How do you pronounce 2012?

"How do you say 2012? It was still quite common to hear 'two thousand and eleven' during the past year, but it is my guess that you won't hear 'two thousand and twelve' very much this year. Instead, most people will say 'twenty twelve' - in the UK, anyway."

This is the beginning of the 1st January post by The Virtual Linguist. Click on the link or on the picture below to read his prediction about the way 2012 will be pronounced by most native English speakers.

And since we are dealing with numbers, you can read Jane Straus's Rules for Writing Numbers and do the accompanying quiz.

Science and innovation in the UK

Science and innovation in the UK, featuring Astrophysicist Giovanna Tinetti, is another video in the series Britain through my eyes.

The Britain through my eyes project consists of a series of videos where immigrants to the UK express their views on the country in preparation for London 2012.

Self-study activity:
Unfortunately, Giovanna's English is difficult to understand, but the task here is quite general. Say whether the statements below are true or false.



1 Giovanna got her degree in Italy.
2 She has lived in three continents.
3 London is her favourite city.
4 She's trying to find life in the universe.
5 The UK is really cosmopolitan.
6 The Royal Society is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
7 They have already discovered life in space, bacteria microorganism, but not civilazations.

You can read the transcript here.
My name is Giovanna Tinetti.  I come from Italy and I am an astrophysicist at University College London, and this is "See Britain Through My Eyes". 
I actually did my university studies in Italy and then, I went to the United States and to France. And today, I actually work in London, University College London, and I really love being here and I really hope to stay here for my entire life, actually. 
I seriously think that London is the most beautiful city in the world. I can basically live in the hills of London, but then a few tube stations, I can go to the center.  And then from there, I can start to think about what's happening in space.  I like the fact that I can be totally in my mind in the countryside or in the city, or in space. 
Personally, I work on the idea of trying to find life elsewhere in the universe.  Looking at the light coming from the planets, which are outside our own solar system, if the orbit of the planet at a certain point brings the planet in front of the star, then you can basically measure the composition of the planetary atmosphere. Through that, we can get an insight of what's going on on the planet, if the planet is habitable and potentially inhabited or not. 
What I particularly like of the UK universities is the balance between a competition and a corporation, and this is something that is a little bit in between the American situation or the European one.  The flux that is made by the planet would also be equal to sigma.  Sigma is always the Stefan-Boltzmann constant, of course.
When I arrived in the UK, I was surprised to see how international is this community, and literally people are coming from all over the world.  Not only students, but also the staff. That is actually a very strong message that is very rare internationally.  The fact that you have a culture that is open enough actually, to allow other people to come in from different countries, if they deserve it, to take key jobs.  In the UK, you have a very strong concept of meritocracy. 
One of the aspects of the UK I really like is having a foot in the past and a foot in the future. This is one of the events of the Royal Society to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society.  What I think is fantastic is the idea that such a great institution that goes past centuries is not just a fossil.  It's still an institution and it's inspiring us to do great science today. I was awarded a university research fellowship by the Royal Society.  
Of course, if I come here and I look at all these beautiful portraits of scientists like Newton, Boyle, then I feel a lot of pressure.  You have all the past talking to you to sort of support you and encourage you to do a brighter future. 
Are there any planets with other Royal Society looking back at us and seeing us as alien? I really think that simple life, in terms of bacteria microorganisms, is probably very common out there.  Maybe civilization, it's something a little bit more difficult to form.  We shall see what this theorem will tell us.

Key:
1T 2F 3T 4T 5T 6F 7F

Talking point: Time to run

What would you put in your emergency go-bag? is a  question The Learning Network posted in early December in their section Student Opinion.

A “go-bag” is defined by the New York City Office of Emergency Management as “a collection of items you can use in the event of an evacuation,” but in a recent Styles article, a reporter asked some well-known New Yorkers what other items they’d put in their bags besides basic emergency provisions.

If you were leaving your home in a hurry in the event of a disaster, what items — irreplaceable because of their practical, sentimental or monetary value — would you make sure to include in your bag?

Get together with your English-speaking friends or relatives and discuss this question.

You can also use Stephanie Rosenbloom's article to gain some background information about the topic.

For further ideas, you can also visit The Burning House, a project for which people submitted a picture with the objects they would take with them in case of fire in their house. There are lists naming the objects on each picture, so The Burning House can prove invaluable to develop our grasp of everyday vocabulary items.

From a linguistic point of view, the activity can help us revise and practise the second conditional to express hypothesis:

If I had to leave my house in an emergency, I would take...

Listening activities with Caroline Brown

Caroline Brown has put together a number of online listening activities which a suitable for intermediate students of English.

Each listening activity comes together with several exercises: a pre-listening task to deal with key vocabulary, and a number of varying listening exercises to put our listening skills to the test. Needless to say, a transcript is provided, as well as self-correcting tools for all the exercises.

The picture below shows all the activities available.

Original New Year Resolutions slideshow

I know it's not very original, but every year brings along a number of resolutions for personal improvement a lot of people make.

Here's a slideshow from Metacafe. Watch it, enjoy it, and you may come across some ideas for 2012 you had never thought about.

New Year's Resolution List - The best bloopers are a click away

You can also find some old posts with New Year Resolutions on this blog:

• http://mythatsenglish.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-year-resolutions.html shows in a video the use of auxiliary will to talk about predictions.
• http://mythatsenglish.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-resolutions-for-kids.html is a listening comprehension activity which focuses on the use of going to for predictions and to show the speaker's determination.
• http://mythatsenglish.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-stick-to-new-years-resolutions.html is a 'serious' Videojug video which offers tips to keep to one's resolutions.

Raise a glass to the song "Auld Lang Syne"

This is a CBS video that explains the history behind the New Year song "Auld Lang Syne" I came across this video through New Technology for Teachers.

Self-study activity:
Watch the five-minute video clip and answer the questions below.



1 What's the New York Caledonian Club?
2 When do the Scots sing "Auld Lang Syne"?
3 When was Robert Burns born?
4 How did Robert Burns hear about the song?
5 How old was Robert Burns when he died?

You can read the transcript here.

Key:
1 A pub where American Scottish get together 2 On New Year's Day and whenever they hold a ceremonony and celebration 3 1759 4 He heard an old man singing the song 5 Thirty-seven

Christmas around the world

I know, I know. I should have posted about Christmas a long time ago, and not now that the season holiday is coming to an end. I wasn't in the right frame of mind, sorry!

Anyway, chance has it that through ESL Chestnut I came across this webquest by Julia Shpanchuk, from Ukraine, and, you know, better late than never. In this activity, originally thought-out as a class activity, you have to explore the way Christmas is celebrated around the world and prepare a presentation about a specific country.

We still have a few days on our hands before school is due to start, so choose a country out of the options Julia gives you, and use the resources she suggests to explore the customs and traditions in that country.

I hope you enjoy it and that it helps you with your English.

Thank you, Julia and Anna.