Tuesday, October 28, 2014

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.

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Monday, October 27, 2014

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!



Wednesday, October 15, 2014

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..."