F&CK CHRISTMAS...

Hi,
Here's some useful expressions for people who have to endure Christmas.
- Do you hate it when people say to you "Merry Christmas"? I do. This is what I say:
   Happy Christmas? Happy? Stupid films on TV, fake smiles, useless presents, cards, heaps of rubbish and paper wraps on the streets... Happy?     

-It's the 25th, and you haven't bought anything for your partner, mother, father...

    I hate it when you must buy things because it's Christmas, don't you?. I prefer to buy presents when I'm in the mood...

-Someone says to you: Why haven't you decorated your house? No Christmas tree?

    Oh, I don't believe in Christmas. Thank God I am an atheist.

Anyway, I have to go and buy a present for my wife. 
Watch this. WARNING: LOTS OF SWEARING (click on Santa):

merry christmas

Antonio Escohotado

Hello,
I know this is an English blog, and that you visit it because you want to practise your English. I cannot stop posting things in Spanish, because I find them so interesting that I believe everybody should see or read them.
You must watch this interview to Antonio Escohotado. It's only 30 minutes long , but I think it is really interesting, inspiring, and beautiful.
But, before you watch it, here's your English lesson for today, so you can't accuse me of not doing my job:

banana-plátano
apple- manzana
contramaestre-boatswain

Enough. Quick, watch the interview:
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/pienso-luego-existo/pienso-luego-existo-antonio-escohotado/1231044/

Quique

Thank you, teacher.

When I went to school, I was lucky to have great teachers. I had terrible ones, the ones that made us learn everything by heart, and made us study everything from the textbooks, and never told fun stuff... But I will always remember the good ones, the ones that made us feel that their subject was interesing and useful, and most important, the ones that made us feel important to them. I like history because I had a good History teacher, I love languages and literature because my teacher, Leandro, was passionate about it, I love beer because..., hey, wait a minute!
Anyway, remember to treasure those moments with your good teachers, and, why not, try to find the good things about those not so good teachers.
A short video for those good teachers (click on th icon):

Quique

Know your enemy...

Hello my dear students,
I am writing this from the anger, and frustration that reading this has produced in me.
The CEOE (Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales) wants salaries of 400 euros (of course, not for them, for you!).
That means that they will be able to employ you for an amount of money that won't even pay for your monthly rent.

Do you agree with the following statements:

-"If you want to make enemies, try to change something."

-"You have enemies ? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life"

-"In order to have an enemy, one must be somebody. One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force. A malicious enemy is better than a clumsy friend"

“The face of the enemy frightens me only when I see how much it resembles me”

I don't quite agree on the fourth one. Here's Juan Rosell's face, president of the CEOE. Ugly, isn't he?
The enemy of decent salaries, and fair working conditions.

Quique

Congratulations, Spanish children (and parents)

Hi, just a quick post to say:

CONGRATULATIONS, SPANISH CHILDREN!!

CONGRATULATIONS, SPANISH PARENTS!!

According to a recent survey, the percentage of overweight children in Spain is higher than in... USA!!
We have become the fattest nation!!! 
Congratulations.
My deepest gratitude to Bollycaos, Pandorinos, Tigretones, Coca Cola, Pizza Hut, Matutanos, McDonald's...

Sadly, statistics show that the trend continues to increase...

Just a last thought (food for thought): in the old days, the richest were the fattest; nowadays, it's the poorest people who are obese.
For more info:
http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/childhood/en/

Quique

Educated to be sheep

Hi everybody,
lately, I've been discussing a lot with my students about the concept of education. Well, discussing might not be the term: I admit I have been lecturing. The topic: education and freedom.
The question is: is education freedom, or is it taming?
On the one hand, we will all agree that knowledge is freedom. Without basic skills, which you usually learn at school, you're lost.
However, and this is something most of the students have agreed on, most of the knowledge they receive is useless and meaningless, rapidly forgotten after a tedious exam.
Discussing, we've come to realise that school is ABOUT EVERYTHING EXCEPT LEARNING!: there's textbooks, projects, tests, support material, educative resources, assessments, homework, teachers teaching, students listening... a long list of things created to improve and evaluate learning,  but, does someone EVER REALLY LISTEN TO THE STUDENTS?? Do they really learn things?

In my opinion, they learn to obey, to be efficient, to categorise knowledge into useful/useless, to hate rules that many times they don't understand, but eventually abide them... They learn to be competitive, and that life is hard and the weakest subjects will not be successful, and no-one will care. Good students learn that your work deserves a reward, like Pavlov's dog, and that nobody does anything for no prize (or price). Bad students learn to live in a system that ignores them and tells them they're not necessary for society, that if they don't study or work, they're DOOMED.
The problem, basically, is that school is preparing our students to SERVE A SYSTEM, THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM.

LUCKILY, MANY TEACHERS ARE STARTING TO BE AWARE OF THIS. Students are not tools, nor "human resources", nor "future workers". First, they have to be educated to be free, critical and happy.
Watch the clip of "The Wall", by Pink Floyd (click on the picture below). Things have changed a lot since those days, and school has become something else, of course, but there's still some truth in it.

Quique

Amazing facts about babies

Hi everybody,
for today, a baby lesson.
First, check your knowledge before you read the post. How do you say in English: rótula; más bien, crecimiento, falso (no cierto), de hecho, recién nacidos, tan bien como. FIND THESE WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS IN THE TEXT!!
No Kneecaps : On birth, babies do not have kneecaps. Rather they have a structure of cartilage that resembles kneecaps.

They Have More Bones : When babies are born, they have 300 bones. Adults have 206. Bones fuse together during growth to come up with the new number.

May Babies Are The Heaviest : One would think that January sees the heaviest babies, given all the holiday eating but this is untrue. May is actually the month that sees the heaviest babies born.

Big heads: 1/4 of the baby's weight is accounted for by their head.

Newborns Can Hear As Well As You : They will startle at just about anything. Not because it is louder or softer, but because it is new. Smell is also advanced at this age.

Interesting, wasn't it?
And now, of course, my baby!! I've chosen one where he really looks UN TIPO DURO.

Modern slavery

Hello,
this post is especially dedicated to unemployed youngsters. I'm a youngster (ha ha ha!...), but luckily I have a job.
I cannot bite my tongue: slavery exists. We all know about cheap labour in many countries that produce the goods we consume; the first example that comes to my mind is the children working in the coltan mines, in Congo. We all know about factories in China, sweatshops in Morocco producing for Zara...

But I've received this e-mail from Actuable.
Read it.
Don't you think it's slavery?

Quique

Guess where I am, what I'm eating

Hello,
look at the picture on your right. That smiling young man is me, some 4 years ago.
Can you guess where I am, and what I am eating?

I'll give you a clue:
1-place- because of this place, the Sun never set in Phillip II's kingdom.
2-food- some people would call it a "chicken omelette".
3- as you can tell, my smile doe not imply happiness, it actually shows a kind of nervous, embarrassed reaction.

Where am I?

PS- have you noticed the difference between "Where am I?" and "Guess where I am". Why this different word order?

Answers; new design

Hi,
here you have the meaning of the phrases below. Did you like the interview?

-there's another way- hay otro camino, otra forma

-first of all- primeramente

-what's out there?- ¿qué hay ahí fuera?

-and then, something happens- y entonces, algo pasa

-not true at all- no es ciero para nada

-in my entire life- en toda mi vida

Seguro que lo sabíais.

Oh, I nearly forgot. As you can see, I have a new layout and design for the blog. I have been working on it for.... three seconds. It's the time that took me to ask my friend THRASHTO to do it. Thanks.

Problems solved...

Some millions of people have contacted me, because they couldn't write comments. I've sorted it out. Try now.
Q
PS- have you noticed, the words in red link you with their meaning in Spanish at  Google Translator?

Science can be fun

Hi, I have found an interesting interview to the scientist Michio Kaku. He explains why most children hate science at school: basically, it's the school system itself that makes you hate it!!

As Kaku says, everybody is born a scientist: we wonder where things come from, we calculate, we analyse, we compare, we test... but usually, things that we understand. Mr. Kaku probably dislikes textbooks, just like me (remember, here "like" means "como")! Can you guess what puts children off science, according to him?

Before you watch the interview (1 minute 30 seconds), how about focusing on some of the words that you might learn?. Can you guess what these words and expressions mean? You will hear them in the interview:

-there's another way-

-first of all-

-what's out there?-

-and then, something happens-

-not true at all-

-in my entire life-

Here's the interview (subtitled):

I will give you the answers tomorrow, but I'm sure it'll be easy for you!
Quique

Stupid English

Have you ever wondered why foreigners have trouble with the English Language?

Let's face it
English is a stupid language.
There is no egg in the eggplant
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
French fries were not invented in France.

We sometimes take English for granted
But if we examine its paradoxes we find that
Quicksand takes you down slowly
Boxing rings are square
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. 

If writers write, how come fingers don't fing.
If the plural of tooth is teeth
Shouldn't the plural of “telephone booth” be phone beeth

Why do people recite at a play
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy
Of a language where a house can burn up as
It burns down
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard when it goes!

If a vegetarian eats vegetables
What the heck does a humanitarian eat!?

When the stars are out they are visible
But when the lights are out they are invisible

(Adapted from http://www.ahajokes.com/eng002.html)

See you!!

Education and optimism

Hi,

I was in class today with my 1st Bachillerato (great kids), and something has dawned upon me: I am always telling them how polluted and deforested the world is, how corruption penetrates every aspect of politics, how the media and big political parties infect our minds, and how multinational companies and banks are making us poorer and poorer. WHAT A DARK FUTURE AWAITS YOU, KIDS!

But then, I have realised that this is wrong! Of course, kids should be informed about this "Matrix-alike" life we lead, but, where's the room for OPTIMISM?? I think that teachers should be much more confident, and should transmit a better picture to our students. Come on,  if it weren't for all the opium that kids consume today (Internet, videogames, TV, fashion, botellones, etc.) they'd be committing suicide like lemmings!

So, from now on, I have decided to swim against the current, and every now and then look on the bright side of life. After all, they'll have plenty of time to discover the truth. Or change it.