YOU TUBE GOES CLASSICAL

Music
YouTube Goes Classical
By MELENA RYZIK
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times
The conductor Michael Tilson Thomas has been drafted for the online YouTube Symphony Orchestra project.
Though it’s currently overshadowed by Twitter — which is already the third-largest social network, after Facebook and MySpace — YouTube still has the potential to make some cool connections. Case in point: the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, a collaboration between Google, the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, the London Symphony Orchestra, the composer Tan Dun, and others. Three thousand musicians from around the world sent in audition tapes; about 90 were selected. The orchestra’s premiere Carnegie Hall concert is tomorrow, but tonight members are doing a free open-mic jam at Le Poisson Rouge. Go tweet about it.
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/urbaneye/index.html

You can listen to classical music while you write your compositions...

Happy World Book and Copyright Day

By creating links between people from different eras and distinct backgrounds, books contribute to the consolidation of a world community. As vectors of free speech, they further the cause of human rights.
Celebrated on 23 April, World Book and Copyright Day calls for strengthening the perennial inter-fertilization of ideas that books bring about in the interest of human dignity.

http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=36406&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html


Resolution of the TWENTY-EIGHTH SESSION OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF UNESCO, (Paris, 25 October-16 November 1995): Proclamation of 23 April 'World Book and Copyright Day'
Resolution TWENTY-EIGHTH SESSION OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF UNESCO (Paris, 25 October-16 November 1995) 3.18 Proclamation of 23 April 'World Book and Copyright Day' Resolution adopted at the twenty-second plenary meeting, on 15 November 1995 The General Conference, Considering that historically books have been the most powerful factor in the dissemination of knowledge and the most effective means of preserving it, Considering consequently that all moves to promote their dissemination will serve not only greatly to enlighten all those who have access to them, but also to develop fuller collective awareness of cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire behaviour based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue, Considering that one of the potentially most effective ways to promote and to disseminate books - as shown by the experience of several UNESCO Member States - is the establishment of a 'Book Day' and the organization of events such as book fairs and exhibitions on the same day, Noting furthermore that this idea has not yet been adopted at international level, Adopts the above-mentioned idea and proclaims 23 April of every year 'World Book and Copyright Day', as it was on that date in 1616 that Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega died.

http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=5425&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

IS THIS YOUR LUGGAGE?

IS THIS YOUR LUGGAGE?

http://www.isthisyourluggage.com/Site/LANDING.html

This is not exactly a link about luggage but I'm sure it will suggest you many interesting things to write about.

Is this art?

A performance?

Just photographs?

Have you ever wondered where lost luggage goes, what happens when you can't find it...

Good practice for your writing...

the American Diner Museum

http://www.americandinermuseum.org/site/

About the American Diner Museum

"Since 1996, the American Diner Museum has been focused on celebrating and preserving the cultural and historical significance of the American diner, a unique American institution. The museum also hopes to recognize and share the importance of diners nationally and internationally.

The ADM considers it a crucial part of its mission to save the vintage diners that are in danger of extinction from, among other things, redevelopment of property and unnecessary demolition.
The Museum is a tribute to the individuals who built, operated and worked in the diners and to those who continue the diner tradition into the 21st century.
Although the museum does not have an exhibit space, we consider every diner to be a living museum. Many items from our collection are loaned to other orgaizations for their respective diner exhibits"

"What is a diner? A true "diner" is a prefabricated structure built at an assembly site and transported to a permanent location for installation to serve prepared food. Webster's Dictionary defines a diner as "a restaurant in the shape of a railroad car." The word "diner" is a derivative of "dining car" and diner designs reflected the styling that manufacturers borrowed from railroad dining cars. A diner is usually outfitted with a counter, stools and a food preparation or service area along the back wall. Decommissioned railroad passenger cars and trolleys were often converted into diners by those who could not afford to purchase a new diner"

http://www.americandinermuseum.org/site/

Would you like to write something about this museum? Any similar one you may know?

Magazines for passengers

Would you like to read some English magazines? Free magazines?

These are the ones for passengers travelling with Easyjet, Ryanair, and several other airlines.

You can also find previous numbers.

Have a nice reading!

http://www.ink-live.com/

Do you want to know more about the IFEMA Arab version?

Yes, it could be something similar to our IFEMA. Have a look at its website and try to comment here all the differences and similarities with the Spanish one.

http://www.arabiantravelmarket.com/

What do you think?

Do you celebrate Easter?

Visite this link and try to leave a recorded message in order to practice your speaking skills.

Some tips to practice with synomyms...

As you might know well, the first part of our exam is based on looking for similar expression of synonyms. You have lots of self-evaluating exercises in our virtual course, but a good way to practice could be to have the help of an online thesaurus like this.

You could also download and install its toolbar into your browser so that you could do your searchers even faster. It is great, isn't it?

Are old constructions better than the new ones?

Read the following text about the terrible earthquake occurred near Rome and try to answer the question made in the tittle of this entry. Do you think architects were better in the past in Italy? What about other countries? What about Spain? Could you give examples?

Easter in Spain

Last year we gave you some info about Easter in English speaking countries.

This time we'd like you to write in English about Easter in Spain.

Try to describe what Semana Santa is, our traditions, our recipes, what you do in your place or even to translate (or explain) what torrijas, pasos, nazarenos, saetas, etc. are.

Here is a link to help you start:
http://www.euroclubschools.org/page37.htm

Remeber writing is a very good practice for you and this is one of the places to improve it!!

Happy Easter!

Have a Happy April 1st.....

Happy April Fool's Day!!!

Have you heard of this?

Have you got something like it in your country?

On the same date?

Have you heard about the poisson d'avril?

You can write something about this here or let us know about the best jokes you know on this day!!

Do we have codes like these in Spain?

Reading an article from the New York Times, I found out some airlines codes referring to the different kinds of tickets people could buy now in the US:

Among the items on that growing list are the usual things like prepaid checked bag (code 0AA), snack (0AT), aisle seat exit row (0A5), beverage (0AX), video games (0AF), passenger assistance (0BY) and wheelchair (0AH)

Do you have also this kind of things in the Spanish companies? Do you think we will also have them? Is it something only thought for low cost companies?

Today: Green

Today, green is the colour. Now, you know why:

March 17th, Saint Patrick Festival

Do you wanna go green?

Watch this from wbztv.com video archive, March 17th :

http://wbztv.com/video/

You can read this too:

http://www.st-patricks-day.com/

WHO SAID ENGLISH WAS EASY?

Last week I came a cross this. When I was at the University I read somewhere a similar "poem". Some humour and practice for you:

WHO SAID ENGLISH WAS EASY?

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England .

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and
Get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a
Recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm
goes off by going on.

And in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?

Improving your listening by podcasting

A very good way to practice your English listening could be podcasting. The web is now full of this very good audio invention for ESL learners. Why? It is a cheap and efficient way to listen to fresh content based English. You can listen to all these audio recording either in the way or by copying them all to your mp3/ipodcasting player in order to hear them while in the underground or by car in your way to work. The quality of sound is great in most cases and you could find them in many different accents, which is very recommended for you are tourism professionals to be in a very close future.

Here you are some suggestions for you to listen:

http://www.learnoutloud.com/Catalog/Travel (very practical in order to study unit 5, you will see why)

Open University ITunesU (You need to have Itunes software installed)

University of Oxford ITunes (Arts and Humanities)

Tourism, Travel, Geography and Education Podcasts (A very complete compilation of podcasts dealing different fields of tourism, including airplane topics, new destinies, travelling guides, etc.)

Idiotvox-tourism (assorted podcasts dealing with tourism fields, very focussed on education)

Let's talk tourism podcast (Dublin Institute of Technology. Good to revise topics dealing with unit 1)

You will find some of these and others in the right section of this blog.

More suggestions? Opinions about this post? Do you agree with this? Please, use comments to reply.

Google Earth and El Prado Museum

Now there's no need to travel to Madrid in order to admire all the famous masterpieces from El Prado. Thanks to Google Maps, you can do it. To do this activity:

1. Read the following information and give your opinion here about the quality of the images, variety of works presented, etc. After doing that write here using the comments option your opnion about this. Would you recommended? Is is good enough? (Use page 42 from your book to do this in order to describe the advantages and disadvantages of visiting artistic places in a vistual way)

2. Choose a portrait, and try to describe it here (page 106 from your books).

Barajas chaos

Imagine that you have been working these days at Iberia, Barajas airport. You need to calm down many tourist waiting to fly.

Give here possible answers and relaxing messages to all the possible claims done by angry tourists.

Have a look at the following article to read some input on this topic.

Sustainable tourism in Molokay

Do you know where Molokay is? No? Have a look at the picture. Molokay is the little island you can see in front of the island of Maui, in the State of Hawaii.

You are working for a tourist agency. One of your clients is very interested in practising ecotourism. Read the following article taken from the NYTimes online and write an expository essay offering places to stay, visit, etc.

Use instructions from page 74 in your books.

The hottest hotels 2009 (the Times online)

What are the main features a good hotel need to have? Do you think most of the clients share the basic ones? What is a luxury hotel for you? Have a look at the following hotels rank proposed by The times On line and comment here you favourite ones by explaining why.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/where_to_stay/article5389541.ece

By the way... have you even stayed in any of the listed hotels? ;)

Happy Christmas for everyone!

Just to share with you a Christmas song that you could hear watching the following video...(sent by Lucía Borreguero, La Coruña Tutor).

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

Are you going abroad for your Christmas shopping?
Some people in France, Spain, Germany or Portugal go to London for a weekend to do their Xmas.shopping. Harrods is a must as well as its Christmas lights. Legendary!
Tell us about your xmas shopping! Will we all go shopping despite the hackneyed crisis? Which are your plans? Are you a last minute buyer? TELL US!
oh! and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Fourth Thursday of November

Thanksgiving USA

The American Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost four hundred years ago.

In 1620, a boat filled with more than one hundred people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World. This religious group had begun to question the beliefs of the Church of England and they wanted to separate from it. The Pilgrims settled in what is now the state of Massachusetts. Their first winter in the New World was difficult. They had arrived too late to grow many crops, and without fresh food, half the colony died from disease. The following spring the Iroquois Indians taught them how to grow corn (maize), a new food for the colonists. They showed them other crops to grow in the unfamiliar soil and how to hunt and fish.

In the autumn of 1621, bountiful crops of corn, barley, beans and pumpkins were harvested. The colonists had much to be thankful for, so a feast was planned. They invited the local Indian chief and 90 Indians. The Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game offered by the colonists. The colonists had learned how to cook cranberries and different kinds of corn and squash dishes from the Indians. To this first Thanksgiving, the Indians had even brought popcorn.

In following years, many of the original colonists celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks. After the United States became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. Then in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, a different date every year. The President must proclaim that date as the official celebration.

In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt set it one week earlier. He wanted to help business by lengthening the shopping period before christmas. Congress ruled that after 1941 the 4th Thursday in November would be a federal holiday proclaimed by the President each year.

For "Symbols of Thanksgiving" and more info:
http://www.crewsnest.vispa.com/thanksgivingusa.htm

A man sleeping in a Mexican airport for three months

Listen to this surprising story (I think we also had a similar case in Barajas Airport, Spain) and try to give some reasons why this men could be sleeping in an airport for so long? Do you think he could have any family? Money? Crazy? On the other hand, could be somebody left out from an airport in these conditions? What do you think?

meals

jajajaj

Yesterday, Nov 11th. Poppy Day?

Find Out Why People Wear Poppies In November...

You might have noticed that in November each year many people wear bright red paper poppies.
What are the poppies for?
And why November? Read on to find out…
Why are these poppies so special?


The First World War finally ended after four long and bloody years of fighting, on November 11 1918. The guns stopped on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Millions of people were killed in the war and millions more were injured. In the years since 1918, even more people have died in wars around the world including, of course, World War Two.

November 11 was chosen back in 1919 as the special day each year when we would all think about and remember those who had died. To this day, almost 100 years later, at 11am on November 11 many people across Britain stay silent for two minutes to think about those who died.



The picture shows the two minute silence taking place high up on the London Eye.

All pictures:Courtesy of The Royal British Legion.

At first, November 11 was known as Armistice Day because 'armistice' is the word used for an agreement between enemies to stop fighting. These days it is more usually called Remembrance Day or Poppy Day.

So, we know why November 11 is special, but why poppies? The story begins back in 1915, during World War One…

These poppies are growing wild at Gallipoli, scene of an awful battle in 1915.


Keep on reading: http://www.show.me.uk/site/news/STO521.html

Could the crisis affect Spanish tourism?

Crisis, crisis, crisis.... is all you can read and listen these days in the news, the streets, the market... But, what about tourism? What about our tourism? Do you think there will be a crisis also in Spanish tourism? Do you think there could be some kind of change of preferences?

Have a look at this rather optimist article and try to give your opinion using the writing gidelines found in page 42 from your book.

Software developers vs language teachers?

According to the following quote from Mike Levy (1997:1):

Developers in user-friendly human-computers interfaces and higher-level languages and authoring systems insulate the developer from the lower level workings of the computer, allowing comparatively complex applications to be written with relative ease.

Do you actually think that applications to create quizzes like "Hotpotatoes" are perfectly easy and intuitive to use stuff for language teachers or they need some special training and knowledge to use them?

Use the comments button to answer to this question either in English or Spanish.

REMEMBER REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER…

Who are they?


What does this bonfire mean?



Who is this guy here?





Remember, remember the fifth of November,
gunpowder, treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
’twas his intent
to blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below,
Poor old England to overthrow:
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip hoorah!
A penny loaf to feed the Pope.
A farthing o’ cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we’ll say ol’ Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah!

(Source: http://mildcolonialboy.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/remember-remember-the-fifth-of-november/ )




Tell us if you have heard of this man, about gunpowder,treason and plot, etc.

What do you think of Guy Fawkes?

Do some listening too:

· if you have 2 minutes only and want a funny one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2stU2AGrSy4

· if you have 6 minutes, give us your opinion on:
http://crackle.com/c/How_To/Guy_Fawkes_fireworks/1621672

· if you have 7 minutes, give us your opinion on:
http://video.google.es/videosearch?q=guy+fawkes&hl=es&emb=0&aq=-1&oq=#

· if you have 28 minutes, try BBC’s (and then write!!) :
http://video.google.es/videoplay?docid=- 1784792634788226531&ei=IDcGSeOoIJHS2gLkg8AM&q=guy+fawkes&hl=es

BOO!

Halloween is round the corner, are you going to be a part of it?? Will you be a witch or a scarecrow? A black cat? Will you try Trick or Treat?
Carve a pumpkin? Listen: http://www.expertvillage.com/video/43280_creative-pumpkin-carving-weapons.htm
Why do you think Halloween has become so popular in Spain?
Have you heard of Samain as well?
We are looking forward to reading your comments. Boo!

Are you prepared for the new academic year?

You have been on holiday, and then after some exams, here we are, waiting for the next academic year to begin. At the beginning of a new course as well as the beginning of a new year people make lists of good intentions. Have you got one for this new course we are about to begin? Tell us about it.

Or you can tell us about your holidays. I've been to Italy and I have to say it's fantastic: the Roman ruins, the churches, the squares, the museums, and also the weather. Where have you been this summer?