Universidad Europea de Madrid

A Vision of Students Today: Students think...

What do students think about their education, their classes, their professors? What do they want? What are they angry about? What can we do to improve university education? Here at the UEM and around Europe we're trying, and we're moving in the right direction. Ilene Smalec recommends that all students and especially all teachers watch "A vision of students today" It sends an important message.

Wendy

Publicado por shakespeare

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!

A footstep on the moon.

Did you see the moon landing on July 20th, 1969? I did. I was an exchange student in Mexico City. We watched it on a black and white TV. The reception was pretty fuzzy and the sound wasn't every good, but we were certainly aware that it was an historical moment. Years later I was working at the US Cultural Center in Madrid. We had a MOON ROCK on exhibition for several weeks. It was in a glass case and there was a security guard. Many people came to see that rock. As I recalled it looked like..................a rock! Check out this web page. Maybe it was one of these. Check out the NASA interactive web sites too.

Wendy

Publicado por shakespeare

Spelling: Is it really that important?

Ever since you were children your teachers have been telling you how important spelling is.

"SPELLING", "WATCH YOUR SPELLING". If your spelling was terrible, your English teacher may have called it "Creative Spelling." You learned to read and write and you learned to spell. In Spanish, for the most part, it was pretty easy.

You started with "Mi Mamá me mima mucho". You learned to spell your name: M-A-R-I-A or D-A-N-I-E-L . Maybe your name is J-O-A-Q-U-I-N or E-S-T-E-F-A-N-I-A so you had to concentrate more. Reading was easy too. Spelling wasn't too bad. Then you moved on to the grammar with "amo-amas-ama-amamos-amáis-aman" pretty quickly thereafter. That wasn't difficult except for the accents. "You forgot an accent. You have to repeat the exam! " "Ay !!!!!!!!! "Hubiéramos" has a silent "H" AND an accent! It's "esdrújula". You failed the exam! You also had to think about the"r"and the double r "rr", the "n" and the" ñ", the "y" and the double l, "ll", the " b" and the "v". Maybe Spanish wasn't so easy after all.

Now let's look at English. In the '50s students learned to read and spell by sight or by sounding out the words. "The" and "a" came right in with important vocabulary like "dog" and "cat" and verbs like "run". "See Spot (the dog) run! Run Spot Run" was one of the first . Then there were words with inverted letters like "saw" and "was". After straightening out a few of those, students were threatened by such goodies as "thru---through--thorough and thought and taught and bought. You really "ought" to work on your spelling.

Advice: Learn to spell correctly! Stop using text-messaging abbreviations in emails. Use a dictionary or ask a friend if you want to sound half-way intelligent. All the English teachers and Spanish teachers in the world are WATCHING YOU!

HOWEVER there has been a lot of research lately on spelling. I just received this one and would like you to try it. Were all those teachers right or not?

Wendy

Only great minds can read this

This is weird, but interesting!

fi yuo cna

raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe

out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty

uesdnatnrd waht

I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of

the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch

at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,

it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the

ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt

tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the

rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and

you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm.

Tihs is bcauseae the huamn mnid deos not

raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a

wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot

slpeling was ipmorantt!

Publicado por shakespeare

West Side Story--The musical GO SEE IT TONIGHT !

This is your big opportunity to see a live production of WEST SIDE STORY in Madrid.

The outdoor theater at Escenario Puerta del Ángel, just off Paseo de Extremadura inside Casa de Campo is a wonderful venue.

My seat was in the B section. I could see the stage, the translation of the songs in lights over the stage, the moon rising center stage and moving off to the right as the show progressed.

The tickets are 20,30,35 and 40 Euros. You can get them on line and don't have to wait in line.

The sound system was good. The singing was good. The dancing was absolutely fabulous!

YOU know the music! YOU know the songs! YOU know the story: Romeo and Julliet a la New York of the 1950's.

***The last shows are July 3rd, 4th and 5th at 9:30 pm.

Go! Go! Go! Don't miss it !

Wendy

www.esmadrid.com/veranosdelavilla

Vocabulary:

a live production: en vivo

on line : via internet

in line: en la cola

don't miss it! : No te lo pierdas!

Publicado por shakespeare

UEM LAB Students Around the World!

This is the UEM LAB Logo which is used by our UEM LAB REPORTERS. In September and October you may see the UEM LAB REPORTERS ON THE BRIDGE, interviewing people in English. Well, now it's YOUR TURN to become a reporter this summer. Actually it's even easier than that. All you need to do is print out one of the logos (under each logo there is a direct link to the image) and take a picture of YOURSELF with the logo, or even just the LOGO in front of a famous place you visit.

Send the photo to me as an email attachment. wendy.frankel@uem.es . I'll print it out and put it on the bulletin board at the university. We'll also put it into the UEM LAB photo album. Let's see how far and how many places our UEM LAB reporters can go this summer.

Here's a double logo for the UEM LAB that is easy to print out:

Have fun! See you soon! Wendy

http://img8.imageshack.us/i/copiadeshakespeareblueh.png/

This is the UEM LAB-English Language Program Logo. Notice that it is blue, black and white instead of the International logo which is red, black and white.

Publicado por shakespeare