It's been quite a long year and full of changes! First of all, I embarked on a new adventure as a technical advisor at SEPIE, the National Agency in charge of Erasmus + projects, among many other interesting initiatives. So I've somehow temporarily abandoned teaching for a while to see education from a wider perspective. It's been a grewat journey in which I'm learning a lot!
Anyway, I'd like to share with you some of my very last piece of work at my former workplace: EOI Coslada-San Fernando de Henares, where I spent 5 wonderful years. There I helped put together the school magazine: Cultur'arte and here you have the second edition of the magazine, in which I contributed alongside my colleagues. In it you'll find some of the initiatives and activities carried out at EOI Coslada-San Fernando de Henares! I hope you enjoy it!
Today is a very special day for me, not only because it's Father's day and I'm a father myself, but, rather, because my eldest son turned 4 today. Indeed, I first became a father on Father's day four years ago. Isn't it awesome? To celebrate this special day and to pay homage to fathers, I have decided to write an entry on some English idioms containing the word 'father'.
1. Father knows best: This idiom is used to indicate that a father (and extensively a mother) instinctively knows what to do in a given situation. This expressions strengthens fathers' experience in life.
E.g. - My dad considers I should not go parachuting because it's really dangerous.
3. Old enough to be one's father: This expression is said of a man who is much older than his partner, which people find shocking.(Spanish: si podría ser tu padre).
E.g. Jane's new boyfriend is old enough to be my father!
4. The sins of the father are visited upon their children: This expression coming from the Bible implies that children typically suffer the consequences of their parents' wrongdoings.
E.g. - His father was a ruthless man. No one in the company would be pleased that his son takes over. The sins of the father are visited upon the children.
5. Success have many fathers. Failure is an orphan: This self-explanatory idiom indicates that no one want to admit failure, but everybody is happy to show success to the rest of the world.
6. To be the founding father of // To be the father of: This idiom is used mataphorically when a man was decisive in the creation of something, in other words, when something would have never been possible without a given man's intervention, e.g. Alexander Fleming was the (founding) father of modern medicine.
Last but not least, I'd like to refer to the fact that the word 'father' in English is not jsut a noun, but it is also used as a verb (by means of conversion). In that case, 'father' means 'begetting', in toher words, giving life to someone (or something), e.g. he fathered three children // he fathered the business plan.
I hope you've learnt a lot from this entry. If you want to know more vocab on parenthood, check out my entry on parenthood vocab.
Now that the wintry weather is making us freeze, I'm bringing you an interesting and cultural entry...related to Groundhog Day. You'll have to excuse me, because I wanted to write this entry before, but I had no time...
First of all, I might need to explain what a groundhog is. A groundhog or a woodchuck is a rodent similar to a squirrel, which hibernates and lives in a burrow. Actions speak louder than words, so I'll post an image.
Well, in some parts of North America and Canada, they have a weird tradition involving this cute animal. The most famous celebrations take place in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where thousands of attendees witness the event...
On February, 2nd, in Punxsutawney and other parts, a groundhog typically named Phil, is taken out of its burrow with the ardous task of predicting how long the winter will last. Wow! Too much responsibility on one small animal. If the groudnhog sees its shadow, it will go back to its burrow and that will mean there are (apparently) six more weeks of winter ahead Americans. If groundhog Phil doesn't see his shadow, it means winter is probably over and the spring season will start in no time! But how does the groundhog communicate its prediction? Well, it has to speak its language (groundhogese) to the president of the inner circle and, based on that, the vicepresident will take the scroll with the prediction and will read it aloud.
Well, sounds crazy but the whole ritual is worth seeing: people shouting Phil's name in unison; spectators thrilled about its "predictions..."
It goes without saying that from a scientific point of view, this ritual has no value. In fact, poor Phil has only been right 34% times.
Again, actions speak louder than words, so, here you have the video of Graoundhog Day 2023:
On this video, you have a full explanation of Graoundhog Day, including its origin:
Last but not least, here you have the trailer to the film: Groundhog Day, which made this tradition popular. In it, the protagonist is trapped in Groundhog Day and lives it again and again and again.
