A 3 year-old-boy with no contact with English can speak the language??? Give me the recipe, please!

https://www.timesofisrael.com/druze-toddler-amazes-experts-by-speaking-english-without-having-learned-it/

That would have been a great job for me!

It doesn’t mean I am not happy being a teacher but when I read about this guy, man, I thought ... this should be me. I do that all the time, for me, family, friends, students.  I don’t have the time to travel that often now  but as soon as I retire I will be travelling the world.

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/29/how-a-29-year-old-turned-an-obsession-with-cheap-plane-tickets-into-a-1-million-business-in-under-2-years.html

GOYA AWARDS 2018 1 BACH C

Isabel Coixet’s ‘The Bookshop’ Tops Spain’s 2018 Goya Awards

Basque period drama ‘Giant’ sweeps nine prizes

MADRID — Just three hours after female talent was amply awarded at Sweden’s Göteborg Festival, Scandinavia’s biggest film event, Isabel Coixet’s “The Bookshop” topped the 32nd Goya Awards Saturday night, winning best picture, director and adapted screenplay.

Healthily sold abroad by Celsius, and a sturdy box office performer in Spain, where it has earned $2.9 million, “The Bookshop” is produced by Spain’s A Contracorriente Films and Diagonal TV and Zephyr Films. A big-screen makeover of Penelope Fitzgerald’s quietly subversive 1978 novel, about a widow opening up a bookshop in a sleepy coastal town, “The Bookshop’s” triumph represents only the second time an English-language movie has won a best picture Goya. The first was Coixet’s “The Secret Life of Words” in 2006.

A coming-of-ager – and ode to diversity – hailed by Variety as a “delicate sleeper,” Carla Simon’s debut “Summer 1993” took first feature at the Goyas, as well breakthrough actress (Bruna Cursi) and supporting actor (David Verdaguer). It is one of the flagships of the newest generation of Catalán filmmakers, many of whom are women.

Women did not, however, exactly sweep the board at the 32nd Goya Awards. A flagship for the modern Basque cinema, Jon Garaño’ and Aitor Arregi’s “Giant” produced by Irusoin and Kowalski Films swept most plaudits. Set in 1836 in a backward rural Basque Country, “Giant,” about two brothers’ deep affective bonds surviving grinding poverty, romantic rivalry, war and wrenching modernization, swept original screenplay, breakthrough actor (Eneko Sagardoy), and eight technical awards.

Javier Gutiérrez’s scooped best actor for Manuel Martín Cuenca’s “The Motive” where he plays a talentless wannabe novelist, who manipulates the lives of his neighbors to inspire his prose.

Nathalie Poza took actress for her performance in dramedy “Can’t Say Goodbye,” beating out Emily Mortimer (“The Bookshop”) and Penelope Cruz (“Loving Pablo), just as Bill Nighy and Javier Bardem lost out in the best actor race. Beyond Bardem’s win for “Biutiful,” there is little tradition of the Goyas  awarding foreign or Hollywood-based actors.

It was, however, women and their campaign in Spain to swell their presence in its cinema, which proved the insistent trending topic of the 2018 kudos ceremony.With female attendees sporting bright red fans with #masmujeres slogans, multiple Spanish film industry attendees, J.A. Bayona among them, called for women to receive 50% of governmental film subsidies in Spain. They waved them, making the auditorium look as if it had been invaded by red butterflies, roaring on Spanish Academy vice-president Nora Navas as she attacked gender violence in one speech.

“I’m in favor of all kinds of quotas and anything which can contribute to change,” Cruz said on the red carpet. “If a man earns 20 and  a woman 10, the woman should denounce that, supported by the man,“ added Bardem.

Almodóvar muse Marisa Paredes (“The Flower of My Secret”) accepted an honorary Goya, bringing the Goya Awards audience to its feet.

In its battle for larger gender balance, Spain is a long way off, however. It was notable that the screenplay for a ceremony which served as a platform for the revindication of women’s rights was written by five men. Of the 2,270 people making the 154 features presented for 2018’s Goyas, 24% were women. Drilling down, women made up 16% of their directors and 26% of their producers, according to a study by CIMA, Spain’s Women’s Audiovisual Assn. Only four women have won best director awards in 32 Goya editions. Of the 25 highest-budgeted Spanish films last year, none were directed by a woman, said actress Pepa Charro.

2018’s highest-grossing Spanish movie, earning $21.3 million in Spain, and backed by Telecinco Cinema and Movistar +, Enrique Gato’s adventure romp “Tadeo Jones 2,” won best animation feature, as animation promises some of the biggest movie titles from Spain in upcoming years.

Julita Salmerón provided some of the best comedy of the night in a impromptu acceptance speech for son Gustavo Salmerón’s docu-feature winner, of which she is the star, “Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle,” which she dedicated to all mothers. The title already won best documentary at Karlovy Vary.

Oscar-nominated “A Fantastic Women” took best foreign Spanish-language film, accepted by its Chilean director Sebastián Lelio. “Rebellion, resistence and love,” said star Daniela Vega, in maybe the shortest acceptance speech of the night. Ruben Ostlund’s “The Square,” a Palme d’Or winning Oscar nominee, took best European film.

The longest applause of the night, however, went to Reyes Abades, the dean of Spanish VFX, who died this week, having won nine Goyas after learning his craft on such films as “Patton.”

http://variety.com/2018/film/news/isabel-coixet-the-bookshop-spain-2018-goya-awards-1202686680/

http://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000299/2018/1/

Questions Everything, everything

Sorry I cannot come this morning. As I guess most of you will be eager to write about the book, take a piece of paper and answer the following questions (2 pages maximum)

1.         Who brought a cake to Madeline’s door? Why?

2.         Why was Madeline at home all the time?

3.         What is special about the first day in the book, what do they do that evening?

4.         How did Olly manage to see her for the first time?

5.         How did Maddy feel the day after their first meeting? What did she think? What did Carla think?

6.         What happened to Madeline's dad and brother?

7.         Where did Maddy and Olly go and what happened there?

8.         Why was Carla fired?

9.         When Madeline gets mad at her mother, where does she go, how long does she spend there?

10.   Write a few lines about the end of the story.

Everything Everything Part 2

You never asked for the second part. I guess if you needed you just found it in the net. Anyway, I am uploading it in case you still haven't finished  reading it. Do not worry, you still have the weekend and we will be revising tomorrow. Remember to bring your questions, doubts, comments, etc.

Everything,everything. NIcola Yoon Interview

https://blog.whsmith.co.uk/zbc616-nicola-yoon-an-exclusive-interview-on-everything-everything/

CATALONIA: the show goes on.

https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/10/30/inenglish/1509349808_516176.html

Spanish PM dissolves Catalan parliament and calls fresh elections

Catalonia. Unilateral declaration of independence. Article 155. Elections on 21 st December.

BREAKING NEWS ON CATALONIA

BREAKING NEWS ON CATALONIA

More about. Catalonia

The king on TV and it is not Christmas time. Something big must be going on.

Catalan crisis

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41475770

Everything, everything by Nicola Yoon

So Monday 2nd October will be the first day to dedicate a period for reading time. 

My first lesson on Monday will be with 3 ESO bilingual so this is what we will start reading.

The White Room

I’VE read many more books than you. It doesn’t matter how many you’ve read. I’ve read more. Believe me. I’ve had the time.

In my white room, against my white walls, on my glistening white bookshelves, book spines provide the only color. The books are all brand-new hardcovers—no germy secondhand softcovers for me. They come to me from Outside, decontaminated and vacuum-sealed in plastic wrap. I would like to see the machine that does this. I imagine each book traveling on a white conveyor belt toward rectangular white stations where robotic white arms dust, scrape, spray, and otherwise sterilize it until it’s finally deemed clean enough to come to me. When a new book arrives, my first task is to remove the wrapping, a process that involves scissors and more than one broken nail. My second task is to write my name on the inside front cover.

PROPERTY OF: Madeline Whittier

I don’t know why I do this. There’s no one else here except my mother, who never reads, and my nurse, Carla, who has no time to read because she spends all her time watching me breathe. I rarely have visitors, and so there’s no one to lend my books to. There’s no one who needs reminding that the forgotten book on his or her shelf belongs to me.

REWARD IF FOUND (Check all that apply):

This is the section that takes me the longest time, and I vary it with each book. Sometimes the rewards are fanciful:

⁰ Picnic with me (Madeline) in a pollen-filled field of poppies, lilies, and endless man-in-the-moon marigolds under a clear blue summer sky.

⁰ Tea with me (Madeline) in a lighthouse in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of a hurricane.

⁰ Snorkel with me (Madeline) off Molokini to spot the Hawaiian state fish—the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a.

Sometimes the rewards are not so fanciful:

⁰ A visit with me (Madeline) to a used bookstore.

⁰ A walk outside with me (Madeline) just down the block and back.

⁰ A short conversation with me (Madeline) discussing anything you want, on my white couch, in my white bedroom.

Sometimes the reward is just:

⁰ Me (Madeline).

SCID Row

My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, but you know it as “bubble baby disease.”

Basically, I’m allergic to the world. Anything can trigger a bout of sickness. It could be the chemicals in the cleaner used to wipe the table that I just touched. It could be someone’s perfume. It could be the exotic spice in the food I just ate. It could be one, or all, or none of these things, or something else entirely. No one knows the triggers, but everyone knows the consequences. According to my mom I almost died as an infant. And so I stay on SCID row. I don’t leave my house, have never left my house.

Brthdae Uish

“Movie Night or Honor Pictionary or Book Club?” my mom asks while inflating a blood pressure cuff around my arm. She doesn’t mention her favorite of all our post-dinner activities—Phonetic Scrabble. I look up to see that her eyes are already laughing at me.

“Phonetic,” I say.

She stops inflating the cuff. Ordinarily Carla, my full-time nurse, would be taking my blood pressure and filling out my daily health log, but my mom’s given her the day off. It’s my birthday and we always spend the day together, just the two of us.

She puts on her stethoscope so that she can listen to my heartbeat. Her smile fades and is replaced by her more serious doctor’s face. This is the face her patients most often see—slightly distant, professional, and concerned. I wonder if they find it comforting.

Impulsively I give her a quick kiss on the forehead to remind her that it’s just me, her favorite patient, her daughter.

She opens her eyes, smiles, and caresses my cheek. I guess if you’re going to be born with an illness that requires constant care, then it’s good to have your mom as your doctor.

A few seconds later she gives me her best I’m-the-doctor-and-I’m-afraid-I-have-some-bad-news-for-you face. “It’s your big day. Why don’t we play something you have an actual chance of winning? Honor Pictionary?”

Since regular Pictionary can’t really be played with two people, we invented Honor Pictionary. One person draws and the other person is on her honor to make her best guess. If you guess correctly, the other person scores.

I narrow my eyes at her. “We’re playing Phonetic, and I’m winning this time,” I say confidently, though I have no chance of winning. In all our years of playing Phonetic Scrabble, or Fonetik Skrabbl, I’ve never beaten her at it. The last time we played I came close. But then she devastated me on the final word, playing JEENZ on a triple word score.

“OK.” She shakes her head with mock pity. “Anything you want.” She closes her laughing eyes to listen to the stethoscope.

We spend the rest of the morning baking my traditional birthday cake of vanilla sponge with vanilla cream frosting. After it’s cooled, I apply an unreasonably thin layer of frosting, just enough to cover the cake. We are, both of us, cake people, not frosting people. For decoration, I draw eighteen frosted daisies with white petals and a white center across the top. On the sides I fashion draped white curtains.

“Perfect.” My mom peers over my shoulders as I finish up. “Just like you.”

I turn to face her. She’s smiling a wide, proud smile at me, but her eyes are bright with tears.

“You. Are. Tragic,” I say, and squirt a dollop of frosting on her nose, which only makes her laugh and cry some more. Really, she’s not usually this emotional, but something about my birthday always makes her both weepy and joyful at the same time. And if she’s weepy and joyful, then I’m weepy and joyful, too.

Spain to the Oscars again!

Catalan-language film chosen to represent Spain at upcoming Oscars
 Biographical drama from first-time director Carla Simón to compete for Academy Award

Mexico: a terrible country to be a journalist . If you are brave, you are dead.

Crusading Mexican journalist Javier Valdez shot dead in Sinaloa

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/16/crusading-mexican-journalist-javier-valdez-shot-dead-in-sinaloa

MARCH 8TH . INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY. DÍA INTERNACIONAL DA MULLER TRABALLADORA

READING TIME.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/international-womens-day-everything-you-need-to-know/

3 ESO

If you are curious and would like to know more about Ferdinand Waldo Demara

http://www.biography.com/people/ferdinand-demara-20648861#synopsis

If he can, you can

Show it to your mums, they will understand how useful using posts with new words is to learn new vocabulary! Aidan misses you and sends us this Polish commercial to show there is no age to learn a new language!

A Polish Christmas advert, which has been viewed more than two-and-a-half million times, about a grandfather learning English is melting hearts worldwide.

The advert, released by online auction website Allegro, starts with the elderly man receiving an "English For Beginners" audio set from the website.

He then sets about becoming fluent, by putting stickers on household objects and reciting phrases out loud.

The advert, shows the man reciting English during a series of amusing scenes - including saying "I love you" to a surprised woman sitting on the bus in front of him.

The advert culminates in the real reason the man decided to pick up a new language: meeting his granddaughter for the first time.

A Polish Christmas advert, which has been viewed more than two-and-a-half million times, about a grandfather learning English is melting hearts worldwide.

The advert, released by online auction website Allegro, starts with the elderly man receiving an "English For Beginners" audio set from the website.

He then sets about becoming fluent, by putting stickers on household objects and reciting phrases out loud.

The advert, shows the man reciting English during a series of amusing scenes - including saying "I love you" to a surprised woman sitting on the bus in front of him.

The advert culminates in the real reason the man decided to pick up a new language: meeting his granddaughter for the first time.

“Such is this ad: about a grandfather who overcomes obstacles to reunite with his loved ones living abroad. Many Polish people share the same experience. Nearly one million Poles have decided to leave the country in search for a job, mainly heading the United Kingdom. Despite the relatively close distance between the countries, family ties tend to weaken. Therefore, Christmas for many is a difficult time in which we yearn for more.

"But the story we are telling is all-purpose and can be easily understood by any other nation or community who can easily link the happy ending of a smile and tears of emotion to their daily human experience."

I