Listening Exercise: "Rebel Restaurant" -The Guardian

Dearest students,

this is the listening exercise we did yesterday (+key). And this is the transcript. If you feel like testing your ears, try other podcasts provided by The Guardian here.

Best regards and have a great weekend,

r

Week(end) Movies: "Confessions of a Shopaholic"

Dear students,

this weekend seems to offer the best opportunity to watch a silly film (I guess you are going to think hard about voting, hehe, and don't want to distract you too much). As shopping is one of the main topics we are approaching this year, I would like to recommend Confessions of a Shopaholic. This film deals with a shopping addict who works for a magazine. At some point, she has to overcome some conflicts, experience romance and survive her own shopping habits.

Click here and play the video!

Listening Resources: Learn English Through Films

Dear all,

remember that the more you practise listening, the more you open your ears. And, of course, the more you open your ears, the easier it will be for you to pass your listening exam. Thus, please take advantage of all the listening resources available on this blog. As I have told you before, you need to work hard at home because our time in the classroom is quite limited. All this said, here you are a new resource that will help you to learn English through films. Enjoy!

Listening Resources: ESL-LAB

Dear students,

are you prone to find American accent difficult to understand? If the answer is afirmative, if you are nodding your head, then YOU NEED TO TRAIN YOUR EARS. This listening exercise about job hunting is really recommendable to review some vocabulary related to the topic of jobs and to get familiar with American accents. Moreover, I recommend doing as many listening exercises with American accent (and others) as possible (just in case...). ESL-LAB is full of them. Just try!

Keep studying!

r

Listening Resources: The News

Dear students,

if you are interested in doing listening activities related to the news, this is a great resource: News in Levels!

I hope you find it useful,

r

LISTENING: TED TALKS

Dear students,

as you might have already realized, you need to develop your listening skills as much as you can before June. And... what's the best way to achieve this? The answer is simple: listen to people speaking English (at a certain speed and with a variety of accents). Watching films is one good option (and this blog provides you with many films); listening to the radio is also a good idea (and there are lots of radio stations you can access for freee. Just click here!), and, of course, taking advantage of the proliferation of amazing Ted Talks on the Internet is highly recommendable: www.ted.com is a site full of talks by people with great ideas. You can watch the videos with subtitles. Come on, try and enjoy the experience of learning English ; -)

Weekend Movies: "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen

This week, I would likt to recommend "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen. The main characters of this film are Gil and Inez. They travel to Paris as a tag-along vacation on her parents' business trip. Gil is a successful Hollywood writer but is struggling on his first novel. He falls in love with the city and thinks they should move there after they get married, but Inez does not share his romantic notions of the city or the idea that the 1920s was the golden age. When Inez goes off dancing with her friends, Gil takes a walk at midnight and discovers what could be the ultimate source of inspiration for writing. Gil's daily walks at midnight in Paris could take him closer to the heart of the city but further from the woman he's about to marry...

Reading!!

Dear students,
as you know, reading is an activity by which you "magically" learn much English. Then, please, try to read as much as possible in order to improve your vocabulary (and not only that, your writing and oral skills will also improve). Something which I find useful and motivating is to read opinion articles. Browse, for example, The New York Times and find texts that you consider interesting. There are many perspectives, trendy topics, and discussions published by The New York Times. Besides, if you feel like watching a documentary about this famous newspaper, just click here: "Inside The New York Times". Enjoy!

Health // Alternative Medicine - listening

Dear students,
I suggest listening to this at home so that you get familiar with some vocabulary related to alternative medicine. "Breaking News in English" provides you with answers too.

In addition, you might like the following TED TALK about homeopathy and fraud. This talk is really thought-provoking and has had a great success on ther Internet.

Good luck!
r

Weekend Movies: "Wrong Cops" by Quentin Dupieux

Dear students,

remember to do some extra listening whenever you have a bit of free time, and especially during this long long weekend, because a couple of didactic listenings per week won't be enough to train your ears before June. You need more. As you know, I have alredy posted some interesting links to this blog. You can find some of them on the right column of your screen. In addition, watching tv series and films is always a good option to get used to listening to different accents and jargons, so you will also find lots of options on this site.

This week, I would like to recommend a comedy. This is a film consisting of absurdist vignettes in which assorted officers of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) do everything except police work—selling drugs on street corners (packaged inside of dead rats to “avoid suspicion”), harassing pedestrians, refusing to investigate a crime scene, and listening to lots of house music. Rules of space, time, and mortality are ignored... and the result is an hilarious film which I hope you enjoy a lot.

I am sorry there were no English or Spanish subtitles available. Anyway, I hope you undersand most of it and laugh until your belly hurts.

LOL

r

Weekend Movies: "Mathilda"

Have you read Roald Dahl's amazing book Mathilda? This is the story of a truly intelligent and talented girl born into a stupid family. Her parents neglect and mistreat her, but she holds the line and tries to live her own life. She discovers a local library and spends most of her time reading, while her parents are at work. One day, she starts developing super-powers... CLICK HERE AND SEE IT WITH YOUR OWN EYES.

The film doesn't come with subitles this time, but I am sure you will be able to understand almost everything, since this is a comedy both for adults and children. I hope you like it.

Have a great weekend!

Listening: Getting to Know Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury has a wonderful British accent. I suggest that you watch the following interview if you want to get to know him a little bit:

Listening to Music: The Show Must Go On

Did you enjoy this song today?

 Now you can listen to Queen at home while reading the lyrics and singing...

Empty spaces, what are we living for
Abandoned places, I guess we know the score
On and on, does anybody know what we are looking for
Another hero, another mindless crime
Behind the curtain, in the pantomime
Hold the line, does anybody want to take it anymore
The show must go on
The show must go on, yeah
Inside my heart is breaking
My make-up may be flaking
But my smile still stays on

Whatever happens, I'll leave it all to chance
Another heartache, another failed romance
On and on, does anybody know what we are living for?
I guess I'm learning (I'm learning learning learning)
I must be warmer now
I'll soon be turning (turning turning turning)
Round the corner now
Outside the dawn is breaking
But inside in the dark I'm aching to be free
The show must go on
The show must go on, yeah yeah
Ooh, inside my heart is breaking
My make-up may be flaking
But my smile still stays on

Yeah yeah, whoa wo oh oh

My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies
Fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die
I can fly, my friends
The show must go on (go on, go on, go on) yeah yeah
The show must go on (go on, go on, go on)
I'll face it with a grin
I'm never giving in
On, with the show

Ooh, I'll top the bill, I'll overkill
I have to find the will to carry on
On with the show
On with the show
The show, the show must go on
Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on
Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on
Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on
Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on
Go on, go on

Music -RADIOHEAD and British Council podcast

This is the activity we did in class today: TALKING ABOUT MUSIC: RADIOHEAD. You can listen to the podcast at home whenever you want. And, if you enjoyed the music by this band from Oxford, don't miss the album Ok Computer:

 

And this is one of Radiohead's best-known songs. You can read the transcript below:

When you were here before
I couldn’t look you in the eye
You’re just like an angel
Your skin makes me cry

You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You’re so fucking special

But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here

I don’t care if it hurts
I wanna have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul

I want you to notice
When I’m not around
You’re so very special
I wish I was special

But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here, oh, oh

She’s running out again
She’s running out
Run, run, run, run!
Run!

Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You’re so fucking special
I wish I was special

But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here
I don’t belong here

Weekend Movies: "Elephant" by Gus Van Sant

Do you feel like living a terrifiying experience based on actual events? The film that I recommend you watch this weekend shows the terrible tragedy of a fictional high school (based on the Columbine High School massacre) where students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent...

Weekend Movies: "The Secret of Nichola Tesla" by Crsto Papic

Have you heard the latest news on the development of a new battery that might power our homes in the future? It is said to require solar energy but it might free us  from our current electricity providers and, most important, from their extremely expensive electric bill (read here if you want to know more about it). If you feel curious about the inventor of such a thing, Nikola Tesla, you are welcome to watch the film The Secret of Nikola Tesla, directed by the Croatian director Crsto Papic in 1980, and starring a bunch of good actors, Orson Welles among them. Warning: the first minutes are an introduction in a different language: English starts at 1:20 and the movie starts at 7:42. Youtube provides subtitles if you click on one of the buttons below.

I hope you enjoy the film!

Weekend Movies: "Citizen Kane" by Orson Welles

Brief analysis:

The fresh, sophisticated, and classic masterpiece, Citizen Kane (1941), is probably the world's most famous and highly-rated film, with its many remarkable scenes and performances, cinematic and narrative techniques and experimental innovations (in photography, editing, and sound). Its director, star, and producer were all the same genius individual - Orson Welles (in his film debut at age 25!), who collaborated with Herman J. Mankiewicz on the script (and also with an uncredited John Houseman), and with Gregg Toland as his talented cinematographer. [The amount of each person's contributions to the screenplay has been the subject of great debate over many decades.] Toland's camera work on Karl Freund's expressionistic horror film Mad Love (1935) exerted a profound influence on this film.
The film, budgeted at $800,000, received unanimous critical praise even at the time of its release, although it was not a commercial success (partly due to its limited distribution and delayed release by RKO due to pressure exerted by famous megalomaniac publisher W.R. Hearst) - until it was re-released after World War II, found well-deserved (but delayed) recognition in Europe, and then played on television.
The film engendered controversy (and efforts at ruthless suppression in early 1941 through intimidation, blackmail, newspaper smears, discrediting and FBI investigations) before it premiered in New York City on May 1, 1941, because it appeared to fictionalize and caricaturize certain events and individuals in the life of William Randolph Hearst - a powerful newspaper magnate and publisher. The film was accused of drawing remarkable, unflattering, and uncomplimentary parallels (especially in regards to the Susan Alexander Kane character) to real-life. The notorious battle was detailed in Thomas Lennon's and Michael Epstein's Oscar-nominated documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane (1996), and it was retold in HBO's cable-TV film RKO 281 (1999) (the film's title refers to the project numbering for the film by the studio, before the film was formally titled).

Source: http://www.filmsite.org/citi.html

Weekend Movies: "The Virgin Suicides" by Sofia Coppola

Dearest students,
here we are a new film for the weekend: The Virgin Suicides by Sofia Coppola (Francis Ford Coppola's daughter, have you heard of her before?). This film is a 1999 American drama starring Kirsten Dunst and Kathleen Turner, among others. IBased on the homonymous novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, the film tells of the events surrounding the lives of five sisters in an upper-middle class suburb of Detroit during the 1970s. After the youngest sister makes an initial attempt at suicide, the sisters are put under close scrutiny by their parents, eventually being locked as birds in their own cage, which leads to increasingly depressive and isolated behaviour... Would you like to know more about their misadventure? Well, watch the film! (no subtitles this time, sorry! But I am pretty sure you will understand the plot quite easily).
Enjoy!!!

Weekend Movies

We won't be having a class on Thursday, so I have decided to find a film for you today. The movie we are going to watch this week is Vicky Cristina Barcelona and was directed by Woody  Allen in 2008. This is the story of two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain who fall in love with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture...

WATCH THE FILM HERE!

Some webs to practice LISTENING at home

Dear students,
as you know, learning English is a slow process which requires lots of work and motivation. Four hours a week are not enough to reach a high level. What can we do? Well, don't forget to work on your own. Read books, magazines and blogs (I recommend some texts every week!), watch films in English, and try to collect new words and use them. Besides, this week, I would like to provide some webpages to practice listening at home. Hopefully, you will find them useful:

1. "SABER INGLÉS" - American English
2. ESL LAB - American English
3. BRITISH COUNCIL -PODCASTS -British English
4. ORORO TV - Watch Series online
5. LEARNING THROUGH MUSIC! (LYRICS!)