English Over Easter

Try and do something in English over the 2 week break. It's holiday time so do something which is pleasurable: try and watch 1 film in English (maybe with subtitles?) and read a short book.

For those in Martin's class, here a wordsearch containing 30 words from the vocab bag. Click here and then print it off.

Also, if you haven't looked already. Go to the previous post on Pronunciation and try out some of the activities. In the Tuesday / Thursday 15:55 class, we're going to do a lot more on pronunciation in term 3 so any work you can do familiarizing yourselves with the symbols would be apprecicated

Happy holidays!

CALL room lesson / 1-to1 counselling

Part of today's lesson will be in the CALL room - this is to give me a chance to talk to you individually about your progress. So, here are some computer-based activities to work on - some are based on software found on the computer, others are internet-based:
Do the activities in whatever order you fancy. Also, work with another student where possible. So:

1. Network English (advanced) grammar connectors
2. Network English (advanced) grammar conditionals (3rd and mixed)
3. Network English (advanced) words law and order
4. Pronunication Suite (stress and rhythm) moving stress
5. Pronunciation on the web (look at the posting below on Pronunciation, follow the links and try out some of the activities)

When you finish, write some comments about which activities you enjoyed. Were they too easy, too difficult or just too boring?

Pronunciation on the web

There are some great sites on the Internet for practising pronunciation. Here are just a few:

1. Elementary Pronunciation If you have never studied pronunciation before, this is a good place to start. Simple diagrams with recordings of the sounds + practice activities to help you sensitise to them.
2. Ship or Sheep Say 'ship' and 'sheep' out loud. Is there a difference? Many students have trouble distinguishing between 'minimal pairs' like 'ship' and 'sheep'.
3. Iowa University Phonetics If you have trouble making certain English sounds, then this may be the site for you. Although it's American English, this site uses diagrams of the mouth to show you exactly how to make the sounds.
4. Stress Monsters This a game and it's good fun as well as being useful. Here the focus it on word stress. I recommend you skip the elementary level game and go straight to intermediate.

Let us know which of these sites you found the most useful. And if you know any others, please share them with all of us.

CH Just click on the CH and you'll get the Inbox worksheet

Podcasts for listening practice

A colleague of mine has just found these podcasts on a British Council site. They're similar to the ones on this blog. They come from a site called Learn English Professionals so you might find some of them a bit too business and work orientated.

I haven't looked at them in detail but they all seem to have the script + some exercises for you to do. Please comment here if you try out the 'listening' especially if you've got any recommendations.

Click here to access the site.

PS If you want to find the 'listenings' on this blog, go to the LABEL section on the left and click on listening practice.

MY LUCKIEST MOMENT LATELY...

I don't need to search deep inside my memories to find a lucky moment in my life. In fact, a month ago I'd an exam, it wasn't much important but I needed to pass it anyway. I hadn't study enough and I was almost sure I was going to fail it.

However, the day before the exam a friend of mine in an upper year told me the questions of the exam they'd done the year before. I flicked through them not giving much importance because I couldn't imagine that, the of course brilliant but also lazy teacher wasn't going to change the exam and it was going to be the same as the year before.

Well, so it happened and at that moment I felt like the luckiest person in the world. Now I am sure I'm going to pass the exam, think so!

Pink Floyd

WISH YOU WERE HERE – PINK FLOYD

So, so you think you can tell ______from Hell,
blue _____from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a ____ ?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot _____for trees?Hot air for a cool______?
Cold _______for change?
And did you ________a walk on part in the war for a ____role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls ________in a fish____, year after year,
Running over the same old______.
What have you found? The same old_____.
Wish you were here.

You can listen to the song in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DXCHa9BYfE

LUCK

Tell us about some lucky moment in your life.

Christmas Song Actvity (Fariytale of New York)

If you did this in class with me, you might want to listen again and watch the video. If not, here's some good listening and reading practice:

First download the worksheet with most of the lyrics. There are 8 lines taken out. Read the lyrics and decide where you think the 8 lines should go. Click here for the worksheet.

Then listen to the song and check your answers.




If you want to know something about the song's background and the recent contoversy surrounding it, then have a look at this link to wikipedia.

Doing something in English over the Christmas holidays

If possible, try and do something in English over the holidays. You could do any exercises from the Inside Out workbook for the unit covered this term. If you want something less academic, them perhaps watch a film in English or read a book.

The British Council will be open again from Wednesday 2nd January so there's always the option of coming by to do some study or to borrow something.

Of course, there are also web resources you can make use of. If you haven't already done so, explore the BBC learning English web pages as well as the British Council Learn English site. Both are excellent. Quick links to these sites are on the left of the blog under 'useful websites'.

Finally, here's a word search for you to do. It's based on vocabulary from the first 4 units of the coursebook and is a good revision exercise. Just click here.

El Kasko

"El Kasko" is a nice place in El Casco Viejo of Bilbao (it's obvious if you see the name of the restaurant) in Santa Maria street. It's a quiet big place, there are a lot of tables inside and if the weather is good enough you have the chance of eating outside. The walls are decorated with modern pictures and everything is painted with lot of different colors. At lunch time it is usually full so it`s recommendable to book.

The first time I went there was four months ago: I had met with a friend of the school to have lunch and she told me that she was looking for eating in a Mexican restaurant. She had heard that "El Kasko" was a good one but, what a surprise when we arrived there and we saw that her information was completely wrong because it was not a Mexican place. However, we decided to go in and taste the menu.

It was a really good decission. We could choose between four first courses, four main courses and different desserts. I couldn`t avoid to look at everyones plates: everything looked fantastic! My mouth was watering!
For first dish I had ham rolls with salad: it's an original cold dish, perfect for summer that basically consists of cooked ham rolls with small pieces of potatoes, aubergine, lettuce, tomatoes and other kind of vegetables inside and everything dressed with a delicicious yogourt sauce. For main course I chose grilled turkey skewers with pepper and fry potatoes. The skewer had little pieces of green and red pepper between every two pieces of turkey. But, without any doubt, the best was the dessert: home made custard with Cointreau.

We didn't eat what we were supposed to eat, but we discovered a really nice place, where you can choose between original and classical food, enjoy a good atmosphere at a good price: 10 € menu with bread and drink. A recommendable place.

Comillas

Last Saturday my girl and I took our bags and went by car to Comillas to spend the day there.

Comillas is a little village in Cantabria, near Torrelavega, quiet far form Bilbao (two hours aprox. if you go by car). It is by the sea and has lots of 19th century's noblemen houses and momuments; the most important maybe is "The Quirk" (El Capricho), an old house decorated with sunflowers' tiles made by Gaudi, a famous Catalunyan architect. Appart from this outstanding building, Comillas is a very touristic place, with very good views and where you don't have to walk a lot to see different beautiful places.

Although it's beauty, Comillas is a small village where you can't do nothing appart from walking and seeing places, so maybe it becomes a little bit "boring" at the end of the day.

I would only recommend Comillas to people who like visiting beautiful villages with lots of momuments, but, if you haven't seen The Quirk yet and you have a chance... go and see it without any doubt.

URGITXIETA

It was a cold raining day when we found this place in Larrabasterra (near Sopelana) three years ago. All of us were starving and nobody knew anywhere to eat, but finally it appeared!

The restaurant is called 'Urgitxieta' and it is placed close the Larrabasterra Metro Station.

While we drink and eat some fantastic and original 'pintxos' we had the opportunity to meet the owners, a young couple from that village. Sergio who studied professional cooking was the Chef and Mireia the waitress. They told us that the restaurant was opened in 2004 and since then it has been a success!

After some time of waiting and talking with the friendly Chef, Mireia said us that we could enter to the dining-room. It wasn't very big with a cheerful decoration but it was full, there were a lot of families or friend groups globbing up.

All the dishes were tasty and original with a 'chic' presentation. At the end we went to give our congratulations to Sergio. Besides, the bill was unbelievable!! Just 8€ each one!!

I have come back in different seasons and days of the week since that day and always it's full of people. Nowadays, from monday to friday the menu is 9€ more or less but in weekends you have to choose between two menus; special or normal, the first one is about 24€ and the other one about 14€. I think that it's a cheap price for those fantastic dishes!!

POSTCARD FROM MADRID

Dear Fergus,

I write to you from Madrid. We have come to see the atmosphere of the city before Christmas. You know how much I like Madrid: the center with the magnificent buildings, the restaurants and all the facilities the city offers, such as the cinemas, the theatres and the musical plays, but this time I've really been fed up with the crowds. It was impossible to walk along the streets; they were clogged with people and the main roads were crowded with traffic. I thought that it would be a nice weekend and many people from Madrid would drive away but it seems that many tourists have planned to come and see the Christmas lights. I will tell that we wanted to have dinner at "las Bravas", a very homely bar near "Sol" which has the original "bravas potatoes" and it was impossible to reach there.

The city was very lively but I recommend you a more quiet visit after Christmas, definitely.

Best wishes,

Silvia

Anecdote: A city that made an impression

Here's a second anecdote. This time you'll be listening to Michael, who's the director at the British Council, talking about Bangkok. Here are the links:

The worksheet
Direct audio
File for download onto MP3

Please let me know how you get on. Perhaps the worksheet was a bit too easy?

TEIAGORRI

I was first introduced to Teiagorri about 3 or 4 years ago. We were looking for a place for dinner outside of Bilbao and someone told us about this restaurant. It is situated in the centre of Algorta (Algortako Etorbidea) which means that you can get there by underground.

It is decorated in a Basque style and smart at the same time. It is like an old Basque house, with walls made of stone and the ceiling is made of wood. There is a light on each table which creates a nice atmosphere.

You can go during the working week to eat a set menu at a very reasonable price but I have always been there on weekends for a special menu. And of course, you can choose many delicious dishes from their a la carte menu. I especially recommend the different kind of fresh fish because they cook them on the grill.

Not only is the food excellent but the staff are also very helpful if you can’t decide what to have.

If you are thinking about eating in this restaurant be sure to make a reservation because it is very difficult to get a table especially at weekends.

My favourite restaurant

My favourite restaurant is called the “Txubillo”. It´s a completely atipical place, as I´m probably talking about the unique Basque/Japanese restaurant in all Basque country.

The location is quite a lot complicated. You must cross a few narrow streets in the labyrinthic old part of San Sebastian to find it. That´s why most of the tourist don´t achieve to get there. However, i can assure that it really worth´s the effort.

The place is a classic old traditional bar, completely built in wood, converted in a restaurant. It´s not very spacious, since there is only place for four or five tables, but this helps creating an intimate and homely atmosphere.

The mixture of both countries cuisine offerts a large and varied exotic choice of dishes. You can taste the excellent quality of Basque typical products cooked with bests traditional Japanese recipes. The combination is absolutely fantastic.

The service is quick, efficient and pleasant. Prices are a little bit high, but San Sebastian´s lifestyle is equally expensive, so diferences between Txubillo and any other restaurant from the old part of the city are very slight.

If you think you´ve seen it all, you´re looking for an alternative plan, and you want to taste new flavours, there you have a splendid choice. You won´t regret it.

CANNON ERRETEGIA

It's difficult to me to choose one of the many places I like to have a good meal. Probably, one of the most charmy places I know is Cannon erretegia located in Sollube. Apart from the chance of trying delicious grilled chops and other kind ofgrilled meats or fishes, you also can enjoy the beautiful landscape araund, as it is very high in the mountain you can see the coastside, actually you can reach Bakio just down the hillside.I have only been there once, with my family in my grandma's birthday, but surely I would repeat, I have very good memories of this place.

ROJO TABERNA and ANGELINES

This is a typical basque restaurant. I know it because one of my work mates brought me there last month. You must be very hungry to go in it. We have heard some reviews before, like the ones which say that there it is served a lot of food, so we decided to go first to the Gorbea that´s near, in a nutshell, we want to be very very hungry. It´s very easy to get there because Artea is a small town.

At first sight it seems a normal restaurant, but when you sit down on the table you realize that the place has only a few tables and there are no waiters. An old woman, who has cooked what she wanted that day in her restaurant´s kitchen, comes near you and tells you what would you like to drink. We asked for txakoli and water and she brought us (we were 6) eight small bottles of water and two of txakoli. We told her that it was enough and she said: "If you drink txakoli better!!" . After that she didn´t tell us what dishes can we ask for because in that place she puts on the table the dishes she has prepared that day.

She brought us a huge bowl of home-made black beans and another one of chick-peas. We served ourselves and ate. When the old woman arrived to served us the second course, she tried to convince us to eat more black beans but we couldn´t, so she left on the table the second one: a fabulous dish of meet with potatoes. But she started also giving us eggs with tuna and cod. We tried to finished it, but it was impossible, there was so much food. But then, she brought us another dish of meet and another one of roast chicken with potatoes, and we started laughing because we couldn´t eat more and the old woman was bringing more and more dishes. Finally, she decided to offer us the dessert. It was a huge dish for 6 people of a delicious mixture of rice and milk. But the old woman seems to be full of beans and she could´t stay in calm, so she came with another dessert in her hand. Then, she took some bottles of patxaran, orujo and gave us the glasses. We could drink all we wanted because we had the full bottles on the table. But after two hours in there, we decided to go out there...

The old woman was very kind with us. And we paid only 18 euros each one!!!! I would recommend this restaurant beause is friendly and genial, excellent value for money but better if you go with a lot of friends.

A memorable meal

This is a recording of a colleague of ours, Jonathan, talking about a memorable meal.

And here's a worksheet for you to download.

As it's the first time we've put an audio file on the blog, we'd be very interested to hear what you think about it. Was it useful? Would you like more 'listenings' on the blog?

If you would like to download this so you can listen to it on your MP3, then click here.

Hope it's helpful.