Another "Schoolhouse Rock!" classic...

Here's one for those of you who are working with adjectives, or who have to master adjectives for your English exams...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhhWRB0Vfqs&feature=player_embedded

STOP SPANGLISH: The Seminar!

New Year! New English! New confidence! New abilities! Ladies and gentelmen (and everyone in between....) I proudly present to you....the FIVE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO STOP SPANGLISH seminar, which will start on Friday, January 14th, 2011.

Instead of babbling on about what an amazing course it is, I've put all of the important information in a downloadable document that you can print out and refer to:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/45323270/Stop-Spanglish-Seminar-1

And, as always, if you have any questions, comments, doubts or requests, don't hesitate to send an e-mail.

The man who teaches the teachers

...not directly, mind you. A lot of us, however, are very thankful for David Crystal's lifelong dedication to language and making people understand why we use it the way we do. Today's online edition of The Guardian has an excellent profile of him:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/13/david-crystal-champion-english-language

Enjoy!

Who says you can't practice English over Christmas?

Blogger/teacher Alex Case, over at TEFL.net, takes a funny look at how your English skills can be useful during the Christmas holidays:

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/tefl/xmas-tefl-skills/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

It's probably a LOT more true than some of us are willing to admit.

Stretch your brain!

Today's word challenge: How many irregular past simple verbs can you think of that don't end in the letter "t"?

Yes, this is different from the challenge that's posted on the Facebook page; you can never practice your irregular past simple enough.

Attention Facebook users!

STOP SPANGLISH is now on Facebook! Come on over, visit us, leave a comment or two, and join our online community!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44477&id=174953225867832#!/pages/Stop-Spanglish/174953225867832

Reading practice: Too funny!!

If you think that you're having a bad time with this cold weather, don't worry. It could be a lot worse.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-11908583

At least you're not facing criminal charges!

(Thanks to Gavin Dudney for the story.)

What would you do if your bosses demanded THIS?

From "The Times of India": English is no longer an option for pilots.

http://tinyurl.com/33b6the

The Top Ten Top Ten study habits for language learners

'Nuff said...Thanks, Berni.

The Top Ten Top Ten study habits for language learners

Why virtue doesn't work

A couple of weeks ago, I bought "The Study Skills Handbook" by Stella Cottrell, who works as the Director of Lifelong Learning at the University of Leeds. This book is a real treasure: page after page of valuable brain-training and attitude-adjusting, it gives you tons of information about how to study smarter, not just study more.

One very valuable piece of information is the difference between virtue versus effectiveness (pages 64 and 65). What's the difference?

Virtue: Saying, "I have to study", over and over again (and never doing it).
Effectiveness: "Hey, Patricia... I'm having trouble with using and remembering vocabulary. What can I do to practice the words I really need?"

Virtue: "I need to do every exercise in this book."
Effectiveness: "What are the things I can't do right now? How can I work on improving those things?"

Virtue: "I haven't done any practice this week, so I'm going to work for five hours today."
Effectiveness: "I'm going to do little bits of practice every day, and I'm going to do different things so that I can improve in different areas."

Virtue: "I have to understand everything that the person says in this listening exercise."
Effectiveness: "I don't need to understand everything in order to get the most important ideas in this listening. And if I don't understand it the first time, I'll listen to it again and again until I DO understand it."

Virtue: "If I can't learn to speak English perfectly, I'm not going to try at all."
Effectiveness: "There's no such thing as perfect English. I'm going to try my best."

Is being virtuous getting you what you want?

Why you should never trust online translation programs...

Via Twitter... Thanks to the Grammar Monkeys... This would never get you a passing grade on the First Certificate!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/18/best-description-of-house_n_467219.html

Need extra help with pronunciation? A gem from MIT

Pronunciation is one of those skills that a lot of teachers know that they should do, but they don't. Sometimes it's because they're not sure themselves of how it works; sometimes, pronunciation doesn't fall in neatly with a subject; and, unfortunately, there are teachers who just don't think it's important.

Those of you who have had class with me have probably suffered...er, studied...pronunciation. For those of you who don't have a lot of experience with pronunciation, or who would like to practice on your own, check out Isaiah Woo's Listening, Speaking and Pronunciation class. While MIT hasn't put the complete course online, you'll get a lot from the video exercises (which are also available through YouTube.)

http://tinyurl.com/36c9svk

Past tense practice: Beer made humans civilized

Got this from Andrew Sullivan's blog at TheAtlantic.com. Here's some past tense practice you can work on as you go for your Sunday cañas...

http://tinyurl.com/39be3a3

Enjoy!

Eat, drink, be merry, practice your English...all for a good cause!

Concepta Connors, who works at the Irish Embassy in Madrid, sent this along...oh, go on! Go for it! How many times do you get the chance to drink and practice your English at the same time? Especially if it's for a good cause!

========================================================

The Spanish Irish Business Network and James Joyce Irish Pub are organizing a Pub Quiz in aid of Barretstown on Thursday 18^th November at 8pm in Madrid. It’s a great cause, a good chance to network and promises to be lots of fun! Register your team (max 5) today by emailing: info@jamesjoycemadrid.com A contribution of €10 per person will be collected on the night.

Barretstown is a specially-designed camp that provides Therapeutic Recreation programmes for children with serious illnesses, and their families. It was founded by actor Paul Newman in 1994 and modelled on his renowned Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Connecticut, USA. Excellent, unobtrusive medical supervision helps children with cancer and other diseases forget illness, learn to have fun and rebuild their confidence and self-esteem. The programmes take place at a fairytale castle in the beautiful foothills of Ireland's Wicklow Mountains.

Barretstown serves children affected by serious illnesses - primarily cancer and serious blood diseases - from all over Europe and their families. Each summer over 100 Spanish children benefit from camp at Barretstown. All of these children come to Barretstown free of charge. Everything, including accommodation, food, medical assistance and round-trip airfares are provided at no cost to the family. Barretstown is supported by donations and the fundraising efforts of corporate supporters, individuals and community groups. The November Pub Quiz is being held in order to ensure that Spanish children continue to benefit from this life-changing, positive experience.

Donations may be online via the following website: http://www.mycharity.ie/event/pubquiz or bank transfer. To make a bank transfer and request a certificado de donación, please contact:

María Vico Gago
Coordinadora - BARRETSTOWN – ESPAÑA

Email: maria.vico@barretstown.org.es
tel (0034) 91 650 13 29
fax (0034) 91 650 71 27
móvil 607 53 77 55
www.barretstown.org

Heading to Canada? Avoid M.T.V....

....Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, that is. The New York Times has an article today about how smaller Canadian cities are welcoming immigrants from all over the world:

http://tinyurl.com/36ptrsn

Okay, THIS is seriously cool.

I love the Massachusetts Institute of Technology! Not only are they one of the best schools in the States...a lot of their past courses are now available free, gratis and open...online!

Check this one out:

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/foreign-languages-and-literatures/21f-223-listening-speaking-and-pronunciation-fall-2004/#description

This is a great course for those of you who want to practice your listening and speaking skills for TOEFL...

I leave it to Seth.

I can say it louder, but I can't say it clearer: if you want to do some serious thinking about motivation and learning smarter (not just working harder....), read Seth.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Cool discovery!

I just discovered something really cool over the weekend. iTunes is now selling the audiobook edition of "Fry's English Delight", the BBC Radio 4 documentary series on the English language.

For years, Stephen Fry was best known for his work with the comedy team "Fry and Laurie" (yes, that Laurie...Hugh Laurie, who you may also know as Dr. Gregory House.) Fry has a wonderful speaking voice and a good sense of humour; most importantly, the documentary provides some interesting information about why certain things exist in English.

You can find "Fry's English Delight" on iTunes. There's also information about the program on the BBC's Radio 4 website.

Showdown at the (not) OK Corral

I don't like conflict. I don't "do" conflict, really; first of all, because I'm Canadian (aside from hockey players, when have you ever seen Canadians get really nasty with people?); and, secondly, because it's not my job.

I teach. Within the scope of teaching, I do a lot of things - I coach, I suggest, I co-pilot, I design, I research. But it's not really my job to be rude or mean to people, even when they're rude or mean to me. Why bother? It's the reason why I don't teach kids: I don't appreciate being put in a position where I have to be the hard guy.

We had - have? - a situation in one of my classes where three of the five participants don't participate. The class has been going for a month. Two of the guys are former students of mine, and we got on really well; but when their group was mixed with another group, trouble started. The new people didn't talk. They still don't. In fact, nobody talks at all, and when they do, it's usually to make some thoughtless generalization to break the silence, nothing more. They wanted a conversation class, but they don't bother participating in any conversation.

Now, unless I've missed something in these past twelve years of teaching, conversation usually involves interaction, and moving information back and forth. In most English classes, that can be very controlled (a telephone conversation, a presentation), or it can be looser, more open to improvisation. The information, though, has to go two ways.

It didn't, in this class. The information kind of didn't do...anything. I tried speaking exercises; nothing. I tried reading; nothing. I tried pronunciation; nothing. Now, keep in mind that (as I've said before), a teacher is a lot of things -- but a teacher is not there to be an entertainer. If you want entertainment, there are a lot of other options which cost a lot less money than English classes do.

Furthermore, English classes are not a way of avoiding work or hiding from your boss. Not in my classes, anyway. If you sign up for one of my classes, you're going to work.

Now, I'm about to make a sweeping generalization that will probably not be about you, specifically. (If you're a Spanish student of English who's reading this blog, this generalization will NOT be about you, that's for sure.) One thing that has never failed to shock me about teaching in Spain is the amount of WASTE that happens in classes.

When I taught in post-Communist Prague, companies didn't have a lot of money. If someone was selected to take part in an English training program, they treated it like a golden opportunity. Back in 1999, Czech companies did not get money from the European Union for training; they had to pay for it out of their own money, and they were so desperate and eager for new ideas and new ways and new opportunities that they did not waste the chance to get better. This is not the case in Spain. There are a lot of students - not everybody, as I said before - who think that their companies or parents or schools owe them English, and that the teacher should do everything because if the students are paying, they shouldn't have to work. So the students come to class, or the teacher spends 45 minutes on the Metro (each way; 90 minutes lost) and the student plays with his or her mobile phone, and complains about her boyfriend or her job, or her mother, and refuses to do anything educational, like reading or grammar or reviewing and NOTHING GETS DONE. And you're paying money for this?

I'm not sure why this happens. In the case of our class, it may have solved itself. Nobody came to class today. I saw two of the students standing outside the VIPS across the street, smoking, about ten minutes before class. I assumed they were coming. Nobody showed up. Maybe they decided at the last minute that they didn't want to talk. Maybe they don't like the idea that they're expected to work. Maybe they think that, somewhere in the office, there's a CD-ROM I can stick in their mouths, and then they'll be able to speak perfectly. I don't know, and to a certain extent, I don't care. I would rather spend sixty minutes with a perfect beginner than ten minutes with a perfect jerk.

I know what's going to happen next: the students will probably not come to class for a week or two weeks and the Director of Studies (who was perfectly ready to give them an earful this afternoon - she's had run-ins with them before) will call them. They'll tell the Director of Studies some kind of lie, like they're too busy with work or they've been transferred somewhere else. And if they choose to lie, rather than dealing with whatever is bugging them... that's not my problem. English teachers are not entertainers and, most importantly, they're not psychics. If you're not willing to be mature and work out issues, that's not my problem.

OK, sorry to rant. I'm going back to work now and I promise not to bite anyone. I promise.

...and while we're on the topic of MBAs....

From Bloomberg Business Week, a funny (?!) article about how NOT to apply to an MBA program.

http://tinyurl.com/39nk8vr

MBA Candidates: Looking for a TOEFL intensive?

For those of you who are interested in doing an intensive TOEFL course so that you can do your MBA in the States, Candy from mbaSpain has sent on this information:

TOEFL para MBA:

Estás pensando en un MBA…no olvides el TOEFL.

Los top MBA piden una nota de TOEFL muy alto:

· Harvard Business School pide 109

· Chicago Booth 104

· Columbia 100

· Wharton 100

· Stanford 100

· IESE 100

· Kellogg, no hay mínimo pero la media es 110

Y las becas también

· La Caixa pide 110

· Fulbright 100

Preguntas frecuentes:

¿Por qué los solicitantes de MBA necesitan un curso especial de TOEFL?

Los aspirantes a un top MBA tienen un nivel de inglés bastante alto. No necesitan un curso tradicional de TOEFL de 30 horas. Por eso, mbaSpain ha diseñado el curso de TOEFL para MBA para maximizar tu tiempo y tus fortalezas, centrándote en las claves principales para triunfar en el TOEFL, sobre todo el Speaking y Listening.

Ya he hecho un curso de GMAT, ¿por qué necesito un curso de TOEFL?

Porque las secciones del TOEFL son diferentes a las del GMAT, especialmente en el Speaking, Listening and Writing.

¿Puede un curso de 12 horas ayudarme a mejorar mi puntuación de TOEFL?

Por supuesto! TOEFL para MBA aprovecha tu experiencia de GMAT para centrarse exclusivamente en las habilidades que necesitará para maximizar su TOEFL. El tiempo no se pierde en repetir cuestiones tratadas en el GMAT. Además, tu tienes un nivel alto de Inglés, por lo tanto el curso va más rápido, completamente centrado en tus necesidades, sobre todo el Speaking y Listening. Pero, también es imprescindible que practiques y que hagas los deberes.

El próximo curso de TOEFL para MBA:

noviembre: 1) lunes 8 1930-2230; 2) miércoles 10 1930-2230;

3) sábado 13 1030-1330; y 4) lunes 15 1930-2230

noviembre: 1) miércoles 17 1930-2230; 2) sábado 20 1030-1330;

3) lunes 22 1930-2230; 4) miércoles 24 1930-2230

Precio:375€ (incluido el IVA, los materiales de la clase, y un CD Rom de practice exams)

For more information, contact mbaSpain at info@mbaspain.com.

Note-Taking for TOEFL: 9 November 2010

It's a fact: Students who learn how to take effective, comprehensive notes have a better chance of scoring higher on the TOEFL iBT exam. But how do you manage all that information that comes at you? How do you practice and use the transition vocabulary that shows you how the information is organized? What are the best ways of keeping track of the most important points, so that you can use them on the tasks?

If the TOEFL iBT has got you worried, we have the solution. On Tuesday, November 9th, STOP SPANGLISH will be holding its Introduction to Note-Taking for TOEFL workshop.

In five hours, you'll learn the techniques which will get you through the exam and teach you how to deal with what you'll read and hear:
º Mental warm-ups: How to anticipate what's coming at you
º Ten efficient ways to practice your listening skills
º How to listen for important information - and eliminate what doesn't matter
º The five most effective ways of organizing notes
º Refine your notes to score high on the speaking and writing papers

Cost: €129 (€99 for current STOP SPANGLISH students)
Time: 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
REGISTER BEFORE 1 NOVEMBER AND RECEIVE A FREE COPY OF "THE ENGLISH LEARNER NOTEBOOK"!

Remember: Failing to prepare is the same as preparing to fail. Don't let it happen to you!

TOEFL Folks: Another gem about paraphrasing...

I don't think the folks at Purdue University's English department will mind me sharing this:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/

...clear, concise to the point.

New Horizons

One thing I found this summer is that there are a LOT of people who want to improve their English so that they can leave Spain and find work in different countries.

If you're thinking about doing the same, but you feel a little guilty about doing it, take heart - it's not just happening in Spain. The BBC's Business Daily programme has an excellent documentary about Irish professionals who are forced to do the same:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00b3lfw

Exam writing tasks: Don't Do This

One thing I've noticed over the last couple of weeks....If you're doing an English exam this fall, be it IELTS, TOEFL or FCE, make sure you understand the task before you start it.

That seems obvious, right? It should be. But one common mistake that students make is that they don't think about what kind of information they're expect to write down. Writing tasks always test your ability to manipulate different kinds of information for different audiences. That means that when you do an exam, you need to understand the following information:

How do they want me to present the information? Is this a personal essay, a letter, an article or a short story?
What kind of language do I need to do this? How formal does the text have to be? What specialized vocabulary do I need to describe people, equipment, ideas?
Who's going to read this? Is the task designed so that I give information to people who I do know? Or will I be creating something more formal - closer to tone to usted - because I don't know who the end reader will be?
How can I filter my mistakes so that I don't repeat them? When I did these tasks in practice, what were the problems (spelling, grammar, syntax) that I had before? How do I stop them from happening again?

The fastest way to fail a writing task is to adapt the task to your needs...and totally ignore what the examiners want to do. If you don't do the task as it's described, you take an enormous risk of failing. Examiners cannot tell the difference between someone who didn't like the task and decided to adapt it, and someone who didn't understand what the question was.

I'm not trying to scare you, but you need to understand the risks you take when you don't do what they ask you to do!

How do you stop this from happening?

a) As you practice (and you should practice as much as you can), anticipate the kinds of tasks you will be asked to do.
b) Review the language (words, verb tenses and collocations) you need to do this task.
c) Analyze your previous mistakes. Make a list of the kinds of mistakes you tend to make and if you're not sure why you're having problems, talk to your teacher about what kind of practice you can do to eliminate those mistakes.
d) Remember that a BIG part of writing exams is knowing what isn't important, not just what you need.

And if you have any questions, please feel free to comment here!
b

Notebooks - Only Two Left!

Hey gang...

I only have two copies left of the fabulous Enleno "English Learner Notebook" left, and I'm not planning on putting in an order for another box unless I get a group of people who tell me that they want them. If you want one of the two remaining copies, or if your group may want extra copies, send me a message to let me know.

Funny peculiar

A couple of weeks ago, Arancha asked a good question: "In my essay, you put down to have more fun. Why not funny?"

Good question. The technical answer is that "fun" is the noun form: We had a lot of fun at Alberto's party.

"Funny" is an adjective, but be careful. It's not automatically the adjective version of "fun": As the British say, there's funny ha-ha and funny peculiar.

"Funny ha-ha" is the definition that most people know - something that's amusing and makes you laugh: I have a really funny joke to tell you!

BUT - and this is a big but - in spoken English, it means "strange, not quite right" or "suspicious:"

- Something funny happened to me the other day....a pumpkin fell on my head.
- It's funny how things never work out how you expect them to.
- He gave me a funny look when I asked him about his mother.
- The accountant wondered if his client was doing something funny with his money.

In these cases, "funny" has nothing to do with humour. It's closer to the idea of deception or tricks.

Ladies and Gentlemen...presenting...The Grammar Grater!

Years ago, Penguin Books (I think it was) published an extremely useful book called "Right Word, Wrong Word" that analyzed words that were similar, but used in different ways or had completely different meanings.

Unfortunately, that book is no longer in print, but the lovely people at Minnesota Public Radio, in the United States, have something that's just as good, if not better: The Grammar Grater...

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/podcasts/grammar_grater/

Seriously, guys.... bookmark this link. You can download the podcasts onto your personal stereos and listen to them when you've got some quiet time; and be sure to check back regularly to give yourself as much practice as possible.

Thought for the Day (of the General Strike)

Either you're part of the solution or you're part of the problem.

-- Eldridge Cleaver, American activist

Get the help you need.

Juan and I just had an interesting chat about the whole Bolonia treaty. I don't fully understand the ideas and consequences of the treaty, but it promises to change the way university students in Spain are forced to work.

One of the things Juan always mentions: Students in Spain could use a lot of help developing and refining their study skills. As teachers, we always try to offer continuous feedback and improvement. But don't just listen to us. There are lots of useful resources on the internet that can help you study smarter, not just study better. Here's one I found this morning which is positive, upbeat, and has tons of great information.

http://www.studygs.net/

Remember the quote from "The Matrix:" I can show you the door, Neo, but YOU have to walk through it.

Thought for the day

"Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other."

-Erma Bombeck, American writer.

Just because you can...

doesn't mean you should.

One of the reasons why I created this blog was because I wanted to give students a source of information on how to improve their English. What isn't obvious, however, is that improving your English means having a good relationship with your teacher. To have a good relationship with your teacher, it's important to get off on the right foot (=to start well/badly) with that person. (I've touched on this topic before on the blog: http://tinyurl.com/2upr77v)

Here's how you can get off on the wrong foot with a new teacher, and guarantee that you'll be looking for someone new very quickly.

S. calls me on Wednesday and doesn't leave a message. Normally, I don't call people back if they can't be bothered to leave a message, but, for some reason, I do. When we start speaking, it becomes obvious that he doesn't like speaking, so I try to find out as much information as I can. It isn't much. He wants to speak in English. (Don't we all?) We agree to meet the next day to talk about I can help him.

So the next day, I run out of a class to meet S. on the other side of the city. The conversation lasts about ten minutes, and I don't get much more information out of him. He's in a university course that is very grammar- and vocabulary-intensive, but they don't get a lot of chances to speak. OK, I say, so why do you want to hire a teacher? There are a lot of different ways to practice your English for free.... arrange an intercambio or go to a pub night. (The guy is a university student, after all. I'm assuming he's seen the inside of a pub or two in his life.) Shrug. Not sure. I'm not getting a good feeling about this. We arrange to meet the next day for an hour and a half of class.

It turns out that the hour and a half we were supposed to have at lunchtime becomes thirty minutes before dinner. It was painful. I go to his university residence, because he doesn't want to come to the office, and when I get to the (all-male) residence, I have to wait ten minutes for him to come down to get me.

Then he insists on taking me up to his dormitory room, which was disastrous: Clothes all over the place, notebooks, padel ball racquet - and the smell. Oh, dear readers....that smell. If you could put that essence of "teenage boy" odor in a bottle, you could use it as a repellent for small animals. (There were teaching rooms available in the residence, but he didn't want to take one in case someone needed it. It must be a very demanding university, indeed, if they expect a bunch of twenty-something young men to attend classes at 7:20 PM on a Friday night.) I'm not sure which was more difficult, frankly - trying to teach while only breathing in and out of my mouth, or trying to pin S. down to a regular schedule and get some information out of him.

In the end, I'm guessing that S. probably will not have class this coming Friday, either. Students who don't have a clear idea of what they want to do usually don't keep up with classes, and it seems a waste of time to hire someone just because you want to talk.

Please remember that finding a teacher is a lot like finding a husband or a wife. If you want to have a productive, healthy, long-lasting relationship that helps you grow and get better, first impressions are important.

It's hurricane season...

Ever wonder how hurricanes and tropical storms get their names? There's an excellent description here on the US National Hurrican Center website:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

Don't let Paper 3 of the First Certificate freak you out.

Most of my students don't really like the Use of English paper (Paper 3) of the First Certificate exam. But I'm surprised at how many people really, really loathe it. They find it frustrating because they don't know how to manage the new words they learn, and they can't always remember why one words is more appropriate than another word in a specific context.

Remember this: 50% of the words in the Multiple Choice Cloze are not possible for technical reasons. It could be for several reasons: maybe they've given you an adverb form when you need an adjective; maybe that adjective needs a dependent preposition that isn't in the body of the text; maybe it's a word that we use in relation to people, not ideas. Or maybe it's a false friend. Whatever.

If you're doing practice exercises to help you with this part of the exam, try this:

a) Print out the "Right Word, Wrong Word" worksheet and write the name of the exercise at the top of the first page, along with a brief description of the topic of the text. You can find the worksheet here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/37990867/RightWordWrongWord-1

b) Your first job is to look at the options and if you know that there are one or two words that aren't possible, get rid of them.

c ) Now you're down to the remaining 50% - two - options, but you don't know which one is the right one.
- Get out your English-only dictionary. (A translating dictionary will not always provide the information that you need to do this properly.) Look up the word, then look at the structure of the sentence, and look at the ways in which you can use the word (or phrase).
- What does the dictionary say? Look at the possibilities and use the one that fits with the information the dictionary tells you.
- Once you're done, don't second-guess and don't change your answer if you're not sure. Nine times out of ten, your first reaction will be the correct one.
- If, after all this, you're still not sure....guess. Really. You have a 50% chance of being right and the examiners won't take points away for any wrong answers you have.

d) When you're done, check your answers and DO NOT ERASE ANY WRONG ANSWERS. Instead, write down the explanation next to the wrong answer and make a mental note to practice the word/phrase most often.

Good luck!

And one more before bedtime....

This is my all-time favourite poem, written by Sheenagh Pugh. I first saw it on a poster in the Underground in London in 1989 and it's stayed with me since.

http://www.biancaday.com/sometimes.htm

Good night, everyone!

But what does it MEAN?

If you think you've got it rough, speaking English at work, spare a thought for the United Nations interpreters who have to translate politicians...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11377609

It's another great article from the BBC World Service!

(Not entirely original) Thought of the Day:

"Don't be scared - just be prepared."

Thanks to the Canadian Hurricane Centre for that one!

http://tinyurl.com/pcny7v

Phrasal Verb Thought of the Day

If you don't stand up for something, you'll fall for anything.

What do the phrasal verbs "stand up" and "fall for" mean?

Sticky vocabulary!!

"You know what I mean... it's a... you know... it's kind of a thingy that...."

True story: When I started learning Spanish years ago, I could not remember the difference between techo (ceiling) and suelo (floor). No word of a lie. Now, if you're an English speaker living in Canada, those words are probably not very important to your daily life, but just knowing that you're having problems can make you feel frustrated (and make you wonder if you're suffering some kind of mental problems!)

Have you got vocabulary that won't stay in your brain? Try these four tricks:

a) Use sticky notes. They don't have to be fancy, really colourful or cut into unusual shapes (though it's a nice touch...). If you want, you can recycle old pieces of office paper and adhesive tape. Then, put the note on the article in question (see photo) or somewhere where you're going to see it quite frequently. Repeat the word. Use it in a sentence. Once you know that you know the word - what it means, how to pronounce it, how to describe it - throw the note away or store it in your notebook (to test yourself later.)

b) Write it out..again and again and again and again.... We described this technique back in August, when we were talking about motivation, but it's worth repeating over and over: the more times you use it, the easier it'll be to remember it. This is something they do in English-speaking public schools (at least they do in Canada!) when students have problems remembering how to spell: if you get a word wrong on a spelling test, you have to write the correct spelling twenty-five to fifty times. Why? Because it WORKS!


c) Break longer words into smaller pieces. Think about the base form of a word (REG-ju-lar), then add the suffixes and prefixes on individually. (Don't forget that suffixes and prefixes can change the meaning of a word, but only certain suffixes change the stress in a word: for example, 'REG-ju-lar but reg ju 'LA tion.)

d) Work with the sound, not the spelling. Irregular past simple words like thought, bought and taught are tough for Spanish speakers of English because, to the eyes of Spanish speakers, there's little connection between the spelling and the pronunciation of the word. Some students find it useful to make a list of words with similar sounds, because they know that there's a limited number of combinations of sounds in English. So a student who wants to remember those three irregular verbs might make a list that looks like this: caught, taught, not, slot, ought, bought, daughter, flop, knot, because the /au/ sound is more common than the spelling.

e) Think in pictures. If you're not a big American football fan, the idea of to tackle something probably isn't an idea or a saying you use a lot. But if I give you a picture like this, and ask you how to tackle your vocabulary, you get the sense: to attack, to confront; not to hide or to avoid. Students who like to think in images find that this is a useful method.

How do YOU learn?

Don't panic - that's not an existential question, I promise!

When you become a teacher, one of the most difficult things to learn is that everybody learns a different way. Activities, games and ideas that worked in one class may fail spectacularly in another class. Or maybe you'll find a way to make them more relevant and interesting.

This is especially true if students are aware of their learning styles. Not everyone learns the same way; not every trick and every piece of advice works equally well for everyone! I'm not an expert on the topic, so I won't talk in detail about the theory, but if you'd like to learn more - or even if you'd just like to get an idea of what your strengths are - take a look at the link below. The language is a little advanced, but it's worth the trouble.

http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm

Another FREE TOEFL resource

Here's one for you students who will be doing the TOEFL this year - a free online practice page, courtesy of The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper:

http://toefl.testprep.globecampus.ca/

CRISIS: What is it, exactly?

crisis: c.1425, from Greek krisis "turning point in a disease" (used as such by Hippocrates and Galen), lit. "judgment," from krinein "to separate, decide, judge," from PIE base *krei- "to sieve, discriminate, distinguish" (cf. Gk. krinesthai "to explain;" O.E. hriddel "sieve". Transferred non-medical sense is 1627.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that all Greek and Latin words mean the same in English as they do in Spanish!

It's true that the economic troubles we're currently experiencing can be described as a crisis. Dictionary.com defines a crisis as:

1. a stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, esp. for better or for worse, is determined; turning point.
2. a condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic, political, or international affairs, leading to a decisive change.

Both of those are good descriptions of what's happening in the economy now!

Recession, however, is a much more accurate word. A recession is defined as "a period of an economic contraction, sometimes limited in scope or duration", and when you think about it, this is a better way of describing what's happening because it is very specific to the economy. People understand that "crisis" means something negative, but it could be anything - it doesn't specifically refer to the economy.

If the economy gets much worse, then we need to use a totally different word: depression ("a period during which business, employment, and stock-market values decline severely or remain at a very low level of activity.")

Sources:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/crisis
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/recession
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/depression

Why studying doesn't work.

"I have to study more."

How many times do you hear yourself saying that? How much studying do you actually do during the academic year?

Instead of studying, think about practice. Why? First of all, most people say that they feel that they should study.... but they actually don't do anything at all. Maybe they buy some books or maybe they have lists of vocabulary, but I'll tell you from experience - 90% of students don't even go that far.

Can you imagine what would happen if Alberto Contador wanted to win the Tour de France, but never got on his bicycle? Or if Cristiano Ronaldo wanted to win the World Cup for Portugal, but never put his shoes on? If you say that you want to study, but you don't do anything, all you do is guarantee that you will fail.

Here's an easier idea: Don't study - practice. Use your English every way you can. Listen to music. Write a journal. Watch short videos on YouTube. After all, you're learning English so that you can use it in the real world. The best way to use it in real situations is to practice in controlled situations, and to make it as diverse as possible.

If you think this advice is ridiculous, read this article from The New York Times: http://tinyurl.com/353qvzo.

Remember: You are the boss of your learning. Teachers are there to help you, but they cannot do your work for you.

How high can a dead cat bounce?

Here's one for you advanced-level business students: Today's "Guardian" has an amusing piece about how English business newspapers and television often use animals to provide imagery when they talk about the stock market. Sometimes, it's easy to understand what they mean; sometimes, it's confusing even for English speakers.

http://tinyurl.com/277xmfp

FYI: A dead cat bounce is the idea that anything (a stock market, a dead cat) will bounce (=come back into the air) if it hits the ground hard enough, and from a high place.

It's all in your mind

Years ago (and I mean many, many years ago), I had a college classmate named Allison who was, shall we say, a little bit radical. She thought that many languages were fundamentally sexist because (she felt) that there weren't many ways for women to be present in grammar, and that that meant that if a language tended to favour masculine forms, the language caused people, in turn, to think in a sexist way.

That idea may appear to be radical, but it's not a new one. As this New York Times article shows, people have been trying to make the connection between language and thought for a very long time (http://tinyurl.com/33adeud.)

It's a good article, maybe a bit long, but works well in describing why that idea (called the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis) isn't always correct.

Enjoy!

We're outta here...see you Monday!

Hi, everybody....

Just a quick note to let you know that we're taking off to Santiago de Compostela this weekend, but we'll be back on Monday with more fun and stuff.

Have a great (early) weekend!

...and while we're on the topic of English and immigration...

...I had a chance to talk to my friend Nancy over the weekend. Nancy is a program officer with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and she confirmed that yes, indeed, people who want to immigrate to Canada should do the IELTS exam, just as before.

There is some talk about introducing a new exam, but that's not for another year, and candidates who want to apply now should and can do the IELTS to show how well they can speak and work with English.

What it's like for us...

There's another great essay on the "Facts and Arguments" page of today's The Globe and Mail. This one talks about a Canadian woman who went to Zurich, Switzerland, six years ago, and how she deals with the language barrier -- and people's attitudes about what living in another country should be.

http://tinyurl.com/33kklnc

This essay also includes audio, so you can listen to the essay while you read it, or before/after.

Enjoy!

NEW! STOP SPANGLISH - The Intensive Course

• Have you been studying English for years, but still feel like you're not getting better?
• Do you want to study for a Cambridge Exam, but are afraid that you can't use your English enough to pass?
• Are you unsure why you still keep making the same mistakes, over and over again?
• Do you find that you're unable to develop your "English brain" and stop translating when you speak in English?
• Do you think you'll never really understand how to speak correctly?

If you answered "YES!!!" to any of the questions above...THE STOP SPANGLISH SEMINAR is for you.

You may be surprised to learn that most Spanish students of English find it extremely difficult to get beyond an intermediate level. But many students are also very surprised to find that English is actually a very simple language because of its lack of flexibility.

In many ways, English can't do the same things that Spanish does - and when you learn how limited English really is, you can make great progress in learning how to eliminate mistakes and reduce the amount of translation you need.

Over eight hours, you will learn:
- How rigid English syntax is - and why that is an advantage for you
- The seven ways to organize verbs
- How to train yourself to stop speaking and writing in Spanglish
- The important connections between grammar and pronunciation
- Valuable English-only dictionary skills - get rid of that old dictionary and find the one that works best for you!

...all this and more for only €129! (that's a 35% discount!)

WHEN: September 10, 17, 24 and October 1st (Friday afternoons), 15:00 - 17:00
WHERE: Hexagone Idiomas, c/ López de Hoyos (Metro Avenida de América)

FOR MORE INFORMATION... Write us at stop (dot) spanglish (arroba) yahoo (punto) es!

Life (and immigration) isn't always fair

One thing that's surprised me a lot this month is that I'm getting calls from a lot of people who want to improve their English...because they want to leave Spain and go live in another country. If you're among them, be warned that Canada now has new rules about language proficiency. These rules do not necessarily help people who have already achieved a high level of English... like, you know... English literature professors from the United States!

http://tinyurl.com/2cbf45y

I have a friend who works for CIC, the Immigration authority. I'll see if I can find some more information about the exam.

Another Stop Spanglish classic...

This one was taken in the Puerta del Sol, in Madrid.

Poor tourists...

If you're looking for a private teacher....

So here we are, in the middle of August. Within the next few days, as people start returning from holidays, many potential English students are going to start looking for English classes. A lot of people will choose to attend classes in an academy. Many will start looking for private English teachers, either for work or for fun. In most cases, the relationship between teachers and students will generally be pretty positive.

That said, every year, there are cases where one side, or the other, ends up disappointed. A lack of communication can prevent students from getting the help they need, and it can also prevent teachers from really understanding how they can work effectively with their students.

I'm not going to say that I'm an expert on student-teacher relationships. I have, however, taught for twelve years in different countries, and I hope that the information I can offer you will help you find and work with the teacher who's best for you.

THOUGHTS FOR STUDENTS:

Be honest with yourself before you're honest with your teacher. If you're going to hire a private teacher, be aware that you are helping provide someone with a salary. Who are the students who give up after three weeks? They're the students who do not have a clear idea of what they want to accomplish, or what they want to do, BEFORE the class.

Sit down with yourself for an hour and ask yourself the following questions:
- What are the things I currently do with my level of English?
-What are the things I cannot do, but either need or want to do?
- What are the things I need to do to bring my level up?
- How much time per week -- in AND out of class - am I willing to dedicate to working on my English? (Remember that, for every hour you spend in class, you need to spend an hour practising and working on your skills.)
- Do I really need English for my job, or do I say that because I think everyone else expects me to have English skills?
- What are the fun things that I can do that will keep me interested in English?

If you cannot answer those questions, please think twice before you contact a private teacher. Classes in a group situation in an academy may be a better option, because it's sometimes more fun to learn with other people than to learn alone.

Don't be cheap. If you want to have classes with a teacher but you think the teacher is too expensive, it's acceptable to negotiate. It is NOT acceptable to send the teacher insulting e-mails or to ask for the price of classes to be cut by half. You wouldn't ask your lawyer to lower his fees. You wouldn't ask your accountant to lower her fees. You wouldn't ask your dentist to lower his fees. It's not acceptable to do that with a teacher. I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but if you cannot afford a teacher's fees...look somewhere else for a different teacher.

One side note to that: If you're employed full-time want to take private English classes, and you're worried about the cost, ask your Human Resources department if the company has a student payment program. A surprising number of companies in Spain DO reimburse employees (=pay them back) for part of the cost of classes; they usually do this if the teacher is an autónomo and can issue invoices. It doesn't hurt to ask your company if they do this; and, if it's not company policy, ask your boss(es) to consider doing it. (Remind them that reimbursing is a LOT less expensive than hiring a company to give in-house classes.)

Remember that the teacher is trying to create lessons and tasks to help you improve. (What I basically mean is: Learn to follow instructions.) If I give you a writing task, I don't want you to spend half an hour telling me the answer. If I give you a grammar exercise that asks you to write the answer in complete sentences, don't give me two or three words. You may think that it's boring to do all that work, but that work is what makes you get better. Please do the work as it's presented to you, not as you think that you want to do it. I can't tell the difference between a student who doesn't understand a task and a student who simply doesn't feel like doing the work.

If you want to terminate your relationship with your teacher, be honest about it. Don't disappear. Attend your classes and let us know at the earliest moment if you can't attend. If you have a personal issue, like illness or family or money problems, be honest about it. Don't cancel eight classes in a row and then expect your teacher to help you four months later. Don't "forget" to pay your teacher for a month and expect the teacher not to notice.

THOUGHTS FOR TEACHERS:

Learning a language is scary. If you've never done it before, you should try it; it can be enriching and humbling at the same time. We have more credibility as teachers if we've been there before ourselves.

Don't sell yourself short. Don't work for less money than you think you rightly deserve. If the student doesn't want to pay what you're asking, let him or her find someone else. If you have a specialized skill that you think would be useful for students, for God's sake, make sure they know it. Market yourself well -- that includes presenting a professional images, preparing classes well, and knowing how to say you're sorry if something doesn't go right.

Each one teaches one. This is just a personal opinion, but I think the best classes I have are the ones where I learn just as much as the student does.

There is no finite pot of riches. And what I mean by that is that, professionally, you have little to lose and a lot more to gain if you help other teachers and work with them. Business guru Suze Orman likes to say that generosity pays off in ways you could never imagine; be kind and generous and you'll get back more than what you gave. If you have teacher friends who are on Twitter, follow them and retweet their posts. If you need that couple of days off, offer your classes to a buddy (trust me, I have never seen a case of one teacher stealing another's student - students are not credit cards or Bic pens.) Like the song says, you get what you give.

These are just my thoughts. Please feel free to share yours.

Q&A: Candy Lee Laballe on TOEFL and MBAs

No doubt about it: if you want to study in the US, the TOEFL exam is THE exam that schools ask for. As more students think about applying for graduate business school programs, demand for TOEFL exam prep has shot up... something Candy Lee Laballe, head of MBASpain, knows very well. We spoke with Candy today about what kind of language skills business schools are looking for.

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Most of your work is with students who want to study MBAs in the States. What level of English do MBA students need?

An MBA student needs to be nearly fluent, both to follow the fast pace of discussion in the classroom and to participate actively in study groups which are a required aspect of most programs.

If students can't communicate at that level, what are the things they do that prevent them from getting better?

It all comes down to fluency: the ability to integrate the four parts of communication (reading, listening, writing and speaking), which are the four parts of the TOEFL exam). Practice. At this level (MBA,TOEFL) it really is no longer about grammar, but about usage.

How closely do MBA programs look at TOEFL scores? If a school has two ideal candidates but only one place, does the candidate with the higher TOEFL score get in?

The TOEFL score in terms of MBA admissions is a benchmark, nothing more. If a school asks for 100, then you need 100 - 105 will not give you an edge. But don't think scoring close to the benchmark is enough. Dee Leopold, director of admissions and financial aid at Harvard Business School, which requires a 109 TOEFL, has said don't bother applying with a 108. With TOEFL, you need to meet the minimum required by the school--that is all.

If you could offer one piece of advice to students who want to improve their English to study in the States, what would it be?

Get daily immersion in the language. If you don't work in an environment where English is used regularly, then fill your MP3 player with American English podcasts such as This American Life or Harvard Business IdeaCast. Try to read for an hour a day on a wide variety of topics in websites such as http://www.nationalgeographic.com/, http://www.sciencedaily.com/, http://www.historynet.com/, http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/. You also need to build up your communication skills in writing and speaking. Consider hiring a private English teacher for in-person or phone classes to work on these areas.

For more information, be sure to visit MBASpain's website, at http://www.mbaspain.com.

Looking for help with business English?

A lot of business learners complain that they don't have time to practice outside of class. I'm not sure if that's true or not (after all, this IS a country where people have breakfast twice a day and spend a considerable amount of time drinking coffee!), but if you have found that it's hard to practice your business English when you're not in class, go to YouTube and take a look at the Business English videos that BizPod has created:

http://www.youtube.com/user/bizpod

The videos, which are about ten minutes long, cover a wide range of subjects. Among the topics that they have, you can find information about business vocabulary and writing skills. It's a useful solution if you don't have a lot of time to practice when you're not in class.

Wednesday's Word Challenge

The biggest difference between adverbs and prepositions is that adverbs usually give an idea of movement and prepositions describe the space relationships between things that don't move.

Which prepositions and adverbs would you need to describe your trip between home and work (or home and school)?

Thought for the day:

No one rises to low expectations. Aim for the moon and enjoy the ride!
-- Bear Grylls, TV host and adventurer

TRY THIS: I will... I will... I will...

Have you ever wondered why, at the beginning of every episode of "The Simpsons", Bart Simpson is trapped in a classroom and has to write a specific sentence over and over again?

Writing a sentence fifty, one hundred or two hundred times used to be a very common way of trying to teach school children not to misbehave or do things that would annoy the class. Psychologists now know, however, that this is also an extremely effective tool to get people to visualize positive change in their lives and to make themselves believe that something is true. The more times you hear something, the easier it is to remember it - and if it's easier to remember something, you're more likely to do it.

So if you're having problems keeping your focus or staying motivated....TRY THIS:

Think of a positive sentence (something you might want your teacher to tell you, for example) and write it down fifty times. Take a clean piece of paper, write the sentence at the top of the page in red ink...then take half an hour to an hour and keep writing and writing and writing the same sentence over again.

Here are some examples of sentences you might try:

* I don't need to translate from Spanish to English: my English skills are good enough.
*I will get excellent marks on my exam.
* When I go to (name city here), I will not have problems speaking English. I can understand and be understood.
* Learning more slowly does not mean that I will never learn English!

This trick also works well with words or structures that you have problems remembering, like not putting the modal verb in the IF- clause in a conditional sentence. (You probably don't need to write it fifty times, however...ten or fifteen times is probably enough.)

Why bother with Proficiency?

In this week's CPE newsletter, www.Flo-Joe.co.uk had some interesting thought about doing the Cambridge Proficiency exam:

CPE RECOGNITION - why bother doing the Proficiency exam?An important factor in a student's mind when deciding to take an exam is its currency for study or vocational purposes. CPE is wellrecognised both in the UK and abroad, so what are the typical benefits of passing the Proficiency? Firstly, CPE is recognised by just about all British universities for satisfying English languagerequirements and, according to Cambridge ESOL literature "a growing number of universities in the USA", where traditionally the TOEFL exam has greater recognition. It is not just in the academic fieldthat CPE is useful. Many companies around the world where potentialemployees are required to demonstrate a high level of language competence ask for CPE as evidence; furthermore, ongoing staff development programmes may work towards the exam. If you would like more information about how and where Cambridge ESOL examinations are recognised you can go the Cambridge ESOL website:
http://www.cambridgeesol.org/recognition/index.php

It's worth remembering that motivation is a key factor in how well you learn English. Having a specific goal in mind - doing an exam, for example - may help you improve your English and your learning skills this year.

Texts: Have your say

Some bloggers who write about education are debating the role of textbooks in the classroom. Most of the writers are people who teach kids and teens in regular, English-language schools, but a number of ESL teachers are contributing to the debate.

Some people say that textbooks give a false sense of security and learning.... that, for some teachers, it becomes too easy to rely on what's in the book, without thinking about what the students want or need.

What's your opinion? Do classes feel like "real" learning only if you have a textbook? Does it depend on the teacher? Do you feel more confident if you use a textbook in class?

FREE!! ESL Writing Checklist

In the time that I've been teaching English, both in Spain and in other countries, I've found that almost all of my students hate writing. It's easy to understand why. Effective writing (not just spelling, but constructing arguments and convincing people) isn't easy to do. Students also don't like to spend lots of time trying to write something that sounds intelligent...and then get a paper back that's full of mistakes.

One of the best ways you can avoid the disappointment of getting a (heavily) corrected essay back is to check for mistakes before you submit your text to your teacher. Many (if not almost all) mistakes are easily avoidable, and if you go back and look at the kind of corrections your teacher made on your essays, you'll probably find that you're not making a lot of different kinds of mistakes...you're making the same mistakes over and over and over again.

If this is the case, here's a downloadable writing checklist that can help you revise your writing before you submit it.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35772510/Writing-Checklist

This isn't a list of every possible thing that students do wrong, but it does cover the most common (and the most easily prevented) mistakes that teachers tend to see. If you're writing the First Certificate exam, these are the kinds of silly mistakes that make students lose points and risk failing.

Juan Francisco's guide to learning English

Hello everybody. I’m Juan, a Spanish speaker of English, in fact, the perfect model of a Spanish learner of English.

Patri has given me the opportunity to write in her fantastic blog about what the habits are that, in my opinion, successful English students have or should have to learn a foreign language like English. A foreign language that, of course, is really difficult to internalize because, among other circumstances, has a Germanic base so different of Spanish’s Latin origins...

You can read Juan Francisco's entire article here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/35766798

Don't mention the war! (or George Bush, or smiles...)

There's a funny video on The Guardian's website that's worth a look. Apparently the London Tourist Board has decided that they don't want average Londoners committing possible mistakes when people from other countries travel to London for the 2012 Olympics, and the Board has created

http://tinyurl.com/38q9lj4

Take a look at the video and tell us what you think: Are these concerns justified? Or is the Board making cultural assumptions that simply aren't true?

Wednesday's Word Challenge

You don't find many wrods that end in "b" or the sound /b/ in Spanish, but they're fairly common in English: pub, tab, rub. How many words can you think of that end in that sound?

We have a winner!

Congratulations to Juan Francisco Martinez Corbi, of Arganda del Rey (Madrid), who was the first to write in with the correct answer to our Stop Spanglish photo competition:

Hi Patri!I have just read your blog, the last two posts to be precise, and I have decided to take part in your first STOP SPANGLISH contest against Spanglish.
QUESTION A: I think the mistake is 'Cards of credit'.
QUESTION B: It's wrong because there are noun + noun compounds (in this case, cards + credit) to describe many common ideas, things or people in English and, in fact, to describe that specific object in the correct way. For this reason…
QUESTION C: The correct English should be, in my opinion, 'We do not accept credit cards'. There are two nouns. The first one (in singular) describes what kind of cards are them.

Don't forget to keep visiting the STOP SPANGLISH blog, so you can take part in future competitions.... I have a LOT of photos like this one.

A request from the teacher...

I have a pair of students (a couple, really) who I have been teaching since the beginning of June. Truth is, I don't know whether I should use the present perfect continuous (have been teaching) or past simple (taught) to describe my relationship with them. We were supposed to start class again last Tuesday, but they wrote me an SMS to say that they were out of town and wouldn't be able to start again until today.

So, at 7:30 AM today, I sent them another SMS, asking them again if we were starting class today. I didn't get any response. I called them just after 12 noon, to find out what the story was. "Oh, sorry!" he said. "We're out of town for a couple of days, but we'd like to start again next Tuesday, at 3PM, like normal. Would that be possible?"

Folks, if I can only share one piece of advice with you, let it be this: Be HONEST. If you don't want to continue with your teacher, tell your teacher that you don't want to continue. All you have to do is tell the truth. You won't hurt our feelings, believe me; most of us have been teaching long enough that we will not take it personally if you a) don't have enough money for classes or b) think that we are awful teachers and you want to go somewhere else.

Remember that most teachers do not get paid for classes they do not have. This is how we earn our living and pay our rent. It makes it very difficult for us when students cancel classes randomly! This is why we start insisting on being paid for ten or twenty classes in advance - I know those are policies that students don't like, but your teacher is making a commitment to you when he or she agrees to teach you, and part of that commitment involves knowing that your student will be reliable, too.

If there's something you don't like about the way your teacher teaches, or you think that you should be learning something different or doing things in a different way, be sure your teachers knows. A good teacher should not get angry if you ask for what you want. Any teacher will get very angry if a student disappears or starts acting weird.

I welcome your thoughts and your ideas....

COMPETITION #1: What's wrong with this picture?

Take a look at the English in this photo. Technically, it's not super-wrong, because people can still (basically) understand the message.

It is, however, a perfect example of Spanglish. Whoever translated it did not think (or didn't know) about how English structures are different from Spanish structures, and it makes the message look sloppy and unprofessional.

So here's our first STOP SPANGLISH contest! If you are the first person to answer the three questions below correctly, you will win an Oxford dictionary designed for English learners, plus a copy of Enleno's excellent English Learner Notebook.

a) What's the mistake in the photo?
b) Why is it wrong?
c) What should the correct English be?

THE FINE PRINT: Send your answers to stop (dot) spanglish (at) yahoo (dot) com before noon Friday, August 13th. This competition is open to all students who reside in Spain (peninsular Spain, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands) and Portugal. We hate spam, too, so we will NOT use your e-mail for anything at all (you have my personal promise!!) unless you clearly tell us that you want to receive updates and more information.

Is it possible to learn TOO much English?

Too much English? It's a luxury that most people don't have to worry about. Most people struggle with learning English and being able to use what they learn in class!

As the New York Times reports, however, it's a problem that's becoming increasingly common in Indonesia. Learning English is promoted so heavily in Indonesia that, surprisingly, it's affecting how well people -- especially young learners -- can communicate in their native tongues.

http://tinyurl.com/33capnu

America's first Muslim college

There's an interesting feature today on VOAnews.com about the first American Muslim college. For those of you who are thinking about studying in the United States, it's worth remembering that many of the colleges and universities which are famous internationally were started by different churches; Harvard, for example, was started by well-off Protestants who settled in the Boston area and wanted a high-level university for their children.

You can listen to (and read) the feature here:
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Americas-First-Muslim-College-Opens-this-Fall-99831529.html

The feature contains some ideas and vocabulary that you might find useful for the listening part of the TOEFL - especially those "not in classroom" discussions that you are tested on.

Now on Twitter!

STOP SPANGLISH is now on Twitter! Follow us at http://twitter.com/stopspanglish.

Wednesday's Word Challenge

Most irregular past tense verbs only have one syllable: ate, went, cut, put, dreamt.

How many irregular past simple verbs can you think of that have more than one syllable?

TOEFL Students: Why paraphrasing is important

One of the most serious mistakes that students make on the TOEFL Writing exam is not paraphrasing properly. It may seem ridiculous (why say it in your own words if it's already been said?), but it's important to remember that students in American and Canadian universities do a LOT more writing than in Spanish universities. The ability to write clear, accurate prose is fundamental, and part of that ability is to be able to say someone else's words in a different way - which allows you to compare and contrast ideas, thoughts and possibilities.

Problem is, a lot of students now think that it's acceptable to avoid this and to copy information directly from the Internet. This story from The New York Times explains how widespread (=common) the problem is, and why it's such a serious problem for universities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html?_r=1&hp

(Of course, TOEFL students who are well-prepared won't have this problem!)

Open Topic: Motivation

The chances are that you're probably on holidays now and that you haven't thought about September, much less starting classes.

So here's an open topic for those of you who are practising English over the summer: What keeps you motivated? What inspires you to get better at speaking and using your English?

"Norwegians in Brooklyn"

If you decide to get a private English teacher this fall, I strongly suggest that you ask the person if she or he has ever tried to learn another language. It's not because you should have someone who speaks perfect Spanish (although it certainly helps.) Language teachers who have experience learning a language can often understand those strange little situations that happen to language students - such as what it's like to develop an accent that people don't expect you to have.

James Fallows, a writer for "The Atlantic Monthly", lived in Beijing for a number of years, and understands what it's like to learn a language, since he speaks fairly fluent Chinese. He's also been tracking and organizing stories about how different English accents can happen in the places where you least expect them. The story about the Chinese guy who talks like Deer Hunter actor Christopher Walken is priceless....

http://tinyurl.com/37ay65a

Beyond geeky!

Just found this via "The Atlantic Monthly" website. You will probably never, ever use these words in your life, but it's fun to know what these things are called:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/amandab10/10-words-for-things-you-didnt-know-have-names-1gad/

Couldn't have said it better myself

For a couple of months now, I've been trying to create a list of good reasons why students should use English-only dictionaries. English teacher Alex case has done a better job than I have, and he's included it on the UsingEnglish.com website. If this list doesn't convince you, nothing will!

http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/why-does-my-teacher-make-me-use-an-englishenglish-dictionary.html

If you're worried about the price of an English-only dictionary, don't be. I just got a paperback copy of the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus (http://www.m-w.com) through Amazon.com for the equivalent of about €15 (including shipping).

Back from holidays!

Hi everyone...

Just a quick note to let you all know that Whiteshorts and I are back from holidays, so the posts and information will (hopefully) be up to the same levels that they were in June.

Listening practice for all you cycling fans!

I have to admit that BICYCLING magazine is not necessarily my favourite magazine about cycling. They recycle articles a little too frequently, and they're extremely biased towards Lance Armstrong (which means that you don't get to hear about other great American riders.)

One positive thing about BICYCLING, however, is that they've recently re-designed their website and added more features like video interviews. Here's an interview with Jens Voight, the German cyclist from the Saxo Bank team. This interview is easy to understand, since Jens's first language isn't English, but at the same time, he speaks really good English, so the interview isn't boring.

http://video.bicycling.com/video/Part-1-Jens-Voigt-Sits-Down-Wit

Enjoy!

For those of you who want to fight the Metro strike....

...and who are tired of waiting for buses and who don't want to walk...

http://www.bicycling.com/news/advocacy/share-road

This is a great, informative slide show that gives you some very useful advice about how to ride safely in the city.

Seriously...you should definitely think about biking to work. I rode to class yesterday and it was super-easy; it took me just as long as it does when I'm on the Metro, and, best of all, I had a good reason not to go to the gym after.

Enjoy!

Spelling as Sport!

One of the peculiarities of spelling words in English is that, many times, there's no direct correlation between an individual letter - the letter "A", say - and the sound it represents. There are a lot of historical reasons for this (most of them too complicated to talk about here), but it has created a uniquely American pastime: the spelling bee.

A spelling bee is a competition, usually for children, where a group of kids are given words to spell. The children start out with easy words, but as the competition progresses, the words become more difficult, and each time a student spells a word incorrectly, he or she is eliminated. The winner is the person who, basically, can spell more words than any other competitor.

In the United States, the biggest and most famous spelling bee is the Scripps National Spelling Bee (http://www.spellingbee.com/), sponsored by the Scripps News Service. Each winner is sponsored by a Scripps newspaper, and this year's winner was Anamika Veeramani, from Ohio, who had to spell stromuhr to win. (A stromuhr is a kind of meter that measures how quickly blood goes through a vein.)

Want to try the test for yourself, to see if your spelling would be good enough to qualify? Click on this link: http://public.spellingbee.com/public/test/publicsample/?page=word.

If you think that only native English speakers would do well at this, think again: 21 of the 273 competitors in the 2010 competition do not speak English as their first language.

(Why "bee", you ask? In addition to the typical definition that everyone knows - a fat insect that makes honey and stings people - "bee" can also mean a social gathering where people combine work, competition, and amusement. No one's exactly sure where the word comes from, but it may come from Old English ben, "prayer".)

Five for free!

Not taking an English class this summer? Not sure how to practice in your spare time?

Here are five ideas that Paloma, Alicia, Concha, Vero and I came up with in class on Monday morning:

Send a company an e-mail. Pick a hotel, a famous British restaurant and an American department store, and ask them questions. You don't have to ask for really complicated information; you could write to ask about prices, opening hours, locations...

Listen to a podcast. If you use iTunes, go to the iTunes store and look up the subject "English language podcast" or "ESL podcast." I just did this, and I got a dozen different downloadable podcasts, all of which were free.

Learn a complete CD of music by heart. Personal suggestions: Amy Winehouse's "Black in Black" (OK, you may not like her, personally, but the songs are easy to sing); soundtracks to musicals like "Hairspray" or "Chicago" (be sure to write down and practice the phrasal verbs and set phrases you hear!). Try to avoid techno-pop or anything like New Order - yes, the songs are fun, but they don't make any sense!

Get a penfriend, or find someone you can practice your written English with! Try these sites:
http://www.englishjet.com/english_courses_files/people.htm
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/meeting/index.pl
http://esl-group.com/list1f.html

Speaking of penfriends...here's a free online reading comprehension exercise you can try: http://esl.about.com/od/beginningreadingskills/a/pen_pal.htm

Help tourists who are lost around Madrid. This is helpful for both you and the tourist: The tourist doesn't have to feel ashamed about not speaking enough Spanish to find where he or she wants to go, and you get five minutes of free English practice! But be reasonable; don't harrass the tourist too much or insist that he talk to you for, like, an hour or something.

There are lots of free websites with exercises and advice. My personal favourites include www.esl.about.com (the pen friends exercise above is from there), the BBC World Service Learning English site (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml - check out the photo page that has a picture taken in Toledo!) and www.dictionary.com - especially useful if you want to learn more about the vocabulary you learned in class this year.

Good luck!

The last World Cup post for today (I promise).

This video has no educational purpose at all. It's just a fun dance tune from the 2006 World Cup, and it's easy to understand the lyrics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOZp6rgDedo

I just want to make it clear, by the way, that I'm not a really huge football fan or anything; English teachers have a nasty habit of focusing vocabulary on a particular season or event - it's simply a way of using current events (=news) to introduce new concepts. (Teacher stuff. :)

Some more World Cup fun....

For reasons that are too complicated to explain here (or, rather, I'll explain them later), most of the English as a Second Language dictionaries sold in Spain are from the UK -- Oxford, Longman and Cambridge, for example. American and Canadian students, however, typically use Merriam-Webster dictionaries, which were first published in the mid-19th century in the United States.

Merriam-Webster's website is a great place to find tons of fun information about English, and they've recently added a new feature: Ask the Editor. These videos give you short explanations (under 2 minutes) of the origins of certain words and expressions.

Here's one for you sports fans who want to know the origins of the noun "hat trick":
http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0009-hattrick.htm

Enjoy!

...and why do Americans call it soccer?

I confess: I had to look this one up.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary (http://www.etymonline.com/), the word soccer is a shorter form of "association", from the name of the Football Association. Speakers took "assoc", turned it into "soc", and added the informal "-er" suffix (you can also hear this in the way some people will call rubgy "rugger").

Football (which dates back to the early 15th century) is fairly obvious: you have a foot, you have a ball. Games like these date back to the Roman times; I like how the Online Etymology Dictionary points out that "[b]all-kicking games date back to the Roman legions, at least, but the sport seems to have risen to a national obsession in England, c.1630." (Some things never change.)

Hooligan dates back more than one hundred years:

...of unknown origin, first found in British newspaper police-court reports in the summer of 1898, almost certainly from the surname "Houlihan", supposedly from a lively family of that name in London (who figured in music hall songs of the decade). Internationalized 20c. in communist rhetoric as Rusian khuligan, opprobrium [=criticism] for "scofflaws, political dissenters, etc."

For more information on word origins connection with football/soccer/whatever you call it, look here: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=soccer&searchmode=none.