New Year's Eve : this blog's last entry... of the year !

Well, hello there !

2016 is coming to an end. Tonight is New Year's Eve and the twelve chimes of the clock will finish a year that, at least for me, has been particularly good ! I have passed my public examinations once again and thanks to that I can get to live in Madrid with my significant other. Besides, my niece keeps growing and growing and she can walk and she's learning to do things quite fast ! Anyway, since I'm on holiday, this entry will be a compilation of some touching Christmas videos and carols. What better way of ending the year than with a bunch of optimistic songs of Christmas ?

Let's begin with Mog's Christmas. It's quite an entertaining advertisement about a clumsy -yet friendly cat that, much like the Grinch, ruined its owners' Christmas. Or didn't he ? 



Let's continue with another catchy Christmas carol representing all the Christmas values. 

You know today it's New Year's Eve. It's an important family celebration in Spain where we will definitely try to eat the twelve grapes (one for every chime of the clock). However, in the English-speaking world it is not that important, Christmas Day being far more important for them. Anyway, the year is coming to an end, so to finish this post, here you have the trailer of a well-known film : New Year's Eve. Watch it because you will see some of the Christmas traditions, including New Year Resolutions. Here you have it : 

If you want to keep learning stuff about Christmas, you can click on the following links : Boxing Day ; Christmas vocabulary; Christmas videos; Practise your listening at Christmas; Christmas carols; Christmas in Spain, the UK and the US.

What are your New Year's resolutions for 2017? Come on, post them in a comment ! 

P.S. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Boxing Day

What can you smell in the air ? Well, the Christmasy atmosphere, of course. Everywhere you look, all you see is Christmas related : the Christmas decorations and ornaments, the bells jingling, a wreath of holly on every door, Santa climbing all the people's windows and the streets of your cities overcrowded. What about your belly ? Do you feel stuffed like a turkey ? Have you eaten more than you can really digest ? Worry not ! In the UK, you'll continue eating tomorrow. The UK is celebrating an important public holiday tomorrow : Boxing Day. 

In this post, I will summarize some of its more important traditions : 

1) Families come together to eat Christmas leftovers

From : http://www.solihull.towntalk.co.uk/events/d/56009/boxing-day-lunch

2) Britons buy presents to thank other people : close friends, waiters... : Christmas and consumerism are closely associated. That's why Boxing Day exists ! In the past, it was an opportunity to buy presents and distribute them to the poor, but now it is only buying presents for spending's sake ! Something similar to the tradition of Secret Santa in America. 

3) Shopping centres offer outrageous discounts, making boxing day one of the busiest days of the year (much like Black Friday in America). Some stores may knock-off prices up to 80%, so it is really a good opportunity to get some bargains ! Finders keepers ! 

4) Football is watched once again :  Local football and rugby leagues are broadcast on TV. These competitions add up a lot of viewers (much like football on Thanksgiving). As you can see in the picture, football fans will dress up in a Christmasy mode. 

Here you have a video summarising all the traditions of Boxing Day :

If you want to keep learning more about this day or about Christmas traditions in the English-speaking world, click on the following links :

http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/boxingday.shtml 

http://www.learnenglish.de/culture/christmas.html

Well, how do you like Boxing Day ? Keep enjoying these days with your family and friends, that is the most important thing at Christmas ! 

Let's sing an optimistic song : Don't Give Up

Howdy,
The week is finally coming to an end. Is there a better way to celebrate it than by singing quite an optimistic song ? The song I proposed this week is Don't Give Up by Bruno Mars

Complete the following song by Bruno Mars using THE PRESENT SIMPLE and the IMPERATIVE  of the verbs in the box.

 feel (x2)                     get                   have                hit (x3)            keep

put                               stand               try  (x3)           not think         want                   

Don’t give up (By Bruno Mars)

When you wanna do something that’s new.
And it seems really, really hard to do.
You ________  (1) like quitting, you _______ (1) you’re through.
Well I___________ (2) some advice for you

Don’t give up, _______   (3) on trying,
Y’all gonna make it (I ain’t lying); don’t give up.
Don’t ever quit, try and try and you can do it, don’t give up (yeah).

If you __________ (4) to catch a ball, but are having  no luck at all.
The ball _______ (5) your head, it ________  (5)your nose.
It _______ (5) your belly, your chin and toes.
Well ________ (6) and  _________ (6)  and  ________(6) again, keep on trying and soon then
You’ll put your hands out in the air,
You’ll catch that ball, yes this I swear.

Don’t give up, keep on going.
You’re on a boat, so keep on rowing
Don’t give up, don’t ever stop,
Try and try and you’ll come out on top, don’t give up.

You got yourself new roller-skates.
You __________ (7) them on and you feel great,
__________ (8) up, but then you fall.
___________  (9) you can skate at all.
You _________ (10) back up and then you trip
You skip and tip and slip and flip
Well try and try and try some more,
And soon you’re skating across the floor.

Don’t give up, keep on moving.
You’re gonna get there just keep on grooving
Don’t give up, don’t pack it in,
Try and try and you will win, don’t give up.
No no no, don’t give up
No no no, don’t give up
No no no, don’t give up, no no
Don’t give up
______________________________________

To check your answers, click on this link.
Do you like this positive song ? I hope so and, remember, no matter what happens in your life : don't give up and keep on going. 
Here you have the links to other songs in my blog :  songs about peace; Paradise; Christmas carols; Fast Car;  Somebody I Used to Know; I am a Believer; Friday I'm in Love.

Eponyms : when a person's name creates a new word.

Well, well. I know a long bank holiday is ahead of us  (for some people), but I insist on sticking to writing my posts about the quirks of English. In the past I wrote several posts about English quirks, for examples, a post about lexical creativity, another one about borrowing or loanwords, some Spanish borrowings and some French borrowings, another one about clippings, some posts about false friends I, and II; another one about abbreviations and initials,  another one about interjections, and another one about blending. This time I will be writing about eponyms or eponymous words, that is, words who were named after their inventors or in honour to a person or God. 

From : http://www.slideshare.net/chandramoulidubey/word-formation-26432145

Can you think of some examples of your own ? Well, while you are at it, I will illustrate some of my favourite eponyms. First of all, days of the week. Some days of the week are eponyms and they refer to gods  :

Monday = Moon.

Thursday = Thor, god of thunder.

Saturday = Saturn, god of agriculture. 

Sunday = Sun.

Let's continue with the months of the year, shall we ? In case you hadn't noticed, some months are eponyms given that most of them were coined after gods, goddesses or emperors:

January = Janos, the god of homes and bridges.

February = Febo, the god of light.

March = Mars, the god of war. 

May = Maia, goddess of spring.

June = Juno, goddess of marriage and childbirth.

July = Iulius Caesar, Roman emperor.

August = Octavio Augustus, Roman emperor.

From : http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/whats-in-a-name-a-lot-if-that-name-is-hodgkin-crohn-or-alzheimer

There are far more eponyms that one can imagine and many of them are created every day. Here you have some more examples :

- Jacuzzi = The hot tub was named after its inventor, Candido Enzo Jacuzzi. 

- Alzheimer = This illness was first identified by the psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer.

- Asperger syndrome = This illness was named after Hans Asperger, the psychologist that discovered it. 

- Pasteurize = The Frenchman Lous Pasteur discovered how to sterilize something by heating and cooling rapidly. 

- Machiavellian attitude = This behavioural conduct was named after Nicolau Machiavelli . His thought can be summarized by the motto : "the end justifies the means." 

- Guillotine = The first Frenchman to suggest the use of the guillotine to kill people without much suffering (regardless of the fact that he was against death penalty). However, he did not invent the guillotine himself, it being invented by Antoine Louis. 

- Nachos = These delicious Mexican snacks were invented by Ignacio Anaya (Nacho, that is). 

- Sandwich = This typical snack was "invented" by the count of Sandwich, a small town in England. The Earl was a gambler addicted to game and eating a sandwich would allow him to continue playing endlessly. 

- Mesmerise / mesmerize : Franz Anton Mesmer had a theory about hypnotism and the energies about human beings. Mesmerizing, isn't it ?

- Silhouette : This word reminds us of Etienne de Silhouette, a French politician that imposed high taxes to the upper classes. Having portraits painted started to become expensive and silhouettes became very popular thanks to his economic measures. 

In addition to this, there are some expressions considered eponyms :
Aphrodisiac : Related to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. 
Achiles' heel : To honour this brave warrior that was killed by the impact of arrows in his heel, his only vulnerable part. 
Adonis : A prototype of men's beauty.
Adam's apple : In reference to the well-known story in the Bible.
Thatcherism :  Based on the conservative ideas of Margaret Thatcher. 

Well, today we learnt some very interesting eponyms. Maybe one day, you can become the origin of an eponym yourself. Who knows ?
P.S. Can you tell me more examples of your own ? Please, leave more eponyms in your comments. 

Thanksgiving material for you to learn English

The busiest day in the United States is probably finished. Why ? Well, Thanksgiving is really important in the US and it is the time of the year when Americans decide to go back to their families. Last year I wrote a really interesting post about Thanksgiving. This year, however, I'm going to summarize Thanksgiving traditions with videos and vocabulary, so, if you want to learn about this important festivity, keep reading and enjoy yourselves ! 

1) Thanksgiving glossary

King James  I : An unpopular Catholic King who was a Catholic and was against the Protestants. He made the Puritans leave England. 

Puritans : Group of people who believed in God, but they were against Catholics and against King James I. They became pilgrims and they got aboard a ship : the Mayflower and arrived in the city of Plymouth where they decided to establish the colony of New England. They became friends with the Indians there and prepared food for them because they had taught them to survive. 

Mayflower : Name of the ship where the Puritans got on when they decided to leave England and go to New York. A lot of people died in the ship because of the illnesses.

Plymouth : The city in Massachusetts where the  Puritans arrived.  

New England : The name of the colony that the Puritans established in Plymouth.

Indians / native Americans : The original inhabitants of America (and Plymouth). They taught Puritans to survive. 

Squanto : The leader of the Indians. 

2) Thanksgiving food

  

              Roast turkey                                  Stuffing

   

  Turducken (turkey + duck+                Pumpkin pie

                          chicken)               

 

   

   Green bean casserole                        Sweet potato

   

     Corn pudding                                 Cranberry sauce

     Turkey cookies 

Black Friday : It is the day after Thanksgiving when stores and shops offer such incredible knock-downs that some people are willing to sleep on the street the previous day or fight to get the most discounted television

3) Thanksgiving videos

Here you have some videos that will help you understand Thanksgiving traditions

Here you can see Obama pardoning the life of his last turkey as president. 

To conclude this lengthy post, I would like to share with you a hilarious video in which children say why they are thankful for. You can't miss it. Well, Thanksgiving is over, so the Christmas season is officially open. 
See you soon:

What colour are you associated with? : colour idioms II

Hello there,

Some time ago, in September, I wrote a post about some colour idioms, and I promised I would soon reprise it with brand new idioms. I also include a funny exercise. Well, now that I'm seeing colours with my students of Básico 1, it's the perfect opportunity, so let's get started :

From : http://www.madrid.org/wleg/servlet/Servidor?opcion=VerHtml&nmnorma=8134&cdestado=P

Brown is associated with security and stability because it's the colour of the earth. It is also associated to material possessions. However, this is not reflected in the idioms. 

1. Brown off : When you brown someone off, you irritate and infuriate them,e.g. 'Madrid's traffic jam browns me off every day.' 

2. Brown-nose : Try to please someone in a way that other people may find odd or disagreeable. 'He always brown-noses new managers. That's in his nature.'

From : http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/yellow-clipart

Yellow is the colour of hope, sunshine and happiness, but, as you can see, it has some negative idioms, such as number 1. 
1. To be yellow : To be a coward. 'If you don't want to come with us to the haunted house is because you're yellow.'

2. a golden opportunity : A very good opportunity. A scholarship to the United States is a golden opportunity.

From : http://www.clker.com/clipart-splash-17.html

Pink represents compassion, empathy and love, what is is conveyed by the second idiom. 

1. See pink elephants : To be so drunk, to the point of having hallucinations. 'When I started to see pink elephants, I knew that I was really drunk.'

2. Tickled pink : Very much pleased. 'I was tickled pink when I received the invitation to her wedding party.'

From : http://worldartsme.com/color-grey-clipart.html#gal_post_12296_color-grey-clipart-1.jpg

Grey represents the in-betweeners, something formal or sophisticated. 
1. A grey area / a gray area : A situation where there are no clear rules,e.g.  'I don't know if that activity is illegal. I think there is a great area.' 

From : http://www.clipartkid.com/color-white-cliparts/

White is often associated to purity and transparency and this is somehow reflected in the idioms.

1. It's not black or white : We can't classify all problems in a category. There are grey areas, for example, 'not all immigrants are criminals and not all citizens are innocent people. Everything isn't just black or white. There are grey areas.'

2. Show the white flag : Give up, surrender, for instance, 'the team decided to show the white flag when they lost their best player.'

3. A white lie : A very small lie, a fib. 'He didn't want to spare his feelings so he told her a white lie and said he had enjoyed her presentation.'

4. To be as white as a sheet : To be very pale. 'Oh man, what's the matter ? You're as white as a sheet ! Go home and rest. 

Well, I hope you have a colourful weekend and that you have learnt a lot about colour idioms. See you next week with an important event for the US, Thanksgiving. Have a nice weekend. 

Remembrance Day and Veterans Day

I think you agree that language and culture can't be separated. Learning some culture helps to improve your level of language and understand other cultures much better. That is why I thought it would be a good idea to tell you about Remembrance Day, celebrated in England on November, 11th. This day is celebrated in the Commonwealth countries, that is, the countries that are dependent on the United Kingdom, for example, Australia, Canada and South Africa. Why is that day celebrated ?

1. To commemorate and remember those who lost their lives during World War II, serving the UK.

2. To celebrate the end of World War II at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
The motto of this festivity is : Lest we forget (para que no lo olvidemos)

How do the people remember ? The most common thing is to carry poppies to the dead ones as you can see in the picture down below.

The remembrance poppy has become a symbol of peace and a way to remember those who have passed away. 

If you want to know more, I include this video to commemorate the lives of soldiers that gave their lives. Remember : lest not forget.

In America, however, they celebrate the Veterans Day and it is a public holiday.

Much like in the UK, in the US people remember the hard work and struggle of Veterans, that is, the people that have fought so hard for their homeland (the US). This day, parades and other events are organized, including a visit to the tomb of the unknowns. This streak of patriotism will never be taken lightly in the US. They believe in the system; they respect their soldiers and they like to thank them for their effort on this very special day. The president himself or one of his representatives lay a wreath of flowers to honour all the Veterans (living or dead).

Well, if you would like to practise your listening a little bit more, you can watch this video and answer the questions. Have a nice, long weekend.

P.S. There are some mistakes in the answers of the exercise, the correct answers being

1a, 2a, 3c, 4a, 5c, 6a

Bonfire Night / Guy Fawkes' Night / The Gunpowder Plot

Howdy !

Today is 5th November. That day in England, there is a bonfire where the effigies of Guy Fawkes are burnt and there are fireworks ! It's a very special evening called Bonfire Night, Fireworks Night or Guy Fawkes Night. But what is the origin of this festivity ? 

Well, it all goes back to November, 5th 1605, that is 410 years ago. A man, Guy Fawkes, and other people wanted to assassinate the king James I to defend Catholicism. They planned to kill the king by blowing up (or exploding) the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder, so they dug  a tunnel into the Houses of Parliament. However, the King received an anonymous letter telling him all the plan, so he had Guy Fawkes and the other men arrested, they sentenced them to death and they were executed. The king declared this as a festivity so that everyone remembered to be good to the king and from that day on, there are fireworks and a bonfire night. There is also a famous song to commemorate this day. Here you have it.

The Fifth of November

    Remember, remember! 

    The fifth of November, 

    The Gunpowder treason and plot; 

    I know of no reason 

    Why the Gunpowder treason 

    Should ever be forgot! 

    Guy Fawkes and his companions 

    Did the scheme contrive, 

    To blow the King and Parliament 

    All up alive. 

    Threescore barrels, laid below, 

    To prove old England's overthrow. 

    But, by God's providence, him they catch, 

    With a dark lantern, lighting a match! 

    A stick and a stake 

    For King James's sake! 

    If you won't give me one, 

    I'll take two, 

    The better for me, 

    And the worse for you. 

    A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope, 

    A penn'orth of cheese to choke him, 

    A pint of beer to wash it down, 

    And a jolly good fire to burn him. 

    Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring! 

    Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King! 

    Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!

Anyway, here you have two videos explaining Bonfire Night with questions:

Video 1 



Questions :

1) When is Bonfire Night ?
a) 5th November
b) 25th December
c) 31st December

2) How do people celebrate Bonfire Night ?
a) With bonfires
b) With fireworks
c) With bonfires and fireworks

3) How many people went to the Bonfire Night in the video ?
a) Over 2,000
b) Over 20,000
c) Over 200,000

4) What time did the procession start ?
a) 16.00
b) 18.00
c) 19.45

5) What did Guy Fawkes try to do 400 years ago ?
a) Blow up the Houses of Parliament
b) Became a politician
c) Rob the Houses of Parliament

6) What do people put on the bonfire ?
a) Rubbish
b) Potatoes
c) Rag dolls named 'Guys'

7) What does Leon do ?
a) He researches the History of Bonfire Night
b) He organises Bonfire Night processions
c) He organises firework displays

8) What did the people think about Bonfire Night ?
a) They didn't like it
b) Some of them liked it
c) All of them liked it

Video 2

Vocabulary of the second video

Fireworks = Fuegos artificiales

Gunpowder = Pólvora

Plot = Conspiración

He caught the eye of a man = Un hombre llamó su atención

Cellar = Bodega

Plotters = Conspiradores

Gruesome = Espantoso, horripilante

Crows = Cuervos

Effigy = Efigie, (el modelo de una persona)

True or false ?

1. King James I lived in 1800s.

2. Guy Fawkes was born in York, America

3. He was a soldier fighting the Dutch reformers.

4. Thomas, Robert and Guy Fawkes loved the king.

5. They wanted a catholic king.

6. There were 36 barrels of gunpowder.

7. The king found out about the plot because he discovered the gunpowder.

8. Guy Fawkes escaped.

9. The first time this day was celebrated was in 1706.
10. Every year an effigy of Guy Fawkes is burned in a bonfire.

Answers :
Video 1
1a, 2c, 3b, 4b, 5a, 6c, 7, 8c

Video 2
1. False (He lived in the 1600s, that is, the seventeenth century)
2. False. He was born in York, England.
3. True
4. False. They hated the king. They wanted a Catholic king.
5. True.
6. True.
7. False. Someone wrote a letter to him.
8. False. He died escaping.
9. False. It started to be celebrated in 1606.
10. True.

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.