Reading and Listening News in very simple English

I received today this recommendation from one of the collaborators in this website. It has a section devoted to offer very simple texts dealing with news, some of them, like this section, having to do with travel and tourism.

Simple English News - Travel

Of course our texts are much more difficult than these, but try to read them (and listen) very carefully paying attention to the structures and order or elements in the sentences. This could be a good help for you to write better compositions in the exam.

Would you like to have all your words to learn well-pronounced?

Have a look at this website and you'll see how easy is to listen all the words you want to hear pronounced by an English native speaker. First, try to find out some words related to tourism that you don't know how to pronounce (for instance). Then, register and try to add you own categories!!

Forvo: the pronunciation guide. All the words in the world pronounced by native speakers

After that, leave a message telling us if you enjoyed the experience!!

BBC devotes a whole serie of programmes to the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla

Listen to the following audio introduction about his life:

BBC - Radio 3 - Composer of the Week - Part One

Pay attention to the way the presenter describe his life, and try to do the same in the exam if you are asked to describe a monument along with the life of any relevant person who could have lived there.

After that, you could go on listening to this great music composed by Falla! By the way, do you like Falla's music?

Holy Week task

Imagine that you are working in a travel agency in London and you have been paid to promote the Holy Week in Andalucía, Spain. One of your clients was very interested on knowing what's a "paso de Semana Santa". Have a look to this link to learn somevocabulary on this topic and answer this question using "commments" button. Try also to contextualize it by telling more things about this festivity in Spain.

Find the difference...

BBC - London - Travel - Heathrow Terminal 5

Did you know that London has just opened a new terminal in Heathrow airport? Have a look at this BBC article and try to write differences and similarities with the new Terminal 4 opened last year in Badrid, Barajas.

Unit 6. Cultural Tourism task

and... spiritual tourism, why not? Did you know that this is nowadays one of the most demanded tourist products to get relaxed? In Spain, also, we are lucky to enjoy culture and relaxation at the same time with this kind of tourism, since most our our monasteries are Romanesque jewel of our history.



In order to do this task, go to page 106 from your book and read the instructions to write a good description of a monument. After that, visit some websites dealings with monasteries to be used as lodging for tourist to relax and try to describe to a future client what they will find in that "special hotel".

Here you are some webs to get information:

http://www.forbestraveler.com/resorts-hotels/spanish-monasteries-story.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17500498/

http://www.abadiadesilos.es/hospederia.htm

http://www.abadiamontserrat.net/castellano/index.htm

http://www.monestirs.cat/monst/conca/co22pobl.htm

and this one to remember some knowledge on the Romanesque art:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesque_architecture

Of course, if you find more website add them here.

** Don't forget to use the comments option to do your task ;)

Birth of a company

Have you created a company? If so, congratulations, otherwise you can learn something about how to do it or just make some comments about it, on this blog http://birthofacompany.blogspot.com/.

This is a blog from one of you partners. He's trying to create a company, so he's divided the process in several steps. Oscar is writing about each step. If you thing he is right or not, write a comment on his blog. If you have a different opinion about the process, tell it to him. This is a good opportunity for you to write in English about something very important for you: your future job.

Don't be shy! This is good for you.

Remember you can find other students or teachers' blogs in the links on your right. Try some of them!

Resort Tourism

"A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company. Such a self-contained resort attempts to provide for most of a vacationer's wants while remaining on the premises, such as food, drink, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping. The term "resort" sometimes is misused to identify a hotel that does not provide the other amenities required of a full resort. However, a hotel is frequently a central feature of a resort, such as the Grand Hotel at Mackinac Island, Michigan. A resort is not merely a commercial establishment operated by a single company, although in the late twentieth century this sort of facility became more common".

Do you like this kind of tourism? or Have you been a very special resort? Tell us about it.

Discover the real Spain - Travel - Independent.co.uk

Read the following article from the Independent and try to do the written task proposed in this post...

Discover the real Spain - Travel - Independent.co.uk

But, What's the real Spain according to us, Spanish people? Imagine that you need to write a guide about your own town or city. What landmarks would you recommend and why?

Use the comments links to do this task and don't forget to leave a link to the landmark you could like to recommend in your guide...

Video instructions to build a sand castle

Unit 6 deals with cultural tourism and everything this implies. This video will let you learn and revise vocabulary related to the parts of a building in a very curious way... Watch it, and after that use the comments button to write the words you've learned thank to this video related to architecture.



By the way... did you like it? ;)

Practice your listening!

Unfortunately, there is no way by now to practice our listening skills in this course so that they could be evaluated later. However, you know you can always find several links in our online course to listen either to real English or adapted on your own.

Trying to find something else, I came across this fantastic blog. I have added it to the links (feeds) on the right, so that you could download mp3 to listen away from your computer or do it at the exactly same time your read the same text on the screen.

Blogs Becoming Regular Reading for Business Travelers

Do you agree with this article? Are you one of those professionals who uses Blogs as a mean to be informed? Did to get shocked when reading this headline? Do you think that blogs are a good profitable thing for professionals of the tourism industry?

Have a look at the ones proposed here in the article and leave here your impressions. Would you use blogs from now on-wards in your daily work?

What's that little orange square on the right?

What this very short video and, after that, if you don't catch what's the meaning of those little orange squares, let me know, please... (using the comments button)

Those "headlines" on the right...

As I can guess from the activity in the last poll that I added here in this blog, I realize that you don't know exactly what are the links on the right. Well. Most of the most famous British and American newspapers have a specialized section on "travels and tourism".

What I did was including feeds from all these important publications (The Times on line, The Independent, The Guardian, The New York Times, etc...) so that you don't have to visit all those pages in order to look for articles dealing with tourism.

This way, articles will go to in real "fresh" English you and won't have to look for specialized text to improve your reading any more. But not only updated articles will be shown here in this blog using this method, also video (National Geographic) and audio archives could be listened and archived in your hard disk or mp3 player so that you could listen in the underground or by car...

You will find too feed to pages to learn English such as the one from the BBC or ESL About English

Talking about travels...

For those of you who want to practice listening and speaking in an asynchronous way, here you are this useful blog with voice to practice different languages. This link leads you to the "travel section", but you could find many more there...

You could also participate as tourism professionals to be and answering questions shown there by people!

Do you like "wiking"?

If you like this way of publishing, why don't to collaborate with wikitravel ? As you can see, you could just read articles in many languages, buy why not writing about the place where you live? It would be a good way to practice your English...There is also an incredible section devoted to "tourism topics" perfect for you to practice before the exam!! Have a look at travel topics!

A good way to compare linguistic structures....

Islamic Tourism Magazine

Today, I had the intention to suggest you to write a text in relation to the pilgrimage to the Mecca, but I found something better. It is website written in diferent languages (Spanish English and French among others) which is perfect for you to contrast grammar structure in two languages. Remember that one of the worst errors that you have with writing in a foreing language is traying to translate directly from your mother tongue, so that you get a text full of wrong built structures. You may find some fragments or text which are not literal translations of the other language version, that could be due to cultural or pragmatic reasons. Pay attention to this point too.

Will we have food enough in the future?

Last evening, I met I girl who told me she became vegetarian two weeks ago. I asked her: "why?" Are you sure you will survive in Spain without eating meat, the delicous cured ham? She replied that it was a question of ethics. It was a reason that I could understand at the begining, but then I did more or less. Now, I can understand it better with the help of articles and videos like these. I am still thinking of all that...

Is Europe a country?

A very good practice for units 2 & very close to the kind of vocabulary and writing asked...

English for Hotel Staff (EnglishClub.com)

in the exam. Have a look at the link before and to this one!

This one for unit 3

Also this one is very good for some topic dealing with the next semester...

A radio program on tourism

Something to Declare: programme 1

Do you have any mp3 player with you? Now you can listen to a specilized radio on tourism and travelling or even download it into your mp3 player, or mobile phone or whatever...

It is called "Something to declare" and it seems to be a good way to listen to English for tourism while being on the underground, train, travelling by car, etc...

I will try to add a link on the right of our blog anyway.

Good English Good Job - CV Preparation

Good English Good Job - CV Preparation

Here you are a good site to find c.v templates. You may have a look at them in order to tell us something about you in our "Páginas Personales" in the virtual course... Could you find anything useful related to tourism?

Typical Spanish food.

Galician cuisine refers to the typical dishes and ingredients found in the cuisine of the Galicia, a region of Spain. These include shellfish, empanadas, polbo á feira (a dish made of octopus), the cheese queixo de tetilla, the ribeiro and albariño wines and orujo liquor.
Compared to the wide variety of food in the cuisines of France and India, for example, Galician cuisine could be considered to be fairly simple. In Galician cuisine, neither the cook or the recipe really matters; what is being served is the central part of the cuisine.
In Galicia, a wide variety of sea
products can be found in traditional dishes, due to the province's long shoreline
and traditional fishing economy. Agriculture products such as potatoes, maize and wheat are also a staple in the Galician diet, along with dairy and meat products from animals such as cows, sheep and pigs; Galicia's grasses and shrubs are green year-round and are excellent for grazing.

What other types of typical spanish food do you know? Please, could someone tell us about the mediterranean cuisine? Or tell us about the cuisine in your region. What about an exchange of recipes? It could be very interesting!

The Cambridge Guide to English Usage - Cambridge University Press

The Cambridge Guide to English Usage - Cambridge University Press

Many time you ask me which is the best dictionary to study this subject. I have always used (Activator by Longman) but I have just received this one that seems to be rather good and updated.

Writing task. Unit 3. Promoting Spanish products...

This weekend, I have been visiting a medow where pure Iberian pigs are feed in order to produce Iberian ham and other selected Iberian products. One of the most beautiful areas was the one devoted to the lactation and breeding of the little ones so that I took a picture for you... These little pigs will be later feed on natural products from the medows: acorns, taken from cork oaks and holm.

Write a composition using "comentario" promoting Iberic ham in a foreign country. If you want to do it more real, using this demo-template.

You could read also page 58 from your book in order to be more precise on your writing. Have a look also to this website written either in English and Spanish to acquire new vocabulary and structures on this topic.

St Pancras International, the 21st century's first mega-station

St Pancras International, the 21st century's first mega-station

Atocha? Sants? Santa Justa? Switch on your speakers and watch at this!!

Any comments afterwards?? Use "comentario"...

Could trains replace airplanes?

By reading this article from the British journal "The Independent", you will realize that, not only high speed trains has meant a train revolution communication in Spain, but also in most countries of Europe. In this article you'll find a list of the top 20 destinations connected by high-speed trains (no presence of Spain, by the way...). Don't you think many fight connections will disappear because of this new revolution? Think of the Spanish situation. Imagine that you are a businessman living in Barcelona. Do you think you will travel by AVE instead of travelling by plain to Madrid? Why? (Have a look at page 42 from your textbook to answer to this questions by clicking "comentario").

One more attraction to see in the Valley of the Kings

Tutankamon's face is presented to the public 85 years afer its discovery. To tell the truth, I was rather shocked with this announcement. For those of you who haven't seen any information yet, here you are a video, a picture and some articles taken from National Geographic. Would you like to be the tourist in the video? Would you like to see the mummy face to face? Do you think it would be something to keep away from people and reserved just for researchers? (Have a look to pag 42 in your textbook to justify your answer).
Don't forget to click on "comentario" to write your answers...;)

What do you think?? Your opinions in English, please.

Lo último
Hotel, puro hotel17/10/2007
Texto de Vicky Vilches
Ilustración de Mikel Jaso Hoy en día ya no es suficiente con ofrecer en el desayuno zumo exprimido al instante de naranjas orgánicamente cultivadas. Ni siquiera basta con que los productos de aseo para el baño estén elaborados con aromáticos aceites naturales. La búsqueda de la pureza ha llegado hasta el aire que respiramos, sobre todo ahora que las alergias proliferan al mismo ritmo que crece sin cesar la obsesión por el bienestar físico.
Por este motivo los establecimientos hoteleros que se precian de estar en vanguardia de esta moda empiezan a ofertar a sus clientes las denominadas pure rooms. Se trata de una nueva categoría de habitaciones de asepsia garantizada. Es decir, que no sólo se han limpiado, sino que también se han purificado. Para conseguirlo, se las ha sometido a un proceso especial de desinfección integral que elimina cualquier virus, germen o rastro infeccioso que haya podido dejar en la cama, en el aire o en el cuarto de baño el huésped anterior. Lo que empezó siendo una opción destinada esencialmente a las personas con problemas de alergia ha encontrado ahora una demanda inesperada en un sector de viajeros cada vez más preocupado por los virus globales que en un solo día pueden viajar desde Manila hasta Nueva York. Asia y Estados Unidos son los escenarios preferentes para esta nueva demanda de habitaciones purificadas. Por ello, algunas importantes cadenas hoteleras como, por ejemplo, Marriot, Four Seasons, Mandarin o Crowne Plaza las ofrecen ya en algunos de sus establecimientos.
Publicado en :
www.magazinedigital.com

Edinburgh

Edinburgh, Scotland's Capital City

Why start your Scotland holiday in Edinburgh
There are enough attractions to visit and holiday activities to do in Edinburgh and the surrounding area to keep you busy for your entire holiday. But more importantly, Edinburgh is a great base from which you can explore the rest of Scotland. Edinburgh is only an hour's drive from Glasgow, Scotland's largest City and 2-3 hours from the Highlands -- and that says a lot of the size of this country. You can take a bus tour from Edinburgh or rent a car for a self drive tour cross half the country in one day!

How is Edinburgh different from other European capitals?
Edinburgh is a capital in miniature compared to the other famous European capitals. It's not even the largest city in Scotland! With population of only 500,000, everything is within reach.

Traffic congestion is not as bad as in bigger cities like London either.Edinburgh's unique features include two extinct volcanoes, one of them right in the City Center onto which Edinburgh Castle is built. How many other capitals can pride themselves with that?

Edinburgh at a glance
Edinburgh's hills and volcanoes are excellent natural vantage points and not just for photography but for the City's fireworks displays in August and New Year.

Tourist highlights in Edinburgh, Scotland
Edinburgh is also known as the 'Athens of the North'. It is one of the most beautiful capitals in Europe. Its distinctive and unique skyline follows closely that of Venice and makes for fantastic photography at dusk or dawn.

The historic City of Edinburgh preserved over the years its own medieval atmosphere. Every corner of the city has its own story -- or legend -- which awaits to be uncovered. For example, no tourist should miss a visit to the vaults beneath the City which uncover spooky stories of ghosts and mystery.

Despite its well preserved history, Edinburgh is by no means medieval. The year-round events -- like the Edinburgh Festival, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and the Edinburgh Hogmanay -- make it a vibrant city and can be quite overwhelming for a tourist dying to cover it all.

The bottom line about Edinburgh, Scotland
Great food, great music, great shows, really great pubs, incredibly friendly people and above all, enough attractions to keep even the most energetic tourist busy.On the downside, Edinburgh can be quite expensive in terms of accommodation and food if you don't have some local knowledge. However, with the proper information, any tourist, no matter the budget, can have the holiday of a lifetime.