Vocabulario En Inglés

Chinese New Year- Did you know

photo from Kinternational

Did you know these facts about the Chinese New Year????

It’s a very traditional and festive holiday not only in China but also in Chinatowns all over the world, including New York, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, London and more.The US post office has created this stamp to commemorate the holiday this year.

photo from US Postal Service

The date is based on the Chinese calendar. Traditionally from the last day of the year to the 15^th day of the first month! What a celebration! This year it starts on January 31^st.

2014 is the year of the horse.

Dragon dances and street fairs are very popular.

It’s also a popular time to do a real good cleaning in the house. We call this SPRING CLEANING.

Children receive red envelops with money inside as gifts. The amount of money must be an even number (2, 4, 6, 8 etc.) But it must NOT be divisible by 4 (4, 8, 12, 16 etc.) The number 4 means death in Chinese.

To make sure you don’t have debts and money problems during the year, the Chinese believe that you should pay any money you owe family and friends before the New Year.

On the last day of Chinese New Year, people go out with red paper lanterns. It’s called Lantern Day and it is supposed to light the way for the New Year.

photo from TIME OUT

Have you ever had the chance to go to a Chinatown or China for the New Year celebrations? Can you share some more fun facts about the Chinese New Year?

Pete Seeger- American icon- is gone

photo from Wikipedia by Anthony Pepitone

Pete Seeger, singer, song writer, champion of social change and American icon has passed away at the age of 94.

For many Americans Pete Seeger is about as close as you can get to being a real hero. Pete Seeger was an activist all his life as an anti-war demonstrator and defender of the poor and minorities, inspiring many with his songs.

He is also well known and well-loved in New York especially for his long and tireless campaign to clean up the Hudson River. In the 1970s this river was contaminated by PCBs, a nuclear power plant, pesticides… His boat, the Clearwater Sloop and its organization were fundamental in getting the river clean again.

photo from Wikipedia, by Anthony Pepitone
Hudson River Sloop
cultura americana

As a folk singer and song writer, Pete Seeger was popular in the 1950s until his group, The Weavers, was blacklisted. In the 1960s, he re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, and environmental causes.

Here he is singing Which Side Are You On?

The song was written in 1931 by Florence Reece who was the wife of Sam Reece, an organizer for the United Mine Workers in Harlan County, Kentucky.

The song still has relevance today when we can all ask ourselves which side we are on when we think about all the ideals Pete Seeger fought for.

Listen to Which Side Are You On

Common Sense Advice on Language Learning

Cómo aprender inglés
How many days a week should I study?

He studies English on the train!

The best answer to this question is another question. How many days a week can you study? The best study plan is the plan that you can do. If you are too ambitious, you will probably give up. Decide on a study timetable that fits in with your life and then stick to it.

If you sincerely want to learn to function in English, try to remember that you are immersed in a learning process. Try not to switch your head off when you are not actively studying! Be a little bit obsessive about it. Eh?! What I mean is that you can think about what you have been learning recently when you are on the train, cleaning up the kitchen or taking a shower!

It’s better to do a shorter study session every day rather than a long session every few days. If you just have 10 minutes, study for 10 minutes! It is surprising how much you can achieve little by little. Be consistent and you will learn!

Cómo aprender inglés

¿Cuántos días tengo que estudiar?

Ahora lee el texto en español, y presta atención a las palabras de color rosa para mejorar tu vocabulario en inglés.

La mejor respuesta a esta pregunta es otra pregunta. ¿Cuántos días por semana puedes estudiar? El mejor plan de estudio es el plan factible para ti. Si haces un plan demasiado ambicioso, lo vas a abandonar. Proponte un horario de estudio de acuerdo con tu vida y después hazlo.

Si realmente quieres aprender a funcionar en inglés, intenta acordar que estás inmerso en un proceso de aprendizaje. ¡Intenta no tener la cabeza apagada cuando no estás activamente estudiando! ¿¡Cómo!? Lo que quiero decir es que puedes estar pensando en lo que has estado estudiando cuando estas en el tren, recogiendo la cocina o ¡duchándote!

Es mejor estudiar un poco todos los días en vez de dedicarte a una sesión de estudio larga con menos frecuencia. Si solo tienes 10 minutos ¡haz 10 minutos de estudio¡ Es sorprendente cuánto se puede conseguir poco a poco. ¡Se constante y aprenderás!

LinguaSuite is the only online English course that gives you a study program that fits in with your life!

Personal plan according to your months of study and hours of study per week.
No limits! If you finish your plan, you continue until you reach the end of your period.
The intelligent system gives you new linguistic contents when you are ready for them.
4 different courses: General English, Business English, English for Travel and English for the Cambridge First Certificate Exam.

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Here is today’s vocabulary in English
give up = abandonar, dejar I gave up smoking last week.
fit in with your life = ser compatible con tu vida LinguaSuite fits in with your life.
stick to something = no abandonar. Make a plan and stick to it.
switch your head off = apagar tu cabeza. When I watch TV, I switch my head off.
clean up the kitchen = recoger la cocina. After lunch my husband cleans up the kitchen.
rather than = en lugar de. Today I took the train rather than the car.
consistent = constante. CAREFUL! This is a FALSE FRIEND!
You have to be constant if you want to learn a language.

Prepositions – Responsible for

Chica pensando en las preposiciones en inglés

VOCABULARIO EN INGLÉS

ES UN ERROR EN INGLÉS…

WRONG She is the responsible of communication.

WRONG She is responsible of communication.

RIGHT She is responsible for communication.

It’s tricky.

Remember this: the word “responsible” in English is not a noun. It is an adjective, like happy, or intelligent.

So you have to say “I am responsible” like “I am happy” or “I am intelligent”.

Other ways to express this idea could be:

She is in charge of communication.

She is the person responsible for communication.

She takes care of communication.

Remember: responsible for

NOT responsible of

NOT the responsible

¡¡LinguaSuite! Resolviendo tus dudas en inglés!!

English for New Year’s Resolutions

Cómo aprender inglés

vocabulario en inglés

This year I’m going to do it! I’m going to be in the 12%!!

Did you know that 82% of the people who make New Year’s Resolutions are convinced they will change their habits, but only 12% really do?

It’s not too late!

Here’s our list of English vocabulary for

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

= BUENOS PROPOSITOS PARA EL NUEVO AÑO

VOCABULARIO EN INGLÉS

Be more positive= ser más positiva
Be more tolerant= ser más tolerante
Be nicer to other people = ser más amable con los demás
Eat healthy = comer sano
Get fit = ponerme en forma
Get more organized = ser más organizado
Lose weight = perder peso
Not take things so seriously = no tomar las cosas tan a pecho
Say “no” = decir que no … OR Say “yes”

Stop smoking = dejar de fumar
Waste less time = perder menos tiempo

AND OF COURSE…IMPROVE MY ENGLISH

You know where to go… Click on LinguaSuite!
LinguaSuite te ayuda a aprender inglés

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!

Christmas Carols

Manger scene, also called Nativity Scene

The three wise men: Balthasar, Melchior and Gaspar

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?!

fireplace

chimney

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM LINGUASUITE!!

click here for the best christmas present

The shortest day, the longest night!

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:

Frozen solid = an expression we use to mean really, really frozen. My feet are frozen solid!
10 feet thick = Thick tells you the espesor. 10 feet is about 305 centimeters
Sheet = a material that is thin and large is a sheet. A sheet of paper. A sheet of ice on the street.
32º F This is the temperature that water freezes at.
Sunrise = the moment when you first see the sun in the morning when it comes over the horizon.
Sunset = The last moment you see the sun before it goes below the horizon.
A mile is about 1.6 kilometers
Zip code = Post code in the US
Find their way = arrive
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.
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.
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?

It’s time to change

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?

Girls! You think you know what we want
Pink and pretty is girls
You like to buy us pink toys
and everything else is for boys
It’s time to change
We deserve to see a range
Cause all our toys look the same
We would like to use our brains
Girls that build the space ships
Girls that grow up knowing that they can engineer that
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!

What do people do on Thanksgiving Day?

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the US. Because it’s the 28th of November? No! because it’s the fourth Thursday in November. The date changes every year.

What do Americans do on Thanksgiving day?

Watch the Macy’s parade. On TV. If you are or have kids. This traditional parade on Thanksgiving Day, in New York, is sponsored by the big department store Macy’s. Huge inflated balloons. Described as “an unbelievable experience”.

Cook. A lot. Not only turkey, but pie, cake, vegetables, sweet potatoes and a very large turkey. Thanksgiving = Turkey. Also pumpkin.

For some people this is fun. For other people it is maximum stress. Newspapers and magazines will have already devoted pages on recipes and tips on how to survive in the kitchen.

Eat turkey. A lot. In the middle of the day, which is strange for us. Usually with your whole family, wherever they normally live. Planes, freeways and buses all busy carrying people from East to West and West to East. Also North and South. Many people start the meal with a prayer. Many people in the US do that every day any way. Other people don’t.

Watch football on TV.

Eat more. And drink.

Get ready for tomorrow, Black Friday.

Countries with Better English Have Better Economies

TEMA DE INTERÉS

If this is true, WHY is it true? A question of cause and effect or just a coincidence?

According to Christopher McCormick’s post in the Harvard Business Review, good English is a critical tool for people in any country, now that global business is here to stay. How true that is!

According to his survey, “the largest ranking of English skills by country, we found that in almost every one of the 60 countries and territories surveyed, a rise in English proficiency was connected with a rise in per capita income. And on an individual level, recruiters and HR managers around the world report that job seekers with exceptional English compared to their country’s level earned 30-50% percent higher salaries.”

No doubt improved English skills will allow you to apply for better jobs, improve your standard of living and have a better quality of life.

On a wider level, language is a tool which can open up a huge pool of knowledge and allow people to draw on that knowledge and add to it, innovate, and create new ideas. Being that so much information and knowledge is in English makes it obvious that learning to communicate in English has become as fundamental a part of our educational experience as learning math.

All this is not to say that English should exclude everything else. Multilingualism is the way to go. Thinking in more than one language allows you not only to communicate with more extensive community, but more importantly, to open up your mind to other ways of viewing “truth” and “reality” and to break through mental barriers.

So what are you going to do about it? Notice he talked about exceptional English!

If you need to improve your English, get certification, communicate at work or on the road, sign up for LinguaSuite…

… English & You, English & Work English & Certification or English & Travel & Fun.

…From one month to nine months. Check it out here.

VOCABULARIO EN INGLÉS–BUSINESS ENGLISH

coincidence = careful! not casualty!

rise = increase

per capita income = how much money each person earns

recruiters = people who offer jobs in companies

HR = human resources

job seekers = people who are looking for a job.

standard of living = not level of life!

quality of life = how well you live

apply for a job = ask for a job

draw on knowledge = take important information

the way to go = the best option