English with Cris

This post should actually be in the links section, but I think Cristina's English blog deserves to be mentioned here because of its freshness and general quality (even though she says she's just "starting"). I am sure that I will visit it very often, and you too can improve your skills if you browse it regularly.
Check it out!

Dickens, Dickens, Dickens...

It is everywhere: on 7th February 2012 (that's tomorrow) we will be celebrating  the 200th anniversary of his birth in Portsmouth, England.

Charles Dickens was (and still is) one of the most famous English writers, and his books are among the best-known in all English literature. You certainly know Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, but other titles such as Little Dorritt, The Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations or A Tale of Two Cities are considered masterpieces of 19th century book writing and sold by the thousands even today.

He had a special fondness for poor people, and he himself suffered hard times in his early life. His novels describe the Victorian age better than many history books and are a good source of knowledge about that period. The best way to celebrate his birthday, then, would be to read some of his works.

You can also visit any of the many websites that are dedicated to Charles Dickens. The official anniversary website is here. You will find lots of links to TV and radio shows there, for example.

And here there are activities suitable for students.

You can read the full Spanish version of A Christmas Carol here.

Enjoy your Dickens day :-)

¡Qué perfume de flor de cuchillo!

In his poem "Canción del Jinete" Federico García Lorca identifies blood with flowers. He is not alone there: during the month of november, it is traditional in English-speaking countries to wear a poppy in remembrance of the soldiers fallen in the great World Wars  and other conflicts of last century.

During the First World War there was intense fighting in Flanders, (west Belgium). The battlefields were devastated and covered in mud and dirt. People died and so did plants and trees. But when spring came, red poppies flowered and brought hope to the soldiers who had survived the winter. Their red colour could be seen as a symbol of the blood of the dead, and their germination was also a symbol of the will to live on.

John McCrae wrote his poem "In Flanders Fields" in 1915, where he speaks of the poppies growing in the battlefield. And Moina Michael replied with "We Shall Keep the Faith" in 1918, promising to wear a poppy in honour of their dead. The tradition had began.

I would recommend you to read both poems and pray for peace.

The European Day of Languages

We missed it again! :-(
Last 26 September we should have celebrated the linguistic diversity that exists in our continent. Unfortunately we couldn't prepare things in advance and we did not do any special activity. So WE ARE SORRY!!!

If you want, though, you can check out this link where they give us some basic facts about all European languages (they say). Speakers of Asturian may miss some references to our local llingua; nothing is perfect, as it seems :-)  .

Kubla Khan and Coleridge's handwriting

Welcome to the first post of this course.

Today we have been discussing surrealism in writing with BA1A. Coleridge's Kubla Khan was mentioned as an example of a poem composed while sleeping.  Jorge Luis Borges mentions that Kubla Khan had Xanadu built after dreaming about the palace, so Xanadu appears to be a place that first comes up in dreams for artists to work on. Interesting!

Here are the first lines of the poem:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree :

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.
                                           (lines 1-5)

Now look at a sample of the poet's writings on the left. How would you describe his personality by studying his handwriting? Was he arrogant, outgoing, intelligent, shy... ? Was he pessimistic or optimistic? Use what you learnt in today's class and try to guess.

You can read more about Samuel Taylor Coleridge here.

The Tea Time Hoax

Jerry Lewis, my dear students, is not a well-known teacher, but a famous actor. And we would like to travel to Nepal with you, but the news published by La Jueya last week was not true.

It was just a hoax, and its purpose was to celebrate April Fools' Day.

We use the word to refer to false news written in order to trick people. For example, somebody may send you an email saying that a certain program or webpage contains a virus, even knowing this is false. If you read the message, you will stop using the application or opening the webpage: you will have been hoaxed.

The term is loosely related to urban legends, which people pass on believing they are true, while nobody can find any evidence that they are. Among the most famous urban legends are these:

.-New York's sewage system is full of crocodiles which people bought when they were young and discard through the toilets when they start growing.
.-There's the ghost of a girl who stops your car at a bend of the road and tries to warn you to drive carefully (there are many versions of this particular legend).

Do you know any others? You can post them as a comment for everyone to read.

April Fools' Day

Today is the first of April. On this day, it is traditional for people in English-speaking countries to "fool" others in a funny way (you know you have been fooled when you hear "Gotcha!!!" behind your back).

Our school's English Department is no exception, so we have played a trick on you. Can't you guess what it was? You will know all about it next Monday.

Meanwhile, you can check out these links with information about the history of this peculiar tradition:

Origins

A Fools' Day vocabulary exercise

Some quotes about fools:

• It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and leave no doubt. --Mark Twain
• However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him. -- Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux
• [Politicians] never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge. -- Thomas Reed
• He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks. -- François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
• The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. -- Herbert Spencer
• Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom. -- Elizabeth Gaskell
• Looking foolish does the spirit good. -- John Updike
• Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. -- Mark Twain
• A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees. -- William Blake
• A fool must now and then be right by chance. -- Cowper
• It is better to be a fool than to be dead. -- Stevenson
• The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year. -- Mark Twain

April's Fools' Day is similar to our Día de los inocentes. I'd like to read any joke or trick they played on you -or you played on someone else- that you may want to post as a comment (like when they told me I had won a beauty contest !!!)