The success of Mercadona, analysed by Harvard Business School

I'm personally a big fan of Mercadona, but I had no idea the "Mercadona case" was so interesting.

The article is a bit complicated to understand, but maybe you'd like to read a few parts of it:

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6440.html?wknews=071910

Hans Rosling talks about population growth

Interesting, and also easy to understand. Subtitles available.

Twisit Jordania

If you like making videos, and you've always wanted to visit Jordan, this is the competition for you.

Queen Rania tells you all about it here: http://www.twitvid.com/queenrania

Zombies crash car

As if a car crash wasn't bad enough anyway.

http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Car-accident-victims-dressed-like-zombies-confuse-crash-witnesses-98157894.html

Dropped food

How to decide whether to eat food that you've dropped on the floor or not.

Space affects you

Check this out to see how the benefits of space exploration are present in your daily lives.

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/nasacity/index2.htm

Have a great summer everybody!

Hi everybody!

Well, the school year has finished, and I suppose most of you have "disconnected" from English. Well done, everyone who passed the year, and sorry, those who didn't. But whether you passed or not, remember to keep doing something in English in the summer: some revision, reading, listening, etc, etc, because if you don't you'll forget a lot of what you've learnt, and in September you'll be LOST.

Apart from that, I'd like to wish you all a great holiday, drive carefully and all that*.

Best wishes and have fun!

*PS. Be careful! In case you didn't know, there's a radar at Ronda Ibérica nº 60 and it's very efficient...

An ethical problem

Are you still there?

What do you think of this?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7847571/Is-a-religious-bus-ban-on-my-dog-right.html

FYI*, dogs ARE allowed on buses in England, as in other countries where they are usually trained or at least well-behaved.

*FYI= for your information

Just as we suspected...

According to this news article, the world's rich people got richer last year:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100622/tot-uk-wealthreport-4b7b872.html

WARNING! Apart from the content being depressing enough, the language is difficult, too.

What we don't teach in class (except when there's some kind of problem with the computer)

Slang English!

It's hardly ever in the coursebooks, probably because they try to be as politically correct as possible, which is a good thing, but it's also a good idea to learn some survival expressions, isn't it?

But what is slang?

WordReference.com defines "slang" as either "a characteristic language of a particular group" or "informal language consisting of words and expressions that are not considered appropriate for formal occasions; often vituperative or vulgar".

Obviously, slang can be very handy on certain occasions, more to understand what other people are saying than to use it yourself, although you never know when you might need it too.

Learn some slang expressions or test yourself:

• http://www.englishclub.com/ref/Slang/index.htm
• http://www.englishclub.com/ref/Slang/Quizzes/index.htm

It's not very complete, but I'm sure you'll find something useful.

Lots of fails

No, I'm not referring to your exam results, that's next Monday, but this typical video of "fails" made me laugh.

The music is You're pitiful, by Weird Al Yankovic, and I'm sure you'll agree it's a lot better than the original song You're beautiful by James C- I mean Blunt.

Eminem "defends" gay marriage

Eminem, once notorious for his homophobic lyrics, has matured now, he says.

http://www.nme.com/news/eminem/51569

Vuvuzela, again

See, I was sure that I had understood it right! http://links.assetize.com/links/bac560

:D

Do the diski!

Now that you're taking your traditional 3-month break from studying English, it's probably a good time for you to learn a new dance. Not to mention that you never know if you're going to need to celebrate in some way...

You know, now that I'm re-watching the video again (and practising), it's strange that they haven't thought of incorporating a BALL into the dance, isn't it?

Personally, I haven't watched a single match yet, but I've heard about the controversy over the vuvuzela, and how annoying some people are finding the matches: something about the football distracting them from appreciating the sound of the ...erm... music. Or something like that. If that's your case, this is the page for you: www.vuvuzela.fm, hours and hours of non-stop vuvuzela trumpets, with no annoying football!*

Enjoy!

*I do actually enjoy football, but my team are never favourites to win anything. ;)

The atom demostrated by Golden Retrievers (educational)

Cuuuuute! :)