Monthly Archives: September 2009

The BBC

22 September 2009ResourcesCristina Cabal

But , of course, you cannot be in London and not to go to the BBC. And so I went and had a great time. I even saw a quiz being recorded although to tell you the truth I don’t have a clue about the name of this quiz. I also volunteered to do the weather forecast as the pic shows and I became the newsreader for a while (I’ll show you the photo some other time) . Nice experience , by the way!!

The BBC is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world and you have to pay if you want to see its programmes. The annual cost of a colour TV licence (set by the Government) is currently £139.50 and with that you get good programmes without commercials.
The BBC uses the income from the licence fee to provide services including 8 national TV channels plus regional programming, 10 national radio stations, 40 local radio stations and an extensive website, bbc.co.uk which I highly recommend
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/

… a pescatarian!!!

22 September 2009The English languageeating, English, food, vocabularyCristina Cabal

Yes, exactly. This is what I am .
You surely remember that some time ago I wrote something about the different kinds of vegetarians , namely, vegan , ovo-vegetarian , lacto-ovo… and I remember that I didn’t know what to call myself, although it was crystal clear to me that I was not a vegetarian.
Well, I am a pescatarian . New word , by the way. So new, that some British people don’t even know what it means, at least , yet.
It was my teacher in London who taught me this new word. I was so happy with my new acquisition that I jumped at the first opportunity to use it. So, there I was, at a cafe asking for a sandwich.
“What is in there?” I asked the waiter, pointing suspiciously at a sandwich.
“Chicken” he said .
“And this other one?”
“Ham”
Every single time he told me the contents of the sandwich I said “no, no..”
I imagine he was getting quite tired of me when he asked :
“What the hell are you… a vegetarian?
“No, I am a pescatarian.” I happily admitted.
“What on earth is this? “he snapped at me
And, there was a girl behind me, probably as angry at me as the waiter who explained to the man behind the counter that a pescatarian is someone who abstains from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish.
So this is it… you already know what a pescatarian is.

Now , this is homework …. What is a flexitarian??

Related entries:

What is a “veggie”?

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndro…

22 September 2009Funny Stuff, The English languagecities, fun, namesCristina Cabal

….bwllllantysiliogogogoch
I was 14 ,and staying in England, the first time I heard this word. We were a group of teenagers attending classes from 9.00 to 13.00 and we really needed some funny breaks in-between the sometimes tedious lessons.
So I remember the teacher challenged us to try to give her the longest word we could think of, and I offered the popular ” supercalifragilisticoespialidoso”. Well, I was pretty sure nobody could beat me there but then she said she had an even longer one.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch .
Phew!!!
She was at pains to write it and… to pronounce it.
But what is this long name? What does it stand for?
It is the name of a village on the island of Anglesey in North Wales ; in fact, it’s one of the most-photographed places in North Wales and it has been officially recognised as one of the longest words in the world, but it cannot be considered an authentic Welsh toponym as it was made up in the 1860s to give the railway station the longest name of any railway station in the UK to mainly attract visitors . And this early publicity stunt has worked as thousands of visitors visit this place every year.

By the way, this toponym has a meaning: “The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio’s of the red cave”.

Want to have a go at pronouncing it?llanfair.mp3

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Now, there is some homework , what do you call the people living in this tiny picturesque village?

Shame on the Faroe Islands

22 September 2009GeneralCristina Cabal

This is clearly not my day . I have got up on the wrong side of the bed. Just this morning and it is only 11.27 I have had two very unpleasant experiences. First, I argued with my youngest son about school homework and then just now I have opened my e-mail and my kind sister has decided that a nice dish for breakfast would be slaughtered dolphins knowing as she knows that I am extremely sensitive to any kind of violence , more when applied to innocents. So that has made my day.
And really I have the impression that I am going to puke after having seen the images of dolphins being killed just for fun. Sorry, I am about to do the same to you but I feel you need to know.
But a bit of history nicked from different sources on the Internet.
Every year around 2,000 whales are driven ashore and cruelly slaughtered in the Faroe Islands, mid-way between the Shetland Islands and Iceland. For centuries the Faroe Islanders have hunted pilot whales, driving entire schools into killing bays, where they are speared or gaffed from boats, dragged ashore and butchered with knives.
The Faroese celebrate the butchery of their victims in an carnival atmosphere of entertainment. Indoctrinated from an early age, children are often given a day off school to watch the fun. They run down to the bay and clamber over the carcasses of slaughtered whales.
There is no worst beast than human kind!

Texting

22 September 2009Lesson Plan: Pre-Intermediate, Resources, The English languageB1, technology, texting, vocabularyCristina Cabal

What is Texting?
Texting is, according to dictionaries, the process of sending and receiving written messages using the mobile phone. But it is more than that, it has become a written language not only used when sending SMS messages but also when writing e-mails or in the popular chat rooms. So it is increasingly becoming necessary to know some of the basics of this particular language.
Acronyms such as CUL8R or PCM, standing for “see you later” or “please call me” as so popular now that it would seem you don’t know proper English unless you are able to understand them.
But it is not only being used in the conversational style of the Internet but these shortcuts are also being used in every possible piece of writing, especially by teenagers. I am aware that a lot of teachers are beginning to get seriously worried when they see assignments full of these shortened words and are warning their students that they will be taking points off if they use them. They are worried students won’t be able to draw the line between formal and informal conversational writing.
Have a look at this post- it and try to work out what it says.