Victorian Christmas cards

In Great Britain, as well as in Spain, there is a great tradition of sending cards to your loved ones during the Christmas season. Nowadays, we are used to sweet pictures of children throwing snowballs, carefully decorated Christmas trees, happy families opening presents, religious motifs and many other clichés.

Cards have been sent for a couple hundred years now, but the pictures and drawings that appear on them have changed significantly. Check out this newspaper article where you can find a very interesting gallery of Christmas greeting cards which were popular during Victorian times (19th century). 

Click here to see the images in the Daily Mail

These are only some of them. Weird!

  

Respect

Here you will see Cristiano Ronaldo taking part in a promotional event in Japan. 

Watch the video before you continue reading:

One Japanese child tried to speak Portuguese to Ronaldo, and as he nervously reads his words, some of the people begin to laugh.

Ronaldo, though, was clearly touched and impressed with the kid's effort and asked his translator, "Why they smile? Why? He speaks good Portuguese! Very good. They should be happy because he tries very hard!"

Ronaldo's action made the crowd applaud, and probably left them all a little embarrassed.

Never laugh at someone who is trying to speak another language, respect and admire them instead. 

Basic diagram: ARGUMENTATIONS

This is what we had on the board today. Remember that this is the BASIC structure to use when elaborating an argumentative text.

1. INTRODUCTION
          - Situation, context.
          - Mention your proposals/ideas

2. BODY PARAGRAPHS
          - Develop your ideas
               i. Mark progression (Firstly, In first place, To begin with, Secondly, In second place, etc.)
               ii. Topic sentence. This has to be clear, simple and direct. It lets the reader know what the paragraph is about.
               iii. Develop argument
(We will see iv.counterarguments and v.refutations in the future)

You need as many body paragraphs as ideas you presented in the introduction. 2 ideas = 2 body paragraphs

3. CONCLUSION
          - It is really a brief summary of what has been said. 
          - No new information
          - Use the conclusion to emphasize that your ideas/proposals are the best option. 
          - To sum up, To conclude, In conclusion

Vocabulary

Effective, adequate, useful, practical
To do this...
This idea is bound to make Public Transport better ...(because)...
Proposal, measure, idea, recommendation
Propose an idea/measure
Put forward an idea
The proposed measure

The importance of frequency adverbs

How tired are you?

GAD: Finishing today's exercise

Remember to finish what we did today if you didn't finish it earlier. 

The task was to write instructions on how to send an email and print a copy of it - we start with a switched off computer AND printer. 

This is the vocabulary that was written on the board to help you. Look in your books too, you have everything you need!

First...
After...
Then...
After that...
After doing that...
You should...
You must...
You have to...
You need to...
Make sure that...
When...
Send
To press
Select
Finally...

Leselle's blog

Make sure that you check Leselle's blog. She uploads the materials you have used with her and other things you might find interesting!

 http://fromnewyorktomadrid.blogspot.com.es/

GAD Homework 11th of December

Complete the conversation with a word or expression from a-j below. Copy the full conversation in your notebooks.

SWITCHBOARD: Portillo Electronics. (1)___________ you?

MARINA: Good morning. (2)___________ to Alan Blake, please.

SWITCHBOARD: Just a moment. (3)___________ to his department.

HANNAH: Customer Services.

MARINA: Hello. (4)___________ , please?

HANNAH: (5)___________ he's in a meeting.

MARINA: I see. (6)___________?

HANNAH: Yes, of course.

MARINA: Could you ask him (7)___________ as soon as possible? My name is Marina Prodi.

HANNAH: (8)___________ that for me?

MARINA: Sure, it's P-R-O-D-I. (9)___________ my number.

HANNAH: Ok, (10)___________ he gets message.


a. Would you mind spelling                        f. to call me back

b. I'm afraid                                                g. He's got

c. How can I help                                       h. Could I leave a message

d. Could I speak to Alan Blake                   i. I'll put you through

e. I'll make sure                                           j. I'd like to speak 


And just in case you were wondering...this is a switchboard (older and modern version): 

AYF Homework 11 December

Read about the WTO and the incident with banana trade. Answer the questions below. 

The WTO

The World Trade Organization, known as the WTO, was established in 1995. It is a Geneva-based organization that aims to ensure that global trade flows as smoothly and freely as possible. One of its functions is to settle trade disputes. Member countries agree to reduce the trade barriers between them in a series of trade negotiations, known as 'rounds'. These rounds (for example, the Uruguay Round) have made trade freer. 

Here you can see a map of the member countries: 

The Banana War

It is perhaps strange that a fruit should be at the centre of what was almost a trade war between the USA and the European Union. France and Britain wanted to protect the interests of banana producers in their ex-colonies, especially  in the West Indies, against US companies operating out of Central America. The USA claimed that this was against the rules of international competition and free trade. The WTO decided in favour of the USA, but the Europeans refused to recognize the decision. It was following a second WTO judgement against the EU, and the USA's imposition of huge tariffs on unrelated goods, that they finally agreed to obey the decision. It remains to be seen how well banana growers in the West Indies can survive as Central American countries have a comparative advantage in climate, land and labour costs. 

Answer using your own words:

1. What was the cause of the disagreement between the USA and the EU?

2. How did the USA punish the EU for refusing to accept the decision of the WTO?

3. What is the future likely to be for West Indian producers? Why?

Christmas Commercials in UK

As you might have noticed already, the TV commercials are starting to aim at our Christmas shopping: perfumes, watches, and many other objects considered to be 'typical' Christmas gifts. 

During my time in England, I observed that an unequivocal indicator which meant that Christmas was just around the bend was the appearance of Christmas TV commercials. Especially those for different shopping centres or supermarkets, such as Tesco or Sainsbury. I liked them a lot, and did some research of those aired previous years. 

I found them to be quite heartwarming, carefully done and original (British advertising is excellent in general), so here you have three of them that belong to this Christmas. Hope you like them!

Tesco commercial (there is a play on words with the adjective 'bright', see if you get it):

Aldi Telescope Christmas commercial. There is also a play on words, this time involving an IDIOM. Let's see if you can spot it!:

 Anchor Christmas commercial. This is a commercial for a dairy spreadable (sort of butter). In my opinion, one of the best ads:

GAD Homework December 5th

Please finish the writing exercise (requesting a quote). 

Have a good long weekend everyone!

60 years since Rosa Parks said NO

I'm sure some of you know who Rosa Park is and what she did, but for those of you who don't, here's a brief summary of why this woman is so important.

During the 50's and 60's in the United States there was something called the Civil Rights movement going on. It was all about political and social movements fighting for the African-American population's rights, as they were not treated equally. They faced an incredible amount of obstacles in  their everyday life.

In 1958, Montgomery (Alabama), buses were segregated. This means that white people would occupy the front part of buses, while Afro-Americans would have to stay at the back. Nevertheless, if a white person would want to take a seat and there were none available at the front, Afro-American passengers were asked to give up their seat. 

This is when Rosa Parks said NO. On December 1st, 1955, a bus driver asked Rosa Parks to stand up and leave her seat, but she answered, 'I don't think I should stand up'. She was then arrested by the police. 

As you can imagine, this became a symbol in Civil Rights movement. This act was so inspiring that it immediately led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott: On December 5th, Afro-Americans refused to take the bus and walked their way to work or wherever they needed to go. It was a huge success, as more than 40,000 Afro-Americans didn't get on a bus that day. 

This boycott lasted for months, and it really made an impact on the transport system. After 381 days of boycott, the segregation laws were lifted on December 20, 1956.

Protests on streets

Members of the Washington Freedom Riders Committee hang signs from bus windows to protest segregation on May, 30 1961

Rosa Parks seated at the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956