

Writing better

Writing is often a difficult task since we have to think beforehand. 

There are a lot of strategies to follow. For instance, plan and write notes before you write, choose your best ideas and decide the information to include in each paragraph. In addition to this, we should bear in mind who are we writing to and what for so that we can adapt our language to the correct degree of formality or informality. You all know this because we have discussed it in class. But today, I want to remind you how important punctuation is. The use of capital letters, commas, apostrophes, ... give sense to what we write.

Your classmate Antonio has been working on the lack of punctuation and how this can affect to the understanding of a text. This is the situation:

A really handsome traveller, after having stopped at an inn for a night and having received a lot of attentions from the innkeeper's ready-to-marry daughters, decides to leave the following note for them. (You're lucky because this time the text is in Spanish!)

Tres bellas que bellas son

me han exigido las tres

que diga de ellas cual es

la que ama mi corazón

si obedecer es razón

digo que amo a Soledad

no a Julia cuya bondad

persona humana no tiene

no aspira mi amor a Irene

que no es poca su beldad

The following morning, when the three daughters read the note, confusion was all around. One by one, the daughters started asking their father the meaning of what the traveller wrote. The wise father, afraid of his three daughters, and considering the lack of punctuation, read them the note in such a way that each time, the traveller chose one of the daughters. So, who do you think is loved by this handsome traveller -Soledad, Julia or Irene?

Can you see now how important punctuation is? Don't forget to use it when you write and you will avoid misunderstandings as the one above.

British Humour

As we already know, laughing has very positive effects and a good sense of humour can help people forget their problems and improve their health. But, is there a similarity between Spanish humour and British humour? Let's see it!

It is said that the British laugh at themselves and their institutions. There are some popular comedians who are famous for their irreverence to the Royal Family and the established British traditions. Other jokes can refer to Irish, Welsh or Scottish people and they are based on stereotypes such as nationalism, stupidity, laziness or meanness. But, undoubtedly, the most productive jokes in British humour are simply nonsense or they take advantage of the multi-meanings of many English words, with lots of example of "double entendre".

This witty way of playing with words, not only in their written form but also in their pronunciation, can create misunderstandings, and consequently, they make people laugh.

To be funny in Britain, most of the times you have to pretend you are a nerd, show you have an endless repertoire of jokes related to your wife or much better, to your mother-in-law (be careful, though, British people don't like jokes which see women as sex objects or as inferior to men) and set your jokes in a doctor's surgery or a funeral, for example.

Finally, some of the most famous sit-coms or comedians in Britain. Have you heard of Monty Python, Little Britain, Benny Hill or Mr Bean? There are also very good stand-up comedians: Lee Evans, Michael McIntyre, Rehman Akhtar, just to name a few.

This is a video of what is called stand up comedy, which has also become popular in Spain. The stand-up comedian is telling an anecdote from a trip to Australia. Listen and laugh, and don't worry if you don't understand everything!

OK, now it's your turn to leave your comments.

• What type of jokes do the Spanish like?

• What do you like to joke about?

• What regions are funny and why?

• Is it easy for other people to understand Spanish humour?

• Do you have a favourite stand-up comedian?

Summer Camps

At this time of the year, people start thinking about their next summer activities, such as, studying English abroad, spending some time by the beach, even going to a summer camp, ...

Listen to Lindsay, talking about what she remembers most about going to a summer camp.

Did you ever go to a summer camp when you were a kid? Did you enjoy it? How did you feel about it?

One of the most typical activities there is to tell ghost stories, were your stories scary? What about learning new things such as lighting a fire, surviving in the nature, fishing, ...? Was it an exciting experience you would recommend everybody or did you use to feel homesick?

Leave your comments on how you felt and what you did. I bet they are interesting experiences you want to share with your classmates.

My home town is a dirty old town

     Bejar, my home town, was an industrial centre in the past located in the west of Spain, with a thriving textile industry pre-dating even the Industrial Revolution.

             

     Since ancient times, the town was characterized by its dedication to wool production, an activity which flourished after the arrival of the Flemish Masters in the late seventeenth century (1691). The Flemish Masters were experts in textile production and they were brought by the Duke of Bejar to drive the development of the industries here. Thus, the great development and improvement of the textile industry, which characterized the economy in Bejar during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is explained.  

            

     Industrial development favoured and consolidated Bejar’s middle class, which during the nineteenth century controlled Bejar’s policy, once the Duke of Bejar’s privileges disappeared.

   

     In the first half of the twentieth century, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War benefited Bejar’s industry, since Bejar stood at the “national area” in opposition to “republican” Catalonia.  The military victory established a strong connection between the new regime and Bejar’s middle class. Then its industry obtained the supply of clothing for the army.

Old factories, the old railway and the river

              

     The 1970s meant the beginning of the end of the clothing industry. The decline of the clothing industry in Bejar was the result of the excessive dependence on the state contracts, poor location, the loss of the railway, poor communications..., (many factors have been analysed in order to explain the decline, but not even experts agree),  which made it very difficult to compete in the globalized world. Around 1849 there were 200 factories employing 4,000 people; in 1969 there were 58 clothing companies and 38 craft workshops with about 3,500 workers. Nowadays there are about 14 companies in Bejar employing about 300 workers.

             

     As a result of the industrial decline, the town has lost population progressively since the 70’s, when Bejar was close to reaching 18,000 inhabitants. The situation is progressively getting worse and worse and according to 2011 official statistic figures, the population is less than 15,000 inhabitants, 14,511 (INE).

             

     In short, economic depression, loss of population, unemployment, low wages, lack of opportunities for young people, brain drain, lack of entertainment..., Bejar has become a sad, tired and dirty old town.

             

     There is a popular British folk song entitled “Dirty Old Town”. I don’t know why but this song always evokes me Bejar, even before I could understand the lyrics, probably due to its title. I knew this song through the version by The Pogues, an Irish band, but I found with surprise that this is not the original one. 

 

            

     “Dirty Old Town” was written By Ewan MacColl, British folk singer and social activist, in 1949 but was made popular by The Dubliners, amazing Irish folk band, and has been covered by many others since, especially Irish bands. Thus, there is a common misconception that the song is Irish and was written about Dublin. However, the song was written about Salford, MacColl’s hometown, so the song actually originates from northern England.

             

     The song is about a love and hate relationship with the town. Dirty and old, in fact, denote disgust and repulsion. Nevertheless, the town is the setting for the romance which is taking place in it, too. The song also evokes sounds, images and places related with industry, like factories, canals, sirens, trains, smoky wind... However, the last verse is reserved for some kind of act of rebellion towards the city, envisaging its destruction. In the last part of the verse, there is a change from an authorial “I” to “we”. It is not clear if this plural subject refers to the couple or to the collective of citizens or workers, who will chop down a “you” – I’ll chop you down like an old dead tree- that might be the town itself or one of its architectonical features (chopping down like a tree might refer to the tall chimneys of the factories).

         

     Recognizing that cases are not exactly alike, Bejar has become a grim town like the Dirty Old Town described by the song. Nowadays in Bejar most of the factories are closed, destroyed or have become shopping centres or blocks of flats. Many places remind of the industrial past like chimneys, canals, the train track, train station..., but all these places are abandoned, the sirens don’t sound, there are no trains, no smoky wind..., and there is no future.

Listen to the version by The Dubliners, live. Click here.

  

The photos for this entry has been taken from the blog by Mª del Carmen Cascón. 

This is a fantastic entry, Fernando, it's obvious you've worked hard. Congratulations!

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