What is B2?

Today I feel that I should jump right into it. You must be slightly worried about the upcoming exams, which is understandable. Now let’s be clear on one thing. Roughly speaking both Avanzado 1 and Avanzado 2 deal with basically the same stuff. So the obvious question is “what exactly is B2 material?” Here is a table that might help you come to terms with the kind of production I expect from you:

Area	Not good enough	B2
Specific vocabulary	The story happens in Prague	The film is set in Prague
Verb patterns	I’m sorry that I said that	I regret saying that
Collocations	A lot of traffic	Heavy traffic
Verb + Prepositions	He is like somebody that I know	He reminds me of someone I know
If only / I wish	I would like to know how to tell you	If only I knew how to tell you
Lexical strategies	Erm…..	I don’t know how to put it
Command of tenses	I waited for an hour and then he came	By the time he turned up I had been waiting for over an hour

Pronunciation

I have often explained the many reasons why working on your pronunciation pays off and, of course, I have also heard the countless excuses that students use to justify their inability to pronounce extremely simple sentences such as she lives here or you’re very special. Yes, you can certainly relay a message with pretty bad pronunciation but, then again, you can also attend a business meeting in military fatigues or wearing nothing but a speedo. Even if what you say at that meeting is reasonable... you know... the clothes may not be exactly appropriate. As a matter of fact they may be distracting. People might not take you seriously or may simply wonder why you chose to wear something so unusual. The clothes you wear, just like the tone of voice or your body language do affect the oral message you intend to deliver.

I know my example is extreme but I can’t find a better way to make this point: pronunciation is NOT irrelevant. It has all kinds of consequences. If you don't pronounce words well you may end up saying something you don't want to say (he's a son of a beach). You may confuse people (I feel it or I fill it?). You reinforce national stereotypes made popular by the likes of Pedro Almódovar, Guillermo Amor and Ana Botella. You can wind up uttering nonexistent terms (compare the huge difference between [bi:n'tas] and ['vIntIdʒ]) and simply force people to make a constant effort to try and decipher what it is that you're saying. I could go on...

That said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having an accent (unless you’re an actor aspiring to play the role of a native speaker) but not pronouncing basic English sounds (like the last consonant in the word English) does seem like you are not trying hard enough. I have noticed that some of you have improved your pronunciation significantly since the beginning of the course, back in October. So congratulations are in order. Some of you, though, still need to keep working on it. Just remember that our goals are not ambitious. I would be happy if all of you overcame the quintessentially Spanish obstacles: [∫], [v], [st-] and the "-ed" ending.

Anyhow, I came across this little website, which lists five common pronunciation mistakes amongst Italian learners of English. I know. It’s for Italians. However, you will realize that errors three, four and five can be applied to most Spaniards.

Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall

Every language poses challenges to its learners: Romance languages have a whimsical subjunctive mode, German has complicated declensions, Japanese has numeral classifiers, Swahili has its noun cases, Basque has an ergative system (to say nothing of its auxiliary verbs) and so on and so forth. Well… English has two main problem areas: pronunciation and, of course, phrasal verbs. Today I’d like to center on the latter.

For the most part we can talk around phrasal verbs. For instance, we can choose to say “I was educated by my grandparents” or “I was reared by my grandparents” but let’s face it… Even leaving semantic nuances aside, neither of those sentences sound as natural as “I was brought up by my grandparents”. The situation becomes slightly trickier when we realize that the one-word alternative does not always work. Do we really want to say “I always rise at seven o’clock in the morning"? Do we even have a realistic option in cases such as “turn on the television, please”?

In short, phrasal verbs are not technically necessary but they are widely used by native speakers. They also make your English sound more natural (I screwed up), tactful (he passed away), succint (he didn’t measure up) and accurate (I dusted myself off). I believe those are serious reasons to incorporate multi-word verbs into our repertoire.

These thoughts were running through my head during a recent stroll down Unter den Linden avenue in Berlin, the city one always goes back to.

Boris

So… The exams start to rear up their ugly head. Hm… Much has been said about the divergence between language schools and "the real world" (whatever that means). People tend to forget that proficiency standards can depend on fairly objective descriptors. By "objective" I mean "not subject to interpretation". Let's consider some examples:

Level	Descriptor	Example	Not good enough
B1	Hyponyms	Documentary	TV program
B1	Extreme adjectives	Filthy	Very dirty
B2	Expression of regret	I wish I had told you I regret not telling you	I’m sorry I didn’t tell you
C1	Use of idioms	I can’t make ends meet	I don’t earn enough money

However, reality is obstinate. Just yesterday I came across this video which recounts a story we’ve all heard a million times: poor immigrant makes it in America. I was particularly moved by this Russian craftsman, whose English is staggeringly simple despite having lived in the United States for the past forty years.

As you'll see he speaks with a thick accent and displays some of the symptoms of a learner who hasn’t made it past the elementary level. Yet he is obviously fluent and he can relay a message successfully. So... What is his actual competence in English? The answer is “who cares?” Boris is a charming man who can go about his business and lead a decent life in an English-speaking country. He does not appear to be the kind of person who can express his feelings with poetic accuracy. That said, we cannot help listening to his voice. The man that might not pass a basic language exam manages to grab our attention. Food for thought.

Pattern-seekers and Trump

Pattern-seekers. That’s one of the latest buzzwords in the area of neuroscience (along with brain plasticity and some others). In these days of lifelong learners and digital teaching, this last addition to the vocabulary of language instruction might just be surprisingly helpful. Why? Because one of the defining traits of successful language learners happens to be their ability to spot patterns. That’s why most polyglots don’t need many grammar explanations to grasp the basic structures of a language. Come to think of it, that’s exactly what little kids do. They simply pay close attention to many spoken texts, then proceed to isolate the similar structures and deduce the common denominator. That explains why they come up with charming but incorrect REGULAR forms (e.g. I goed fast or I can’t will today).

Let’s take a typically intermediate structure: he’s supposed to be here at five. Easy, right? Okay. The pattern seeker will eventually come across this other sentence: he’s expected to be here at five. She will notice the similarity and will somehow register those two phrases in the same mental notebook. She will then find other sequences (Jack is bound to succeed, we are meant to be together, etc.) The pattern seeker will soon identify the structure: subject + verb to be + past participle + to + infinitive.  Does she think in those technical terms? Of course not! She just realizes the similarity and then goes on to put it to use and try it out. What’s the advantage of that approach? For starters, she will not have to remember five different sentences but only one underlying structure. How's that for efficiency?

On a completely different note, I would like to share something funny with you. You know how often I have expressed my view that Donald Trump’s vocabulary is painfully limited, to the point that any foreign intermediate student can follow his speeches without missing a bit of information. As a matter of fact, Trump’s English would be pretty useless in an advanced class, where lexical accuracy, cultural connotations and subtle nuances are essential for attaining the required articulacy. To president Trump, accomplishments are either great or tremendous, terrorists are simply bad dudes and the health care reform is just complicated. Well, it turns out a lot of English teachers and learners have also latched onto that very idea. So much so that Wired magazine decided to publish an article about it. Apparently the glorious simplicity of Trump-speak can really help beginners and intermediate students. Feast your eyes.

Music and happiness

Hi everyone! Today I have two different messages for you, my dear Avanzado students.

Avanzado 1: Today I thought I would share this interesting video. Most of you know that I have more than a soft spot for all things musical. That’s why I was blown away by this warm, inspirational TED talk in which Benjamin Zander, an outstanding English conductor, shares his infectious passion for classical music. By TED standards his presentation is a little long but, believe me, it’s totally worth it. Remember we discussed music in unit 6A. You’ll enjoy it. The man is a force of nature.

Avanzado 2: Remember the videoclip about happiness? Take a glance at the textbook (p. 52) if you don't. If you find the topic only vaguely interesting you may want to check out this other video which discusses that very issue but in a more refreshing fashion. The vocabulary the presenter uses is a good enough reason to pay close attention to his analysis of happiness in the Western Hemisphere. Satisfaction and disappointment might be equidistant from a hypothetical state of emotional neutrality. Yet our proclivity to focus on the negative inevitably sets us up for disappointment. Apparently, the old American standard was dead-on: we have to “accentuate the positive”. At the end of the day (experts say) happiness depends greatly on one’s expectations. Of course, if your expectations are low chances are you will not be disappointed but you may not achieve your full potential or learn to look on the bright side. Anyway, the vocabulary in the video is quite interesting. Case in point: what do you do with expectations? Well, you meet them, you live up to them, you measure up to them, you fulfill them, etc... As a teacher, I have to confess that I have great hopes for you. My expectations are realistically high. Trust me. High but realistic.

Reminders: Avanzado 1: I asked you to write a description which combines physical and psychological traits. Avanzado 2: You are supposed to write an essay about any one of the topics listed on page 97 of the textbook (Exercise 9A).

Kudos to you

Here’s an old riddle. A father and son are in a horrible car crash that kills the dad. The son is rushed to the hospital; just as he’s about to go under the knife, the surgeon says, “I can’t operate—that boy is my son!” Explain.

I have copy-pasted those 24 words from an old article you can read here. Why did I choose to share that “riddle” with you? Well, because the answer is obvious now (the surgeon is, of course, the boy’s mother) but it used to be quite mysterious just some years ago.

I believe I was in my late teens when I first heard that story. Back then, it really puzzled me. According to my (limited) worldview, a surgeon had to be a man. Interestingly enough, the English word surgeon is not marked for gender. Yet, many English speakers shared my bewilderment even then. This comes to prove how much the world has changed over the past thirty years.

When I told the story to a class of students in 2006 it felt great to realize that it was no longer a riddle. Every student assumed that the surgeon had to be the boy’s mother. The intriguing question today is... how many of you thought of a third possibility? The surgeon could be a man: the father’s gay partner. I suppose we need another 30 years for that third option to become an "obvious" answer.

Anyway, today is International Women’s Day. So kudos to you, wonderful women out there. You make up 50% of the world and yet... are still underrepresented in way too many areas. In the English-speaking world, whenever the issue of great women is broached, we are bound to remember Amelia Earhart (pioneering aviator), Marie Curie (pioneering scientist)... but how about Hedy Lamarr? She was a Hollywood actress in the 1940s as well as a surprising inventor. How about honoring the memory of Rosalind Franklin? Her fundamental contributions to the research that led to the discovery of DNA have been shockingly overlooked by the academic world. And how about Dorothy Parker, amazing wit in a male dominated world? She belongs with Oscar Wilde, Groucho Marx, Woody Allen and all the rest of them.

Anyhow, this is a language blog. So allow me to remind you that there is a huge difference between grammatically marked terms like mare or bridegroom and those which are only socially marked. As we know (but tend to forget) a butcher is not necessarily a man. A secretary doesn’t need to be a woman. Therefore the word nurse should be acceptable for both men and women. What does it all mean for you? It means you ought to refuse to use the expression male nurse (which is an inherently sexist retronym). Use humankind instead of mankind, etc. That can be your linguistic contribution to making the world a better place. I can't forget that the overwhelming majority of you (my students) is made up of women.