See you soon!

Well, and that's the end of this blog. Time flies, can you believe it? It's been a real pleasure to work with you guys and I have to thank you all for how well accepted this blog has been since the very beginning. The great amount of visits and comments on Google Classroom proves that it was a good idea to start this blog on the first place, don't you agree? Also, if, as I think, it has helped you to learn more about the English-speaking world, I couldn't be happier. That's, after all, the reason why we teachers do what we do, helping you students in your learning process.

But this doesn't finish here! You need to keep practising your English as much as you can, since that's the only way you can improve your communicative skills. For the ones who have passed the test, congratulations and I wish you all the best in Intermediate Level. I'm sure we'll see each other around at the school again. For the ones who unfortunately didn't pass, don't give up! You'll have another chance in September, so don't forget to study some English this summer besides going to the beach, alright? All the best for September!

But passing doesn't mean forgetting your English, so try to practise a bit this summer. These holidays are long and you don't want to lose all you've accomplished, do you?

These are some tips you can do to keep up with your English this summer:

1. Watch films or TV series and listen to music in English: After all this year, I'm sure you're able to understand more words than before, don't you? Keep it up and you'll see how you'll improve faster and faster.

2. Check previous posts on this blog: I understand you were very busy studying for the course and maybe you haven't checked in detail all the posts on this blog. The summer is the perfect time to do so. You can watch the videos, listen to the songs and visit the websites that have been posted here throughout the year.

3. Talk to your classmates in English: Your Google Classroom group is still open, so you can still be in touch with your classmates, if you want! Try to practise English with them, I'm sure many of them will be very pleased to do so!

4. Travel to an English-speaking country: This is the ideal way of practising your English in a fully authentic environment. Summer holidays are long and, if you have saved up during the year, get yourself a treat and travel somewhere far, like the USA, for instance! Can you imagine speaking English with real Americans? And also experiencing all those situations we've talked about on this blog for real? Walking along 5th Ave, going to Hollywood, eating authentic American burgers. It's the perfect time to put in practice all those real-life situations we've been performing throughout the course, such as ordering food at the restaurant, clothes at the shop or asking for a room in a hotel. Wouldn't it be great? Check airfares on-line, you can get really good deals out there!

And now, to finish the course with a smile, let's listen again to Best Day of my Life, by American Authors. You can even dance to the video if you feel like it. After all, the end of the course should always be a celebration!
Best Day of my Life

That's all for now. But, as the title above says, this is not goodbye, just see you soon.

All the best,

Javier

Unit 12 - Self-assessment

We reached the end of Unit 12 and now it's time to check what you've learned. Tick all statements that are true for you.

• I can express my health condition and ask for it to others
• I can write an argumentative text
• I can say and understand vocabulary of health and the human body
• I can say and understand some proverbs in English
• I can make use of Reported Speech and Conditional Sentences in my language practice

If you ticked them all, congratulations and keep it up! If not, don't give up and keep practicing!

Unit 12 - Let me take care of you

Did you have fun playing doctors the other day in class? Well, it was game for us, but it's a reality for many professionals who take care of us when we are in need. Doctors and nurses do their best to try make us feel better.

Life in hospitals is so interesting that it has inspired popular TV series for years, with well-known examples, such as ER, House MD, Grey's Anatomy or The Good Doctor.

If you click on the links below, you'll watch a few clips from two of these popular shows. 
What elements related to health and the human body can you see or hear?
Grey's Anatomy
The Good Doctor

See you in class!

Unit 12 - Healthy Choices

Having a healthy life doesn't mean just eating properly and working out, there are other important habits we need to take into account if we want to keep up our good health.

One of them is the one you can see at the picture above: sleeping. We actually talked about that in class the other day and already highlighted the importance of taking a good rest every day. Our body releases a big amount of energy along the whole day and, therefore, we need to recharge our batteries every night, so that we can feel full of energy again the next day. Doctors recommend at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep everyday, in order to rest properly. If we go to bed very late at night and wake up early in the morning, we feel tired and weak, and that's not good for our health.

There is an unhealthy phenomenon that's quite recent, known by same people as the pandemic of the 21st century: it's stress. I'm sure you've heard this word before but, what's stress? It is a situation in which our body fails in some way as a response to some kind of physical or emotional threat. A stressful situation is, for instance, feeling very tired or angry after an excess of hard work. In this highly demanding world, where it seems like we need to work harder and harder to advance in life, stress is becoming more and more usual, and it can be very dangerous. A high situation of stress can cause high blood pressure and even heart failure, so it's a very serious thing. In order to avoid stress, we need to relax and take things easy. A good way of relaxing is taking a break from work from time to time and doing some pleasant activity, such as playing sports, dancing or listening to music. You can also practise specific techniques that are based on the principles of relaxation. The Asians are the ones who master this type of techniques, which are spreading quickly all over the world. Two examples of these practices are yoga (originally from India) and tai chi (coming from China). Besides helping you to relax, these techniques are excellent for stretching and toning your muscles, so you can kill two birds with a stone!

To watch what yoga practising looks like, check out this video:

Yoga Practice
Tai Chi Practice

Do you live a healthy life? Which of the healthy habits we've talked about in these two posts do you have? Have you ever done yoga or tai chi? Would you like to try? How about unhealthy habits? Please feel free to make any comments on our Google Classroom group. Moreover, remember this unit's special project consists of making a presentation about different healthy and unhealthy habits, so you can take a look at both previous and following posts in this unit to get ideas about that topic.

See you in class!

Unit 11 - Self-assessment

We reached the end of Unit 11 and now it's time to check what you've learned. Tick all statements that are true for you.

• I can give details about the weather situation
• I know several phrasal verbs in English
• I can make a presentation on recycling
• I can make use of the Passive Voice in my language practice
• I can write an opinion article

If you ticked them all, congratulations and keep it up! If not, don't give up and keep practicing!

Unit 11 - Recycling and reusing

In order to protect our planet, there's something really easy that we can do, recycling our rubbish and reusing the things we don't need any more. Let's have a look now at what can be done with recycled materials:
Recycling Hacks

Precious Plastic

What do you think? Do you recycle? Can you think of any useful ways of reusing your rubbish? Comment on our Google Classroom group.

Recycling and reusing tips will actually be our next class project, so start looking for ideas, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

See you in class!

Unit 11 - Save Our Planet!

Nowadays, everyone's aware of the importance of protecting the environment, there's a general feeling in all of us telling us we've been doing wrong all this time and we couldn't just keep treating our planet like that. However, lately, we've been feeling the consequences of all we've done this time, and it seems there's no turning back. All over the world, there have been great weather changes: longer summers, more extreme temperatures, violent nature phenomena, etc. The Earth is behaving in a way it never did before, like warning us we've been doing quite a lot of harm to it. 

Scientists all over the world have come to the conclusion those big weather changes are occurring because of a phenomenon known as global warming, caused by the greenhouse effect. Because of the great amount of pollution thrown into the air, we've turned the atmosphere in a sort of greenhouse ceiling, keeping the world's temperature warm and not letting it breathe. This is not good for nature, since, as it occurs with real greenhouses, life cycles are distorted and growing rythms accelerate. As a consequence, plants are starting to grow in different seasons as they were, creating great confusion in animals. Also, because the world's temperature is getting hotter and hotter, the poles are melting quickly, changing animals' environment and making the oceans contain more water.

If this dangerous situation continues, and the poles keep melting, oceans can overflow, and floods would sink islands and cities by the sea. This is not a legend or an exaggeration, it's something it's already happening, and it'll get worse if we don't act. Global warming has been ignored by governments before, which kept allowing factories to produce all toxic gases they wanted. However, a documentary made by American former vice-president Al Gore showed us all what was really happening. This documentary is called An Inconvenient Truth, and it proves how governments knew about this phenomenon, but preferred to hide it, because causing pollution was just making them richer and richer. This documentary was awarded with two Oscars in 2006. If you haven't watched it yet, check it out, it's worth it a look. 11 years later, Al Gore presented the second part, called An Inconvenient Sequel, and this is an interview in which he explains why he decided to make a sequel:

An Inconvenient Sequel - Truth to Power

What do you think of global warming? Do you think governments are doing enough to fight against it? Do you think we can solve this problem or it just can't be undone? As always, feel free to make any comments on our Google Classroom group.

See you and be nice to our planet!