An interesting story

Here is an example of a very good narrative. It's a video, but you take the hint.

http://youtu.be/trc_zTADROk

Nationality names and adjectives

It's important to distinguish between nationality adjectives and nouns:

He is from Poland. (noun)
He is Polish. (adj.)
He is a Pole. (noun)

We should use an indefinite article with a noun. Nationality adjectives are also used to describe foreign products, culture and history while the nouns describe the people of that country. Remember to use capital letters for these words.

There are eight basic forms (suffixes) of nationality adjectives:

-ian (Italian, Norwegian)
-ean (Chilean, Korean)
-an (American, Mexican)
-ese (Chinese, Japanese)
-er (Icelander, New Zealander)
-ic (Icelandic, Greenlandic)
-ish (English, Irish)
-i (Iraqi, Pakistani)


Here are some rules to take into account:

1) When the name of a nationality ends in the sound of -ch, -ss, -sh or -es, the name of the nationality must usually be preceded by the and we use a plural verb.Remember not to add 's' to these words, they are adjectives!

The Chinese are very hard-working.

2) Nationality words ending in -an and a few others, for example Greek and Thai are both adjectives and nouns. To talk about the people from that country we use a plural noun ending in -s:

The Greeks are very talkative and extrovert

3) Some nationalities have a special noun for the people which is different from the adjective: Polish (adj.), Pole (noun).

To talk about the people we can say THE + ADJ or THE + PLURAL NOUN:  

The Poles or The Polish 

4 ) To talk about ONE person from a country you can't use a/an + adjective: A Japanese (wrong)  

We should say a Japanese man/woman/person Note that we can say an Italian/a Turk/a Pole, etc., because these are nouns.


****To talk about specific groups of people in society we can use THE + ADJ.
A plural verb must be used:

The blind attend special schools.    
The poor do not own their own homes.
The rich used to marry for money.

In the above examples, the blind has the meaning of blind people, the poor has the meaning of poor people, and the rich has the meaning of rich people.

The dangers of literal translation

Killing Bin Laden, a good political decision or a huge mistake?

This is the final draft of the For/Against essay you all wrote in collaboration in class. It looks really good, so congratulations to al of you!

Last Monday, US President Obama ordered the special US army forces to enter Pakistan without permission to find and kill Bin Laden . This news have had a wide repercussion around the world. People discuss whether this event is true or if it is a good way to stop terrorism .


Killing Bin Laden will have many positive effects. The main advantage is that the world will be safer without Bin Laden because he was the leader of one of the worst terrorist groups, Al Qaeda. Another advantage is that the families of the victims will feel that justice has been done. Finally, this is a very big triumph for the US because they have become the saviours of the world.


On the other hand, killing Bin Laden has some disadvantages. The main disadvange is that some muslims can feel offended, specially the terrorist group Al Qaeda, who may take revenge. Another disadvantage is that the relationship between the USA and Pakistan will be worse, because the USA thinks that Pakistan helped to hide Bin Laden. Finally, some people think that it's not fair to have killed Bin Laden without a trial, because everybody has a right to it.


To sum up, killing Bin Laden was a correct decision because afer his death, the world will be safer than before. However, there will probably be more problems among Al Qaeda's members in order to find their new leader.

Level 4 Tu-Thur 14.00-16.00

The 8 Secrets of Success

Why do people succeed? Is it because they're smart? Or are they just lucky? Watch the following video and find out:


http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.html

Practice your modals

Here are a few webpages to practice modals for speculation:

http://esl.about.com/library/grammar/blmodalprob.htm


http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/naturalenglish/int/a_grammar/unit11/neint_grammar11_exp/


http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-explained/modals-%E2%80%93-deduction-present

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-explained/modals-%E2%80%93-deduction-past

Interview Dos and Don`ts

Here is a video about how to approach work interviews:




And, if you are interested in the subject, check this other videop on the blog:

http://teresascorner-teresa.blogspot.com/search/label/Jobs