John Lennon marries Yoko Ono

 

Fifty-one years ago today, John Lennon and Yoko Ono got married in Gibraltar: it was 20 March 1969.  After a 10-minute ceremony, the two flew to Amsterdam and set up a "bed-in" as a call for peace in the presidential suite of the Hilton hotel. International media outlets were invited to cover the event, which lasted seven days.

Father's Day

 Italy celebrates Father’s Day on Saint Joseph’s Day, which falls on 19 March. This is unlike in many countries that celebrate Father’s Day in June

In US and UK too, Father's Day festival is celebrated on the third Sunday of June and therefore the date of the festival is never fixed. People celebrate the occasion by honoring their father and expressing affection for them by presenting popular gifts like cards, flowers, chocolates and neckties. Little children often give handmade gifts to their dad.

St. Patrick's Day

 Every 17 March, Irish people all over the world celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in honour of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.

When St. Patrick was born, his name actually was not Patrick but Maewyn.

Maewyn spent six years as a slave in Ireland, but then he escaped and went to Gaul in France where he studied in a monastery for 12 years. Finally, Maewyn became a bishop and adopted the Christian name Patricius .

Later Patrick decided to go back to Ireland and converted Irish pagans to Christianity.

Patrick died on 17 March 461. That day now is a national holiday in Ireland and there are parades in the streets and music everywhere. Not only in Ireland – Irish emigrants took this tradition all over the world.

Mother's Day

 

British Mother's Day is TODAY on Sunday, March 14 2021.

 

Known by its religious name, Mothering Sunday, it has become more commercialised over the years.

In the UK, the date is linked to Easter, which is different each year as it is determined by the lunar calendar.

 

The UK's Mother's Day always falls on the fourth Sunday during the period of Lent, when people typically give up things like certain foods or bad habits for the days leading up to Easter.

James Joyce

James Joyce, one of the greatest Irish novelists, was born on February 2nd, 1882.

Joyce’s birthday is also Candlemas Day and Ground Hog Day, making his birthday part religious festival, part popular festival. Due to these coincidences, Joyce considered his birthday to be an auspicious day, and he often contrived to make it particularly special.

From New Amsterdam to New York

2nd February 1665: British forces capture New Amsterdam, the centre of the Dutch colony in North America. The trading settlement on the island of Manhattan is to be renamed New York in honour of the Duke of York, its new governor

Robert Burns

 Jan. 25 is the day when people in Scotland celebrate Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. Burns Night is a great occasion when many dinners dedicated to his memory are held Highlights of any Robbie Burns festival often include the bagpipes, Scotsmen in kilts and the reading of Burns' poem, "To A Haggis." But no Robbie Burns' feast would be complete without the dish of choice - haggis.

Dydd Santes Dwynwen.

 Everyone knows about St. Valentine’s Day, but you might not be aware of the Welsh equivalent: Dydd Santes Dwynwen.

Celebrated every year on 25 January, the occasion commemorates the Welsh saint of lovers.

Even if not as commercially promoted as Valentine’s Day, couples in Wales purchase Santes Dwynwen greeting cards to give to one another. A traditional gift on this day is a Welsh love spoon. These typically handmade wooden spoons are decorated and carved into shapes and symbols, and have been crafted for centuries within Wales.

Dadid Bowie his death 5 years ago

David Bowie's death on January 10, 2016 shocked the world of music. His passing came two days after Bowie had released his 27th studio album, Blackstar — the day that also marked his 69th birthday. Only Bowie's family and close inner circle knew that the music icon had been battling liver cancer since a diagnosis in 2014 In his song Five Years, Bowie imagined a dying Earth. Five years on from his death, it sounds like a premonition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bcnO3VQ_fc&fbclid=IwAR3UiZmNT5cBS0ZViKTweojz5jc5VnLrVxXEOUTxJjJe29avLvk9n6tK91c

Queen Elisabeth

Today the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have received a vaccine against Covid-19 . The couple were given the immunisations from the royal household doctor.

The Queen, 94, and Prince Philip, 99, are among around 1.5 million people in the UK to have had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine so far.

 John Lennon should have turned 80 today. He is no longer with us, but his music and his songs will never die. On his birthday, I dedicate one of his most talented songs to each of us. Even in this tragic moment, we must keep on dreaming and imagining

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkgkThdzX-8&list=OLAK5uy_lm9bwhxzhr6tvInIqltdtWhX3rwRhzoZ4

Question tags

 

 SOME ENGLISH LANGUAGE FACTS

– The word SWIMS (with all capitalized letters) will be SWIMS even if turned upside down. It’s called an “ambigram”.
– A “pangram” sentence is one that contains every letter of the English alphabet. Here’s an example: THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG.
This sentence is commonly used to test computer keyboards.
– A “palindrome” is a word or phrase that is spelled the same whether you read leftto-right or right-to-left. For example: MOM, REFER, CIVIC, MY GYM, NO LEMON, NO MELON, WAS IT A CAT I SAW?.
– The longest common word with no vowels is RHYTHMS.
– If you wrote out all the numbers (one, two, three…), you would not use the letter B until the word BILLION.
The most commonly used letter in English is E, while Q is the letter used the least. E is 56 times more common than Q.
– The most commonly used noun is TIME.
– The most commonly used adjective is GOOD.
– The word SET has the highest number of definitions.
– MONTH, ORANGE, SILVER and PURPLE do not rhyme with any other word.
– English is the official language of the air: all pilots have to identify themselves and speak in English while flying, regardless of their origin.
– More people in the world have learned English as a second language than there are native English speakers!

 Imparare l'INGLESE attraverso le serie TV:

I miei studenti spesso chiedono film o serie TV per migliorare il loro inglese. Per gli studenti intermedi suggerisco solitamente di ascoltare i discorsi ufficiali del presidente Obama (per inglese americano) e della Regina Elisabetta (per l'accento inglese britannico). Tutti e due parlano piano piano, pronunziano ogni parola e il loro inglese è facile da capire. Se sei un principiante, hai bisogno di qualcosa di più fondamentale e semplice e le serie TV sono una grande fonte di lingua inglese ′′ vita reale ′′ e le foto ti aiuteranno a capire cosa si dice.
Ho selezionato un certo numero di serie TV da principianti a studenti avanzati, in modo da poter migliorare il tuo inglese in modo totalmente divertente e semplice. Eccoli qui:
BEGINNER: cartoni animati (gli episodi di solito sono molto più brevi dei film e hanno molte ripetizioni linguistiche utili all'apprendimento)
PRE-INTERMEDIATE: documentari della natura (sono molto rilassanti e gli altoparlanti hanno una voce morbida gentile)
INTERMEDIATE: programmi di cucina (cioè Nigella Lawson), sit-coms o drammi crimini (Broadchurch, Sherlock, Dr. Chi, Game of Thrones)
AVANZATO: spettacoli di commedie (cioè vi mentirei) o drammi storici (cioè abbazia di Downtown)
Se non capisci parole o frasi, non mollare! Più ascolti, più vocabolario imparerai.

Question tag:

 

Le preposizioni TO AT IN

https://www.facebook.com/baionipaola/videos/vb.184452215597304/136795190574271/?type=2&theater

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrvO4baXLWI

SVOMPT rule

The Bookshop

Se siete appassionati di tutto ciò che riguarda il mondo anglosassone, non potete non vedere "The Bookshop". L'ho scoperto per caso ieri sera: in TV davano i mondiali di calcio e io ero in cerca di qualcosa da vedere. Spulciando tra vari siti ad un certo punto mi ci sono imbattuta: e poteva un English addicted  come me lasciarsi scappare l'occasione di vederlo? 

La storia si svolge a Hardborough, una cittadina rurale del Sussex, negli anni '50. Florence Green, vedova di guerra, realizza il suo sogno di aprire una libreria nell'Old House, una casa abbandonata  e si dice infestata dai fantasmi. Dopo molti sacrifici Florence riesce a realizzare il suo sogno, sebbene Mrs Gamart, una donna ricca ed ambiziosa, la ostacoli in tutti i modi. Florence decide di sfidare i suoi bigotti compaesani mettendo in vendita Fahrenhet 451 ma soprattutto Lolita: la sua libreria  è presa d'assalto da curiosi che acquistano questi volumi considerati uno scandalo per l'epoca e gli affari subiranno un incremento forse non sperato. Tuttavia, Mrs Gamart, grazie all'intervento di un suo nipote membro del Parlamento, riuscirà a far chiudere la libreria e obbligare Florence a trasferirsi.

Il film è basato sull'omonimo romanzo di Penelope Fitzgerald, uscito nel 1978; si è aggiudicato il premio per il miglior film, la miglior regia e il miglior adattamento ai Goya Awards a febbraio 2018.

E' un film delicatissimo.L'amicizia e il legame tra la protagonista e il solitario Mr Brundish è raccontato in modo poetico e con elegante raffinatezza. 
La fotografia è incantevole: dipinge l'Inghilterra di campagna, con i suoi silenzi, le piogge, la solitudine delle strade, il vento dei campi. Si percepisce la polvere dei libri, il gusto delle storie che fanno far tardi la notte, per leggere fino all'ultima riga, per assaporare l'incanto, il suono armonioso della carta nello sfogliare delle pagine, l'odore unico del libro nuovo di stampa.


Il film è disponibile su:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCySbib0l8Y


Lo consiglio vivamente. In English, of course!

Cardinal numbers