SEASONS & MONTHS OF THE YEAR

Check on the weather of the different months and seasons of the year.

FOOD & DIET (Vocabulary practice)

This post is to learn and practice vocabulary on food and diet. (Previous post Food & Drink)

More adjectives to use with food:

Check how many different kinds of food you can remember:

MASTER CHEF

Showing poster with vocabulary of ways of cooking. Also you can link here to vocabulary for the ingredients: food & drink. and more practice-exercises on food vocabulary at food & diet.
More on cooking:
- WHAT'S COOKING IN THE KITCHEN? from "English with a twist" blog.

For tools and appliances in the kitchen to do these actions click to KITCHENWARE.

EVERYTHING ABOUT THE UK

To end up with the series of posts with information about different aspects of the United Kingdom, after the Scottish referendum for independence has been held, here's a new post (2nd part of this previous one here) where you'll find information about government, customs, geography, history, politics and government via different links.

Link to a Glogster digital poster about the UK.

Link to a post about the UK @ The Travelling Teachers Blog.

BRITAIN'S LOST EMPIRE

Scotland voted in a referendum for independence. They voted not to be independent, but they could have become another of the many countries that have had the British rule throughout history. In this post, we show every country that has left the United Kingdom's rule in maps (taken from the British newspaper "The Guardian") of different times. Above, the oldest, below the most recent. All these countries now still belong to the Commonwealth.

Since the Act of Union in 1707 the United Kingdom has ruled vast extensions of land across the world, a lot of countries have since then left the UK's rule. Scotland could have become the last one to do so, but is hasn't.

Australia, Canada & New Zealand were independent  much before the 1980s, but until then they hadn't officially removed all their ties with the UK.

GALICIA BIDS TO BECOME THE NEW SCOTLAND FOR BRITAIN

More than 1300 from Galicia in north-west Spain have written to David Cameron offering to stand in for Scotland.

A petition on change.org sets out their position clearly.

The Spaniards reckon they've got the attitude, culture and climate to make them an ideal substitute if Scotland quits the union.

Their petition, addressed to Mr Cameron, says: "We Galicians are aware of the fact that Scotland may become independent in 2014 and that this issue is worrying you. You needn’t think of a solution to this challenge because we have found an innovative proposal that you won’t be able to refuse:

We propose you to accept Galiza as an integral part of the United Kingdom.

This may come as a surprise to you but Galiza is also a Celtic nation in the northwest of Spain. With us on board you won’t miss the following:

Scottish pipes: we have our own.

Celtic of Glasgow: we have Celta Vigo

An amazing landscape, we have that too

Scottish clans, we have plenty of them (caciques are included)

Our people like their drinks as Scots do

We have a vibrant cultural and music scene

In Galiza it also rains a lot

We have a strong identity like Scottish people do.

We are also an Atlantic country

Flags of both countries have similar colours

We also have some stingy people.

Santiago of Compostela is our Edinburgh

With Galicians as part of the UK, you will gain the following:

Hard-working people

Galician people's accent (in English) is easier to understand than the Scottish accent

If you leave us alone, we won’t bother you

Lovely food and drinks (e.g. cozido instead of haggies, licor cafe instead of whisky, etc.)

We speak the most spoken Roman languages of the world: Portuguese (Galician) and Spanish (Galician). We are able to communicate with both Brazil and Mexico using our two languages.

Milder weather than in Scotland

We share a similar sense of humour with British people (“retranca” is the Galician irony)

British economy will improve with our fishing industry, textile (e.g. Zara), cultural tourism (The Way of St James), best beach of the world (Praia de Rodas, Illas Cies ,Vigo).

Our seafood is worldwide famous (mussels, oysters, lobsters, etc.)

Link to the original article @ The Mirror

THE UNION JACK

Today, in the previous post, and as a consquence of the Scottish referendum for independence, we wondered what would happen to the Union Jack, the national flag, which represents the United Kingdom, if Scotland was to become independent.

But do you know about the origin of the Union Jack?

In this post we explain how it was made up. The Union Jack is the combination of the three heraldic crosses which represent the four countries which form the United Kingdom, as explained in the graphic on the left.

So if Scotland had become an independent country, the Union Jack could have been something like this:

SCOTLAND VOTES TODAY (FOR INDEPENDENCE) [+Results update]

Sept 19th result update:

SCOTLAND VOTES NO

Scotland has voted against becoming an independent country by a projected 55% to 45%.

Link: VIDEO SCOTTISH REFERENDUM EXPLAINED FOR NON BRITS

Video:

Today Scotland votes for its possible independence from the rest of the UK. The NO has been in the lead until September 7th newspaper surveys when the YES outtook the lead with a 51% and unsettlement ran throughout the British Isles. What will happen today...?
...to the union?
...to the flag?
...to the currency (the Pound)?
...to public services?
...to the economy of both parts?

Link to more info:

Scottish independence guide: Everything you need to know ahead of the Yes/No vote

Keep in touch for updates and results.

The UK up to today is like this:

From tomorrow on, we'll see..

Opinion. "The Guardian" newspaper editorial the day before:

The Guardian view on Scotland’s day of decision

TEST YOUR LEVEL OF ENGLISH

To begin with, here's a link to a webpage, where you can test your level of English. Depending on the course your are in, you should know some answers but not all of them. Have a try... Youi can check on explanations if your are mistaken.

Link: TEST YOUR LEVEL OF ENGLISH

2014-2015 SCHOOL YEAR. WELCOME BACK!

Once again, we're starting a new school year. Hope we're all fresh to start with renewed strength.

"CLICK ON ENGLISH" 5th ANNIVERSARY!

Five years ago, today (13th September 2009), I kicked off with this blog and its first post. Since then there has been: 

- 455 published posts, 

- 34 published comments, 

- 17 followers 

- and, according to the counter, more than 600.000 visits. 

- The most visited post of all time is:

PREPOSITIONS: AT / IN / ON (with 45.135 visits).

- The 3 top visiting countries are:

USA (126.835), Spain (39.660) & UK (34.297)

These all are only statistics, what I'm really sure about is that this blog has been a great class resource, it has lots of posts I very often visit  in my classes and lots of information and links that can help you in your learning of English.

About to start a new course on Monday, I'm determined to continue with it and hope you'll keep visiting...

Thank you.

A TRIBUTE TO ROBIN WILLIAMS: O'CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN!

We open up with a tribute, because last August 11th, American actor Robin Williams died. We want to pay tribute to him with some videos of his role as John Keating, an English literature teacher at the Welton Academy in Vermont in the film "DEAD POETS SOCIETY"

Video "CARPE DIEM":

Video "O'CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN!":



Tribute video: