Watch this film and learn about musical projects between British musicians and artists and performers from around the world. Five international musical pieces were developed representing all five continents of the world. The music was performed at a spectacular weekend event of free music on the River Thames ('River of Music, July 2012').
Ondatropica is a British Council Musical Collaboration with Mario Galeano and Will Quantic. The project merges classic and modern styles of Colombian music.
Watch this video and meet Michi Sarmiento, composer and arranger of many of the biggest hits in tropical music.
Find out more about this week long festival that occurs in Spring time in Hong Kong. Follow the link above and read about the history, the culture, the ceremonies and activities that occur for the festival. It really is very fascinating!
Either click on the PDF document and download or print the lesson. It is a reading comprehension. Enjoy!
3 Resources to Find Out About the Man Behind the Legend
"He was a musician, a spiritual leader, a ladies' man, a smoker of heroic amounts of ganja, a political force and a religious icon. And, 31 years after his death, Bob Marley is still a chart-topper: His Legends album sells 250,000 copies a year, even now".
source:canada.com
Excerpt: BERLIN
-
April 2012 saw a film released about him. Below is a trailer, you can also access the film on demand at:-
Students could role play an interview about their father with another student. Students may like to compare their fathers to Bob Marley and discuss the 'role model' of a father. There could be quite different opinions on this and it generates a good opportunity for students to express their opinion about Marley's way of life. Students will have strong opinions on this and they are likely to vary a lot!
Finally, his famous song 'One Love'. The message of his beliefs and philosophy are held within the lyrics of his song. He was a 'rastafarian' by religion, I personally think there is a lot of truth in what he says in the song!
One thing for sure, he was a very controversial and rebellious character! As Ravi says in the British Council Podcast if Bob was alive today what question would you like to ask him?
This is a Macmillan Inside Out Series TEFL learning resource I would suggest is probably at Intermediate level (B1). It may also be suitable for Pre-Intermediate TEFL learners (A2) It contains:- - A reading gapfill exercise about the country of Bhutan - Answers requiring questions to be formed for them - Facts about another unknown country. Try to guess which country it is. Remember it begins with 'B'.
A brilliant resource by Macmillan explaining the game of charades, the rules and what the hand signals mean. Learn about Shakespeare Plays by trying to guess what the actor is miming in the 3 short videos. Once you get the idea you could play the game with friends/colleagues either sticking to the topic of Shakespeare's work or trying another author perhaps Charles Dickens.
I heard many people in England call Michael Jackson 'a freak' when he was alive. Do you think this was a compliment or an insult? Watch this video and become familiar with the uses and meaning of this slang word. Thinking about Michael Jackson, a great many respects have been paid to him and his music since his death. With the benefit of hindsight (this means looking back in time with the benefit of what is known today), I wonder what those people would call him now? A 'freak' or a 'legend'?
Another video with James from engVid similar in format to the last video posted 'blow'.
James explains the origins of the word 'suck' and it's social history. The word emerged in the 1920's/1930's in Jazz Clubs in America. Jazz instruments need the player to blow into them. If you have a good blow you tend to be a good player. However if you suck the air in instead of blowing it out it doesn't work and the instrument sounds flat and awful. And so people who are not good at doing things got the nickname 'sucker'. What do you think? True or false.
The presenter maps out and explains the different uses of the verb 'blow' in a spider diagram: a useful technique when exploring a word that has different uses and meanings.
This week the British Council's podcast introduced 'informal language phrases'. For example - 'What do you fancy?' instead of 'What would you like?' which is more formal. Here is another resource that focuses on slang or informal language. There is a quiz at the bottom of the resource to do after you have watched the video. Just click on it and you can test yourself on what you have learnt.