The great jaffa cake debate

The issue (or spectre?) of VAT was raised in class today, and we had a little discussion about which kinds of products should and shouldn't be exempt from sales tax. The magazine Which? has this neat little summary of the issue. If you are interested in following up the question of whether or not a jaffa cake is a luxury or a necessity, you can read this BBC blog post (or here for a more of a foodie angle). Before today I wasn't aware that the heart of the problem for McVities was that only chocolate-coated biscuits are considered a luxury...

Hamlet in 2 minutes 28 seconds

Notes from Southend

Despite salvaging the missing word file late in the day, I still managed to lose half of the notes from today's class in Southend. After our discussion of gambling and the difference between either electronic or casino-based roulette and Russian roulette (click here for an audiovisual example from The Deer Hunter) we looked at the use of language in this Guardian article about a couple who have just won £56million on the lottery. Issues that came up were white vans, the verb "reveal" and the differences between "job" and "jobs", and "quit" and "hand in your notice". We also spoke about culture of understatement and irony that seems prevalent in Britain...something that you might be able to spot in this clip from the film Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail.

Shaun of the Dead

Two introductions to Shaun of the Dead...the official trailer:



...and if you click here, an attempt to splice scenes together in order to tell the whole story in five minutes.

Thawb Thursday

The powerpoint file from Thursday afternoon's Graduate Diploma class is here for you to download, along with this word file, featuring class notes and the boards from our game of AWL Collocations Noughts and Crosses (which sounds much more glamorous than it is...)

If you're interested in loanwords like "thawb", you can find lots of them here on (sorry) Wikipedia...but don't be too quick to trust everything you read there!

Q&A: Steve Coogan

This week we'll be using some questions from the Q&A page of the Guardian Weekend Magazine. This week's edition features a question and answer session with a British comedian called Steve Coogan. You can read it here, or just watch the video below of Steve in action:

H is for Oss - The Black Country Alphabet

Useful newspaper article of the day...

...I'm not saying I'll do this every day, of course...that would be far too predictable (not to mention time-consuming) but today's Guardian has some useful advice on buying cheap train tickets in the UK:

Click here for Miles Brignall's article

Mind Your Language : Juice

I should apologise in advance for any borderline (or blatant) racism in this old British sitcom, but it may at least raise a few smiles...I'm not sure why this teacher doesn't correct the Italian student's pronunciation of "lemon juice".

Free TV

Don't worry if you have no TV in your house or can only get a snowy picture (like me), there are plenty of programmes available free online. In class I told you about BBC iPlayer - you might like to try an episode of Dragon's Den to start with - but you can also find lots of online TV content on the ITV and Channel 4 websites.

Buckingham Palace

Not really my cup of tea, to be honest, but if the trip to Buckingham Palace inspired you to find out more about the British monarchy, you can visit their website. You could also benefit from some listening practice by exploring their broadcasts, like this lecture by Prince Charles (the one with the big ears):

Newspapers

As a follow-up to today's class, it might be a good idea to bookmark this very useful website which basically provides links to online versions of lots of national and local newspapers from the UK. Many of these websites contain much more than what you would find in the daily publication of the paper, and contain searchable archives of articles.

Folktales

We'll look at these in more depth in class when we analyse YOUR writing, but here are a few links to versions of the stories you wrote in class. First we have the intriguingly-titled Billy Goat's Gruff, a variation of which Khalid told Mo. The Fox and the Crow can be found in Aesop's Fables, which you can find free and in full online. The day's most popular story was The Boy Who Cried Wolf, although Sondos' version had a sheep doing the crying. Finally, there's a nice version of The Three Little Pigs here, with lovely pictures. I don't know the story of the farmer and the widow with her box of money, so I'm looking forward to finding out how that one ends...

The class handout is available here.

Online TV and Radio Resources

While you're in the UK you can take advantage of quite a lot of free online content provided by the major terrestrial channels in this country. The BBC iPlayer site has TV and radio shows that can be streamed or downloaded (with a fast enough internet connection). You'll need to download some simple software to download programmes, but it's easy to do and instructions are on the site. 4OD is Channel 4's TV and film on-deman website, and contains a range of programmes and movies, some of which you have to pay for. Most Channel 4 programmes from the past week are available for free, though, and so too are previous episodes of these shows (something the BBC don't offer). Unfortunately (or fortunately for me maybe), I don't watch much on ITV, so I've never used the imaginatively named ITV Player, but it appears to work in much the same way as the other major channels' websites. Just don't try to talk to me about Britain's Got Talent. Finally, if you're after some more academic audio to listen to, you can read a post I wrote last summer here...when I get the time I'll have a look for more of this kind of thing. Happy viewing...

Last Christmas

Advent

Today, the 1st of December, is the first day of advent, which you can find out more about here. To me, it's only about advent calendars - a way of eating a different piece of chocolate per day for twenty four consecutive days. Why not?

I searched for online advent calendars and found a cute one for kids here and one with stupid games each day here. Enjoy.

Limmericks

There was an old man from Peru
Who dreamt he was eating his shoe.
He awoke in a fright
In the middle of the night
And found it was perfectly true.

There once was a girl from Great Britain
Who carelessly sat on her kitten
Imagine her surprise
and the look in her eyes
when on the behind she was bitten.

There was a young man from Shizuoka
Who was famous for being a joker
He won lots of mates
And went on thousands of dates
But he lost all his money at poker.

There was a young woman from Gunma
With a wonderfully good sense of humour.
She told great jokes
To hundreds of blokes
And even told one to a puma.

A nice young man from Miyazaki
Thought that bright colours looked tacky
He dressed in grey sack
Or completely in black
And once every month he wore khaki.

There was a girl from Yokohama
Who once went to school in pyjamas
Her friends said "no way!"
So on the next day
She dressed up as Barack Obama.

A young girl from Yokohama
Was talented on the piana
She played it with great style
Cause her fingers were agile
Until her brother hit them with a hammer.

Norwegian Wood

I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me...
She showed me her room, isn't it good, Norwegian wood?

She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere,
So I looked around and I noticed there wasn't a chair.

I sat on a rug,  biding my time, drinking her wine,

We talked until two and then she said, "It's time for bed"

She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh.
I told her I didn't and crawled off to sleep in the bath

And when I awoke, I was alone, this bird had flown
So I lit a fire, isn't it good, Norwegian wood.

Proverbs

Proverbs from today's EC:

Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

Don't count your chickens until they've hatched.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

There are plenty more fish in the sea.

A stitch in time saves nine.

More haste less speed.

Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

There's no use crying over spilled milk.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

UK Forms of Address

Just in case you ever get the chance to meet a VIP in the UK, you can check this Wikipedia list of ways to address people according to their social status.  

Do you know the very handsome man in this picture?  He's 60 years old today...

Just in case you missed it, here's the vocabulary from today's class:

JOBS: prince, refuse collector, doctor, professional sportsperson, soldier, police officer, company director, waiter, construction worker, yakuza hitman, cleaner, high school teacher, prime minister, actor, nurse, beggar, shop assistant, taxi driver

QUESTIONS and PREFERENCES:

Would you rather be a _______ or a _______?

Who do you respect more: _______ or _______?

What do you call your _______?

How do / would you address _______?

I'd rather b a _______ than a _______ because...

If I was a _______ I'd...

I have more respect for _______ than _______