All Conversation classes B1 and B2

Please see the funny video a few posts down dated April 25, about Lucy and Ricky and his troubles with English. I have made a little exercise with questions and also (I think) the link to the episode.

Click here

Con B2 Tu-Th (important)

I haven't been able to find my "taboo" cards for the Travel and Love Story vocabulary items. however, I've realized I can turn this disadvantage into an advantage. All of you who read this can write 4 taboo cards for each category. Choosing 4 Travel words and 4 love story words and put them on a little card or small piece of paper. Then under the word, write 4 or 5 "taboo" word that would make defining difficult.

Ex. word: CRUISE
taboo words: ship, trip, water, boat, sea

I'll make some as a "back-up but this really maximizes YOUR  practice.

C U 2morrow.

Con B1

For Monday, we will discuss the questions for the Simpson Video

and talk about Love.

For Vocabulary sheet

Click here

This is a song that goes with the listening and which I hope we'll have time to do:

Click here

Finally here is a really complete summary from Inés:

Hi there! This is the summary of the 3 of April.
We started the class talking about our holidays
Then, in pairs we had to do an exercise about travel and turism:
1. Accommodation - place to sleep, hotel
2. Resort - special sport or beach vacation place
3. bed and breakfast - big house that rent rooms
4. cruise - trip that combine ship and land
5. Jet lag- tiredness from changing time zones
6. Round trip- two way ticket. 
7. Sightseeing - visiting tourist attractions
8. Spa- vacation place to go for health
9. tip - extra money
10. Customs - inspection on entering a country. 
11. Hitch- hiking - getting a ride with a stranger
12. knapsack - backpack
13. tour guide - person who shows tourist around.
14. concerge - s/he deals with the guests at the hotel
15. life vest- infatable jacket for floating
16. flight attendant- person who serves passengers
17. a visa- special stamp
18. check in/check out - registering for a hotel or a flight
19. affordable- cheap enought to by or book
20. fare - price of the ticket
21. hiking trail- narrow road for walking in nature
22. conveniently located - well- situated
23. overbooking- selling too many seats or rooms. 

I have written some new vocabulary words:
- a prude
- to sunbathe
- Sin city

After that we do did a listening. It consist in a interview about the vacation that the people prefer. 

Next, we do did another exercise in pairs. Kate gave us two types of leaves, one of type a and another type B. Each person in the couple had a kind of questions. The questions were about what we prefer to do on holiday or for example where we have traveled. The goal was that we speak with more than one person and entertained the holiday theme.

Finally we did the practice of roleplay airplane which consisted put in the role of a person as is his personality in pairs .Your partner had to guess what kind of paper ROLE you were doing on your tone of voice, gestures .

Con B 1

Vocabulary for talking about Travel and Tourism


Click here

Roleplay for traveling based on French Kiss

Click here

And here

Finally, this is the summary of the last class before vacation.

Rebeca Jose Calvo2 de abril de 2013 14:23

Hi there! I hope that you had had a great holiday. This is the 13th of March summary:
We started the class talking about situations that any of us had lived at the airport like the Kate’s experience, who had to sleep a night in a hotel because the flight didn’t took off. Later, other people shared their experiences with the rest of the class.
Then, we form groups of 3. We had to order some drawings to discover a story about a girl, who had a party the night before travelling. The girl got up late and arrived late at the airport but the flight was delayed and she had to wait.
We continued learning some vocabulary about travelling by plane:
• oxygen mask
• to be in a holiday mood
• delay
• huge storm
• lightning
• thunder
• …
In the same groups, we wrote a list about things that the pilot and the flight attendants usually say in a plane:
• Please, turn off your electronics devices
• In case the oxygen mask drop down, put it on yourself before putting it on children
• Fasten your seat belt
• There are two emergency exits located…
• …
Finally, we saw a video of French Kiss: Kate receives a call from her boyfriend who is in Paris in a convention. She doesn’t go with Charlie because she is afraid of flying. He says he is in love with another girl and he breaks their relationship.
Immediately after, Kate takes a plane to Paris. An unknown man sits on the next seat (…the movie continues).
We answered the true of false questions and we compared them in pairs.
After correcting, we returned to watch the video and answered more difficult questions about what the characters had been spoken.

Rebeca

Con B1 for Wednesday - last class before break

Hi
Reminding you to study and print the material for the scenes from French Kiss.

AND This is a WONDERFUL summary of the last class from ML. THANKS SO MUCH!

1. 
   Maria Luisa19 de marzo de 2013 07:22

   Hi there! This is the 13th of March summary:
   The classroom began with questionnaires that we handed in to her last week and we corrected some mistakes.
   Kate told us that most of us wanted to improve the listening and the key is the emphasis on important words.
   We continued comparing in pairs the photocopy of “What are you like?” and discussed the results that we have obtained and therefore which kind of person we can live with.
   Then, with the projector, we learnt when to put:
   WHAT or WHERE … enjoy DOING/GOING …?
   And we practiced:
   -WHAT DO YOU ENJOY DOING ON A HOT SUMMER DAY?
   -IT’S NICE GO TO THE SWIMMING POOL AND GET TANNED
   We studied the following collocations to answer:
   enjoy
   I like + GERUND
   Hate
   
   It’s nice + INFINITIVE
   
   Then, we learnt how to distinguish between two words which sound the same but have different meaning, like cat-cut. Besides, we learnt the different vowels’ phonetic.Note: CAT AND CUT DO NOT SOUND THE SAME CAUSE THEY HAVE DIFFERENT VOWEL SOUNDS -KATE
   Later, we heard two listening about a house rent and its features.
   Finally, we practiced in pairs the typical dialogue in which someone wants to rent a house.
   See you on Wednesday!
   María Luisa

Conv. B1 UPDATED WITH LINK

For Wednesday, we will do a listening- speaking execise about air travel and see a short scene from the film "French Kiss" in class.

This is the link for the vocabulary and questions.

Click here

I will try to update with a link to the 10- minute scene we will see.

March 17th- Could NOT find link to watch film WITH SUBTITLES.  This is a link I have found but it's WITHOUT subtitles.  The scene we are going to see are discuss starts at 8 minutes 22 seconds with a phone call and goes to about 22 minutes, most of the time the 2 main characters are on an airplane and get to know each other. You can try to watch the first 22 minutes without subtitles and see how well you do!

Click here

I will bring in a version with subtitles for Wednesday.  :) Kate

con b1 Cecilia's summary of Monday class

1 comentario:

1. 
   let it be12 de marzo de 2013 02:35

   Hi everybody!! I'll try to make a summary of last conversation class:
   
   First of all, we were talking about some adventages or disadvantages of living in different places like city,suburbs and country. We put some aDjetives and nouns under each column.
   
   We agreed with the pollution and traffic in the city, the time consuming and noise in suburbs and fresh air and relax in country.
   
   We learnED some expressions like "NIGHT LIFE", "MULTI-CULTI", "FASHION" (talking about shops and boutiques), "FRESH AIR","FRIENDLY", "TIME CONSUMING" or "GOOD FOR FAMILIES".
   
   We understood the diferences between "fun" and "funny" and between "OF" and "FROM" * and where we've to use them:
   FUN: "te lo pasas bien"
   FUNNY: "gracioso"
   
   FROM: talking about place (physical place)
   OF: pertenece a, forma parte de..** I CORRECTED THIS
   
   Then, we listened TO a conversation between two boys talking about the city and the country,at the cassete. One of them wanted to rent a room and the other one told him about the advantages of the city to rent a room there, like good jobs, movies, museums... The other boy prefered the country because of the relax, fresh air, quiet, nature and because of the tourist of the city!
   
   Next activity we did was in pairs. We had to do our own dialog similar to the listening one, talking about the city,country or suburb.
   
   Finally, we did another dialog but this time, talking about renting a room, making ASKING questions related to that, like:
   
   -HOW MUCH ARE YOU RENTING IT FOR? or HOW MUCH IS THE ROOM?
   -HOW MANY FLATMATES WILL I HAVE?
   -WHAT FLOOR IS IT ON?
   -IS THERE AN ELEVATOR?
   -WHAT IS THE ROOM LIKE?
   -WILL I HAVE MY OWN ROOM OR DO I HAVE TO SHARE?
   -IS THERE WIFI OR INTERNET CONNECTION?
   -IS THERE A LOT OF LIGHT?
   -DOES IT FACE THE STREET OR THE PATIO?  Excellent!

Con b 1 song

domingo, 10 de marzo de 2013

Con B1: Song

I forgot to do this until now.

Here is the youtube link to the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woegd15rmnA

Or just go to YouTube and put in "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm Rod Stewart since this link doesn't work automatically. Start listening at 2 minutes cause the 1st 2 minutes are an interview!

And here is the exercise for the words ( lyrics)

Click here and enjoy

Con B1: Song

I forgot to do this until now.

Here is the youtube link to the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woegd15rmnA

Or just go to YouTube and put in "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm Rod Stewart since this link doesn't work automatically. Start listening at 2 minutes cause the 1st 2 minutes are an interview!

And here is the exercise for the words ( lyrics)

Click here and enjoy

Conv. B1

For Monday, we are going to talk about advantages and disadvantages of living in the city, the suburbs or country and renting a room or flat.
This is a quiz to see if 2 people are compatible as flatmates. Please print it but I don't know if we will have time to do it until Wednesday.

AND, Our famous dancer, Ana has made a wonderful summary of the last class:WONDERFUL, ANA. THANK YOU!! Kate :)

ana Oca6 de marzo de 2013 12:50

Hi class!

I'm gonna make a little resumen of what we did today.

At the begining, we remembered how we must ask about PERSONALITY and PHYSICALS FEATURES.
Do you remember?

-What's he like?
¿Cómo es él? (de caracter,personalidad,etc)

- What's he looks like?
¿Cómo es él? (fisicamente)

We did practices talking about Hugo Chavez and brushing up(repassin) some adjetives like: serious,selfconfident,talkative,agresiv,carismathic,comunicative, bossy,stubborn( terco, obstinado), etc.
And others new words like: almond-shaped eyes (ojos almendrado) and smart,which means INTELIGENT for american people but ELEGANT for british people).

Then we talking about THE WEATHER and Kate told us the NOUNS, ADJETIVES and VERBS of each climatological possibility.
Examples:

*SUN-SUNNY-SHINE/SHINING
*CLOUD-CLOUDY-CLOUD UP "it's cloudin up"(se está
nublando).
*WIND-WINDY-BLOW "the wind is blowing"(el viento está soplando).

We saw some adjetives for the differents temperatures:

40º= It's boiling
38º= It's hot
20º= It's warm
15º= It's fresh/mild
5º = It's cool
0º = It's cold
-5º= It's freezing

When the temperature is more and more cold, we can say: "The temperature is cooling down",
when it is more and more hot: "The temperature is warming up".

We did an exercise of "listening" in wich we had to understand a weather forecast retransmission(pronóstico del tiempo)of some of the principal citys of the USA.

Kate told us too,some expression for SUGGESTS:
- HOW ABOUT+ GERUND
How about going out for a walk? (¿qué tal si salimos a pasear?)
- WHY DON'T ...
Why don't we go to the cinema this evening?(¿Por qué no vamos al cine esta tarde?)
- LET'S GO...
Let's go to the swimingpool(Vamos a la pisci!)

and some answers depending we AGREE OR DESAGREE:

- It is a good idea.
- Great idea!!
- NO, I DON'T FEEL LIKE + GERUND.
No, I don't feel like going out for a walk
(NO, no me apetece salir a dar un paseo).

Finally, we were practising in pairs, doing a dialogue with the words and sentences learned:

A)What's the weather like today?
B)Oh! today it's sunny.
A)And what is the temperature?
B)The temperature is -2º, it's very cold!
A)Then, why don't we stay at home watching a movie.
B)Oh, I don't feel like watching a movie today, Let's take the coats and go out for a walk, the sun is shining!!

Conv. B1

Doc. for the Weather

Conv. B 1

Physical Descriptions

Click here

Describing Someone's Personality

Click here

Con. B1 15.30

Hi Class!

I have been too busy to respond.  Víctor has left, but we can see each other when he gets back.

I would vote for getting together Wednesday or Thursday ---- or next week.

Conv. B1 15.30

Hi Class,

Victor just wrote this to us:
Estimad@s tod@s:
we can meet up for the dinner or whatever in the peruvian restaurant on Monday? I´m leaving on Tuesday at 12 o´clock to Vienna and I´m arraging some documents and stuffs. Who´s thinking of coming that day?
Greetings. 
Victor

The problem is that I have a meeting on tFebruary 11th. Could we possibly make it on Sunday Feb. 10th?    Please!

Kate :)

Con B1

We are going to talk about differences between men and women, starting out with this doc

.Click here:

For Con. B 1

This is a summary of the last Con B1 class supplied by Guille!  THANKS!

Guille13 de enero de 2013 10:29

Hi Kate and classmates!
The last class we started talking about the final project or presentation. We did some groups. At the moment there are two groups of three people:

-One group is going to do it about a TV quiz.
-The second one (my group) is going to do it about "spanish people around the world"
-Noelia and Javi are going to do it alone.
-The people who didn't come on Wednesday please come on monday and say Kate your proyect theme if you want to finish the grade.

After speak about the proyect we did a roleplay between psychologist and patient in pairs. Kate really liked my role as a psychologist. Maybe I have to change my studies hahaha.

Finally we did a listening about a poll of the best and worst holidays of the one hundred people.

That's all I remember.
See you tomorrow.
Guille

Conversation B1

Hi Wednesday classes,

On Monday we will do job interviews.  Here is a doc. we will use.
click here

Print and study and write 5 other "typical" questions and a list of your personall SKILLS.

Also, those who didn't come on Wednesday, 4 or 5  in the 18.30 group, PLEASE come if you wish to continue.  Also, can someone who was there write the summary in the comment for me to copy and paste??  What about Emilio in the 1st group and Sergio or Guille, Almu or in the 2nd ??( I think you haven't done it)

Conversation classes Con B1 and Con B2.

Hi- I hope your holidays have been good and that you've thought about your presentations. Remember, you can leave a commentary or email me if you want to do theatre or want any suggestions!!

Conversation B2:

The first day back, we'll be talking about Tourism and Travel. ( Don't know if anyone's been traveling during the vacation or not.) This is a Vocabulary List for this topic:
Click here

Study and print.

Also there is an interesting and amusing video clip we will talk about on Tuesday but you can see it now if you have more time . (Con B1; you can see it and try to do the exercise too but it might be difficult for you)

"Men and Women's Brains"
Click here

Con B1: Both groups

Hope you're having a good vacation. I'm publishing Marisa's very good summary of the next to the last class ( which I didn't see until nowand was the same for both groups) and Betsa's wonderful recipe for Tiramisú.

maria molina17 de diciembre de 2012 03:05

Hello! I’m going to tell you what we did on Wednesday. Some partners read love histories of famous people. We had to guess who was this famous person. After this we made a survey about food and restaurants. Then we talked about food and learnt new words. It’s helpful if we go to a restaurant in England for example. You have to know what you’re going to eat.

And Betsa's recipe:

1 comentario:

1. 
   B24 de diciembre de 2012 03:50

   Hi Kate and everyone!!
   
   Here comes my recipe: Tiramisú for 4
   
   Ingredients: 2 eggs, a packAGE of mascarpone cheese, finger biscuits (bizcochos), sugar, vanilla eXtract, coffe and some liquor (rum, coñac or wiskey as you prefer), NesQuik or other powdered cocoa.
   
   You will need: 3 bowls, presentation plate, whisk, collander, spoons, and coffEe pot.
   
   FIRST: take THe eggs and separate the yolks from the whites, put each one in a diFferent bowl. Beat very good the yolks VERY WELL with 2 spoons of sugar (one for each yolk)and mix with the mascarpone cheese, mix slowly until you have a homogenic HOMOGENOUS soft cream, add some vanilla eXtract. Taste it and add some sugar if you want.
   
   Meanwhile: make the coffeE, put in on a bowl and mix with the liquor (normally half little COFFEE cup) and some sugar, taste it and add liquor or sugar if you prefer it stronger).
   
   Leave cream and the coffEe out waiting for a while.
   
   NOW: take the whites and beat very fast and strong until they stiffEN like a soft snow.
   Finally mix the stiffenED whites with the cream, and Important!! very slowly trYing to retain the foamy texture. Better if you don't add sugar in this moment cause we can lose the texture (taste the sweet before, with the cream).
   
   FINALLY: make layers!
   Take the biscuits and give them a bath in the bowl with the coffeE -only a moment, you can see if they smash  BREAK OR MELT  but the coffe must get in the bisquits- make a layer of bisquits on the plate.
   Take the cream and make a layer with cream (be generous) and cover with the powdered cocoa. Do it again making anothRe layer of bisquits and another layer of cream and cover with powdered cocoa.
   
   Put on the freeze and wait 8-12 hours and enjoy!! (you can eat before but you will see, the texture is not the same if you wait).
   
   SECRETS of the recipe: mix slowly the cream, in the same direction, mix slowly with the stiffen whites. A layer can have 8-9 bisquits (depends on the size). The tub of mascarpone: better if it is 250gr.
   
   Kisses and Merry Christmas for everyone!!!! enjoy!!!!
   
   Betza
   
   ------------------------------
   ON THE FIRST DAY, WE´LL DO THINGS ABOUT FAMILIES AND MEMORIES FOR WHICH I HAVE THE MATERIAL.
   
   PLEASE GET IN TOUCH WITH ME ABOUT YOUR PRESENTATIONS, ESPECIALLY IF YOU'D LIKE TO DO A THEATRE SCENE SO THAT i CAN SEND IT TO YOU.
   
   HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

CON B 1 : last class b4 Xmas

Don't forget to bring in a recipe!

Also download the Christmas Survey and Xmas songs from last post for Con B2