Accents

So, you already have a good level of English, you can carry on a conversation, you understand people and people understand you. However, there is something making your life harder: The Accent!
Yeah, accents are something else! I'm going to post here some videos of different English accents:

American (New York) accent

British accent

Australian accent

New Zealand accent

Irish accent

Wow! There are many other accents around the world and we can even identify differences within one country. But, what I want to know is:

Which accent seems easier for you? Do they have anything in common? Do you try to make any accent when you speak English? If so, which one? Leave your answers and your comments.

See you soon!

Expression of the Week - A.S.A.P

This week a funny thing happened, more than 2 students of mine asked me what A.S.A.P stands for. Because I don't believe in coincidences I decided to post here on the blog in case anyone else in the world was looking for the definition of this abbreviation too.
Fisrt, when you don't know what an abbreviation means, you should ask:
What does... stand for? In this case: "What does "A.S.A.P" stand for?
A.S.A.P stands for As Soon As Possible.
In case you don't know, As Soon As Possible means the earliest moment possible, as fast as you can do it.
I will use an email as an example:

Hello Paul,
how are things? I'm sending you the results of the analysis. I'd like you to write the report and send it to me A.S.A.P.
Regards,
Jack

Hope this expression has helped you in any way! Leave your comments!!!

Expression of the week- Track and Field

Dear followers of the blog,
sorry for not posting anything in more than 10 days. I was working as an interpreter in an event of Track and Field.

The track at UNIFOR-University of Fortaleza

It's the 8th year that I work. A great experience because I get to practice my English with native speakers and this year I got to use my Spanish too. There were athletes from USA, Canada, Bahamas, Jamaica, Croatia, Lithuania, Portugal, Morocco, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Cuba,Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria and Ethiopia .
Thanks to the team of interpreters who worked really hard, to UNIFOR (University of Fortaleza) and to CBAT (Brazilian Confederation of Track and Field)





So, the expression of the week is Track and Field. Did you already discover what it means?

If not, I will give you a definition:

DEFINITION: It is a sport of various competitive activities of running, jumping and throwing such as:

400 meters with hurdles

100 meters

High Jump

Hammer Throw

Javelin Throw

Shot put

Pole vault

And others more. Track and Field is a beautiful and old sport that has its roots in human prehistory since running, jumping and throwing are natural forms of human physical expressions.

Expression of the week-Chicken Out



Are you a chicken? Do you ever chicken out?

Sometimes I am a chicken. I have chickened out a few times in my life. Once I went to Mendoza and all my friends were going to go water rafting.

When they asked me to sign I term saying I was responsible for my life and that was a risky activity, I chickened out. I was very afraid and decided not to go.

CHICKEN- is an animal, but we also use this word to say that a person is a coward or afraid of everything.

TO CHICKEN OUT- is when you can't do something because of fear.

DICTIONARY DEFINITION: To fail to do something through fear or lack of conviction.

EXAMPLE:

• My friend promised he would go bungee jumping with me, but he chickened out at the last minute.

Another Song Activity

I just love music, I can't get enough of it! So, the other day I was planning a class for a student. We were finishing up one topic, Simple Present and Present Continuous, and about to start a new one, Future. While planning I was listening to music, I always do that, and I heard one song that caught my attention: Not There Yet by a Luisa Sobral, a singer from Portugal. It was exactly what I needed. The song has a mix of Simple Present and Future-WILL. It shows one of the uses of WILL which is the uncertainness of future actions. We often use the words MAYBE, PROBABLY, POSSIBLY and I THINK with the Future WILL because we are not sure if the action will happen or not.

Listen to the song, complete the gaps and then tell what you understood. Why does she use WILL?

The video was removed, so I'll leave here a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs1PUNzWy3M

Not there yet

By Luisa Sobral

I ______ a tree
I see a ___________
I see children ___________
Going inside and out

I _________ sunflowers
everywhere
And a big scarecrow
with a hat on his head

But I'm not there ______
But someday I'll ______
And I'm not there ______
We'll _________

Will you _________ me
To go inside
Will you hold me and _________
Will you lay down by my side
Be there _________ 'till we die

And you're not there _______
But someday you'll __________
And you're not there __________
We'll _______

Will we have a sunday picnic
Will the __________ wear blue and the girls wear pink
Will we _________ around the world
Will we make everybody watch our family slideshows

But we're not there _________
But someday we'll ________
And we're not there _________
We'll ________
And we're not there ________
Maybe we'll _________ ever be
And we're not there _________
We'll _______

Expression of the Week

HIT ON (SOMEONE)
Definition: is to flirt with someone; to try to seduce someone; if you are interested in a person, you will hit on this person to see if he or she is interested too; try to get someone to like you by flirting with them.

Examples:

• That guy was hitting on me. He said that he had never seen such a pretty girl before, that I was the most beautiful girl in the whole world.
• I think she is hitting on me, should I ask her out?

Now, tell me: what do you say when you are hitting on someone?

Chatting Class-Text in English, Português and Español

If you haven't registered for Chatting Class yet, you still have time. I'll be expecting your votes until the end of the week. Register now.
www.edmodo.com
The group's code is teikqt.
If you have any problems to register, feel free to leave your questions and your comments here on the blog.

Se você não se registrou ainda na Chatting Class, ainda dá tempo. Estarei esperando seu voto até o fim desta semana. Registre-se agora:
www.edmodo.com
O código do grupo é teikqt.
Se você tiver algum problema para se registrar, escreva sua dúvida ou seu comentário aqui mesmo no blog.

Todavía no estás registrado para Chatting Class, aún tenés tiempo. Estaré esperando tu voto. Registrate ahora mismo.
www.edmodo.com
El código del grupo es teikqt.
Si tenés algun problema para registrarte, escribí tu pregunta o comentario aquí en el blog.