Writing an Essay on Childhood Obesity

After the practice we did in class on the basic components of an article or essay. After these fun titles we came up with for some given topics. After learning about what a topic sentence is, and managing the structure and layout of an article, here comes your writing assignment for the month: Child Obesity in Spain.
Click on the link below and write about this topic as suggested in Exercise 1. Write about 180 words.

Exercise 1: Writing and Essay on Child Obesity in Spain

English Idioms, Sayings, and Proverbs

Dear all,
Here I attach the full document wih the English idioms, sayings and proverbs we were going through the other day in class. Definitions and explanations are also included in this post for your convenience. But remember this very old proverb: Soon learnt, soon forgotten, so you don't want to rush with this material. Savour the cognitive and cultural frames behind them instead.

English Idioms and Proverbs

English Sayings and Proverbs

Do we also have some of these images in Spanish? Maybe you would like to look into parallel structures in both languages! And what about Romanian, Diana and Cosmina?

Collapse: A follow up to David's talk on the financial crisis

Collapse is a documentary on Michael Ruppert, a police officer turned independent reporter who predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter, From the Wilderness, way before  it happened. He's now an investigative journalist and peak oil theorist. Whether a crackpot or a visionary, his theories leave no one feeling indifferent. This film, controversial as it may be, is probably going to catch your attention, especially after the discussion we had yesterday in class. And thanks David for sparking the debate. 

Click here to watch the documentary

Why I am leaving Goldman Sachs

Since the new topic of the week is Power and Money, I recommend you to read this letter published in the New York Times, written by Greg Smith, who is resigning today as a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm's United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Reasons for resigning from his job in Goldman Sachs? He states them fairly clear, just read on! 

Greg Smith's resignation letter

PS.: And thanks, Carlos Estangüi, for the heads up!

The ancient art of Rhetoric in current politics? Oops...

Now that we are learning a bunch of rhetorical techniques in class to enhance our persuading skills, check out these two good examples of the famous Lists of three things technique... terribly failing! The first one is the 47th Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, in the Republican Presidential Debate in November, 2011. The other guy is Oscar Blanco, town councilor in Aranjuez, going oops at roughly the same time. Do they sound convincing to you??

I Shall Be Free No. 10, by Bob Dylan

As a follow up to his talk on Bob Dylan, Carlos chose this song from his second album, The Freewheelin', released in year 1963. Listen to the song while you read the lyrics. Apart from being an amazing musician, he's definitely a great portrait artist of his times: the US in the sixties. Enjoy!

I shall Be Free No. 10, by Bob Dylan_lyrics

I Shall Be Free No. 10, by Bob Dylan_song

Generation gap or brain gap?

Yesterday we listened to this talk about the so-called Generation Y, remember? Among other things, this generation is thought to be digital native, right? Well, I'd like you to watch this interview with Dr. Gary Small, who recently published his last book called iBrain, talking about the technological alterations of the modern mind. Is the last generation gap rather a brain gap? You'll find out, and, once you're done watching, of course, go ahead and answer the comprehension questions below.

The iBrain: Comprehension questions