Have you ever tried to learn a language? After few weeks were you still so excited with it? If your answer is no, mabe you gave up in the following 3 or 4 weeks. If you are still trying after that, you are my hero! If not, don't worry, you should keep reading. If you want to learn English or Spanish in a different way, subscribe. :) See you soon!
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!
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:
Listen the song, trying to guess what is he talking about. Don't worry if you don't understand every word.
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.
Now, look at the lyrics, check your notes and underline the words/sentences you don't understand. Look them up in a good dictionary.
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.
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.
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).
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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
