And here we are...

How much time has passed since the first post? Honestly, it just feels like it was yesterday, and yet this blog is very different from what it was the first day, even though the presentation does not delivers that feeling.

When I did my first post, I basically threw out words that I considered okay, but now its different... with the help of my teacher, Jean Paul Mejia, I managed to correct all of this, and now the blog feels more... objective.

I could also find the change in other posts, which by the way, delivered a very interesting experience, some topics in this blog had nothing to do with education by themselves, however, relating them with the topic was very neat, and sometimes I felt like it did not work, but in the end, I did what I could and I felt satisfied with what.

So with that said, I would like to thank my teacher for allowing us to create this blog, at first I wasn´t very convinced doing it but now I feel that I did what I could, be good or bad, again, I did what I could.

Also to all my readers and commenters, Special Thanks for supporting the blog, and have a nice week!

... but not before answering some questions:

Did your concept of blogging changed since the beginning of the year?

Do you think blogger has been a good blog host, or would you recommend another one?

Do you think your way of commenting has changed over time?

How many flashbacks are you going to have with this?

Today, I will talk to you about flashbacks, "what is that?" you might wonder. a flashback happens when you are in the present and you start remembering something from the past, this is usually triggered by an event in the present that is somewhat related to what you remember. To make things easier, I will use flashbacks in a story you are about to read.

Freddy was a teenager with a very pale skin, so pale, that you could see some veins in his forehead, he had gray eyes and black hair, he had a very big mouth that when opened, revealed some very pointy yellow teeth. When he smiles in front of his mother, she remembers the day she met his father for the first time, because Freddy is almost the exact copy of his father.

One day he was walking on a bridge, when the bridge broke and a unicorn came to help he, and he remembered in that moment that he had read a story with that exact unicorn before, however the unicorn landed and was inmediately absorbed by a bear that had his stomach opened and the poor unicorn cried while it was being crushed by the bear´s organs, after that, the bear started to feel sick, and he said to Freddy: "dont worry, I will be operated soon, you should watch my operation in Youtube", Freddy inmediately remembered a video about that operation, and started to run, and he reached a swamp, where he met a certain bald dude he knew very well, the memories of various movies and videos about that dude flowed trought his mind, and the bald dude told him: "I am love, I am life" then he took away his pants and started to pursue Freddy, the latter found himseft cornered and exposed to the inminent danger, he closed his eyes, in that moment he felt weird and opened his eyes, and found himseft on his bed, he remembered he went to sleep around an hour ago, and felt relieved, however he felt a strange air flowing and turned to the other side of the bed.... the bald dude was smiling to him, then the dude said: "we´re in my swamp now" then jumped over Freddy and thus the action started.

Writing with out of place meaning

This week, we had to make a paragraph, however, the teacher gave us some words, and then he changed the meaning of these and we had to make a paragraph using these strange definitions, can you guess which are the correct words? (If you were in class that day, then probably you do not need to)

Her name is Aurora, she lives with her box called Supernova who likes housing a lot, When they are going to bed, Supernova always tells Aurora: "honey, monsters please"

Their living room is very particular because it has no umbrellas, so they can´t see the Ravioli plates when it´s raining.

When Supernova is not with Aurora, he calls her a lot, she always answers the night expecting to hear his voice:

Aurora: Hello, honey, what are you doing?

Supernova: I am diving, and you?

Aurora: Oh, nothing...

Supernova: Well, I have awesome news, we are going to scratch our noses!

Aurora: Really?

Supernova: Yeah! So honey, you start making the bags, don´t forget the knife and the coffemaker, because we´ll need it at the hotel.

Aurora: Okay, see you soon, monsters.

Now, let me give you some words for you to make a paragraph, the words in bold are the ones you will use, and the ones at their side are their meanings:

Avocado=Priest

Nightmare= Bathroom

Beans=Storm

Robber=Lover

Touch myseft=Go to the supermarket

My Experience with collective writing

Today I will talk to you about an activity we did in class this week, we had to write a question and pass to the classmate on the right who would then answer and then he would continue passing it to other classmates who would continue writting until the "question" returned to it´s writer.

It was an very interesting idea because it gave us the chance to work on many stories at the same time, some stories made me think carefully before writing because I could not figure what to do, however, in most cases I had no problems as the classmate on my left continued the stories in a very.... well, I do not know how to express it, so let´s leave it in, a very "original" way.

In the end, it was a disaster, one story started talking about a saxophone and then it talked about how they would forge the saxophone in hell, other story started talking about a cupcake and ended up talking about the relationship between shrek and the unicorns, it was a mess! though it was extremely hilarous.

Would you like to write a story in a similar way as these ones again?

Do you think this kind of writing is good, or would you rather write alone?

What do you think of the result of your story?

Colombia: Very well

Today I will talk to you about a program that our country´s government is developing "Programa Nacional de Ingles, Very well" It aims to to make Colombia the country with the highest amount of english speakers in South America for 2025.

Three Fields will be covered by this program:

1-Strategies for teachers formation: As the name implies, they will try their best to raise good speakers to teach other people.

2-Investment in Language studies: The government aims to invest money in institutions so that they can manage their teaching programs better.

3-Articulation with the production Sector: They want to link these english speakers with various kinds of jobs, because you do not want a country filled with English speakers doing nothing with the language.

So, with that clear:

Do you think they will accomplish their objective?

What kind of jobs do you think english speakers are going to work with, other than teaching and translating?

Do you think B2 level is enough or C1 must be the program objective?

What puts languages together

Grammar is what puts the language together, it is what makes the language something people can understand, without grammar, or with an incorrect use of it, you would not be able to communicate correctly with that language speakers/readers.

It is very Important to study grammar, which might look difficult at times, but at the end of the day, you´ll need it.

It is recommended that you make your own writings with what you have learned so far, and then you should read your work to look for mistakes, as you could either not notice them or they could go unseen until the entire idea is put together. After you finish the checking your work, you should look for a way to check the rest of the mistakes, either an online grammar checker or a friend who is good with the languages, the friend is recommended over the online checker, in my opinion, because some online checkers just correct you and you do not know why you made a mistake, something your friend can do.

Is there a grammar rule that caused a lot of problems when you where learning english, that today you have mastered?

Is there a grammar rule in English that you definitively don´t understand?

Do you feel better speaking or writing?

Some Idioms!... and their Importance

Today I will share some idioms with you and I am hoping that you enjoy them, I will also show you their spanish Counterpart, however before we begin, let me talk to you why idioms are important:

Idioms generally belong to one culture and their meaning is very peculiar in that culture, they are used in both formal and informal conversations.

Stathi (2006) believes that idioms are expressions whose idiomaticy (formal property of expressions)  is semantic.

According to Mc Cathy and O´Dell (2008) Idioms are connected to animals, things, parts of the body, food, colors, smell, sports, etc.

Gumpel (1974) states that Idioms itseft do not mean anything, but in a sentence they have a hidden meaning.

Idioms are very Important in teaching because they are a perfect way to teach english to ESL students, as the learner can start to speak fluently using Idioms and is considered to be an integral part of vocabulary teaching (Nation; 2001)

Now, let´s get to the idioms!

"all ears" - It is used when someone is listening carefully to it´s interlocutor, in spanish its counterpart is its exact translation "todo oidos"

"off the hook" - It means to escape a situation of responsability and, in minor cases, dangerous situations, the spanish equivalent would be, for the latter meaning "fuera de peligro" Which could be translated as "off the danger" and acually makes sense with the idiom.

"piece of cake" - It is used when something is very easy and the spanish equivalent is "pan comido" which would literally mean "eaten bread" but as stated before, idioms do not really mean what they look like.

"pull someone leg" - It is used when teasing or joking, generally with a lie, it´s spanish counterpart involves hair instead of a leg and is "tomarle el pelo a alguien"

"sleep with the fishes" - It means to die and its spanish counterpart is "a dormir para siempre" Which could translate "to sleep forever".

Anyway, what do you think of each citation?

 which one do you think is more accurate with your concept of idiom?
Is there an idiom you use too often?