Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Friday, February 08, 2013

miscellaneous samples of journalistic English

Articles, reviews, human interest stories and video interviews (if you're interested in photography make sure you check out the last link. you might get a few useful tips!)

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2013/01/the-season-two-premiere-of-girls-lena-vs-hannah.html

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2013/02/dvd-of-the-week-the-elephant-man.html

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/egypt/#slide_ss_0=1

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/12/jeffrey-toobin-second-amendment.html

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/everybody-street/

communal writing

The woman yawned. A long lazy noise came right out of her and was gone. It was an unearthly sound. She felt extremely tired after a bad night's sleep. Nightmares had plagued her since her early childhood but their vividness had increased of late. They had  become virtually indistinguishable from reality.

Nadia tentatively felt the other side of her bed with the back of her hand in vain. Her husband was gone.

Friday, February 01, 2013

communal writing

he remembered having once reflected upon the possibility of humans living like humans. there might have been a chance. some tribes had once truly believed in a pre-existing being, incomparable to anything real. this sole idea had made it possible to act humanely. they had feared the consequences of their injustices even if they were all essentially forgetful beings. some had lived hoping for an afterlife. a few believed their lives were gifts and followed a path set by their tenacious wills to be decent people.

an originator of duality and contradiction, possibility and opposition? modern notions of history and science didn t seem to allow for such an entity.

the
fleeting idea of a being setting everything in motion or even surveying the unfolding of events in the universe was made more approachable by the existence of messengers; some were charlatans, others were unveilers.

our boy, though, was of a third kind. No categories really applied to him.
To err is human...lyrics is plural!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyrics
http://www.wordreference.com/definition/lyrics

Some miscellaneous comments and reviews taken from the amazon, youtube and vimeo.
http://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Than-Me-Amy-Winehouse/dp/B0000DD9AV
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Macy-Gray/dp/B000N8UYBO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CYE0DYIbaw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_to_Your_Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwTU9CY0gLE
http://vimeo.com/15624524

Thursday, January 10, 2013


 Three clips from a very juicy documentary

The English people are systematically taught is not the english most UK natives speak
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEsI2t-mvZk

English as the language of the Empire and Lingua franca
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzt2p1jRiro

Dated slang and slang that made it into the 21st century
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qub-s7e55k


 Naughty mockumentary on the history of the English language
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rexKqvgPVuA
What we did with inside job one can do with...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0PQAtko8Cc
http://www.ompersonal.com.ar/ommovies/contenidotematico.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEsI2t-mvZk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgljsnHknF4

Friday, November 30, 2012

A few interesting webpages to keep you busy for the duration of your nine English speaking lives


BERKLEE (musical life)
http://www.berklee.edu/video
THE MOTH (real life stories)
 http://themoth.org/
OPEN CULTURE (audiobooks life)
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10
YALE(psycological life, post-colonial life, popular science )
http://www.youtube.com/user/YaleUniversity#g/c/003CE0429CAE4E19 ()
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwsj9AZnaaE&feature=edu&list=PLACAA5E35D77BA4B0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq6u4RFf7ck&list=EC27FAF837577D180A&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAQN6EPU7hc&feature=edu&list=PLACAA5E35D77BA4B0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmKWhPbYwaE&feature=edu&list=PLACAA5E35D77BA4B0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyGEMsmcm54
HARVARD (quantum life)
http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/jmr/#
http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/sst/
http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/sst/video/sst1_5.html
http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/sst/video/sst1_3.html
DEF POETRY JAM (poetic life)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuH-ZMrlie0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuAbGJBvIVY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4Xu0LW7ilo
STAND UP (not exactly PC fundamentalist humorous life)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ktBQ51iGWw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACA0OBB9Qc4&playnext=1&list=PL3F3F2DBBC3010312


Monday, November 26, 2012


Very interesting videos to work on conjunctions linking words and syntax in general.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSU2hZXhr8U&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Reec7NtvY&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoUCYCaoHno&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El-Gr22YUCQ&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZRVaVJMWAk&feature=relmfu
Brilliant vocab videos! Try to repeat the definitions and examples along with the reader.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb3AsHQy0rw&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-19j66HoWJE&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KltDgdNf2sU&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuGUs6Z1oQQ&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eVOhw3FTFw&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y-DW3BzHW8&feature=relmfu


Same thing minus a proper voice plus helpful visual input and synonyms!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbNjrKaabFI&feature=related

Amazing photo description opportunities galore!
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/gallery/2012-world-press-photo
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/photo/2012-ilvy-njiokiktjien-ci-2?gallery=2634
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/photo/2012-paolo-woods-dl-3?gallery=2634&photographer=2976
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/photo/2012-john-moore-pns2-aj?gallery=2634
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/photo/2012-emiliano-larizza-aes2-ll?gallery=2634

Friday, November 23, 2012

LOST HOMEWORK VIDEOS!


For some reason I decided it was a good idea to delete the vids i told you to watch this weekend. Silly me! Here they are, though! Watch them and jot down as much useful vocab as you can. There are piles of brilliant adjectives, descriptive vocab, fillers, etc. Next week you'll be describing your own photo so make sure you prepare for it. NO READING, NO LEARNING BY HEART, THOUGH!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cILpO4oesXI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC8I180SL9M&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfkBUsT_lC4&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UNetMeE4SM&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRccmsqTqDE&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duyvgIhWQzU&feature=relmfu

Thursday, November 22, 2012


 SARAH KAY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0snNB1yS3IE&list=PLDFBC4DBF7976778A&index=2&feature=plpp_video
What's on the menu today?

For starters, you can give your eyes and ears a bit of our exotic vocab salad. here's a brilliant couple of vids brimming with descriptive words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY1oFuh_AeQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCC1YCgB9Jo&feature=edu&list=PL82CAF3F170641910


Our main course today is...




surprise surprise...











more marinated body idioms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJqCMZiZDn0&feature=edu&list=PL82CAF3F170641910
Alternatively you can revel on this vid which features all you need to know to describe charts,  trends and so on, to wit: juicy verb adverb collocations, exotic-tasting verbs, heavily spiced phrasal verbs, and a few alternative recipes and an over-enunciating teacher-chef!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1uAImH4GwA&feature=relmfu
To top it all up, here's a clip you can use to practise describing urban landscapes.
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=36314216#editor/target=post;postID=5409618596162573237