Time to take some time off, time to grow up, time to think about time

I have been planning a lesson on time for some time(!) now. But it is dragging its feet and I don't feel I am making much of a progress. This is how it often works with me: I have a key word (or two) : secrets, magic, circus, conspiracy and what not, and I try to take it from there. The problem is the world seems to be in such a hurry, that there is never enough.... time to really sit down and do some through research.

I have been recently listening to Digital Human (BBC radio 4 is a good address if in need for inspiration), and there obviously is a programme entitled TIME.

Digital Human part by Aleks Krotoski


There I learned about Cathy Haynes, a British Artist who, among others, specialises in interpreting and working with the concept of time. Suffices to say that she was a Timekeeper in residence at Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. She is also behind a project called Stereochron Island (which is Victoria Park in London)

a place with no time

known also as a State Without Clocks.

The whole idea obviously raises a question of whether it is possible to live outside time.
How our lives would change if, all of a sudden, we found ourselves without seconds and minutes?

Today is actually a good day to talk about it, as we have changed from the summer to winter time, which I personally was not aware of till I noticed the incongruity between my watch and the computer clock, and realised that I had this extra hour to fill in.

It makes you feel a bit uneasy, knowing that something which is supposed to be so solid can be such a flexible and an extensible thing, that we could remove or add to it at will.
But that brings us obviously to the whole problem of time perception, and how it changes depending on our age or the activity that we are doing.

As for other sources on time:
there is a whole chapter (number 12) devoted to time in New Headway Upper intermediate

you will find here some general information about the book

Well, it may not be extraordinarily original, but the quiz on HOW WELL YOU USE YOUR TIME sounds like a good idea for a warm up exercise. It contains questions such as : How would you describe your pace of life?
or
How many things you have begun and not finished in the last few years?
or
How do you keep in touch with your friends?

There you will also find, among others, exercise detailing different stages of our lives from infancy to old age, a text on the Isle of Muck (Scottish islands lend themselves well to this particular topic), "Where time stands still", a good illustration of what it really means to live outside time.
And, to finish with the Headway, I also like their HOT WORDS exercise where you have to classify the expressions according to whether they are used with the word LIFE or TIME:
to obtain, eg. a cushy time, in the nick of time, dead on time, better luck next time.

For more vocabulary exercises have a look at Oxford Word Skills Series:

Word Skills

Let me just add that it is organised in a very encouraging way, clearly stating that after each unit we have gained a particular skill, eg: I can discuss time management" (Unit 49)  advanced level or "I can discuss the past, present, and future" (Unit 57 of the same book).

You will find there words/expressions such as:
with hindsight, before my time, to schedule, time passes, elapses, goes by.....
used in context, explained and tested.

I also like their Phrasal Verbs and Idioms series ( I only have a mini sample version myself) but I have found a chapter on time there as well.

Conclusion, as far as vocabulary goes, we are spoilt for choice.

Time is often linked to the topic of work, and so in business oriented books you can also find chapters devoted to it, for example, Business Results per-intermediate Chapter 14 - Oxford University Press. I know it is a per-intermediate level, so you can expect quite basic vocabulary, but the ideas can be as fresh as spring vegetables (if I am allowed to make such a comparison). Business Results have at the end of each chapter a case study exercise which in the case of chapter 14 is about negotiating new schedules.

In Company another business workbook by Macmillan this time, offers strategies for managing your time, and asks what you would do if you had an extra hour per day?

Time for videos:

I admit that procrastination is a recurring theme in relation to time:

and so you have got it on YOU ARE NOT SO SMART channel:

procrastination number 1

and here from TALES OF MERE EXISTENCE  which Jamie Keddie used in his lessons

procrastination number 2

and here by John Kelly

procrastination according to the principle: "third time lucky"

by now you will surely have had enough of procrastination.

So just to change the subject a bit and come back to the time management problem:

you could try the American time management guru Tim Ferriss

Time management according to Tim Ferriss



I am going to leave you today with T.S. Eliot's.....

".....question on your plate;

Time for you and time for me,

And time yet for a hundred indecisions,

And for a hundred visions and revisions,

Before the taking of a toast and tea
(....)

And indeed there will be time

To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

Time to turn back and descend the stair
(...)

Do I dare

Disturb the universe?"

Creative games for bored students

Hello,



Today, I would like to share some of the creative challenges that you can find in Tanner Christensen's book "The Creativity Challenge" but not only. I don't think Christensen's book is aimed directly at teaching a foreign language, but still, his ideas lend themselves easily to teaching and can be used as end of the lesson/beginning of the lesson activities, but also developed into fully-fledged blocks.

Here we go.

IDEA Number 1.

Making a RUBE GOLDBERG machine, which means, for those of you unfamiliar with the concept, a deliberately over-complicated device used to perform a very simple function. So for example, something that resembles Kermit the Frog's machine for activating the "on" switch on the radio.

IDEA Number 2.

Give students the first lines of famous, but not necessarily, novels without providing them with the titles, and ask them to come up with the first paragraph of the novel. There are quite a few exercises possible based on the idea of using the first lines from books. I personally got inspired after listening to a BBC radio 4 programme by Tim Key entitled:

Tim Key's Suspended Sentence

And so, to come back to the main topic: what about giving students the beginning and the ending and ask what happens in the middle? Or put everything upside down and start from the ending?

IDEA Number 3.

Since students are often tired and bored, why not taking advantage of that and do a role playing exercise where they are to act out as somebody who is purposefully boring?

IDEA Number 4.

Christensen's book encourages the reversal technique quite a lot, and so he puts forward the idea of
flipping things upside down, using a camera to take an upside-down picture or simply looking at the world through such a reversed perspective. In the same style, he writes about reversing a daily routine.

IDEA Number 5.

Listing alternative uses for ordinary objects.

IDEA Number 6.

Using the Six Thinking Hats technique to solve a problem. It is a very good speaking exercise, forcing students to concentrate on a particular point of view. The technique was invented by Edward de Bono and is used by companies. Each hat has a different colour, and each colour represents a different perspective:

the white hat  = is concerned with facts and figures
the red one = is related to emotions
the black one = focuses on the negative aspects and why something cannot be done
the yellow = is all about optimism and hope
the green = is interested in creative solutions and quirky ideas
and the blue = is all about control and organisation, and so represents probably the most methodical approach

IDEA Number 7

Looking at an ordinary situation through a magnifying glass and describing a recent experience in as many details as possible, good for practicing specific words, which students rarely use, for example specific patterns, noises, movement verbs etc.

IDEA Number 8

As far as distorted descriptions go, try also the following, imagine that an everyday object, or a part of your body got all of a sudden a hundred, a thousand times bigger or smaller, how would it affect your life and your behaviour?

IDEA Number 9

Describe something complex to a child.

IDEA Number 10

There are many more ideas in Christensen's book.
But there are also many other inspirations our there:

I would also encourage you to have a look at the Odyssey of the Mind website.
Here it is:

 http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/curriculum.php

Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program (as we can read on their website) that is aimed at the younger and older students and which encourages them to find creative solutions to various problems. It really does make young people face serious challenges that vary in scope from physics and chemistry to literature and film.

What does it mean to be a teacher wherever you are?

I was wondering what is it like to be a teacher in the place where your live?
What is your personal experience of teaching in that particular place?
What obstacles do you encounter? 
And what are the pluses of this job, again from what you have experienced?
What is the educational system in your place like? 
What does it take to become a teacher in terms of diplomas?
What are the students, on the whole, like, and their attitude to learning a language?
Do you use any particular methods, are they imposed or a matter of individual choice?
Because I am interested in language teaching, I was wondering what the general approach to teaching languages is in your country?
And finally, money wise, is it a job worth having? 

It could be more than interesting to compare and contrast the experiences of people from different countries....

Let's go for poetry

 

 

    John Updike MIRROR
  
    When you look kool uoy nehW
into a mirror rorrim a otni
it is not ton si ti
yourself you see, ,ees uoy flesruoy
but a kind dnik a tub
of apish error rorre hsipa fo
posed in fearful lufraef ni desop
symmetry. .yrtemmys

                                                                        
                                                 Charles Simic WATERMELONS

Green Buddhas

On the fruit stand.

We eat the smile

And spit out their teeth.

 

Hi there,

Ideas is what keeps companies, individuals and the whole world going.
What are we waiting for then? 
Let us pour some of the things that have been sitting in our heads, out on our keyboards. Tiny, as they may seem to be, they may give rise to something substantial.
I am going to start the list:

I used to learn German, in the days of yore. I had two different teachers. One of the them made us learn dialogues by heart, that we presented later on in front of everybody - not a very ingenious way teaching a language. The second one, however, taught, using a textbook composed of poems, and, even tough, German was not my cup of tea, to put it mildly, I find this method fascinating. I tried to locate this book, unfortunately, I can recall neither the author, not the title. The book started with basic poems, that you can create using 5 or 6 words (J.Prévert was quite good at it), and then they slowly grew in complexity. Can you imagine the feeling when you realise, especially as a beginner, that you have just understood/written a poem in a foreign language? I don't know about you, but it did give me the impression of making the giant leap, Armstrong was talking about. I am not saying that we should all go and rely on books of poetry in teaching a language, but I have a feeling we neglect the importance of poetry in ELT ( poems are, after all, excellent mnemonic devices), fun (limericks, or playing out poems in class, turning them into one man shows) and beautiful (haiku). I remember that transforming Kathrine Mansfield's prose into short haiku-like forms was very rewarding.
If you know of any other ways of using poetry, agree or disagree with me, you know where to find me.

Have a sneaky peak at the Austin Kleon's website about BLACKOUT POETRY, 
and don't miss out his motto: "Be a teacher and remain a student".

http://austinkleon.com/category/newspaper-blackout-poems/


I have also come across a book called THOUGHTINGS (and have recently become its happy owner). It is a collection of poems, philosophical questions, paradoxes and puzzles for both children and adults. Written by Peter Worley and Andrez Day with the aim of "transforming thinking in education". Each theme is introduced by a short poem and followed by a series of questions. The themes range from "Word Wonders" through "Number Wonders", "Space, Time and Other Weird Things" to "You, Me, Aliens and Others"....

 
I haven't had a chance to use it yet in my classes, but constantly flip through it when I am short of ideas.


 
I am going to leave you with this little gem:

"Writing a book of poetry 

is like dropping a rose petal 

down the Grand Canyon 

and waiting for the echo."

                                       

                                                                        Don Marquis

A success story that you will like

Let me tell you a few things about the story behind the now well-known Cambridge Satchel Company. The story of its success is an incredible one, if you take into consideration the different odds that were against it, you will have to admit it yourself. I was personally recently inspired by Julie Deane's (Julie Dean is the founder of the firm) who is a very optimistic and motivating person, that's why I wanted to mention it here, and also because I am doing a lesson on companies with my students tomorrow, and so it will be a great opportunity to introduce them to Cambridge satchels, to the idea of presenting a company and all this while putting across the wait- a- second-i -could- do-it-myself message.

Just listen to some of the facts:

The company was created in 2008 in Cambridge, England with 600- pounds budget (no, it is not a mistake, six hundred, that's right). The budget was enough to produce six bags. Six years later the company makes 500 bags every single day.

The business idea grew when Julie Deane was a full time mum and when she realised that her daughter was being bullied at school. She then promised her children to put them in a private school, where the tuition fees amounted to some 15,000 pounds.

She was determined enough to sit down and come up with 10 ideas that could earn her this sort of money. And this is how she decided to go for the satchels. 

On her own, without any prior knowledge, she created her website using the Microsoft web tutorial in three nights. She is also behind the creation of the logo (some copying and pasting of various online images), which proves that what we need most of all is not money but resourcefulness.

For quite a while her own kitchen served as the company's office, which led to some funny situations, like those when she was clinching deals with Harrods or Selfridges while cooking dinner, or when, in her reply to a journalist's question, she gave the name of her dog - Rupert as the security agent in order to give the impression that the company was bigger than it really was (at that time, there were only two people in the firm - Julie Deane and her 70 year old mum).

Her bags have reached the top end of the market, and these days, Julie Deane often visits schools to egg young people on and help them believe in themselves and their ideas, spreading the message that the fact of being at school doesn't prevent them from setting up their own ventures.

Doesn't it give you wings?

Below, two videos you may want to see, one was made by Google, the other by Fedex. They both present Cambridge Satchel Company in two different ways:

Books you should read

I promised you the second part of the "Words, words.... " this time with books that I find interesting. Well, as with any list of books, it is hundred per cent subjective, and so feel free to disagree with me, and enrich it with your own ideas. Books are among those rare things that can help us change our minds, and view things from a different angle. So much for the introduction, let's get down to business...

Number one (it is not a ranking, so it doesn't mean that number one is the best, the worst or mid-range).

A Spanish illustrator - Luci Gutierrez wrote "English in not easy", as we can learn from the preface to the book, as a self-help book for herself, as learning English wasn't her favourite activity. It won't be an original remark if I say that her book is very different from what we are used to as teachers and learners. It made me laugh reading some of the comments of people on Amazon France who seem slightly shocked by what they found inside. The illustrations are quirky indeed, no doubt about that, which characterises Luci Gutierrez's dark sense of humour, but, first of all, one shouldn't take this book too seriously, and secondly, I don't think that it really creates such a big threat to a decent person's life, you are not, after all, going to recommend it to a 6 year- old, are you?

Somebody else mentioned the mistakes they have found in the first three chapters (the misspelled word "daughter", and "lose" as well as misused relative pronoun "who"), I have had a look at my copy, went through the first three chapters twice, found indeed the words "daughter" spelled the way it should be, correctly used "whom" and no mention of the verb "lose". It is obviously possible that I haven't spotted them or maybe I have got a different edition (2nd edition by a Spanish publishing house Blackie Books). Whatever the reason, mistakes is not something that stands out in this book, and believe me, I would have a lot to say about the French books aimed at BTS students that come out in France almost yearly and the errors they contain. BTS by the way, for those of you who haven't got a clue what I am talking about, is a 2 year post A-level diploma, which is very popular in France.

And so I find this book refreshing, and captivating enough for (older) students who (don't take things so seriously) and are SO SO bored with the ordinary, the usual, the conventional workbooks. I also think that anything that breaks the mundane is worth at least having a look at.

Below you will find a link to the amazon's website:





If you would like to have a look inside click on this link:
ENGLISH IS NOT EASY



I have asked Lucie Gutierrez three questions about her experience of learning English:
you will find her answers below:

could you describe, in a few words, your adventure with learning English?

It was a pain in the neck for long time but at some point learning English became something fun, I started to see it as a game. And actually, I'm still on it.  I don't see the end but I'm stubborn. 

do you have a method of learning languages that works for you? any book that you like?

Blog/podcasts/videos or anything else that you find inspiring?

I wish I had a magical method, but I don't. The best way to learn a language is spending some time in a country that speaks this language or getting a native speaker boyfriend/girlfriend instead. Failing that, I listen and read in English often.I like to listen to podcasts such as This American Life or The Moth. The stories are so interesting that I forget that I'm listening to them in English.

  is there an English word/expression that you particularly   
  like?

    I like English euphemisms such as "Oh My Gosh!" or "Heck!"

Words, words, words...

Hello again,

You  must have your favourite words/ expressions in English?
Something that sounds interesting or weird enough....

Here are some of mine:
"handbagging" (entered the language thanks to Margaret Thatcher and her habit of intimidating others with her handbag  (Macmillan Open Dictionary)

Macmillan dictionary

flip flopping
serendipity 
or 
creepy crawlies
and
pukka
 

I am writing about words as I thought we often ask students to remember lists of mundane vocabulary, too often related to completely artificial sounding "professional" English.

..... and we hardly ever talk about the words themselves, or the beauty of the language or simply its weirdness.

Here are some ideas for using the language itself as the main topic of a lesson.

Why don't we start with Victor Hertz and his music posters? A guessing game and music  - sounds like quite a good combination.



 


 for more visit:

Victor Hertz

It can also be a language quiz. Here are some excerpts from Bill Bryson's "The Mother Tongue"

. In English RIDE has just 5 forms; the same verb in German has sixteen. In Russian, nouns can have up to twelve inflections and adjectives as many as sixteen.

. We seldom stop to think how complicated and illogical English is. Take the simple word WHAT. Imagine trying to explain to a foreigner what  WHAT means. It takes the Oxford English Dictionary five pages and almost 15,000 words to manage the task.

 

. People can feel extremely strong about the matters related to a language. The Basque separatist organisation ETA has committed around 700 murders in the name of linguistic and cultural independence.

. There are 250 irregular verbs in English (this number is always fluid)

. Mario Pei (an Italian-American linguist) puts the number of British dialects at forty two.

.We have some forty sounds in English, but more than 200 ways of spelling them (e.g. the ‘sh’ sound can be written in up to 14 different ways – shoe, sugar, passion, ocean …..)

. English grammar is so complex and confusing because it is based on the rules of Latin,

with which English has little in common. It’s like asking people to play baseball using the rules of football.

. Swearing seems to have some universal qualities. It often involves one of the following; filth, the forbidden and the sacred, and usually all three. Most of our swear words have considerable antiquity. F* first appears in print in 1503 in a poem by the Scottish poet, William Dunbar. However, it fell out of general use. Before 1503, the vulgar words for sex was swive. F* must be one of  the most versatile of all the English words. It can express making a mess out of something (f*  up), inviting somebody to go away (f* off), being surprised (I’m f* if I know), being


What you can do is remove the figures and try to make students guess which number fits a given gap best. 


It is also a good opportunity to mention the good old Cockney with their bacon and legs, apples and pears and bees and honey.... 
You can even turn it into a good rhyming game (once students get the hang of it, they become pretty good). Below two (our of many) websites for some inspiration....

Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney slang

There is a very good video made by the Open University about the English language:

I have tested it few times and it does keep students interested. 
You don't have to use the whole video (as it is 10 minutes long). On the Open University youtube channel you should be able to find shorter fragments as well.

Personally, I take the risk of playing the video from the beginning till the end...
I have pasted the exercise my students have to do (poor creatures) while watching. If it is too much of a challenging to do it individually, they can work in groups, say one group concentrated on the first 2 parts, the other on the next 2, etc.

THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH IN 10 MINUTES

Chapter 1

Germanic tribes Anglo – Saxons  450 AD gave the English names for simple

everyday words. Four days of the week were also named after Anglo-Saxon 1………………………..

Christian missionaries appeared in 597AD bringing with them Latin words like: martyr, bishop, font (fonts baptismaux)

Then came the Vikings (c.800) bringing with them around 2……………………. words. Among them; drag, ransack, thrust and die.

Chapter 2

The Norman Conquest 3…………………………………….

William the Conqueror invaded England bringing with him a bunch of French words;

Council (1125), Clerk (1129), Parliament (1290), Sovereign, (1290), Judge (1290), jury (1400), evidence (1300) and justice (1154).

“Cow, sheep and swine” were given their French equivalents “beef, 4………………………. and pork”.

All in all, the English absorbed around 10,000 words from the Normans.

The Norman rule ended when the 100 years war finished. (1453)

Chapter 3

William Shakespeare invented about 2,000 new words: “eyeball, puppy dog, anchovy,dauntless (intrépide), besmirch (= ternir, entracher) and lacklustre (=terne, peu brilliant), alligator, the hob-nob” ( to … with = frayer avec) and phrases such us:” eat our flesh and blood out of 5…………………………………………………. (= ruiner qn), good riddance (= bon débarras!), break the ice, as dead as a door nail, to get your money’s worth, to be given a short shrift (= envoyer promener qn), to lay it on with a trial, to be 6………………………… with one’s own petard(= être pris à son propre piège).

Chapter 4

The King James’s Bible  (1611)

It introduced the following expressions:

“leopard can’t change its 7…………………….” (= on ne peu pas changer sa nature)

“a bird in a hand is worth two in a 8………………………” (= un tiens vaut mieux que deux tu l’auras”

“a wolf in sheep’s clothing”

“a fly in ointment”

Chapter 5

The English of science

British physicists of the 17^th century: Robert Hook, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton.

The Royal Society was formed in 9……………………………….

Science gave us words like “acid (1626), gravity (1641), electricity (1646), pendulum (1660)

Words related to human body: cardiac (1601), 10……………………….. (1601), ovary (1658) and sternum (1667), penis (1693) and vagina (1682).

Chapter 6

English and Empire:

The Caribbean – barbecue (11…………………………), canoe (1550), cannibal (1550)

India – yoga (1820), cummerbund (= ceinture) (1610), bungalow (1670)

Africa – voodoo  (1850) , zombie (1871),

Australia – nugget (1852), boomerang (1827), walkabout (1828)  (=voyage d’un aborigine)

Between Napoleon and the WW1 the British Empire gobbled up around 10 m square miles, 400 million people and nearly a 12………………………………………. gin and tonics.

Chapter 7

The Age of the dictionary

Lexicographers wanted to standardise English. One of them was dr Johnson who created the first English dictionary in 1733. (It took him 13……………………………. years to write it).

The dictionary contained 42,773 entries. Among the new words were – pickleherring (= buffoon), jobbernowl, fopdoodle ( a stupid person, a fool)

In 1857 a second dictionary started being written, it took 70 years to finish and it was to finally published in 1928 under the title: the 14……………………………………….. Dictionary. It has continued to be revised ever since.

Chapter 8

American English

The first Brits to land in America borrowed words for plants and animals from the native Americans – racoon (= raton laveur), squash, moose.
Waves of immigrants contributed to the development of the American English: the Dutch brought coleslaw and 15…………………………., the Germans – pretzels, delicatessens (= épicerie fine), the Italians – pizza, pasta and … mafia.

A new language of capitalism appeared with words like – break even, bottomline, blue chip, white-collar worker, freeways, subways, parking lots, merger, 16……………………………………...

Cool American movies and their 17…………………………. jazz (1937) (= sensass, vachement bien) moved across the ocean to Europe.

Americans continued using words that the British replaced long time ago:

Am E                                          Br E

Fall                                                 Autumn

Faucet                                            18………………………………….

Diapers                                          Nappies

Candy                                            Sweets (or NHS dental care)

Chapter 9

Internet English

19……………………………………. the first e-mails was sent, and with it came the Internet brining words such us “download”, (1980), “toolbar” (199)1, “firewall”l (1990).

It also started the abbreviation trend IMHO ‘= 20………………………………………………………………………………………………………………, BTW, FAIL, FYR, LOL, UG2BK….

Chapter 10

Global English

English has borrowed words from over 21………………………… languages.

22…………………………………….. bn people speak English. Out of them a quarter are native speakers, a quarter speak it as a second language and a half are able to ask for directions to a swimming pool….

There is Hinglish, Chinglis, Singlish….

Expect to find some really interesting books on language in the second part....
so stay tuned.