Hey, everyone. Sorry I haven't been in touch. As you know I'm a little under the weather but I guess I can still go online and post something interesting and "christmassy" while I'm away. So here goes...

In the Western world (whatever that may mean) the Christmas season is virtually inescapable. We have come to accept certain images quite matter-of-factly. The white Christmas stereotype, which doesn't make much sense in Australia or Argentina, is one of those Eurocentric references. The truth is Christmas is full of amusing contradictions. For example, some of the most beloved Christmas song (like the aforementioned "White Christmas") were written by Jewish composers. The alleged date of the birth of Christ, which was officially established in the 4th century, is most likely wrong. According to most scholars, Jesus was probably born between 6 and 4 B.C. Anyhow, for those of you that have a weakness for that sort of thing here you have an entertaining list of bizarre facts about Christmas.

Of course, Christmas is not a universal festivity. In Arab states and some Asian countries, for instance, Christmas is still foreign and exotic, not unlike Ramadan or the Chinese New Year in Spain. Speaking of China, how many times have we heard that someone's niece is learning "Chinese"? We all kind of understand what people mean by that, but strictly speaking that is not accurate at all. As I have often said in the classroom, there several languages which certain people keep calling "Chinese". I'm referring to Mandarin, Wu, Cantonese, Jin, Gang, Hakka, Min, Xiang, Ping, etc... All of them are mutually unintelligible. So is it really okay to lump them together? Something analogous happens to Arabic. Anyway, the cartoon below is quite the eye-opener:

Hi there, my dearest Intemediate students! Today's entry brings you some grammar exercises so you can practice those conditional sentences that have become our new obsession. It won't take you long. Plus you are just a click away from the correct answers.

For the members of that fast-growing cult that has formed in my pronunciation classes I have decided to post this interesting video that shows a voice coach trying to explain how to speak English with a Spanish accent. We can look at it from a different angle: how to avoid precisely what he is teaching. Enjoy.

Sorry C1 students. There'll be something for you in my next post...

This time I thought I could share with you all this little video I edited a couple of months ago for my C1 class. It shows C1 students reminiscing about experiences they treasure. I believe they did a good job. Check out their vocabulary. That's what C1 is all about. Enjoy.

Hey, Intermediate crowd! I was pleased to see that some of you decided to attend my talk last Thursday. It was fun, wasn't it? I hope you learnt a thing or two about natural languages too. Today I just wanted to share a little something with all of you. It's this cover of a movie that I recently bought for my kids. As you can see, it's a well-known well-produced film with bucketloads of money behind it... Yet a grammar mistake went unnoticed. Can you spot it? Here is the cover:

Nobody is perfect, right?

Hey! I have neglected you a little, haven't I? Well... I've been busy. That doesn't mean that I haven't thought of you. To prove it I took this picture:

My pronunciation freaks will immediately understand the reason for the text in the postcard (if not its actual meaning). Anyway, how is it going? Can you pronounce you and Jew differently? Keep working on it. We have already covered a lot of ground: the day, everybody, you're a Jew, America and all those words with the repeated vowel (image, vintage, ticket, etc.).

What else? Oh yes! I got news! I got news! Next week I will be busy doing some lecturing. On Wednesday I'm going to give a talk in Castro Urdiales (19:00 Salón de actos del IES Ataúlfo Argenta) about constructed languages in Hollywood. I will make the same presentation in Laredo the day after, that is, on Thursday 20 at 19:00, most probably in our classroom.

Those of you who find the topic interesting enough might want to check out this five-minute presentation created by linguist John McWhorter. Think of it as an appetizer. My talk will consist of a brief history of conlanging (the creation of constructed languages) followed by a discussion of the most relevant projects that have become so popular over the past 30 years. I will show clips of Klingon, Sindarin, Dothraki, Na'vi and up to 20 fictional languages that have been used in TV series and motion pictures.

I promise to address specific Intermediate issues as well as some areas that my C1 students should find appealing.

Hi again, I'm back. Yes.
My dear pronunciation freaks: you may feel slightly frustrated by the challenges you have already encounter. If sequences such as "the day" are something of a tongue twister to you or you still struggle to say "decision" you might get a kick out of this video:

As you will notice, this video was edited in the U.S.A., where a significant number of people believe that "white" people are never native Speakers of Spanish, that is to say, they don't even consider European Spanish Speakers and, well, all those Caucasian Latin Americans simply don't exist. Anyway, take comfort in the thought that pronunciation is tough for everyone.

To my C1 students: we have started to explore that overwhelming world of words and expressions. For the time being you should probably concentrate on how to broaden your horizon in terms of vocab. Some C1 features that have been mentioned in the classroom include: a learner's ability to hesitate, to be vague, to use idioms or colorful phrases, in other words, to sound "interesting". Check the differences between these two utterances:

B2 student: I felt really uncomfortable but I don't have much money so I had to accept the situation.
C1 student: You know what it's like... I was out of my comfort zone, to say the least... But I'm a guy on a budget so I had to basically grin and bear it.

Idioms are, by definition, unnecessary, they just add some flavor to your speech and generally make you sound more natural. If you're interested in idioms I suggest you take a look at this funny list.

Oh! I forgot my intermediate students. Okay, okay... How about this list of REAL celebrity names? Not bad for a Tuesday morning, isn't it?

Hi everybody! I'm just checking that my old blog still works. Okay. I wanted to let you all know that I'm going to start posting pretty soon. That's all for now.