Humor4u

Christmas is magic. This time of winter with short, gloomy evenings and eerie weather due to climate change, can still be transformed by the power of human imagination. An alternative Christmas commercial in the UK has caught the British people's imagination in the tough winter of 2022 and has become viral in the pre-Christmas season with a sad story, a melancholic song and a simple slogan. You can watch it here: The video has no subtitles, but, thanks to my colleague Pablo A. you can find here a lesson plan with the transcript , which was originally published by Film English , and it is suitable for C1 students and above. In the commercial, you can find interesting words like: mate , poorly , [this one]  is on me , cheers , get well soon, well wishes. Pablo A. has also passed me the script for the bacground song, Constellations by Ellie Holcomb , where you can find these words: to long for [you], underneath, a canopy [of stars], to collide , the mess [in my life], to see through ,...

  Love is the driving force that moves our hearts and inspires our mind. There are thousands of songs and poems that talk about the miriad of emotions love can arouse. Here you can find a short text about heartbreak and hope, written by Teresa M., who won one of the awards in the 2021 Valentine Competition at the E.O.I. nº 1, Zaragoza, and below you can find two very different love songs: the video " Break My Heart " by Dua Lipa released in 2020 and a 1960 hit by Etta James, " A Sunday Kind of Love ". The vocabulary is quite easy and the songs can be heard with subtitles, so this post is suitable for B1 students and above.  The less frequent words you will come across are: skylight, a letdown, to grip [my heart], relief, serenity, to get it wrong, to know for sure, letting you go, love at first sight, on the square, scheming, to enfold [someone] in my arms. I hope you can feel Cupid's arrows deep in your heart. Enjoy Valentine's Day! IS A MATTER OF TIME by T...

Dating is an art, a communication game where you want to show your feelings, but you do not want "to seem too eager".  In this post you can find two articles from The List, a "women's news and lifestyle site with a twist": Texts to Send After a First Date and Things You Should Never Do on a First Date . These two texts are recommended for C1 students, as the vocabulary is very rich in colloquial American slang.  Some of the less frequent words you will find in the dating and texting article are:  nerve-wracking, to feel a spark, super cheesy, flirty, cute, to ghost your date, to hang out with friends, to hit it off, to get the hint , whereas in the second story you will read  frazzled, tardiness, phubbing  (which is a new coinage),  a self-fulfilling prophecy, to feel upbeat/ over-the-top, to moan about, to whine, to brag, a faux-pas, daunting  etc. A full list of the most interesting words in these two articles can be found in the "Glossary of the Bl...

Can we categorize people's personality? Psychologists have tried to do so, it is part of their job.  The video below,  "The Myers-Briggs Personality Types Explained  by Psych2Go, shows a well-established questionnaire, the  Myers-Briggs Type Indicator . which was constructed by two American female psychologists following Jung's theories, to find out your personality in a short list of 16 possible personality types. Personality tests, horoscopes etc. could be priceless materials to introduce character description adjectives in the EFL class.  This lesson plan for C1 students includes the Myers-Briggs test, a list of synonyms and some horoscope work, to present and practice this lexical area. You will come across words like: to check out, proper, at face value, eccentric, to flex muscles, a gut instinct , to spot , hands-on , to give away, to have a hard time, to excel, to crave , [to be] in the spotlight, to dive deep, reluctant, willing, to thrive , to carve, to...

Poet Louise Glück has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Poetry must be read out loud to appreciate its sound and its music, the unique sound and music of a language, in this case English, which cannot be faithfully translated into any other language. Below you can watch a YouTube video of Louise Glück reading out loud several of her poems at a Lannan literary event.  After an introduction by Peter Streckfus, the poet reads " Mock Orange " (10:17), then two poems from her book " The Wild Iris " (10:29).  Next, two more poems from " Averno " (14:03): " Telescope " (14:27) and " Landscape ", which is introduced at 15:50 and recited at 17:26.  Then, Ms Glück goes on to read two poems from " A Village Life " (29:24), and. finally, the poetic rendition ends with two texts form " Faithful & Virtous Night " (43:11). You can read the words of " Landscape " while you listen to the poem on this lin...

This is a "human interest" story from Humankind , a USA Today video channel on YouTube and Facebook that features "uplifting stories about kindness, triumphs and special relationships".  Sam Giambalvo is a travelling nurse who tells an emotional story at the 7:00 clap back in June 2020. She speaks fast, standard American English, but there are subtitles, which can be very helpful. You will hear lots of expressions related to feelings, for example: sirens, applause, honoring, frontline workers, to pass away, ER, to follow your feelings, comforting, I lost it, let me be upset, a split second, to get me through the shift, to give a hug, to look forward to something, a terrace, a storey, to hold a sign, to wave for you, to point at you, he fist pumps, he'll blow kisses, sirens wailing, joyous, appreciation, to sprint out there, to show up, God is blessing us, break, upbeat music .   This video can be recommended to C1 students (with the subtitles).

Coronavirus isolation is creating new couples.  This BBC report tells the love stories of 5 couples around the world whose relationships have been rushed by the coronavirus lockdown. The article contains some very interesting colloquial language, like "to juggle" (to deal with and balance two important things), "to have a blast" (a great time), "to cuddle" (to hug, to embrace), "to wrap up" (to conclude), "to grab" (to take), "to hang out with" (to go out with), "to shack up with somebody" (to cohabit), "a craving" (a strong desire), "to latch on to" (to get hold on to) etc. C1 students should be able to read the article without too much trouble. And, in addition, here you can find a link to the BBC Reel video "How I Became Obsessed With a Stranger", where a Spanish young woman tells a compelling story of love, grief and Instagram obsession. The video has subtitles and half of it is in S...

American Pie is, problably, the most popular, long song  (8:33) in the history of modern music and its lyrics are the most widely debated too.  It is number 5 in RIAA's project " Song of the Century",  which promotes the musical and cultural heritage in American schools, and it has been covered by many artists, including Madonna in 2000. The meaning of the lyrics have been discussed all over, in forums, books, in the press etc., but  Don McLean has  always refused to explain its symbolism and hidden references, he often tells his fans "American Pie means I never have to work again", as the BBC reported in 2015.  The song contains a deluge of references to the leading artists in pop music from 1958 to 1971, and some of the landmarks of the social history of the 1960's like segregation, the fear of nuclear war, flower power, Woodstock, the drug culture and heroin etc. According to the analysis on the webpage The Rare Exception, which is a dead link now, but...

Understanding a poem like Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is a tremendous achievement for any learner of English, and a considerable challenge for the EFL teacher. The topic is hard and the syntax is disjointed by the metric of the poem, a villanelle, but the pathos of the poem can be felt, if not understood, when you first watch these Welsh actors reciting the poem for BBC Cymru Wales: It is fascinating to hear the sounds and the words of a foreign language and to understand almost nothing, just like when you first started learning English a long time ago.  Reading poetry or song lyrics has a power, it can take you back to that initial stage when English had the magic of unintelligibility.  Yet, we want to know, we want to understand. This lesson shows how I tackled the challenge for a B2+ class, but, this class is problably more suitable for C2 students. The plan starts with some simple warm-up questions to get the attention of the students.  The ...

Song lyrics can stir the imagination of the learner. Rhythm & criptic allusions can immerse the listener in a hazy atmosphere in which eyes must be open wide to try to catch a glimpse of the meaning of the lines. Undestanding song lyrics is always a challenge.  Listen to this song by Lorde, try to guess its message and discuss your guesses with your partner, if you can talk to someone. Here, there is a the gap-filling exercise to help you follow the song . Your guess may be right or wrong initially, when you are learning a foreign language, that is not too important.  What is really important is that you have activated your guessing skills in your brain, which are essential to reconstruct fragmentary understanding of the flow of speech and the fact that you have produced some sentences to discuss your guesses with a partner.  Here, you can find a link to a Wikipedia article that gives some insights into the lyrics of the song . In short, the song expresses "detailed d...

Jonna Jinton is a Swedish artist who decided to move from the city to a remote little village in the North of Sweden with "no plan, no money and no job", to follow her dream and live close to nature.  In the middle of the forest, she became a photographer, an artist, a blogger, and, finally, an influencer.  In this beautiful video, she tells the story of her life in her slow, crystal clear English, which is subtitled, so the document can be accessible to B1 students and above. Thanks to my student Cristina L., who sent me this link. I f you want to see an example of her ephemeral nature art, you can click here and watch another of her YouTube videos "The Art of Balancing Stones",  She says that it is "still and quiet, in a world that is constantly moving. "

This is a conversation lesson about "Cinema" which can be used with B1, B2 and C1 students (with adaptations). Here you can find the lesson plan, two lists of the winners of the Goya and Oscar Awards 2019, an article about the 2019 edition of the Goya Awards, a fill-in the gap task with the lyrics of the song " Shallow " form A Star is Born , and the full script of the lyrics.

Laughter is, basically, a social activity.  Humans laugh as a way to bond with each other -or to separate from those who belong to another social group. Other animal species also laugh, rats or apes, but the reasons why humans laugh are many and very nuanced.  This BBC article describes laughter and explains some of the reasons why we laugh. Although the vocabulary in this article is very rich, the text can be accessible to B2 learners.