A Cultural Guide to England Everything you need to know when you visit England by Babylon Idiomas Barcelona teacher Patrick Butterworth This summer I returned home to a cold, wet English summer. While I was trapped in my parents house due to heavy rainfall I thought about the strange rules and cultures of my home country. If you’re thinking of visiting, studying or even working in England one day there may be a few surprises for you. English culture can be a maze of rules and social...

Some pieces of advice to improve your English: Read what you are keen on, but read! Watch movies, sport events or news in English. Listen to music and understand the lyrics. It is a fun way to learn. Underline unknown words and after that look them up. Use new words and expressions, share them with other students. Avoid translating in to your own language, only if the English definition doesn’t help. Learn from your mistakes, don’t be frustrated.  The BASIC pieces of advice: Spend...

Think green. Think shamrocks. Think Guinness, folk music and the lush rolling hills of the Fair Isle they call ‘Emerald’. Thoughts such as these can only mean one thing: Ireland. And every year on 17th March the world looks to Ireland in the wake of ‘St. Patrick’s Day’. The one day of the year when pubs are filled to the rafters (that’s an idiomatic expression meaning “full” or “overcrowded” for all you English language learners!) and drinking copious amounts of alcohol is...

This month in Babylon Idiomas Valencia:  take a look at our new list of books in our English Library.  We have books and short readers for all levels, from elementary to advanced.  This month´s feature book is GULLIVER´S TRAVELS by Jonathon Swift.  This book is a classic in English Literature.  Swift is famous for his potilical and social satire in his writings, commenting on the culture of his time. SUMMARY – Reader level 2 (pre intermediate-intermediate): Gulliver travels...

Tongue Twisters are short rhymes or a collection of words that are hard to articulate. There are many different kinds of tongue twisters. Some are short and friends will often say to you, ‘says these words as many times as you can as fast as you can’. This often results in you saying something silly much to your friends’ amusement. The most famous examples of this are: ‘Red lorry, yellow lorry’ And… ‘A proper copper coffee pot’ Many of the tongue twisters that I remember...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!! Como sabéis, las fiestas de Navidad ya están aquí y es época de regalos. Es una buena ocasión para pedirles a los Reyes Magos algún libro en inglés o la serie de televisión que más os gusta. CLASES DE CONVERSACIÓN Y PRÁCTICAS CAMBRIDGE MAÑANA Y TARDE Ahora las clases de conversación y las prácticas de exámenes de Cambridge son por las mañanas y por las tardes: Los viernes a las 11h00 de la mañana y a las 17h00 de la tarde ofrecemos clase de conversación...

Many of my students are eager to meet and interact with native speakers of English outside the classroom, which is a really great way to improve your fluency and oral comprehension, as well as sharing culture and customs. That said, many are also reluctant to do so as they don’t like the formal setting of an “intercambio”. It can sometimes be embarrassing to strike up a conversation with someone that you don’t know, especially when you’re nervous about making...

Submitted by Sophie Fort Babylon Idiomas English teacher, Sevilla If you are learning English, or you are a homesick Anglophone expat, listening to the radio just is brilliant. For English learners, you can improve your listening skills, hear different accents and learn about Anglo-Saxon culture. For expats, it can be quite nice to hear native English people talking. As a British native, I would recommend the good old BBC, or the British Broadcast Corporation. You can listen to all its radio...

New Year’s Tradition – Where does it come from?? Well, first things first, happy New Year everybody! Yes, I know it was almost two weeks ago, but only today did I stop to think where all this tradition and hectic celebration comes from. Turns out it’s actually the oldest celebrated holiday in history…  Janus, a mythical king from ancient Rome, had two faces, one at the front of his face to look at the future and the other at the back, to look at the past. So being, Janus used to be...

TAVIRA!! By coincidence, two members of the English department in Seville spent the weekend on an island of paradise on Portugal’s Southern coastline. Both found that it would be a great place for their students to have fun and practice their English.  They share their experiences here: DAVID, Director of Studies We stayed in a sprawling resort complex with tennis court, swimming pool, two restaurants, bars, and lots of room for our kids to run around. We marveled at the lush grounds...