Goodbye, Mr Reed!!

Yesterday was not a perfect day, as the great Lou Reed passed away. There'll be no more concerts nor songs from him. It was a sad day for music or, as Don Mclean would have said, it was the day the music died. But true artists like him never die. His music will live on forever.
Enjoy!

How good are the Spanish at English? Not very, sadly.

Languageknowledge.eu is a visualization of language knowledge in Europe by Jonathan Van Parys, launched to coincide with the 2012 European Day of Languages. The site uses data from the Europeans and their languages survey by the European Commission.
When the European Commission published a new Eurobarometer survey on languages in the summer of 2012, he thought it would be fun to do something interactive with language data in order to visualize language dynamics in Europe: which languages are growing in popularity, which languages are most spoken in each country, which countries are lagging behind in language skills, etc.
It's really interesting for us, teachers of English as a foreign language, to see what's the state of things in our country. It is sad to see that little has changed and we are still far behind our fellow Europeans.

Go to the site yourselves and see the Data. The site is interactive so you can choose any language spoken in the European Union, not only English.

Malala for the Nobel Peace Prize

Soon we'll find out who will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year. I must say that to many of us that award doesn't mean much anymore, too many undeserving recipients... But Malala is different: She is an inspiration; a strong, powerful young woman who hopefully will help change this world for the better. After watching her recent interview on The Daily Show, I feel as much in awe as Jon Stewart himself. Please watch and enjoy this wonderful interview!

Welcome to a new school year!!

After a few months of inactivity and with the start of the new school year, this blog is coming alive again. Hopefully, and with the help of readers like you, its life will be long and fruitful ;) So please, don't forget to comment!

Are you thinking about going to the UK? Some useful links

These are difficult times for everyone in Spain and some of us are thinking about trying another life somewhere else. Even if you are thinking of only going for a short time in order to learn the language, here's some useful links in case you are planning to go to the UK:

Floodlight is the place to go to look for courses. You can find any course and at any price here. You can also go to a public library to get more information about free courses. At least, they used to have lists when I was much younger!

Loot is the place to go to find ANYTHING: Loot is the UK's original classified ads paper with editions in London, Manchester and Liverpool. You can find a job, accomodation... anything you'll need.

If you need a temporary cheap place to stay when you first arrive in the UK, check out the YHA website. Once there it will be easier to find a more permanent place and a job too!

 You can find Job offers for Spanish speaking people here, Portal de empleo de la Consejería del Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social en el Reino Unido.

If what you are looking for is summer language courses abroad, Inturjoven has a wide range of courses.


Good luck!!!

Tim Burton's a Genius!

I've just seen the movie Frankenweenie and I loved it so I highly recommend it to anyone. Don't let the fact that it's a black and white film put you off, it is funny, sweet, sad and just lovely. It's also full of references to the first Frankenstein films with Boris Karloff as The Monster, great films as well.
So I googled some and found out that Frankenweenie is actually a remake of a short film Tim Burton made in 1984. It is on youtube (dubbed in Spanish and the original) so check it out but not until you see the full length movie!
Tim Burton has used the stop motion technique in many of his films (both long and short). This animation technique makes a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own.
It is the technique used in the following 1982 short (under 6 minutes!) by Tim Burton.
The film is called Vincent and it is a beautiful tribute to Vincent Price, who narrates it. He was an American actor best known for his distinctive voice and his roles in horror films, including many Edgar Allan Poe adaptations.
Enjoy!

My name's Bond, James Bond

Are you excited about the new 007 (double o seven) movie? I am, a little. I'm not a great fan of the franchise but I'm really looking forward to this one. Maybe it is because our own Javier Bardem plays the villain ...
let's start enjoying Skyfall: watch the trailer and listen to the theme song by Adele: