The World Cup

The World Cup, promoted by FIFA, starts tomorrow bout I am sure you have heard about the protests against it in Brazil. 

The video below - by Brazilian director Carla Dauden - was the origin of the protests; in the video, Carla explains why she said she was not going to the world cup.

 

Some time after that first video, Carla shared a new one where she gave some reasons why you could change your mind and still go to the world cup; this video is called "Yes, you can still go to the world cup, if…"

Now it is up to you to decide, can people still go to the world cup?

Superbowl 2014

Tonight is the Superbowl XLVIII: Seattle Seahawks vs. Denver Broncos. (Click here to know what this game is like)

On this side of the Atlantic we hear more about the music and the commercials played during the game than about the game itself, but here is a commercial you will not see: Native Americans protesting against the use of their distinguishing marks as mascots for the Washington Redskins. 

Click here to read about this campaign

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.

Girls & Sports

Watch this video and tell me what you think about it - I do not mean from the point of view of bag styles or as an entrepreneur idea; I mean the statements about girls and the comparison between boys and girls in relation to sports.

Activyst: Help Girls Play Sports from activyst on Vimeo.

Monsalud, thank you for the video!

To the Golf Fans Out There

I am not a golf fan; in fact, I am not a sports fan at all but I know a little bit about famous sportsmen and women, Spanish ones, mainly - probably because we often hear and read about them in the media. That´s why I know who Sergio García Fernández is but I hope that´s not the reason why I have enjoyed watching this video.

Sergio García  is a professional Spanish golfer. Last week, during the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he climbed up a tree and hit a one-handed backwards shot. Enjoy the video and pay attention to the words of the TV reporter: how much can you understand? 

A Sibling´s Story

The magazine called "Sports Illustrated Kids"  has given the award Sportskids of the year 2012 to brothers Conner and Cayden Long. 

Cayden has cerebral palsy but that hasn't stopped him from competing in triathlons with his older brother Conner:  Conner pulls his little brother behind him in a raft when he swims, tows him in a trailer behind his bike, and pushes him  when he runs; they have already  done this in 14 triathlons.

You can read their complete story here 

This is what you can do as extra homework: write this story form the point of view of Conner: what you do, how, why, and explain how all that makes you feel.

To the Football Fans Out There

Not being a football ("soccer" in American English) fan, I do know the two most popular teams and players in Spain, so I´m sure you will enjoy this commercial to promote a match in March - someone wants people to get excited about it...(Football supporters seem to be looking forward to it...)

You don´t need a translation, do you? Just in case, click here if you do

Click here for a visualization of the "Balon D´Or" votes

To the Basketball Fans Out There

Even if you are not a basketball fan (I am not), you have probably heard abou the Lakers plans to trade Pau Gasol. So far so good, but this video that Ballerball (Ballerball is a webpage about basketball) is passing around makes fun of this trying to find someone to trade for Gasol. 

Make sure you understand the message: 

"Every single hour in Los Angeles

Pau Gasol is mistreated

Alone

Innocent

Utterly scared

Suspicious of everyone around

What has he done to deserve this?

For being a great companion?

Please help us find Pau a new home

Please call 1-800-Save-Gasol"

"Hi, I am Sarah McLachlan asking you to please trade for Pau Gasol. He is miserable in Los Angeles and needs your help. Do the right thing."

So, what do you think about the video? Try to find arguments in favour and against it and feel free to share them with us. 

Do you think the fact that Pau is Spanish makes us specially sensitive about this "joke"?

A Smile for the End of the School Year

The end of the school year is getting closer and we are all exhausted, the students because they are sitting for the last exams and the teachers because they are correcting like crazy so we all need a little bit of humour to keep us going, I think. My classes do not look like this one in the first video yet - who knows what may happen next week, though.

But the European Football Championship has just started, I am not much of a football fun but I know this championship is the most important conversation subject for many people in Europe right now- maybe to try and forget our financial crisis. 


I guess many of our students keep their excitement for the football matches but here´s a preview of what may happen to many football fans if they get too excited over them.

I do not really know if there is any campaign going on to support the Spain national team, but sometimes these campaigns are very original, and they manage to involved really big crowds. Here´s an example

In 2011, Telecom Telefonica became Colombia’s National Football team´s Official Sponsor; by that time, Colombians had stopped believing in their team, but the company wanted to give a message of optimism so that the team would feel they were supported.

They made an open call to every woman in Colombia named Gloria. And for an entire day, the "Gloria" was theirs. They showed their love and admiration for Colombia´s soccer players, and the whole country came together to form a unified symbol to support their national team.

By the way, soccer or football? Click here  for an explanation

Greece vs. Germany

We certainly need some humor in our lives right now, all things considered.

Here´s an old sketch by Monty Python - Monty Python was a British comedy group- where Greek philosophers play football against German philosophers. It´s not easy to follow the audio since the English pronunciation of the philosophers´names sounds peculiar to our ears, that´s why you can read the subtitles in Spanish. By the way, there´s an odd-one-out in the German line-up, do you know who?

This football match does not look like a metaphor of life seeing how things are going for Germany and Greece from the point of view of economy...Football, philosophy and finances are certainly very different things....