Happy Christmas!

Unfortunately, this is our last post. The end of the year is already here. Most probably you are all very busy studying for your final exams and also making great plans for your holidays. For this reason, I won't take much of your time today. I just want to thank you all for having trusted me in this project, and for all your comments and collaboration. To start getting in the Christmas mood, here you have a very famous Christmas song that I would like to share with you.



Christmas is not only about giving presents, eating and having fun. The end of the year is a good time to calm down, relax and reflect on the things that we would like to change in our lives and in the world too.Why not? For this purpose, I would like to introduce you to a poet I really like: Benjamin Zephaniah. As he is better at putting words together than I am, he is going to introduce himself.
"My full name is Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah which is Christian, Jewish and Muslim. I was born in the district of Handsworth in Birmingham. My poetry is strongly influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica and I can't remember a time when I was not creating poetry. This had nothing to do with school where poetry meant very little to me, infact I had finished full time education at the age of 13."
"I try to write poems that are fun but they should also have a serious message." If you want to know more about him go to his official website. You can have a taste of his poetry by reading this poem I have selected.
Christmas Wise
All I want fe Christmas is world peace
I don't want loads of food dat I really can't eat
All I want fe Christmas is a long holiday
An a house in Jamaica where I can stay.
I don't want kisses under mistletoe from
Sloppy people I don't know,
I won't be putting out nu stocking cos
I don't wear de tings,
I won't be cutting down nu Christmas trees.
I like dem living.

All I want fe Christmas is dis planet for ever
Fully complete wid its ozone layer
All I want fe Christmas is friends and...
No more records from Status Quo,
I don't want a white Christmas and
I bet We'll get nu more of dem cos of de Greenhouse effect,
An I reckon at Christmas we create too much waste
Maybe a green Christmas is more to my taste.
All I want fe Christmas is sum honesty
About de wisdom of Christmas
An how it should be
All I want fe Christmas is clean air,
But I reckon I won't get none
An I don't think dat's fair.

I hope you liked it. Thanks for all. Happy Holidays, Christmas and New year! See you next year.

Did you like our blog?

The end of the year is coming and it is time to relax a bit and evaluate what we have done during this year. It has been a wonderful year, in which we have done lots of new things: we have started our blog, we have participated in our forum and we have worked a lot in class. We would like to go on learning new things and improving our classes next year.For that reason, we need your help. Answer the following survey and let us know what you liked and didn't like. Thank you!

Good news!

The end of the year is coming. I'm sure that lots of interesting things have happened to you. Getting a new pet, passing an exam, finishing school are all examples of excelent news. I`d like to know all your good news! Share them with us in our forum!

Looking for an ending for "The Red Dress" story

The students from Beginner level have been working very hard trying to find pictures to illustrate the story they have been reading in class. They have finally finished their project and they would like to share it with all of you. Why don't you take some time to answer the questions they have prepared? You can also help us to find a good ending for the story. Invent one and post it in Voice Thread. Remember that, as we said last week, you can leave your comments typing, recording your voice with a mic or even using your webcam.
Here is the story, ENJOY!

Can you tell me the way to...?

Have you ever been lost? Have you ever been unable to remember how to get to a certain place? I'm sure that you have all been through that experience. But what if that happens when you are abroad? It is a must to know how to ask for directions. For that reason, here you have a short video from which you can pick up some useful expressions.

Now that you know the appropriate vocabulary, you are ready to visit "The City of Lights" and have a wonderful experience there. Yes, we are going to Paris.

Let's play the new Nokia game: "The Passenger" and see if we can find our ways around it. I'll be waiting for you there. Join us in our trip!

Tell us what you think about the game. VOTE:

Can you guess the ADJECTIVE?

We have recieved plenty of Google Montages related to adjectives. (If you want, you still have time to send us yours to challengeeducation@gmail.com.) We have created our own "Guess the Google" on Voice Thread, a web page in which you can leave comments by voice, text and audio file.

Why don't you participate in our game? We have left some clues to make it easier for you to answer. Leave your guesses...

Can you Guess the Google?

I'm sure that you usually use Google to search for information. In order to do that, you have to type a key word and google does the search for you. Today I propose you a new challenge: to reverse the process. Here you can see a montage of photographs that are the result of a google search. Can you guess which two words I have typed to get this result? HELP: It is related to Challenge Language School.
If you liked it, in this webpage you will find a game to go on guessing. In "Guess the Google" you must guess what keyword made up the image. Enter the page, click on "launch project" and start playing. Why don't give it a try? If you are fast, you will get to the top scorers board.
Now, I was wondering that maybe you can make your own creations. Why don't you prepare your own google montage, with a key word that represents you? In order to do it:
1) Enter this webpage: Montage a Google.
2) Click on "Launch a Project"
3) Enter the keyword and click on search
4) Click on create a montage
5) Now to save it in yur computer press Ctrl and "Prt sc" or "Impr pant"(if you do not know where to find this key here you can see a picture of it on a keyboard)
6) Paste it into your favourite photo or paint programme, such as paint , microsoft photo editor and others.
7) Send it to challengeeducation@gmail.com
We will post your creations soon and we will be able to have a game of our own.
See you next week. Do not forget to participate in our forum discussions.

Spellathon Winners!!!!!!

The Spellathon has already taken place at Challenge. We would like to cogratulate the winners : Nahuel, Florencia and Nahuel and all the students from Junior Level for having had such a wonderful performance. Go on working hard and thank you for having taken part in the competition.

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31st. During that night children go to their neighbours' houses asking for candies. The usual phrase "Trick or treat" is heard everywhere. There are also lots of halloween festivals, bonfires and costume parties going on. And of course, horror films and ghost stories cannot be missing.
In spite of the fact that we do not generally celebrate Halloween in our country, I invite you to be surrounded by the spooky atmosphere of this celebration. You can start getting into the mood by reading a ghost story or a tale of terror that you can find in this website : Halloween Ghost Stories.
As you may know, the students from FCE course started last week a discussion in our forum on "Life After Death" (of course, everybody is welcomed to take part in the discussion). At one point, the question of whether ghosts exist or not cropped up, and some ghost stories were given as examples. For that reason, I invite you now to expand on that discussion. I would like to hear your opinion on the topic and if you want, to share with us a ghost story. Maybe, if you celebrate Halloween in your country, you can also share your experience. You can comment on this in our forum. Looking forward to hearing your stories. Happy Halloween!

How are You? I'm PINK today.

You might be wondering what the title means. Well, it is not that I have gone a bit cuckoo in the head. As you may already know, just as colours can express sounds and tastes so can they express ideas and feelings. For that reason, languages are full of the use of colours to describe moods, and the English language is not an exception. Here are some common idiomatic expressions with colours and their meanings:

1) I saw red. (I got very angry)

2) I was green with envy. (I was very jealous)

3) I was tickled pink when I heard the news. (I was really happy)

4) It came out of the blue.(It was a surprise)

5) I'm really browned-off about it. (I'm fed up, annoyed with it)

6) I was in blue funk. (I was very scared)

And now, let's make something out of all this. I would like to know how you are feeling today, and a funny way of doing this is by associating your moods with colours. If you enter this page, you are going to be able to keep a record of your moods and visualize them in beautiful colour strips. You are also going to have the possibility of writing a comment on why you have chosen that colour. To do so, follow these instructions:

1) Enter the page.

2) Login by entering the following information:

Username: challengestudents

Password: moods

3) Click on post

4) Click on the colours that reflect your moods

5) Write the feelings associated with the colours under "Describe it using words", separate them by commas and do not forget to write your name.

Ex: Sabrina: happy, green with envy

6) Press post and that's all.

To see the colour strips you and the rest have done follow this link.

Looking forward to seeing your colour strips.

Spelling Challenge!!!!

Can you realise what's wrong with this sentence? (HELP: There is a spelling mistake which creates a humorous effect) If you have spotted it, why not leave it as a comment?

The Spellathon is just around the corner, so we should start practicing NOW. As you all know, it will take place on the 22nd of October.

Last week, we practiced the alphabet so I hope that by this time, you already know your abc perfectly well. If that is so, we can devote the whole of this post to practicing spelling.

Let's start with a fun warm-up. As you can see from the picture we have here, spelling can change the meaning of a sentence completely. So don't underestimate the need of correct spelling. This picture is part of a series made by Graham Rawle appearing in some British newspapers, where a single consonant is missing from a normal sentence, creating a humorous effect. Here you will find more examples. Click the button that reads : "More of this" to see more examples. If you spot the mistakes share them with us by leaving a comment.

And here you have some games to practice your spelling before the great day comes.

Alien Scavenger Hunt: Shoot the letters to form the word you hear.

Spelling Bee: Listen to the word and write it down.

Spell Check: Which word is not spell correctly?

Hope you like them. Good luck in the spellathon!!!!

Looking forward to our SPELLATHON!

The great day has finally arrived! If you are a student from Junior, you will be able to put into practice everything you have learned as regards spelling in our Sopellathon. It will take place at end of October here at Challenge Education Language School. If you are planning to take part in it, you will have to start practising.

First of all, you should revise the alphabet and here you have some entertaining games to help you with that.

Can you help the mokey in Alphabet Antics? Listen to the sound and click on the appropriate coconut.

Or maybe you prefer to go to the undersea world. There the red lobster needs your help to find the letters.

Now, that you know your ABC perfectly well, you are ready for our next challenge!

Coming Soon: Spelling Games!!!!

Our new project!! Why don't you take part in it?

We are a group of students from Intermediate level and we have been working on differences between living in the city and living in the country. We have listened to a folktale called "The City Mouse and the Country Mouse" .
Here you have a Tom & Jerry cartoon in which you will find more differences between living in the country and living in the city.


Now, we are all interested in knowing what YOU think about the topic so as to have more ideas to include in our project. We would be grateful if you could answer the questions we thought for you and collaborate with us. You would find all the questions in our forum.
Please, do not forget to tell us your name or nickname, your age and your nationality
Thanks,

Intermediate Courses.

It is not only YOU!

If you sometimes feel that you will never master the English language, here you have two examples to make you feel that you are not the only one. If even native speakers may sometimes misheard a song, why feel frustrated when you, who are just starting to learn the language cannot understand every single word you hear. Here you have a video of a famous advertisement from the 80's in which you can see a strange way in which a native apeaker interpret this song.


Have you been able to understand the actual lyrics of the song? If you have been able to: Congratulations!!!!! If not, don't worry here you have the correct interpretation of the song.

Get up in the morning,
slaving for bread, sir,
So that every mouth can be fed.
Poor me, Israelite.
My wife and my kids,
They are packed up and leave me.
Darling, she said, I was yours to be seen.
Poor me, Israelite.

I will now tell you another interesting story. Sam Goldwin arrived in the United States from Poland at the age of eleven. He later became one of Hollywood’s most successful film producers, but he never managed to completely master the English language. According to wikipedia "Samuel Goldwyn's inferior English language skills led to many of his malapropisms, paradoxes, and other speech errors called Goldwynisms ("A humorous statement or phrase resulting from the use of incongruous or contradictory words, situations, idioms, etc.") being frequently quoted"
Some of his Goldwynisms are very well-known although probably not all genuine:
“Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist needs his head examined!”
“An oral contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on".
Goldwyn often confused common sayings. Can you tell us which are the actual idiomatic expressions he was trying to say. Maybe you can also explain to us the meaning of them and provide us with an example in which the idioms are used. (You can leave them as a comment)
1) “Include me out”
2) “They’re always biting the hand that lays the golden egg” (Be careful! This is a mixture of two sayings)
3) “We have all passed a lot of water since then”
4) “It rolls oft my back like a duck”
5) “In two words: impossible”
We would also like to hear about your own experience with the English Language. Do you find any skill (listening, speaking,writing, reading) remarkably difficult? Have you ever misheard a song or confused common sayings in English or in your mother tongue? Can you share the anecdote with us? We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Finally, remember that in our forum there are lots of new topics to be discussed and if you are new to it yo can start by telling us something about you in the introductions section.

Let's introduce to one another!

It has already been a month and a half since we started with our blog project and we have shared activities, videos, games and lots of other things. However, I'm afraid there is something missing. I have introduced myself in the first post but I still do not have much information about you. For that reason, we are going to devote this post to getting to know one another. When you meet a person for the first time, what do you ask? Here you have some ideas to start with but you can come up with your own questions.


We have started in our forum a thread in which we can introduce to one another. There are some questions to guide you. Answer the ones you like and feel free to post new questions for us all to discuss.
Looking forward to meeting you all!

PARTICIPATE IN OUR FORUM

What would you do if you had a second life?

Have you ever heard of Second Life? According to wikipedia "it is an internet-based virtual world launched in 2003, developed by Linden Reasearch Inc. (commonly referred to as Linden Lab)"

A downloadable program called the Second Life Viewer makes it possible for the users, called residents, to interact with each other.Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade virtual items and services from one another, among other things. If you want to get more information about this here you will find an article from the BBC, with a list of interesting vocabulary used in the article and a quiz to check your comprehension of the text.

This is an example of what you can do if you enter Second Life: attend a U2 concert!!!!

A new version of Second Life has recently been developed for teenagers between 13 and 17 years old. It is an international gathering place where you can make friends, play games, learn and create. If you are interested in having a look at it, here you will find the official site.

Now, why don't we use our imagination? Let's imagine that it is possible to have a second life, what would you change in your current life? Think about age, clothes style, hobbies, job, nationality, family.It would be better if you give us the reasons for your changes. Is there any aspect of your life you wouldn't change? Why? You can answer these questions and follow the discussion in our forum. We are waiting for your answers.

Would you like to take part in our project?

We are a group of students who are learning English at Challenge Education School. We are working on a collaborative project about healthy eating habits. We would like you to answer the following survey so we can analyse the information gathered from different countries.

When you answer the questions do not forget to say your name/nickname, age and nationality!
Thank you!

Here is the survey: You can either answer it as a comment or follow this link to our new forum. There you will also find the survey. We consider that the forum is the best option because there, we will have the possibility of interacting with each other. The information we gather will be available for everybody who is interested in reading it here and in our forum.

Choose one of the following options to answer the questions:

Always- Often- Sometimes- Hardly Ever- Never

1. Do you drink milk?

2. Do you have a balanced diet?

3. Do you eat vegetables and fruits?

4. Do you buy sugar-free chewing gum?

5. Do you buy sugar-free drinks?

6. Do you eat chocolates?

7. Do you do some exercise every day? Do you play any sport?

8. Do you walk every week?

9. Do you cycle to school?

10. Do you take a bus to go to school?

11. Do you walk to school?

12. Do you have a healthy breakfast?

13. Do you spend money on sweets?

14. Do you clean your teeth every day?

15. Do you look after your health?

16. Do you smoke?

17. Do you eat too many high-fat food?

18. Do you eat low-fat food?

19. Do you sleep a lot?

20. Do you drink plenty of water?

The Future of Our Planet!!!!!!

Have you ever wondered how much "nature" your lifestyle requires? In this quiz you will find the answer to your question.
"This Ecological Footprint Quiz estimates how much productive land and water you need to support what you use and what you discard. After answering 15 easy questions you'll be able to compare your Ecological Footprint to what other people use and to what is available on this planet."
Warning: The results of this quiz may shock you and make you think!!!!!!
Global warming is a term that is heard everywhere nowadays, but do you know what global warming really is? In this clip from Futurama you will find a very thorough explanation.



Would you like to do something to revert this situation? Apparently, there are lots of people who DO want to make a difference. Greenpeace has hit the news this week as a result of their original campaign to save the Switzerland's Aletsch glacier. Here you can find more information about it (You can either read it or listen to it) You will also find a list of interesting vocabulary used in the article.
What do YOU make of all this? We are eagerly waiting for you opinion and predictions for the future (leave them as a comment or continue the discussion in our forum) :

• What do you think about the Greenpeace campaign?Are they going to succeed in achieving their aims?
• Are you pessimistic or optimistic about the future of our planet? Would you like to share your predictions with us? You can talk about climate, the environment, energy, health, transport, agriculture, fauna and flora, and others.

We will be waiting for your comments!

R u a text expert?

If you live in this world, you most probably have a cell phone, send text-messages and communicate with your friends via MSN. But do you go to extremes like the girl we can see in this British advert?


I hope not. If you don't have a clue about what this girl is saying, you lack information on new technologies and internet lingo. Here there is a very comprehensive article and listening from the BBC on Instant Messaging. Now, that you have all the information you need we can proceed.
If you are a regular user of instant messages, you are aware that you have to be economical with words. For that reason, people have found very creative ways of getting their messages across by combining letters and numbers. You already know how to do this in Spanish, but do you know how to read text messages in English? Here you have a webpage with all the information you need. You can translate from txtmsg lingo to English or the other way about (from English to txtmsg lingo). There is also a very complete list of emoticons, txting words and acronyms.
Let's have a bit of fun with all this. Can you translate these text messages into plain English? Leave us the translation as a comment...

1. C U L8R M8
2. AFAIK
3. W8 4 ME, I’M L8, SOZ
4. KIT
5. HAND
6. TMB
7. C U 2NITE O 2MORO
8. Evtings funny as long as its nt hapNg 2 U.
9. The best wA 2 gt rid of doZe past memries is 2 brng somit nu 2 Rplce it
10. Ive a pen wich S blue, Ive a pal wich S u. flowers wl di,e waters will dry, but r Fship will nvr say gdby

You can also create your own text messages by translating them here from plain English into txtmsg lingo. Give it a try and leave your messages as comments...We will be waiting for them.

And the winners are!!!!!!!!

First of all I would like to thank all the ones who have taken part in our 20 q challenge. The answer is......yes, a computer! Congratulations to all those who have given the right answer. The winners of this challenge are:

• Luciana




• Aylen




• And some "anonymous", who were too shy to post their names. Let's hope that next time they will tell us who they are.

Let's give them a big clap!!!!!