A classic!!

Who hasn't seen The Pink Panther?
Learn verbs in English and have fun!

On Martin Luther King

Every third Monday in January people in the States remember a great figure in the fight for Human Rights. It is a National holiday and the media always devotes some time to the life and achievements of this leader.

You may listen and read about his life here:
http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/samoset/gr2mlk.htm

For a reading comprehension test:

http://michel.barbot.pagesperso-orange.fr/hotpot/mlk/comp.htm

You can also watch, listen and read his most famous speech in the YouTube link here.

Holidays!

It's been a veeery hot week here in Buenos Aires. A lot of people are on holiday and some are about to leave.Listen to this dialogue about holidays and answer these questions:

1- Why was she nervous?
2- Where did she go?
3- What did she do there?

The speaker uses the word "vacation" instead of "holiday". What's the difference? Well,"vacation" is used in American English, whereas, "holiday" is used in British English. Do you know other words that are different in British and in American English? You may check the following links:

http://www.mansioningles.com/vocabulario71.htm
http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/blbritam.htm

Thanksgiving

Pilgrims? Mayflower? Puritans? What's all this? To learn about the history of Thanksgiving, watch this interesting video.

You may take a wonderful voyage aboard the Mayflower, you can visit:

http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/voyage/journey.htm

After this, check how much you've learnt!!

http://wilstar.net/holidays/thanksqz.htm

Spring is here!!

Here, in the Southern hemisphere we're enjoying a wonderful day. It's sunny and warm and the city is full of teenagers celebrating the arrival of Spring and also, student's day.

Spring is a time of hope, of new beginnings and this is the best song I could find about it. Listen, read and enjoy!

"Beautiful Day" by U2

Feeling blue!

It's been a grey day in Buenos Aires. Rainy days make me feel blue. No, don't worry! I haven't turned into a Smurf (or Smurfette). To "feel blue" is "to be sad" and is an instance of an idiom. What is an "idiom"? It's a combination of words that has a meaning which is different from the meaning of the individual words themselves. There are many colour idioms in English. Some are easy to translate because we have similar expressions in Spanish whereas some are more difficult to work out.

If you want to learn more idioms like this, you can watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A67e-isDR0

Or read some definitions before practising:
http://www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idiom-categories/colour-idioms.htm
http://www.idiomconnection.com/color.html

For practice:
http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-64903.php
http://www.ihbristol.com/learn-online/exercise-general/advanced/vocabulary/colour-idioms/70/

By the way, you'll find 2 spellings for the word "colour/color". The spelling -our is used in British English and the spelling -or is used in American English. This rule applies to all the words with that ending (e.g behaviour, favour, neighbour, etc)

Learning English

After Joey speaks French, have fun with another video on learning languages. Inspector Clouseau has to learn the expression: "I would like to buy a hamburger". How difficult do you think this is? Here you'll see how hard it can be:

http://youtu.be/uvpikUEIaLI

Practice: listen to a conversation at a restaurant:

http://esl.about.com/library/listening/blrestorder.htm

Practice your vocabulary with this online game: http://www.learn-english-today.com/wordgames/hotpot-xwords/food.html