Monday 23rd Wednesday 25th February

Hi class! How are you? I guess you're ok ready to enjoy this weekend. I hope you have a good time... no excess!

This is the topic we are working with these days. Last week we have been doing lots of listening and speaking activities. We have revised countable and uncountable nouns while reviewing voc related to food. Last week we saw this short video which showed us the excess in relation to food. Supersize me. This week we discussed excess when talking about money and items people can get in an auction house

We worked with this voc

• to bid
• a bargain
• a discount
• to haggle
• not worth
• memorabilia
• can't afford
  

We will finish the listening activities next week and revise passive sentences.

Remember your homework:

Choose one of the things in the list below. Think about how it is prepared and cooked.

1. your favourite dish
2. the last meal you made for visitors
3. a traditional dish in your country
4. a dish you used to love as a child
   

You'll tell the class next Monday, ok?

That's all.

Be good, have fun, see you in class!

Bye!

Monday 16th Wednesday 18th February

Hi class! How's it going? I guess you're still thinking about this word EXCESS and the things we have said. I think these days we have had really interesting conversations. This topic is really enjoyable and you have done your best in speaking activities.

Also listening  and reading activities have been very very good. I'm really happy. Believe me.

We  had a great debate about excess, health, obesity ... especially after watching the  1st  part of the documentary "Super Size me".

I think it could be a good idea if you go on watching the rest of the documentary. Next day we will continue working with the text and will finish the questions. We'll have a look to grammar revising countable and uncountable. And also we will work with voc and more listeniing activities.

As I said before, I'm very happy with your performance.. I hope you go on like this.

Be good, have fun, see you in class!

Bye

Monday 9th Wednesday 11th February

Hi class! How are you? Waiting for this special Saturday with so many things to celebrate?. I hope you have lots of fun no matter what you decide to do.

These days have been more "thematic" than others because of these two celebrations. On Monday you showed your presentations about Carnival or Mardi Gras in different places in the world; I want you to know that you did a very good job. Two of you did your best and that makes me very happy, also because after your presentations you were speaking for a long time about all the info you had.

On Wednesday we had a very good time, really funny, when presenting the topic aboutValentine's. We had lots of fun when speaking about the origin and the business and so on and so forth. Well, we had a very good time.

We learned lots of voc related to these two topics this week, but the most important thing has been your speaking. And also that we changed the routine, don't you think?

So, for next day I'd like you to translate the text we worked with and no more. You deserve to enjoy.

Be good, have fun, see you in class!

Bye

Monday 2nd Wednesday 4th February

Hello class, how's it going? I'm sure you're fine enjoying some free time, having a rest or maybe looking for interesting things about Carnival in differents places of the world. You haven't written any word here yet; doesn't  matter, as I told you last Wed you can write here or show your presentation in class next day. But just for you to know, here you have the topics chosen:

• New Orleans: Elena
• Venice: Alberto
• Cadiz: Fidel

So, "rest of the class", if you want to join us next class with a presentation about Carnival or Mardi Gras in some other places, we also mentioned Rio de Janeiro,Tenerife, and Veracruz (Mexico). Last class we introduced this topic just talking about this celebration in different cities, its origin, its symbolism, and so on and so forth.

Also this week we have talked about alternative technologies and we had a very interesting debate. I'm really happy when I hear you speaking, believe me. Maybe for this reason I ask you to prepare some kind of presentation from time to time!

I think this one is going to be very interesting, since carnival represents this feeling of joy and happiness and party!!

I'm sure you'll do your best.

That's all

Be good, have fun, see you in class!!

Monday 26th Wednesday 28th January

Hi class! How's it going? I hope everything's ok enjoying some free time... maybe you're going to watch Frankenstein since we couldn't do in class because I couldn't play the movie in English...

Anyway, these days we had a look to the -ing vs -ed ending of adjectives and what's more, subordinate clauses with these structures:

• Do you know the girl talking to Tom? (-ing clause)
• The man injured in the accident was taken to hospital (-ed clause)

We said that we use -ing clauses to say what someone or something is or was doing at a particular time; however we use -ed clauses with a passive meaning.

We explained the form and use and then completed some activities about these kind of clauses, You seemed to understand perfectly!

To finish with our novel we listened to the final chapter in which both Victor and his creature die. After that we watched a very interesting documentary about the times in which the novel was written by Mary Shelley. We knew about the writer and her backgroung in order to understand the power of the novel better. I found it very interesting, I hope you too. If you liked it, I encourage you to go on investigating and discovering so fascinating things.

That's all by now.

Be good, have fun, see you in class!

Bye!

Monday 19th Wednesday 21st January

Hello class!! How are you? I guess you're  fine since it's nerly weekend and you can rest and relax... and maybe take  little time to work with the things we practised in class these days! As you can see through this photo we said this and some more examles of disasters caused by the hand of man. Well, this was part of the things we were working with, comparing man-made disasters and natural ones

To go to the end of this topic I askedyou  to speak or write about something of this kind answering these questions:

1. How can you help after a natural disaster? If you could volunteer to help after a natural disaster, what would you do?
2. If you had the chance to stop a natural disaster happened in the past, which would you choose? Why?
3. Do you know any true story related to this? (hurricane, earthquake, tsunami...) Tell us about it

Remember that this is homework and I asked you to prepare a speaking or a writing, I don't mind, the activity you prefer, it's up to you, ok? But try to use conditionals, as it has been the main topic these weeks, and voc related to it.

Next week we'll finish talking about disasters and we'll have a look to more phrasal verbs, right? I consider that our work with conditionals is done, don't you think? So we'll move to some other things. 

These days we have listened to the 9th chapter of the novel Frankenstein, it's only one more to finish and then I hope we can watch the movie; of course as I told you, after watching it we'll work on some questions and revision and maybe we can include some info about the gothic novel. Well, we'll see!

Also we revised the form and use of the gerund or -ing form. That's something we use everyday so I hope if you have any question or doubt you'd better ask me for more activities or deeper explanations. It's something so common that I want you to understand and use in the right way, ok? Do not hesitate in case things are unclear. The same happens with phonetics and pronunciation. I know I'm very repetitive week after week with the -ed ending, but it's very important.

As I'm so repetitive.... I wanted you to have a good time last class and taking advantage of the gerund we listened to a funny song full of   "-ings". It was so good that we even have time to have a look to the video... what a classic! Here you have

That's all. Thanks for your attention.

Be good, have fun, see you in class!

Bye!

Village & City Life

                             VILLAGE & CITY LIFE

Many people decide to move to the city nowadays, there is a tendency to abandon the villages and migrate to big cities looking for work and study opportunities. However, both lifestyles have advantages and disadvantages.

   

I would like to start with the aspects of living in the villages. First important thing is related to the healthy life because countryside is not polluted so you can breathe fresh air and enjoy with the beautiful landscapes and green zones. Countryside is not crowded of people, there are not traffic jams, therefore it is very easy to find peaceful and silent so that you can relax at any time of the day. In addition, living in the countryside can be considered safer than living in a big city, the probability of a burglary is lower, and the level of confidence in your neighbours and other citizens are higher. The most serious problem of living in a village is the unemployment, there are not enough companies or factories to offer jobs. Majority of people in the countryside works as farmers, it is a hard lifestyle that let them being self sufficient as they are able to grow what they need to survive.  Other important disadvantage is the lack of universities, public transport and hospitals which restrict the opportunities of studying, moving and heath cares.

The other hand is to live in a big city, as in the case of the village, living in a city has a lot of advantages, the most significant are the variety of work, studies, recreational activities, transport, etc. The city offers many chances of work and you can obtain a good salary and more interesting jobs. Also there is a wide offer to spend your free time, you can find a lot of museums, theaters, cinemas or restaurants, so you will enjoy your free time, that usually is very short, doing entertaining things, including going to the gym or going shopping. Also noteworthy the public transport, you have much more ways to travel, you can pick what is the best transport to travel. However, there are negative aspects of living in a city, cities are very crowded so you can find traffic jams, long queues, long waits, and summing up, more stress. As it is known the level of pollution is higher, so your health can suffer from it, and the landscapes are based on flats and more flats, skyscrapers and vehicles. 

Although the number of disadvantages of living in a city are pretty high, I will always prefer living there because the positive things that a city offers us are more important for living your life, but that is my personal opinion.

MARTA