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Explore

The video you are about to watch is part of  an activity I will be doing with my students one of these days. The videos of Mali and Dubai and all the exercises from the videos have been provided  by my colleague MªJosé (visit her blog here). My only contribution has been to arrange what she so generously provided into a Lesson Plan which you will find here: Lesson Plan

[flashvideo filename=https://www.cristinacabal.com/videos/Mali.flv /]

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Taking Risks: Lesson Plan

Bridget Jones’s New Year’s Resolutions: Lesson Plan

Let’s go Shopping

I never say “no” when one of my friends phones me to suggest going shopping. I love it!!!

Although I like going shopping a lot I don’t see myself as a shopaholic: I am definitely not a compulsive shopper although I am one of those who sort of view going shopping as a hobby. It helps me relax but I certainly do not spend money I do not have and I am not drowning in debt because of my purchases. Well, this is what I tell my mother every single time she tells me off for wearing new clothes.

Anyway, this is a video from the film Pretty Woman, which I’m sure all of you have seen.

You can do three things:
♦ Just watch and enjoy it

For students in the elementary level
♦ Watch the video and do some exercises 
♦ Do a whole lesson plan on going shopping  Here

And now that we are on the subject what about learning some expressions containing the word shop?

→ talk shop
if people who work together talk shop, they talk about their work when they are not at work
Even when they go out in the evening, they just talk shop all the time.

go window-shopping
to go about looking at goods in store windows without actually buying anything.
Joan said she was just going window-shopping, but she bought a new coat.

shop around (for something)
to shop at different stores to find what you want at the best price.
You can find a bargain, but you’ll have to shop around.

be like a bull in a china shop
to often drop or break things because you move awkwardly or roughly.

Rob’s like a bull in a china shop – don’t let him near those plants.

Taking Risks: Lesson Plan

When last week I asked my students:

Have you ever put your life at risk? or Have you ever done any extreme sports? I began to wonder whether I’ve ever had .
The truth is I’ve never been an adventurous person; maybe I was a bit more in the past when I was younger. I remember I used to like horror films and talking about paranormal phenomena with my friends. I even played the Ouija Board once or twice and went with some peers to visit a mansion ghost, which was said to live in a house in ruins in my own hometown; but I, at least, was pushing the limits of my own courage although I pretended otherwise. I remember the rush of adrenaline I experienced and the feeling of being amazingly brave. But these can be hardly be named extreme sports although some people would say that playing with the unknown is much worse than risking your life doing bungee jumping or sky diving something, I know, I’ll never have the guts to try.

Come to think of it, I’ve sometimes put my life at risk like when I hitchhiked in England being only 19, or refusing to cross the road when seeing a gang of punks drinking and I had to walk past. This counts as risky , doesn’t it?

But the maddest thing I’ve ever done was about 10 years ago in the Wagner Bros Park, in Madrid, when I rode in one of these ride thrill attractions. It was a vertical tower of about 60metres. You are launched up and , believe or not, you take off from your seat and you literally fly before dropping in a breathtaking descent. When I think about it, it still gives me the creeps… Well, I warned you , I’ve never been a thrill seeker!!

And you… Do you live on adrenaline rushes? Are you hooked on the buzz of the extreme?

If you would like to do a lesson on Extreme Sports and Taking Risks , click HERE

Weird Hotels: Lesson Plan

Have you planned your summer holidays yet? Are you in the mood for something different? Weird and even wacky? Are you tired of the conventional hotels everybody goes to? Have a look at these photographs.

These are some of the weirdest hotels you will ever see. But don’t hold your breath …some of them are very expensive and most of them are fully booked for this summer; so I guess, it must definitely be an experience for some people  sleeping in one of those but, trust me on this… you won’t find me there!

Given the chance I don’t know whether it‘d be easy to choose one of them to spend a nice relaxing holidays. I guess you think it would be a rush of adrenaline sleeping in a cabin hanging from a slender tree but I know for sure I wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink waiting for the branch to crack.

And an underwater hotel… are they paying me???

In my humble opinion, the Survival Pod Hotel in The Hague, this orange alien-shaped thing, seems to invite people to choose to die if the option is living in these claustrophobic capsules. Can’t imagine having to pay for it!

Some other picturesque pictures show the Das Park Hotel, Ottensheim in Austria and I have to admit that, at least, it has been cheap to build. The idea is that you sleep inside a piece of concrete sewage pipe and guess what?? This is cheap …’cause you pay only what you think they are worth!!

As for me, I’ve always felt an attraction for luxurious hotels where the service is impeccable, the views from the balcony breathtaking, the place a haven of peace and relaxation and the bed as comfortable as a bed should be. I  don’t want to spend the night killing cockroaches or freezing to death just to have the time of my life, thank you very much.

Anway, why this post on Weird hotels?  ’cause my students are about to study this lesson and I came across some of these pictures while looking for different things on the web. I prepared a lesson about hotels this morning, which I thought I’d share with you. So, if you are interested, and you’re not one of my Pre-Intermediate students (we’ll be doing this lesson on Monday, God willing!) Click here .

If you are one of my pre-intermediate students and still want to do something about hotels, you can click here and listen to this postcast about Weird Hotels.

And then watch this video… but don’t expect it to help you with your English!!!



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Working with “work”

and so that’s it, “literally”. In the advanced level we’ve been working with the semantic field “Work” .

This is the pdf with all the work-related expressions and collocations  you helped me build on the blackboard and also the exercises created with your own contributions. Thanks to you all!!

I also nicked and adapted from the Internet some tips about Job Interviews. I’m afraid I can’t name the source as I did it a long time ago and it was never my intention to get it published. My sincere apology !

There are also two video-based activities. The first one from an outside source www.eslvideo.com, which I highly recommend,  and the second one  created by me.

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