Lesson summaries (Dec)

Lesson 1 : Dec 1 author Isabel

In the beginning,we remembered the phrases with as...as of the game of the blocks:

as light as a feather
as red as a beetroot
as sweet as a lamb
as free as a bird
as good as gold
as blind as a bat
as cold as ice
as stubborn as a mule

Mercedes,Fernando and I found more phrases like these:

as dull as dishwater dull:the opposite of bright
as strong as an ox
as large as life (In England they say "larger than life")
as cold as a cucumber(pepino)//qyucamba//
as drunk as skunk
as mad as a hatter(the person who makes hats) Mad: angry,crazy
as often as I can

After this,Ceri showed us a very peculiar map because in the center of the map was Australia and everything was changed,The East was the West,the North was the South...

 

We heard a Listening where there were two people ,one British and the other Australian talking about the story of the map.
We didn´t understand the australian accent,I compared it with the Andalusian accent and  a Spanish one.
We learnt some new expressions:

In the middle =at the center
At the top,the opposite of at the botton
upsidedown, the opposite of the right way up
globe:globo terráqueo
an old print:un grabado
road maps
street maps( of the cities)
map of the world


For example I´m on top of the world (,You are fantastic,nobody can touch you)(This phrase is very useful to fight against the depression) 


In the second part,Ceri suggested a new game with the blocks.
First ,she made a figure with some of them and with the explanations she gave us,we were able to do it without seeing it.It was very funny.


After this,everyone of us made a figure and we explained how to make it and the other classmates tried to find out .I think this exercise is very useful to familiarize ourselves with some expressions like:

Standing up:de pie
lying down:en horizontal,en líne
Next to the other side
At the other end
At the end next to the block


We noticed our common mistake is when we say "take one block and put it in front of you"We don´t usually say it.We eat it.

Some more expressions from Mercedes



Describing positions

Next to (touching) / Near (not touching)

At the centre = In the middle of.
At the end of: The part of an object or a place that is the furthest away from its centre: “Jane's house is at the end of the street”. BUT In the end (adverb): (al final, finalmente): He tried various jobs and in the end became an accountant.
At the bottom of: The lowest part of something: “I waited for them at the bottom of the hill”.

At the top of: The highest part or point of something: “The title is right at the top of the page”.
On top of: On, over or covering something/somebody (encima de): “The tent collapsed on top of us”.
On top (adverb):On the highest point or surface (encima, arriba): “A cake with cream on top”.

In the corner (en el rincón): “There is a television in the corner of the room”.
At/On the corner (en la esquina): “There's a hotel on/at the corner of my street”.

At the front of: (por delante) “Let's sit at the front (of the cinema)”.
At the back of: (atrás, al fondo) “We could only get seats at the back (of the room)”.

In the front of: (en la parte de delante) “I prefer to travel in the front (of the car) (= next to the driver).
In the back of: (detrás de) “I was sitting in the back (of the car) when we crashed”.

On the front: “The book has a picture of Rome on the front”.
On the back: “Write your name on the back of the cheque”.

In front of: (delante de) “He was standing in front of me in the line”. “There’s a bus stop in front of the house” (= on the same side of the road). BUT “There’s a bus stop opposite the house” (= on the other side of the road).

On the left: (a la izquierda) In Britain we drive on the left / on the left-hand side.
On the right: (a la derecha) “At the end, on the right” (al fondo a la derecha).

Lesson 2 Dec 15 author: Mercedes

We began by looking at some beautiful photos of Paco's. He went to the Canaries on a surfing holidays but he told us he also did many others things; he went trekking, visited some villages, met people, … He had a great time!

The interior of Grand Canary  (Paco)


New vocabulary that came out:


- Catch a wave
- Near the shore
- Kite-surfing - kite (cometa)
- Original natives of the Canary islands – The Guanches
- To commit suicide / kill oneself (suicidarse)
- Colonialists – colonisation, colonialism
- A chip on your shoulder: To be sensitive about something that happened in the past and become easily offended if it is mentioned because you think that you were treated unfairly. “He has a real chip on his shoulder about being adopted”. (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary).
- Cattle (ganado)
- Canyon (green leafy / thick vegetation)
- Trekking – Hiking
Remember:

To go + ing

To go + to (with place)
After that, we talked about the task I did with the Cuisenaire rods. If you followed my instructions, you'd reproduce a sculpture made with scaled-up rods by a New Zealand artist and it is situated in front of the contemporary art gallery in Manukau (New Zealand). We carried on talking about sculpture, we remembered the copy of Rodin's thinker that was on show in Ancha street in Cádiz, and as we wanted to know where the original one is, we looked it up on the internet. There are more than 20 casts of this sculpture in museums around the world.

The Thinker on Calle Ancha (Ceri)


Vocabulary:
- Statue
- Exhibition (exposición)
- A miniature/scaled-down copy
- A cast (un vaciado): An object that is made by pouring hot liquid metal, etc. into a mould (a specially shaped container). (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

Next Fernando told us his fraternity staged a zambombá in the cloister of the San Francisco church. It is a traditional festival in which friends, neighbours and relatives gather together in the courtyards of their houses and they sing Christmas carols.

We learnt some words:
- Choir /kuaia/ - group of singers
- Cloister
- Barrel (barril)
- Tin drum: A large usually metal container for liquids
- To roast chestnuts
- Courtyard
- Castanets (castañuelas)
- Insistent, demanding (pesado)
- To nag (fastidiar): Stop nagging me!
- Tray (bandeja)

Regarding Isabel last weekend, it wasn't so good. Her sons were taken ill and she spent all weekend at home taking care them. So, we learnt new words to have to do with illness:
- Contagious
- Measles (sarampión)
- Chicken pox (varicela)
- Spots: A small mark or lump on a person's skin, sometimes with a yellow head to it. (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

Remember the pronunciation of these words:
- organised /o:gənaizd/
- travelled /trævld/
- preferred /pri'fe:d/
- island /'ailənd/ (isla)
- Iceland /'aislənd/ (Islandia)
- Ireland //'aiələnd/ (Irlanda)

After the break, we discussed about the course. Ceri suggested three questions talking about:

1. What aspect of the technology did you enjoy the most?
2. Did you find the emails useful? If yes, in what way?
3. In what way was this course different from other courses you've done?

We shared our experience and feeling with the rest of the group.
From now, we'll follow the class on the blog, Ceri is going to post a task to it once a week and we will be able to continue posting and improving our English skills.