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

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!