Happy New Year!

 

 

 
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Today is New Year’s Eve and tomorrow is
New Year’s Day!!
 

 

 
Did you know that the New Year’s Eve ball on Time Square originated when New York City banned fireworks because they were too dangerous?
 

 

The owner of the New York Times newspaper ordered an illuminated seven-hundred-pound iron and wood ball to be lowered from the tower flagpole (77 feet, 23 meters) precisely at midnight to signal the end of 1907.
 
In 1914, The New York Times relocated to West 43rd Street but New Year’s Eve in Times Square was already a part of American’s tradition.
 

 

Today’s Time Square New Year’s Eve Ball was designed by Waterford Crystal. The ball weighs 11,875-pounds and is 12-feet in diameter. It is lowered starting at 11:59:00pm and reaching the bottom of its tower 60 seconds. Watch it live here: TIMES SQUARE
 
 

 

For many people, New Year’s is not complete without the song Auld Lang Syne, especially in Scotland, but also in the US and other countries. I’m sure you have heard this song many times! What do the words mean? Many of us have no idea! It is a very nostalgic song about old friends and old times.The song is actually a poem by Robert Burns set to music. Listen to it here: AULD LANG SYNE

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the words in English and Spanish on Wikipedia (where else?) here: LYRICS

 

 

 

A little vocab to bring in the new year!

 

  • ban = similar to prohibit, especially in a legal sense
  • fireworks = colorful explosions you see in the sky to celebrate important holidays
  • to be lowered = similar to descend
  • flagpole = a tall pole where you put, guess what? Right, a flag!
Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on Google+

Common Mistakes in English. Do you speak Spanglish?

 
I have a job interview tomorrow!
 
GRAMÁTICA INGLESA
ERROR EN INGLÉS
 
 
WRONG That’s a good news!
WRONG That’s a good new!
RIGHT That’s good news!
 
Wow! A lot of confusion with this word, “NEWS“!!
 
The word “NEWS” is singular and non-countable. That means it is NEVER PLURAL and you can NEVER HAVE ONE OR TWO OR THREE!
 
Oh dear, what does that mean?
 

 

It means even if you are talking about one thing only, it’s still GOOD NEWS. NOT a good news and NOT a good new. Never!
 
You can say “some news” or “a piece of news“.
 
Here are some more examples with the word “news”:
 
 
  • I saw it on the news last night.
  • Have you heard the news?
  • I heard some interesting news.
  • Listen to this piece of news!
LinguaSuite has 4 different courses you can configure yourself. NOW THAT’S GOOD NEWS! Click here to find out more.
 
 

 

If you like this Blog, share it with your friends!!
Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on Google+

English Vocabulary for Christmas

 

 

familia inglesa celebrando las navidades
Here is some English vocabulary related to the Christmas holidays!
VOCABULARIO EN INGLÉS PARA LA NAVIDAD
 
DAYS OF THE CHRISTMAS SEASON
 
24 December = Christmas Eve.
“Eve” is a very old word which means “the day before”. This day is literally the day before Christmas.
 
25 December = Christmas or Christmas day
Christmas day in the US is one of the most important holidays of the year, along with Thanksgiving. For many Christians it has great religious significance and it is customary to attend midnight mass, but for many it is a secular holiday where we get together with family and friends for eating, partying and gift giving. The Christmas season has become a huge shopping spree, fuelled by shops and all kinds of businesses looking to end the year with good sales.
 
Hanukkah = The Jewish winter festivity falls at the same dates as the Christmas season. It’s an 8 day celebration also called the Festival of Lights. The date is not fixed so the holiday can start any time from the end of November to the end of December, depending on the year.
 
31 December = New Year’s Eve. Notice the use of “Eve” again to mean “the day before”. It’s the day before the new year. At midnight many people gather in Times Square in New York to watch the ball fall to mark the exact moment we leave one year and enter the next. (Or they watch it on TV!) Kissing, hugging and toasting at 12 o’clock. But many people have to work the next day, so they go home early.
 
1 January = New Year’s Day. Like Thanksgiving, it’s a day for watching football! It marks the end of the Christmas season, also called Yuletide.
 
WHAT’S TYPICAL AT CHRISTMAS?
 
Christmas presents of course!
 
Christmas decorations: In the US many people decorate their homes with colored Christmas lights, inside and out, put up a Christmas tree covered in colored decorations and more lights, decorate their windows, their table, everything! It’s an explosion of color, especially green and red, the most traditional colors.
 
Christmas cards: We still send family and friends a Chrstmas card before Christmas day, especially to the people we don’t want to lose contact with, but we don’t see or have the opportunity to see during the rest of the year. Many families write a letter with their news from the whole year, print it at home and include it in each card. The use of paper cards is becoming less frequent with the rise of e-cards: fast and free!
 
Christmas tree, of course!
 
Christmas carols: Traditional songs we sing at this time of the year. “Traditional” could mean songs that are hundred of years old, but we also have “traditional” rock and roll songs, pop songs, country and western, blues and whatever! Want to hear some? Click here CLICK for Christmas carols!
 
Coro cantando
Christmas Carols
 
 
Manger scene, also called Nativity Scene
 
Belen en inglés
 

 

The three wise men: Balthasar, Melchior and Gaspar
los tres reyes magos en inglés
 
Holly
 
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TIPS FOR CHRISTMAS
 
What we say at Christmas:
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
What did you get for Christmas?
What are you doing at Christmas?
How was your Christmas?
 
What we write in the cards we send
Many happy returns!
Seasons Greetings!
 
 
CHRISTMAS VOCABULARY FALSE FRIENDS:
fireplace or chimney?!
 
 
chimenea en inglés dentro de casa
fireplace

 

chimenea en el tejado en inglés
chimney
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM LINGUASUITE!!
 
 

 
Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on Google+

The shortest day, the longest night!

gente corriendo una maraton

 

This week Saturday perhaps can be considered as one of our holdays — it’s the winter solstice. Or equinox?! Which is which? Pay attention now, here goes. Let’s learn some vocabulary and then see a video.
 
Equinox is like “equal”; day and night are the same length. So that’s not it, is it? Must be solstice, then. The shortest day (or the longest night)of the year is on or around the 21st of December.
 
I’ve heard some people say the shortest day is Santa Lucia, on the 13th. So which one is it? You can’t have the shortest day on two days!
 
It turns out both are correct. The 13th was the date of the winter solstice in the old Julian calendar; the 21st in the Gregorian calendar commonly used today by most countries.
 
So in most places in the Northern Hemisphere it’s pretty cold at this time of year. We’re getting ready for Christmas or Hanukkah, or New Year’s, and thinking that the car feels like the North Pole when we get in it in the morning to go to work.
 
What does all this have to do with the picture at the beginning of the post? Well, following along these season lines, we’ve chosen a video about the North Pole for this week.
 
Enjoy the music, read the facts and pay attention to the picture to help you understand and remember some new vocabulary.
 
VOCABULARIO EN INGLÉS
Here are some of the words you will see in the video:
 
  1. Frozen solid = an expression we use to mean really, really frozen. My feet are frozen solid!
  2. 10 feet thick = Thick tells you the espesor. 10 feet is about 305 centimeters
  3. Sheet = a material that is thin and large is a sheet. A sheet of paper. A sheet of ice on the street.
  4. 32º F This is the temperature that water freezes at.
  5. Sunrise = the moment when you first see the sun in the morning when it comes over the horizon.
  6. Sunset = The last moment you see the sun before it goes below the horizon.
  7. A mile is about 1.6 kilometers
  8. Zip code = Post code in the US
  9. Find their way = arrive
  10. A sled = a land vehicle you can use to go down a hill on the snow. Traditionally made of wood, today there are high performance, extreme sleds on the market.
  11. Icebreakers = here, big ships that break the arctic ice. In a conversation, an icebreaker is what you say to start the conversation when people don’t know each other.
  12. Brave = if you are not afraid, you are brave.
Vídeo para aprender inglés click!

los vídeos para aprender inglés de LinguaSuite
 
 
 
Got those presents picked out yet?
 

 

 
Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on Google+

Common Sense Advice on Language Learning

chico pensando palabras en inglés
 
How many words do I need to know in English?
 
This is a question people often ask. Sorry, there is no magic number. It’s like asking how many colours a painter needs to paint a picture, or how many pages you need to write a book. The number of words you need depends on what you want to be able to do with the language.
 
As a guideline, some linguists consider that with 3000 words you can deal with unsimplified texts. Of course, it depends on what words, not just any 3000 words.
 
If you are a person who uses a lot of words in your own language, you will probably use a lot of words in English. If you don’t use so many words in your language, you won’t need so many in English.
 
So if you are learning English for a specific reason, say because you travel a lot or you work in an international environment, then you should learn the words you need for that. Maybe you don’t need to know how to say “cat” or “dog” but you do need to be able to participate in a meeting.
 
And if you are learning English for general purposes, then learn what you like. If you like it, you will keep with it. The important thing is to build on what you know, step by step.
 

 

It’s common sense.

Resumen:
Cómo aprender inglés–¿Cuántas palabras tengo que aprender en inglés?
Esta es una pregunta de la gente hace muchas veces. Lo siento, no hay un número mágico. Es como preguntar a un pintor cuantos colores necesita para pintar un cuadro, o cuántas páginas necesitas para escribir un libro. El número de palabras que necesitas depende de qué quieres saber hacer con el idioma.
 

Como pauta, algunos lingüistas opinan que con 3000 palabras puedes manejar textos no simplificados. Claro, depende de qué palabras, no vale cualquier conjunto de 3000 palabras. Lo mejor es que aprendas lo que realmente necesitas o lo que te gusta.



Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on Google+

An English course for Christmas?!

curso de inglés online
 
¿CÓMO APRENDER INGLÉS?
¡CON LINGUASUITE!

It’s always the same! EVERY year! What to give to those I-already-have-everything-I-need people?! Gloves AGAIN?! A cd AGAIN?!

This year something DIFFERENT! Something that will LAST! Something USEFUL! Something ENTERTAINING!

How? It’s easy. Just click here on LINGUASUITE , click on the gift, fill in your details and choose the option to regalar curso.

It’ll be a gift they’ll NEVER FORGET!

And while you are at it, why not ask Santa Clause for a LinguaSuite course for yourself?

4 courses to choose from:
English & You, English & Certification, English & Work and English & Travel & Fun.
 
 



Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on Google+

Do you speak Spanglish? #10

chico vendiendo un portatil en inglés

 

 

 

GRAMÁTICA INGLESA

 

ERROR EN INGLÉS


Common mistakes for Spanish learners of English:

  • WRONG: It happens to me the same.
  • RIGHT: The same thing happens to me.

*Ohhhhhh…. How many times have I heard this one? Too many!
In English, just one subject for the verb please!

  • Verb = happens
  • Subject = the same thing
  • No place for “it”!

4 different courses at www.linguasuite.com for more ways to improve your English.

More Spanglish here: http://ow.ly/r2NYm

Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on Google+

It’s time to change

niña pranticando inglés mientras juega
 
Have you ever tried to buy a present for a little girl? It’s ALL PINK! And it’s all GIRLY.
 
Is it what little girls want, or is it what we teach them to want?
 
 
This video is a TV commercial making the rounds on Internet. I’m sure you’ll find it delightful if you haven’t seen it yet! GIRLS
 
 
 
To practice your English, listen out for these lines of the lyrics. Can you understand them?
 
 
  1. Girls! You think you know what we want
  2. Pink and pretty is girls
  3. You like to buy us pink toys
  4. and everything else is for boys
  5. It’s time to change
  6. We deserve to see a range
  7. Cause all our toys look the same
  8. We would like to use our brains
  9. Girls that build the space ships
  10. Girls that grow up knowing that they can engineer that
  11. Don’t underestimate girls

 

 
 
VOCABULARIO EN INGLÉS

TODAY’S VOCABULARY IN ENGLISH
 
Commercial = advertising on TV. Notice that we don’t say “Spot” (I don’t know why so many English learners think we do!). The word “commercial” is a FALSE FRIEND: It looks like a Spanish word but it means something different. So if “a commercial” in English is “un anuncio”, how do you say the Spanish word “commercial” in English? …. Give up? ok, The answer is “sales person” or “sales rep”.
 
Make the rounds on Internet = when a video o joke goes from one person to another to another on Internet
 

 

Lyrics = the words to a song. NOT the “letter”. A letter is what we used to write before the Internet!
 
A range = several or many similar things, for example Apple makes a range of electronic products.
 
 
Underestimate = When you mistakenly think that someone is not very good, strong, powerful, smart, etc. when really they are. Don’t underestimate you enemies!
 
And remember to think about what you are going to give the little girls in your lives for Christmas this year!
Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on Google+