Javier’s English Corner

I have always loved musicals, but if I say Once is a great movie I’m not doing it just because of that. It is truly refreshing when you see a film that has a different quality about it. How shall I put it? It is a musical, but not in the traditional way in which every now and then there is a scene in which the actors start singing and dancing. No, no, it’s nothing like that. Actually, it is considered a musical because music accompanies the story all through the movie and in a way tells you what’s going on between the two leading characters, played by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

Glen Hansard is the lead singer, guitarist and a founding member of Irish rock group The Frames. He quit school at the age of 13 to begin busking on Dublin streets and gradually established himself as one of Irish music’s most popular and greatest talents. He first came to public attention as guitar player Outspan Foster in the Alan Parker film THE COMMITMENTS.

Born in Monravia in 1988, and a resident of Prague in the Czech Republic, Marketa Irglova is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. Although only 19, she has proved to be quite a talent, having already recorded an album of music with Glen Hansard while also co-starring alongside him in ONCE.

I love all the songs from this beautiful film score, but I have chosen “Falling Slowly” on account of its being the Oscar Academy Award winner for best song this year. I am sure you will like it.

You can also watch a preview of this outstanding film:

Every week I visit The Bob & Rob Show, an extremely interesting, useful and entertaining website which is packed with lots of ESL activities. Bob and Rob always use a very similar structure in all their shows. They chat about a topic, they comment possible differences between UK and US English, they explain vocabulary and they include a section on phrasal verbs and idioms related to the subject matter of the show.

Their shows last about twenty minutes and I select several parts and put them together so that I can get an activity that won’t take over seven minutes. I strongly recommend their recordings, which are specifically aimed at intermediate and advanced ESL learners.

Today I have chosen a show on trains. You can listen to the recording below or click ACTIVITY to access a specific listening comprehension task.

The greatest contribution TV commercials can make is that sometimes the music that is chosen for a given product exposes a new and young audience to outstanding singers from the past.
I believe such is the case with the latest commercial for Siemens household appliances, whose score is Nina Simone’s simply awesome and totally cool rendition of Feeling Good. If this is the first time you’ve heard about this one-of-a-kind American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and civil rights activist, please read the following paragraphs about her which I have taken from her Wikipedia site:

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known by her stage name Nina Simone (February 21, 1933 - April 21, 2003), although she disliked being categorized, is generally classified as a jazz musician; She personally preferred the term “Black Classical Music”. Simone originally aspired to become a classical pianist, but her work covers an eclectic variety of musical styles besides her classical basis, such as jazz, soul, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop music. Her vocal style is characterized by intense passion, breathiness, and tremolo. Sometimes known as the High Priestess of Soul, she paid great attention to the musical expression of emotions. Within one album or concert she could fluctuate between exuberant happiness or tragic melancholy. These fluctuations also characterized her own personality and personal life, worsened by a bipolar disorder with which she was diagnosed in the mid-sixties, but was kept secret until 2004.

Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums, the biggest body of her work being released between 1958 (when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue) and 1974. Songs she is best known for include “My Baby Just Cares for Me”, “I Put a Spell on You”, “I Loves You Porgy”, “Feeling Good”, “Sinner Man”, “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, “Strange Fruit”, “Ain’t Got No/I Got Life” and “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl”. Her music and message made a strong and lasting impact on African-American culture, illustrated by the numerous contemporary artists who cite her as an important influence (among them Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Jeff Buckley, and Lauryn Hill), as well as the extensive use of her music on soundtracks and in remixes.

On the Siemens commercial, you can only hear a few seconds from Feeling Good. You can enjoy the whole song on the player below, and you can also read the lyrics (for those of you who haven’t noticed, you can zoom in the flash document that is shown).