Aranjuez, Rodrigo, me and a visitor from a far away country.

Tags

, , , , , , ,

IMG_2980

“Aranjuez, the Spanish town that inspired a famous concerto 70 years ago, works its charms on a besotted Anthony Jefferies”.

Para un estudiante de Inglés leer un periódico en ese idioma no es nada fácil, salvo que haya algo que le interese mucho, o sea algo que le apasione… La música por ejemplo.

“Aranjuez recognises its debt to Rodrigo, but it’s not the kind of town that goes in for souvenirs and monuments”.

Vivo en Aranjuez  y a mi me encanta El Concierto de Aranjuez. No se exactamente que fue lo que me trajo aquí, pero es cierto que me influyó este concierto. Y yo no soy el único. Testimonio son los autobuses que entran por la mañana escupen turistas para echar una mirada a la ciudad,  luego, en la tarde, les chupan; vuelven a Madrid antes del anochecer dejando los demás encantos de la ciudad a sus habitantes.

“It’s not hard to be happy here: wandering through the woods and along the riverside on this small island of greenery in the barren plain of central Spain”.

Algunos se han quedado, como yo. ¿Por qué no hay un turismo más salvaje, más mercadeo aquí?

Si yo fuese emprendedor, pero no lo soy… ¡Gracias a Dios!

Lea :

The Daily Telegraph Travel visits Aranjuez

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/artsandculture/5153941/Rodrigos-Aranjuez-Beauty-and-the-beats.html

Y verás que sí vale la pena visitar Aranjuez con tiempo y calma. Para los amigos siempre hay una cama que después de dos noches quedará hasta una próxima vez.

“The locals are solidly Castilian: stockily built (both men and women), clad in furs against the deep cold of winter (both men and women) and unquestioningly following well-established patterns of drinking, eating and strolling in their beloved city – in between the less important business of earning a living”.

Listen to Learn

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Captura de pantalla 2013-01-04 a las 14.03.14“The podcasts on this site will help you to improve your English vocabulary and pronunciation and your listening skills. They are quite short (5 or 6 minutes) and delivered in clearly spoken English. Many of them are linked to grammar and vocabulary notes, or to exercises or quizes”.

¿Por qué nos bloqueamos?

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Eduard Punset nos explica, en su página web, por qué a veces aprender otro idioma es complicado.

Linkearemos algunos de los interesantes razonamientos de Punset  para que podamos comprender un poco más why  can’t I speak another language.

http://www.fundacionpunset.org/apol/8203/bloqueo-para-aprender-idiomas/

Listen and speak, the way to learn English

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

 

Practice is the best way to learn English!

 

 




http://www.rong-chang.com/listen.htm

English spelling through history (and spelling reform)

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Take from: www.ehow.com

The History of English. Will we ever see a spelling reform? Not in our lifetime. Why not? 

 
 
 
 
 
Writing systems and alphabets in England
The Roman alphabet and Anglo-Saxon
Writing in Anglo-Saxon: Variation and incipient standardization
The period after the conquest: Spelling during the Middle English period
Printing and the beginnings of the information revolution
The Reformation and Renaissance
Dictionaries and Other Linguistic Reference Materials
Language academies
Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language
American-dialect
Movements advocating more drastic spelling reform of English
Modern trends for standardization
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Histengl/spelling.html

We are in Aranjuez! / ¡Estamos en Aranjuez!

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Llegamos a Aranjuez y queremos que toda la gente de esta hermosa ciudad hable inglés, lo entienda y se divierta haciéndolo.

Nosotros podemos ayudarle.

Clases con sentido y a la medida.

Cultura/Conversación/Travel/Business/Listening

Why? Deja de preguntarte “¿Por  qué no entiendo lo que dicen? o ¿Por qué, si hablo inglés ‘perfectamente’ cuando comienzan a hablarme no entiendo nada?”

English

Te proporcionamos las herramientas para aprender: pronunciación,confianza y motivación.

Si ya conoces la gramática,

¡llegó la hora de hablar con fluidez!

Supera fronteras culturales y lingüísticas

Or just to brush your English conversational classes. (Refrescar)

Todos los niveles. Entrevista sin compromiso.            

Todos los niveles de Inglés

omvleej@gmail.com / johannesom@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/whyenglishwhynot

666 359 662 Why English ?  91 750 87 86

To spell is a good way to learn words

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Picture from: old.unit5.orgSpelling poems published in Spelling Progress Bulletin.

See also limericks from Out on a Limerick, collected by Bennett Cerf, and from Rimes without Reason, collected by Godfrey Dewey, published in the Bulletins.

[Spelling Progress Bulletin March 1961 pdf p20]

English Rime Words, by Helen Bowyer.

For the most part, they fall into three classes:
1. Eye rimes like “have” and “gave”.
2. Ear rimes like “vigor” and “trigger”.
3. Eye and ear rimes like “metal” and “petal”.

The following couplets have eye rimes. Notice what happens when they are read aloud.

Diver River, by Helen Bowyer.
I wish you were
A long with us here,
Hale and limber as we are,
Glad and gay and free from care;
You would love it here, I know
With the Spring upon us now.
Everything we need we have
And, oh, the precious hours we save
For the things we really love,
But for which we vainly strove,
Pressured by the noisy rush
Of the city’s whirl and push.
Oh come, dear friend, do come
Here with us to make your home.
[Also in SPB Summer 1976 p18]The Hired Man, by Anon.
Our hired man named Job
Has got a pleasant job,
The meadow grass to mow
And stow it in the mow.
At work he takes the lead,
He does not fear cold lead,
Nor is he moved to tears
When his clothing tears.
A book that he had read
He handed me to read.
He spends much time in reading
When not at home in Reading.

The homographs in the above would be eliminated by phonetic spelling.

From: http://www.spellingsociety.org/news/media/poems.php

Napoleon and the language

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A rare letter in English by Napoleon highlights the complexity of delivering good learner feedback

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jul/10/napoleon-letter-english

Nasreddin Hodja

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nasredine HodjaNasreddin Hodja is Turkey’s (and perhaps all of Islam’s) best-known trickster. His legendary wit and droll trickery were possibly based on the exploits and words of a historical imam. Nasreddin reputedly was born in 1208 in the village of Horto near Sivrihisar. In 1237 he moved to Aksehir, where he died in the Islamic year 683 (1284 or 1285). As many as 350 anecdotes have been attributed to the Hodja, as he most often is called. Hodja is a title meaning teacher or scholar. He frequently is compared with the northern European trickster Till Eulenspiegel.

The many spelling variations for Nasreddin include: Nasreddin, Nasrettin, Nasrudin, Nasr-id-deen, Nasr Eddin, Nasr-eddin, Nasirud-din, Nasr-ud-Din, Nasr-Eddin, and Nasr-Ed-Dine.

The many spelling variations for Hodja include: Hodja, Hodscha, Hoca, Chotza, Cogia, Khodja, and Khoja.

My sources for the following retold anecdotes include The Turkish Jester; or, The Pleasantries of Cogia Nasr Eddin Effendi, translated from the Turkish by George Borrow (Ipswich: W. Webber, 1884); The Tales of Nasrettin Hoca, told by Aziz Nesin, retold in English by Talat Halman (Istanbul: Dost Yayinlari, 1988); Allan Ramsay and Francis McCullagh, Tales from Turkey (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, and Kent, 1914); Somnath Dhar, Folk Tales of Turkey (New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1989); Ali Nouri, Nasreddin Khodjas Schwänke und Streiche (Breslau: Schlesische Verlags-Anstalt von S. Schottlaender, 1904); Albert Wesselski, Der Hodscha Nasreddin, 2 vols. (Weimar: Alexander Duncker, 1911); and Herbert Melzig, Nasreddin Hodscha, Wer den Duft des Essens verkauft: Schwänke und Anekdoten des türkischen Eulenspiegel (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rohwolt, 1988).

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/hodja.html#clothesline

Aside

Beautiful story to read in English

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

 

 

http://books.google.es/booksd=ID5P7xbmcO8C&lpg=PP1&ots=6oefk-axPm&dq=alice%20in%20wonderland%20lewis%20carroll&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false