They think it's all over....

Hello beautiful people,

Well I have started to miss our classes now. The painful void of the first week without class was helped by a visit from my mother and sister, which is always nice, but now the distractions have gone and this Thursday I am going to the EOI and I will not see you!

I want to take this chance to thank you for my beautiful bag. I have used it and received compliments but unfortunately we have not been to the beach yet - lots of time for that!

Anyway, I have just commented on Miquel's blog and I realized that it is not so sad, we are all continuing our journeys with the languages we try to speak, so we will always be united in this!

I spoke to the school and said that some of the students seemed to think the course was ok and asked if I could design something similar (for high levels) but different (I don't know how yet....) for next year and they said that is a possibility.

I did think of you all and I thought I should share this anecdote on here. It's an example of the (perhaps false) modesty of us English, and it was completely automatic, I only realized afterwards how typically English I was being.

Here goes:
While my mother was here visiting my flat, she was being nosy as usual, looking at my classes, me new bedroom, and she found some feedback sheets and was having a little read (like school reports when I was a child really - nothing's changed - I haven't even learnt to hide these things from her). Anyway, she said how lots of people said lots of nice things and even when there was a criticism, it was usually with delivered in a very friendly way, so she thought I was a good teacher and I corrected her that maybe I had just taught all my students to be English and indirect! So there we go, I am still English, this display of not accepting a compliment affirms it, although my mother and sister both tell me that my language is a bit altered...

finally, I noticed from the emails that friday July 3rd seems to be the most popular/easiest day for people, so we should persuade all of those who find it more difficult and arrange a time and a place!

And really really finally, I do hope you continue keeping in tuch on here, as it will help maintain the English too. My first Catalan teacher used to say almost daily how writing is the one way of mastering a language and he was right!

See you soon
Felicity

Cockney story

So I was thinking that instead of each person writing a story, maybe we can all contribute to one here.... If we each write one sentence (or 2) to continue the story, including some rhyming slang, what do you think?

A few good websites to learn slang are:

http://www.fun-with-words.com/crs_example.html

http://www.phespirit.info/cockney/english_to_slang.htm


So if I start, let's see if we can write an epic story of a Cockney...



One Thursdya afternoon, Bob got home early, and as soon as he went inside, he heard the dog and bone.

Ya man!

So, firstly to confirm that the course will now finish on June 4th.

Secondly, I hope you enjoyed the Caribbean session. Obviously the cultural background and various movements of population cannot be covered in great depth in 2 hours but I hope at least it was informative and interesting.

Now, if you have been reading the extract, I challenge you to 'decipher' this Jamaican poem! It's difficult and the best way to try to understand it, in my opinion, is first to listen to something Jamaican on youtube, the song we did in class or something, with lyrics, to get a feel for the accent, and then try reading it aloud to yourself. It doesn't look like English, but maybe that's because the spelling is more true to the spoken version, unlike English at the moment!

Here it is:


Bans a Killin

By Miss Lou

So yuh a de man me hear bout!
Ah yuh dem seh dah teck
Whole heap a English oat seh dat
yuh gwine kill dialec!
Meck me get it straight, mas Charlie,
For me no quite understan

Yuh gwine kill all English dialec
Or jus Jamaica one?
Ef yuh dah equal up wid English
Language, den wha meck
Yuh gwine go feel inferior when
It come to dialec?
Ef yuh cyaan sing 'Linstead Market'
An 'Water come a me yeye’
Yuh wi haffi tap sing 'Auld lang syne’
An ‘Comin through de rye'.
Dah language weh yuh proud a,
Weh yuh honour an respec –
Po Mas Charlie, yuh no know se
Dat it spring from dialec!
Dat dem start fi try tun language
From de fourteen century -
Five hundred years gawn an dem got
More dialec dan we!
Yuh wi haffi kill de Lancashire,
De Yorkshire, de Cockney,
De broad Scotch and de Irish brogue
Before yuh start kill me!
Yuh wi haffi get de Oxford Book
A English Verse, an tear
Out Chaucer, Burns, Lady Grizelle
An plenty a Shakespeare!
When yuh done kill 'wit' an 'humour',
When yuh kill 'variety',
Yuh wi haffi fine a way fi kill
Originality!
An mine how yuh dah read dem English
Book deh pon yuh shelf,
For ef yuh drop a 'h' yuh mighta
Haffi kill yuhself!

Missing class, where can it be found?

Hello there,

Just a quick message to let you know, if you don't know already, that there is class next week (23rd) but the following week (30th) there is no class because of the May bank holiday weekend.

So, there are two options to 'find' this missing class.

1. The Tuesday of the same week - the 28th April.

2. In June, so the course will last one week more, and the final session will be Juen 4th.


Please leave messages saying which day/s are convenient/inconvenient for you and I will pick the day that inconveniences less people!

See you next week

Felicity

Easter

Hello beautiful people,

I hope you are enjoying/have enjoyed the break, not the break from class, but the break in general. I hope that the break from class made you all extremely sad and not knowing what to do with yourselves! But I'm sure you managed.

I had a lovely trip to London, partly because of the friends I saw and partly because of the shopping but mostly because the weather was much better than here! I actually got sunburnt on the Sunday afternoon, at a BBQ!

So I was thinking about organizing a quiz, to see how much we have learnt so far in the course, but I don't know how popular this idea would be...

I will tell you a little anecdote from my trip in London, I don't know if you will find it funny or boring or silly. There was a man on the tube who, when we were stopped in a station, found a hat in the seat next to him. As a man who had been sitting there had just got off, he picked up the hat and ran to the door saying (in a slightly raised voice but not a shout) "excuse me, sorry, is this yours?". Well the hat didn't belong to that man so it was forgotten, but I had a little giggle on the inside that English people, even when there is some urgency (e.g. the train leaving) still have time for good manners (excuse me) and, of course, to apologise! What was he sorry for??

Also, our lovely new student Miriam now has a blog and I am the first follower! But she needs more otherwise she may get lonely in cyberspace. The address is
http://miriamenglish.blogspot.com/
so have a look and please tell her more about yourselves. I like the idea of the blog as 2hrs a week is not very long I don't think.

I think that's all for now.
See you on Thursday

Felicity

American/British English

Hello again

Well I have a link I wanted to share with you about some of the 'problems' between US and UK English. It is widely recognised that US is easier for most foreigners to understand, but maybe because of that it is better to learn British English, then you can easily adapt to American, whereas the opposite would be more complicated!

I think the island factor has something to do with it, the UK is after all quite a small island. If you compare the Catalan of Mallora/Menorca with Catalan here or the Portuguese from the Azores to that of mainland Portugal, the small islands are always different, maybe it's a question of water. The more water that surrounds your land directly, the more difficult you are to understand...? Of course English in this case is not exactly the same because it started on the island and went to the States. I think it's a big question of exposure really. Brits are much more exposed to US English through films and TV series and music than Americans are to British English.

From a linguistic point of view, it is known that American English is usually spoken in a slower, clearer fashion and that the vowel are usually longer. I find that the American accents of the East coast are much more similar to British, they have the American lilt but it's not unpleasant to my ears!

Well, this is the website, I hope you enjoy and laugh, and maybe you will see a word that you made a mistake with in the past and the funny looks you got will all suddenly make sense!


Double Meaning http://www.mansioningles.com/vocabulario65.htm


I look forward to reading all your entries this week!


Oh, and I forgot to say yesterday (sorry!), next week's class (2nd April) will be in room 28 because our class in the library will be full of French students! It is on the top floor, I'm not entirely sure which one, but there are not that many to choose from!

All my love!
Felicity

Birdsong

Hello!

I have been trying to think of a story to tell about birds and after reading Carla's story about the birds in her garden I have decided to tell the story of my father!

My parents live in England, in Devon to be more precise and on the Cornish border, more or less. My father was born in London and grew up mainly in cities and first visited the countryside when he was about ten. Of course, he loved it, and he has been living in the same house in the middle of nowhere for over forty years now. This has advantages and disadvantages. Of course it is very beautiful and the air is clean and the food is good etc etc etc but it is 20 minutes drive to the nearest town and 1 hr to the nearest city, which is not ideal for a teenager. Once I got my driving licence I started to love it again!

In my family we refer to my father as a tree, as he spends most of his time outside, in almost any weather, he's not very talkative and to be a bit more insulting, perhaps because his skin is now similar to that of a tree!! It's OK, he doesn't use the internet so he will never see this! But the main reason I think he is referred to as a tree is because of his relationship with birds (here I mean feathered birds, not the English slang referring to women!). Whenever he is outside working on something (he is now retired so this is now mainly to tend the vegetable plants, but he used to breed roses), or whenever he leaves the house, the birds seem to greet him with a song, and he knows all the different songs and responds in a human 'whistle'. It is quite fascinating to listen to his 'conversations' with the birds. He can't know what he is saying, but the conversation always sounds friendly! Now I know that some neighbouring farmers have witnessed this and might think he is insane, but I think it is a great talent. I have also noticed that all the birds go over to him to talk to him and they always stay near him if he is outside. He tells me that this is because they are safe if they are near him as he will scare their predators. They must think I am a predator because they never stay around too long if I go out there, even if he is there to 'protect' them!

So that is the story of my father and the birds of Devon!

See you on Thursday.
Felicity

Spring has Sprung!

Hello all!

I hope you are all as happy as me to see that Winter may finally be coming to an end! Temperatures in the 20s, that's what I like to hear, and see, and feel!

Anyway, I just saw this article, it is an interesting column and the articles are often good, so I thought I would share it.

The link is
http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encnet/Features/Columns/?article=Accents

I particularly love the part where it says

"George Bernard Shaw probably got it right when he said “As soon as an Englishman opens his mouth, he makes another Englishman despise him”.

I have been thinking about my story but I have not finalised the details yet...

See you next week

keep in touch!
Felicity

British humour and comedy

Hello again,

Following our session about humour, which I enjoyed even though we didn't see all the materials I prepared, too much talking again! I hope you have had a chance to read the man's account of his Summer holiday (which incidentally he spent near my home, and yes, it did rain that much last summer!).

I agree with some of the comments that humour/humor can be international depending on the individuals and the understandings between them but I also feel that, after living abroad, the typical British humour is rather eccentric at times and possibly difficult to follow.

Anyway, I'm not going to propose any more reading, as I think we do enough, but I would recommend watching some comedy in English, either the bits the BBC and others provide on youtube.com or buying/renting dvds.

Series I recommend are (in no order of which is best!):

Comedy classics:

Keeping up appearances
Yes, Minister
Fawlty Towers


Satirical/pop quiz

Never Mind the Buzzcocks (especially the one with Amy Winehouse!)
Have I got News for You

Recent comedy

The Office
The Catherine Tate Show
Little Britain
Peep Show


If you know any others, please add them, and please, have a good laugh! It's healthy!

All the best,
Felicity

Germanic/Tribal Roots

Hello!

Again, I hope you all enjoyed our last session, I'm very happy with our group and how we chat, but I think next week I will have to be more strict with the time. The problem is I think speaking (and writing!) is one of the best ways to really maintain/improve a language, sometimes I let this opinion get the better of me!

Anyway, I found this link which explains quite well the differences of Germanic English (used more for speaking and therefore more prone to changes and alterations) and more formal (Latin) English.


www.teachingenglish.org.uk/files/teacheng/Classroom%20Resources%20DictionariesLang-Chunks-Article.pdf


Keep in touch!
Felicity

North vs South

Hello again!

I hope you enjoyed Thursday's session about the North-South divide, I hope I wasn't too subjective, the North is not that bad, it's simply that the South is better!

Anyway, as promised, here is some extra information about both areas, separated many centuries ago and not yet truly united....

Parts of the articles are taken from facebook groups called
'1000 reasons why the North is better than the South' http://es-es.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2215192716
and (originally)
'1000 reasons why the South is better than the North' http://es-es.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2214666492.

I don't think the groups use capital letters for North and South but in my capacity as teacher I would like to inform you that in correct English we do!


Part 1:

Why it's better up in the north

USER Adam Drewery said: "Today we have food heaven and hell, jellied eels with creamed potatoes versus roast Lancashire beef, Yorkshire puddings and the North East’s finest crisp spring vegetables."

Steven Torrie said: "We have better mountains and we don’t say ‘barth’ and ‘carsal’.

Tom Wilkinson said: "Mountains, lakes, forests, wildlife, chips and gravy, polite people, largest resource for minerals and coal in the country, Thirlmere reservoir supplies water all the way down to Manchester; you can walk for 10 minutes in one direction and be out in the middle of nowhere, real Cumberland sausages, and on the topic of food, Cumbria supplies the nation with the largest percentage of meat, and it’s damn tasty; soft water so scum doesn’t develop in your kettle; the accent is faster, easier and more to the point ... ’ow’s it garn’ ... can mean several pleasant greetings in different contexts.

"Lots of things to get involved in; water sports, climbing, biking, gill scrambling, scree-running and all really possible if you take that 10-minute walk out one way. I could actually write a thousand reasons here and now, but I’ll save some space for others. Because we are polite."

Isambard Rayner said: "Main reason why North is better... better BEER. It’s cheaper as well."

Andrew Richard Barton said: "We have the best rock climbing in England."

Stacey Redpath said: "We drink Vimto and not Ribena, tea is food and brew is a drink."

And Andrew Donoghue said: "No congestion charges up North."

Some of the favourite features include Gateshead Millennium Bridge, the Sage Gateshead, Fog on the Tyne, Newcastle Brown Ale and the Toon Army.




British cities: Manchester’s comeback
Jul 30th 1998 From The Economist


EVERY now and then Manchester gets a reminder of its little brother status. After two failed bids for the Olympics this decade, Sebastian Coe, Britain’s most famous modern Olympian, remarked that if the United Kingdom really wanted the Olympics, it should recognise that the only place that would be taken seriously internationally was London. Manchester’s bid to become the site for the new European Central Bank was widely derided. Its bid for Britain’s new national stadium was taken more seriously—but London got it all the same. Even Manchester’s most famous sons have a habit of decamping to the south. Noel and Liam Gallagher, the front men for Oasis, one of Britain’s most successful bands, make a lot of their Manchester origins—but live in London these days.



Part 2:

Why it's better down south

THERE are 152 discussion topics on Phil’s site – 1,000 reasons why the South is better than the North.
User Suzie Keller said: "I vote Surrey – low crime rate, beautiful houses and countryside and fabulous education – even the non-fee-paying schools are good and close to London and Brighton. Brilliant."
Ashley Morgan, of the West Midlands, said: "I live up North 10 months of the year (Why did I choose to go to York uni?) and I can tell you they are not nicer.
"Their disingenuous chat is only there to maintain the facade that they may not have as much affluence as the South but they have better people skills."
Another topic, entitled "The South must be better than north … that’s why the capital is here", brought the responses: "Statement I believe cannot be refuted – it’s colder up North" from Claire Wimpory, of the London network, and Robbie Roffe, of Leeds, replied: "Yeah, that’s a point, the North will suffer a lot less from global warming as well, maybe the capital will move up here once London is flooded."
Emilia Grace De Wolf said: "Hampshire – land of the gods. An hour away from London, but in the middle of the countryside, lack of chavs, great education, has Winchester in (recently voted best place to live in the UK on that Channel 4 programme) and it’s on the south coast – smashed on the beach, plus tasty lifeguards. Hampshire, land of the glorious middle classes and place of my dreams/forefathers."


A survey of more than 9,000 British postcodes, by CACI Information Services, shows that average income in Britain last year was £26,200, which is 12.5 per cent higher than in 2000 and an increase of 34 per cent on 1996.
1.5 per cent of all UK households have incomes higher than £100,000, with Thorntonhall, a suburb of Glasgow, topping the poll. In a neighbourhood containing just 333 households, almost one in eight enjoys an income of more than £100,000 a year.
The other wealthiest postcodes (those with the highest percentage of households earning more that £100,000) are all located in London and the South East. In second place is Fleet in Hampshire, followed by Hampstead (London), Effingham (Surrey), Wimbledon (London), Wandsworth (London), Bayswater (London), and Kensington (London).



Life expectancy: north-south lifestyle divide blamed for health inequalities

* Sara Gaines guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 June 2008 10.53 BST

There is a clear north-south divide in patterns of binge drinking and unhealthy eating which help explain a growing life expectancy gap, new analysis shows today.
Consultants Local Futures compared life expectancy with data on lifestyle factors associated with poor health and found a clear correlation.
People in the richest parts of England can expect to live up to 10 years longer than those in less affluent areas - and the gap is widening, according to government figures.

Advancing in English – furthering knowledge of the English language and cultures

Welcome!

I hope we can use this tool to write and communicate in English all week long!

Things to be getting on with this week:

Choose a book and order or buy it. (Alibri, alibri.es, Casa del libro, casadellibro.com, Come in Libreria inglesa, www.libreriainglesa.com)

A field guide to the British by Sarah Lyall ISBN 978-1-84724-582-3, Quercus, 2008

Watching the English by Kate Fox ISBN 9780340818862, Hodder & Stoughton, 2005

The adventures of the English Language by Melvin Bragg ISBN 978-1559707107, Arcade Publishing, 2004

The English: A Portrait of a People by Jeremy Paxman ISBN 978-0141032955, Penguin, 2007

White Teeth by Zadie Smith ISBN 9780140297782, Penguin, 2002

Write a first entry for the blog, explaining why you like and dislike English and what you learnt in this week's session.