So this is Christmas

Like John Lennon said, “So this is Christmas and what have you done?”. One could easily sing “So this is Christmas and have you learnt much? It has a musical ring to it, doesn’t it? Okay. The Christmas break is a good opportunity to have a reality check.

Lately we have gone over the various techniques you can use to emphasize information. Some of the most usable ones are fronting an element (next year I’m going to go ice-fishing), using unusual words (the new window cleaner is rakishly good-looking), altering the word order (never have I had so much fun at school), the pseudo-cleft sentence (what I like about my father-in-law is his love of dragons) and, of course, the cleft sentence (it is in Castro that I want to learn English). C1 students should also consider using idioms (her boyfriend is a stuff shirt) and collocations (he was highly regarded by his colleagues). B2 is still a descriptive level, which means, you're okay with non-idiomatic language.

On a completely different note, there are two reasons why I have decided to post a the video featuring my favorite youtuber these days: Josh Turner. Number one: the kid is insanely talented. Number two: the tune is very Christmassy. By the way, those of you that are oversensitive to the religious factor will realize that, in this particular song, the religious references are zero, which is not really exceptional. As a matter of fact, if you bother to read the lyrics of most Christmas standards in English you’ll see that the overwhelming majority of them are not religious at all. Check out this brief selection: The Twelve Days of Christmas (1909), White Christmas (1942), I’ll be home for Christmas (1943), Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (1944), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1949), Merry Christmas Baby (1947), Happy Christmas (War is Over) (1971), Last Christmas (1986) and All I Want for Christmas is You (1994). I'm just saying…

Anyway, make the most of these days. 

Some English speakers choose to use the Season’s greetings which to me sounds rather Star Trek-y. Happy holidays is religion-free but bland and Happy Winter Solstice has a preposterous New Agey ring to it that doesn’t really do it for me. So I’m going to go with good old Merry Christmas, because… it is Christmas. See you all next year!