Blog

FOOTBALL MAD

The rules of modern football were first developed in Britain and many of the first football clubs in Spain were established by British expatriates.

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NO LOVE LOST FOR VALENTINE’S DAY

Almost as soon as school starts in September, the back-to-school promotions end… But it’s once the Christmas things are taken away that the shops begin to promote my most hated festival of the year; Valentine’s Day.

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HAVE YOU SEEN MY MUMMY?​​

As a connoisseur of all things spooky, it’s not much of a surprise that my favourite lesson is Gothic Legends, where we go over some of the most popular horror stories and characters in English literature.

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ACCENTS​

Students sometimes ask me whether it is better to speak English with a British or an American accent. The answer is, of course, both, or neither. Why not an Australian, a South African or a Jamaican accent?

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HAPPY MIKE

The older I get the more I think about the past, especially my childhood. I think of all the people I met, who for varying reasons, left their mark on me during those early years. I’d like to share just a few.

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LITERATURE V READING

Ask any teenage student at a secondary school in Spain if they like literature and the reaction will probably be one of complete disinterest or just totally negative. 

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EBOOK? NO THANKS​

As I get older and the memory starts to fade, I’ve noticed there are certain things I still remember as clearly now as the day they happened, and many of them have one thing in common. They were firsts.

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A LEGAL ALIEN

One question I am often asked is whether I miss England. People are often surprised to learn that I have lived more of my life outside the UK than in it!

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HURLING

There is hardly a child in Ireland that hasn’t tried his or her hand at hurling at some time or other.

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LOST FOR WORDS

“Is that an iPhone?” A student asked me after giving a class. When I didn’t know the answer she was shocked! Then when I told her I wasn’t a mobile phone person her shock turned to confusion.

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DUBBING

As a British child growing up in Spain in the 70’s and 80’s watching American and British films and series, dubbing was the norm. We simply didn’t know any better. When I went to university in Barcelona in the first half of the 90’s I discovered a whole new world in this respect: films in VO.

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PLACE NAMES

“What’s in a name. That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet”. Shakespeare uses this line in Romeo and Juliet to argue that names are irrelevant. Well, I hate to disagree with the Bard of Avon, but names can tell us a great deal, especially when it comes to place names.

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TEATIME

Over the years I’ve been asked many times by Spanish friends, teachers and students alike if it’s true that the British like to stop what we’re doing around 5pm for a cup of tea and a chat, what they understand to be ‘teatime’.

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APPLES AND PEARS

“Apples and pears = stairs.” That was the first time I’d heard about Cockney rhyming slang years ago in Portsmouth, England, while getting a tour from my now dearly departed friend, Alex.

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YOU MUST BE KIDDING!

In some of our talks for students, we talk about the different words that we have for baby animals. This is to contrast them with the use of diminutives in Spanish, which often substitute the ‘baby’ word, so that, for example, cachorros de perro y de gato become perritos y gatitos…

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