Merry Christmas!

professional photographer...

Come on, Maria...

You are our professional photographer, so post the ice-skating photos...

To people can see how much funny it was!

Last lesson before Christmas!

I'm thinking if you want to do something special on our last lesson before Christmas...

Lesson 26 (twenty-six) - 16/12/2010

Yesterday we corrected an old homework, something about a seagull's text.

Then we did a funny game with two teams about two texts: one about jump between roof tops, and another about how to pull yourself up from a hole in the ice.

Of course, my team beat the Belén's team...

Lesson 25 (twenty-five) - 14/12/20910

In the last lesson we corrected some homework.

Then we did a little stuff about Christmas.

Padel night

Christmas Dinner

Lesson 24 (twenty-four) - 09/12/2010

Yesterday we talked a little about what people do when they are in a death or life situation.

Then we read the texts on pages 52 e 53 and did the exercises 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d and 2a from the same pages.

The homework is grammar and vocabulary exercises on page 50.

Lesson 23 (twenty-tree) - 07/12/2010

On the last Tuesday we had a special lesson with people from other levels.

We did some quizzes and had a great time with Neil and Jan!

Lesson 22 (twenty-two) - 02/12/2010

In the last lesson, we corrected the idioms homework.

Then we read the "Risk Factor" text on the page 44 and talked a little about what we consider a truly risk or not.

The homework is 1 and 3a from the pages 44 and 45

Funny PictureS

Lesson 21 (twenty-one) - 30/11/2010

Yesterday we talked a little about a confusing family...!

After it we did a little game with weather vocabulary.

The homework is discover the meaning for each idiom.

Where is Wally?

This is a new of today Friday 26 November 2010, from the Daily Telegraph journal:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/8162302/Energy-suppliers-under-spotlight-as-profit-margins-rise.html

I have meant to find several phrasal verbs, idioms, etc... and this is the result:

False friends:
* Comprehensive (it isn't "comprensivo", it's "exhaustivo, completo").
* Suply (it isn't "suplir", it's "suministrar").

Idioms:
* "Companies are playing it straight with consumers" ("Las compañías están jugando limpio con los consumidores"). PLAY IT STRAIGHT is to do something without tricks, with fair play.
* "But are widely expected to follow suit" ("Se espera que, por lo general, siga su ejemplo"). FOLLOW SUIT is to follow the example of another.

Phrasal verbs:
* "ripping off consumers". Rip is "rasgar, romper" but RIP OFF is "estafar".
* "put up its domestics gas tariffs". Put is "poner" but PUT UP is "aumentar".

Can anybody find more in this new?

Bye.

Lesson 20 (twenty) - 25/11/2010

Yesterday we had a very funny lesson! ;)

We talked about the weather through a four in a row game with two teams!

Then we read the texts on the page 40 and did the exercises 1b and 3a from pages 40 and 41.

After that we started reading some cartoons from a Jan's photocopy.

There is homework: making some questions about the text in the top of the sheet.

Christmas dinner!

Hello everyone!

We were talking, at the end of the last lesson, about the date of our Christmas dinner.

And the consensual date is 10th of December. We have to decide as soon as possible, so tell us if you are in or if you have an alternative date.

There's another point we have to discuss. The guys told about an italian restaurant, so we have to decide if everyone like it or not.

Have a nice weekend!

Steal

Today I want to share with you a new idiom I found while I was doing the homework. It's related with crime and punishment but have a totally different meaning:

be a steal = to be for sale at unexpectedly low price

Example: This suit is a steal at €50...!

Lesson 19 (nineteen) - 23/11/2010

Yesterday we started correcting the homework.

Then we read the text on page 39 and did exercises 5a and 6 on the same page.

The homework is 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d and 3 from the pages 24 and 25 (workbook)

Weekend

Hi guys! the weekend was good? what about the walking? did you take any picture??

Kiss

Pd:Jan.... I started to watch the film... no comment.... ( lol )

Lesson 18 (eighteen) - 18/11/2010

Yesterday we were talking about types of crimes and punishment ways.

Then we corrected the homework.

And after we did exercises 1a and 2a from the pages 36 and 37.

The homework for Tuesday are the exercises 4a, 4b and 4e from page 38.

Have a nice weekend!

Lesson 17 (seventeen) - 16/11/2010

Yesterday we corrected our mini sagas and worked a little with adverbs.

Then we read Little Brother text on page 30 and we also did exercise 6b.

There are homework: the grammar, vocabulary and comprehension exercises on pages 34 and 35.

By car/on foot

Well, I take the lead to give an example of what I want with my idea.

I start with a collocation (collocations are words that go together).

For example, we say I go by car/by train/by plane.

But when we want to say that don't want to take a transport, we say that we go on foot and not by foot.

That's your turn Borja!

Lesson 16 (sixteen) - 11/11/2010

In the last Thursday we corrected the homework.

Then we read the four mini sagas on the page 28 and after we did the exercises 1c, 1d and 1f.

The homework for Tuesday is 4c. We have to write a mini saga...!

Greetings!

Just one beer

Improving vocabulary!

Hi guys!

I have an idea and want to share with you. You tell me if it's a good or bad idea...

You can do an alphabetic list, like this:

1. Borja
2. Eurico
3. Jorge
4. Jose Domingo
5. Maria
6. Maria Jesus
7. Nuria
8. Victor

And each of us have to choose a word/phrase to improve our vocabulary. But not ordinary words. The words must be prepositions, collocations, phrasal verbs or idioms. The most difficult subjects...!

The idea is that the first person, in this case Borja, have to choose a word/phrase and have to post it on the blog. But there's not only choose the words, we have to give a pair of examples. Then in the next class we discuss that in the first minutes.

Today I present this idea at the class.

Lesson 15 (fifteen) - 09/11/2010

Yesterday we checked the homework.

Then we did a little revision about fashion and clothes.

In the end we were talking about transports and we read the text "Air Babylon" on the page 24.

The homework for the next lesson is 2a from page 25.

The school organized an hike activity and we promise that Thursday we'll say if we go or not.

We also planned a meeting around "Valdepasillas" after Thursday lesson.

Have a nice day!

Lesson 14 (fourteen) - 04/11/2010

Yesterday we talked a little about clothes and fashion. And what is his meaning about the individuality of each of us.

We also did exercises 3b and 3f at the page 22 and exercise 5a from page 23.

There are homework: exercises 1a, 1c, 2a, 2b and 3a from pages 14 and 15 (workbook).

Have a good weekend!

Radio

Hi everyone!

I’m going to ask you for an advice.

When I’m working, usually listen to the radio and I would like listening some English radio but don’t know a good channel. Really I would like a radio of music because I can’t pay so much attention, hearing people speaking only, I will bore. I have checked BBC radio but I don’t like its music.

Do you know some good English radio that I can listen by Internet? Could you advice me?

Thank you very much!!

WAO!!!!

Hi!!! I am Maria! The person who only know to say three articles of clothes: shoes, shirt and jeans (and last one because of the Jan's help... thank you Jan)
Waooo!! This is very nice!! I have never thought to take class of english will be so entertaining and fun!! But I can see that you guys write very good... it's like if you don't need to take class!

I'm agree with Borja, we should go " de cañas" in order to improve our level of english in a " BAR"
:)
Pd: sorry for the orthographic mistakes....

Express yourself (like nokia slogan)...!

Come on guys! I saw that you already join the blog! You don't need to write a lot. Just a few words about you to break the ice...! If we can have a united group, we'll be more confident in class and without fear to be incorrect! I read this morning an article about team building and his importance in the companies's performance! Here, in our classes, is the same. If we are paying 65€ per month, we have to improve our english skills as quickly as we can! And, for that, we have to practice as much as we can!

Lesson 13 (thirteen) - 02/11/2010

Today we finished the little game about a murderer.

Then we did some revision exercises on the page 18 of the book.

There are no homework.

Hey all

Hi everyone, it´s Jan, your English teacher. I was told about this blog by Eurico last week and I am happy to join it. I don´t have a reliable internet connection at the moment, but I should be getting the internet at home this week, so I am using the computer at work until then. I will have a look at the messages you have written and I will give you some feedback in the lesson. I will also try to get some of the other students to join, I think having your own blog is a very good idea. See you in class, Jan

Tomatou or tomeiro

Yesterday, Eurico and I kept a very very very interesting conversation about how to pronounce "tomato".
The question is this: "Have you got affinity with english or with american people?. I send you two audio files.
The first one is an english tomato and the second one is an american tomato…. You can see the difference….
And the thirst one is and Spanish tomato.
Bye.

I'm Paul

For the reason we haven't got a teacher or a definitive teacher, today i'll be Paul.

I need to know what's the difference between this words:

- Tell or Say.
- Do or Make.
- Lose or miss.
- Know or meet.

I don't know it exactly, so i want we discuss about it. For example, we can begin "doing/making" sentences using the words i showed above.

The first one is:

1) I make homeworks for my students.

The second one:

2) So, my students do the homeworks.

The two sentences are corrects, so we begin to deduce some differences... between boths.

The next on is for you.

HI

Hi, everybody.
I think i don't introduce myself because i hope you know me yet... we have introduced ourselves three or four times, etc. etc.
In my next comment i'll give you a homework.

My two cents!

First I would like to thank Eurico blog creation and his participation.

On the other hand, I would like to propose a new rule, we have to correct us; that is, correct me if I write something wrong, thanks.

Well, now I have to introduce myself:

My name is Nuria, I’m twenty-four years old and I’m from Valdecaballeros. I studied Chemical Engineering and I’m PhD student. I don’t know if you know what PhD student means. For this reason I’ll explain you what I do.

Being PhD student is very different from being career student. I have to read a lot of scientific articles, after that I relate bibliographic data to experimental data and I try to find new experimental methods to improve the current methods. I can say “I’m researcher”; my work is very interesting but it is also a hard work. I spent eight hours in my laboratory and, the most of days, when I arrive at home, I have to treat the dates obtained in previous experimentation. Therefore I can say I’m worker and student; I working for eight hours, like a normal worker; and I do homework, like a student. Besides that, I earn, like a worker, and I’m trained, like a student. I like my work although it is hard and I'm happy!

Phrasal verbs

Paul said that phrasal verbs are one of the most difficult matters to english learners. And want that we do every lesson a grammar sheet with one to have a bank of them at he end of the course.

He said that is better to memorize them in a context and not in a list, so I find this book to help us.

download

Introducing myself

Well, because we have three teachers in three weeks and some of us missed lessons, I think that's a good idea we introduce ourselves again in the blog. If we know each others, we'll be more confident in class between us to stop Paul if we don't understand him or to take the initiative to talk or ask something.

So, I'm Eurico, twenty six years old, from Elvas, Portugal. I was in Elvas until need to go out to continue my studies. In that period of time I played many sports, like basketball, table tennis and judo. To buy things with my own money, at the age of sixteen I started to work, in part time, in a furniture shop, selling and distributing. When I was eighteen, I needed to move to Lisbon because near Elvas there wasn't a place to study Law. I went to a public school because it was cheaper than the private. In Lisbon I stopped a little with my sporty life and consumed my leisure time in cultural activities, like cinema, theater, reading, etc. Now I finished my career and came back to Elvas to start working as a trainee-lawyer and help my father in his business of buying and selling houses. I searched for english schools in Elvas but there wasn't. So decided to went to Badajoz to learn english. In fact, I don't need it particularly for my job, but I love travel and if I know english I can go everywhere. I really like mix with other cultures too so I joined a trekking Badajoz group to improve my spanish and restarted my sporty life.

Welcome!

This is a blog to help us improving our english written skills. Like our professor Paul said to us, the more we practice, better will be our vocabulary and fluency.

We can write about everything, without fear to be wrong. But there is one rule: we cannot write in spanish or in portuguese, all the words must be english!

The future of this blog depends on his utility. If we write a lot, it continues. If not, well... we need to find another way to help us!