Science is Rock and Roll (LEVEL: Intermediate/Advanced)

"Science is Rock and Roll" - Jack Black, The Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake, Bono, Miley Cyrus, Just Bieber (and more!) speak out about science in the following video.

KEY WORDS: amazing - creativity - Engineering - experimentation - fascinating - future - geek - (to) invent - nerd - progression - robots - Robotics - Science -Technology.

1) WRITING: Before watching the video write your opinion about these two questions:
1.1) Do you love Science? Why or why not?
.............................................................................................................
1.2) Why do you think that Science is so important in our modern world?
............................................................................................................

2) LISTENING: Now watch the video for the first time. Listen and try to get the main ideas of the video.

2) LISTENING: Watch the video again and listen to these 6 sentences. Pause the video when necessary and write the time of the video and the person who said it. You can watch the video 2 or 3 times if you need it!

SENTENCES                                                                     TIME                        WHO SAID IT

‎1) "Science to me is music"                                                    0:04                       The Black Eyed Peas

2) "Without Science we'd still be cavemen" 

3) "It's the very basic elements of life" 

4) "I think that Robotics and Science, that's the future" 

5) "Science is Rock and Roll." 

6) " ...but Science rocks!"
 

3) SPEAKING: What do you think about these ideas? Do you agree with them?
Any other thoughts about the importance of science today?
......................................................................................................................................

4) WRITING:
Write a composition (200-300 words) about "Science in our modern world" using some of the ideas of the video and giving your own opinion about them. Add your own ideas about Science too!

 

Spring is Coming (Part II)

Hello everyone!
Yes, spring is coming again! Some photos to show it...  :-)

At the beginning of the spring flowers are blooming and  trees are blossoming.... It's wonderful!

Look at some spring photos from all around the world. In your opinion, where are they from?

Spain - Japan -Belgium - UK
France - USA - Singapore

 

 

 

And now we watch a video about cherry blossoms. When we talk about cherry blossoms, we usually think about Japan.
But this time, it's an American video. Enjoy it!

Spring is coming! Have a good time, my friends! :-)

Spring is Coming (Part I)

 Hello everybody!
Spring is coming... at last!
How was the winter in your hometown? Cold, snowy and rainy or maybe dry and mild?
And how is the springtime coming? Windy and wet or dry and sunny?
Anyway, spring is here to stay.

Let's watch some videos about the arrival of the spring:

1) A funny video to start with. Spring is here! Wake up, everybody!

 

 And a song about the Spring, too! 

 

One of the funniest American traditions is called "the Groundhog Day".
Do you know it? What is it about? And what does the groundhog say?

We will talk more about it in another post!
 
Just to finish, how do you say "Spring" in your own language?
Here you have a cute cat poster about it! Enjoy it! :)

 










 

That's all for now, my friends!
Comment about the post if you want to practise English.
Keep calm, spring is coming. Enjoy it!  Bye bye!  :)

Celebrating Earth Day 2016

On the 19th of March 2016 we are celebrating the Earth Day once again.

The logo and hashtag this year is 'Change climate change - Shine a light on climate action'

But what is the "Earth Day"? 
The Earth Hour is an event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
It was started in 2007. It is held on the last Saturday of March every year.
The WWF asks people to turn off their lights and appliances for one hour.
They want to raise awareness for climate change.

You can read more information about Earth Day 2016 in these webpages:

http://www.earthhour.org/

https://worldwildlife.org/


LISTENING / READING ACTIVITY.

Watch the officials videos of the Earth Day 2016 to know more about it:

Now watch this video and think about our present environmental actions
and the possible future consequences for the world we live in. 

What are you going to do to celebrate Earth Day 2016?
You can meet your family and beloved ones for a quiet "candle-lit dinner"...
or maybe organise an outdoor dinner under the moonlight for your friends!

So, let's celebrate this special eco-friendly weekend when we celebrate
the start of the spring and we also protect our planet Earth!
Roll on Saturday, Roll on the Earth hour!  :)

NATIONAL CUSTOMS & FESTIVALS (Part I)

Welcome everybody! You know I'm a big fan of festivals and national customs all around the world.

You can send a friendship request to my Facebook profile in English:
https://www.facebook.com/profesoringles.murcia
And then join my Facebook profile and group: Holidays all around the year.
Please join it if you want to know more about festivals and national customs all over the world!


Furthermore,  I am going to show you some interesting resources on these topics in this blog entry.


First of all, I would like to mention some webpages:

National Day Calendar: An amazing website with all national days around the world.

Festivals all around the world. Lonely Planet's festival guide for each month.

Scottish festivals. We love Scottish festivals! With an interactive map.

Irish festivals and events. Ireland has many traditions and events to discover, too.

ACTIVITY 1- READING

As an example, let's watch this video about Scotland's summer festivals.

1.2) SPEAKING
Would you like to travel to Scotland this summer? Would you go to any of these festivals?
Which one would you visit and why?



ACTIVITY 2 - Birthday traditions all around the world.

2.1) READING.
Let's check some birthday traditions all around the world. 

 2.2) SPEAKING
1- Did you know these traditions?
2- Is there any special birthday tradition in your own country?

2.3) LISTENING
Now watch this video. It's not subtitled but we can get some general ideas about how birthdays are celebrated all around the world...

2.4) SPEAKING
1- Did you know these traditions? Which tradition do you like more and why?
2- Do you eat something special for your birthday in your own country?
 
And that's all for now, folks! I hope you enjoy this funny trip surfing on the net.
Or, even better, visiting these places to check these customs directly!  :)

ENVIRONMENT: Biodiversity.

Our planet’s diverse, thriving ecosystems may seem like permanent fixtures, but they’re actually vulnerable to collapse. Jungles can become deserts, and reefs can become lifeless rocks. What makes one ecosystem strong and another weak in the face of change? Kim Preshoff details why the answer, to a large extent, is Biodiversity.

LISTENING / READING (B2 - Advanced Level)

Watch this video first. You can select subtitles in English or Spanish if you want to read it, too!

SPEAKING / WRITING (B2 - Advanced Level)

1- According to the author of the speech, the main idea is:
Biodiversity = ecosystem diversity + species diversity + genetic diversity.
Can you describe these four concepts in your own words?
Have you ever thought about them? What are your own ideas?

2- What are the consequences of biodiversity loss around the world?

3- What could we do to preserve the environment in our local area?


You can use some of the concepts in the pictures below:

 That is all for now, my friends. Remember, our environment must be protected and preserved! :)

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Halloween History vs. Halloween Stories

This weekend, the 31st of October, is Halloween.
But what is REALLY the Halloween festival?

We all know about dreadful and horrible Halloween stories like this:

Spooky pumpkins , killer clowns, monsters, witches, vampires, zombies, ghosts and ghouls...

And there are also some  funny stories or parodies about these spooky characters, such as this:

 

Count Duckula is a vegetarian vampire and he is also very polite and good!
Look at the intro of this TV Series. What words and expressions do you understand?

And now with the subtitles. It's really funny! :)

All these stories are horrible and spooky, funny and entertaining but...
do we know the real history of Halloween?
Let's have a look at it!

 

Una versión simplificada de lo que ocurre en  Halloween en español aquí:

Well, I think we all know more about the REAL Halloween festival now.
I hope you enjoyed this special Halloween post, my friends!

Happy Halloween to everybody! Be spooky and scary!
Good night out there, whatever you are!  3:)

P.S: We're going to a Halloween costume party! (Look below)
Have you already prepared your spooky toffee spider cakes? Terrifyingly Yummy! :-P

FOOD - Meat and Fish (I)

Hello, my friends!
Today we are going to talk about proteins, of course.

 








And, more specifically, about Meat, Poultry, Eggs, Fish & Seafood.














 Let's see some vocabulary of meat, poultry and seafood first:

 
And now, some more fish, divided into white fish, oily fish and shellfish/seafood:

Hmmm.... if you're not a vegetarian, you're probably feeling hungry now! :-P

To finish, let's see how you can ask for your favourite steak at a restaurant with this image:

SPEAKING & WRITING -  ACTIVITY.

What about you? Answer these questions!

NOTE: If you are a vegetarian, then probably you will not enjoy the following questions.
But, anyway, that's very common English vocabulary and you have to know it!

1) Are you a vegetarian? Why or why not?
2) Do you prefer fish or meat? Why?
3) What's your favourite meat? Why?

4) What poultry do you usually eat at Christmas? Is it your favourite?

5) And what's your favourite fish? Why?

6) What about your favourite shellfish/seafood? Why?

7) How often do you eat fish? Do you think it's enough? 

8) Do you like eggs? How many eggs a week you have? How do you cook them?

9) Have you ever tasted any special meat or fish?  (e.g.: from foreign species, such as the kangaroo  meat in Europe)
  Where? Did you like it? Any reasons why or why not?

10) Which meat or fish you don't like or hate and why?

Well, I hope you know something else about meat, poultry and fish by now.

We will go on talking about food soon. Enjoy your meal! :)

Four Seasons in One Day

Autumn is beginning in Southern Spain.
This is a season with changing weather: hot or cold; sunny, cloudy or rainy...
Have you ever experienced "four seasons in one day" in your hometown?

ACTIVITY 1 - LISTENING:

Let's watch the video of a song talking about "4 seasons in 1 day" first!

 

 

Well, it's clear that it talks about weather, but does the song talk about any other topics?

 

ACTIVITY 2- LISTENING AND READING

Let's watch the song again in this subtitled video and read the lyrics carefully:

ACTIVITY 3 - WRITING or SPEAKING

What do you think now? Does it talk about anything else?
Is weather the most important topic of the song? Why or why not?

By the way, "4 Seasons in 1 day" is a 1992 song by an Australian group called Crowded House.
I hope you enjoyed the song! See you soon!
:)

English Language and Learning Other Languages

Hello everybody!
As I see in the polls of this blog that one of your favourite topics is Language & Communication,
today we are going to talk about languages.

A) First, let's look at the following poster about the importance of English language in the world.

SPEAKING  - IDEAS TO TALK ABOUT
 1) "1 out of 5 persons in the world speaks English as a native, second or foreign language"
We always think about English speakers from the UK and the USA.
But 125 million of English speakers come from India! Wow!
Did you know that? Have you talked to any English speaker from India?

2) "English belongs to everyone or to no one".
Do you agree with this sentence? Why or why not?

**************************************************************

B) Now, we are going to talk about languages from a different point of view.
What are the hardest languages to learn for the English speakers?
Any ideas before reading this poster?  :)

 

B.1) Easy languages to learn (around 600 class hours to master)
Spanish - Portuguese - French - Italian: "Latin Romance" languages
Dutch (Aafrikans) - Swedish (Norwegian): Germanic languages.
SPEAKING  - IDEAS TO TALK ABOUT
B.1.1) Spanish is easy for English to learn! Surprised? Why or why not?
B.1.2) English is a Germanic language. Other Germanic languages as Dutch are easy for English speakers.
But not easier than Latin languages. Why? What do you think about this? 



B.2) Medium languages to learn (around 1100 class hours to master)
Hindi - Russian - Turkish - Thai - Greek - Finnish.
SPEAKING  - IDEAS TO TALK ABOUT
B.2.1) Any surprises here?
Why do you think these languages are more difficult to learn for an English speaker?

B.3) Hard languages to learn (around 2200 class hours to master)
Arabic - Japanese - Chinese - Korean
SPEAKING  - IDEAS TO TALK ABOUT 
B.3.1) Did you think these were the hardest languages to learn before reading the poster?
Why or why not?
Is one of these languages your mother tongue? Have you ever studied one of these languages?
They say they are the languages of the future together with English and Spanish, of course!

*****************************************************************
That is all for now my friends! I hope you have enjoyed this post.
Please complete the polls on the left side of my blog.
This way, I will know which topics are more interesting for you.
And keep studying foreign languages, of course!  :)

European Union: 27 Countries,1 Single Market: (LEVEL: Intermediate)

  The European Union consists of 27 countries sharing 1 single market.
26,836 citizens in 27 EU Member States have been interviewed for the latest Eurobarometer survey on the Single Market. Their views are summarized in the following video.

KEY WORDS:  awareness - (to) be treated - (to) benefit - brand products - citizens - competitive - concern - (to) counterfeit - corruption - currency - e-shopping - fake products - favouritism - goods - hairdresser - language barriers - perception - procurement - trade - working conditions.

READING ACTIVITY (INTERMEDIATE LEVEL)

A) Watch the video twice:
1) The first time, watch it non-stop and try to get a general idea.
2) The second time, pause it when necessary to read all the messages in detail and think about them.

WRITING & SPEAKING ACTIVITY (INTERMEDIATE LEVEL)

A) What do European people think? ............................................................................................................

B) List the advantages of  having 1 single EU Market ...................................................................................
C) List the disadvantages of having 1 single EU Market ...............................................................................
D) What do you think about it? ...................................................................................................................

OPTIONAL: READING & WRITING ACTIVITY (ADVANCED LEVEL)

The full results of the survey are available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/strategy/index_en.htm#20concerns

Check them and write your opinion about them.