1st karaoke casting - video clip of part I

Enjoy the first set of pictures regarding part I of the 1st karaoke casting! The rest will be included in the video clip about the School Day of Languages.

Karaoke 2012/2013 - 1st casting

And here is the best performance of the first karaoke casting 2012/ 2013.

The videos of the other performances as well as photos will be posted soon. You just have to be a bit patient, OK?

The English Club congratulates  ALL the students who have participated in this first casting and they were many, indeed !!!

By the way, on the 15th March a second casting is going to take place. So, if you haven't been selected in this casting, you still have another opportunity to shine! You just have to enrol on the next casting and rehearse your favourite song very well. We are looking forward to listening to your amazing performances.

KARAOKE RESULTS

Our students were brilliant once again this morning!
Awesome performances!

8th February -Language Day at Maia Secondary School

Karaoke - 1st casting - part II

1st casting - PART II

Join us next Friday, 8th February, at 10 a.m. in the school auditorium ! 

Burns Night - 25th January

Celebrate Robert Burns on the anniversary of his birth on 25 January with a spectacular Burns Supper which includes haggis, whisky, singing, dancing and a lot of laughter and fun.

Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lung); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours.

Scotland celebrates the life of the National Bard, Robert Burns, every 25 January with Burns Night, an entertaining evening of fantastic food, delectable drams, dancing and rousing verse.

Held on the anniversary of Burns’ birth, the celebrations were originally started by some of his close friends a few years after his death and now Burns Night is celebrated across the world each year. Burns’ life and works are commemorated with songs, recitals and tributes and a hearty feast, including haggis, is enjoyed at a traditional Burns Supper.

You can join in with the festivities at many restaurants across Scotland that host formal Burns Night dinners .

WHO WAS ROBERT BURNS?

Robert Burns is one of Scotland’s most important literary figures and is best known for his famous, and often humorous, songs and poetry. Burns was an inspiring and passionate pioneer of his generation and is regarded as Scotland’s National Bard.

More commonly known as Rabbie, Burns was born to a poor family in Alloway, Ayr, on 25 January 1759 and began his working life on the family farm. Burns’ father recognised the importance of education and hired a local teacher for Burns, who went on to demonstrate signs of an exceptional writing talent from a very young age.

As Burns grew older, his great passion for Scotland and his dynamic, contemporary vision played an important role in inspiring the founders of socialism and liberalism. His literary fame began when his first work Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, later known as the Kilmarnock Edition, was published in 1786 after which his writing career flourished.

Although Burns only lived to the age of 37, he enjoyed an eventful life and produced an astonishing amount of great literary work during his career.

Although more than 200 years have passed since his death, Burns remains one of the most celebrated figures in Scottish history and culture, demonstrated by the annual Burns Night celebrations held across the country on 25 January each year.

Probably his most famous work is "Auld Lang Syne" which is sung at the beginning of each New Year all around the world! Listen to it and ... sing along!

Happy New 2013 !!!

1st Karaoke casting 2012/ 13

 The 1st karaoke casting 2012/2013, organised by the English Club,  is about to start!

 The jury, the presenters and the DJ are ready!

The presenters, Rafaela and Catarina, welcome everybody.

We have a full house!!

Our talented students amaze us with their performances

                                                                            ???????

   But suddenly ..... BLACKOUT !!!

What's the matter?

Well, due to bad weather a power failure shut everything down and the second part of the casting had to be called off :( !!!

But, don't worry! The second term is about to start and all the students who couldn't sing will have their chance to perform for us.  

Don't miss the second part! We will give some more news about the coming event soon.

Karaoke- 1st Casting

Join us next Friday at 10 o'clock in the "Polivalent" for the 1st casting of 2012/2013. It will be funtastic!!!

How much do you know about Thanksgiving Day? Here's a video about this festivity:

International Tongue Twister Day

The 7th November is the International Tongue Twister Day...so let's practise some English tongue twisters!

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,

where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

 




She sells seashells by the seashore.

The shells she sells are surely seashells.

So if she sells shells on the seashore,

I’m sure she sells seashore shells.






How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
As much wood as a woodchuck could if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Guy Fawkes' night - why and how is the 5th of November celebrated in Britain?

Celebrating Halloween at our school

The creativity of our 7th form students was at its best! Congratulations to them all!

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THE VOCABULARY ABOUT HALLOWEEN?

Take the challenge and solve the crossword puzzle! 
Then check below. But wait! Solve the puzzle first!

Key:

Some fun facts about Halloween

The history of Halloween. I bet you didn't know!

Columbus' Day

Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492, as an official holiday. The event is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, as Día de la Raza in many countries in Latin America, as Discovery Day in the Bahamas, as Día de la Hispanidad, Fiesta Nacional in Spain, Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural (Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity) in Argentina and as Día de las Américas (Day of the Americas) in Uruguay. These holidays have been celebrated unofficially since the late 18th century, and officially in various areas since the early 20th century.

26th September - European Day of Languages

Today Maia Secondary School also commemorated the European Day of Languages. Students from all grades created their posters , texts and pictures, calling everyone's attention to the role languages play in helping establish bridges among people from many different nationalities.

European Day of Languages

Did you know that...

01 There are between 6000 and 7000 languages in the world - spoken by six billion people divided into 189 independent states.

02 There are about 225 indigenous languages in Europe - roughly 3% of the world’s total.

03 Most of the world’s languages are spoken in Asia and Africa.
04 At least half of the world’s population are bilingual or plurilingual, i.e. they speak two or more languages.

05 In their daily lives Europeans increasingly come across foreign languages. There is a need to generate a greater interest in languages among European citizens.

06 Many languages have 50,000 words or more, but individual speakers normally know and use only a fraction of the total vocabulary: in everyday conversation people use the same few hundred words.

07 Languages are constantly in contact with each other and affect each other in many ways: English borrowed words and expressions from many other languages in the past, European languages are now borrowing many words from English.

08 In its first year a baby utters a wide range of vocal sounds; at around one year the first understandable words are uttered; at around three years complex sentences are formed; at five years a child possesses several thousand words.

09 The mother tongue is usually the language one knows best and uses most. But there can be “perfect bilinguals” who speak two languages equally well. Normally, however, bilinguals display no perfect balance between their two languages.

10 Bilingualism brings with it many benefits: it makes the learning of additional languages easier, enhances the thinking process and fosters contacts with other people and their cultures.

11 Bilingualism and plurilingualism entail economic advantages, too: jobs are more easily available to those who speak several languages, and multilingual companies have a better competitive edge than monolingual ones.

12 Languages are related to each other like the members of a family. Most European languages belong to the large Indo-European family.

13 Most European languages belong to three broad groups: Germanic, Romance and Slavic.

14 The Germanic family of languages includes Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, German, Dutch, English and Yiddish, among others.

15 The Romance languages include Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian, among others.

16 The Slavic languages include Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian and others.

17 Most European languages use the Latin alphabet. Some Slavic languages use the Cyrillic alphabet. Greek, Armenian, Georgian and Yiddish have their own alphabet.

18 Most countries in Europe have a number of regional or minority languages – some of these have obtained official status.

19 The non-European languages most widely used on European territory are Arabic, Chinese and Hindi, each with its own writing system.

20 Russia (148 million inhabitants) has by far the highest number of languages spoken on its territory: from 130 to 200 depending on the criteria.

21 Due to the influx of migrants and refugees, Europe has become largely multilingual. In London alone some 300 languages are spoken (Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, Berber, Hindi, Punjabi, etc.).

If you want to listen to HELLO in different languages go to the following site:
http://edl.ecml.at/LanguageFun/Hello/tabid/1876/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

Welcome back to school!

Are you ready to start?
The English Club will be here to entertain you, inform you...and make this new year the best of all!