Stop Evictions!

What follows is a brief summary of the presentation on House Eviction your classmate Mohamed gave in class the other day. He wrote up the following text for you guys. So just read on to find out more about his work.

On Monday December 15th, known as the Black Monday, the LEHMAN BROTHERS collapsed, then the banks stopped lending, and the credit dried up, which caused a big impact to the rest of the world's economy.

In Spain, according to many analysts and other observers, the main cause had to do with Jose Maria Aznar's land act of 1998, which freed up the land market, leading to a housing bubble, which grew very quickly, due to an easy access to credit and low interest rates. Spain had built in one year more houses than France, Germany and Italy all together. According to the Association of Registrars, 90% of the population became mortgage holders in 2006.

More than 400,000 families have been evicted from their houses since Spain's Property Market crashed in 2008, under the unfair mortgage law of 1861, reformed only in few cases as 1946 and 2012.

In 2012 the number of evictions broke record and reached 517 evictions a day in Spain. That means an average of 21 per hour, or an eviction executed in Spain every 3 minutes. As a consequence of this, more than 119 suicide cases are directly linked to these evictions.

The Platform of Mortgage Victims have been fighting against the evictions, demanding urgent reforms through a Popular Legislative Initiative which collected 1.402.854 signatures. On February 12th 2013, this was knocked down by the Popular Party.

THe PIL /ILP contains three measures as the minimum rules to put an end to this eviction hell.

1- STOP EVICTIONS.

2- HAND OVER YOUR HOUSE KEYS TO THE BANK AS REPAYMENT IN FULL WITH RETROACTIVE CHARACTER . 

3- A PUBLIC PLAN FOR A SOCIAL HOUSING.

SO, It's clear, IT'S NOT A CRISIS IT'S A SCAM.

Also, check out the video "Spain Evictions and Homeless Crisis", by PressTV Global News. There you can see your classmate from minute 17.32 through 20.18. Thanks a lot for your work, Mohamed!!

Colorful Emotions: Born to be Blue

Emotions in English are strongly related to colors: green with envy, red with rage, white with anger, red or pink with embarrassment, blue with cold, rosy or peachy to indicate good fortune or optimism, yellow-belly which means coward in American English... And this post's protagonist: the Blues.

To have the blues, or to feel blue, means to be in a state of depression or melancholy. Also, Blues music has at its heart this idea of melancholy mixed with anger against slavery and humiliation, as it is associated with the blue color of the indigo plant, grown in many southern US slave plantations.

I'd like to present here one of my favorite jazzmen, Chet baker, who really had the blues deeply entrenched in his singing: The song that I post for you today is called Born to be Blue. Check out the lyrics below before or after you listen to it, to discover how he plays around with the colors that surround us in nature, and complete the missing words please!

Enjoy the jazz and happy (and not blue at all) new year!

Born to be Blue: Words and Glossary

The Argument Clinic, by the genious Monty Python

As I promised, here you have the sketch by the Monty Pythons we saw in class a few weeks ago: The Argument Clinic. This is but a taste of the fabulous, marvellous, and unique humor displayed by this British surreal comedy group, whose comedy sketches were first aired in the BBC in 1969. The group's influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music, and, personally, I couldn't agree more.
 Please, don't miss the argument versus contradiction discussion!! 

By the way, don't you think this type of argument clinic may be an awesome way to avoid split-ups and fall-aparts with family, friends and workmates in these stressful times? We should all get a voucher for this clinic for Christmas!

Here follows the script of the sketch:

 The Argument Clinic Script

More on Stereotypes

This idea that men's and women's minds work differently when it comes to dealing with our daily life has been a cliché all along our lives, hasn't it? Women's supposed ability for multitasking, for instance, is allegedly absent in men's list of skills... But how true is that? This post is especially dedicated to your fellow student Amador, who really seemed to be enjoying the debate. Subtitles are in Spanish this time, but it's just the exception!

A Tale of Two Brains

What Kind of Healthcare do We Want?

Yesterday, after her presentation in class, Rocio asked the whole group the following question: What kind of healthcare do we want? Indeed, her talk prompted many of us to speak about such an important matter as our health, and our healthcare system. We all agreed that it is indeed everybody's concern.

Here follows the documentary directed by film-maker Michael Moore about the Healthcare System in the US back in 2007: Sicko. I recommend you watch it, and see if you detect any similarities to current reality in Spain. It''s two-hour long, I mind you, but is probably worth the while.

Sicko by Michael Moore. Part 1

Sicko by Michael Moore. Part 2

Dumb Ways to Die

Now that we have finished talking about the different means of transport to get around the city, compared public transport to private vehicles, and reflected on our safety while traveling, I'd like to share the following video with you. 

It belongs to a public service announcement campaign by Metro Trains in Melbourne,Victoria, Australia, to promote rail safety. As the advertising agency claimed, this campaign was aimed at engaging an audience that really doesn't want to hear any kind of safety message. According to Metro Trains, the campaign contributed to a more than 30% reduction in near-miss accidents during last year.

Besides the announcement, pay attention to the lyrics: it has nice vocabulary about things we do in our daily life, even the silly ones! Enjoy!

American Schools: Our role model, really?

Here follows an article published in Time Magazine back in September 2011. Your task is to complete the gaps in the text, and not to look at the key until the very end! You're also very welcome to think about the similarities between what was happening in the US two years ago, and what is happening right now -right this very week in fact-, in our country.

We're living sad times concerning our education system: Yesterday the most infamous law of education  in the history of this country was passed in Congress... Nevertheless, today I would like to thank all of you who are opposing this terrible reality one way or another, and encourage you all to continue expressing yourselves, and defending your freedom of speech, and of thought.

Onward and upward!

Cloze: American Schools

So what are we really like then?

Now that we all know the difference between how we see ourselves and what we are really like, I'd like to share with you some more adjectives which may help you pin down your character traits more precisely... One of your fellow students sent me this nice home-made list of adjectives over the email, just click on  this link below to look for your exact definition in English!

Carmen's Vocabulary List

In case your personality is a bit too complex and you need more words to define yourself, go for the big catalogue below!

Full List of Character Traits

Thanks a lot Carmen! and you guys enjoy your weekend!

Grammar for a Rainy Day

As I promised, here you have the answer key to the Entry Checker leaflet. I suggested in class that you should really try to make the effort and complete it, because it's great review of basic grammar contents that should be mastered by now, and the beginning of the year is definitely the best time to tackle this.

Entry Checker Intermediate Answer Key

Remember: if you come across major doubts or problems, you're more than welcome to bring them up in class. And, hey, the weather forecast says RAIN all over this weekend, so some catching up with the grammar of English doesn't sound like such a terrible plan, does it? Have a nice and cozy weekend anyway!

What's going on with our education system today?

Dear all,
As part of your listening practice, I´d like you to hear a brief news story about the students' and teachers' strike today in Spain, broadcasted by euronews channel. Here follows the video, and  you may read the story below. I'll be happy to hold a brief discussion on these matters next day in class; I'll leave this initiative to you, guys.

Click on this link to read the audiotranscript of the news

Dedicated to all the musicians in the world...

                        ...who make our lives better... and theirs too!!

Remember the mood-food debate in class last week? We all had the chance to reflect on how food actually affects our mood, right? Now I would like to show you a piece of research which deals with another very important nutrient for our brains: Music. You're going to listen to a news story about the relationship between music and the human brain. Click on the link below to hear and read all about it.  And thanks, musicians, for being around!!
NOTE: To listen to the news, click on the slower listening speed.

Music and the Human Brain: Read and Listen

Turning problems into solutions... That simple?

Here follows a short video where they give us some tips about how to approach our problems, focusing mainly on their solutions (future), and leaving behind their causes (past). I'd like you to watch it, and make sure you understand all the new expressions and vocabulary with the help of the vocabulary sheet that you find below. After you have watched it at least a couple of times, please write up a brief review by answering the discussion questions posted at the end of this post. We will read your writings in class next week.

Vocabulary Sheet: Turning Problems into Solutions

Discussion questions:

1.- Could you explain with your own words the solutions focus?
2.- Can you think of one person in your environment who follows this approach to solve his/her problems?
3.- Do you believe that the solution to our problems mainly depends on how we look at them? Why? Why not?

Which do you think is the hardest language in the world?

What follows is a cloze that you guys should work on as part of your home assignment this week.
Here is what you have to do: the first link below (step one) opens up the cloze text, once you're really done trying to get all the right answers you can open the second link (step two) where you will find the key to the exercise. Please, try to concentrate on getting the right answers by yourself before opening the key! :)

Step one: The Hardest Language Cloze

Step two: The Hardest Language Key

So, which do you think is the hardest language to learn? Well, I guess it depends on your  mother tongue too, don't you think? Maybe we can share our opinions in class next time. I believe we have Italian, Arabic, and Polish speakers in our groups who might have a take on this issue which may differ from Spanish speakers.

Who said English pronunciation was easy?

Ok guys, now that we're at the beginning of the year, we probably want to know the best ways to actually make some progress and pass the final exam, right? Well, let me tell you that humor is one of the best strategies to feel ok with ourselves, with our pronunciation in English, and with the teacher having us repeat the same expression several times... So, for starters, just have a laugh with Steve Martin and his hamburger...

School Calendar

...So, is it this Friday we have English class?...
...But, isn't next Monday a bank holiday?...
Well, click on this link below to check it out:

School Calendar: Year 2013-14

Information on your first day of class

Click on this link below to see all information 

First Day of Class Info