Ways of Looking 2

Personality Idioms 1

Talk about Politics

In Spanish politics, the far right encompasses movements and ideologies that advocate: 

• keeping decision-making power at the national level rather than transferring authority to regional governments, 
• stricter immigration control, 
• more traditional social values, and 
• tougher law-and-order policies. 

In contrast, the far left includes movements that promote: 

• Support for greater public control or ownership of key industries and services such as energy, education, healthcare, or housing, 
• a broader redistribution of wealth, 
• the expansion of social and labour rights and 
• higher taxation of wealth and income to reduce economic inequalities & expand public services.

Both extremes are positioned outside the moderate political spectrum and tend to propose more radical reforms than those generally supported by centrist parties.

Talk about the above issues and add as many others as you consider worth mentioning.

Commonly Misunderstood Words

EL PAÍS (News in English)

Democrats regain ground with Latinos

Dear readers,

With the U.S. midterms just a month away, new polls suggest that the Democratic Party could win back between six and 10 points of the Hispanic vote that supported Trump in 2024, partly on account of an immigration policy that "has gone too far."

Elsewhere in the world, anger over the housing crisis came to a head in Spain after an elderly woman was evicted from her low-rent home despite years of court struggles. Maricarmen has become the symbol of a growing global movement that aims to regain rights for tenants.

This week we also traveled to Zurich to visit the headquarters of On, the hot new running shoe that's attracting the likes of Kylian Mbappé and Zendaya, and to a town in Colombia where children on their way to school have to deal with an angry three-ton hippopotamus.

We hope you enjoy this selection of stories from EL PAÍS US Edition.

You can also read:

• How Putin, Trump and Xi are aiming to make the EU fail
• From Mamdani’s veto to enthusiasm in Estonia: Schools around the world are grappling with the use of AI
• Tennessee governor halts executions after Christa Pike survives two lethal injections
• The just-world hypothesis and other mental traps that guide us, but that we can avoid
• A living tissue factory: printed cells to create everything from bone marrow to lab meat
• Turning offices into homes: Manhattan’s solution to its housing crisis... but with some risks
• Gaza before and after: New Google Maps imagery shows destruction of the Strip

British & American Slang

A 100 Homophones you should Know

Find them HERE as well.

80 Phrasal Verbs for Everyday Use (with activity)

Find the list HERE (with definitions and examples) and pay attention to the 4 tips before starting to read.

Frequency Adverbs (Special use of ALWAYS)

Frequency adverbs usally go with simple present tenses because they express habits. But ...

... when Always doesn't mean "all the time" but "again and again, usually in an annoying way" you will find it in the continuous form:
[ + -ing verb ] disapproving Eg. You're always complaining.

You use it to criticize somebody's habits

Written Mediation Vegetarian World Day

To celebrate World Vegetarian Day let's do a Written Mediation task. 

A British neighbour of yours found this informative sheet on ALDI website and, as her Spanish is poor, she asked you to make a written summary of the information provided in it. 

Do it using about 125 words.

Key next Thursday

Arrogant Personality Traits

More Binomials

Change of Choir for this afternoon!

There will be a gig this afternoon, but the choir will be PASSIONANT instead of Sonrisas Harmony.

We'll attend the Language Quizzes at the Assembly Hall at 5.00 pm that will take place due to the celebration of the European Day of Languages!

Don't miss them!

C1 Phrasals

Types of Walks

Check mean-ings and more HERE

5,900+ New Reasons to Update Your Vocabulary

This summer’s word drop adds 5,900 new words to Dictionary.com and includes more than 1,200 revisions to existing entries. Taken together, the additions show English expanding in several directions at once: through scientific discovery and technological change, through contact with other languages, and through the communities and cultural spaces where people continually find new things to name.

Vocabulary for Friends

Vocab-

ulary

 for 

Friends

Only for CAT LOVERS!!!

You know I never do publicity. This time, a good friend has just sent me this whatsapp, which I would like to share with you. 

If you don't like cats, ignore it!!!

"I’m doing a soft launch of my new side hustle,

Ellie-Gant Designs.

I’ve been busy creating a growing collection of funny and quirky cat designs for print-on-demand products.The designs are available on all sorts of things, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, kids’ clothes, bags, aprons, mugs, mouse mats and lots more. And with autumn settling in, you might spot a few Halloween and Christmas designs in there at the moment!

If you fancy having a look, I’d be absolutely delighted if anything takes your fancy — but there’s certainly no obligation to buy! Just having a browse would be lovely. And if you think any of your friends might be interested, I’d be really grateful if you could share the link with them.

This is very early days and I’m always developing new designs, so I’d also genuinely love to hear any comments, feedback or ideas for future designs. If there’s a particular cat-related theme, joke or type of design you’d like to see, please tell me!

Thanks so much for taking a look and for supporting my little venture."

 

🙌These are the UK, French and German websites! 

[accept cookies and you'll get a 20% discount!]

Pronunciation Workshop Starting next Wednesday

Coming Soon!!!

Voice recognition & Scottish accent...

EL PAÍS (News in English)

A chance to save a UN in decline

Dear readers,

As world leaders take turns speaking at the 81st UN General Assembly in New York, the head of the International Crisis Group think tank reflects on the waning power of the international organization and how the upcoming selection of a new chief is an opportunity for governments to rally around it and choose a ‘general,’ not a ‘secretary,’ to lead the charge.

Also this week, a court brought hope to migrants who were deported by U.S. authorities without their consent to countries in Africa that they have no ties to. EL PAÍS spoke with a dozen migrants from Cuba, Honduras, Brazil, and Colombia who remain in a legal limbo there, with scant medical assistance and no knowledge of what will happen to them.

In other stories, we looked at the corporate power of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints in the United States and of Opus Dei in Spain, and followed the growing resistance movement against artificial intelligence.

We hope you enjoy this selection of stories from EL PAÍS USA Edition.

You can also read:

• Netanyahu challenges half-empty UN General Assembly: Accusing Israel of genocide is the ‘biggest lie of the century’
• Riding electric scooters multiplies the risk of serious injuries compared with cycling or motorcycling
• Maricarmen: Eviction of elderly woman in Madrid sparks social and political outrage
• ‘El Niño’ already at record levels and threatens to claim 450,000 lives due to extreme heat alone

European Day of Languages 2026

Empowering language learners A motivation manifesto for the European Day of Languages

• Language Facts
• Myth or Fact?
• Famous Quotes
• Questions you never dared to ask about languages

Other year celebrations of this event:  2016, 2018, 2023, 2024

Dictionary Skills KEY

Check your ansewrs HERE.

A 100 Other Words for "ISSUES"

You can see them all HERE too.

One Word Substitution

10 English Pronunciation Errors by Spanish Speakers

Have a look (and a listen*) at this website. (from pronunciationstudio.com)

Football Frenzy

Play football-themed puzzles from the New York Times Gameplay archives for free. 

Available through September 30.

Negative (Mean, Jealous and Narrow-Minded) Personality Traits

 

100 Confusing Word Pairs

Read them more clearly HERE.

Highlight the ones you find quite difficult. 

You should check pronunciation in many of them!