ROLAND GARROS

Today, I want to dedicate a post to Rafa Nadal,the spanish tennis player known throughout the world.

Why?

Because this evening, after winning the final in Paris to Robin Soderling, has been proclaimed WORLD TENNIS NUMER ONE, overtaking Roger Federer.

CONGRATULATIONS, Rafa 🙂

Teenage achievements

Read and watch this interesting post on the fabulous site, The English Blog, about young people who succeed in achieving great goals.

http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/2010/05/newsy-video-13yearold-climbs-mount-everest.html

Do they make you feel that your life is empty and boring or you prefer to study, relax and lead the life of a common teenager?

Alain de Botton

As you are reading one of his books, I thought you might like to listen to him.

This is a short speech in which he examines our ideas of success and failure. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty speech about how to find true pleasure in our work.

Remember you can watch it with English or Spanish subtitles.

On Lienas’s Conference

I hope you all enjoyed Gemma Lienas’s conference. It’d be great if you could express here some opinions on the topics she mentioned, i.e. equality, discrimination, domestic violence, feminism, sexuality…

I highly recommend her books! This is her website.

By the way, here you have some extra information about traditional fairy tales in education, in case it is not clear yet what it is all about. Thanks Celia for the questions, anyway. It’s always interesting to discuss controversial issues.

Is that what war is supposed to be?

I came up with a really shocking video from the war in Irak.

It’s some video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007 showing American soldiers brutally massacring Iraqi civilians and Reuters journalists.

The soldiers mistake (or they just can’t be bothered to check?) some photographers for Iraqui insurgents carrying weapons (you’ll have to wait 5 min to get to the shooting bit in the video). It’s so outrageous! It looks like a video game but it’s real life. It scares me to death.

Code Pink is campaigning to let people know about this kind of things. The army shouldn’t get away with murder.

Here you can watch the video.

You can also read more information in Spanish clicking here.

Here is also a video showing a testimony of a repented soldier which tells what war trully is. Something encouraging for a change!

This is part of what he says:

Our real enemy is not the ones living in a distant land whose names or policies we don’t understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it’s profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it’s profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it’s profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it’s profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us
– Mike Prysner

Billie Holliday: Let’s call the whole thing off- BE vs AE

I was listening to this song and I remembered that we’re going to see some differences between American and British English.

Billie Holliday, the great jazz singer, sings a song about differences, playing precisely with differences in the pronunciation between AE and BE. Here you have the song and the lyrics. Listen to it and see if you notice!

One more question, what does the title mean to you?

Billie Holiday Let’s Call the Whole Thing off
George and Ira Gershwin

You say either
And I say either
You say neither
And I say neither
Either, either, neither, neither
Let’s call the whole thing off

You like potatoes
And I like potatoes
You like tomatoes
And I like tomatoes
Potatoes, potatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes
Let’s call the whole thing off

But oh, if we call the whole thing off
Then we must part
And oh, if we ever part
Then that might break my heart

So it you like pajarnas
and I like pajamas
I’ll wear pajamas and give up pajamas
For we know we need each other
So we’d better call the calling off, off
Let’s call the whole thing off

So if you go for oysters
And I go for oysters
I’ll order oysters and
cancel the oysters
For we know we need each other
So we’d better call the calling off, off
Let’s call the whole thing off

Task for next week

As you know now, Martin Luther King Jr was a prominent leader in the African-American civil rights.
Would you be able to name any significant activist women in the fight for civil rights in the USA?

Use the tips for a better search in Google to help you!

Martin Luther King, Jr. in memoriam.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on a day like today in 1929. He was a great man. Learn more about him here.