Wouldn't it be nice to sound like Leonard Cohen?

In 2011, Leonard Cohen received the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature for "a body of literary work that has influenced three generations of people worldwide through his creation of emotional imagery in which poetry and music are fused in an oeuvre of immutable merit". When he came to Oviedo to collect his literary prize, he gave one of the most beautiful speeches I've ever heard in this kind of setting.

His voice is so soft and delightful, his pronunciation so clear and precise, and his tempo so fine-tuned, that I recommend you to listen and repeat his words: if you do so you will certainly make good progress in your pronunciation.

This post is dedicated to Paco for appreciating the good music, and for helping out with the classroom dynamics yesterday. Thanks, Paco!

Leonard Cohen's Prince of Asturias Speech

Write for Rights!

As you may know, December the 10th is the International Human Rights Day, soI'd like to propose to you a somewhat different writing task for this week: This time you will devote your time and energy to writing to real people who are the victims of the violation of most basic international human rights law worldwide. You may also write to the authorities who are permitting all this.

Let me warn you that this is an optional writing task. So you're free to choose. It won't be marked, but I will help you with the grammar if you want to.

Find below the Amnesty International homepage for this campaign, and the toolkit with all the resources you need, including the specific cases they are currently campaigning for, and sample letters.

Amnesty International Write for Rights Campagin: Get started!

Write for Rights Toolkit

By the way, Happy Human Rights Day!

Ladies Please Remove Your Hats...

After watching the very beginnings of the motion pictures industry in class, I'd like to suggest you continue learning about this amazing human enterprise. Movies have been around for several generations now, and have deeply contributed to shaping our understanding of the world surrounding us. Please, watch the following documentary up to minute 12, since you will have to answer to the five questions I pose below. After that, you're free to continue watching the video until the end, maybe you'd like to sit back, relax, and grab some popcorn... Just an idea!

Open Questions:

1.- Who created the well-known American Movie Industry originally?

2.- Who were its first audience? Why?

3.- What was frightening about The Great Train Robbery?

4.- Who's the author of a new film language in the US? With which movie?

5.- How did film making become big business in the US?

A Really Close Shave...

And this is one of the most visited videos in the recent years, a breathtaking recording of animal interaction in a nature preserve called Kruger, in South Africa.

Pretty amazing, huh? But there's always room for some critical reflection here:  Do you think the man may be somehow involved in the way animals interact here? Maybe you wanna think about the dimensions of park safaris like this one...

What's the Key to Being a Great Dad?

After watching the episode of Modern Family which deals with parenting issues, now it's time to review the words and expressions we worked on together in class. Below you can find the vocabulary sheet and the episode with the subtitles. You should watch it again, a second viewing is surely gonna be of great help to understand all the expressions we learned, and to catch all the jokes!

vocabulary sheet
watch the episode with English subtitles

Talking about Melting Pots... Market Days

Talking about melting pots the other day, we finished the class watching the following short film which actually illustrates this very fact in a market place in the US. Click on the video below if you feel like tasting the human feelings treasured in it one more time... I'd like to thank my former student Carlos Crespo for showing this endearing story to me, and to you.

Market Days, Synopsis

Randall spends his days imagining the vibrant inner lives of various vendors at the multicultural urban market where he works: none more so than Angela, an angel with her own pastry shop. But Randall's inattention to his work lead to a string of thefts and soon threatens to cost him his job. A chance encounter with a beautiful starlet and her lapdog provides Randall not only an opportunity to break the ice with Angela, but a chance to prove his worth to everyone at the market - including himself.

R

Click here to watch the film with subtitles on

One Headlight by the Wallflowers

Remember singing along to an English hit song was another good strategy to work on our fluency in English? Well, your classmate Paco sent me this song to kick off the karaoke season. Not only did he send the link to the video,  he also prepared and intro to the song, and edited the lyrics. You will find everything below. Thanks Paco for all this! Great song!

One Headlight Lyrics

One Headlight Intro

Shadowing: Let's Start with a Loving Revolution!

Yesterday in class, as we were discussing the different goals and strategies for this year, some of your classmates suggested shadowing as a nice way to start working effectively on listening, speaking, and pronunciation, all at once! I thought that was an awesome idea, so... here's my proposal: listen to Patch Adams, an American physician, social activist, clown, and author who has some really interesting ideas to share with us about living in a healthy world. Just listen to him talking, and repeat his very own words immediately (so that you become his shadow). You should do this as you stand up or even walk around, trying to put the same energy as he does in your speech. Please, don't do this for more than 1-2 minutes, we should start doing this little by little to avoid frustration, ok? Ah! Thanks a lot, David and Marisa, for explaining this technique to all of us!

"I want a world where no one alive can remember what the word war means..."

Some more grammar revision, hurray!

Click on this link to continue testing your grammar

Click on this link to find out the right answers

Hoja de superación de errores

Welcome to Class!

Click here for all the info to get started in NA1