A love / hate letter to a place you love/ hate

This is just a variation of the traditional letter to the person you admire most. Instead of addressing the message to a famous person we write to the city, town or village of our dreams.

 

My dearest village

 

I´ve been thinking long and hard before writing this letter...

I find it difficult to write down everything you have given me..

There´s so much I would like to say to you: you are the air that I breathe.

In fact, I cannot imagine my life without you: I´d never leave you as when I´m

away for just a few days or weeks I suffer from my peculiar town sickness:

 all my thoughts go back to you obsessively: This is the place of my dreams, heaven on earth, my oneiric promised land, where, once dead, I would like to periodically return to.

I have enjoyed the spring sunrises, the autumn sunsets, the sounds, the light, the smells of every single fiesta every month, the orange blossom, the almond blossom... Our scenery is constantly changing following the pattern of the seasons but there is one thing that remains constant:

my love for you.

I can still remember the very first time I came to this precious place, opened my eyes and was dazzled by the light at the Balcony, the bluest sea I had ever seen and the wild beauty of your twenty unspoilt beaches and coves... I believe  I´m the luckiest person in the world for living in this most wonderful place called .... NERJA.

Know that no matter how far I am, you will be in my heart wherever I go.

You are my inspiration in life and my dream paradise.

In short, I love you with all that I am, all that I was and all that I ever will be.

Yours forever

XXX

JMCC

 

Try to identify the cliches in the sentences above.

Write one composition along the same lines: My dear Paris; Madrid, my beloved city; Dearest New York; My darling Frigiliana; Dear Málaga;etc..

Try to recall the 20 coves or beaches mentioned in the text from Cantarriján to Calaceite.

Let us be EQUALITY and DIVERSITY CHAMPIONS!!!

Are you passionate about Justice and Fairness?

Are you excited about Equality?

Are you delirious about Diversity?

Are you interested in new challenges?

Are you more understanding and less judgemental towards other cultures?

Do you want to help change our world?

Do you have original ideas to bring about changes?

Are you for Fair Trade?

Are you politically correct?

Have you developed a sense of inclusion?

Do you avoid making stereotypical assumptions about others?

Are you against deeply ingrained stereotypes?

Do you try to understand cultural diversity, accepting that each culture has its assets and its flaws? (We should try to pick up the best in every culture)

Are you against all sorts of discrimination?

Are you against the gender pay gap?

Do you support minorities: ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disabled people, older people,etc..?

Are you for SUPERDIVERSITY: immigration from many different countries? 

Are you for intercultural dialogue?

Have you broadened your mind by travelling? Any culture shock or clash? 

 

If you answered  "yes" to any of the above questions then we NEED you...

IT TAKES ALL SORTS TO MAKE A WORLD, so the saying goes, and no one should be excluded. Exclusion is typical of dictatorial regimes. Diversity should be enriching and not a liability.

I´ve often been asked what this place would be like without expatriates, immigrants or tourists. " A very drab, shabby, bleak place, indeed" It´s my answer. Could you imagine London or New York without cultural diversity?

BE OFF-BEAT. Uniformity is boring. Conformity is against the human grain. We need original creative people who can view that a better world is possible.

Governments all around the world have been changing their attitudes  to immigration, from an open door policy of welcoming all the cultures to a frontiers closed policy due to the economic recession.

As the human rights poster stated: " If our God is Jewish, your car is Japanese, your pizza italian, your gas is algerian, your coffee is brasilian or colombian, your numbers are arabic, your alphabet latin, your shop is chinese, HOW DARE YOU CALL YOUR NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOUR A FOREIGNER?

 

A SHORT CULTURAL DIVERSITY TEST

-WHAT NUMBER IS UNLUCKY IN  JAPAN, EUROPE?

-WHAT NUMBER IS LUCKY  IN CHINA, USA, THAILAND, EUROPE?

-WHAT CAN WARD OFF EVIL IN GALICIA, MEXICO, INDIA?

-WHAT HAPPENS TO A CHILD´S TOOTH IN THE U.K., SPAIN, JAPAN,etc..?

WHO IS A HERO AND WHO IS A VILLAIN ACCORDING TO HISTORIANS? Classify the characters in the following list:

Christopher Columbus, Torquemada, Attila, Sulla, Nero, Hitler, Franco, The Duke of Alba, Ivan IV, Julius Caesar, Selim I the Grim, The Marquis of Sade, Ali Pasha, Ferdinand VII, Mariano Melgarejo, José Mª Aznar, Robin Hood, Juan M. Sánchez Gordillo, Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, Osama Bin laden,  King Phillip II, Emperor Charles V, Fedinand III, etc...

NOMINATIONS FOR  World INFAMY...And the oscar to the nastiest or most obnoxious person goes to....

-WHAT IS TRENDY AND WHAT IS TRADITIONAL NOWADAYS IN YOUR OWN CULTURE?

-HOW DO YOU EXPRESS WELCOME IN SRI LANKA, EUROPE, MUSLIM COUNTRIES,etc..?

 

 

No,No,No!!! NOVEMBER

It was the ninth month in Rome and Thomas Hood wrote a famous poem about it complaining about the lack of life and daylight in November. My tribute to this month tries to express all the words starting with no...

See if you can understand them and their connections and as a task project NOta Bene:N.B.
Try inventing something similar regarding the other eleven months....

NOWHERE   NOW  HERE    EREWHON  UTOPIA? MARI-NO-LEDA?

NONE  NOTHING  NOBODY   NOHOW

NOAH´S ARK, NOEL?

NOB  NOBILITY  SNOB

NOBEL PRIZE IG-NOBLE PRIZE

NO MADNESS LIKE NOMADNESS

NOMENCLATURE  NOMINATE NOMINATIVE  NOUN  GNOME

NONAGENARIAN  AUTONOMY INNOVATION

NONSENSE SNOTTY NOOLIGANS (R.Mc Gough)

NONENTITY NONSUCH  NONPLUS

NO   NOT NOPE   SNOPES

NORTH,  NORMAN,  NORSE,  NORWEGIAN

NOSE, NOSTRIL, NOSEY  NOISE  NOISY

NOTARY, NOTE, NOTATION, NOTION,NOTICE, NOTORIOUS ,NOTIFY

NOVEL, NOVELIST, NOVICE

NOON   NO ON  NOW ON , NOW OFF

MO-NOVIAN

NOMOPHOBIA(NO MOBILE PHONE.....)

NO;NO NO (Rehab Amy Winehouse) NO WOMAN NO CRY (B. Marley)

Finally, I´ve learnt to say NO-see- ember....NO-LEDGE. NO KNOWLEDGE our deadly friend (P.Sinfield)

NOSTALGIA....´s just another word that starts with NO (Michael Robbins) 

What´s Movember?

HOW TO "ACTUALLY" SPLIT AN INFINITIVE...

The notion that the split infinitive is grammatically wrong is based on traditonal grammar books, which took their rules from Latin.
 A SPLIT INFINITIVE is just a grammatical construction in which a word or phrase, usually an adverb, comes between  TO and the bare infinitive of a verb.

See if these sentences could be expressed in a different way without changing the meaning:

 

YOU HAVE TO RELUCTANTLY DO YOUR HOMEWORK

I PROMISE TO NEVER PLAY ANYTHING ORIGINAL

SHE´S GOT TO REALLY WATCH OUT FOR THIEVES

I NEED TO IMMEDIATELY VISIT THE LOO

I AM GOING TO THOROUGHLY WASH THE DOG

THIS WAS MEANT TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE POEM

WE WENT TO AYO´S TO ENJOYABLY EAT PAELLA

I AM GOING TO TOTALLY PULVERISE HIM

WE ARE DETERMINED TO UTTERLY ERADICATE THE DISEASE

HE WANTS TO GRADUALLY GET RID OF PREJUDICES

THE POPULATION IS EXPECTED TO MORE THAN DOUBLE IN THE NEXT TEN YEARS

WE ALL WANT TO BOLDLY SPLIT INFINITIVES AT WILL

(famous Star Trek quotation) " TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE"

 

TOO + Adj + To Infinitive =

TOO + Adjective + To Infinitive = Not+(opposite adjective)+ ENOUGH + To Infinitive

If I say "too young to marry and not too young to die" (by Joyce Carol Oates) could be rephrased as
"not old enough to marry"...
Rephrase the following statements in the above way:

 TOO YOUNG TO DIE

TOO BIG TO FAIL

TOO LAZY TO STUDY

TOO FAST TO CONTROL

TOO COLD OUTSIDE TO SIT

TOO INFORMED TO VOTE PP

TOO EXPENSIVE TO BUY

TOO SHY TO SPEAK

TOO DANGEROUS TO DRIVE

TOO WIDE TO CROSS

TOO OLD TO LEARN

TOO OBNOXIOUS TO USE

TOO NOISY TO LIVE IN

TOO SHORT TO PLAY BASKETBALL

TOO MEAN TO BUY IT

TOO INFLEXIBLE TO SQUAT

TOO STUPID TO PASS THE EXAM

TOO  EASY TO SOLVE

TOO WEAK TO LIFT THAT BOX

 TOO WILD TO TAME

TOO TALL TO SLEEP ON THAT BED

 

EURENGLISH

After Spanglish and Franglais, it´s now the turn of Eurenglish, which is the" unofficial"  language of the European Union, where there are twenty-four official languages  to accommodate the differences between member states.

Jeremy Gardner (no connection with Howard Gardner) has compiled an anthology of offenses committed in Eurenglish , called "A brief list of misused English terms in the E.U"
Eurenglish is an office dialect which relies upon words that do not exist or are relatively unknown to native English speakers.
The E.U. documents are written by civil servants for whom English is a second, third or fourth language.
Here´s an example:

"When the interoperability constituent is integrated into a Control-Command

and Signalling on board or Track-side Subsystem, if the missing functions,

interfaces, or performances do not allow to assess whether the subsystem

fully complies with the requirements of this TSI, only an Intermediate statement 

of Verification may be issued."

Find more examples of Eurenglish on the web or on official EU documents.
This information has been gleaned from The New Yorker July 29th 2013

Find 4 or 5 famous French...

In this activity you´ll have to try to find four or five important people from different countries in the world.I´ll give you a short list of countries and you´ll have to think of some people who represent that country.They may be living or dead.
In Europe: France, U.K. Belgium,Italy, Greece, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, etc..
In America: U.S.A., Argentina, Brasil, Mexico, Chile, Venezuela,Cuba, Uruguay, Paraguay,etc..
In Africa: Morocco, Egypt, Libia, South Africa, Kenia,Algeria,etc.. 
In Asia: China, Japan,India, Vietnam, The Philippines,etc..

The most likely thing to happen is that after some research you come up with four or five male characters.
The task will get harder if you try to find five famous women from every country above-mentioned.

As a Spaniard and by way of an example let me give you a list and you´ll have to find out
WHO_ WHAT_WHEN_ WHERE_ WHY

CERVANTES

VELÁZQUEZ

GOYA

PICASSO

RAFAEL NADAL

Our culture is so pervasively male-dominated that it looks as if women had not contributed to our history, when in fact it´s the other way round.
Here´s the five famous Spanish women:

ISABEL LA CATÓLICA

TERESA DE JESÚS

AGUSTINA DE ARAGÓN

FERNÁN CABALLERO

MONTSERRAT CABALLÉ 

DO THIS PIECE OF RESEARCH RELATED TO OTHER COUNTRIES AND LET´S SEE YOUR RESULTS Instead of people, you can mention towns and cities, rivers, sights, famous monuments,etc..

 

YOU ARE...AMAZING

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again...

You are a marvel, there has never been another person like you..     (Pau Casals)

DID YOU KNOW THAT

Your heart beats over 100000 ( a hundred thousand) times a day?

Your eyes can provide you with more information than the best telescope?

Your lungs inhale over 2000000(million) litres of air every year?

Your hearing is so sensitive that we can distinguish between hundreds of thousands of different sounds?

Your brain is more complex than the most powerful computer?

Your nose can differentiate thousands of different smells?

 YOU HAVE THE CAPACITY FOR ANYTHING: YOU ARE A MARVEL...TRULY AMAZING....A WALKING TALKING BREATHING THINKING MIRACLE...(that´s what you are indeed)

TO BE MORE CREATIVE I...

(Since life allows us to show our aliveness, joy and creativity in many different ways I´ve drawn inspiration from the modern chicken soup for the soul stories, which restore our faith in human nature and combat negativity, conformity, prejudice and ignorance.)

         I need......

         inspiration

         time

         more time

         a better time 

         next time

         the right person

         the right of eccentricity

         a better circle of friends

        someone to discover me

        a cure for boredom

        to boost my self-esteem

       to be or feel free 

       Spring and Autumn

       Morning and Night

        Smile and Laugh more

        follow my dreams

        live my dream 

        daydream my dream

        explore new places or old sights with new eyes

        love myself enough

        determination

        YES, WE CAN....

        (Thanks to Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, whose stories open the heart and rekindle the human spirit)

         

        

       

 

THE "SECRET" LIFE OF WORDS : ANTANACLASIS

(NO connection whatsoever with Isabel Coixet´s film of the same name.Sorry, like two people with the same name and surnames)
Words, like people, have their own stories and histories. They are born, they develop, they change their meanings and eventually may become old-fashioned or even disappear or appear only on the web or some dictionaries....
I´m indebted to Henry Hitchins "The secret life of words or How English became English" who analysed the fascinating stories behind just sixteen words:

ensemble

invade

saffron

volume

bravado

genius

powwow

bonsai

onslaught

connoisseur

teapot

blizzard

ethos

voodoo

angst

shabash

 

1)FIND OUT BOTH THE ORIGIN & MEANING OF EACH ITEM ABOVE

2) WRITE JUST SIX WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE SECRET TO A HAPPY LIFE

3) GOOGLE "SECRET WORDS OF POWER" and see what you find...

4) WHAT "SECRET WORDS" COULD DESCRIBE YOUR LIFE?

5) ANTANACLASIS is a type of verbal play in which one word is used in two contrasting senses:

" And there´s bars on the corner

   And there´s bars on the heart"...Tim Mc Graw  Where the green grass grows..

Find out 5 polysemic words both in Spanish and English...

P.S. Phonetically Silent English

One of the greatest difficulties for Spanish speakers is the nightmarish pronunciation of English, its stress, rhythm and intonation, its lack of consistent rules and the large number of silent letters both vowels and consonants:

silent 

          a : logically (unstressed vowels tend to become schwas)

          b : climber, plumber, debt, thumb, doubt....

          c : muscle, indict,...

          ch : fuchsia, yacht,..

          d : handkerchief, sandwich, Wednesday,...

          e : hate, fate, mate, lake,..

          f : halfpenny, halfpence,..

          g : gnome, physiognomy, foreign, though,...

          h : honest, heir, hour, why, ghost,...

          i  : business,..

          k : know, knight, knee, knife,...

          l : could, would, salmon, almond,halves,...

          m : mnemonics,..

          n : autumn, condemn, column,..

          o : colonel,..

          p : pneumonia, psalm, receipt, cupboard,..

          r : barley, parsley,..

          s : island, isle,...

          t : castle, listen, fasten, often, Christmas,...

          u : guess, guitar, tongue...

          w : answer, sword,..

          x : faux pas

          z : rendezvous

 

Try to find some more examples:

         

LOOPING THE LOOP or POLYPTOTON: Cognate objects or Internal Accusative

 

If you say "he sang a song" or" he slept a troubled sleep" you are using a cognate object: the verb´s noun form which has the same root.

 

In the phrases below find the object etymologically related to the verb. (Both could be the same):

 

TO RUN A ....................

TO DRINK A.................

TO PAINT A................

TO GIVE A ................

TO DIE A...................

TO READ A ..............

TO LAUGH A...........

TO SMILE A...............

TO TALK  A................

TO WRITE A............... 

TO SPEAK A..............

TO DO A.................... 

TO BLEED SOME.........

TO DREAM A .............. 

TO THINK A................

 

 

 

PUZZLE AND PROBLEM PARADISE

Students seem to enjoy brainteasers more than we do and there seems to be no end of books, textbooks and compilations of them, including cryptic crosswords, word searches, optical illusions, mind mazes, riddles and mental meltdowns.


Here´s just a sample of what you can find on the web and in many puzzle compendiums:

"Twenty-questions" riddles are designed for oral practice.In order to solve them students have to ask you 20 questions to which you may only reply "yes" or "no"

A) During an expedition  to the furthest icy reaches of Scandinavia, an archeologist comes across two bodies, entombed in a perfectly preserved state. After examining the bodies, he declares:"These are the corpses of Adam and Eve"  Why is he so sure?

B)A spice merchant enters a tavern in Bordeaux and orders the chef´s special, a cormorant stew. As soon as the dish is served, the merchant takes a mouthful and immediately bursts into tears. Why?

 

C) Henry Plantagenet and Eleanor of Aquitaine are in love and have been married for 15 years. However, when Eleanor tells Henry she wants a divorce, Henry is delighted. Why?

 

(From the Big Book of Paradoxes, Puzzles and Problems by Fabrice Mazza Carlton Books2010)

 

D) A carrot, a pile of pebbles, and a pipe are lying together in the middle of a field. Why?

E) How can you prove that a man has three heads?

 

(From The most enormous book of Brainteasers ever. Sevenoaks 2002)

Answer to E:No man has two heads.A man has one head more than no man. Therefore a man has three heads. Remember my name is "heads"

F) Charlie went for a walk without an umbrella. He did not wear a hat and he did not take refuge under a shelter; yet, not one hair on his head got wet. How was this possible?


G) In the "Left" family, each daughter has the same number of brothers as she has sisters.
    Each son has twice as many sisters as he has brothers.
    How many sons and daughters are there in the family?

 

 I could go on and on ad lib and ad infinitum....

For more examples see the Reader´s Digest Compendium of Puzzles and Brain teasers 2000.

SHORT FILM PROJECTS

We have developed numerous film projects in the EFL classroom over the years. In fact, most students have volunteered to take part in these projects, sometimes conducted outside the school timetable.The most significant ones which automatically come to mind and which can be viewed any time are as follows:

DO TEACHERS TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THEIR STUDENTS´ HAPPINESS?(1993)

ONE DAY IN NERJA &  LOCAL SPORTS IN ACTION (1992)

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SPANISH STUDENT (1991)

A CONCERT IN AN ENGLISH LESSON (1994)

NIGHTMARES AND DREAMS ABOUT CLASSROOM LIFE(1995)

ENGLISH TEACHING THROUGH THE AGES: THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF EFL (1996)

SCHOOL TENSIONS AND CLASSROOM DISCIPLINE(1997)

BRITISH EXPO (1998)

LABELS  (1999)

OUR SKETCHES PERFORMED IN DIFFERENT ANDALUSIAN SCHOOLS

AZNAR-ANSAR (2004)

THE PRESENT CONTINUOUS FLOW (2006)

THE WORD SHOP (2008)

A GUIDE TO YOUR TOWN (2009)

OUR MULTICULTURAL SCHOOL (2011)

FACES, PLACES AND SPACES  (2012)

SMILES, MILES & ISLES  (2013)

"! $ % & / ( ) = ? ¿*¨_ @" (2014)

(One day we´ll have a link to see them on the net)

DIFFICULT STUDENTS

Fashions in educational psychology come and go. There was a time when many students were diagnosed as "dyslexic", then ADHD, then "autistic", and more recently as "bipolar"..

I´ve agreed with Carl Rogers on the unconditional acceptance of the worthiness of every human being.
Even when  teachers have found some students as distressing and "potentially dangerous",I´ve seen them just as attention seekers whose families do not allow them to express themselves and that´s why they often need their piercings and tattoos or the latest fashion either showing their underwear or their new accessories...

Teenagers are subjected to the fashions of urban tribes, a question of interest to both Anthropology and Sociology (Neo-hippies, Punks,Gothics, Chavs, Rappers,Retros,Emos, Skaters,Indies,Otakus,Heavies, Rastafarians..) and their unstable minds are slowly getting fixed in these turmoil years.

Our school is all-inclusive, an integration centre and we´ve had SNE  (Special Needs Education) students with serious syndromes:

Anorexia nervosa

Bulimia

Achondroplasia 

S M A (Spinal Muscular Atrophy)

Schizophrenia

I B S

M S

Down Syndrome Trisomy 21

Muscular Dystrophy

Duchenne

Addison´s disease

Turner syndrome

Williams syndrome

Prader Willi

Tourette

Asperger

Hallervorden -Spatz

Suicidal

Etc..

 

CLASS TROUBLEMAKERS: (Don´t pigeon-hole them.. I will...)

 

the clown/ joker

the latecomers

the loud mouth

the interrupter

the bully

the griper(ever complaining)

the know-it-all

the drop out

the bragger/ cocky

the hostile

the doubting Thomas 

the perpetually absent-minded

the aggressive

the dictator

the permanently bored

the play boy/ play girl

the beauty queen

the techno addict

the whisperers/talkers/shouters: time wasters

the enigmatic silent type

the teacher´s pet( avoid them) 

 

(See my short film LABELS)

 

APOCOPATIONS, EPIBOLES, APHERESIS, LOGOCLONIAS,etc...

Apocopation is just  cutting off the ends of words.

See if you can find the full form of the following:

PHOTO

SYNC

AB

AD

ADMIN

BIO

BIKE

BIZ

BRA

CAL

CAM

COMBI

In Spanish we have plenty of them:  tele, boli, profe, mates,seño, cole...

EPIBOLE is just beginning several sentences with a similar word.

                  Ex: random repetition. (See alliteration) (Anaphora is       repetition of the same word)

 

APHERESIS is the omission at the beginning of a word: 

Ex: COON instead of RACCOON

TILL        "        "   UNTIL

(Like the next words, it´s also a medical term: Find out its meaning)

LOGOCLONIA is the unusual repetition of the final syllables of words, either in baby talk or in Alzheimer´s disease.

LOGORRHEA is  excessive and rapid speech ( as seen in certain mental disorders) 

BLOGORRHEA  is ..........................................................................?

RHOPALIC: silly verbal tumours

(See Word Pyramids)
 
A rhopalic is a literary phrase( poetry or prose) in which each word has one more letter than the previous word. For example:

I DO NOT KNOW WHICH TURKEY SMELLED

                                 WHERE PHILIP STARTED

I GO AND TAKE LEAVE...

I AM ALL VERY RIGHT THANKS...

AN ICY COLD NIGHT ISABEL VANISHED

 

(THESE ARE  DMITRI BORGMANN´S CLASSIC EXAMPLES) :

 

I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting; nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality, counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalises intercommunications’ incomprehensibleness!

I am not very happy acting pleased whenever prominent scientists overmagnify intellectual enlightenment, stoutheartedly outvociferating ultrareactionary retrogressionists, characteristically unsupernaturalizing transubstantiatively philosophicoreligious incomprehensiblenesses anthropomorphologically. Pathologicopsychological!

 task:

TRY TO INVENT YOUR OWN RHOPALIC 

(The winner will be the one who makes up the longest meaningful sentence)

 

(Y)OUR MANIAS & (Y)OUR PHOBIAS & (Y)OUR PHILIAS

A mania is an obsession, an intense madness, an abnormal desire or inclination, or an extreme enthusiasm for something. Remember the adjective ending is -manic.Unfortunately, fewer and fewer students choose Greek in their studies, so they will definitely ignore most of the roots of the following manias and phobias...

See if you can identify the following manias:

ABLUTOMANIA

ACRONYMANIA

AILUROMANIA

ARITHMOMANIA

BEATLEMANIA

BIBLIOMANIA

CLEPTOMANIA

DIPSOMANIA

EROTOMANIA

GRAPHOMANIA

HEDONOMANIA

INFOMANIA

MEGALOMANIA

MELOMANIA

MONOMANIA

NECROMANIA

NYMPHOMANIA

PYROMANIA

TRICOTILLOMANIA 

A phobia is an irrational fear, hatred or extreme dislike of something.Remember the adjective ending is -phobic. See if you can guess what the following phobias are about:

ACROPHOBIA

AEROPHOBIA

AGORAPHOBIA   v. CLAUSTROPHOBIA

ARACHNOPHOBIA

BIBLIOPHOBIA

CYBERPHOBIA

DYSMORPHOPHOBIA

ELECTROPHOBIA

ERYTHROPHOBIA

LALIOPHOBIA

MISOPHOBIA

ORNITHOPHOBIA

SATANOPHOBIA

TACHOPHOBIA

THANATOPHOBIA

THEOPHOBIA

TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA

XENOPHOBIA

ZOOPHOBIA

INTRIGUING -OLOGIES

You probably know the difference between Astrology and Astronomy and between Neurology and Urology. I´m positive that you know someone who has studied Psychology, Philology,Biology or even Criminology.
An "ology" is a science from the Greek word "logos" meaning word or reason.
 Students are still  confused over the difference  between Nephrology and Phrenology, the former is a science whereas the latter is not..

See if you can guess what the following sciences will deal with:

WEBOLOGY

AUTOLOGY

CALIOLOGY

CHAOLOGY

CHIROLOGY

CRYPTOLOGY

CRYPTOZOOLOGY

GARBOLOGY

HAGIOLOGY

HELMINTHOLOGY

HYPNOLOGY

ONEIROLOGY

MYCOLOGY

PAROEMIOLOGY

PHYCOLOGY

PSEUDOLOGY

THAUMATOLOGY

UFOLOGY

VEXILLOLOGY

XYLOLOGY

ZYMOLOGY

-I S M S

Most of the abstract nouns included here express beliefs and practices. Some, however, denote aspects of discrimination; these include AGEISM & SEXISM.

 What do the following nouns mean?

WHAT COULD  THEIR ANTONYMS BE?

AGNOSTICISM

ATHEISM

ALTRUISM

ALCOHOLISM

BEHAVIOURISM

CAPITALISM

COMMUNISM

CONSERVATISM

CONSUMERISM

DOGMATISM

ELITISM

EMPIRICISM

ENVIRONMENTALISM

ESCAPISM

FANATICISM

FAVOURITISM

FEMINISM

HEDONISM

HOLISM

HUMANISM

IDEALISM

MASOCHISM (SM)

MATERIALISM

NARCISSISM

NIHILISM

OPTIMISM

PAROCHIALISM

PATRIOTISM

SATANISM

SCEPTICISM

SPIRITUALISM

STOICISM

TOURISM

VANDALISM

VEGETARIANISM

VEGANISM

 

CAN YOU THINK OF ANY OTHER -ISMS RELATED TO ARTS, PHILOSOPHY,ETC..?

 

Google will rule the world or will it?

The idea for this activity came after I google searched "25 hilarious google search suggestions".
It dawned on me that the future will be entirely dominated by Google and other search engine companies which are never completely neutral or unbiased...

Try to understand what´s so funny about the folllowing real google searches and try to google the sentences below by yourselves and see what you can come up with:

DON´T YOU HATE IT WHEN A SENTENCE DOES NOT END THE WAY YOU THINK IT OCTOPUS?

WHY ISN´T 11 PRONOUNCED ONETY-ONE?

WHY IS MY GOLDFISH TURNING BLACK?

WHAT DO I DO IF A GINGER KID BITES ME?

HOW COME WHEN I TALK TO GIRLS ON FACEBOOK THEY DON´T ANSWER BACK?

MY TEETH ARE SEE THROUGH

AMISH ONLINE DATING

WHY CAN´T I OWN A CANADIAN?

DINOSAURS WERE MADE UP BY THE CIA TO DISCOURAGE TIME TRAVEL.

I AM EXTREMELY TERRIFIED OF CHINESE PEOPLE.

OBAMA IS A CACTUS

OUR PETS´ HEADS ARE FALLING OFF.

I´M OUT OF EGGS

I FILLED MY LUGGAGE WITH ORPHAN MEAT.

HOW TO RAISE YOUR I.Q. BY EATING GIFTED CHILDREN

WHAT´S A BOYFRIEND AND WHERE CAN I DOWNLOAD ONE?

SOMETIMES WHEN I´M ALONE I USE.................

GOOGLE WILL NOT SEARCH FOR...............

 

 

 

some HEADY HEADLINES

I still recall the puzzle of some newspaper headlines:

WOMEN MAN WINNING YACHT
DOG IN WELL DRAMA: NEW RESCUE ATTEMPT TODAY
P.M. MOVES TO CUT DOWN EXPENDITURE
NEWTOWN WIFE TO BE STRANGLED
HOME SECRETARY UNDER FIRE AGAIN
BAD TEACHERS FACE SACK 
EX-TROOPS CALLED UP TO DISCIPLINE PUPILS (Daily Mail FEBRUARY 26 2011)
EGG TALKS: AGRICULTURAL ADVISERS MEET
GVT HINTS AT RATIONS AS OIL SINKS
RUSH TO SUN ENDS IN JAMS
CHURCHES VICTIMS OF ART RINGS
FIRST LADY DROPS A BRICK
NEW FLYOVER SPEEDS TRAFFIC FLOW
ALL OCTOBER RAINFALL RECORDS BROKEN
HOUSEWIVES HIT BY DEARER LOAF
FISH TALKS TOMORROW
SPENDING SPREE DESPITE GLOOM
EUROMANIA HAUNTS LANGUAGE OF FOOD
A CURE FOR CANCER
EGG ON HIS FACE
OAP´S SCOOP $IM ON POOLS
CHIPS ARE DOWN FOR JOBS
CHAUVINIST HUSBAND DIVORCED
CAUGHT RED-HANDED
CAVE RESCUE
BAN ON MIGRANT CHEATS
BOTTOM-PINCHER OWNED UP AFTER WRONG MAN HELD
RETURN BY EAR MAIL
P.M. TO VISIT THE ROCK
BRITONS PUT HIGHER VALUE ON LEISURE THAN WORK
US SNUBS BRITAIN
EASTWOOD SPLITS FROM HIS SECOND WIFE
HOLY GUACAMOLE!
HEANEY, THE HUMBLE HEART-THROB OF POETRY
NHS RECRUITS THOUSANDS OF DOCTORS FROM THIRD WORLD
HIGH TIME BRITAIN STOPPED BEING UNCLE SAM´S POODLE (Daily Mail 31 Aug 2013)

Sometimes we may come across some amusing headlines:

PUERTO RICAN TEEN NAMED MISTRESS OF THE UNIVERSE

MAN ACCUSED OF KILLING LAWYER RECEIVES A NEW ATTORNEY

ARMY VEHICLE DISAPPEARS

FEDERAL AGENTS RAID GUN SHOP, FIND WEAPONS

STARVATION CAN LEAD TO HEALTH HAZARDS

MIRACLE CURE KILLS FIFTH PATIENT

MEAT HEAD RESIGNS

BARBERSHOP SINGERS BRING JOY TO SCHOOL FOR DEAF

HOMICIDE VICTIMS RARELY TALK TO POLICE

HOSPITALS RESORT TO HIRING DOCTORS

STATISTICS SHOW THAT TEEN PREGNANCY DROPS OFF SIGNIFICANTLY AFTER AGE 25

PARENTS KEEP KIDS HOME TO PROTEST SCHOOL CLOSURE

 

See if you can make sense out of the following headlines:

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KEEP TALKING

Find all the questions.Ask your partner and Write his/her answers:

whatdidyoudolastweekendwhatclothesdoyouliketowearwhattimedoyouusuallygo

tobedwhatareyougoingtodotonightareyoureadingabookatthemomentwhenisyou

rnextholidaywhatisyourfavouriteenglishworddoyouplayasportwhosisyourfavou

ritesingercanyoucountfromonehundredtozerowhatareyougoingtodothisweekendw

henisyourbirthdaywhohasgotabeautifulsmilehasyourhousegotagardenwhenwerey

oubornwhattimedidyouhavebreakfastthismorningwhatdidyouhavewhereisyourb

ikedoyoupractiseskateboardingwhatareyouafraidofwhatdoyoulikemostaboutt

henighthaveyoureadfiftyshadesofgreyhaveyoudoneyourhomeworkareyougoingo

uttonightwhereareyougoingtothiseveninghowwouldyouliketodiewhatsyourjobwhatisit

whatkindofanimalwouldyouliketobewhatwouldyougivemeasabirthdaypresentwhat

kindofweatherdoyoulikebestwhatgivesyouspecialpleasurewherewouldyoul

iketoberightnowwhichhumanqualitydoyouconsiderthemostimportanthaveyoulost

anythingdoyoubelieveinlifeafterdeathareyouprejudicedagainstaparticularracedo

youtellthetruthdoyoucallthepolicewhenanemergencyhappensdoyougetnervousatexams

 

Based on an idea by Friederike Klippel Keep Talking C.U.P..

Readers Forever

One of the best teaching and learning times is when it comes to classroom reading. It´s difficult to recall all of them but the following is a list of graded or simplified readers which have motivated students to keep on reading and discover the pleasure and wonders of reading on their own.Stories are my passion.We read for entertainment and information and in order to get some nourishment for the soul....

           Author                                       Story 

Edgar Allan Poe     Tales of Mystery & Imagination..... 

Oscar Wilde  The Picture of Dorian Gray

Charles Dickens Oliver Twist, David Copperfield,...

Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer,...

John Milne  The Long Tunnel

Arthur Taylor The elephant man

O´Henry  New Yorkers

Saki(H.H.Munro) The Open Window..

William Saroyan The Barber´s Uncle,The first day at school..

D.H. Lawrence The Fox, The rocking Horse winner,...

Thomas Hardy The thieves in the cupboard

Anton Chekhov The lottery ticket,..

Guy de Maupassant  The Necklace,.. 

Daphne du Maurier  Rebecca

Jules Verne Around the World in 80 days

Mary Shelley  Frankestein

H.G. Wells  The Time Machine,Invisible man,..

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Any Sherlock Holmes story...

Nick Hornby  About a boy

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night´s Dream

Alan C. Mc Lean   Born to run

James Joyce The dead,..

Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe

Jonathan Swift Gulliver´s Travels

George Bernard Shaw Pygmalion =My fair lady

W. Somerset Maugham A man from Glasgow, Mackintosh,..

John Steinbeck  The Pearl

Richard Chisholm Meet me in Istanbul

Bram Stoker  Dracula

Ernest Hemingway  Death in the afternoon,Men without women

Theodore Dreiser An American Tragedy

Wilkie Collins  The Woman in White

Colin West  Big Wig

Francoise Sagan  Bonjour Tristesse

Roald Dahl   Matilda, The Twits...

Helen Fielding  Bridget Jones´s Diary

J.K. Rowling  Harry Potter and the Philosopher´s stone ..

Norman Whitney  The Stranger

Washington Irving  Rip Van Winkle

   T.C. Jupp   Rich man, Poor man

Michael Hardcastle Don´t tell me what to do

George Orwell Animal farm

Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom´s Cabin

Henry James  The Aspern papers

Bret Harte Adventure on Bolinas Plain

Jack London  White Fang

Jane Homeshaw  Tin Lizzie

Martin Sinclair  Sports Stars

Malorie Blackman  An Eye for an Eye

John Tully  Muhammad Ali king of the ring

Toni Murphy  Bruce Springsteen

Stephen Rabley  Tina Turner

Peter Dainty  Marilyn Monroe

Stephen Crane The Red badge of Courage

Nathaniel Hawthorne Mr. Higginbotham´s Catastrophe..

James Thurber  The Night the Ghost Got In

John Grisham  The Firm

Raymond Chandler  The long Goodbye

Graham Greene  The End of the Affair

Winston Groom  Forrest Gump

Michael Crichton  The Lost World Jurassic Park

H.E. Bates  Silas the Good

Paul Theroux   The Mosquito Coast

William Golding  Lord of the Flies 

Martin H. Mayal   The Cave

Ambrose Bierce The Devil´s Dictionary

Alistair Mac Lean   Santorini

Dian Fossey  Gorillas in the  mist

Joy Adamson Born Free

Jane Goodall In the Shadow of Man

Lewis Carroll Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland

W.W. Jacobs The Monkey´s paw

What other stories have you read(films you have seen) that are not included in the above list?

  

Try to classify the above authors according to their nationalities:
British, American,Irish,etc..