Pronunciation: don't panic!

Pronouncing English well is quite difficult, especially for Spanish speakers. Sometimes the spelling of words has nothing to do with how they sound. There is a famous joke that says that the word "fish" could actually be written like "ghoti". Here's how:

"gh" would sound like an /f/ (as in "laugh")

"o" would sound like /i/ (as in "women")

"ti" would sound like /sh/ (as in "dictation")

So, yes. Pronouncing English can be hard. Fortunately there are lots of websites these days that can be of help. Here are some of my favourites:

http://howjsay.com is a nice and easy to use pronounciation dictionary.

http://www.forvo.com/ is great for all kinds of words, but especially for proper nouns like names of surames, cities or words that aren't usually in the dictionary. 

http://www.shiporsheep.com/ is great for contrasting pairs of phonemes (sounds), which will help you notice the difference between different sounds. This will definitely make you pronounce things better.

BBC Learning English has a great section for pronunciation. It has got videos, quizzes and radio programmes, so it is very useful and complete.

But the most important thing is to listen to a lot of English and never be afraid to make a mistake!

Visiting Aranjuez

We are also preparing a visit to Aranjuez for next month. I like this video particularly because it is very easy to follow and the vocabulary is not too difficult. The speaker mentions a few dates --what are they related to?

15th century
18th century
19th century

1535
1561
1717



You can  find more videos about Spain on the Spanish Tourist Office Offcial Channel . Enjoy!

A trip to El Escorial

We are preparing a visit to El Escorial next month. It takes a lot of work since the students need to research all the monuments and write texts about it, but all that effort really pays off. Here is one of the videos we have seen in class:



Rick Steves is famous in the US for his travel show on APT (American Public Television). He has taught at the university, worked as a tour guide and written travel books. There are plenty of other travel videos from Rick Steves here: http://www.youtube.com/user/RickSteves?feature=watch

Giving directions

picture by Ramon Cutanda, Flickr


We've been reviewing how to give directions today in class. I stumbled upon this fantastic site from the BBC World Service that sums up all the points really well. It's got listening and vocabulary exercises as well as the language you'll need  --go check it out!


Giving directions



Ps. The video we watched about Stockholm belongs to this Youtube Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/PandaCruises

As I said, it's a very nice way of seeing the actual experience of a tourist on a cruise tour and see some Baltic highlights :-).

The Tell-Tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart is one of the most famous short stories by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. In 1953, Columbia Pictures adapted the story into a very scary animated film. There are many versions on Youtube, but I chose this one because it is subtitled in Spanish :-)

I think it is a great way to celebrate Halloween!

News resources for intermediate students

We have been discussing today a few resources for reading news that you can use if you are at an intermediate level (I will update this  if I find more)

Onestopenglish.com Monthly topical news lessons from The Guardian.  These are reading exercises based on news adapted from the UK newspaper The Guardian. They have three different levels: elementary, intermediate, and upper intermediate. There are teacher's notes and answers.

Inside Out e-lessons offers a weekly reading e-lesson, which is often based on current news as well. The level is different every week, and it ranges from pre-intermediate to upper intermediate so be careful. There are teacher notes, answers and a glossary.

Despite the old-fashioned design, http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ has very complete lessons based on current events, complete with an MP3 file that you can use for listening practice.

That's all for now! Again, I'll update this if I find more info.

Useful links for tourism students in Madrid.

This year I'll be working at a school of hospitality and tourism with adults, so I'm going to share a few links that may come handy:



(by Tagon) 



1) Groups for language exchange in Madrid.

(To my high school ex-students, please note that these are intended for adults!)

http://www.multilinkual.com/
http://madridbabel.weebly.com/

Both groups have facebook pages associated to their websites. Apart from meeting regularly in Madrid for exchanges, dinners, visits to the movies and parties, they sometimes organize trips to different areas in Spain. For obvious reasons, this is great practice for students of tourism!

2) In Madrid newspaper. 


 Great for finding one-to-one language exchanges and for general information about news and events in Madrid, as well as stories about everyday life for expats here. You can get the newspaper in most Irish Pubs along the city at the beginning of the month. It's free so you need to hurry, they run out really fast! If you can't get hold of a copy, you can always check their website: http://www.in-madrid.com/



(by Tagon) 



3) A few travel sites I like:


http://www.quirkyguide.com/  A nice travel site full of interesting articles about little known sites and events.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ This is a travel site for backpackers mostly, but it is packed with information and you can do a lot of research on real questions and problems that occur to tourists through their forum, the Thorn Tree section.

http://wikitravel.org/  follows the wikipedia structure to give information about countries and cities, specifically oriented towards travelers.

http://iwannagothere.com/ is a website that compiles traveler experiences in different countries and cities. It's great to find information about off-the-beaten-track attractions.

Fevered Mutterings  is a blog by a friend of mine, Mike. He's currently working at  http://travelllll.com/ and, being an experienced globetrotter, he's my main source for travel advice so you might want to check these sites out, too. You might want to look at his huge blogroll for more inspiration, too :-)


4) A few English as a Second Language sites you'll need to use:

http://www.wordreference.com/es/ THE online dictionary. You can also download an application to check the dictionary on your phone via Wi-fi or 3G. Great for having a lightweight dictionary always available.

http://www.forvo.com/  A pronunciation dictionary, especially useful for proper nouns and other words that may not be in a dictionary. Real native speakers record the words so you can listen to how they are pronounced. You can also contribute to it on the Spanish section.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/ is the simplified English version of Wikipedia. It's good for English learners who might feel a bit overwhelmed by the main English Wikipedia.

And, last but not least, http://www.agendaweb.org/ is a great site to look for general English practice, especially grammar exercises. It compiles activities from a large number of ESL websites all over the internet.