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!  :)

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

Halloween 2014 - 31st October.

Halloween 2014 is (was) here!    Scary! Spooky! And funny!

Here you are some Halloween videos we watch (watched) in our class:

1) Vocabulary flashcards (for children):

  

2) Halloween traditions for children in Britain:

And some Halloween vocabulary for you,too!

Happy Halloween to you, monsters, witches or ghosts!  3:)
See you soon!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2015!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2015!

Let's watch some videos and pictures about Christmas and New Year.

1) VIDEO: Christmas in Britain. What do British children do at Christmas? :)

2) VOCABULARY.

2.1) Christmas words

 

2.2) New Year words

 

Happy New Year 2015, my friends! :)

Merry Christmas! Some songs for the Winter Season

MERY XMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR! LET'S LISTEN TO SOME POP CHRISTMAS SONGS! :)

    Season's greetings to all of you! Winter is here and Christmas time, too!
As some of you have told me,  I have not been publishing many posts in this blog lately.
Well, today this post is just to say thank you to all of you who are supporting me in my life and with my blogs and social networks AND, of course, to wish you a happy Christmas season to you all!

Here you have some good pop Christmas songs - old and new, with and without subtitles -
but... no classical carols this time, promised!
We have already sung many traditional carols in our English lessons, for sure! :)

Let's start with a the great Whitney Houston which also recorded a Christmas album.
Her voice was not at her best here, but this is a very nice Christmas song though:




Now we are going to see a different vision of Christmas; let's sing this song of Coldplay all together:

The last one is a current song (2013) but with some traditional arrangements.
I hope you enjoy it, no subtitles this time!
Can you understand any words and sentences here? Let's try!





And that is all for now! Which was your favourite song and why?

Feel free to tell us and to suggest me any other Christmas songs you like, as always.

Merry Christmas to you all!  Enjoy the winter holiday season!
o<|:-)

An Eco-friendly Weekend (II): Earth Day 2013

We go on with this special eco-friendly weekend. Roll on Saturday - the Earth Day 2013!

2) On Saturday the 23rd of March, we celebrate "Earth Day"
READING ACTIVITY.

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 2013 in these webpages:

http://www.earthhour.org/

https://worldwildlife.org/


LISTENING ACTIVITY.

Watch the official video of the Earth Day 2013 to know more about it:




  What are you going to do to celebrate Earth Day 2013?
You can meet your family and beloved ones for a quiet "candle dinner"...
or maybe organise an outdoor dinner under the moonlight for your friends!

Anyway, enjoy this special weekend when we celebrate the start of the spring
and we also protect our planet Earth!
:)

An Eco-friendly Weekend (I): World Water Day

Welcome to my blog!
This weekend is special: we are thinking about the water, the environment and our planet.
Let's start with Friday celebrations!

On Friday the 22nd of March, we celebrate "World Water Day".

 


READING ACTIVITY.


  What is the "International World Water Day"?  Read this:

	International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.

You can read more information about World Water Year 2013 in this webpage:
http://www.unwater.org/water-cooperation-2013/home/en/

LISTENING ACTIVITY.
 
  This is a Video Message from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (South Korean)
on the importance of Water Cooperation, the theme of World Water Day 2013.
Watch the official video of the United Nations to know more about it:

  

WRITING ACTIVITY.
 
The ending of the video is: "Water is life".
Answer the following questions.

1) "Water is life." - Do you agree with this sentence? Why or why not?
........................................................................................................
2)  Why is water so important?
.......................................................................................................
3) What can we do to save water every day?
......................................................................................................
That is all my friends! 
Please share this post and celebrate World Water day with your family and friends!
:)

Christmas around the world

Merry Christmas to everybody!

1- CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD

Let's watch a video about "Christmas around the world" first:

1.1- WRITING

- What Christmas customs can you see in this video? ..............................................

- What Christmas decorations are used in your town? ..............................................

- How do you decorate your own home at Christmas? ..............................................


2- CHRISTMAS CAROLS

A Christmas carol (also called a nöel) is a song or hymn whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.

2.1- LISTENING & READING:

Now we are going to listen to a typical Christmas carol:

2.2 - READING

The author and composer is unknown. However, this song may date back to the 16th century.
Now read the lyrics of this traditional carol:

WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS

We wish you a Merry Christmas.
We wish you a Merry Christmas.
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year.

Glad tidings we bring
To you and your kin.
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year.

Now bring us a figgy pudding.
Now bring us a figgy pudding.
Now bring us a figgy pudding
And a cup of good cheer.

We won't go until we get some.
We won't go until we get some.
We won't go until we get some,
So bring some out here. 

Glad tidings we bring
To you and your kin.
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year.

2.3- VOCABULARY

What's the meaning of the following words? You can look them up in a dictionary!
1) tidings
2) kin
3) a fig
4) a figgy pudding
5) a cheer
 
2.4- SPEAKING - KARAOKE TIME

Watch the video again once or twice and then sing the song aloud!

That's all my friends!
I wish you a Merry Christmas to you and your kin!
:-)

Easter in Spain, the UK and the USA - Semana Santa (Pascua) en España, Reino Unido y USA

We are going to watch some short videos about Easter in Spain and the UK.
Vamos a ver algunos vídeos cortos sobre la Semana Santa / Pascua en España y en el Reino Unido.

Easter Week in Spain / Semana Santa en España:

 

Easter in the UK / Pascua en el Reino Unido:

And to end with, a Happy Easter children's song with the US Walt Disney characters.

Y para terminar, una canción infantil de Feliz Pascua con los personajes americanos de Walt Disney.

Enjoy it! Happy Easter to everyone! :) 
¡Que la disfrutéis! ¡Feliz Pascua / Semana Santa a todos! :)

Celebrating Saint Patrick's Day - 17th March

Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. It is celebrated on the 17th of March in Ireland, of course.
But wait, only in Ireland? In fact, Saint Patrick is being celebrated all around the world this weekend!
Watch this video to understand why everybody "goes green" these days.

Even the sheep go green! :)

And now let's see a funny video with some tips about "How to be an Irish!"

Ending with a "Kiss me, I'm Irish! OK!"
I hope you enjoyed these videos! Are you feeling "more Irish" now? ;-)
Happy Saint Patrick's weekend to everyone, Irish and not Irish!

Travelling in Christmas - Facebook Profile (INTERMEDIATE LEVEL)

ACTIVITY 1- READING - TRAVELLING AROUND THE WORLD

This is an extract of the Facebook Profile of "Lonely Planet", a famous magazine and company related to Travelling around the world. Read the question and the answers of the Facebook users (I just took out their photos)  

Lonely Planet

Christmas is upon us! What is the longest distance you have travelled to be with friends and family over the holidays?

Like · · Share · Friday at 6:55pm via HootSuite ·

• 159 people like this.
• 1 share
• 100 of 148

Renata Barboza-Murray More than 6k miles from San Francisco, CA to Brazil! Awesome!

Hastaalaska Entoyota From one Pole to other.... and fron summer to winter... 23 h flight door to door Buenos Aires - Winnipeg, to be with my brother & sons...

Tejal Merchant ‎7809 miles (12567 kms) from Mumbai, India to New York, USA

Sophia Ariana Mayen Vancouver to El Salvador

Javier Monzon Guatemala to Taiwan

Brett Schilke ‎9,665 km...nearly 90 hours of plane, bus, and train. Middle of the US to the middle of Siberia.

Dessie Bien Crisologo Manila to Hawaii to mainland USA!

Dino Moll-Sánchez Adelaide (Australia) to Antofagasta (Chile) abt 18 hrs with many connections!!

Maria Beardslee Origel I guess I've had it easy, I've just gone over the river & through the woods...

Azlan Ibrahim Detroit to Rome on 9/13/2001, then to Paris, then to Singapore, and on to KL, Malaysia. 12,163 miles, 10 days.

Mayuko Okamoto Tokyo - Dubai - Cyprus - Malta :) that was long...

Terri Lundberg Last year I traveled from DMM (Dammam, Saudi Arabia) to SAN (San Diego, CA)

Danilo Bernal López ‎7000km from colombia to madrid, four years wothout mom, and five without my sis :P

Johanna Zwarg Sydney-Hamburg

Elisabeth Mevissen from Luxembourg/Europe to Yuma/Arizona/US

Alden Campbell Delhi India to Toronto Canada!

Nep Naam Last year we travelled all the way from Belgium to New Zealand *NOT* to have to spend the holidays with friends and family! ;-)

Beverly Jantzi Moore Raleigh - Chicago - JFK- Amsterdam- Lahore Pakistan

Christoph Jost ‎...26.12.hermagor (carinthia,austria) to melbourne...

Jason S. Jeanjaquet ‎85 kilometers! ;-P

Nancy Rafael Severino Newcastle (Australia)-->KL-->Amsterdam and back :)

Alberto Martínez Madrid-Frankfurt-New York-Chicago-Oklahoma! Round 27 hours' trip ;)

Christy Vaught Kansas City to Rome, Italy

Elisa Kähkönen London (UK) - Ivalo (FIN), about 3500km.

Rajesh Koppolu ‎1000 miles from new delhi to hyderabad, India every year :)

Simone Borgia ‎7500km from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Catania, Italy

Maureen Pudyaningtyas Baliem Valley, Papua. An exotic journey! :)

康镇 ‎5000km from beijing-malaysia

Shivani Patel If I could I would happily travel 30hours to get there. London > Auckland.

Roberto Valenzuela ‎3000 miles

Rachael Aiyana Smith Auckland to the Isle of Wight (UK)

Amy McMullin Melbourne-Seoul-London-Liverpool-Southport. Lost count how long it took. Just got home, feels good!

Simona Maria Marasca Sydney-Taipei-Bangkok-Rome. Wishing you all a happy and safe holiday season!

Martine Hagen Fjellanger I travelled Chicago - Norway!

Damien Concordel Nice-Frankfurt-Singapore-Sydney-Auckland-Wellington: 19,925km in 36 hours, out and back...

Anand Deshmukh Chicago - London - Bahrain - Mumbai

Hopscotch the Globe Toronto - London - Delhi - Bangkok

Luca Benericetti ‎23 km from home to my parents

Sonam Chhetri ‎3 hrs drive on a bus & then 5 hrs of streneous walk in the dark :)

Tamarina Lotze Sydney to Apia, 4338km

Beatrice de Lannoy In a few days I'll travel from Belgium to Hawaii to see my brother, on the other side of the globe.

Indi Newton From Mutitjulu in Central Australia to Honiara in the Solomons, all night in a crowded boat,

Indi Newton a couple of hours on the back of a truck and lots of chainsawing after cyclone damage had cut off the road, about an hour walking, slipping and sliding on a muddy track to a wee little village in the highlands of Malaita in the Solomons. The best, most generous, most naturally exquisite Christmas ever. :)

Marco Manca As far as the international date line.

Laura-Sophie Mettel ‎18 hrs Singapur Frankfurt

Dieter Wildiers ‎7000km, from Brussels to Cordoba, Argentina...

Edgar Adelmund Am in Aruba with my wife's family, that's far enough for me for now :)

Deanne P Connors-Peters From San Diego to Maine by car with a 6 week old baby! =)

Veronika Stalz munich - auckland

Sandra Woller About 6 km ;-)

Barbara Catena Rome -Auckland (NZ)

Christie Fullagar VanHorne Melbourne, Australia to Rochester, NY and then back to Oz.... A long way :)

Maria-Anna Foohs tomorrow I will fly from Frankfurt via Zurich to Yaoundé in Cameroon - over 7000 kms to be with my youngest daughter who is working in the SOS children's village there for one year.

Tarkan Tosun Ankara-Copenhagen

Courtney McGorm Sydney-hong kong- london- edinburgh

Ariana Deichler halfway around the world

Eva Giusini From Italy to Rio De Janeiro

Paula Finuras The longest distance I've travelled to be with family and friends on Christmas were about 200 km

Christine Yeo Over 14,000km. From SG to NL.

Jeanne TereCya Kurniawan FRom Surabaya-indonesia to south korea.

Boon Hun about 350km, on bus!!

Eileen Hjertum Brisbane to Sydney, arriving just in time for Scandinavian Christmas Eve dinner.

Jeanie Ball Melbourne - KL - UK (Leicester). A total of 36 hours.

Two and a half travellers We flew from DC to Sydney to London one year - living in DCV, had to validate our Aussie visas and were rapidly running out of time, and went to the UK to see our families for Christmas. It was a bit of a whirlwind, but we achieved a lot in a short space of time!

Sanny Jain ‎600 km on bike

Valentina Fabris What is the longest distance you have travelled to get away from friends and family (just for a little while...!) over the holidays?!?

Jocelyn Yot Paris - Sydney in 1997

Michael Word ‎3,500 miles. Anchorage to Florida Panhandle

Claudia Schultze ‎11400 km: Lima - Amsterdam - Frankfurt - Dresden

Julie Hill ‎7000 miles a surprise visit from singapore to u.k

Bec Gaskin Nassau bahamas to adelaide australia, thats 48hrs at its most direct. Also budapest to adel via switzerland and london. But the worst was going on a xmas holiday in 2006. Aspen usa to norway mountains. Denver, chicago and london airports shut down due to weather, I was rerouted via los angeles, it took 4 days travel and my luggage took a further 5.

Vendula Klementova Christchurch NZ - Prague CZ.

Elena Montini Milan- Mumbai...a very merry christmas to you and all!

Sandrine Vidal From Spain to Thailand!

Sarakit Chutikul we were vacationing with friends in Chiangrai in the north of Thailand, and drove all the way back to Bangkok and continue on to Pattaya to join our family for Xmas - a drive of about a 1300 kilometres...

Claus Andersen I travel away every year to avoid all this stupid christmas rubbish. Right now in Battambang/Cambodia and not a christmas tree in sight and i fucking love it.

Brian Kong hong kong - turkey

Hannah Gordon London to Sydney, arriving on their doorstep on Christmas day, and they didn't know I was coming! A perfect surprise! :D

Julian Birchall Auckland - Vancouver -Toronto 29hrs on Christmas day, all bar the last hour on Christmas day! But two years later she's still worth it.

Betty Gilmore from Jacksonville NC to Fort Worth Texas and back with a bay and a dog in a Rambler.

Betty Gilmore Now we drive from Atlanta to Ft. Worth with a dog (the kids are grown) in a Camry.

Joachim Bochum Germany-Cambodia

Shubhangna Suryavanshi Kainthla ‎15hrs+2..within state and jumping to another

Franzi Uffdebox My parents are here in New Zealand to visit me, from Germany... around 18000 km :)

Louise Vicente ‎18800 km from NZ to UK to visit my parents, first time in 2.5 years

Nicolette Galesloot ‎6452 km

Anatoly Evstegneev ‎1500 km by car to the Northern Siberia.

Kaitlin Frye ‎10 hours from ORD to London and then to Italy.

Jenny Wong SE Kuala lumpur to houston via pacific, stopover Honolulu, NY eve 1980

6 minutes ago · Like

ACTIVITY 2 - WRITING - TRAVELLING AROUND THE WORLD

Now answer the following questions:
2.1 - What about you? What is the longest Christmas travel you've ever had?

2.2 - How was the travel? Describe the transportation you used.
2.3- How was your stay at the destination?
2.4 - Would you repeat the experience? Why or why not?