Today, we sadly say goodbye to Laura Oxenreiter, this year's conversation assistant.
Everybody, students and teachers, have been very happy to work with her. She has always been very effective in her work, open to extra activities, with good ideas for classes and very reliable.
Unfortunately, she's not repeating as an assistant next year as she wants to continue with her teaching studies back in her country, but, from everybody in "Rafael Dieste", we wish her all the best in the future and know that one day she'll become a great teacher.
See you, Laura!
[Photo: Laura telling 1st ESO students the story of "The Sleepy Hollow" during the Halloween activities in our school's library last November]
As we already commented back in March, 12 of our 4th ESO students set on a 5 day trip to London between the 22nd and the 27th. Today we can show you a portrait of the photos of their stay and see what a great time they had!
Video:
The following places can be spotted in this photo-presentation in order of appearance: - Kensington: Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Harrod's.- Piccadilly, Regent & Carnaby Street. - Waddesdon Manor & Waddesdon Secondary School. - Covent Garden.- St Paul's. The City. Tower Bridge & the Tower of London.- Tate Modern.- Buckingham Palace.- The Houses of Parliament & The Big Ben. London's Eye.- Trafalgar Square.- Leicester Square.- The British Museum. - Camden Town.
Compare how direct and indirect questions change. - THEY NO LONGER HAVE A QUESTION STRUCTURE. - WH-QUESTIONS KEEP THE Q-WORD. - YES/NO QUESTIONS, BEGIN WITH IF/WHETHER
Yesterday evening the Graduation of the 2017 2nd BAC Student Year of Plurilingual IES "RAFAEL DIESTE" was celebrated. This year it was held at the "ANDRÉS GAOS" Auditorium of the neighbouring Superior Music Conservatory.
The event featured the speeches of the School's Headmaster and the tutors of the two 2nd BAC groups, and of two students on behalf of all their schoolmates. After the traditional photos, videos and performances.
Congratulations to all the students and good luck for their future!
Between these two photos above, 10 years have passed. A few weeks ago, our conversation assistant this course, Laura, showed in 1st BAC classes the video of little Charlie and his brother Harry as an activity to practice the passive: Harry's finger was bitten by his smaller brother Harry.
This week we've learnt the story behind this viral video. You can get the complete story watching this video below, which was posted on YouTube in 2015, saying that the original one was 8 years old. That means that it's 10 years, now. In the video you'll hear why their parents posted it onto YouTube and how many viewers have watched it in all this time. You'll be surprised!
In the aftermath of Tuesday's terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of Ariana Grande's concert, people have gathered in the city to pay tribute to its victims. In one of the tributes in the city's Albert Square, local poet Tony Walsh read out a poem of support to his city and its inhabitants. Here you can watch the video of the moment and read/listen to the complete poem which is transcribed below. "THIS IS THE PLACE". It's our tribute to the victims and people of Manchester and of any other attack throughout the world. Let's hope it could be the last time.
Video:
This is the place
In the north-west of England. It’s ace, it’s the best
And the songs that we sing from the stands, from our bands
Set the whole planet shaking.
Our inventions are legends. There’s nowt we can’t make, and so we make brilliant music
We make brilliant bands
We make goals that make souls leap from seats in the stands
And we make things from steel
And we make things from cotton
And we make people laugh, take the mick sommat rotten
And we make you at home
And we make you feel welcome and we make summat happen
And we can’t seem to help it
And if you’re looking from history, then yeah we’ve a wealth
But the Manchester way is to make it yourself.
And make us a record, a new number one
And make us a brew while you’re up, love, go on
And make us feel proud that you’re winning the league
And make us sing louder and make us believe that this is the place that has helped shape the world
And this is the place where a Manchester girl named Emmeline Pankhurst from the streets of Moss Side led a suffragette city with sisterhood pride
And this is the place with appliance of science, we’re on it, atomic, we struck with defiance, and in the face of a challenge, we always stand tall, Mancunians, in union, delievered it all
Such as housing and libraries and health, education and unions and co-ops and first railway stations
So we’re sorry, bear with us, we invented commuters. But we hope you forgive us, we invented computers.
And this is the place Henry Royce strolled with Rolls, and we’ve rocked and we’ve rolled with our own northern soul
And so this is the place to do business then dance, where go-getters and goal-setters know they’ve a chance
And this is the place where we first played as kids. And me mum, lived and died here, she loved it, she did.
And this is the place where our folks came to work, where they struggled in puddles, they hurt in the dirt and they built us a city, they built us these towns and they coughed on the cobbles to the deafening sound to the steaming machines and the screaming of slaves, they were scheming for greatness, they dreamed to their graves.
And they left us a spirit. They left us a vibe. The Mancunian way to survive and to thrive and to work and to build, to connect, and create and greater ― Manchester’s greatness is keeping it great.
And so this is the place now with kids of our own. Some are born here, some drawn here, but all call it home.
And they’ve covered the cobbles, but they’ll never defeat, all the dreamers and schemers who still teem through these streets
Because this is a place that has been through some hard times: oppressions, recessions, depressions, and dark times.
But we keep fighting back with greater Manchester spirit. Northern grit, northern wit, and greater Manchester’s lyrics
And these hard times again, in these streets of our city, but we won’t take defeat and we don’t want your pity.
Because this is a place where we stand strong together, with a smile on our face, greater Manchester forever
And we’ve got this place where a team with a dream can get funding and something to help with a scheme.
Because this is a place that understands your grand plans. We don’t do “no can do” we just stress “yes we can”
Forever Manchester’s a charity for people round here, you can fundraise, donate, you can be a volunteer. You can live local, give local, we can honestly say, we do charity different, that Mancunian way
And we fund local kids, and we fund local teams. We support local dreamers to work for their dreams. We support local groups and the great work they do. So can you help us. help local people like you?
Because this is the place in our hearts, in our homes, because this is the place that’s a part of our bones
Because greater Manchester gives us such strength from the fact that this is the place, we should give something back
Portugal has won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 49 years with the song "AMAR PELOS DOIS" performed by Salvador Sobral. He said on receiving the trophy: "We live in a world of fast food music. This is a victory for music... music isn't fireworks, music is feeling." We're enclosing the videos of the winning moment of the show, his final performance with his sister Luisa, who is the composer of the song. Later a video with some extra info about him and a final lyric video with the song in Portuguese and the English translation.
Videos @ Eurovision final 2017:
Video "AMAR PELOS DOIS", Salvador Sobral @ ESC Final:
In second position came Bulgaria with Kristian Kostov and the song "BEAUTIFUL MESS":
Another of our favourites was Sweden with Robin Bengtsson's "I CAN'T GO ON" which ended up 5th.
This map shows you by the different colours which London railway station you have to arrive to or leave from depending on your origin or destination, respectively.
EUSTON if you travel to or from the Western England, Scotland and North Wales. (Glasgow, Blackpool, Liverpool, Manchester)
MARYLEBONE if you travel from or to a small area of Northeast London.
PADDINGTON if you travel from or to South Wales, Somerset. (Cardiff, Bristol, Oxford, Reading)
WATERLOO if you travel from or to the South West: Devon & Cornwall. (Plymouth, Exeter, Southampton)
VICTORIA if you travel from or to the central South coast (Portsmouth, Brighton)
LONDON BRIDGE if you travel from or to the South West coast (Canterbury, Dover)
FENCHURCH STREET if you travel to or from East Anglia.
KINGS CROSS if you travel to the Eastern England & Scotland (Edinburgh, Leeds, Hull)
St PANCRAS if you travel from or to the Midlands & the Eurostar train to/from the continent (Paris & Brussels).
"Love Actually" has finally got its sequel, 14 years later. It's not a second film really, but a short film for charity shown on British TV on March 24th and on American TV next May 25th. Its director Richard Curtis has been directing again. It features: Liam Neeson, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, his stepson in the film, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Colin Firth, Martine McCutcheon, Andrew Lincoln, Lucia Moniz, Bill Nighy, Marcus Brigstocke, Olivia Olson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Laura Linneyand Rowan Atkinson. Emma Thompson isn't on the list, and obviously, neither her unfaithful husband, Alan Rickman, who died last year. The sequel has been made for charity purposes.
Here are some photos of the filming and the trailers of the sequel:
The blog to help you learn English, which started back on a Sunday in mid-September 2009 with THIS POST, since then and up until today, posts have been published regularly and have only stopped during the summer holidays. Thanks for following and visiting us in all these posts.
Commenting on a curiosity today. Do you know what day it is?
It's May, 4th: "Star Wars Day"
And do you know why it's so? Well, it has a curious explanation: it's a pun or a play on words, with one of the famous mythical punch-line quotes from the films, which has become a worldwide catchphrase:
"MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!"
which phonetically sounds similar to another sentence:
"MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!"
This second sentence was used on the exact day in 1979 as a headline in a British newspaper to congratulate Margaret Thatcher for having won the election and having become the first woman Prime Minister in the country.
Since 2008, it has become the day to pay tribute to George Lucas' film saga by its millions of fans and it's widely celebrated throughout the social networks and media.
Today we're bringing some videos from the British Council where language teacher and polyglot Alex Rawlings gives some interesting tips and help on language learning.
Video 1: FOUR WAYS TO GET BETTER AT LANGUAGES:
Video 2: "WHEN ARE YOU FLUENT IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE?":
Video 3: "HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE":
