Vishal Singh

Hi!
I'm Vishal. I'm seventeen years old and I'm from India. I live with my mum, dad and my brother.
In my free time I like to go out with my friends and play some games: like football, etc... I like to play computer games, watch new movies and listen to music. When I'm free I usually listen to music or watch a movie. Right now I'm studying 1st of Batxillerat. To improve my English I watch English movies and listen to English music. My Favourite movies are science-fiction movies, but I also like comedy movies.
What are you doing at this moment?
Are you doing anything interesting at this moment?

Carlos R.

Hi my name is Carlos Ramos Fuentes. I'm sixteen years old. I'm form San Salvador in El Salvador. I lived in a flat with my mum Pilar and my brother Jorge.

I'm a sensitive, lazy, kind and honest boy. I can speak Catalan, Spanish and English.

In my free time I like getting together with my friends and meeting a new people. But I really like to go to Barcelona to buy a new clothes in a mall for Maquinista, El Corte Inglés...

I love living in Badalona because it is a quiet place and warm in summer, cold in winter, it is perfect.

Nathalie V

My name is Nathalie and I'm sixteen. I live with my parents and one brother in Barcelona in Spain. Also I was born in Spain.
We all speak Spanish and Catalan but my brother and I speak English too but just a little.
In my free time I like getting together with my best friends.
I love sport and I go to the gym everly week.
I also like going to the cinema to see horror films without my best friend because she hates.
Two years ago I was in a basketball team.

 Do you like sport?

Do you think is strange have a best friend hates horror films?

Three things in common

1. Choose a partner.  
2. Find 3 things that you have in common about last weekend.

Whole class feedback

Present Perfect review

1- Experiences

ever  /  never

Have you ever been to London?

My brother has never worked abroad. 

2- Unfinished actions

for  /  since  / how long...?

How long have you worked here in La Pineda?

I've worked here for 6 years. 

I've worked here since 2007.

3- yet / already

Have you finished your homework yet?

No, not yet. I haven't finished it yet. 

Do you want to see this film?

No, I've already seen it. 

4- Recent actions

just

My sister has just started a new job. 

First-day discussion topics

Procedure: 

1. Make mini-groups of three of four. 
2. Stand up and each group goes to the different places on the wall where the different discussion topics have been hanged. 
3. They comment and make conversation about one, two or the three questions there.
4. After one and a half minutes, the teacher will whistle and every group will move to the next discussion topic on the wall.
5. To finish with, we’ll have a whole-class feedback.

Advantages:

In this way everybody gets to talk about all the topics.

Teacher is in control of time. 

(Idea taken from the "Teacher Refresher Course" done in Excel English School in London with a Commenius scholarship )

first_day_discussion_topics


Summer holidays

Describe your summer holiday in five words more or less.

What did you do this summer holiday that was different to other summers?

What was “typical” of this summer for you?

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Summer holidays

Describe in detail one thing that you bought this summer.

How have summer holidays changed for you since you were a child?

What would you have done if you’d had an extra week of holidays?  

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Summer news

Can you remember two international news stories from this summer (what were they)?

Did you follow the swimming World Cup or another sports event (what was your favourite part)?

What was the strangest news item you heard about this summer?

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The English language

What is the most difficult thing for you about learning English? (Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking, …)

Who was your first English teacher? What was he/she like?

What are your favourite words in English?  


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The English language

Can you think of one good way to remember new words?

Do you know any good websites to practise your English? Share with your partners.

Look through your English coursebook, find three topics you think are interesting and compare with a partner.

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Establishing good habits

When do you study best: morning, afternoon or night?

Where do you like to study?

How much time do you plan to study English outside the class every week?
Set yourself a goal:
- 30 minutes per day 6 days a week
- 1 hour a day for 5 days a week
- 2 hours per day for 4 days a week - …..

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English outside the class

When you go to the cinema, do you see the original version with subtitles or the dubbed version?

Do you watch any series in English from seriesyonkis.com? If not, do you know anybody who does?

Do you keep a list of your composition mistakes so that you don’t make the same mistakes again in the future? If not, do you think it would be a good idea?

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Names 

Are you named after someone in your family (who)?

Do you have a nickname (what is it, and who calls you this)?

Do you think a person’s name determines, in a way, the kind of life they will have?

If you could have any other name, what would it be?

What names do you think are particularly ugly?  

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Music 

Do you listen to different kinds of music for different moods you are in (e.g. your “happy music”, your “sad music”)?

What was the latest CD/song you bought or downloaded?

Would you like to study a song in English class (which one)?  

 ....................................cut here...................................  

Films 

What was the last film you saw?

Tell your partners about a great film or an absolutely awful film in your opinion. Do you agree with each other?

If they made a film of your life, who would you like to play you?

How would you change the world?

As all of us know, the world isn’t perfect. There’ve always been bad things in it, but in the last years I think that poverty, hunger, natural disasters and other problems have increased.

On the one hand, From my point of view, the reason of this is that people is not conscious that the resources aren’t unlimited. A lot of people don’t think about the consequences of spending too much energy or contaminating the planet. These facts are causing degradation on the nature of the earth, and I think that’s why in the last years more natural disasters are occurring. 

On the other hand, poverty increases every year. Rich people are selfish, and every year the economic problems in some countries (for example Spain) are causing problems to lots of families that see how they can’t survive without money. 
In addition, I think that governments must do something to stop these actions. There have to be public programs to change people’s conscience. 

In conclusion, we can change the world, it depends only on us. We have to improve our habits and take care of the limited resources of the world. 
Rich people must help people who have finantial problems. We don’t have to throw food , clothes and other things that poor people can use or eat. It’s simple and I’m sure that it’s not a big effort for us. 
Changing the world is in our hands, we just have to act!

Euthanasia is a way of relieving ill people's pain and save them form the tortures of their illness. Do we have the right to take people's life?

In the last years euthanasia has been a controversial topic. Some people think that euthanasia has to be prohibited, because it's not ethic to kill a person. They argue that, for example, with the approval of euthanasia, the number of homicides under the name of this practise would increase. 

On the other hand, a lot of people wants to legalize this practise. They state that everyone can decide to live or not. For them, living under determinate circumstances is worthless, so it's better to die than live. It's not fair to prolongate the life of someone who is about to die, suffering and having a bad life, an inexistent life. 

In my opinion euthanasia could be approved only in the cases in which the person who is sick is conscious of the illness and prefers to die. I think that it's better to die than to live quadriplegic, because you can't live your life, you can't run or play football or go out with friends. You always have to be on the bed and it's impossible to achieve happiness in a situation like this. This is not a life. But the law which approves euthanasia has to be a strict one, only for the cases where the consent is clear. That's my opinion...what's yours?

It only takes 10 minutes

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/es/andy_puddicombe_all_it_takes_is_10_mindful_minutes.html

An opinion esay

The frenetic life in our modern cities subjects us to a continuous and exhausting mental activity and a devastating physical inactivity ( in terms of exercising our internal organs, such as the heart , the stomach...).
At the same time, the large number of stimuli we receive during a day generates in us  a constant emotional stress.
The rich heritage to the oriental civilisations will help us overcome the stress. We're talking about non other than Yoga.

Yoga is a practise that comes from a discipline that helps us to recognise the egocentric nature of mind.
What's more, it's a complete discipline which is adaptable to a large number of persons because in it the differences in age,sex, religious and political conventions don't represent any limitation.
Furthermore, Yoga is one of those few disciplines which has no side- effect, since it's limited to strengthen the mind and the body.
Despite all the advantages it has it's also true that it involves a high patience level and enough time, which is unfortunately not always accessible.

In conclusion, Yoga is a practise that although it requires more than the typical sports it's highly recommendable. Yoga's advantages are no secret nowadays and a prove of that is that it has become one of the most trendy exercises and more and more people is counting on it to improve their health.

A job application letter

Carrer les perdius nº28

Badalona, Barcelona

February 20 th

The managing director                                                                                  

Carrer Marina nº28                                                                             

Badalona 08917

Dear Sirs or Madam,

I should like to apply for the post of lawyer advertised in La Vanguardia of 5th March. It explained that you were looking for a new lawyer for your company and I’m really interested in it.

I studied law in Universitat Pompeu Fabra and I finished two years ago. Since then, I’ve been working for different lawyers to reach the experience that this job requires. 

I am currently working for a company in Barcelona, in the human resources department but I am attracted to the position you are offering as it appears to provide more responsibility and challenge. Therefore, although currently engaged, I could be free from any present obligations after presenting a month's notice.

With this presentation I enclose you my curriculum vitae, which will give to you more details about my studies, my qualifications and my experience on the lawyers’ world. 

I shall look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

(FIRMA)

Brenda Pérez

Enc. CV

Walter Pandiani

In this composition I had to choose a famous person and describe him. My election was Walter Pandiani, who is called by his fans as "el Rifle". He is an uruguayan football player, who was born the 27th April 1976. He plays forward and he plays on Atlético Balears, a team from the 2nd division in Spain.

He has played in differents teams of the 1st division and this have been the teams where he has played: 
In 1996-97 he played in El Progreso (Uruguay), in 1997-98 he played in Besañez (Uruguay) and he finally left Uruguay after playing in Peñarol in 1998-2000. 
After this two years in Peñarol's club, different European teams were interested in him. Finally it was Deportivo de la Coruña the club which got his services as a football player, and he played there in the years 2003-2005. 
After this two years, he played in the Bieningham City for one year, and another one in RCD Espanyol. Then he stayed 4 years playing in Osasuna and after that he returned to RCD Espanyol. 
The last half year he has played in Villarreal and he has now signed with Atlético Baleares. 
In all these years he has won different titles: one Uruguayan championship, two "Supercopas de España" and three "Copas del Rey". 

On the other hand, I want to talk about the personal life of this football player, where his family and friends are very important. 
He has three children: Axel who is 12 years old, Ezequiel who is 14 years old and Nico who is 18. His wife is Carla and they have been toghether for 19 years. 

In conclusion, I know him personally and I know that he had work very hard to arrive at the top of the football world. He is a great person and I'm happy because he has achieved what he loves the most.