A matter of pronunciation!

It’s not always easy to practise the pronunciation in crowded classes (25-32 pupils per class). These days I’ve been showing my students a few resources and a couple of funny videos in an attempt to draw their attention to the importance on this issue.

There are some things you can do to improve your pronunciation:

1 Listen to English as often as possible: songs, short listening exercises , interviews of famous people you are interested in, etc.

2 It is advisable to know the phonetic alphabet.

3 Work out which English sounds cost you the most problems and practise them.

4 Be aware of intonation and sentence stress: stressed words are generally those which carry “information”, such as nouns and verbs. (more info here).

And now the couple of funny videos:

Malk, molk or milk?!

What are you “thinking” about?

Keep improving your English!!

My blackberry isn't working!

What do blackberries, oranges, apples, dates and eggs boxes have to do with desktops, windows, the mouse and a dongle? Watch this funny video and you’ll find out the answer.

Cooperative translation

The figure of the “Caganer” is a tradition that attracts a lot of attention outside Catalonia. Last year I found a very funny video of an English quiz show, where the presenter Stephen Fry surprises the contestants with a question about this figure. This was later translated into Catalan by VilaWeb. People might, after watching this video, take the misconception that Catalans always say “eat well and shit hard” instead of “bon profit” for certain. The British actor also says that Catalonia is a eschatological country.

A few days ago there was an article on Time magazine devoted to the ceramic figure of the “Caganer”, which was illustrated with a photo of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and its bare royal buttocks!!

Students of the groups BAT1B and C, and those of SO1A, translated the carol “The Caganer” the days before Christmas. Students of BAT1C used common dictionaries, while classes of SO1A and BAT1B could use computers and look up the words on the internet. They did this activity in pairs. Both sides had many doubts about translating the word caganer (crapper, shitter, defecator … were some of the options). I must say that the most enthusiastic and participative students were the youngest, the SO1A class. Here you have the resulting subtitled video. I hope you enjoy it!!

The Importance of Being Earnest

We’ve been reading The Importance of being Earnest by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde. This short play, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, as its author called it, was first performed in 1895 in London. A comedy, plenty of witty dialogues, in which Wilde creates ambiguous situations with a hilarious result. The protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape their boring obligations. Wilde laughs at the socials conventions of late Victorian London and builds up a satire of Victorian ways.

It is worth watching Oscar Wilde’s biography as well as reading 10 Facts You Should Know About Oscar Wilde and The 15 wittiests things Oscar Wilde ever said.

This is the film we’ll be watching in class after the hard week of exams is coming:

Our class!

At the beginning of the course the students introduced themselves to the rest of the class. We used linoit.com to share some photos and music we like. Here are the results:

SO1A

SO1B

SO1C

Our class!

At the beginning of the course the students introduced themselves to the rest of the class. We used linoit.com to share some photos and music we like. Here are the results:

SOG2

SO G3

Our Wallwisher.

At the beginning of the course the students of 1BAT were invited to share their wishes for the English class:

BAT1B

BAT1C