MERRY CHRISTMAS in 24 languages

Para todos mis alumnos del Edificio Ovoide, aula nº6. ¡Felices fiestas a todos!

Food packaging

Food packages

Spaniards in London

Capitulo uno de la serie Spaniards in London. Una webserie sobre algunos de los miles de emigrantes españoles que viven en Londres. Muy divertido!

Common mistakes in English

Here there are 10 of the most common mistakes made by many students when speaking English. I quite agree with the teacher, that's why I've decided to share it. Have a look and make sure that you don't make them too!

Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013

SELFIE

a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website

     Oxford Dictionaries announced selfie as their international Word of the Year 2013.  Language research conducted by Oxford Dictionaries editors reveals that the frequency of the word selfie in the English language has increased by 17,000% since this time last year.

     Selfie can actually be traced back to 2002 when it was used in an Australian online forum:

2002 ABC Online (forum posting) 13 Sept.

“Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.” 

      The word gained momentum throughout the English- speaking world in 2013 as it evolved from a social media buzzword to mainstream shorthand for a self-portrait photograph. Its linguistic productivity is already evident in the creation of numerous related spin-off terms showcasing particular parts of the body like helfie (a picture of one’s hair) and belfie (a picture of one’s posterior); a particular activity – welfie (workout selfie) anddrelfie (drunken selfie), and even items of furniture – shelfie and bookshelfie.

 

The Word of the Year List

In alphabetical order, the shortlisted words for the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013 are:

• bedroom tax, noun, informal:

(in the UK) a reduction in the amount of housing benefit paid to a claimant if the property they are renting is judged to have more bedrooms than is necessary for the number of the people in the household, according to criteria set down by the government.

The Welfare Reform Act 2012 proposed various changes to the rules governing social security benefits in the UK, including an ‘under-occupancy penalty’ to be imposed on households that were receiving housing benefit and that were judged to have bedrooms surplus to their requirements. Critics and opponents soon began to refer to the new penalty as the ‘bedroom tax’. The first references to the bedroom tax in our corpus appear in 2011 but usage increased dramatically around the time this new provision came into force, in April 2013.

• binge-watch, verb:

to watch multiple episodes of a television programme in rapid succession, typically by means of DVDs or digital streaming. [ORIGIN 1990s: from BINGE + WATCH, after BINGE-EAT, BINGE-DRINK.]

The word binge-watch has been used in the circles of television fandom since the late 1990s, but it has exploded into mainstream use in 2013. The original context was watching programmes on full-season DVD sets, but the word has come into its own with the advent of on-demand viewing and online streaming. In 2013, binge-watching got a further boost when the video-streaming company Netflix began releasing episodes of its serial programming all at once. In the past year, binge-watching chalked up almost as much evidence on our corpus asbinge-eating. (Binge-drinking remains unchallenged in the top position, at least for the moment.)

• bitcoin, noun:

a digital currency in which transactions can be performed without the need for a central bank. Also, a unit of bitcoin. [ORIGIN early 21st century: from BIT, in the computing sense of ‘a unit of information’ and COIN.]

The term first appeared in late 2008 in a research paper, and the first bitcoins were created in 2009. By 2012, the virtual currency was attracting wider attention and we began to see its steadily increasing use. A spike in usage was apparent in March – May 2013, which may be due in part to the market crash around that time.

• linguito, noun:

a small furry mammal found in mountain forests in Colombia and Ecuador, the smallest member of the raccoon family. (Taxonomic name Bassaricyon neblina)  [ORIGIN 2013: diminutive form of OLINGO, a South American mammal resembling the kinkajou.]

The discovery of the olinguito was announced by the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in August 2013: it represented the first identification of a new species of mammalian carnivore in the Western hemisphere in 35 years.  Extensive coverage of the story in the world’s media was guaranteed by the animal’s appearance – it was described as looking like a cross between a teddy bear and a domestic cat.

Games and Sports Idioms You Can Use in Business

Let’s take a look at ten idioms we use, in what situations and what sport they relate to.

1. To keep your cards close to your chest – don’t reveal your plans
Ex: I kept my cards close to my chest during the negotiation. 

2. Poker-faced – expressionless (comes from the game of poker where you must not let your face reveal whether you have a good or bad card)

Ex: The clients sat poker-faced all through my sales pitch. It was so unnerving. 

3. Knocked me for six – surprised and upset me
Ex: Jenny has just announced that she’s leaving which has knocked me for six. I really enjoyed working with her. 

4. Play the trump card/ace – use the advantage especially when others do not know about it
Ex: The CEO played his trump card by promising a dividend payout at the shareholders’ meeting. 

5. A whole new ball game – a completely different situation
Ex: This is a whole new ball game if we’re talking about expanding the business. 

6. To play hard ball – to be so determined to get what you want that you will use unfair methods to get it.
Ex: The people here like to play hardball which can be very challenging. 

7. Don’t pull any punches – speak in an honest and direct way without being tactful
Ex: The CEO didn’t pull any punches when he told the board that the company was in trouble.

8. Below the belt – an unfair attack (in boxing that is not allowed)

Ex: There was no need to mention my personal problems to the press. That was below the belt.






9. Throw in the towel – giving up and admitting defeat

Ex: I think we need to accept things as they are and throw in the towel before we lose any more money.

10. Hold all the cards – to be in a strong position
Ex: Management found that the trade union held all the cards during the pay talks.  

                                                                                                                                                            From: English with a Twist

Changes to Cambridge English: First (FCE)

From January 2015, Cambridge English: First will have new specifications. Cambridge English: First is at Level B2 on the CEFR. It can be taken as a computer-based or a paper-based exam. It uses real-life situations that are designed to help your students communicate more effectively and learn the language skills to use everyday written and spoken English for work and study purposes.

Changes to exam at a glance

These are the key changes to the Cambridge English: First exam that will be introduced in January 2015.

Description                          Current version                        Revised version (2015)

Format                                 Five papers                             Four papers

Timing                                 3 hours 59 minutes                 3 hours 29 minutes

Number of Parts                 17                                             17

Number of questions          104                                           84

Reading and Use of English

·       The Reading and Use of English papers have been combined.

·       The revised paper takes 1 hour 15 minutes, which is 30 minutes shorter than the current Reading and Use of English papers combined. 

·       All the task types from both papers have been kept but the number of items in each task has been reduced. 

·       From 2015, there will be 7 parts and 52 questions. 

·       Use of English tasks come before Reading tasks so that there is a clear progression from a focus at word and sentence level to a focus on whole text content and structure.

Writing

·       The compulsory Part 1 question is now an essay rather than an email or letter. 

·       The word count for both parts has increased to 140–190 words. 

·       In Part 2, candidates now choose from three questions rather than five, and candidates can decide to write an article, a report, a review or an email/letter. 

·       There will no longer be questions on set texts.

Listening

·       All the current listening tasks are retained. 

·       In Part 1 the options are now not read out. 

·       In the Part 3 question there are now two additional distractors – so there are three distractors in all.

Speaking

·       Overall the revised Speaking paper takes the same length of time and has the same number of parts and tasks but there are changes to each part. 

·       In Part 1, the timing has reduced from 3 minutes to 2 minutes.

·       In Part 2, the candidate response time has increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds

·       In Part 3, the picture prompts are replaced with written prompts. The task is now split into two to include a discussion phase and a decision-making phase.

·       The Part 4 timing has increased by one minute.

Differences between United Kingdom, Great Britain...

I know it is incredibly fast, so this time I recommend watching it with subtitles!. Really interesting.

Cambridge English Advanced (CAE): Changes to exam 2015

Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) is at Level C1 on the CEFR. It can be taken as a computer-based or a paper-based exam. It provides high-level English skills for academic and professional success. From January 2015, Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) will have new specifications.

Changes to exam at a glance. These are the key changes to the Cambridge English: Advanced exam that will be introduced in January 2015.

Description                         Current Version	Revised Version (2015)
Format                                 Five papers	Four papers
Timing                                 4 hours 40	3 hours 55 minutes
Number of Parts                   19	18
Number of questions            114	86

Reading and Use of English

·         The Reading and Use of English papers have been combined.

·         The revised exam takes 1 hour 30 minutes, which is 45 minutes shorter than the current Reading and Use of English papers combined.

·         From 2015, there are 8 parts and 56 questions.

·         The task types in the revised Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) exam are now the same as the task types for Cambridge English: First (FCE). The differences are in levels, content and relative abstraction/cognitive challenges in the text.

·         Some of the tasks from the current Reading and Use of English papers (short texts and gapped sentences) have been dropped.

·         There is a new cross-text multiple matching task.

·         Use of English tasks are before Reading tasks so that there is a clear progression from a focus at word and sentence level to a focus on whole text content and structure.

·         The content has a stronger academic flavour, reflecting its intended use by late teens and young adults intending to study at higher education level, or by those who need a CEFR Level C1 qualification for career or immigration purposes.

Writing

·         There is a new compulsory essay in Part 1. The input takes the form of notes made during a seminar, lecture or panel discussion.

·         Part 2 will remain essentially unchanged; however, it will no longer include an article or information sheet as output text types.

·         There will no longer be questions on set texts.

Listening

·         All the current listening tasks are retained.

·         The Part 3 multiple choice task is slightly changed to focus more on interaction between speakers.

Speaking

·         In Part 1, Phase 2 is modified to reduce the number of follow up questions.

·         Part 1 timing is reduced by one minute.

·         In Part 3, visuals are replaced with written prompts. The task is now split into two to include a discussion phase and a decision-making phase.

·         The Part 4 timing is extended by one minute.

·         Some tasks may have more of a study or work theme.

Best TV shows for learners of English

A video with some recommendations from ESL teachers/authors about the best tv shows to watch to learn English. Some of them are a bit old-fashioned so just follow your tastes (as long as you do it in English)

Halloween Idioms

Halloween is associated with scary and spooky images like witches, black cats, blood, skeletons, ghosts, bats, knives, daggers as well as less scary images like pumpkins and owls. Here you have 10 idioms with some of these Halloween images. I hope you enjoy them.

1. Not a cat in hell’s chance: no chance at all

Ex: We didn’t have a cat in hell’s chance of winning that contract.

2. Stick the knife in:  to do or say something very unpleasant or unkind to someone
Ex: The Sales Director really stuck the knife in when he told Tom that his sales pitch was the worst he’d ever seen.

3. Stab in the back:  to stab someone in the back means to betray them
Ex: After all I did for him, he stabbed me in the back when he told all those lies about me.

4. Skeleton in the Cupboard:  a scandal that is kept secret
Ex: James has a few skeletons in his cupboard and is terrified that he will be found out.

5. Skeleton staff:  the fewest number of people needed in an office
Ex: We always operate with a skeleton staff over the Christmas period.

6. Scared Stiff:  so scared that you cannot move
Ex. I am scared stiff of walking on ice.

7. Scare the pants off someone: to frighten someone a lot
Ex: The film “Nightmare on Elm Street”scared the pants off me.

8. Make the blood run cold: to totally scare you
Ex: The screams in the woods made my blood run cold.

9. In cold blood: to act in cold blood is to do something without any emotion and deliberately
Ex: The victim was shot in cold blood.

10. A witch–hunt: an investigation carried out under the pretext of uncovering illegal activity but is actually used to harass people with different views.
Ex: The Government has been accused of carrying out a witch-hunt on small businesses.