GREAT EXPECTATIONS: London's gone wild with 200th Charles Dickens' Anniversary

Oliver Twist

Charles John Huffam Dickens, 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic novels and characters. Dickens's novels were, among other things, works of social commentary. He was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. Dickens's second novel, Oliver Twist (1839), shocked readers with its images of poverty and crime and was responsible for the clearing of the actual London slum, Jacob's Island, that was the basis of the story. In addition, with the character of the tragic prostitute, Nancy, Dickens "humanised" such women for the reading public; women who were regarded as "unfortunates", inherently immoral casualties of the Victorian class/economic system.Bleak House and Little Dorrit elaborated expansive critiques of the Victorian institutional apparatus: the interminable lawsuits of the Court of Chancery that destroyed people's lives in Bleak House and a dual attack in Little Dorrit on inefficient, corrupt patent offices and unregulated market speculation.

Dickens 2012 seems to aim an international celebration of the life and work of Charles Dickens to mark the bicentenary of his birth, which falls on 7 February 2012. Institutions and organisations from all over the world are partners of Dickens 2012 and deliver a programme of events and activities to commemorate this anniversary.

More info on:

DICKENS2012.ORG  Official website

Charles Dickens Primary School Celebration (cute)

IN THE MEDIA

BBC (video)

Daily Mail

Of course, Prince Charles&Camilla got involved. BBC

New Yok Times

TO ENJOY HIS WORK (ONLINE READING, free downloads):

Fiction  (Click on the names)

• • A Christmas Carol
  • A Message from the Sea
  • A Tale of Two Cities
  • All The Year Round
  • American Notes
  • Barnaby Rudge
  • Bleak House
  • David Copperfield
  • Dombey and Son
  • Great Expectations
  • Hard Times
  • Holiday Romance
  • Hunted Down
  • Little Dorrit
  • Martin Chuzzlewit
  • Master Humphrey's Clock
  • Mudfog and Other Sketches
  • Nicholas Nickleby
  • Oliver Twist
  • Our Mutual Friend
  • Reprinted Pieces
  • Sketches by Boz
  • Stories About Children Every Child Can Read
  • The Battle of Life
  • The Chimes
  • The Cricket on the Hearth
  • The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain
  • The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
  • The Mystery of Edwin Drood
  • The Old Curiosity Shop
  • The Pickwick Papers
  • The Uncommercial Traveller

• Non-Fiction

  • A Child's History of England
  • Miscellaneous Papers
  • My Father as I Recall Him
  • Pictures From Italy

• Plays

  • No Thoroughfare

• Short Stories

• The Child's Story
• A Christmas Tree
• Nobody's Story
• The Poor Relation's Story
• The Schoolboy's Story
• What Christmas is as we Grow Older
• The Wreck of the Golden Mary
• Doctor Marigold
• George Silverman's Explanation
• Going into Society
• The Boots at the Holly Tree Inn
• The Holly Tree
• The Lamplighter
• The Haunted House
• Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy
• Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings
• Mugby Junction
• The Perils of Certain English Prisoners
• The Seven Poor Travellers
• Sketches of Young Couples
• Sketches of Young Gentlemen
• Somebody's Luggage
• Sunday Under Three Heads
• To Be Read At Dusk
• Tom Tiddler's Ground
• The Signal-Man
• The Trial For Murder
• The Christmas Goblins
• The Poor Traveler

Courtesy: http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/

Have a nice week-end and happy reading,

Inma.

Narrative Tenses: The Common Writing Project

The Writing Project
As I mentioned in class, our next aim is to practice Narrative Tenses, and for that, we came up with the following writing project (hope you can make good use of it and enjoy it!).

This is the deal:
TASK: Building up a story by adding a paragraph, sentence, even a word. You can contribute as many times as you want, as long as you follow others' threads. Make sure you keep the writing style, but of course feel free to let your imagination and inspiration grow. Our deadline to "close" the story will be February 14th. At the end of if we'll all decide the most suitable title for it. So, join the project and happy writing!

That winter was a long time going. A freezing wind blew through the streets of the city, and overhead the snow clouds moved across the sky. The old man who was called Drioli shuffled painfully along the sidewalk of the Rue de Rivoli. He was cold and miserable. He moved glancing without any interest at the things in the shop windows - perfume, silk ties and shirts, diamonds, furniture, books.

(...)

Airplanes, Travelling, Airlines...

Hi all,

After flying high throughout this week, here's a few brushstrokes on our last sessions:
(Don't forget to stretch your hammies  :))  while you watch!).




A few activities on Air travelling here:

-AIRPLANE TRAVEL VOCAB.
-AIRLINE VOCAB. LIST
-AIRLINE VOCAB. QUIZ 1
-AIRLINE VOCAB. QUIZ 2

And have a good laugh with our Low Cost Airlines video...
Cheers

100 years of fashion in just 100 seconds

Hi there!
Since, apparently, this has been our "Fashion Week" here you have a few links to continue working on this topic:

-269 names of Fabric and Cloth:  phrontistery.info
-Useful Vocabulary: Men's Clothes | Women's Clothes | Uni-Sex | Baby Clothes
  Holiday/Leisure Clothes | Nightwear | Underwear | Headwear | Footwear  click here: learnenglish.de
-More Vocab and Quizzes: Teach YA!
-Clothes Idioms: Teach Ya!
-Verbs and Phrasal Verbs about Clothes: LearnEnglish.de

-American Department Sores:
 Saks Fifth Avenue
 Nordstrom
 Bloomingdale's
 Macy's
 Neiman Marcus

-English: Harrods

For Fashion Victims check this  "Fashion Behind the Scenes" about Sex and the City. You won't regret spending a few minutes watching about Manolo Blahnik and beyond...
Have a nice week,
Inma.

Martin Luther King Jr: Life and Death

MLK's I have a dream speech (fragment) . You can listen to it and read it along here: MLK's Speech at Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C

"...Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!..."

Have a nice week,

Inma.

Nina Simone: " Mississippi Goddam" on MLK's Day

Mississippi Goddam is a song written and performed by United States singer and pianist Nina Simone. It was first released on her album Nina Simone in Concert which was based on recordings of three concerts she gave at Carnegie Hall in 1964. The album was her first release for the Dutch label Philips Records and is indicative of the more political turn her (recorded) music took during this period. The song was released as a single and boycotted in several Southern states, ostensibly because of the word 'goddam' in the title. Together with "Four Women" and "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" it is one of her most famous protest songs and self-written compositions.

Interpretation

The song is her response to the murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi; and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four black children. On the recording she cynically announces the song as "a show tune, but the show hasn't been written for it yet". The song begins jauntily, with a show tune feel, but demonstrates its political focus early on with its refrain "Alabama's got me so upset, Tennessee's made me lose my rest, and everybody knows about Mississippi goddam". In the song she rails on the common argument at the time that civil rights activists and African Americans should "go slow" and make changes in the United States incrementally: "Keep on sayin' 'go slow'...to do things gradually would bring more tragedy. Why don't you see it? Why don't you feel it? I don't know, I don't know. You don't have to live next to me, just give me my equality!"
She performed the song in front of 40,000 people at the end of one of the Selma to Montgomery marches when she and other black activists, including Sammy Davis Jr., James Baldwin and Harry Belafonte crossed police lines.

Spanish Stereotypes: how foreigners see us

What stereotypes exist of Spanish people and Spain? Which ones did you have before you moved here, learnt about the country and met the people? And remember: these are stereotypes of Spain, not what I actually think! By Matthew Bennett.

Read his article here:
SPANISH STEREOTYPES

You can also subscribe to his bilingual blog and read "The Spanish Challenge"  http://www.matthewbennett.es/