How do you say 2011?

The English language

Some time ago I published a post about how to say 2010 (click here if  you want to read it) . Now , we are in May 2011 and  I’ve heard the year 2011 said ,so far ,in three different ways. Now, dear native speakers you can see why we sometimes find it a bit difficult to understand your language.But ,although you can say in at least three different ways, I’m going to  stick to the one I hear more often ,’casue this is the one my dear colleague Beth fancies” Two thousand eleven” , though I’ve realized after reading lots of comments that “Twenty eleven” seems to be the most popular.

When asked, these are some the things Internet users have said:

♥”Twenty Eleven should be the proper way to pronounce it. Back in 1996 did we call it “One Thousand Nine-Hundred Ninety-Six” or “Nineteen-Hundred Ninety-Six? No, we did not. We called it “Nineteen Ninety-Six”. Over the years of the last decade we got into a habit of saying Two Thousand at the start of the year because it sounded better than for example “Twenty Oh Eight”. Now we’re in the next decade we can stop doing that, because it’s quicker and easier to say Twenty instead of Two Thousand. I thought it would have caught on by the end of last year, but it never”.
♥”I do it either way.. but I prefer twenty-eleven.”

♥Two thousand eleven.
♥I say two thousand AND eleven

♥I keep going back and forth.But I think I’ll eventually side 20-11 and so on just because it’s less of a mouthful.

I can’t help but think that these problems about the language wouldn’t exist if the English language were regulated by an institution like the one that regulates the Spanish Language , our Real Academia de la Lengua.

You might want to read:

The English language does not have a Real Academia de la Lengua

 

A fast-paced game to revise

Games, , ,

With my elementary classes I need to revise very often, especially for exams. We usually do it as in a competition, with students being eliminated if they fail to provide the right answer. ( games work very well with adults , too)

This time, we are going to do our revision in a different way.

♥First, I need to pair the students, mixing strong students with weaker ones.

♥Ask students to choose a winning name they can identify themselves with. Write it on the blackboard.

♥Explain that you are going to revise some  material from the textbook and that they have 5 seconds to write their answer. Give them slips of paper.

♥After the countdown 5…4…3…2…..1… students hold up their slips of paper

♥Give one point for every correct answer

♥Count points at the end of the game, ask the winning students to stand up and give them a big cheer.

This game is highly motivating and works well with teens. Appoint the noisiest student to keep the score on the blackboard and if you want to make it look real, download from this website the sound of a clock ticking . It gets even funnier!

http://recursostic.educacion.es/bancoimagenes/web/. As this site is in Spanish, you might need some help to download the clock sound .

1.Tick the Sonidos box only.

2. In the Search box , write “reloj” , which means “clock” in English.

There you have it! Choose the one you like best and let the fun begin!

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Word of the Day: to Lose Weight

Funny Stuff, Pictures, Word of the Day, , , , , ,

Never have  I seen so many people around me trying to lose some weight . Spring must be the season when we realize there is no way we will be able to  hide our love handles (excess fat around the hips and buttocks, sometimes also called saddle bags– I imagine they are called  this way  when they are  big and ugly) .

Anyway, when it is not summertime and you’re not looking your best, you can always use this funny tool  to make you look thinner, even though you haven’t bothered to go on a diet to lose a bit of weight or go to the gym to sweat off your excess of baggage in the treadmill.

The tool I was telling you about is called slimpic.com and with only a few clicks, you can make yourself or someone in your pictures gain or lose weight (the point  here is losing weight, we don’t need to go to the Internet searching for tools to make us look uglier, do we?).

Me, before and with 10kgs less! if only it were so easy!

Swayable: a picture survey

Create your own stuff, Writing skill, , ,

In my neverending quest to integrate technology in my classes I have stumbled upon this little tool , Swayable, which is mainly intended to create surveys with the added feature of allowing you to upload an image from your computer or use one from the web  which is, in my humble opinion, its best feature as it heightens its potential in the classroom.

I have been thinking it could be very useful when explaining comparatives or when asking students to write about the advantages or disadvantages of a certain issue.

Once published you can embed it in your blog and  the students can write in the form of comments (you have to click just below the picture where it says “Click to Sway) to your Swayable.

The first example is for students to practise the comparative and the second for them to practise writing about the advantages and disadvantages of, in this case, working and studying.
And then it follows a little tutorial to help you ceate your own Swayable






 

Embedr: a nice way to create playlists

Audio, Create your own stuff, freeware, Resources

Time flies , doesn’t it? It’s already May and the end of the course is getting closer. Students and teachers are beginning to feel the pressure of time running out when we still have so many things to teach or learn.

So, to give my students a break I intend to take them to the computer room to do some listening on the Royal Wedding but…. I don’t want them to just go to  youtube and search for clips at random. And this is where this little tool comes handy.

It is called Embedr and it allows you to create your own playlist of videos and then embed them in your website or blog. This way, you won’t have to worry about students getting the wrong videos.