Will, will, will

My students don’t believe will can be used to talk about the present: typical behaviour, annoying habits. They will accuse me of having made this up just to prevent them from being happy. They will complain about the English language being so economical. They will state this is misleading. They will claim this is impossible to understand. They will refuse to use it. They will declare they have been taught will is used to talk about the future.

The burden of proof is on me. You can read this post about annoying habits at work and, above all, read the comments; (especially what Debbie, Sam and anomanuss wrote). You’ll (this time: future) see will IS used for the present. Accept the reality.

Overwhelmed by tenses in English? Study Hopi. According to Whorf (The Sapir-Worph hypothesis: language shapes thought), the Hopi language does not distinguish between past, present or future!!!

Will (What’s this "will"?) you use will in the comments?

Warning: If you are an intermediate or pre-intermediate student, please forget this post right now.

Is your vote your own voice?

According to an article written by Allyn Jackson published in the American Mathematical Society website, voting is not the fairest way to come to decisions.
The mathematician Donald Saari proved that it is possible to make voters approve of one option over the other until they choose the desired one.

Read the article, it is not difficult to read; just use the logical side of your brain.

Your Vote IS Your Voice
Originally uploaded by D.James.

Acknowledgement: I first read this article in Adrian Paenza's book "Mathemática, ¿estás ahí?" (Siglo XXI Editores Argentina S.A., 2005), a book I highly recommend, especially to those (like me) who have always hated Maths because you have always thought that it was only about numbers.

Even though mathematics can prove our decisions may be biased, I still think voting is a tool to make our voice heard. Not the only one, though.
What do you think?

Downpour

Yesterday only four of my 6^th year students came to class. Four courageous students who decided to face the downpour. Buenos Aires was a pool, but they came to their English class.

We decided not to be original and talked about the rain. Fede said he didn’t mind walking in the rain and told us why. (I’m not going to tell you why or give you any other interesting piece of information (gossip) provided in the class. You should have been there.)

The fact of staying in the rain and not running for shelter reminded me of a poem by Charles Bukowski called Rain. You can read it here.

Downpour
by R.A.M.O.N.E..

He’s not Maxi. But if someone had taken a photo of him crossing 9 de Julio Av., he would have looked just like this.

Srayat! :p

d by Al- Fassam.

This could be a picture of the stairs leading to the ground floor at about 7pm.

So, what happened to the rest of you? Did you swim? Take a boat? What? And the ones who came, did you have problems to come back home? I did. There was no subway, only a few buses were running and the taxis had vanished.

Benjamin Zephaniah

If you want to read more poems by Benjamin Zephaniah, visit his website.

There is an open space for people to publish their poems and letters and he also suggests some tips on how to find your own rhythm ; he provides hints like this: “You know if you have rhythm or not, so if it don’t fit don’t force it. Forget the contract, forget your peers, and be honest. You must be able to look your writing in the face the next morning”.

by mardy1.

Just to see how popular his poems are have a look at these windows in Sheffield. Isn’t it amazing? Wouldn’t you like to have windows like these here in Buenos Aires? Which poet would you choose?

White Comedy: Glossary

French Students of English

Listen to them taking about what stresses them and how they deal with it.

Do you feel stressed when you talk in English? Would you speak to a camera?

Obstacles to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Learning

Listen to this teacher of English. Do you agree with him?

Same Difference

EinM3

We’ve read and talked about cultural influences and immigration. We’ve talked about fitting in or feeling left out. All the expressions we’ve learnt are implicit in Same Difference by Alex Maskall (2005), a one minute film about isolation in a new community.

The video is uploaded in theoneminutesjr. network, a non-commercial community which gives young people (between the ages of 12 and 20) the opportunity to have their voices heard.

We are going to learn how to write film reviews later on, but anyway I’d really like to know what you think about this film. You can double post your comment, here and in theoneminutesjr website.

Memorable Images

IOU

I’ve been trying hard to choose my most memorable image of the twentieth century and I’ve just come up with one: the first time the Rolling Stones came to Argentina. I cannot say this was the highlight of my whole life, but it was a momentous event.

When I was in my very early teens (that moment in life in which you actually fall in love with stars), I was in love with Mick Jagger. Twenty-five years later, the image of Jagger jumping and singing on stage just a few metres away became truly memorable.

I couldn't get a photo of that concert, but I managed to find my ticket.

What about your most memorable moment?