How Spanish got its 'ñ'

You can see here an interesting video to see how we got the letter 'ñ' in our alphabet.
Thanks a lot, Javier!

Cambridge LMS Registration for students

Hi all.

Here you have the instructions to register in Cambridge LMS platform. Please follow the instructions carefully.
I'll give you tonight the class code you need to register in my class. Apart from that you'll also need the code that comes in your text book.
If you have already registered, please let me know as I have to ask the technicians in Cambridge to add you to my class. If you are simply registered as an independent user, you won't have access to my materials, comments, marks, etc, so please do it correctly.

Click here:  Register for students

Good luck!

Women 'nearing equality with men - in alcohol consumption'

The analysis of 4 million people, born between 1891 and 2001, showed that men used to be far more likely to drink and have resulting health problems.
But the current generation have pretty much closed the gap, the BMJ Open report says.
The changing roles of men and women in society partly explain the move towards drinking parity.
The study showed that in people born in the early 1900s, men were:

• More than twice as likely as women to drink alcohol at all (2.2 times)
• Three times as likely to drink to problematic levels
• And 3.6 times as likely to develop health problems from drinking, such as liver cirrhosis

But over the ensuing decades, the gap closed so that for those born at the end of the century men were only:

• 1.1 times as likely as women to drink alcohol at all
• A much lower 1.2 times as likely to drink to problematic levels
• And 1.3 times as likely to develop health problems from drinking

(...)
"The increasing availability of alcohol also plays an important part, as does the way that alcohol marketing is often targeted specifically at women and particularly young women.
"Health professionals need to help the public - both men and women - to understand the health risks of alcohol consumption, and how to reduce those risks."



Read the whole article clicking here:
BBC News 

Something useful

Good news!

Baby born to mother who had been brain-dead for four months

Healthy boy born by caesarean section after mother had a brain haemorrhage in February

The successful birth represented Portugal’s longest-ever survival of a foetus whose mother was brain-dead. 

A baby has been born in Portugal almost four months after his mother was declared brain-dead.
The boy, who weighed 5lb 3oz (2.4kg), was delivered by caesarean section at Lisbon’s São José hospital at 32 weeks, after his mother, 37, suffered a brain haemorrhage on 20 February.
The decision to continue with the pregnancy was made in consultation with the father.
“The foetus appeared to be in good health,” the hospital said in a statement. “The decision was taken with the family to follow through with the pregnancy.”
Luis Graça, head of the Portuguese Society of Obstetricians, said the birth was “an extraordinary feat”.
It is the longest a child has survived in the womb in Portugal after a mother has been declared brain-dead.

Click here to read more:
Baby born to brain-dead mother
 

Talk about yourself

And here is the next task for you.

Watch this video by Jennifer Clyde to help you talk about yoursef, either in your normal life or in a job interview, and take notes on everything you find interesting or new.

In the next class you'll have to put it into practice with a new partner. Make sure you manage to have an "advanced" conversation, using more sophisticated expressions and trying to sound natural at the same time.

If you hear some uncomprehensible speech along the recording, don't panic! As I told you, she speaks sometimes in Korean, as the video is intended for Korean people. But it won't interfere with your general understanding.

Tina Turner's Simply the best

Here you have 2 videos. The fist one without lyrics, so you can do the gap filling exercise, and another one with lyrics, so you can check and SING along!!!!

Without lyrics

With lyrics

Enjoy it!!

Welcome back to class!

Dear students,

Here we are again!
I hope you enjoy a new year learning English with us and I also hope you find this blog useful. Please use it and feel free to express your opinion at any time. We can improve a lot of things if we work together.

This is the book we are going to use this course in NA1: EMPOWER B2


Please, buy the Student's book and the Workbook with key but do not register in the Cambridge platform yet, as I have to send you the instructions to do it properly. Thank you for your patience.

Get ready and see you soon!