Show your English week, and my students' awesomeness!

The first Show Your English Week is over and I have nothing but positive words to describe it! However, as we all know, a picture is worth a thousand words, so...            

Tuesday

;)

Wednesday presentation

Andres Jimenez's students... they rocked

Hard work :)

Friday

Movie tickets and medals!

Course 8

Story telling

mr. cloud

Learning English using Podcasts

'Podcast' combines the words iPod and broadcast.
What this means is anyone with an internet connection can listen to what they want whenever they want, by logging into iTunes store or 'googleing' Podcasts.  Millions of gigabytes of  ideas can be played online or downloaded into your MP3 player, cellphone or iPod, for free.

It's like listening to a radio station except you don't have to tune in at an specific time or listen to things in which you're not interested. Users create their own podcasts and share their thoughts with the world, which are stored online, just waiting for your spare moment or two.

Since there are so many categories in the Podcasting world, as you can imagine there are tons of English learning possibilities.  Some of them are worth the time, especially ones designed for non-native speakers.  So  search, listen, enjoy, and improve your skills!




I recommend that you check out 'English Addicts' or some other English learning series.

Then, if you think you are ready to listen to other things ... Go for it! Topics range.  Biology, Technology, Literature, History, Arts...  Anything of interest is available. The ultimate goal when we learn a language is to fully comprehend it, and to be to able to communicate who we are, what we like, what we know...

I think that this is an amazing global tool.  So much is out there, just try!

I recommend:

www.englishaddicts.com (for non-native English speakers)

www.tunein.com (podcasts and radio stations from all over the world)

I am craving...

 a happy cupcake!  :) 

What are you craving right now?



 google images

An invitation to discuss Gender Stereotypes

I came across Twitter very recently and decided to love it - which is another story. Then, I started adding people interested in the book publishing industry - one day I will tell you why. Soon, I became aware of a blog entitled The Achilles Effect, where author Cristal Smith 'debates the impact of gender stereotypes on boys, especially the effect on their understanding of masculinity'.

She uses Word Clouds (available at wordle.net) to show how gender stereotypes are reinforced by toy TV commercials in Canada. See Smith's wordles below.  For her methodology and explanation see:
http://www.achilleseffect.com/2011/03/word-cloud-how-toy-ad-vocabulary-reinforces-gender-stereotypes/

I strongly recommend it!

Her pertinent clouds:

Boys' Toys:

And even less surprising... Girls' Toys

My question now is... Does this seem to be the case in our country?

Because we pretty much buy US toys, I guess we buy their stereotypes too, right?  But if  toy manufactors in Colombia would actually research more they would probably come up with.... the same?

What do you think?

Thanks for your comments!

Put on Your Yellow and Yell

Like many other nations in the world Colombia enjoys its soccer. We know it’s important when the TV news dedicate more than 30 minutes of their three-times-a-day broadcast to this very passionate sport.   Oh, and let’s not forget about the weekends, and the usual stadium fights that sometimes make it on national television. Any other athletes would love to get at least one of those minutes to promote their sport.


But are we loyal fans of our national team?


Last time I checked it was OK to support one’s squad. That hasn’t been the case lately though. I’ve met a lot of people who thought Colombia wasn’t going to make it through round 1 of the Copa America.
Some people argue that our coach is not bringing anything new to make us win. Some others say with disappointment that it’s probably better to not get any further since we may get our butts kicked even worse and that players like Radamel Falcao Garcia only score in Europe. We are better off without a humiliating parade of goals against.

Is this pessimism a reflection of our society? We kinda do that in our lives. Always expect the worst. Don’t get our hopes up too high. Let’s just pray speed skating makes it to the Olympics. Maybe one day.   But not tonight.


What happened to the ‘Si, si, Colombia, si, si Caribe’ thing? Did we become too used to losing? Are we a glass half empty country? Or is it that I’m blind and our national team sucks for real?

Right now all that matters is the next ninety minutes. I am a true believer in the kind of energy you put into things and how it affects the final outcome. You know, karma.  Maybe Dayro Moreno will feel my good vibes and finally score.

*extra credit if you send me an e-mail  this week with a short definition of slang and which words you think are slang.

What do you think?

What are your favorite English words?

Some words just melt on our tongues. Others ring in our ears like an angel's song. All types of words and sensational sounds exist in the English language. Funny, classy, difficult to pronounce, silly, strong, soft, borrowed foreign ones - anyone want a burrito?

But ones which invite us to speak Spanglish, like man, internet, people, weekend, OK, mission, know how, shampoo and cool make up my top ten of those tasting bad on the tongue.



 




Now, when it comes to favorite words there are numerous lists on the web. Interestingly almost all of them include the words love and serendipity. As for me, besides 'br-ree-tow' of course, I like refrigerator, spoon, (if you haven't guessed I'm ravenous right now), and Ft. Lauderdale (because no one knows how to pronounce it).  I like mist and dew in the morning, twilight and moonshine in the evening, and wouldn't you agree that the Sesame Street character Snuffleupagus has a super rad name? 

There are many words out there and they're all fun. What are your favorites?

The rest is still .... Unwritten!

Hi everyone!

Here is an uplifting video by a great British artist.
I really don't know if I am supposed to post videos. Natasha Bedingfield sings Unwritten and of course this is her video, not mine.
I think her voice is amazing!
What do you think? What is she singing about?

Enjoy!    :)

Some pictures!

Course 7 What in the world is this? Speaking Spanish in my class? And two mysterious creatures made it to a pictionary session.

Simple Past

I searched the internet for some Past Simple exercises and I found these websites.

Click here if you want to learn more about Simple Past, its structure and when to use it:
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simple-past

I found these links and thought they are good to practice:
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/simple_past_mix.htm

Games:

Online Present Continuous Activities

OK Course 2.

Welcome to my blog. Today we're learning about Present Continuous, or Present Progressive.

These links below are taking us to a few websites where we can have fun and learn!

I hope you enjoy them!

1. Hangman http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/grammar/present%20tenses/present%20tenses%20hangman.html

2. Snakes and ladders http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/grammar/present%20tenses/present%20tenses%20snakes%20and%20ladders.html

3. Spelling game http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/grammar/present%20tenses/new/present%20progressive%20spelling.html

4. Fling the teacher http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/grammar/fling%20the%20teacher/actionverbs/present%20progressive%20multiple%20choice.html

5. Penalty Shootout http://kidseslgames.com/grammar%20games/Present%20Continuous/presentcontinuous1.html