NEW COURSE AND THE CRISIS

Summer's over and classes have begun. The new course has been inaugurated and the first students have started to learn English or, in the case of previous years' students, are busy revising what they've learnt so far.

The CRISIS, however, has taken its toll and I thought the cartoon on the left was particularly apt for the occasion! It reads:

We’re sorry… we just can’t afford to send you to the kinds of schools where the guys who wrecked the economy went! )

There are fewer classes; fewer students; fewer grants; less work; less teaching hours. Result: more time for writing. So, I'm taking advantage to put on paper some ideas, revise my work and send copies to book competitions, agents and publishers in the hope that someone will, in the words of ABBA, "take a chance on me"!

Getting a book published is proving to be really difficult. Publishers don't want to take risks on new, unknown writers and prefer to stick to classics and outstanding authors. Unfortunately I'm neither one nor the other; I just write reasonably good (I am told) stories for children and adolescents.

However, time will tell. In the meantime, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

PLAY-OFF (2)

Incredible! We made it to the semi-finals.

The team we played against, Viladecans, was reputed to be much stronger and, on paper, they were. Their top four players all had much higher ratings than our top four players. Further down, the bottom four were more evenly matched. I was lucky and won in fifteen moves (anyone interested in the game can send me a mail. I'll be happy to provide it). Our top two players lost and then our player number 5 won. So, there we were, 2-2, with four games to go. Each team won and additional game. So, with 3 points to them, from the first four boards, and 3 points to us, from the bottom four boards, it looked as if the match would end up in a draw, which would have favoured them, as the top boards score more in a tie. However, Lady Luck was on out side and we managed to win the last two games, giving us an outstanding victory of 5-3.

We're now through to the semi-finals, which will be played on Sunday. Another strong opponent, apparently.

Wish us luck!

PLAY-OFF (1)

Those of you who are interested in chess will be pleased to know that our team won the first Play-off round. Our rivals were the Barcelona chess club "Peona i Peó", which means "Female Pawn and Male Pawn". They are reputed to be quite strong and, in fact, had two teams playing the first play-off round. Unfortunately for them, both teams lost their opportunity to go up a category.

In our case, the team in fact drew 4-4. However, draws are resolved by a special point system which gave us the victory (8 points for the first board, seven for the second, and so on). Boards number 1 and 2 drew. We won in boards number 3, 4 and 6 (total of 14 points), whereas they won in boards number 5, 7 and 8 (total of 8 points). My own rival, a seventeen-year-old girl with an enchanting smile, whose playing strength is similar to mine, asked me for a draw which my team leader would not allow me to accept. We both played on and, unfortunately for her she made a slight mistake which was sufficient for me to get a slight advantage. In the end, I sacrified my queen in a winning combination.

The position just prior to my sacrifice was as follows:

Whites (Joe Rahal): Re1, Kh1, Ph2, Qb3, Pg3, Re5, Pd7.

Black (Aina Delgado): Qf2, Pa7, Pb7, Rf7, Pg7, Ph7, Rd8, Kh8.

In this position, I played Queen takes Rook f7, to which she replied Queen takes Queen. I followed with Rook to e8 check, and she resigned. (After Rook takes Rook, Rook takes Rook, ckeck, she would be forced to take my Rook with her Queen and I, in turn, would take her Queen with my pawn giving checkmate). An interesting game which started off with Knight to f3, my usual opening move. For details of the full game send me an e-mail.

I drew in my other game, in the Terrassa open. So, one and a half points out of two is not at all bad for a weekend of chess. Let's see what next weekend has in store for us!

APOLOGIES & XMAS

My most sincere apologies for the time elapsed between my last posting and this one. This academic course is proving much busier than originally expected and I really am very short of free time. I hope to remedy this next term.

Anyway, Christmas is just around the corner and, although we're all feeling the consequences of the financial crisis, the shops seem full and people appear to be spending a fair amount of time and money. To be honest though, the discount shops seem busier than ever; I wonder whether quality this year will be sacrificed in favour of quantity.

A couple of my groups are busy rehearsing their Xmas songs for the forthcoming Christmas Carol Concert. This will take place on Thursday the 18th at around 3.30 pm. If we manage to film it I'll post some clips and a few pictures.

IF YOU'RE THINKING OF DRINKING.... THINK ALSO ABOUT NOT DRIVING :-)

NEW BLOG FOR BEGINNERS

Today, I published my first session for absolute beginners whose native language is Spanish. Those interested can go to; http://lasclasesdejoe.blogspot.com/

I hope you'll find it useful. Don't forget to send your comments.

IN A PERFECT WORLD

I started to write this song back in May. I was hoping we could include it in our End-of-Course Peace Concert (June). However, I didn't finish it in time, so we never got round to playing it. (In fact, I never even mentioned it to the others!)

Anyway, when I did finish it, I thought I'd try and do something useful with it. So, I created the accompanying video. The quality is not exactly "PERFECT", probably due to the conversion of files to an acceptable format, but it does reflect the kind of world we live in. In any case, I'm working on it. Maybe by the time I improve it enough the world WILL be a better place!

You can also access it directly at youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBC3LSre10Y

I hope you like it.

ANSWERS

Ok, you guys and gals, you've had more than enough time to find the answers to the riddles; so, here we go:

1. Five eyes and a why - INVINCIBILITY (5 "I"'s AND A "Y")

2. Five vowels joined together in one word - This is what "askoxford.com" says

"We know of only one word in anything like standard use which has five consecutive vowels, and that is Rousseauian 'pertaining to Rousseau or his views on religion, politics, education, etc.' Apart from this, and the large vowel clusters in queueing, there are only the Greek-derived words of the pharmacopoeia type.

3. What did the big chimney say to the little chimney? - "You smoke too much!"

*******************

While we're on the subject, here are some more pearls of the English language:

- OOLOOPOOLOO - A palindrome (A word that reads the same in both directions). This one refers to a dialect spoken in Australia. I'm not sure you can call it "English", though!

- EDUCATION - A word containing all five vowels.

- ABSTEMIOUS - A word containing all five vowels IN THE RIGHT ORDER!

For more gems like these, check out this link:
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwords/fivevowels?view=uk

ALSO, CHECK OUT "RIDDLES" - left-hand column - and ENJOY.

5 EYES and a WHY - answer

Well, for those who couldn't find the answer, perhaps this will help:
i--i--i-i-i-y (5 "i"s and a "y"!).

Am I right, Mike?

And now, an English word containing 5 vowels, all joined together! This one's also from Mike. Thanks Mike.

FIVE EYES AND A WHY

This riddle was sent to me by Miguel "Mike".

What English word has five eyes and a why? Thanks Mike. Keep it up.
By the way, noone's answered my first riddle yet: "What did the big chimney say to the little chimney?"

The word-dominoes competition in the First Certificate group was won by Angel, who managed to connect 9 dominoes correctly. Well done Angel, you've won a CD. Keep it up.

La Patum

The following is a message sent by Sergi. I thought it might be of interest. Thanks Sergi. Keep it up.
Hello Joe,This week is "la patum”.The main and more spectacular activity is today (21/5) about 12:00. The people make an spectacular dancing in a small square (the people make a concentric circles and they dancing without electric light the only light is from some people that carry a fireworks).It’s spectacular and exciting.You can fine all the thinks about this typical and traditional festivity in this web: http://www.lapatum.cat/

Here's another link for this famous Catalan feast. This one's in English.
http://www.bergueda.com/lapatum/festa.asp#

END-OF-COURSE PARTY

Tuesday 6th of May is a date I'm going to remember for a long time.

A group of students organised an End-of-Course BBQ (Barbecue) at Rosa's home, see Rosa's pic at:

http://picasaweb.google.es/printimatge/2008_05_06_englishgroup_graduaciNCursoAleman/photo?authkey=MTPx0EgXLCQ#5199999281447458338

and Party pics at:

http://picasaweb.google.es/printimatge/2008_05_06_englishgroup_graduaciNCursoAleman?authkey=MTPx0EgXLCQ

We ate very well (canadian maple leaf syrup cookies and María's home-made browny included), drank moderately (some of us had to drive back to work, but we did just get a modicum of a good 12-year-old Speyside whisky, provided by yours truly!) and sang old campfire songs such as "Oh, Susanna" and "She'll be coming round the mountain": Luís Miguel took the excellent photographs that you can see at the previous web address. All in all it was a most enjoyable party that will linger on "among my souvenirs" for a very long time.

Thanks friends.

Song "Among my souvenirs" - sung by Dave Williams (what a voice!)

Lyrics on the left

Try also "The way we were" sung by Barbara Streisand

Video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xtu9RXeYSLU

Lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/barbra+streisand/way+we+were_20013256.html

QUESTIONS

Asking questions is a natural part of any conversation, whether it's social or business. What shampoo do you use? Have you met the new manager? When's the meeting? etc. However, it really is surprising to see students at ALL LEVELS continuing to make mistakes in this area. So, let's just look at a few rules.

IN GENERAL, a question starts with a question word (when we want information) or an auxilliary verb (when we want confirmation, i.e. yes or no).

QUESTION WORDS - WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHO, WHICH, WHY, WHOSE, HOW.
Very often, these question words are accompanied by other words that complete the information we require. For example: WHAT COLOUR, HOW MUCH, HOW MANY, WHICH ONE, HOW OFTEN, WHOSE CAR,ETC..
AUXILLIARY VERBS - AM, IS, ARE, WAS, WERE, HAVE, HAS, HAD, DO, DOES, DID, plus the MODALS: CAN, COULD, MAY, MIGHT, WILL, WOULD, SHALL, SHOULD, MUST, (and a few more complicated verbs, like ought to and need, which can act as auxilliary verbs). Here are some examples: ARE YOU....? IS THE NEW MANAGER...? CAN WE GO...? DID THE MEETING...? MUST WE...?

The BASIC order of a question is as follows:

For questions requesting information -
QUESTION WORD (INCLUDING ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REQUIRED) - AUXILLIARY VERB - SUBJECT - MAIN VERB - COMPLEMENT.
EXAMPLES: Why do you work there? Where did you put the document? How much does it cost?

For questions requesting confirmation - AUXILLIARY VERB - SUBJECT - MAIN VERB - COMPLEMENT.
EXAMPLES: Do you work here? Did you put the document in the desk? Does it cost much?
NOTICE THAT when you use do, does and did, or any of the modal verbs (can, could, etc.) the main verb is in the infinitive) MORE ON THIS IN MY NEXT ARTICLE.

EXCEPTIONS 1:
The verb "To be" is a curious verb. It can work alone, as the only verb in a sentence, AND it can work as an auxiliary verb, accompanying other verbs.
EXAMPLES:Are you a doctor? Where is the car? (You will notice that no verb is placed after the subjects "you" and "the car", and the verbs "are" and "is" go where auxilliary verbs usually go, i.e before the subject.)
Are you drinking beer? What are you drinking? (Here, the order is the usual one because there is an additional verb - "drinking")

EXCEPTIONS 2:
WHO and other question words, when they request information about the subject. Who wants an ice-cream? Which one is mine?
This is a little more complicated, so I will deal with it separately in my next article.
As with all other aspects of the language, the more you practise the better your English will become. GOOD LUCK and GOOD PRACTICE!

USEFUL LINKS FOR QUESTIONS:
http://www.curso-ingles.com/gramatica-inglesa/question.php
http://www.curso-ingles.com/ejercicios-ingles/questions.php
http://www.mailxmail.com/curso/idiomas/verbosingles/capitulo7.htm
http://a4esl.org/q/f/z/zz87mca.htm
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-questions_structure.htm
http://www.spotlight-online.de/CoCoCMS/generator/viewDocument.php?doc=2972&archive=1 http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/questiontext.htm
http://www.english4today.com/englishgrammar/grammarfaq/
THIS LAST ONE DEALS WITH FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT ENGLISH.

AND HERE'S A SONG - "THE MOODY BLUES" ASKING A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION:
Video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrPGV452X6s&feature=related
Lyrics: http://www.allspirit.co.uk/question.html

MY BOOKS

Some of you may know already that I write in my spare time. Not just Blogs, but short novels also, especially for the younger readers and for teenagers. Some of the stories, however, are perfectly suitable for adults, as more than one reader has told me.

What you may not know, and is less easy to understand, is that I usually write in Spanish. I also write in English, of course, though I haven't finished anything yet. The reason I tend to write in Spanish is that most of the stories were originally conceived as bedtime stories for my grandson, who was born and is being educated in Spain. From there it was just a step before I converted them into novels.

I've set up a new blog to put them within reach of a wider public. The blog has been created, but it will be a little time before I manage to get over the technical problems of getting the books in there, so please be patient.
http://www.loslibrosdejoe.blogspot.com/

MORE READING MATERIAL..... and a SONG

I thought the following link would be particularly interesting for Pre-Intermediate students. Check it out, I'm sure you'll like the story. There are many more where this one came from!
http://younglearners.eslreading.org/stories/stories/prisonerofzenda.html

And here's the song, another one of my favourites. I'm sure you'll like it too.
Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcWspfgk9c8
Lyrics: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/americanpsycho/ladyinred.htm

MORE SONGS

Here's a song I'm sure you'll all like. Needless to say it's one of my favourites. The first line is pure poetry: Lay a whisper on my pillow...!"
Enjoy...
Video:
Lay a whisper on my pillow - Leave the winter on the ground - I wake up lonely, there's an air of silence - In the bedroom and all around - Touch me now, I close my eyes And dream away...
It must have been love, but it's over now - It must have been good, but I lost it somehow
It must have been love, but it's over now - From the moment we touched till the time had run out.
Make believing we're together - That I'm sheltered by your heart - But in and outside I turn to water - Like a teardrop in your palm - And it's a hard winter's day I dream away...
It must have been love, but it's over now - It was all that I wanted, now I'm living without
It must have been love, but it's over now - It's where the water flows, it's where the wind blows
It must have been love, but it's over now - It must have been good, but I lost it somehow
It must have been love, but it's over now - From the moment we touched till the time had run out

ENGLISH and SONGS (and the Second Conditional!)

Listening to songs in English is an excellent way of consolidating structures and improving both pronunciation and intonation. It also helps you acquire new vocabulary. However, you must choose your songs carefully because in many cases the lyrics (words) are just too poetic and can be difficult to understand.

Let me illustrate how useful this technique can be with a song that was popular in the sixties.
[It's from the West End musical, Pickwick, based on Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers. In the context of the stage musical, the song is sung by Samuel Pickwick when he is mistaken for an election candidate and called on by the crowd to give his manifesto.-Source Wikipedia]

The song 's title is "If I ruled the world". It's a very good example of the Second Conditional and is a really good opportunity to practise this relatively difficult grammatical structure (If I had a car I would drive to Rome)
Video:
Lyrics: http://www.lyricsdepot.com/tony-bennett/if-i-ruled-the-world.html

Now, compare it with "If I ruled the world" by Nas (Different song, much more difficult, rap style)
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMn2cCBwH18
Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/nas/ifiruledtheworld.html

By the way, the first version is by Tony Bennett. Sir Harry Secombe's version is far better, but I can't find it anywhere. HELP!

While we're at it, What would Trini do if he had a hammer? and what would Topol do if he were a rich man? Answers below!
Video - Trini: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyTO5vcFWuw&feature=related
Lyrics - Trini: http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/trini_lopez/if_i_had_a_hammer.html
Video - Topol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBHZFYpQ6nc
Lyrics - Topol: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/fiddlerontheroof/ifiwerearichman.htm

If you found this method useful let me know by e-mail or by posting a comment below. I would then include some more songs.
Enjoy!

EASTER

When I was a child, a long time ago, an Easter tradition at home was the Egg Painting Competition.

My mother would boil some eggs. When the hard-boiled eggs were completely cold, my brother, my four sisters and I, and occasionally some friends, would get down to the seemingly impossible task of converting the dull, inanimate shells into miniature masterpieces. We used food colouring, mainly, which we carefully applied with cotton wool and brushes.

Our creations usually consisted of heads: bald heads, funny heads, sad faces, animal heads, etc. We did, however, produce the odd ship or farmhouse.

When the paint was dry, we would rub the egg with oil to make it shine and protect the paint.

On Easter Sunday, during lunch, the eggs were judged by our parents and relatives and the winner of the painting competition was allowed to keep the winning example. This was followed by the "egg tapping" game. The rest of the eggs were shared out and each player hit another player's egg with his/her own egg. The winner was the holder of the last intact egg. The losers got to eat their eggs while the winner of the game was also allowed to keep his/her egg.

I don't think I ever won a single egg painting competition.... but I did manage to eat dozens of colourful eggs!

CHESS

I wouldn't say chess is my passion, but it's definitely one of my main interests. I try and play three or four tournaments a year, especially during the summer. The picture is from the one-day Castelldefells tournament. I came second in my category. The youngish looking man in an orange T-shirt is my son Michael. He's much better than me and came third overall!

For those interested in this game here are the English names for the pieces:
Pawn = Peón
Rook = Torre
Knight = Caballo
Bishop = Alfíl
Queen = Dama
King = Rey

To check is Dar jaque.
Check mate is jaque mate.
Resign is abandonar
Offer a draw is ofrecer tablas.
To draw is hacer tablas.

From time to time I shall include short articles with some more vocabulary.

Interesting chess links:
This one's my son Michael's. It contains a number of recommended chess sites - http://mikerahal.blogspot.com/
The Catalan Federation -
http://www.escacs.cat/

SPEAKING (First Certificate Exam and Higher)

At these levels, examiners are not really interested in descriptions, they really want to hear opinions. The more varied the better.

You can of course play safe and use the standard "In my opinion" or "I think", etc.

But, how about being a little bit more daring and stun you listener with "If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that...", or "From a purely personal point of view, I'd say that...".
Try "It's quite evident that..." or "It seems perfectly obvious that..." when the answer is quite clear.
When in doubt, you could venture :"I could be wrong, of course, but I'd say that...".
When absolutely certain of what you are looking at: "Well, I'd be prepared to bet my last farthing that..."

NOTE:
Speaking, contrary to popular belief, is not an intellectual activity. It's entirely Physical. It requires coordination between brain and vocal chords. Your brain sends a message to your vocal chords and they, in turn, perform the action. As in all other physical exercises, perfection requires practice. It's not enough to "KNOW" what you have to say, you ACTUALLY HAVE TO SAY IT...... AND SAY IT WELL!
Which means Plenty of REPETITION - Listen... and then Repeat.
REPEAT to improve your pronunciation.
REPEAT to improve intonation (Rythm and stress).
REPEAT to improve fluency.

GOLDEN RULE - REPETITION is the key to GOOD SPEAKING

The more = Cuanto más

To play safe = Ir sobreseguro

Daring = Osado, aventuroso

To stun = Abrumar

To hazard a guess = Aventurar (una Opinión), Atreverse (a dar una opinión)

Purely = puramente

To venture = Aventurar (una opinión)

To bet = Apostar

Farthing = Moneda de más baja denominación.

Brain = Cerebro

Chords = Cuerdas

Actually = De hecho

ADJECTIVES - and their position

General Information (specially for beginners)
Adjectives are invariable, i.e. they do not change according to the gender and do not take the plural (eg. A young boy, a young girl, young boys, young girls)
Adjectives are usually placed before the noun they describe (eg. A big town), but they can also go after certain verbs (eg. This town is big).

Position of Adjectives
When more than one adjective is used, the order in which you place them is important. Opinion adjectives come first (nice, interesting, ugly, etc.) and they are followed by fact adjectives (long, old, expensive, etc.)
eg. I bought a nice new shirt last week
We don't normally use more than one opinion adjective, but we often use more than one fact adjective. The relative position of fact adjectives is as follows:

1. [How big is it?] Size & length are usually followed by shape & width (eg. a large oval desk, a long narrow building)
2. [How old is it?] Age (eg. a large new desk)
3. [What colour is it?] Colour (eg. a large new brown desk) NOTE: when using more than one coulour use "and" before the last one (eg. a large new black and brown desk)
4. [Where is it from? ] Origin (eg. a large new brown scandinavian desk)
5. [What is it made of?] Material (eg. a large new brown scandinavian wooden desk)

NOTE - We don't normally use more than three adjectives together in English. If you want to say "Last week, I bought a large new brown scandinavian wooden desk for my study", try saying it in two separate sentences. For example; "Last week, I bought a large new wooden desk for my study. It's brown and comes from Scandinavia."

Useful link ADJECTIVES
http://www.learn4good.com/languages/evrd_grammar/adjective_order.htm
Useful link GENERAL GRAMMAR
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar