Javier’s English Corner

Yesterday was Alison’s last day at our school and we decided to give her a proper send-off by throwing a little party in her honour. It gave us the opportunity to thank her for being so nice and helpful all through this academic year that is coming to an end now.

We all wish her the best of luck in everything she decides to do in the future and hope she keeps in touch every now and then.

Click on the picture below to see a slideshow of our little party.

If you have trouble playing the slideshow above, try here.

Ernesto Redruello Fernández, a former student of mine and a cool guy altogether, has been so kind as to participate in this blog with interesting information about the music he likes and of which he is a downright expert. I am talking about rap and hip-hop. He has chosen a specific song he would like me to post here, and this is what he has written about it:

Nassir Jones, born in QB(Queensbridge) hood in New York, aka Nas, started his career in 1994, when his first album “illmatic”, which is considered the best rap album ever made, was published. I consider that his best album is “it was written”, from where I’ve dropped this cool track.
I love everything that surrounds “If I ruled the world”: the lyrics, the rhythm, Nas’ flows and, of course, Lauryn Hill’s beautiful voice, a perfect complement to complete the binomial.
That’s because I’ve chosen such a beautiful rap song, and also because Nas and Lauryn Hill are two of my favourite rap artists (adding rnb and soul with lauryn hill).

Nevertheless, Nas’ last album, called “Hip hop is dead” (an idea that is enormously wrong, I absolutely disagree with him and the music inside this album), has been a complete disaster, but I hope that he will return with his best tracks soon.

Here is my space: www.myspace.com/ritmoypoesiaerf
You can listen to my own rap tracks, and also download my rap radio show, called “RITMO Y POESIA”
And you also can listen to my rap radio show throughout www.radiosedna.net, on Thursdays, at 8 o clock p.m. live

We had not heard from Alison on this blog for quite a while, so yesterday she kindly accepted, as ever, my request to record her voice once again. Alison will be leaving us very soon and we are all going to miss her so badly, as she has become a real asset to our school through her calm professionalism and genuine disposition to participate in any kind of teaching initiative. She has prepared great lessons for our classes and has always been willing to be the patient subject of my “digital experiments”. She is definitely a good sport.

Anyway, I don’t want to start feeling sad about her leaving us just yet, so let’s get to the point. This is going to be the first installment in a series of short conversations with Alison which you can use to practise your listening comprehension skills. This time she talks about coming to Spain and her first days at work. If you are in the mood for a multiple choice activity, go here.