European Day of Languages

Hello folks,

As some of you may know,today is the European Day of Languages. This day was established by the Council of Europe so as to encourage the learning and promotion of foreign languages in this multicultural and multilingual world. In this entry, I will analyze some reasons why it is extremely important for you to learn foreign languages :

From : http://edl.ecml.at/

Listen to this document and try to find out what it is

1. Learning a language involves getting to know its culture : Learning a foreign language implies getting to know other cultures. As the Canadian singer Buffy Sainte-Marie once expressed : "language  and culture cannot be separated." The language reflects the culture of the country and, in the same way, the culture of the country is reflected in the language, for instance, Eskimos use different words to refer to different tonalities of white because for them white (and snow) is extremely important. 

From : http://quotio.com/quote/Language-and-culture-cannot/100023

2. Personal enrichment : Learning languages makes your brain more supple. It has been proved that people who learn more languages live longer than people who can't speak foreign languages !  Charlemagne once forecast this by saying : "to possess a second language is to possess a second soul." Poetic, isn't it ?

3. Better jobs opportunities : Languages play an important role in today's job market. Speaking several languages will certainly make a difference in your résumé, especially in big busy cities receiving a bunch of tourists from different countries ! So, if you want to get that promotion you were looking for, or simply... get a job, you may wanna think about learning a foreign language.

4. Travelling : The more languages one speaks, the more countries one can visit and, what is more important, understand everything. Plus, if you don't want to sound like "dagoes", speaking several languages will help you ! 

5. Independence : By learning a language you can travel overseas, become independent, study abroad, get to know native friends and become more open-minded. Like that you can enjoy life with a new perspective. As a man in Eritrea once said : "if I speak one language I can help my country as one man, If I speak two languages, I can help as two men but if I speak all the nine languages, I can speak like nine men."

6 You become a better person : By becoming a speaker of different languages, you see the world in another way. You can understand things more easily, see the world with a new perspective, boost your self-confidence and ease your decision´-making process. In addition, people will surely be impressed by your skills.

7. When you learn a foreign language it is easier to learn another one : Several studies have proved that once you are proficient in a language, it is easier for you to learn the second one. So, why don't you just start right away ? Pay attention to this guy in this video, who is able to speak no less than nine languages incredibly well. 

Impressed ? You can read his tips for you to learn foreign languages in this webpage.

8. Read /watch films : What better way to assimilate the culture of a country that by reading its books and watching its films ? You will learn hundreds of colloquial expressions, cultural patterns and you will improve you language capacity on the way...

9. Metalingual reflection : As you progress with languages, you will think about the language code in itself : verbs, adverbs, adjectives  and stuff like that will suddenly become familiar for you.

What is the reason you love languages ? Post it in a comment. In addition, here you have the link to a very interesting page with some quirks about foreign languages. Don't miss it.

Warm-up questions on tourism

Ask and answer these questions about tourism

- What are the advantages and disadvantages of travelling?

- Do you prefer visiting crowded places or get off the beaten track?

- What cultural traditions from other countries would you import in Spain?

- What is the most surprising culture shock you've ever experienced?

- Have you ever get robbed or had another incident while you were abroad? What did you do?

- There have been anti-tourism riots in some parts of Spain claiming that tourism is destroying the life of its citizens. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

- How can the government control tourism? Do you agree with the taxes that tourists pay in some countries?

Summery vocab to say goodbye to the summer

Dear folks,
you know that we're on the verge of doing the entry tests and, since I don't want to bore you to tears, I've decided to prepare a presentation game with summery vocab. Here you have it. Try to guess the words of the images you're seeing in the presentation.

Welcome everybody!

From : http://westnash.org/welcome/

Hiya!

Let me introduce myself! My name's Miguel and I'll be your teacher during this academic year 2018-2019. This is the classroom blog we'll be using to keep learning and working outside the classroom. At the top of the page, you have the tags that might be interesting for you sorted according to different levels. Click on A2 if you are a student at this level or click on B2.2 if you belong to this level. You can also have a look at the other levels to keep practising your English. In addition, you can click on General Stuff to learn general information about the school. 

Don't forget to consult the section: "interesting webpages to keep learning English" on the right-hand side. You'll learn a lot. Don't forget to post comments on the blog entries. That'll keep the blog alive and kicking!

Another academic year begins! I hope you enjoy it!