Year 8 Christmas lessons 2014

O Tannenbaum saw a revamp at the end of term with Frau Allen's Year 8 classes writing their own verse to the song....Tis the season to be creative! Frohe Weihnachten🎄

18 weird German words and their explanations

"3. Kummerspeck (Grief bacon)

When a relationship ends or during other times of sadness, anger, or worry, it’s common to put on a few pounds of Kummerspeck. What it means is the excess weight put on by emotional overeating. So when you find yourself on the couch watching ”Bridget Jones’ Diary” with a tub of ice cream, you are in fact feeding your grief bacon."

This is one example from a great text about beautiful and weird German words which are impossible to translate, and/or sadly missing from the English language, like 'Ohrwurm' or 'Purzelbaum'...

Follow this link for more:

http://www.fluentu.com/german/blog/weird-german-words-vocabulary/?utm_source=ReviveOldPost

Great Language Learning App - Duolingo

Some classes at Tomlinscote (and some staff!) are developing a slight addiction to Duolingo - a clever language learning and revision app (available for free, for example from itunes). You can also play online on www.duolingo.com.

You can choose between several languages, for example Spanish, French, German or Italian. In your first session, you complete a quick initial assessment and then you can practise and revise new skills, from colours and clothes to future tenses and conditionals, so students of all levels will find useful tasks. Before moving on to the more complex skills you need to pass tests, assessing your reading, translating, listening writing and grammar skills, as well as your pronunciaton. (Careful when you have a cold though: it might not understand you very well!)

Although the app gives you some vocab and grammar hints, it is probably better to use it for a language you have already started to learn, rather than attempting a completely new one. However, it is great fun and rather addictive- and your feathery coach will keep you motivated. You can also link with others and compare results. Who will earn the most lingots? Maybe give Portuguese or Dutch a try, if you're feeling really adventurous. By going into your profile you can even learn and revise two or three languages at the same time!
Have fun and let us know how you get on by leaving a comment here! 

Adiós a Paco de Lucía. The Master.

Probably, you will have heard your parents or grand parents mention PACO DE LUCÍA some time. Or maybe not. He was 1 of the greatest GUITARIST in the world. For me, unique.

I am thinking of how to introduce him to you, it's difficult to do it in some lines. So, just some of his own words about FLAMENCO and how he felt it:

"... is the  music around you, made by people you see, the people you make music with. You learn it from your family, from your friends, in la juerga.  And then you work on technique. Guitarists do not need to study. And, as it is  with any music, the great ones will spend some time working with the young  players who show special talent. 

You must understand that a Gypsy's life is a  life of anarchy. That is a reason why the way of flamenco music is a way without  discipline as you know it. We don't try to organize things with our minds. We just live........ music is everywhere in our  lives"

¡Olé qué arte!

CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ by el maestro Joaquín Rodrigo, guitarist P. de Lucía

COMO EL AGUA by Camarón de la Isla and Paco de Lucía

De Lucía recorded more than 10 records with his friend Camaron de la Isla, 1 of the premier flamenco singers.

He collaborated with many Spanish and international artists, and received numerous awards like Grammy latinos, National award of Flamenco guitar, Premio Príncipe de Asturias, the Honorary Doctorate from the Universidad de Cádiz and from the Berklee College of Music (Boston, USA)

Paco de Lucía (Cádiz, España, 21 Dec. 1947 - Mexico, 25 Feb. 2014)

  ¡HASTA SIEMPRE MAESTRO!

'Como tu no hay dos' - Spanish Song

HOLA AMIGOS!

Here you have a SPANISH SONG (with lyrics) that was very famous few years ago!

The singer, Beatriz Luengo, is a Spanish actress who was so successful dancing and singing in a popular Spanish TV series (UPA Dance), that then she also became a singer, being very popular in Spain and France as well!

Will you be able to repeat the catchy chorus?

HASTA LA VISTA!

in case the video doesn't work, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxAdD4N1tg8

Märchenwelten - Fairy Tale Day for Feeder Primary Children

43 children from Ravenscote (one of Tomlinscote's main feeder primary schools) have enjoyed a day of fairy tales and German. As this year is the 200th anniversary of the publication of the fairy tales collected by the Grimm brothers, the Goethe Institut have created Märchenwelten, an exhibition and range of events to explore these stories, relate them to today and learn German in the process.

Through Tomlinscote's Pasch-Partnership, the primary children were invited to travel to London to visit the exhibition and to listen to the story teller Katharina Ritter perform  die Bremer Stadtmusikanten (The town musicians of Bremen). The pupils watched film clips of stories like Rapunzel, der Froschkönig (the frog prince), Aschenputtel (Cinderella) and Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty) and completed various tasks around the plots and characters.

While they had to cope with a lot of German, the young linguists hugely enjoyed all the activities.
They also made a Schatztruhe (a treasure chest), practiced their speaking skills ordering 'Limonade' and tasted giant Brezeln, kindly provided as an additional treat!

Vielen Dank for a fantastic experience!

For more information from the Goethe Institut about fairy tales, read the original German texts or listen to the stories being told in German, follow this link: http://www.goethe.de/lrn/prj/mlg/mad/gri/deindex.htm

Play a fairy tale game by following this link: You can choose the characters' roles - does the brave prince save the innocent maiden kidnapped by the evil stepmother and protected by the nasty dragon? Or does the brave princess rescue the dragon....? Have a look! You need to know a little German and it helps if you know some fairy tales, but it's weird and good fun!
http://www.goethe.de/lrn/prj/mlg/mud/spi/de9829464.htm

with Katharina Ritter, the story teller from Germany

in the princess section of the exhibition!

at the exhibition

solving puzzles and finding clues at the exhibition

the big bad wolf!! 

some Schatztruhen

doing tasks at the work shop

decorating the treasure chests

Enjoying the Brezeln!

Alles klar!! A great day out!

Spanish Lady Bla bla conjugation song

If you are struggling with verb endings in Spanish, here is a song for you. Listen to it till the end, and

you'll never forget the right endings for hablar, bailar and so on.

Sounds like this Spanish teacher and her class had a lot of fun producing this song...

What so funny about German?

Here's a German comedian (!) explaining the ins and out of the German language.

Henning Wehn has been performing stand-up comedy in England for a while and has produced these clips for the BBC. 
Viel Spaß!


First up: the difficulty of the three genders of German nouns:

(you need javascript enabled and flash installed, otherwise this BBC video won't play)

And here is another one about German compounds and the fact that you can make words that seem endless!

 

Follow this link to watch them all  
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/german/comedy/

Which one is your favourite? 
Write a comment here to share your views!

Ich habe ein Pony Song

In reply to 'le poussin piou', here is a German video with lots of animals. MFL teachers and your parents my remember this from their lessons many years ago, just like the person who put this video on youtube:

"It's been almost a decade and this song we learnt in German class still sticks in my head. So I found it and made a tacky video to stick it on YouTube for all you ex pupils wallowing in nostalgia."

It's called 'Ich habe ein Pony' and went with the beautiful textbook Auf Deutsch 1.

Do you recognise the names of all the animals? Including their plural forms? Feel free to sing along... 

French Song: Le Poussin Piou

Here is a strange song by Pulcino Pio: Originally from Italy, where it has been a youtube sensation and summer hit (???), the French version of the video has had already 17 million views. And it is actually on number 10 in the charts in France at the moment...Unbelievable!
It is called Le Poussin Piou....Do you understand the names for the different animals?


...and do watch it till the end....

And now EVERYBODY: Here is the karaoke version:


Enjoy!

Note also how even the animals speak different languages:
The English speaking dog goes woof, the German says wau, the Italian bau and the French barks ouaf ouaf! How strange!

Angry Olympics: Weird Language Learning Videos

Do you like languages? Want to learn some grammar features or practise your language skills? Fancy something completely different? Like a wacky sense of humour? Check out a language you haven't learned yet?
Here are some MFL videos for you which are truly educational and truly weird. Pick your language and have a look. If you like them, there are plenty more on youtube to choose from, just search Angry Olympics and your language.....

PS they might take a while to load but are definitely worth the wait!

Here's one on the comparative and superlative in Spanish:



Here is the same video in French:


Or if you're learning German, watch this:


Here is another video in French on time expressions:

Another odd German video with two trees talking about their leisure activities (!)

And finally, a Spanish one on directions (I loved learning left and right, although it's VERY silly):
 
Have fun with it!

Do you speak English?

If only she'd learned French at school....

Free German Game App!

Learn and practise your German while playing a game on your computer or your phone!

Adventure German - The Mystery of Nebra combines following an exciting adventure and solving tricky puzzles with practising German use and understanding.
Players go on a trip to Germany with art expert Vincent Mirano to unravel the mystery of the 4000-year old Nebra Sky Disc.

screen shot from itunes

Devised by games experts in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, the game is recommended for KS4 and above.
The dialogues and puzzles are in German, but you can choose to have help in English.
You can download the app for iphone and ipad, for android phones or you can play it on your computer on the web!

Follow this link to watch a teaser video, find out more and to download the game for FREE!

http://www.goethe.de/lrn/duw/lad/enindex.htm

Viel Spaß mit dem Spiel!

Valentine's Day Competition - a little Hint!

Well done to those people who have already entered the competition! The prizes for the fastest three and the first correct answer already have their names on!
But there's still a lot to play for, as the biggest prizes will be decided randomly amongst all correct entries!

Need a little hint? Try using Google translate to find out what 'I love you' is in different languages, and click on the speaker icon to hear the foreign language said out loud....

Good luck! 

Valentine's Day Competition!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Take part in our competition and win a fabulous prize!

Watch the video and listen to the different people saying 'I love you!'

Can you figure out which language each one is?

Below are the languages included in the clip. But which is which?

A - Afrikaans                                           

B - Bulgarian                                            

C - Chinese (Cantonese)                            

D - Danish                                                 

E - Douala                                                 

F - English                                                  

G - French                                                  

H - German                                                

I - Hindi

J - Italian

K - Polish

L - Russian 

M - Spanish 

N - Tamil 

O - Turkish   

P - Welsh

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16

Copy this grid and write in the letters of the right languages!

Send your answer via email to mmahler@tomlinscote.surrey.sch.uk

Make sure you include your name and where you live (town & country if outside UK)!

Fantastic prizes to be won!

The first three entries win a chocolaty prize just for taking part!

The first entry with the correct answer wins another bigger prize! 

Finally, out of all the correct entries we randomly draw three more names out of the hat to establish who wins our main massive chocolate prizes (courtesy of the Language College)!

It's worth doing some research and send your answers!! Good luck to everybody!

PS: Prizes are only available for collection at Tomlinscote school. Other students, parents, teachers, alumni, primary pupils, everyone is invited to participate! If you live too far to collect your prize, feel free to participate, but we cannot send heavy boxes of chocolates by mail...

Final deadline for entries is Monday, the 20th of February!

Winners will be announced shortly after.

Thank you to everyone who allowed us to use their voice!!
Tell all your friends to participate!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is Chinese New Year - it's the start of the 

Year of the Dragon! 

People in China clean the house to attract good luck and give one another presents. On New Year's Eve, families have a big feast together and set off fireworks, and in the morning children receive money in red paper envelopes.

A special greeting to all the Chinese learners at Tomlinscote!

Click on the image below to get a link for a really tricky game identifying Chinese sounds! How many will you get correctly?

German video - Improve your English!

Have a look at this hilarious video. It's not just other languages which are difficult to learn. Foreigners struggle with English, too....

                                      

the Wonders of the German Language (Outnumbered)

James Smith from 6M/S in Ravenscote has brought this lovely clip to my attention.
It's from the BBC series 'Outnumbered' and features a German exchange student and some wise explanations on German compounds. "It's cool being German! It's like being Yoda." Couldn't agree more.
A big Danke schön to James!

French video: Lalalele

Here is another suggestion by Madame Merle: the la le song -a bit of brainwashing about the articles in French.
Listen to the whole song and see if you can resist singing along! Lalalalalalalalala -feminine....

Do leave a comment!

Have YOU come across any great or silly videos in another language? Sends us the link via the comments!
Maybe we can feature it on the blog for everyone to see!

Jessie J - Alexi Bexi: English Songs in German

Have a look at Alexi Bexi's videos. He translates songs into German.
Here is Jessie J's Price Tag, turned into 'Preisschild':

'Kohle' (coal) is a German slang word for money. Check out his other videos! What do you think of them? Leave a comment!