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

Breakfast!!

Doctors say it is very important to have a good breakfast. What do you usually have? Here are some options



Design your perfect breakfast!! You can learn more vocabulary and do the exercises:

http://www.learnenglish.be/voc1_breakfast_study.htm
http://www.esolcourses.com/content/topics/food/breakfast/breakmatch.html

More on Friends

"A friend in need is a friend indeed" What does this expression mean? Click on it and find out.

For more expressions with the word "Friend":

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/friend

A friend is...

A friend is someone who...

How would you complete this sentence?
While you think about it, listen and read the lyrics of this wonderful song. You can click on the words you find difficult.
Have a nice day!!

Another red letter day,
So the pound has dropped and the children are creating,
The other half ran away,
Taking all the cash and leaving you with the lumber,
Got a pain in the chest,
Doctors on strike what you need is a rest

It's not easy love, but you've got friends you can trust,
Friends will be friends,
When you're in need of love they give you care and attention,
Friends will be friends,
When you're through with life and all hope is lost,
Hold out your hand cos friends will be friends right till the end

Now it's a beautiful day,
The postman delivered a letter from your lover,
Only a phone call away,
You tried to track him down but somebody stole his number,
As a matter of fact,
You're getting used to life without him in your way

It's so easy now, cos you got friends you can trust,
Friends will be friends,
When you're in need of love they give you care and attention,
Friends will be friends,
When you're through with life and all hope is lost,
Hold out your hand cos friends will be friends (right till the end)

Joey speaks French

In this part of the sit-com Friends, Phoebe tries to teach French to Joey but fails. A funny part. By the way, do you sometimes feel like this?

Follow this link:
http://youtu.be/DqwzvtjeYBQ

Then, you can take this quiz

Friends » Create A Quiz

Shopping!!

How often do you go shopping? Where do you usually go? What's the most popular place in your neighbourhood/ city? Listen to this student's opinion. Do you agree?

They mention window- shopping, what is it? Click on the word and find out

For vocabulary on shopping, click onto:
http://www.learnenglish.de/vocabulary/shopping.htm

Friday I'm in love

A classic to practise the days of the week. Listen to the song and do the quiz

Friday I m in love » create e-learning

Days of the week

Are you ready to practise the days of the week? Listo para practicar los días de semana?

The Annoying Orange

I'm among the people who consider "The Annoying Orange" to be hilarious. Yes, yes, I know some others don't. What about you?



What do these words mean? You can click on them:

FRUITY
FOR CRYING OUT LOUD
YAMMER

The Royal Wedding

A blog that prides itself on being updated cannot fail to post information related to what everybody is talking about: The Royal Wedding!!



Check these sentences from the video. What do you think the underlined words mean? If you don't know, you can check by clicking on them.

“What's truly surprising, and certainly reflects the state of news today, other networks and outlets not associated with news have also thrown their hat in the ring to cover the Prince William and Kate Middleton wedding, including The Weather Channel, Game Show Network, and Comedy Central.”
The LA Times agrees with O’Donnell, pointing out, we’re fighting three wars, people! But the newspaper also plays devil’s advocate, reminding us journalism is a business after all.

If you want to learn vocabulary connected with weddings, follow this link:

http://www.english-at-home.com/vocabulary/holidays-and-celebrations-vocabulary/marriage-and-wedding-vocabulary/

For complete info on the wedding you can visit the CNN website:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/02/15/royal.wedding.essential.facts/index.html?hpt=C2 (you can learn useful vocabulary and watch the videos on the left)

Gmail Motion!

If this is not cutting-edge technology, what is?

London!!

After a long break, I'm back, and this time with some info about London. I was fortunate enough to be there in January and I think this video summarizes the best of the city. If you've never been there, watch it to learn where to go on your next trip. If you find it too difficult, don't worry and just enjoy the beautiful landmarks shown.

Which of the places do you like the most?

You can also check how much you know about this cosmopolitan city by clicking onto:
http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/1ezZsKP/London-quiz
http://abceda.com/lonqz.htm
http://users.telenet.be/christiaan.bosmans/advanced/london_mcquiz.htm