Christmas Film: "Love Actually" by Richard Curtis

All of London is in love -- or longing to be -- in Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis' first directorial effort. Billed as "the ultimate romantic comedy," Love Actually involves more than a dozen main characters, each weaving his or her way into another's heart over the course of one particularly eventful Christmas. The seemingly perfect wedding of Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) brings many of the principals together, including heartsick best man Mark (Andrew Lincoln), who harbors a very unrequited crush on Juliet. There's also recent widower Daniel (Liam Neeson), trying to help his lonely stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) express his true feelings to a classmate. Across town, devoted working mother Karen (Emma Thompson) tries to rekindle the passion of her husband, Harry (Alan Rickman), who secretly pines for a young colleague of his. In the same office, the lonely Sarah (Laura Linney) not-so-secretly pines for a man just a few desks away (Rodrigo Santoro), who returns her affections but may not be able to dissuade her neuroses. Providing the unofficial soundtrack for all of the couples is an aging rocker (Bill Nighy) who just wants to cash in and get laid -- but even he might find a meaningful relationship in the most unlikely of places. 

Source: Rotten Tomatoes <http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/love_actually/>.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH "LOVE ACTUALLY" IN ENGLISH (AND FULL HD)

Listening: Christmas Traditions

 Dear students,
here you are the podcast I played today in class, together with some activities (+ answers and transcripts). I hope you find it useful.

Christmas activities

Homework!

Dear students,

it's Christmas time but we need to keep on studying and learning English!! So, whenever you can, and before we meet again, please:

- do the Reading exercise on page 40.
- read a short story and write a summary
- watch (at least) one film in English and write a review.

Besides, we will be having a grammar test the week after Christmas holidays (Tuesday 13!). Study everything: every unit, every note, photocopies, handouts, presentations. I recommend to complete all the Workbook exercises, from Unit 1 to 4.

Finally, remember that, from January onwards, you will be delivering your own 4 minute presentations in class, so I suggest that you start thinking about your topic.

Thank you and...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

RESOURCES: TED TALKS /// LISTENING!!

Dear students,

as you all know, this year you need to train your ears!  The time devoted to do listening activities in class is not enough to improve your skills and become advanced English listeners and speakers. Therefore, I recommend to watch films and audiobooks (there are lots of them available on this blog), and also to explore webpages such as the one you can find here. Please, get a glimpse of the TED Talks Education videos. This project is the result of an exhilarating night of talks hosted by John Legend. I hope you enjoy some of the videos!

A Book Every Week: "The Night Flier", by Stephen King + FILM

Dear all,
do you fancy a thrilling short story? If you are nodding your head right now, you have to read (and listen to!) Stephen King's "The Night Flier". I am sure you are going to enjoy King's reflections on tabloids and the appetite for sensationalism through the misadventures of the main character, Richard Dees...
Providing you enjoy the story, you might also want to watch the adaptation to the screen, also available here.

Weekend Movies: "Rope" by Alfred Hitchcock

This week I would like to recommend a film by the so-called "Master of Suspense", Alfred Hitchcock. As you know, he pioneered many techniques in film, such as new uses of the camera. Rope is a good example in this sense. This is Hitchcock's first technicolor film, and is well-known for taking place in real time and being edited so as to appear as a single continuous shot. To me, this is one of Hitchcock's most interesting thrillers and, now that our computer has disappeared so misteriously, the perfect genre to dip into enigmatic situations. If you like Manhattan and James Stewart, if you are a huge fan of suspense and action, this is the ideal movie to watch this weekend.

Have fun!

Homework

Dear students,

please, finish the Grammar Bank (activity B), do the reading exercise on page 36, and also the Vocabulary Bank on page 156 (Weather). We will have corrected everything by the end of our Tuesday lecture, and we will be having a little Christmas party on Thursday.

Do have a good weekend,
r

Travelling: To Hire, to Rent, to Let, to Lease

Dear students,

just in case you have any problem using these words, here you are some definitions:

TO HIRE = to procure temporary use of a thing or object, or to employ person for wages. 
My father hired a boat and we took a stroll on the lake.

TO RENT = to occupy or use land or buildings in return for regular payment for the use or to allow land or buildings to be used in return for such payments.
She doesn't have enough money to rent this appartment.
Our neighbour rents this land to us at a very small rent a year.

TO LET = to give the use of a flat, a room, a house, in return for regular money payments.
While in town, I saw an announcement for an appartment to be let.

TO LEASE = to give or take possession of land, buildings, things by legal agreement by which somebody is allowed to use land, buildings, etc. for a fixed money payment.
They leased the farm from an old woman.

Homework

Dear students,

please do the reading exercise on page 34 (How Eco-Guilt are you?)

See you soon!

r