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Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta English. Mostrar todas las entradas
Hello mates! 

Here is my first post, I'm so excited! My name is Silvia and I am a language teacher. I have experience teaching both English and Spanish and every day I learn something new from my students. I see them repeating and repeating, year after year, the verbs without learning them. They pass the exams, of course, but few weeks later, when they are already learning another topic everything seems to have flown away from his mind. That's so frustrating! So when they've been few years repeating the same story, they start feeling that they are stupid and they will never be able to speak in that language. Have you ever felt like this? Don't worry, you are not the problem. It is the method. We start learning a language too quick trying to get as many vocabulary and grammar as possible. In few weeks our brain can't keep all this information without working with it. We need to learn slow, giving our brain some time and using the language. That's why my method focus on making it real, we need to learn a secound language like we learnt ours. At first, you may feel that you are not learning that much per day, but your level will be real and you will feel confident to speak in that language sooner than if you are only reading and studying. But the best thing is that you will have fun while you are learning, and there are a lot of studies which confirm that the brain needs that emotional conexion to register information. So let's have fun! Let's love English/Spanish! You'll see how you will be able to speak it sooner than you thought.

 .......................

¡Hola amigos!

Aquí está mi primer post, ¡qué ilusión! Me llamo Silvia y soy profesora de idiomas. Tengo experiencia enseñando tanto inglés como español y cada día aprendo algo nuevo de mis estudiantes. Les veo repetir y repetir, año tras año, las conjugaciones verbales sin aprendérselas. Aprueban los examenes, claro, pero en pocas semanas, cuando ya van por otro tema del libro, parece que todo lo aprendido ha salido volando de su mente. ¡Qué frustrante! Así que cuando ya llevan varios años con la misma historia, empiezan a sentirse estúpidos y me empiezan a decir que nunca serán capaces de hablar en ese idioma. ¿Alguna vez te has sentido así? No te preocupes, el problema no eres tú, es el método. Empezamos a aprender un idioma demasiado rápido, intentando memorizar la mayor cantidad de vocabulario y gramática posible. En pocas semanas nuestro cerebro no puede más porque le estamos dando demasiada información sin trabajarla. Necesitamos aprender más despacio, dándole tiempo al cerebro y sobre todo, poner el idioma en práctica. Por eso mi método se centra en acercar ese idioma a nuestra realidad, a nuestro día a día, necesitamos aprender un segundo idioma como aprendimos nuestra lengua materna. Al princio, puede que sientas que no estás aprendiendo tanto cada día,pero tu nivel será real y te sentirás seguro para hablar en ese idioma antes que si sólo te quedas pegado a un libro leyendo y estudiando. Pero lo mejor de todo es que te lo pasarás bien mientras aprendes, y hay muchísimos estudios que confirman que el cerebro necesita una conexión emocional para registrar información. ¡Asi que disfruta! ¡Ama el inglés/español! Estarás hablandolo antes de lo que esperas.

Día de la Mujer ♀ Women's Day

         Para celebrar el Día de la Mujer os traigo un vídeo que sirve tanto para aprender inglés como español. En él se repasan algunas preguntas machistas que tienen que aguantar los famosos en sus entrevistas. Una manera de aprender idiomas mientras recordamos por qué el 8M aún es necesario. Esperemos que pronto no lo sea.
        To celebrate Women's Day, I'm leaving here a video that is useful to learn both, English and Spanish. In this video you can see some sexist questions that famous people have to put up with during the interviews. That's a way to learn languages while we remember why the 8M is still necessary. I hope not for long.



         Por último pero no por ello menos importante, os dejo dos canciones que también hablan de este tema. ¡Disfrutadlas!
         Last but not least, I'll leave here two songs that talk about this topic. Enjoy them!




 



HAPPY NEW YEAR, I'M BACK!

Hello again, 
Sorry I've been away for a while, far from home, with a new job, new friends... you know, it was an amazing adventure but I completely forgot about the blog. But I'm back, teaching again and eager to make more and more new resources for English and Spanish learners. I'm still quite busy but as you guys are one of my New Year resolutions, here you have a short post. 
These are the lyrics of one of my favourite songs. It talks about what happens after the death of a loved one and I'm very sensitive with these topic on Christmas so I think it is the best time to honour the friends or family members that are no longer with us, with this beautiful song. It is called If I ever leave this world alive and the band is Flogging Molly. You can look for them on Spotify and you have a video at the end of the post. 
You can just enjoy the song while reading the lyrics if you are too tired to do more. But if you really want to work on it, follow these steps:
  1. Listen the song, trying to guess what is he talking about. Don't worry if you don't understand every word.
  2. Listen it again with a notebook and write the words and sentences that you catch, don't worry if it goes faster than you write, it is just a game. If you stop it to write everything it will look like an exercise, a hard one, and you may be too tired to follow the next steps. Remember, ifi you don't enjoy, it is not worth it.
  3. Now, look at the lyrics, check your notes and underline the words/sentences you don't understand. Look them up in a good dictionary. 
  4. Do you need to work on your writing? Try writing a short essay (200-400 words) about what would you do if you "ever leave this world alive". Give it to your teacher, a friend or even me (leave a comment here), so they can have a look at it and check your mistakes.
  5. How would you say it? If you had to talk about this song how would you explain these ideas with your own words? Trying to change every word that you underlined before is a great exercise to help your speaking skills. Sometimes we are not fluent enough because we want to use certain words that we can't remember, be more flexible and find your way around them, there is always another way. 
  6. Accent. The way we pronounce words in each country could be completely different, and slow songs like this one may help a lot if yoy pay attention. Look through the lyrics again while listening to the music. Do you see the words I made bold? Stop the music after them to have a second to repeat outloud. You can go back as many times as you need or record yourself to check if you are saying it properly. If you are used to say a word in a completely way, don't worry, it may be a different way of saying and it could be correct as well. Checck it on forvo.com (a pronunciation dictionary). 
  7. Sing!! Use the lyrics as a karaoke and enjoy it!!!
IF I EVER LEAVE THIS WORLD ALIVE
If I ever leave this world alive
 I'll thank for all the things you did in my life
If I ever leave this world alive
I'll come back down and sit beside your feet tonight
Wherever I am you'll always be
More than just a memory
If I ever leave this world alive
If I ever leave this world alive
I'll take on all the sadness
That I left behind me
If I ever leave this world alive
The madness that you feel will soon subside
So in a word don't shed a tear
I'll be here when it all gets weird
If I ever leave this world alive
So when in doubt just call my name
Just before you go insane
If I ever leave this world
Hey I may never leave this world
But if I ever leave this world alive
She says I'm okay, I'm alright
Though you have gone from my life
You said that it would
Now everything should be all right
She says I'm okay, I'm alright
Though you have gone from my life
You said that it would
Now everything should be all right
Yeah should be alright

ABC and vocabulary

Hi!!

Short post. I've just found a great video and I had to share it with you. I'm used to ABC songs for kids but what about adults? I always ask them to listen these songs even if they are not kids because they are really helpful but know we can enjoy a great video while learning the letters.
The best part of it is that it is made with the TV series Friends!! One of the best shows of the history of TV! Yes, it is, and if you are one of these weird people that never watched it forget about the ABC and start right now with the first episode (It is on Netflix😉). Well here is the video, thanks to Lisa Valerie's channel:





PS: Seriously, watch it. Love you!





Podcasts

What is it?
A podcast is a radio-style recording that is uploaded to internet so everybody can listen it whenever they want. There are plenty of websites where you can find podcasts to play online or even download them. They are becoming pretty trendy and popular so you can find a podcast about almost every topic you could be interested in. I decided to write about them now because spotify added a new space for podcasts so they are even more easy to find than before, it you are a spotify user just try them. 

Why are they so great to learn a language?
They are exactly like the radio so they have no images with it, you only have to listen! So if you have not a lot of time to expend watching movies or tv series here you have another chance to improve your listenning skills. You can play them while you are working (depending on your job, of course), cleaning, washing the dishes... or even in your bed before going to sleep. 
Another good point is the great amount of podcasts around the world that you can find just clicking on your computer/phone/tablet. So you can choose the nationality of the speakers depending on the accent you are interested in (british, australian, american...) and the topic they are talking about. For example, I'm now obsessed with a AMC series called Preacher and today I watched the new episode. My friends are watching other shows so I have no one to speak with about this amazing episode and I found a podcast with three guys speaking every week after watching it together. They are discussing about it, giving different points of view and talking about interesting facts of the show.  
I'm sure you can find one about your favourite series or films, but if this is not your theme just search for some others like food recipies, music, history, videogames... 

Enjoy!

Back to school

Hi there!

Yes, it is September again, sorry. Time to go back to work/school and the daily routine. Take a week or two to get used to it and then think that routine could be a great ally while you are learning a language. Try to start using the tips I'm giving you in this blog as part or your daily life. Let's start with something easy, I will review with you few things you can start doing now.

1. Listen English music or the radio while you are driving. That's easy and it takes no time.
2. Try to start watching a TV series in English. Each episode should be around 30 minutes long so you will not get too tired and you can watch it while you are having dinner or before going to bed. Choose one according to your level, if you don't understand every word but you know what are they talking about and what's happening that's the right show for you. Short episodes are the best, I'll give you few examples but choose the one you could really enjoy: The Big Bang Theory, Friends, Scrubs, IT crowd, The young ones, How I met your mother, Two men and a half, Modern Family, The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, the Fresh Prince... 
3. Take notes. Write down everything you want to keep in mind. Don't stop the film, show or the book every time you find a new word but search the meaning of the ones that seem important to you and review them before going to sleep. You will spend less than five minutes in reading them and you will avoid boring studying hours. 

Finally, there are plenty of apps to start a routine that will remind you when do you have to do it and check your improvement. If you are not used to these resources just use a calendar or an agenda. I'm used to write a challenge per week because I can't promise to find time every day because of my job, it is easier to find time between my private lessons and leave few days free to relax during the week. My challenge this week would be try to drink water every day (it is really hard for me, I'm never thirsty!) and read at least the first three chapters of my new book in English. Today it's my birthday and my parents bought me The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster.

I hope you will be able to turn English in a daily activity so learning it will not be that hard. Before saying goodbye I will add one of my favourite songs with lyrics so you can understand it and play karaoke if you want. That's my way of welcoming September and saying goodbye to a very nice person that left this world few days ago. 


Thanks for reading.

Easy grammar

Some people are used to do mind-maps or tables because they are visual learners, other people need to have something to read so they prefer to summarize the grammar. There are also few people who uses silly jokes or word games to keep something in mind.  Personally, I use everything. I am a visual learner but I'm not able to explain everything with tables or mind-maps so sometimes I need to just summarize part of it. And if I'm studying and I keep on forgeting the same thing again and again I try to find a trick playing on the words. 
It doesn't matter what's best for you, just do it so you will not need to learn almost anything by heart. Our problem with grammar is that we always try to repeat and repeat till we got it, even if we don't understand it, so few days later everything is gone and we end feeling very frustrated. It is better if we stop, take a breath and use this time to read, think and understand what are we learning.  So, I'll give you some advice to use this methods properly, then try and choose what is better for you, it could be one, few or all of them!


Summarize

English grammar can be easily organised in mind-maps and tables but if you prefer a text just explain the mind-maps and summarize the long definitions. Summarizing is important because humans are very visual, we get tired just seeing what's left. If you are in the gym with the music or a TV you will be trainning longer than if you are constantly looking at your watch. The same thing happens when you are studying, even if you know that it is exactly the same amount of grammar, you will learn it faster and happier if you have 3 pages than if you have 10.
To have a perfect summary, rewrite everything in the way you would explain it. It is eaier to learn something that you wrote in your way than something that your brain needs to change every sentence. Even when you can prefectly understand it, if something sounds extrange, change it. That could seem a waste of time but by doing it, you are trying to understand every sentence and summarizing will help you to organize the grammar in your mind. Most of the times by the end of the day you will know everything you worked on without studying it.That will be so much better than repeating again and again.
Finally, remmember that the only person that will read your notes is yourself. So don't hesitate to use shorter words or symbols like if you were sending a text to a friend. Every word is important because one by one your notes will be becoming shorter and easier according to your eyes (and brain). 


Mind-maps and tables

As I said, you will be able to explain most grammar topics by this method; dividing them by gender, uses, topics, tenses... You can also use tables as vocabulary lists, with the new words, the meaning in your own language and, if you find it neccessary, you can add a sentence to include a context. Microsoft Word is quite good for the tables but it puts too many limits to make a proper mind-map. If you are more into that ones I suggest a very interesting (and free) webpage called Popplet. This online tool offers you everything without a registration but you should sign up if you want to print or save your maps. It could be really useful. 
   
 


Teacher help

While you are working on grammar you may need some help with few points. The best option is asking to an expert. So the best way to learn a language is going to a language academy and work at home as I'm teaching you. If you are doing it, ask your teacher every doubt you have. If you are learning on your own because you don't want a teacher or because you can't afford one, don't worry, ask a friend. If you have no native friends, maybe you have one that's is learning English and he/she is in a higher level than you, but remmember that friend could be tired if you have so many questions. If you can't go to a friend, you will always have internet. There are plenty of sites and youtube videos that explain grammar for free. But remmember that everybody can have a youtube account or a website, do not trust in the first information you can find, check it at least in two different places.

Tricks and word games

Finally, if you understand everything but you keep on forgetting the same part of the grammar or vocabulary, try to find a trick. For example, I used to be confused with the words price and prize. It is just a letter but the meaning is completely different, so after having to check it on wordreference before using it more than a hundred times I decided to look for a silly trick to keep it on mind. I didn't find a word game so I played with the letters in a drawing (like the one on the right), it is very simple and kinda stupid but now I'm always sure that prize is an award and price is the cost of the things. 
The easiest thing to do with a list is playing with the first letter of each word. For example if you can't say in orther the days of the week just think a sentence like: MOnica and TUrk WEnt to THailand with FRiends to enjoy the SAnd and the SUn. It is not my best sentence but it could work, sorry I can't think something better right now. You can even make a drawing of them going to the beach if it helps. 
It doesn't matter if it seems silly, the goal is keep the vocabulary or the grammar in mind and stop getting frustrated with the same mistake again and again.



I hope it will help you finding easier your grammar and enjoying your learning proccess. 

Bye bye

Summer

Hello everybody! 
It's 40 degrees in Spain, summer is here! And what could be better for a hot day than listening music and watch videos with the air conditioning on? Come on! Your friends are away, it is too hot to be in the street, just chill and practice some English.

First, I've worked on another song. It is Summer nights, I'm sure you've seen the film Grease and if not, you should! Here you have the video and this song is in Spotify too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW0DfsCzfq4
And with this link you can download the PDF with everything you will need: http://depositfiles.com/files/i320u5lcu
If you have any doubt go back to the guide that I posted, so you will review how to use the PDF. http://nomoregrammarbooks.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Songs

After that, you can work on this vocabulary list. It contains few words, idioms and pharsal verbs to study this summer, please feel free to add as many as you need. If you try to work on them now I'm sure you will keep them in mind while you are enjoying the summer.



Finally, here you have some videos about these season, try to understand everything and pick paper and a pen to write down every new expression or word. All of them are from youtube so I should say that I'm not the author, but the vocabulary list and the pdf with the Summer nights exercises are mine. Feel free to use and share my work.

This one is the easiest one because it is a song written for kids and the video has subtitles. Start with it even if you are an adult, don't feel bad! It has a lot of difficult words that will increase your vocabulary.

Friends, do you need another reason to watch it? Okay, just in case, I should say that these fun scenes happen in a hotel and they have a problem with their booking, they will have to pay again! Enjoy this video while you learn practical expressions to talk in a hotel.

Black Books is a great British TV series that should be more famous because it is very fun and the actors are great. Don't worry about spoilers if you haven't seen it because it is a sitcom so in each episode they start and finish a story. In this episode the three friends are taking a trip together for the first time.

Finally, if you feel brave enough, here you have a monologue about summer. He speaks quite quick and I couldn't find it with subtitles (sorry) so don't worry if you don't understand everything. If you catch few jokes and have fun it is enough.


HAVE A NICE SUMMER!!

Pulp Fiction

I've just come home, I've been in the cinema watching my favourite film: Pulp Fiction. I know, it is an old movie, but it si so good, so unbelievable, that it is on the cinemas again to celebrate its 30th anniversary. And of course, as a perfect nerd I went there without hesitating it and I will keep the ticket as a treasure. But the point is that I was watching the film and I decided to post something about it in this blog as my own tribute and to make you watch this amazing artwork.
If you've watched it before, I'm quite sure you will not have any problem with watching it again, this time in English, of course. If you haven't seen it, you are already late, go! You'll thank me later. It plays with the time during the whole movie using flashbacks and flashforwards every few minutes so maybe if you watch it the first time in English you will not get anything. Try with English subtitles, it will help you with spelling too. If you still can't watch it, do it with your own language subtitles and watch it properly again in few days. I would not want you to destroy your first time watching Pulp Fiction to learn English, you'll have time to do that but watching if for the very first time... it happens only once. 
Tarantino's scripts are wonderful, enjoy them. Take notes of the words that get your attention and search theis meaning after the film. Don't stop it, if you miss an important common word it will come again during the movie or in another place. Don't worry if you don't understand everything, pick paper and a pen and try your best. 
That's all, watching a whole movie is hard enough to have extra homework. We don't want to get too tired and stop watching movies in English. If you take some notes to learn few new words and you understand what's happening in every scene it is a success! 
If you are thinking that you have no time, here you have two of my favourite scenes because of its dialogues as non-sense as brilliant. Please, don't watch them if you didn't watch the movie before, I would hate to make a spoiler in a film like this one. Enjoy.
  
PS: I have post it also to learn Spanish (I know, it is an American film but it feels unfair to me to recommend this film only to the English learners) so if you want to watch this scenes in Spanish click here.

The Young Ones

Hi everybody!

If you are looking for a new TVseries to watch in English that's your post. I'm sure you've heard about Friends or How I meet your mother, they are great. But today I want to speak about The Young Ones, it is not very famous but it is one of my favourite ones.

This show is a British comedy with their typical sense of humour. There are no clever and complicate jokes, just awesome scripts and some clown style in their acting. It didn't deserve an Oscar but the laughs are guaranteed. What else would you ask while you are learning English? It was recorded in the 80's so you should be prepared to some revolutionary mood against Margaret Thatcher or anything that means an estrict order and some random scenes that doesn't say anything in the chapter but completes it with more fun staff. That style was very common in that decade. I hope it is your style, if it is too silly for you leave it.

The accent is quite easy, very British, it will reming you to the listenings from your old school book. Some scenes go quick but you should understand almost everything. And as I said before, they have a clown style in their acting so you will understand what's happening even if you can get too many words. The episodes are very short so try watching two or three and you'll see how it is not so difficult. Try not to stop it too much, you don't need to understand or take notes of every new word. But if it is a disaster even with subtitles you can stop and rewind whenever you need. And if you don't like it after three episodes, stop and watch something else. Remember that if you are not having fun you will not want to watch the next episode and you'll be frustrated and hating English again. That's about avoiding that feeling. According to that, another great point is that it is very short so you will not get tired of it. There are only two seasons and the episodes are around 20 minutes long. You could watch everything in a long weekend! Call me a nerd, geek, freak... whatever you want, but I finished it (the second time) in three days.

 So, let's see what is it about. Don't worry, I promise I'm not doing any spoiler, everything I will tell you about is shown in the first episode. It is about four students who start the university, despite you will never see them going, and become flatmates. They are completely different to each other so you can imagine that there are plenty of funny misunderstandings and fights in that flat. Vyvyan is a punk guy who loves to destroy everything in his way, he is not very clever but he  always manages to solve his problems in a weird complicate way that usually involves some violence. Rick is the most annoying person in the flat, he is always talking about poetry and anarchy but it doesn't mean anything because against this values he is the most selfish and arrogant boy who doesn't take a no as an answer. He is always feeling like he is over everyone and that cause him a lot of problems. You will learn how to love it because it is like a spoilt child, but nobody will like him as a flatmate. Neil is the saddest and the most negative hippie in the world history, he has not a strong personality so everybody take an advantage on him. He is the one cleaning and cooking and nobody will ask him how does he feel. And the last one, Mike. He is a mystery because he is always keeping secrets and pretending (or not) that he is a very important and dangerous person. His personality is between the lost child of a high-class family, a mod who lost his scooter and the Godfather from Coppola. Everything mixed with
amazing music and some famous guest who play music during the episodes like Madness or Motörhead, you can't miss it.

Enjoy!

I want to break free (Queen)

Hi friends!

It is a bit late but I wanted to do something here to "celebrate" the LGTB Pride. So, the first  song we will work on will be a classic: I want to break free (Queen). It is a beautiful song with a lot of positive energy but it is also an easy song with simple and short lyrics. I hope you will enjoy it, it is one of my favourite ones!

Here you have the video and this song is in Spotify too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH8q2ifO3pI
And with this link you can download the PDF with everything you will need: https://dfiles.eu/files/u4i7lkttm]http://depositfiles.com/files/u4i7lkttm[/URL]

If you have any doubt go back to the guide that I posted, so you will review how to use the PDF. http://nomoregrammarbooks.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Songs If after reading it you still have some questions, please write a comment. You can also say something if you like it or if you would improve something.
Thanks!

Learn with songs

I hope I'm not the first person telling you that music helps with the process of learning a language. A lot of teachers include them in their lessons but songs are not always used properly. There is no point in just hearing music, you have to see them as a tool so you will learn everything that you can from them. 
In this post, I'm going to do an introduction that will be useful as a guide to work in every song I'll give you and the ones that you prefer. Of course, I've chosen the songs according to the level and my own taste in music but I'm sure you can learn too using your favorite music.
The simplest thing you can do is listening music, not hearing music, listening it. When we are doing something with background music like studying or cleaning we are getting used to English and some accents but that's not really a big thing. But if you have no time to sit down and listen a song working on it, try with different situations of your daily routine. For example, I discovered that I can concentrate on music while I'm driving and when I'm drawing/painting. Maybe it works for you while you are cooking or doing the laundry. Then you can do exercises one and two because they should be done before seeing the lyrics. But for the rest of them you will need to focus on the song and sit down with a paper and a pen.   I will upload a PDF with everything you will need to study from the songs I've chosen but feel free to try and do one by yourself. Just prepare de document and do the exercises few days later, otherwise you will remember the right answers. You can also ask a friend to do it for you, the best thing you can do is finding some one who is learning English and start helping each other.
You don't have to do all of them, just the ones that you prefer, remember that the most important thing is having fun with it. Maybe all of them it's too much and some of them could be too easy or too difficult for you, forcing yourself to do every exercise will not be a big help in your learning. After doing 1 and 2 don't worry about the order. 
  1. Listen carefully and try to get as many words as possible. This simple exercise will help you getting used to the accent of the artist, start concentrating on English and will be the first move to do exercise 2. You don't need to understand every word, with few of them and one or two sentences is enough. If you don't understand anything, don't panic, that's because it is not time for this song. Leave it and go back to it other day, maybe it was too difficult. Look for a slow song, with a different accent, without loud instrumental music... If you are sitting down try to pick a paper and write them down, because it is easier to learn new words if you read and write them. That also could be as a points board so you can listen it again and try to improve yourself getting more words than before. 
  2. Try to guess the topic. What are they talking about? Is it a love song? Is it talking about politics? Some songs tell a story about someone and they are great to learn English because they are easier to understand and they provide good and useful vocabulary. That's not about understanding every word, if you got the main idea that's great! There is nothing worst than setting too high goals while you are learning a language, if you do it you'll be on the way of frustration and ineffective learning. 
  3. Fill in the gaps. It is a typical exercise but it is really effective. You'll lean vocabulary and you will improve your hearing skills because you will leave every contest and concentrate and what  you really care. I always give my students a box with all the missing words so they will see the spelling and they can cross out the ones they used. But if it makes it too easy for you, fell free to cut this part of the paper out before starting. It will be more difficult and you will practice vocabulary and spelling.
  4. Verse puzzle. Divide the lyrics in parts and try to put them back in order while you are listening the song again. You will concentrate on the pronunciation of the first words on each verse to find it but you'll also have to be quick and work with your memory or you'll be lost. ¡Don't cheat! You can never stop the song, if you are lost just keep ordering the last ones leaving some space and then listen again the song to complete the missing parts. If it was too easy maybe you should cut the pieces of your puzzle to make them smaller. Sometimes grammar will help you to find the second part of a sentence.
  5. Forbidden words. Choose some easy words from the lyrics and change them without loosing the meaning of the sentence. How would you say it? Re-write the song on your own style! That sounds easy but it's not if you choose the right words.  That's one of my favorite exercises to get fluent in a language because I'll tell you a secret: Do you know someone that seems to know every word and never gets stuck speaking a second language? Most of them don't know every word, maybe you are even better than them in writing but they can move the conversation to their comfortable zone. They goes around the words that doesn't know so quick that you will not notice that they got stuck. So work hard on synonyms and vocabulary and stop trying to translate what you are thinking (in your own language) word by word.
  6. Work on the lyrics. Read slowly and carefully the lyrics. Try to translate it. You don't need to write it down but if you are not in a library or with more people around, try to read it out loud. You will learn the vocabulary and grammar collocations while you improve your pronunciation. You can use them also while you play again the song and pretend you are in a karaoke. Sometimes artists say something wrong according to grammar rules just to keep the rhythm or getting a rhyme. If you feel that a verse is wrong don't learn it as a rule! Ask someone before you study it, don't think it is right just because the Beatles or Adele sing it like that. It would be also useful to check exercises number 3 and 4. 
  7. Tell me a story. Add an end to the song. If the story of the lyrics finish in a way that you can not add anything else, change the end for a better one. You don't need to write an essay, with few sentences is enough. If you can, ask someone to have a look at it to check your grammar and spelling but even if no one will review it playing with English and your imagination is always useful. 
  8. Become a poet. Choose few verses and change the rhyme. It has to keep a meaning with the first verse but don't worry about the whole song. It is more complex that you may think, so if  you can't find a word that rhymes with the first one use a rhymes dictionary and concentrate on making the sentence. I found this one but there are plenty of dictionaries online:  http://www.rhymezone.com.
  9. Quiz. Skip this exercise if you are the one preparing it. Believe me, even if you leave few days in the middle, you will remember the answers. This quiz is just a test to check your reading/listening comprehension. So forget about the grammar and vocabulary and prepare for the real meaning of studying a language: understand what someone is telling you. You will also train your memory that is an extra point to learn a language. The answers will be in the next page. Don't cheat!
  10. Look for the grammar. In every song you have plenty of examples that you could use in a grammar book. Choose a topic and review the theory. There is nothing better to study grammar than being motivated with a good song. Sometimes if you learn something with a song that will came to your mind whenever you have this doubt again. I recommended the song Live your life (Mika) to an student that was mixing live and life every day and now it comes to my mind every time I have to explain it to another student. 
  11. New words. If you worked on the song properly you will have a list of new words to learn. I will give you few of them that seems difficult to me, but feel free to add as many as you need. Write the meaning next to it in your language and make a sentence, that always helps.
  12. Listen the song again. There is nothing better after the hard work than listening the song again and discover that now you can understand almost everything. You will not learn much more this time but it will give you the self-esteem you'll need to be proud of your effort and star with the next song. And remember that we need this happy moments to keep going. 

Thanks for reading, now you can use this guide to every song you want to work on. You'll see soon a list with the songs I will post so you can start practicing.  One last thing, the PDF with the activities is part of my time and work and I'm giving it for free for every student or teacher interested on them. I'm glad to do it (nobody is forcing me to hehe) but in exchange please give me some free publicity and don't clean or write on the webpage before printing it. Thanks and enjoy!




Take a trip

The Betjeman Statue
by Martin Jennings
-St. Pancras Station (London)-
First of all, I should answer to one of the questions everybody ask me when I'm talking about traveling: What should I do if I can't afford a trip? Don't worry! It is true that going away is the easiest and fastest way to learn a language but it is not the only one! In this post I will talk about how can you learn useful English going to London, USA, Australia... But you can do all this things in your  own town. Just pretend you are a tourist and that's it. When I was studying to pass the Cambridge certificates I used to go to the city centre and talk to everybo
dy in English, saying that I was from the Netherlands, Austria... It is really fun!! And free!!

I'm sure you've heard the expression "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas", my first advice is to keep that in mind when you travel. You will see hundreds of new people every day and you will not see them again, so there is no reason to be shy. Take all that bad thoughts about your English level and start talking to everybody. It is very easy to order something in a restaurant just pointing what you want and paying looking at the screen to see the price. Don't listen to these people that says they are not going to help you. Of course they will! Well, in every place you could find someone stupid but usually everybody wants to help and they will be glad to make that effort. Just learn some basic vocabulary and don't be afraid to fail.

I'm writing this post now because I just came back from England. I did the trip with a mate who is not good at English (for now) and I've seen what did she need in order to "survive". I was there to help her just in case but she did nearly everything by herself. So these are the basic tips you will need.



AIRPORT/ TRAIN/ BUS
Either if you go by train, plain or bus, they will ask you the same things. This is the worst situations you will have to manage because you could be on a hurry and because you will be talking to the police and security guards. Usually they are really nice and they are used to speak to tourists from every country every day but at least for me, it is stressful to talk to them, I don't know why but the uniform makes me feel nervous. So learn few words and sentences and if you have to speak to them try to remember that they are normal people under these uniforms. Sometimes it works. 
They will ask you for your Passport and your ID, they could ask if you travel to work or to visit the city, usually they will ask you to open your luggage to see if everything is ok... be ready to answer to this questions. Just google "Travel vocabulary", "Holiday vocabulary", "English phrases to travel"... and you will find thousands of websites with everything you could need. If you have time it could be great to watch videos about it. There are so many videos in youtube so choose one or watch as many of you want clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=learn+English+airport . 
If you want to avoid so many questions, try to follow every rule your company has while you are packing. Make sure you have the right amount of liquids in a plastic bag, don't go over the weight limit... Sometimes they are not very strict but maybe when you have difficulties to speak, is not the best day to try it. And in order to go calmed and relaxed, go with more time than you need. This time I've been one hour and a half passing through the control, usually it doesn't take longer than 20 minutes but you'll never know.

ORDERING: FOOD OR DRINK
These is an easier situation. It doesn't matter if you are having dinner in a nice restaurant, having lunch on a street market or ordering for few drinks in a pub; you will have the same conversation. You should start with I would like to eat/drink... Can I have...? I would like some... Then they can ask you something about your order so you could learn some extra vocabulary just in case. Usually they will ask you if you want sugar in your coffee, some sauce for your lunch or an extra ingredient. But don't worry, they want to sell you the food and they have everything in the kitchen so if every effort is not enough because your English is that bad or the question is very difficult, they could always go to the kitchen and so you the sugar, bread or whatever they are offering you. Relax. If you want to study some vocabulary an expressions about this topic to be prepared just repeat the same exercises than before but typing food or restaurant instead or airport, internet is full of resources.
Can I have the bill, please? That's the last sentence you will need. Then, in the paper you will see the price and there would be no problem. Say "keep the change" if you want to give them a tip and say "bye" or "have a nice day". Smile in your way out, you did it!

DIRECTIONS
When you are traveling try to have a map so you can move through the city nd plan your visit. But at the end maps are never very accurate so you will have to ask somebody. Great! That is the best way to learn English. Don't ask someone who is walking too quick or talking by the phone. They could answer you but maybe they will not spend the time you need to be sure that you understood everything. People walking the dog or with shopping bags are always a good option because you will know that they are no tourists so they will speak English and their directions would be more realistic. The clothes could also give you a clue but not always, I found girls visiting the city with high-heels (why? I have no idea), but if they are in a smart suit, they are probably working or living near this neighborhood. 
It could be useful to learn vocabulary about the city (buildings, traffic lights, signals, roundabouts...) and about directions (go straight, turn left or right, cross the road...). But don't worry because they will use their hands to point so if you didn't get anything, go that direction and ask someone else later. Maybe his accent was more difficult and you will be able to understand the next person.


And that's it! You will be involved in other situations, of course. But these are the basic ones. If you survive in these ones you would not have any problem during your trip. If you think I missed an important one, just write a comment below and I will add it here or write a new post. I'm always open to your feedback. Thank you for reading. Talk as much as you can and have fun! 



No more grammar?


I should be honest with you. You cannot speak a language without studying grammar and vocabulary, sorry. But you can learn this boring part of a language without being stuck to a book. In this post I will give you few advices to get the grammar without falling asleep on your notes.
First of all, you need the material to study, I mean, you should choose what do you want to learn. Look for something easy, don't try to run because you can end with more than you can manage.You can use a book, internet, notes from your classes... Then, make sure you understand the theory, if not ask your teacher or look for more information, maybe it is clear in another webpage. If you're sure that you understand everything, close the book and start using that grammar topic.
For example, if you start with Present Simple you should try to make sentences, just say them out loud. Whenever you feel comfortable with it start doing some exercises in a notebook or online. Yo can use again a book or Internet. Ask someone to check them for you because is very difficult to see our own mistakes. Correct your errors and learn from them. After that, keeping on studying and repeating has no sense. Leave it, start with some vocabulary and come back to it later. Sometimes we just need to have a break. Few days later make a quick review, if everything is still alright go to the next grammar point. If not, don't worry, keep working. Going back to my example, I would say that after Present Simple, a good idea could be go on with Present Continuous because you can combine both of them. So these weeks you'll be learning something new and keeping on mind what you've learnt before. 
The last thing you should do is looking for the grammar you've learnt in everything! This is the only post that I will write about studying grammar like in the old schools. If you find out that your favourite song is full of examples of Present Simple and Present Continuous, you will keep both longer than if you've studied for months. Pay attention when you watch a TVseries, take notes while reading a book, talk in English even when you are alone... Well, keep reading my posts and you'll see how many things you can do when you've already got the basics of grammar. 

Keep going and enjoy!