jueves, 6 de diciembre de 2012
martes, 4 de diciembre de 2012
Comments of the week:
I’m contacting you for the following reason. Before learning with your teachers I was a person who didn’t speak English and I had fear to speak. I’m sure that I need to increase my level and I make a lot of mistakes during my classes but now I feel confident to speak. There are many reason for that feeling, for example podcasts, articles , in summary all contents received in my e-mail that I have to read before the classes , but YOUR TEACHERS are the most important reason to feel me confident . They work hard every day to obtain the best of us and offering the best of them. I would like to do a special mention to the teacher Ernie. I feel good during his classes, I can not see him but he always seems happy and it is transmitted to me. He uses many types of contents (articles, idioms, pictures …etc) each class, in my opinion this is the correct way to learn because every class is different and I learn a lot of new vocabulary. I would appreciate it if you transmit my congratulations and thanks to them, in special to Ernie.
Thanks for your time and have a good day.
Best Regards One Student
Ernie, I really liked this article, especially when you refer to the importance of being confident and self assured because I think that confidence and a good self-esteem are the key points for everything in life, studies, business,children´s education, love…because people will always see us the way we see ourselves. Y.S.
Ya he dado la clase con Cesar, y quería comentarte que tanto mi compañera de las 9.20h , (que solo ha hecho esta clase con él) como yo que, ya llevo varias, queríamos felicitaros por este profesor. Es puntualísimo, encantador y se amolda perfectamente a la persona con la que está realizando la clase, y para mí lo más importante es que te anima mucho, cuando lo has hecho bien y te corrige cuando no, y siempre con un maravilloso respeto y educación. En resumen un 10 para Cesar. C.L.
Ernie, I really liked this article, especially when you refer to the importance of being confident and self assured because I think that confidence and a good self-esteem are the key points for everything in life, studies, business,children´s education, love…because people will always see us the way we see ourselves. Y.S.
Ya he dado la clase con Cesar, y quería comentarte que tanto mi compañera de las 9.20h , (que solo ha hecho esta clase con él) como yo que, ya llevo varias, queríamos felicitaros por este profesor. Es puntualísimo, encantador y se amolda perfectamente a la persona con la que está realizando la clase, y para mí lo más importante es que te anima mucho, cuando lo has hecho bien y te corrige cuando no, y siempre con un maravilloso respeto y educación. En resumen un 10 para Cesar. C.L.Our dear Teachers and I, thank you, thank you dearly for all your comments.
viernes, 16 de noviembre de 2012
"Words Are Like People, It´s A Small Word After All"
By: Ernie Os
Sr. Teacher and Contributor at: www.telephoneteacher.com
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| graphicsfactory.com image |
They seem to be in the same "family" of words and they even seem to be "back formations"(words that are formed directly from other words) of each other .
Family of words?
It sounds a little crazy but I think that words are like people.
Some words are more important than others even though they share the same language and society. For example the word "respect" is definitely more important than the word "probably"...
What about the word "love"?
If we could personify the word love, who do you think it could be, our mother? Our father? Probably. In a monarchy there´s always a king, a queen, and so on. Is this the same in a language?
Who could ever personify the words "Google", or "Apple"? Their creators of course, just like we are personified by our creator and our parents.
What person could personify the word "imagination" or the word "knowledge"?
That´s an easy question to answer in my book, Albert Einstein, and curiously he was the person who said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge"...
Today in our fragile and unpredictable world, we must be careful with our words.
It not not pleasant to hear words like "tragedy", or "crisis". Newspapers are about business not love.The more we feel bad for people and read about negativity around the world, the more we will buy them.
It´s time for sensitivity in the world, not sensationalism, no one is safe from tragedy or accidents.
"Words are more powerful than the sword." This is very true, take the life and accomplishments of Nelson Mandela...
Mandela was imprisoned for many years by the same government that he would later govern and rule.
He wrote many books while in prison and became a very educated and powerful force.
What word describes you? Really?
We all have the word in our brain but is it a word that we are proud of?
"Hi Mr. Untruthful, how was your day?"
"Greetings Ms. Miserable, how was your weekend?"
If people were words, What word would your best friend be?
Your boss? Your brother?
In a nation of words the president would probably be Mr. Liar.
Mr. "Money" would probably be a big businessman like the CEO of "Las Vegas Sands Corp." Sheldon Adelson, who is bringing the Las Vegas adult playground experience to Madrid. Every word, like every one of us, has an origin, and some words are much older than others. For me one word takes the cake, a "Golden Child" born in a University in California, a word that came into our lives in 1997 and has changed it forever, "Google".
The words "fire" and "water" are undoubtedly older than the word "Google".
"Google" is one baby that is here to stay.
(I wrote a blog post about "Google" and its origin previously, you can see it here...
Google is at the very top of the ladder in the world of words, it´s the prince waiting to be king or maybe the most popular person in the world.
What about the word "Hate"?
Who could personify this word? Hopefully not you or anyone that you know.
For me Hate is perfectly personified by Adolf Hitler, we all know why.
I remember when Mrs. Example (my mom), told me not to hang around with "Loser" and "Bad Habit" and to do my homework, things would have definitely been different for me.
Anyways...
In a world of uncertainty we can only control what we do, let´s try to be careful and sensitive with our words before we give them life in an email or letter...
Google woke up in his Marbella chalet and drove to the local coffee shop to have breakfast with Beautiful.
All she could talk about was how Mr. Despicable, her boss, made life difficult for her everyday.
She had talked to her friends Sunshine and Extravagant about changing jobs the night before.
They suggested that she call Mr. Right at his office and ask him if there was an opening at the law firm.
Google was only daydreaming about "Precious", the waitress who was specially nice that morning.
Beautiful was in a hurry to finish her omelet she was five minutes away from her English class with "Unpredictable", her Telephone Teacher from San Diego.
She was very excited...
What would they talk about next?
www.telephonteacher.com
South Africa pic. by graphicsfactory.com
martes, 13 de noviembre de 2012
Evictions in Spain
Wave of Evictions Leads to Homeless
Crisis in Spain
The number of Spanish families facing eviction is
mounting at a dizzying pace, and when they can’t move in with relatives, they
often take over empty homes, and there are plenty of them.
Here is the original link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/12/world/europe/spain-evictions-create-an-austerity-homeless-crisis.html?smid=pl-share
www.telephoneteacher.com
lunes, 5 de noviembre de 2012
Escape From New York... "The Great Betrayal"
Greetings,
When I talk to Spanish students for the first time and ask them about America, if they have ever visited The United States or if they would like to and where, there´s always one city that comes up in conversation: New York.
Aahhhh,
New York,...
The City So Nice, They Named It TWICE,
"The Big Apple",
"The City That Never Sleeps"
and for Batman and Robin, "Gotham"...
What is there NOT to like about New York?
Broadway: the lights, the arts...
The largest Subway System in the World (NYC has the largest subway system in the world, operating underground since 1904.), its iconic Statue of Liberty: always a symbol of The American Dream...
The shopping in Manhattan...
The New York Times.
The New York Times?
You mean the newspaper that rejected King Juan Carlos´ plead to "be nice" when referring to Spain and it´s economic tragedy?
The New York Times?
The newspaper that published a "Yellow Pressed" article about Spain´s austerity and depicted the country with bias photographs and onesided captions?
And after all the love that Iberia has for New York, this, this is a betrayal in my book.
History tells about many great "backstabs"...
Austrian army officer Alfred Redl during World War 1, Redl worked as a spy for the Russian military and sold secrets about the Austrian army. The results were catastrophic for the Austrian army: his actions contributed to the deaths of half a million Austrians.
Redl committed suicide after Austrian police discovered his betrayal.
Harold Cole was the deputy commander of Scotland Yard during the end of the World War 2 and is considered one of the worst traitors of the war. He was responsible for divulging information to the Gestapo (German security police organized under the Nazi control) about the French resistance escape lines, which he had helped create. He was shot dead after capture by French police in 1946.
What about the end of Roman emperor Julius Caesar when his own nephew, Brutus, took part in the murder plot against him? Brutus accompanied a group of senators who savagely attacked Caesar. Caesar didn’t see it coming – the iconic line, “Et tu, Brutus?”, "You too, Brutus?" is one that will always remind us of Julius Cesar. The whole shameful betrayal was also the subject of a little Shakespearean play you may have heard of.
Well maybe The New York Times´ journalist S. Daley isn´t related to Brutus or Harold Cole, but her dimly lighted reflection of the economy in Spain almost suggests that Spain is the
only country in the world with hunger and unemployment.
Let´s forget about New York and Shakespearean drama and close our eyes and imagine that
we´re on the other side of the United States.
How about a daydream into San Diego, :"America´s Finest City"?
One of the world´s most important cultural borders and a birth place of
"The American Dream".
A place where sandals and beachwear take the place of black suits and dress shoes.
California... "The Beach Boys", barbecues, beautiful people, the best weather in the
world,and oh yeah, a place that has influenced every human on Earth, a place called Silicon Valley.
I lived in Andalucia for 6 months and I never saw some of the things I see in these pictures.
Stereotypes are very dangerous and I´m concerned about the thoughts of people who read
sensationalist articles of this type, they are not seeing the reality of this great country.
So maybe next time you plan a trip to "The States" you should book a flight to the friendly
part of America a place appropriately named after a saint "Diego".
Cheers,
Ernest.
P.S. Here´s the N.Y. Times Article:
jueves, 6 de septiembre de 2012
Como pronunciar - Comfortable - en inglés Pronunciación en inglés
Muy bien hagamos un pequeño ejercicio para corrregir la pronunciación de esta palabra tan difícil:
Recuerde no es: comfor téibol ni tampoco comfór tobol
La pronunciación correcta es: Kómftertbol
Separemos la palabra para practicar: komf-ter-bol
Ahora unamos la pronunciación: kómfterbol
¿Donde va el acento? El acento debe de ir en la primera sílaba: Kómfterbol
Para más tips: Solicitar una clase gratuita con un prof./a nativos y conozca su nivel
Llamar al 911 014 146 o al 931 000 144 Clases telefónicas o por skype
Más info: www.telephoneteacher.com
El lugar más recomendado entre familias y empresas
en España y Europa para aprender inglés e idiomas
con profesores nativos por teléfono y skype.™
Subject: Pronunciation in English
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