Ashamed, flabbergasted, but alive and kicking!

Hi there folks!
Almost run out of time, but here I am, fulfilling the weekly-post-promise. As it is already late, I am going to be quick, although I can assure more is to come (really) soon.

This week I have happened to get an overdose of amazing English learning sources I hadn't ever imagined would exist in such a big number. It was like references to english learning just kept popping up all the time, out of the blue. Some of the e-resources I came across this week and which are easy to share are listed below:

vocabulary:
http://www.englishidioms.uni.cc/
listening english - english resources:
http://www.listen-to-english.com/
http://www.thewordnerds.org/
http://www.eslpod.com/website/
http://feeds.thisamericanlife.org/talpodcast
http://englishcaster.com/idioms/

portuguese-english blogs - surprisingly good material there!
http://www.teclasap.com.br/blog/
http://denilsodelima.blogspot.com/

All those are worth each minute you can spend on them.
And, just to deny I only pasted the websites, not ading anything of my own this week, I'd like to comment on an unusual word: bumpkim (sounds like pumpkin...). It is a word which shows disapproval, and sometimes is even offensive, used to refer to a person who was brought up in the countryside (remembers me of someone... jk). I was saving it for my vacations - going to receive an special guest - but couldn't just keep it for myself. As a way of not forgetting it, I wrote it on my hand before going bed, and, to my utter astonishment, it worked! Maybe I've just developped a new and fantastic method of language-study!! Well, let aside the joke, it is worth messing up with your study method. Although with time people tend to acquire knowledge of their favourite ways of learning, it is sometimes worth to change to less effective, different ways, even if it is just for fun. It is nice having an unusual learning experience, you'll remember it later. I think.

As usual, follows a saying - an English proverb this time:

Enough is as good as a feast.

Next week - or as I prefer to call it - this week, if the best comes to the best, I'll be able to post a heap of (= a lot of) sharp material here. Anyway, even if the worse comes to the worse, it will be done ASAP (= as soon as possible)

ttys! (talk to you soon)

The Changeling Twins of Corwrion

Hi there!
Yeah I finally decided to post something in here! I thought long and hard about what should I write - you know, first post...very special thing ^^ - and I've decided on a traditional tale!
So I've searched the web from top to bottom and found this really cool website (http://www.cln.org/themes/fairytales.html) which contains a lot of tales from all over the world.
I've choosen a British one. Enjoy!

The Changeling Twins of Corwrion
John Rhys, Celtic Folklore

Once on a time, in the fourteenth century, the wife of a man at Corwrion had twins, and she complained one day to a witch, who lived close by, at Tydyn y Barcud, that the children were not getting on, but that they were always crying day and night.
"Are you sure that they are your children?" asked the witch, adding that it did not seem to her that they were like hers.
"I have my doubts also," said the mother.
"I wonder if somebody has exchanged children with you," said the witch.
"I do not know," said the mother. "But why do you not seek to know?" asked the other.
"But how am I to go about it?" said the mother.
The witch replied, "Go and do something rather strange before their eyes and watch what they will say to one another."
"Well, I do not know what I should do," said the mother.
"Well," said the other, "take an eggshell, and proceed to brew beer in it in a chamber aside, and come here to tell me what the children will say about it."
She went home and did as the witch had directed her, when the two children lifted their heads out of the cradle to find what she was doing--to watch and to listen.
Then one observed to the other, "I remember seeing an oak having an acorn," to which the other replied, "And I remember seeing a hen having an egg"; and one of the two added, "But I do not remember before seeing anybody brew beer in the shell of a hen's egg."
The mother then went to the witch and told her what the twins had said one to the other; and she directed her to go to a small wooden bridge not far off, with one of the strange children under each arm, and there to drop them from the bridge into the river beneath.
The mother went back home again and did as she had been directed. When she reached home this time, she found to her astonishment that her own children had been brought back.


So, the moral of the story is that witches are good at giving advice. - ?!
Maybe the traditional Celtic tales have no moral...

Well, that's all.
Take care!

What to study and what not to...

Learning. Such an important thing (nowadays more than ever), it is a subject that fascinates me. As I grow older, I have come to realize the importance of planning and organizing the study as something special and capital on learning.

Thinking about things to post on this e-notebook, I went into considering what are the areas one should focus on when studying by him/herself. It turned out that what people might be lacking *personal point of view on* 'home vocabulary'. By this I mean tools to comunicate every-day simple things, often left aside on english courses. For example, what do the salt containers on restaurant are called, how to describe food flavours and textures, how to nickname a pet or to make jokes. I got to that through thinking on the profile of people who need to improve their english, but already have studied it for a time. These people already, I think, got handle of specific, career-linked vocabulary. Therefore the formal structure of the language is already something of a familiar ground to them (us). The big gap yet to be filled (besides, in some cases, literary vocab) is the language one use outside the walls of the laboratory/office/library. *personal point of view off*

People, I promise I will cut out the meta-discussions, it just happens that I like them ... a lot ...