Manuela told us that this was the song that her nephew, Raúl Gómez, had to defend during the final of the TV program “The number one”, where he had been taking part.

That day, she decided to go to Coria del Río in order to watch the shooting of the show in its auditorium together with all her relatives.What really surprised her so much when she came into the auditorium was that it was absolutely crowded. She couldn’t believe it!

After the performance of her nephew Raúl she could’nt stand waiting to know the final result, over all after having listened to  Mónica Naranjo, a member of the jury,  when she said, staring at the camara: “He deserves to be the winner”. Needless to say that his performance was so amazing that it gave her gooseebumps.

When, eventually, the presenter, Paula Vázquez, released the result and proclaimed Raúl as the winner, all the audience in the auditorium stood up, at the same time, jumping, clapping and shouting ‘Raúl the number one’ for minutes. It was such an unforgettable  moment!!

Listening to this song makes her recall and relive that wonderful moment in her family’s life and that is the reason why she has chosen it. She hopes we will all enjoy it as much as she does!!!!

Besides, really kindly, her amazing nephew sent us some greetings that I couldn’t forget to include here:

Thank you so much, Raúl!!!! We hope your career will be really great!!!!!

ANA MARI’S SONG: “WE ARE THE WORLD” BY LOTS OF DIFFERENT ARTISTS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQpUKxu8m14

This song has been chosen by Ana Mari because it recalls her when she was a teenager and she decided to belong to an association in order to help poor people from Africa.

During that stage she realized that if everybody was joined working to achieve a fairer world and where we run out of poorness, people from Africa would be able to live without starving. It is said that the problem of Africa is not the poorness, otherwise it is meant to be the lack of justice and that rich people are not willing to share their richness.

She remembers that those days were the most wonderful and amazing days in her life. What is more, in the group called “Amigos de África” she met who is nowadays her husband, another wonderful student of mine some of you must know: Pepe.

When she listens to this song “We are the world”, it always gives her goose bumps. In my case, it makes me think everything can be possible, can´t it????

It was worth it!

ANA ANGELS’ SONG: “BECAUSE WE CAN” BY BON JOVI

First of all, Ana Angels confessed to us that picking out this song was a difficult choice, due to the fact that she’s a lover of music, and she’s used to feeling identified with lots of songs, but that with this song her purpose was to give off optimistic feelings to all her partners.

She filled us in on the group singing this song, telling us that in a certain way she feels she has grown up with them, becoming an adult.

Her relevant memory linked with this song was a trip to Madrid. It came to her mind the moment she was given a huge surprise by her husband, who bought her the tickets for the concert, which was a dream come true.

However, to tell the truth, in those days they were going through hard circumstances, being unemployed , with an uncertain situation at work, but looking forward to having a baby. And out of the blue, while they were driving, she received a phone call, offering her a summer job, which for her was an incredible sign that everything was going to change and was going to be good.

The concert was totally awesome, the scenery lightened, the magic atmosphere, the sound jaw dropping. She told us that if we had been there, we would have felt astonished. Suddenly,  that song sounded, the lyrics ringing her a bell, saying “take things easy, everything will be better”.

Now, looking back and seeing facts from distance, she can tell us that they have overcome all their struggles, together, talking heart to heart with love.

To finish, she let us know how she wished she could have transmitted to us a positive way to face difficulties, since, as the song says “you are not alone, your love can move a mountain, just believe in you” and remember, “because we can”. Thanks, Ana Angels, for filling us up with optimism!!!!

CARMEN’S SONG: “MY WAY” BY FRANK SINATRA

Carmen told us that she is not used to talking about his life, that she is in fact used to inventing her speeches, but that she was going to make an exception,  in order to pay homage to his uncle, which is why she has picked out “My Way”, since his uncle’s life was similar to this.

Her uncle was an independent man a bit stir-crazy, untidy, and many times a little rude, but above all, a loyal person, and hard-working with an extroverted personality.

His vagabond shoes, as F.Sinatra said, took him to Ibiza, where he lived a life full of many things, and although he must have had many regrets, he never talked about them. Carmen wishes he had had a family, because if he had had a family he wouldn’t have felt alone when he began to be sick. In spite of this, her family and she spent time with him in order to fill that emptiness, but she must admit that it wasn’t the same. He had many opportunities to have a family, but he preferred to live as a bachelor, although they suspected that he was loved by some women.

Unfortunately, he passed away last year on Christmas day. Some days later Carmen found out that she had been given his most important property, for which she felt sad, but really moved.

Carmen seems convinced that if his life had been a film, the soundtrack would have been My way.

Thanks, Carmen, for letting us know some bits about your awesome uncle!!!!

 

JUAN’S SONG: “KILLING ME SOFTLY” BY ROBERTA FLACK

This song mentally moves Juan to a specific period in his life, when he was young, just finishing off his studies at University. His little story seemed to be happening around the summer, in the month of July, when the fair at Dos Hermanas was taking place. Destiny can be difficult to understand sometimes: when he was helping a close friend to get back his relationship with an ancient girlfriend, he found out who was going to become the love of his life, the person who would then become his wife.

Juan described in his speech the customs and traditions about how to court a girl in those times. Besides, he gave us a brief description about the fair at Dos Hermanas during the 70s.

Thanks, Juan, for sharing with us a piece of your life!!!

PACO’S SONG: “I DON´T WANNA MISS A THING” BY AEROSMITH

Paco explained to us that this song is the most outstanding in his life since it was the song that was being played in a pub the first time he kissed the woman who some years later would become his wife. In fact, for them it was a magic and unforgettable moment, and from then on, this song turned to be their song, as some years later, something happened. No sooner had they decided to get married than they had it clear that this one would be the song for their wedding dance.

To sum up, he said that from last year, when their baby came into life, he has been living the time of his life, altough he is now getting used to listening to another type of songs: “lullabies”. I guess like some of us, aren’t we????

Thank you so much, Paco, for filling us in on such special moments from your life!!!!

PRUEBAS DE CERTIFICACIÓN: PRACTICE FOR YOU

  I think all of you should be aware of some of the different PRUEBAS DE CERTIFICACIÓN from other communities, which can be really useful when you deal with your own ones.

This is what I have found in the net:

A) PILAR TORRES’ BLOG , where you can find links to many exams of CERTIFICACIÓN from the different communities in Spain. This lady, who is curiously an old student of mine,  is an expert in multilingualism, working as a linguistic adviser in Cordoba.

B) BLOG OF THE EOI ICOD DE LOS VINOS IN TENERIFE, where you can also find examples of exams of CERTIFICACIÓN.

I hope all of you will use them and will do as many different exams as possible, but remember always to do them following the same indications as in the exam!!!!!

The more you do, the more different possibilities you will have and the more practice you will carry out!!!!!!

In case you want to have examples of monologues and dialogues from exams of CERTIFICACIÓN in Andalucía, here they go:

•  ORAL CERTIFICACIÓN EXAMS IN 2013- 2014: ING_NA_EOIO
• ORAL CERTIFICACIÓN EXAMS IN 2012- 2013: ING_NA_SEP1_EOIO

VALIDATION: REAL LOVE

Something very funny has happened! Your classmate Juan Carlos has sent to me this wonderful video to share it with you, and believe it or not, I already had it on the blog (I think some of you may have already seen it!). It is a video I really love, in fact, it is so beautiful I cannot stop watching once and again!!!! So, Juan Carlos, thanks to you, I am sharing it here again!!!

I hope you will all enjoy it as much as I have and Juan Carlos has, too!!!!

 

HOW TO FIND SOURCES OF MOTIVATION

In class we dealt with the topic of MOTIVATION in life, where to find it, whether we think MOTIVATION can be looked for outside or rather inside…and, in order to do that, we watched a video in which the world karate champion Clynt Cora talked to us about this topic.

In case you are interested to watch it again or for the first time, there it goes!!!!

As always, it comes with a worksheet, for which I am even providing the answers: VIDEO 2ND ADVANCED ON MOTIVATION

How do you find MOTIVATION yourself????

IMPROVING YOUR PRONUNCIATION: SHADOWING

This is another tip to improve your English pronunciation: the technique of shadowing:

So, basically, it is to listen and repeat at the same time, trying to copy intonation, rhythm and stress!!!!

You need to remember that  it may be difficult, but the more you try, the better you will become at it!!!!