Colour Songs

Hello everybody!

We all know the basic colours in English, of course.
(Remember, 'colors' in American English!)

SPEAKING

1- What's your favourite colour? Why?
2- What's the colour you don't like? Why?

3- What are the colours of the rainbow?  

This is more difficult! Look at the picture below! :-)

LISTENING - SONGS

Today we listen to some songs to pracise the colours in English!
Let's start with this one:

   

And, to finish, a complete song about colours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4txwNwz_MP8

Do you understand the chorus of the song?

'But I see your true colours
Shining through
I see your true colours
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Just show your true colours,
True colors, ooh are beautiful like a rainbow...'

KARAOKE TIME! 

Listen to the song and sing!  <0:-P

Have a happy and colourful weekend, my friends! 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<|:-)

World Cup 2014 Brazil (Part 1: The countries and the songs)

World Cup 2014 in Brazil has already finished!

SPEAKING & WRITING
Answer the following questions:
- Where are you from?
- Do you like football?
- Have you watched any matches? Which match was the most interesting for you? Why?

Let's start with the logo of this football championship.
SPEAKING & WRITING
What do you think about it?
Do you like the design and the colours?
Why or why not?

FLAGS & COUNTRIES

And now we will see the flags of the countries who played in Brazil.
Do you know these flags? Can you name all the countries?

OFFICIAL SONGS

There is always an official song of the World Cup, of course.
This year it has been Shakira's song... again!
















SPEAKING & WRITING
Do you like Shakira? Where is she from?
How does she speak English?
Do yo like this song and the video? Why or why not?

Remember Shakira also sang "Waka Waka" at the World Cup 2010 in South Africa.

Watch the video below:

SPEAKING & WRITING
Which song and video do you prefer and why?


And that is all for now. We will see more things about World Cup 2014 in my next post.
Enjoy the summer holidays, my friends! :)

Hello everybody!
A new academic course begins and here I am again with this blog!
Did you have a nice summer?

What are your plans for September? A new job? Any new studies?
And also going on learning English, of course! ;)
Here you have a calendar of September 2013 to help you organise your ideas and plans.

 

As you can see , British calendars usually start on Sunday and finish on Saturday.
How are the calendars organised in your country?
Tell us about it, please!

Well, my friends. I will post again soon.
As always, I welcome your suggestions -in English or Spanish - for publishing new posts in this blog.
See you soon! Roll on September!
:)

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!
:-)

Storytelling (I)

 Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and to instill moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters and narrative point of view.


1. SPEAKING ACTIVITY

Here you can see the titles of different traditional tales.

Which one is your favourite? ......................................................................................
Why? ...........................................................................................................................
Can you think of any other traditional fairy tales? .....................................................

2- READING ACTIVITY.

We are going to watch a gothic fairy tale now.
It is a short animation film called "Comedy" (Kigeki) and it was directed by the Japanese Kazuto Nazakawa in 2002.

3.1 - WRITING ACTIVITY 1

Answer these questions:

- Did you enjoy this tale? Why or why not? ...........................................................
- What do you think about it? .....................................................
- Can you think of any similar tales?...........................................

3.2 - WRITING ACTIVITY 2

Write a short composition answering this question:
"Do you like telling stories? Or do you prefer listening to them? Why?"
......................................................

I hope you enjoyed this storytelling post. Please comment here if you want me to publish more posts about storytelling!

- THE END -

See you all soon!  :-)

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!
:)

London 2012 Olympic Games (2) - Olympic Songs from Barcelona 1992 to London 2012

Olympic Songs from Barcelona 1992 to London 2012

Listen to all these Olympic songs and choose your favourite one! :)

1) Barcelona 1992:

Sarah Brightman and José Carreras: "Amigos Para Siempre" (Friends for Life)

 

 

Chorus
Amigos para siempre
Means you'll always be my friend
Amics per sempre
Means a love that cannot end
Friends for life
Not just a summer or a spring
Amigos para siempre

2) Atlanta 1996:

Gloria Stefan: "Reach"

3) Sydney 2000:

Magic Voices: "Australia"

4) Athens 2004

Giannis Kotsiras: "Pass the flame"

5) Beijing 2008

Sarah Brightman and Huan Liu: "You and Me"

 

 

6) London 2012

WRITING & SPEAKING Activity
Think about your dream London 2012 official song!

Now it's your turn to become a lyrics writer!  :)

1- What kind of official song would you like for London 2012?

__Slow and Classy    __Catchy and rhythmic  __Loud and wild

2- Who would be your favourite singer or singers for this song? .........................

Why? ......................................................................................................

Where are this singer or these singers from? .........................................

3- Which 4 words would you include in the lyrics?

Word 1- .............. Word 2- ............. Word 3-.......... Word 4-.............

4 - Write the Chorus of the song in 4 lines using at least one word in each line.

Line 1- ................................................................................ (word 1)

Line 2 - ................................................................................ (word 2)

Line 3 - ................................................................................ (word 3)

Line 4 - ................................................................................ (word 4)

I hope you enjoyed all the olympic songs and creating your own song too!
Write to you soon!   ^_^
 

One week for the London 2012 Olympics!
Countdown from 7 to 1!     7!..................

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!  :)

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! :)

Today is EARTH HOUR 2012: Saturday 31 March 20:30-21:30 PM

31st of March: today is Earth Hour 2012!
I will switch off my lights from 20:30 to 21:30 PM
Here you can find some fun things you can do during Earth Hour

http://inhabitat.com/9-fun-things-you-can-do-during-earth-hour-2012

What are you going to do tonight? Post a comment please!

=============================================================

31 de Marzo: hoy es el Día del Planeta!
Apagaré todas las luces de las 20:30 a las 21:30 PM
¿Qué harás esta noche? ¡Escribe un comentario!

Aquí volvemos a publicar un vídeo en inglés subtitulado en español. ¡Una combinación ganadora! :)

Updated: 12:15 PM

Earth Hour - Our World Is Brilliant (WWF-UK)

Picture a world Where people and Nature Thrive...
Imagina un mundo donde las personas y la naturaleza prosperan...

Your light switch is just the start!  :)
¡Apagar el interruptor es sólo el comienzo! :)

 Updated: 11:39 PM

Some photos showing the success of the Earth Hour 2012 around the world!

 

Can you identify all these cities around the world?

American continent is not included because they are starting their Erth Hour by now!
I hope you enjoyed it! Keep doing things to save our planet! :)

Australian Song

1- BRAINSTORMING
Australia is a wonderful country! In fact, it is a big island and a continent at the same time.
What do you know about Australia?
Write ten key words about Australia in your notebook:
1- ................ 2-......................... 3- ............................ ; 10- ....................................

2 - LISTENING ACTIVITY:
This Australian song was played during the TV broadcasting for the official National Day of Mourning for the victims of the February 7 2009 Victorian bushfires.

2.1- First time, listen to the song and read the lyrics of the song in the video.

You also have the lyrics here:

(Chorus)
We are one but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice
I am
You are
We are Australian

I came from the dream time
from the dusty red soil plains
I am the ancient heart - the keeper of the flame
I stood upon the rocky shore
I watched the tall ships come
For forty thousand years
I'd been the first Australian
I came upon the prison ship
bound down by iron chains
I cleared the land, endured the lash and waited for the rains
I'm a settler
I'm a farmer's wife on a dry and barren run
A convict then a free man
I became Australian
I'm the daughter of a digger
who sought the mother lode
The girl became a woman on the long and dusty road
I'm a child of the depression
I saw the good times come
I'm a bushy, I'm a battler
I am Australian

(Chorus)

I'm a teller of stories
I'm a singer of songs
I am Albert Namatjira
and I paint the ghostly gums
I am Clancy on his horse
I'm Ned Kelly on the run
I'm the one who waltzed Matilda
I am Australian
I'm the hot wind from the desert
I'm the black soil of the plains
I'm the mountains and the valleys
I'm the drought and flooding rains
I am the rock, I am the sky
The rivers when they run
The spirit of this great land
I am Australian

(Chorus)

We are one but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream
And sing with one voice
I am, you are, we are Australian.

2.2- The second time you watch the video, sing it! Karoke time! :)

3- WRITING ACTIVITY
3.1 - There are many characteristics and attributes of all-time Australian people and landscapes in this song.
Look up the following words of the song in a dictionary:
the rocky shore -
the prison ship-
a settler -
a convict-
a free man - 
a digger -
the long and dusty road-
a bushy-
a battler-
a teller of stories-
a singer of songs-
the hot wind of the desert -
the black soil of the plains -
the drought and flooding rains -
the spirit of this great land -

3.2 - Now look for all the verbs in the song and complete a chart with the three forms:Infinitive - Past Simple - Past Participle
to be              was/were       been
to come             came          come
...........           .............         ..................

3.3- Have you learnt anything new about Australia? Well done!
Tell us about it adding a comment to this post! :)