British English vs. American English

English is not an easy language; sometimes not even speakers from different countries, but with English as their mother tongue, can fully understand each other. This may be due to their pronunciation (or "mispronunciation", from the other speaker´s point of view) or to the vocabulary itself - slang, for instance.

Here is a good example of all those things mentioned before: British actor Hugh Laurie is interviewed by American television host Ellen DeGeneres. In this excerpt of the interview, they question each other about different slang words. If you find the interview difficult to understand (their sense of humour may complicate things a little bit as well), click here and you will be able to watch the interview subtitled in Spanish - the part embedded below starts around minute 6:30.

Start the weekend with a smile!

The Commonwealth Explained

Learning a bit about New Zealand in class this week, the word "Commonwealth" came out, so perhaps we should go a little bit deeper into that.

Here is a map which shows the Commonwealth countries

And this is a video where people from those countries explain what the Commonwealth means for them. Pay attention to their accents because they are a good example of the variety of English accents all over the world.

As for New Zealand, watch this video where the All Blacks perform their Maori dance, the haka, before the game.

And, finally, a lovely video called "Full Moon Silhouettes." Read the description of the video made by photographer Mark Gee: it is a real time video of the moon rising over the Mount Victoria Lookout in Wellington, New Zealand, during moon rise on the 28th January 2013, People had gathered up there this night to get the best view possible of the moon rising.

Enjoy the music and the images! I bet they will make you wish you had been there!

Full Moon Silhouettes from Mark Gee on Vimeo.

The Importance of your Accent When Speaking a Foreign Language

Listening to the graduation speeches these days has made me think about lots of aspects related to oral production in a foreign language and I couldn´t agree more with the message in the following video - which is part of a longer one called "Expert Advice on Accent Reduction from Paddy Kennedy."

Paddy Kennedy, the Principal of Kennedy Communication Studio, is a communication coach who describes her job like this: I teach people to say what they mean and mean what they say. I teach people to speak to be heard and to write to be read. 

Her speech can be summarized in these four points:

1. Your accent is not the problem
2. Language has rhythm

3. We speak in "sound units"

4. Homework is important: listen, imitate, exaggerate, say tongue twisters, practice

You can watch this video with captions in English

I first watched this video in the blog "Labor English Zone," so thank you, Álvaro!

Click here and here if you want to hear some amazing people imitating lots of different accents

Sofía Vergara´s (Gloria´s) English

Just in case you don´t know, Sofía Vergara is the Colombian actress who plays the role of Gloria in the TV series Modern Family. I have decided to write about her because there are some similarities between my students´ and her problems with English: accent, grammar and vocabulary mistakes and what someone calls "little mispronunciations." Thank God most students don´t have problems with all these things at the same time.

What´s the purpose of learning a foreign language? If you ask most students in high school (i.e., compulsory education), they will probably say they do it to pass the subject (which is not at all rewarding for a teacher, but that´s just the way it is). However, for most people the real purpose is communication and, let´s be honest, your accent should not be an obstacle for that - unless it is a really strong Sofia Vergara´s / Gloria´s accent.

Here is a video made up of short clips of ABC´s Modern Family which shows how Gloria manages to make herself understood, no matter what; these are some of the mistakes you will hear : 

• he boxed with an alligator ( = wrestled)
• its´sended
• we live in a doggy dog world (we live in a dog-eat-dog world)
• blessings in the skies (=blessings in disguise)
• carpal tunnel syndrome (carpool tunnel syndrome)
• a box of baby cheeses / a box of baby Jesus
• undermelting his confidence (= undermining his confidence)
• flood
• ear-rings
• yes
• look / Luke

Self-confidence is really important when you speak a foreign language and Sofía / Gloria is a very good example of a self-confident person ("I have an accent but people understand me just fine," she says; "do you need me to learn you English?," she volunteers); besides, she doesn´t seem to notice the problems people have trying to understand her ("I honestly didn´t get any of that," "I´m so confused right now," say some of the people listening to her).

I wish my students could copy this attitude  and were brave enough to answer back, like her, "You try to speak in another language!"

The next video is an interview with TV presenter Ellen DeGeneres; it is subtitled in Spanish so you will not need to concentrate on understanding her - just enjoy her strong Colombian accent. In fact, this interview shows to what extent your level of English is not that important when there is a combination of accent + beautiful body + pretty face + funny.

Click here to watch one more interview at Ellen DeGeneres´show with no subtitles. Check how much you understand.

An Animated Short Film

We do not often get to hear people with Irish accents in our lessons; maybe that´s why we often find them hard to understand but that won´t be the case with this video here because the transcript is included in the lower part of the screen. Tony Donoghue made this Irish film which has just won an award for the best short animation at the Sundance Film Festival.

The video is 8 minutes long, it uses the stop-motion technique and it is about the restoration of traditional furniture, which can be a great opportunity for you to learn the names of some pieces of furniture - by the way, they are Irish but they could perfectly well be Galician, don´t you agree?