Halloween is back ! Let's learn some typical Halloween-related traditions

The night of the dead is approaching. I'm sure you have already seen children, teenagers and family on the street all dressed up as ghosts, vampires or scary monsters. If you think Halloween is a typically American festival, then think again because thanks to globalization, Halloween is everywhere ! Last year I wrote a post about 10 Halloween icons, but this year I have decided to outline the most important Halloween traditions hoping that you can learn a lot from this post :

1. Carving pumpkins and transforming them into spooky Jack-o-lanterns :

Americans enjoy buying huge pumpkins (or growing them by themselves). They then empty them, carve them to look like scary, frightening creatures, they put a candle inside them and ta-da, yo have a terrifying homemade Jack-o-lantern to scare your neighbours away.

From : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LedmS1Zb1eY

2. It's all about getting dressed up :

One of the charms of Halloween is to make your better disguises shine. Yeah, people love wearing their best costumes. However, contrary to what you may think, costumes do not need to be scary at all. Of course you can dress up as a witch, ghost, mummy or zombie, but you may as well disguise as a police officer, fairy, firefighter or any other possibilities. 

From : http://www.partycity.com/category/halloween+costumes.do

3. Trick-or-treating :

Probably the best tradition for all children. Children get dressed and they go door-to-door asking for candy, pronouncing the words : "trick or treat." These words basically mean that if they don't receive candy, they will pull a prank / play a trick on the house owners (by throwing eggs, wrapping it in lots of toilet paper...). Then, they will get back home where they will count their booty, which will probably last until Christmas. 

From : https://memegenerator.net/instance/29389278

4. Pulling pranks on others /playing trick on others : 

Halloween has proved to be the perfect festivity for pranksters and jokers. People seem to very creative. The jokes may very from throwing toilet paper or eggs to scare people in many different ways. In one American programme, though, they issue a challenge where they ask parents to tell their children that they ate all their Halloween candy. Here you have two hilarious videos showing some pranks. Enjoy them : 

5. Watching horror movies or scary chapters of your favourite TV series :

Halloween is the perfect time of the year to spend some time at home watching TV haunted with fear. In October some new horror films are released, among them new installments of Paranormal Activity or Saw. There are very popular films such as Hocus Pocus, Halloween, Tuesday, 13th,... TV series are flooded with Halloween-themed chapters. Who hasn't seen the Simpsons' Halloween special ? 

6. Haunted houses :

Another way to have fun is by means of haunted houses. You rent or use a big house, decorate it with cobwebs, bats and other spooky stuff. Then you invite people over and try to scare them away while you have fun. You can also go to a haunted house set up specially for Halloween in a theme park. 

From : http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2011/09/28/theme-parks-cash-in-on-quests-halloween-screams.html

7. Halloween games :

Not everything in Halloween needs to be scary or creepy. There are funny games that can be played to have fun. One of it is bobbing for apples, a game where children must try to catch some apples from a bucket with water using their mouths (and faces). You know, like fishing apples without the help of your hands. 

From : http://www.halloweenonearth.com/halloween-object-Bobbing-for-Apples-19.html

Another interesting game is the mummy game, a competition to wrap your children in toilet paper as fast as you can. Aren't they cute ?

From : http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/2013/10/toilet-paper-mummy-game.html

Moreover, at schools, some Halloween parades are organized so that you can enjoy and see all the people's costumes :

From : http://blog.mrcostumes.com/halloween-parades-in-maryland-2012/

8. Cooking and eating creepily delicious food :
There is a wide range of ideas and recipes that you can cook on Halloween. These are just only a few of ideas :

               Pumpkin pie              Roasted pumpkin seeds

    

                  Candy corn                                       Eyeball tacos

   

        Oreo Spider cookies                       Candy ghost lollipops

    

  Candy apples (pumpkin mode)                   Skull cake

       

Chocolate pudding mixed          Halloween cookies         

with crushed Oreo and 

gummy worms.

9. Halloween emblems and symbols :

Last but not least, if you want to learn a lot vocabulary about the main characters of Halloween, do not hesitate and watch this wonderful presentation. 

Well, this is all for now. I hope you have an entertaining yet terrifying night. Have fun and eat lots of sugary products and be original with your costumes. At the end of the day, why do we have Halloween if not for fun ?
Have a horrific night.

Songs in the classroom : Friday I'm in Love

Hiya !
It's Friday at last, so let's celebrate it ! My coworker and colleague, Nuria, told me a very good song, so this post will be a homage to both her and her chosen song ! The song's title is Friday I'm in Love, sung by the group The Cure. 
As usual, listen to the song and try to do the activities that I propose (most of them Nuria's ideas indeed). Then, you'll be allowed to check your answers at the  bottom of the page. Ready ?

1. Listen to the song carefully and try to discover how many times you'll hear each day of the week. Then, have a look at the lyrics and the answers down below and answer the questions:

Monday : ____ times

Tuesday : ____ times

Wednesday : _____ times

Thursday : _____ times

Friday : ______ times

Saturday : _____ times

Sunday : _____ times

2. Identify three colours in the song.  What does the expression : Monday's blue mean?

3. Identify two parts of the body.

4. Have a look at the lyrics of the song  and identify the words that rhyme with 'heart', 'blue', 'surprise' and 'bed'.

Friday I'm in love

I don't care if Monday's blue

Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too

Thursday I don't care about you

It's Friday I'm in love

Monday you can fall apart

Tuesday, Wednesday break my heart

Thursday doesn't even start

It's Friday I'm in love

Saturday wait

And Sunday always comes too late

But Friday never hesitate...

I don't care if Monday's black

Tuesday, Wednesday heart attack

Thursday never looking back

It's Friday I'm in love

Monday you can hold your head

Tuesday, Wednesday stay in bed

Or Thursday watch the walls instead

It's Friday I'm in love

Saturday wait

And Sunday always comes too late

But Friday never hesitate...

Dressed up to the eyes

It's a wonderful surprise

To see your shoes and your spirits rise

Throwing out your frown

And just smiling at the sound

And as sleek as a shriek

Spinning round and round

Always take a big bite

It's such a gorgeous sight

To see you eat in the middle of the night

You can never get enough

Enough of this stuff

It's Friday

I'm in love

I don't care if Monday's blue

Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too

Thursday I don't care about you

It's Friday, I'm in love

Monday you can fall apart

Tuesday, Wednesday break my heart

Thursday doesn't even start

It's Friday I'm in love

ANSWERS :

1. Monday : 6 times
Tuesday : 6 times
Wednesday : 6 times
Thursday : 6 times
Friday : 8 times
Saturday : 2 times
Sunday : 2 times

2. Blue, grey, black. Monday is blue means 'Monday is sad'.

3. head, heart
4. 'Heart' rhymes with 'apart' and 'start'. 'Blue' rhymes with 'you' and 'too.' 'Surprise' rhymes with 'rise' and 'eyes'. 'Bed' rhymes with 'head' and 'instead.'

Did you enjoy the song ? I hope this song will have helped you to end this long, tiresome week. See you next week. Halloween is coming...

False friends can be real friends

How is your weekend going ?

I hope you will be enjoying it pretty much. Last week, I wrote an entry about false friends. This week I intend to write a more original post about false friends. As you can remember, false friends are words that have a similar or identical form with words from other languages, but a very different, unexpected meaning. 

However, false friends, as some friends, can have two sides: they have an unexpected meaning, and a similar expected meaning. This is what I am going to analyze today in my post. Some false friends that, in some restricted contents, have the meaning that we expect. 

From : http://www.safetysignsandppe.co.uk/product/temporary-road-sign-diversion-ahead/

Let's begin :

WORD	UNEXPECTED MEANING	SIMILAR MEANING	SENTENCES
Succeed	a) Triumph, get success.	b) To come after another thing in a series (suceder). c) To replace someone (suceder).	a) He succeeded in building a company from scratch (‘tener éxito’). b) The calm succeeded the rain (‘sucedió’). c) Felipe IV succeed king Juan Carlos in the throne of Spain (‘sucedió).
Realize / Realise	a) Notice, become aware of …	b) To make something real.	a) He realized he had forgotten his keys at home. (‘se dio cuenta’) b) He realized his dream of becoming a singer (‘realizó’, ‘cumplió’).
Camp	a) A place where a lot of people sleep together.	b) A place where people are imprisoned with inadequate facilities.	a) My son is in a summer camp (‘campamento’). b) During the War, a lot of Jews were held in concentration camps (‘campos de concentración).
Promotion	a) To improve one’s job, position or salary.	b) A special offer to get consumers to buy a product.	a) There’s a special promotion this week : 3 Kit-Kat for 1 euro (‘promoción’). b) He got the promotion he was waiting for. Now he earns more money a month and works for less hours (‘ascenso’).
Attend	a) To go to or be present in an event.	b) To take care of or look after someone. c) To pay attention.	a) He didn’t attend the meeting because he was sick (‘asistió a’) b)The nurse attended to her patient’s call (‘atendió’). c) You must attend when the teacher is speaking (‘atender’).
Chorus	a) Refrain, part of the song that is repeated.	b) Choir, a group of people singing together.	a) This song is fantastic. I can’t get its chorus out of my head (‘estribillo’) b) The chorus at the church is superb. They have heavenly voices (‘coro’).
Content	a) Substance, ingredients.	b) Happy, satisfied.	a) I like the content of this lasagna (‘contenido’) b) He is content today. His son has just been born (‘contento’)
Condition	a) Illness, health problems.	b) Circumstances. c) State.	a) He has a heart condition (‘illness’). b) I will accept the job only under my conditions (‘condiciones’). c) This house is in a terrible condition (‘condición’, ‘estado’)
Molest	a) To harass someone sexually.	b) To bother, upset of annoy someone.	a) The police caught him when he was molesting the girl (‘acosando sexualmente’). b) Bullies molest their victims at school (‘molestan’).
Support	a) To encourage, to give help.	b) To bear weight, to sustain.	a)  Jane supported Stephen when his mum passed away (‘apoyó’). b) The columns support the building (‘soportan’).
Relative	a) Member of the family.	b) Having to do with, connected with, associated with.	a) He is my relative. I think he is my grand uncle (‘familiar’). b) These were the facts relative to the aggression (‘relativos’).
Casual	a) Informal.	b) By coincidence.	a) He is wearing casual clothes. It’s an unimportant event (‘informal’). b) That was a casual encounter (‘casual’, ‘fortuito’).
Facility	a) A building prepared to provide a given service.	b) Ease, lack of difficulty.	a) The sports centre has great, outstanding facilities to do sport (‘instalaciones’). b) This computer can be used with great facility (‘facilidad’).
Public	a) Private (in education) .	b) Open to all people.	a) He must be rich because he goes to a public school where the tuition fees are outrageous (‘privado’). b) This event is public : everyone can attend (‘público’)
Diversion	a) Detour in a road or lane.	b) Enjoyment or pleasure.	a) This street is closed to traffic, but there’s a diversion on the right (‘desvío’) b) Video games are his favourite diversion (‘diversión’, ‘pasatiempo’).

Well, as you have seen, English can be difficult and contradictory some times. but this  is precisely what makes it a daunting and challenging language, don't you think ? 

My favourite list of false friends

From : https://www.thelocal.es/galleries/culture/funny-false-friends

Hello people,

Today I'm going to show you my favourite list of false friends. It's not that I don't have many real friends, hehe. As you know, false friends are words that are similar to other words in one language, but the meanings are different, in other words, terms that have a very different meaning than expected but a similar form in another language. Most languages have false friends and they are words that we must carefully study if we do not want to be misunderstood. Today I will be presenting the selection of my favourite false friends in English (in contrast with Spanish) :

WORD	MEANING	SENTENCE	HOW DO YOU SAY…?
assist	help	I need some assistance. Can you help me ?	‘asistir’ in English is ‘attend’ (‘go to’)
attend	go to	I can’t attend lessons today. I’m busy.	‘atender’ in English is ‘assist’ (shop-assistant)
embarrassed	ashamed	She felt embarrassed after falling down in front of the whole class.	‘embarazada’ in English is ‘pregnant, with child’.
success	triumph, victory	He gained his success because of his hard work.	‘suceso’ in English is ‘event’ (‘news’)
succeed	get success, triumph	You need a lot of effort to succeed in life.	‘suceder’ in English is ‘happen’
exit	way out	I can’t find the emergency exit.	‘éxito’ in English is ‘success.’
fabric	textile fibre	This jacket is made with high-quality fabric.	‘fábrica’ in English is ‘factory’
carpet	rug, tapestry	I wasn’t careful and I accidentally spilt the milk on the carpet.	‘carpeta’ in English is ‘folder’
actual	real	We want to know the actual cost of the repairs. If not, we won’t pay for it.	‘actual’ in English is ‘current’
rope	piece of string to tie things up	In the past, people were hanged. Yes, they used rope to hang people.	‘ropa’ in English is ‘clothes.’
casualty	death	When we are at war, there are a lot of casualties.	‘casualidad’ in English is ‘coincidence’, ‘chance’
college	university	In the US, teenagers become independent the moment they go to college.	‘colegio’ in English is ‘school.’
constipation	The opposite of diarrhoea	Eating vegetables is the best thing to prevent constipation.	‘constipado’ in English is ‘cold.’
pretend	fake, feign	Don’t pretend that everything is OK ! You’ve got real problems.	‘pretender’ in English is ‘intend.’
intend	have the intention of	I intend to become a doctor. I’ll do whatever it takes.	‘entender’ in English is ‘understand’ or ‘comprehend.’
lecture	chat or talk about a topic	My favourite professor is giving a lecture today. I’m so excited !	‘lectura’ in English is reading.
professor	university teacher (highest degree)	He is not just a simple teacher. He is one of the best professors. His research on genetics is amazing.	‘profesor’ in English is ‘teacher’
library	the place where students study.	You can borrow this book from the library.	‘librería’ in English is ‘bookshop’ or ‘book store’.
support	encourage someone, stand by someone	We have to support him. He’s been through a lot. He needs us.	‘soportar’ in English is ‘stand’, ‘put up with’, ‘tolerate’.
sensible	thoughtful, considerate, realistic	John is good at making decisions. He is quite sensible.	‘sensible’ in English is ‘sensitive’.
sensitive	emotional, sympathetic, someone easily affected by other people’s feelings.	She is quite a sensitive girl. She always cries when she sees other people suffer.	‘sensato’ in English is ‘sensible.’
sympathy, sympathetic	sensibility, empathic	Joe has always been so sympathetic. He understands how other people feel. His sympathy is amazing !	‘simpatía’ in English is friendliness. ‘Simpático’ in English is ‘nice’ or ‘friendly.’
large	big	I’ve got a really large family : twelve brothers !	‘largo’ in English is ‘long’

So, how do you like false friends ? As you know they are extremely important not to cause misunderstanding. False friends will haunt you during your language-learning process, so you'd better start learning them. Next week I'll be writing another post related to false friends, only this time a bit more interesting ! What's your favourite false friend ? Post it in a comment.
P.S. If you want to laugh for a little bit, visit this webpage. You will find humorous examples of sentences with false friends.