Canary Islanders speak better… 😉 Listen to these smart Canarian youngsters talking to the crew at International Spatial Station in fluent English (3:51):
One of my students used this video in his powerpoint presentation on “Cockneys” and I thought it was just great… Enjoy it!
What an astonishing lesson on well spoken American English… We don’t get much of this these days, do we? This show -What’s My Line?- was very popular back in the fifties and this clip is quite surreal as you may find out. Enjoy it!
“Winds of Fate”, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, in Maggie Smith’s voice
Posted: January 12, 2011 in literature, videos“The Winds of Fate”
One ship drives East,
and another drives West,
With the self-same winds that blow;
Tis the set of the sails, and not the gales,
Which tells us the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,
As we voyage along through life;
Tis the set of the soul that decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.
This TV show is an outstanding example of Groucho Marx’s wit and sense of humour. A young Bill Cosby is not able to prevent him from literally laughing at him… live! Those of you who are not fully proficient in English can read the Spanish subtitles. However, I suggest you watch it again trying not to read any Spanish at all. By the way, this is his last appearance on TV before he passed away.
“The Road Not Taken”, by Robert Frost in Alan Bates’ voice.
Posted: December 21, 2010 in literature, videosThe Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
What teachers make… an excellent example of slam poetry.
Posted: December 18, 2010 in literature, videosIf you’re interested in slam poetry or you simply want to know what it is about, just watch this examble by superb slam poet, Taylor Mali. This is probably his most famous poem and it has become an inspirational text for teachers all over the world.
“If”, Rudyard Kipling’s poem in Harvey Keitel’s voice.
Posted: December 16, 2010 in Uncategorized, videosIf you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
By William Ernest Henley
or to put it in someone else’s words: “Christian the Lion shows his to love to his owners John Rendall and Ace Bourke, 1969. Finally, they had to let go of the Lion into the wild to Nairobi, Kenya. After many years in 1974, they went to visit Christian to see if he still remembers them. The reunion was so touching, Christian still gave them the same lion hugs ever before!”
Not Another Silly Blog 