Guest Post: "I Survived Fallas 2013!"

This year I sat Fallas out, and joined the Valencian vacation exodus, visiting Sevilla. (More on that in future posts to come.) But I didn't want my readers to miss out on the fun here. So I asked Katlyn, an exchange student from Pennsylvania who's staying in Valencia this spring, to take notes about her "first Fallas experience" and write it up for the blog. Here's her account of surviving the whirlwind ride that was Fallas 2013!

20 March 2013

This morning I woke up to the sound of the birds chirping. The streets were clean, not an empty bottle or beer can in sight. However, yesterday, just ONE day ago, the scene was quite the contrary. During the last few days of Las Fallas, I woke up to the sound of people shouting and throwing petardos (the equivalent to fire crackers) and orchestras parading along with hundreds of falleros. The city of Valencia was overflowing with culture, pride, and excitement. If Google Earth were to have taken pictures this past weekend, they would be able to see the city of Valencia illuminated by the hundreds of thousands of fireworks, fires, and lights. I am sure the noise could have been heard from outer space as well. The amount of people in Valencia doubled, and the amount of trash that accumulated in the streets, who knows? But, I’m telling you, while walking to the Plaza de la Virgen today, there was not one empty San Miguel beer can or petardo shell to prove that just a few days ago the biggest fiesta in the world was taking place in this amazing city.

Although the “official” day of Fallas began over two weeks ago with La Cridà, the real Fallas (the date where you really want to be here) begin on March 15th (La Plantá). On this day, the Fallas (a.k.a. HUGE, colorful monuments made out of Styrofoam, wood, and a lot of talent that virtually do not exist anywhere else in the world) were erected in various locations throughout the city. You can tell which barrios have a lot of money because their falla is massive and typically has more detail. Each falla is surrounded by various ninots, which are smaller structures that typically have some sort of political or pop culture connotation that goes along with them.

This was my personal favorite, located in the Plaza del Pilar. 
The plaza is so small, and this falla is HUGE. It is not far 

from the main public library and is definitely one worth seeing.    

This is the Falla de Convento Jerusalén, and it was nominated as the Mejor Falla de 2013.    

The falla in the center of the Plaza de Ayuntamiento.
Looks like a bunch of stereotypical tourists that you would find in
Valencia on a daily basis. Obviously, I am the blonde
American chick scarfing down the churros con chocolate.

This is a Falla Infantil because it is smaller and directed towards the younger audience.
It depicts the classic family favorite Mary Poppins, or as some Spaniards say “Marí Poppis”.

The ninot indultat of 2013. This precious gem (from Falla Na Jordana) will go
 along with the other ninots indultats in the Museo Fallero. The window in the background
had some sort of operating system that made the snow fall!

The fallas were my absolute favorite part of the entire event. During the nighttime, and after the music was cut off at 4am, many people could still be found in the streets admiring the fallas. It was absolutely admirable to see these pieces of art and to consider the amount of effort, talent, and time that goes into making them possible. It is really heartbreaking (but somewhat enjoyable!) to see them go up in flames at the end.

Some of the light displays that went up in the streets were also really impressive. In my opinion, the best and the most light displays can be found in Russafa.

Everyone was in awe at this globe of bombillas in Calle de Cuba.

I feel like I am at Disney World!

La mascletà is definitely something for those who love really, really loud noises. La mascletà is more for the sound, not for the big fireworks with a lot of colors (those are called castillos). This firework show takes place everyday during las Fallas at 2pm sharp in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento. Each day, the pirotécnico changes and the most skilled are saved for the last few days of las Fallas. Towards the last few days, you have to be in the Plaza an hour earlier in order to get a closer spot. I am not going to lie, but you have to prepare yourself to be packed in like a sardine and smell everyone’s body odor. I typically went an hour earlier and got a great spot, but only with a lot of pushing, shoving, and telling people “Mi amigo va a vomitar.” The closer you are, the more impressive the show will be. The mascletà can be seen live on TV, but nothing compares to the sensation of feeling the earthquake that is created by these traca (fireworks stringed along a line) that send pulses through your entire body. It is even more exciting to see the crowd get crazy as the noise becomes so intense that the surrounding buildings shake and your eardrums start ringing!

Probably the closest you will ever find me in a scene from Call of Duty.

I am from the United States, and just like most Americans, I love seeing the fireworks on July 4th. NOTHING can compare to the fireworks that I have seen this past week. There are fireworks to be seen every night during las Fallas. Again, if you want a good spot, you have to plan on arriving at your desired location an hour before. I preferred sitting near one of the bridges farther away (el Puente de Aragón) to be able to see the entire show and to avoid the massive surf of people leaving el Puente de Exposición. The environment before the castillos could be compared to a tailgate party. The majority of the young people could be found haciendo botellón, while the future pyros could be found with their parents throwing petardos. The most impressive show happened at 1:30 am during La Nit del Foc (March 18th). To put this spectacular show into perspective, imagine the grand finale of a firework show that lasts for 20 minutes. ¡Increíble!

... Some pics (and a video) of the AWESOME fireworks from La Nit del Foc ...

 

This is the last two minutes of the show from La Nit del Foc. 

I really could have used a pair of sunglasses and earplugs towards the end.

If you are interested in seeing una Corrida de Toros, there are many opportunities to see one during the week of Fallas. I was able to go to one, and it was quite the experience. If you want to see the traditional, what-you-had-pictured-in-your-mind corrida de toros, you have to purchase tickets for the corrida, not los recortes. They are two separate events, and almost always the corrida happens at night. Everyone will have his or her own opinions about this subject. However, I feel that there is a need to respect what is and has been a part of the Spanish culture for many years. I think my favorite part of the evening was when a group of young guys blew up an inflatable "doll” and tossed it down to the arena, expecting the matador to throw it back towards the crowd. And he did. 

The verbenas are definitely something that the Spaniards look forward to during Fallas. A verbena is an outdoor concert or DJ where everyone catches up with friends, drinks a couple (or a few more!) beers, and dances the night way. I was able to go to two verbenas, and both have gone into the “Things I don’t tell Grandma” region of the memory. My friends and I were able to find verbenas directed towards younger crowds, but there were many throughout the entire city. At one point, we ended up in a verbena that had a lovely mosh pit and some melodic dubstep. We didn’t stay there for too long. Other than that, the atmosphere was fantastic, and everyone was having a blast. By law, music had to be cut off by 4am, but the crowd doesn’t clear until well after sunrise. I called it a “morning” at around 6:30 am, but my fellow Spaniards kept chugging along and went to see some fallas and got breakfast. 

The aftermath of a great verbena! I always feel so bad for the limpiadores after I see sights like this.

As I mentioned before, parades could be heard (and seen) throughout the entire day. There were three parades that I was able to witness. On March 16th, I saw La Gran Parada Mora. This parade is very small in comparison to the others, but it is totally worth seeing. The costumes are amazing, and from what I saw, it seemed that they were worth a lot of money. In previous years, there were camels that participated in the parade, but this year the only animal was a horse that cantered and behaved very well. If you want to sit in one of the white lawn chairs, you have to pay five euros. But, you can perfectly see the parade from the street. I was lucky enough to be able to sit between two dumpsters! :-) 

Before the night of La Cremà, I recommend going to Calle Colón to see La Cabalgata del Fuego. Women dressed in traditional outfits from different parts of Spain (and Europe) led the procession, flaunting their gorgeous dresses. Then, the fun part came. Men dressed like devils were riding on bicycles that were spewing fire into the crowd. People on stilts were whipping around fireballs. Fireworks were being let off in the middle of the street. It was an awesome sight that pepped everyone up for the “burning events” of the following evening.

Could you imagine what the sidewalks of Valencia would be like if all of the Valenbisis did this?   

Definitely did not expect that!

Perhaps the most emotional part of Fallas is La Ofrenda a la Virgen. Thousands and thousands of bouquets of flowers were carried to the Plaza de la Virgen by the falleros. A week ago, a wooden structure was mounted in the Plaza with the heads of Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. I had no idea that a week later (and TWO days of parading falleros), it would become a grandiose statue of thousands upon thousands of white, red, and yellow flowers that brought tears to the eyes. The Plaza is still covered in flowers and it is definitely an impressive, moving sight. 

La Virgen all decked out with thousands of beautiful flowers.

The back of her dress. It still amazes me that this can be done with flowers.

La Cremà is considered the closing ceremony of Las Fallas. At midnight, all of the fallas (with the exception of the falla in la Plaza de Ayuntamiento) were engulfed by flames. Before heading out, you have to choose which falla was your favorite, or the one that you think will be worth seeing burn down. We chose to see Na Jordana (aka HUGE Trojan horse). At first, I was expecting a huge explosion and I stood behind a larger man, obviously so that he could be my shrapnel shield. But, it was not like an explosion from an action film. Fireworks (Yes, more fireworks!) set off at once and the falla went up in flames. It was so HOT because it was like a giant bonfire, and the huge crowd of hundreds of people stuffed into a small plaza did not help either. But, I managed to keep my eyebrows! 

Before...

... After

Directly after the burning of Na Jordana, we headed over to the Plaza de Ayuntamiento. We then watched the burning of the falla with the all of those tourists. Just when we thought the fireworks were over and done with, the sky, once again, filled with castillos. I teared up because that signified the end of what came to be the biggest fiesta of my life. Valencia sure does know how to party!

The last hoorah of Fallas 2013   :-(

I hope everyone has enjoyed reading my post. I had an AMAZING time during Fallas, and I feel that I was able to make the most of my experience. Everyone needs to experience las Fallas at least ONCE in his or her lifetime. Here are some pointers for those of you who will be here next year:

    • Forget about public transportation. The buses cut their routes, certain streets are blocked off, and the amount of people is just insane. The fastest way to get from place to place is definitely by walking.
     • You will not look like a tourist if you wear the blue/white tartan pañuelo. The majority of the people wear them, and it is really interesting to see the various ways that people rock them. Plus, they are really cheap, and in some bars, you might be able to get one for FREE with a beer logo on it. Do not pay more than 1 euro for it if you find someone selling them in the streets!

    • Plan to not sleep. You have to try to see as much as you can. You never know if you are going to be back for the Fallas. But, taking naps between 2:30-6 will definitely help you survive through the week. 

    • The majority (if not all) stores close on March 19th (the celebration of San José). If you need to purchase food or beverages from the market, make sure to do it the day before. If not, El Corte Inglés is there to be your saving grace.
    • Keep your mouth open during la mascletà. If not, there is the chance that your eardrums will ache for the remainder of the day!
    • Be sure to eat a lot of buñuelos and chocolate con churros! Live it up! Try to see and do everything that you possibly can! #YOLO

Kat, wearing the Fallas pañuelo, in fiesta mode!

Happy to say that I survived Fallas 2013! I cannot wait to do it again in the future!

    —Kat

'Valentia' and the Graphic Arts in Spain: Paco Roca, Javier Mariscal and Beyond

Inside cover art from the graphic novel Valentia (2012).

Last fall I went to an exhibit at Valencia's ever so hip MuVIM (Museu Valencià de la Il-lustració y de la Modernitat) and had a revelation: comics. That is, I realized that comics or graphic arts can be truly brilliant, an important art medium unto itself. The specific exhibit that brought about this conversion was on none-other-than one of Valencia's most talented rising stars, graphic illustrator Paco Roca, the "Dibujante Ambulante". Wandering through the exhibit, awed by the ingenuity and variety of Roca's works, I became a fan. No, that doesn't really capture it. I bought several of his books, would attend one of his book signings, and have developed a minor obsession with the entire medium of graphic novels and what seems to be a flourishing community of talented artists coming out of Valencia, as is best illustrated (pun intended) by the latest Roca collaborative project, the multi-authored "100% Valencian" book Valentia (2012). More on that to follow, but I'm getting ahead of myself. What I want to share with you here is a glimpse of this vibrant community of Valencian artists and their amazing visual contributions to Spain's wealth of art.

MuVIM hosts excellent rotating exhibits in the Sala Parpalló.

For the "Dibujante Ambulante" exhibit about Roca, they did an amazing job
putting you the visitor inside Roca's work, surrounding you with it.

Following the exhibit, I bought a bunch of Roca-related items at the awesome Librería Dadá:
one of his books, a new Valencian fanzine (brilliantly) called "arròsnegre" to which he contributes...
okay, and I also finally bought a book on my other art obsession, the Valencian street artist Escif.

• Paco Roca, Arrugas (2007), and Memorias de un hombre en pijama (2011)

Francisco Martínez Roca, a.k.a. Paco Roca, a native of my beloved adopted town Valencia, has been producing graphic illustrations since the mid-1990s, though it has only been in the last five years, and particularly with the animated film Arrugas (2011), that he has risen to a certain international fame. The movie, which received high critical acclaim, is about a group of retired "ancianos" who've been put in a retired home. One of them battles with Alzheimer, and the plot centers around his and his friends' efforts to avoid detection of his illness and being banished to the dreaded second floor, where themore troublesome "lost cause" clients are put. The movie, based on Roca's 2007 graphic novel Arrugas (which means "wrinkles"), is a nice example of his ability to blend humor and social commentary together into a sweet story, and animate it with stunning and imaginative visuals.

The MuVIM exhibit gave me an idea of the breadth of Roca's activities...

... and the long, winding history of a graphic artist. People who work in this
area really have to be creative and open-minded about the projects they take on.

It is a credit to Valencia's MuVIM that it was one of the earliest to
feature the Arrugas film, supporting a local artist.

This drawing by Roca in the MuVIM exhibit explains his motivations
for tackling the Arrugas project: how the elderly ("ancianos") are ignored
by society and treated as if they are uninteresting and invisible.

But Roca is not a one-hit wonder. Some of his others works worth buying taking a look at are Emotional World Tour (2009), Memorias de un hombre en pijama (2011) —one of my personal favorites for how it narrates the life of an Everyman guy who works from home (in his pajamas)—, and El invierno del dibujante (2010). They are incredible. Critical, but not bitter. Humorous, but yet very serious about the subjects they explore. Vivid, the way they bring to life and visualize abstract conceptual subjects. Universally relevant, he picks topics that we can all relate to and weaves in both big and small concerns. I would be selling his work to you all wherever he were from, but the fact that he is from Valencia has me bursting with pride. His work is a cultural treasure and I hope he continues to enrich the world with his unique, special vision.

Here you can see an example of how Roca creatively illustrates what it is
to lose one's memories with the onset of Alzheimer's.

Pardon the photo's blurriness, but I hope you can still appreciate the wit and playfulness
with which Roca parodies capitalism and its malicious affects on society.

These two pages on "tupper" (tupperware leftovers) culture in Spain are why
I had to immediately buy Memorias de un hombre en pijama. Brilliant!

• VALENTIA: 1 ciudad, 34 autores y 23 historias (2012)

One of Paco Roca's more recent works is a collaboration with a larger group of Valencian illustrators and graphic artists on the book, Valentia: 1 ciudad, 34 autores y 23 historias (2012). I cannot more highly recommend this book, especially as a souvenir for any expats or exchange students sentimental about their time in Valencia. ("Valentia" is the old Roman name for Valencia.) As the title explains, it is the brainchild of 34 authors, a mixture of relatively known and unknown writers and illustrators in Valencia. And it is "cien por cien valenciano", which is to say that not only are the contributors "Valencian", but the topics in the 23 different stories all center around the city... stories about falleros, the Turia fountain at the Plaza de la Virgen, the Miguelete tower, the dragón del Patriarca, the "rat penat" of Jaume I, neighborhood tales about Ruzafa and Benimaclet, football-mania and Valencia CF, and (of course) cooking paella. Needless to say, graphic illustrations of Valencia's many iconic sights and city images feature prominently throughout. If you are smitten with Valencia, this is possibly one of the best keepsakes you can buy to take back home with you.

I love this illustration of all the contributors to Valentia!

The story, "La fuente del Turia", by Ana García and Maríá Lorenzo
is inspired by this well-known Valencia landmark.

Abraham García and Miguel Delicado's story, "El hombre de los puentes",
features various bridges along the Rió Turia, such as la Peineta shown here.

Any truly Valencian creation will have the mandatory paella image stamped
somewhere on it, though I particularly like this inside cover illustration of paella.

I was excited to learn about a book signing with the many authors. Here you can see
Paco Roca and Alberto Sanz signing, or really illustrating my copy!

This was what Roca drew for me. Awesome! His story, "Quiero ver mi dinero",
was an adorable and timely short story about an old man who insisted on his
bank showing him all of his savings, literally showing him the piles of euro bills,
because he was worried that they might have lost it all in the crisis.

• Javier Mariscal, Chico & Rita (2010)

Should you think Roca is an anomaly, I want to mention another important, talented living-legend and graphic artist from Valencia: Javier Mariscal. He is older and more internationally established than Roca, and works on artistic projects well beyond the world of comics. Long well-known in Spain, I first learned about Mariscal from the animated film, Chico & Rita (2010). Produced by the cool-as-shit Spanish director Fernando Trueba and nominated for the Oscars in 2012 for Best Animated Feature, Chico & Rita tells a wild and rich story of a jazz pianist from Cuba whose life cross those of numerous famous Hispanic personalities of the 1950s and 1960s. (Hispanofiles, you should all check it out just to learn a bit about the famous Hispanic musicians that appear here and there throughout.) While the story and music is nice, what really grabs you is Mariscal's distinctive style of illustration. Vivid, bright, and hypnotic.

Alongside Chico & Rita, this "Bar Cel Ona" logo is probably
one of Mariscal's most famous works.

As I said, Mariscal has a much longer history than this film. He became famous in 1979 for his now-iconic "Bar Cel Ona" tourism logo. In the late eighties he opened a workshop, Estudio Mariscal, from which he has worked on a variety of projects collaborating with numerous other artists and designers. In 1992 he designed the mascot, Cobi, for the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, an Olympics that were really a turning point for the city and Spain in the eyes of the world. Not all of his projects are international in scope. In 1995, Mariscal worked with school children in Valencia to design a collective mural in defense of the use of the Valencian language in public schools. With the success of the movie version, he's just released a graphic novel version of Chico & Rita (2012), too.

Cobi, the official 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics mascot

Mariscal and the defense of Valencià language collective mural/protest in 1995

Lightning doesn't strike twice. Mariscal, alongside Paco Roca, is proof that Valencia is clearly an incredible place for cultivating the graphic art imagination. Maybe it's the water. Maybe it's fallas. Or it could be the big bright sun, the vivid light. Whatever it is, it's working!


• ... and beyond: El Víbora and Valencia's Futurama shop

Paco Roca drew this cover for El Víbora in 2001.

The real secret to success of artists in Spain, and really anywhere, is having a solid infrastructure to support and sustain them. (The same holds true for Spain's gastro-revolution... the secret to Spain's culinary success is its delicious basic food ingredients.) Which is why I close by mentioning a couple of graphic art institutions in Spain and in Valencia.

The first I stumbled upon at the MuVIM exhibit, the provocative graphic art porn "adult" magazine, El Víbora. This Spanish magazine was published between 1979 and 2005, and had a huge fan base and was a popular medium for graphic artists just starting out. I saw it included in the collection of works by Roca at the exhibit, and when I made some crude comment about it, my wife pointed out that the magazine was a classic in its day, even respectable (I suppose the way Playboy has become respectable for its avant-garde sexual politics). I'll admit, I'm partly mentioning it here to lure in all of us you perverts (shameful!), but it is also one of those cultural institutions for the graphic arts that an outsider might not know about, but anyone hoping to learn about the "real" Spain of present-day ought to.

Aspiring artists often make their start at the fringe. Paco Roca got going professionally
contributing to these adult graphic art magazines. It seems like porn is always at the cutting edge.

The second kind of infrastructure worth a mention is a local shop "de toda la vida" in Valencia, Futurama Comics. Located across the street from the MuVIM, Futurama is a local institution and been around selling comics to comic fans for decades. If you're in town, help support them by stopping by, browsing their substantial collection of comics, and purchasing some works by local artists such as Paco Roca or Escif (they carry his street art book there).

It's by supporting these kinds of local and (non-local institutions) and art publications (conventional or not) that artists are able to get buy as they grow into their craft, needed especially in an economy like this one. I'm certainly won over to comics and graphic arts. These artists have gained my respect for their creativity and cultural importance, and for the visual magic they've contributed to Valencia, Spain and beyond.

I leave you with this excellent piece of advice on Spanish moms' secret
to the perfect "sofrito" from Paco Roca's exhibit: buy tomatoes at the market,
because the supermarket tomatoes "no saben a nada"!

Teaching English as a Second Language, part 2: Five (More) Ready-made Lessons

The American Institute is where
I hatched most of these ideas.
A great language school!

Many of you seemed to have found my last entry on 10 lessons for Teaching English useful. Since I posted it I've thought a bit more about the army of American expats who have spread across the globe to fulfill their travel dreams, taking advantage of the global demand for native English teachers. (If you're a prospective TEFL teacher and interested in Spain, I highly recommend you check out Young Adventuress's excellent profile of the Spain auxiliares program by region, tips for preparing to go, and potential problems.) 

Digression: What with my being one of this odd breed of expat, my wife loaned me a book about one such TEFL teacher who set off to teach English in Tokyo: Tim Anderson's Tune In Tokyo:The Gaijin Diaries (2011). IT IS HILARIOUS! It's a wonderful read, and interesting to think about what problems the author faces which are the same in Spain, and which ones are really truly unique to teaching in Japan. It was therapeutic, too, since one's batteries can get drained trying to make classes animated when your students are, conversely, trying extra hard to be timid and not have to speak.

This is a must-read for anyone teaching
English as a second language. It is hilarious!

All of this is to say I'm still teaching English, and still getting ideas for ways to get students engaged in learning about the language _outside the classroom_. Here I'm posting a Part 2 entry where I share five more ready-made lessons that I've come up since my last post that I've found to be useful.

It doesn't hurt to review more general grammar rules with one's students.
I'm amazed at how quickly my students' grammar descends when they try to write in English,
as if the same rules they know for Spanish don't apply to foreign languages!

Before I dive into those, I have to share a couple of other resources I've learned about. First, one of the readers on my last post mentioned some interesting books that create a fake Spanglish language: "fromlostiano". "Colín" (a.k.a. Federico López Socasau) and "Güéster" (a.k.a. Ignacio Ochoa Santamaría) have written a series of humorous glossaries —From lost to the river (1995) ("de perdidos al río"), Speaking in Silver (1999) ("hablando en plata"), and Shit yourself little parrot (2003) ("cágate lorito")— that play with literal Spanish-to-English translations (or really, lost in translation) of classic, colorful Spanish expressions,  e.g. "for the face" ("por la cara"… for free, aprovechando). I'm not sure what the actual learning value is of these books would be, but they're good for getting laughs from Spaniards whose English is good, and maybe for English-speakers trying to remember common catchphrases in Spanish. (For those "tweeple" out there trying to learn Spanish, you can follow their tweets here: @fromlost; though a more useful resource on Twitter might be: @SpanishAddicts. Truly hilarious, the Spanish vocab they tweet!)

I guarantee you that if you just read these titles to your Spanish friend or partner,
you will hear them snicker. My wife, who had never heard of these books, couldn't
help laughing with each "fromlostiano" phrase that I read to her. Good stuff!

The second resource is local. A new shop opened up in Valencia, Rana Books, which I highly recommend to anyone in Valencia or who passes through who is interested in getting English-language books or learning materials. They have a fantastic collection, and they do workshops and special events that are great for Valencian parents who want their kids to get into learning English.

I finally got to visit Rana Books when a friend and co-worker did her book-release
party there. Here you can see my colleague, Dana Gynther, talking about her
new novel, Crossing on the Paris (2012), which was just published this past fall.
Look at what talented people work at the American Institute in Valencia!
Get a copy of her book and read it!

So now the lessons...

***Lesson 11: We Are Family – Family vocab and description practice***

This year I'm teaching a lower level class, and I've found it necessary to come up with some more rudimentary-English teaching tools, for example, a handout to get students reviewing and building their vocabulary for family. To do this I decided to use one of the most famous families, the Simpsons. On the handout below you'll see a Simpsons family tree with some model questions to get students reviewing basic relation vocabulary. On the other side, for contrast and to review more complicated family vocabulary, I put both a picture of the Simpsons family and another of the family from the TV show, Modern Family. The latter provides an opportunity to talk about extended family; but also about non-traditional family: gay marriage (my two dads), adopted children, step-children, first wife, second wife, etc.

Click here to load a PDF I made for reviewing family vocabulary.

Here's how I use the handout. Start with the questions on the handout: this gets them thinking about different sentence constructions to ask about relationships (i.e. practice using the genitive, a.k.a. apostrophe "s"): "He's ___'s sister". After going through the Simpsons family tree a bit, I then have the students brainstorm more relations they know: cousins, aunts/uncles, and so forth. Here I make a chart on the board: with prefixes on the left (grand-, great grand-, step, half-); roots in the middle (sister, mother/mom); and suffixes on the right (-in-law; -once-removed). I also talk about examples of neutral plural: siblings/parents (for brothers/sisters and mother/father). Or other less common relations: (fraternal/identical) twins; first/second cousin; "the in-laws". (I test their comprehension by asking: what's the difference between your stepbrother and half-brother; your mother-in-law and your stepmother; or your stepson and adopted son?)

This was my board by the end of the brainstorm and diagramming of
family relations. Confessions: I have horrible handwriting!
Clarifications: "bald eagle" is on the board because I was trying
to make the link between "Homer is bald" and America's national emblem.

At this point, I have students look at the other side with the two pictures of the "Nuclear family" and the "Extended family". Here I ask student to describe someone in the photo: physical description ("Homer is bald"), personality ("Lisa is smart"), what they are doing ("watching TV"), and link it to explaining their relation to the rest of the family. While this lesson is particularly important for beginning and intermediate students, it didn't hurt when I did it with my advanced students, since describing the "Modern family", with all of their unconventional relations and personalities, was actually quite a challenge!

While some of my students knew this show, Modern Family was far from the
 universally familiar Simpsons. So you might have to explain who is who,
which is why I include a family tree chart underneath this picture.

***Lesson 12: Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator – Personality vocab***

Robert Benchley had it right when he said:
"There are two kinds of people in the world:
those who divide the world into two kinds
of people, and those who don't."

Probably after family, the most useful, complicated, and rich source of vocabulary is for describing personalities... This fall when I had to cover this with my advanced class I thought it might be fun to discuss the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator test. If you don't know it, you probably use some of its language anyway, Extroverted versus Introverted, for example. The Myers-Briggs is a great teaching tool because of the richness and diversity of personalities it describes, and because getting students to try to determine their own personality type is very interactive: it gets students to talk about themselves, and laughing about personality words that are close in meaning (which ones are positive, negative or neutral; which ones mean the person is the source of a sentiment (loving) versus the recipient (lovable or loved); etc.).

To prepare the class for this exercise, I ask them about following hypothetical scenario: You are the boss of a company and it is just before Christmas. You know that you have to layoff/fire some of your employees and you have to choose one of two options:

1) fire them before Xmas but give them a Xmas bonus, or
2) fire them after Xmas such that they continue to be paid over the holiday.

With four categories and two options each, there are
sixteen combinations of personality types in this test.

The question is, what is best from point of view of employee? The idea is that, financially, employees will end up the same, have the same money and same work days, but that in the first scenario they will know during the holidays that they are unemployed, whereas in the second they won't know until after. The point is, do your students think that "ignorance is bliss", that the emotional suffering during the holidays is worse than the potential for financial mismanagement that comes from ignorance (employees spending on Xmas gifts unaware of their imminent financial troubles)? This is an example of a question from the Thinking/Feeling category of the Myers-Briggs test. There is no "correct" answer, and arguments can be made for either side. When you poll your students, don't let them think to much; try to get a "gut answer" from them. And then have them discuss it. Once they've talked a bit about that kind of personality difference, have them consider the others of the exam (Sensing/Intuiting and Judging/Perceiving):

Click here to load a PDF I made of the Myers-Briggs personality type vocab.

Ask students what combination of the four categories do they think they would be, and then turn to the last two pages of the handout to discuss that type, and whether the description fits them. The descriptions have lots of personality vocabulary, so there is lots of opportunity to explain new words, and brainstorm synonyms. To encourage students to practice this vocabulary at home, tell them to find out what their "type" is by taking the test online at a site like this one: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm.

Remember: The Myers-Briggs test is intended to be used therapeutically, to help people be aware of their natural biases and world views. There is no "correct" or true answer or "best" personality type, just differences that reveal how we think and reason, and what that says about our motivations and personalities.

Of course, the ultimate reference on personality types, in my opinion,
continues to be "Mr. Men", cute and educational!

***Lesson 13: Thanksgiving – Holiday vocabulary, cross-cultural conversation***

As much as they denied it, I swear my students must have
seen at least one movie, like Miracle on 34th Street (1947),
or a Friends or Seinfeld episode that features the parade.

In my last teaching English post, I had a lesson for Christmas holiday vocabulary because, let's face it, Christmas is great! This year I decided to work up some lessons on the United States' other most important holiday: Thanksgiving ("Acción de gracias"). Given how important, maybe even central, this holiday is to Americans, Spaniards can be quite ignorant about it. As a proud American, I could not accept that my students learn English (at a language school called "the American Institute") without having a basic understanding of what Thanksgiving was about, in history and today.

Thanksgiving has a lot of cultural elements to it, any of which you can use for discussion. Being a historian, I like to talk about the differences between the history and the myth-making surrounding the holiday. There is a lot of food vocabulary. There are also fun and funny cultural practices today: the Macy's Parade in NYC with the floats (I'm always shocked by how few Spaniards know anything about this); the holiday is an important movie-watching and/or football watching day (rivalry match-ups that I describe as like "el clásico" of American football); and the presidential pardon of one turkey on the Wednesday before, among other traditions. 

I worked up three handouts for three different levels:

      • Thanksgiving for Advanced (adult) learners:

This has a nice summary of the history and traditions of Thanksgiving with a lot of advanced vocabulary. It also includes a copy of the poem, "Over the River and Through the Wood" [that's right, not "woods"! I had an elementary music teacher who used to always hammer home that when she had us sing the song], which by tradition was a Thanksgiving poem and song:

      Click here to load a PDF I made for an advanced discussion of Thanksgiving.

      • Thanksgiving for (Pre-)Intermediate (adult) learners:
This has a fill-in-the-blank listening exercise which I got from the website, ESL Holiday Lessons:

      Click here to load a PDF I made for an intermediate discussion of Thanksgiving.

Have students fill in the blanks as they listen to this recording:

      Download this audio clip or click this link while in class, to play for your students.

      • Thanksgiving for Kids

I composed this kids' activity from this "The First Thanksgiving Book" activity and from activities on the ESOL Courses page for Thanksgiving. (An additional, optional activity is to print out the lyrics to "Over the River and Through the Woods", and sing along to it with your students.):

      Click here to load a PDF I made for discussing Thanksgiving with kids.

Thanksgiving also marks the beginning of Xmas holiday season, which means you can talk about holiday shopping and the tension between materialism and spiritual ideas about the holidays. (This year's Thanksgiving was a particularly juicy topic, what with the Black Friday controversy. Thanksgiving is also an opportunity to bring up cultural differences: for example, that Americans rarely have an extended (three-hour) meal with the family, in comparison to Spaniards, who in many cases do it every weekend. (The fourth week of November is an important week of recipe swapping in the States, too, which is why it is a good time to discuss cooking vocabulary. In my next post on English, I'm going to include a handout on cooking vocabulary, which you might use.)

In addition to the non-Pilgrim-related traditions, I try to get across to my students
all the humor and playfulness that surrounds this uniquely American holiday.

***Lesson 14: The Oscars – Film vocabulary and passive voice***

I worked hard to have this lesson ready for early February because it's Oscars season!!! The Oscars, in my household, are a serious pastime, analogous to one's annual Super Bowl or el clásico. We try to watch as many nominated films as possible, and, yes, we do stay up here in Spain to watch them live. And one of our traditions it to guess which films will win which awards. So we each print out a ballot, make our bets as to who we think will (or ought to) win, and make a sport of it.

Perhaps for this reason, and because many of students expressed an interest in movies, and, well, also because film can be a useful topic for introducing certain issues (the passive voice, for example), this year I worked up a vocabulary handout with a lot of possible activities for you to do with your students on the topic of movies:

Click here to load a PDF I made of movie vocab plus the 2013 Oscars ballot.

For any of you readers who teach English in Spain, I highly recommend you do this lesson in mid February, in the weeks before the Goya Awards (February 17, 2013), Spain's main movie awards, and the Oscars, a.k.a. the Academy Awards (February 24, 2013). That way it's award season when you do the activities, and then you can have your students score their ballots and see how they did the following week. Nothing like a friendly wager to make an otherwise dull awards ceremony interesting. Oscars! Who will win this year? Exciting!

***Lesson 15: English-language songs – Narration and slang vocabulary***

There is no easier and better ready-made lesson plan for language learning than to have your students listen to a carefully selected popular song and discuss the lyrics with them. Songs are a great way to: 1) introduce a lot of vernacular and slang vocabulary (we sing more like we speak, day-to-day), and 2) get them thinking about narration and how verb tenses are used to construct a story. 

I can't, like, emphasize too much how, like, totally
important slang is for communication.

I cannot underscore the importance of teaching vernacular, and the value of using songs. Thanks to the exportation of American rock & roll, apparently African American vernacular (slang such as: "ain't never gonna" or saying "cuz" for "because") has even been picked up by rock singers in Great Britain. (Yes, British rock singers do sound American. Ha!) If you're students don't learn to recognize and understand "wanna" (want to), "gonna" (going to), or "I'da" (I would have), then they'll never be able to understand actual speakers of English, rather than just erudite English professors. Getting your students to listen to Motown hits by Aretha Franklin will quickly fill that gap. 

The same could be said of "Valleyspeak", the dialect of "Valley Girls", who use of "like" has become so common among teenagers that you'll here it across all demographics in the U.S. and even, increasingly, in the UK. (The Spanish equivalent, I'm told, is the discursive "o sea".)... Not to mention other Valleyspeak expression such as "for sure", "I know, right?", "whatever" to "whatevs", and a distinctive "uptalk" intonation. One good Lana del Rey hit (like "Blue jeans" maybe), and your students will see how . As this article explains, socioeconomic dialects are proliferating, not disappearing in our media-saturated age. Songs are a good way to pick up widely-used slang and common cultural references. (Teacher: you must be their guide to which are more common than others, or what registers and cultural valences these expressions fit in.)

In addition to colorful expressions, the key is to find a song that tells a story and doesn't just repeat a chorus. (Unfortunately, this eliminates most Beatles songs.) And which introduces some topic (with relevant vocabulary) which you can use for conversation, or which illustrates some difficult kind of grammatical structure. Here's a (non-exhaustive) list of some songs that I've use to teach with, and why I chose them: 

• Narrative arc... 

1) We Are the Champions, by Queen – from present perfect to present/future [Spaniards love this song, and yet often haven't paid attention to the lyrics]

2) My Way, by Frank Sinatra – from past to present to future

3) White Flag, by Dido – future predictions ("I will go down with this ship")

• Specific grammatical constructions...

4) You Can Get It (If You Really Want), by Jimmy Cliff – modal verbs of possibility

5) Top of the World, by the Dixie Chicks – conditional to express regret ("I wished I'd a")

• Specific vocabulary...

6) Say a Little Prayer, by Aretha Franklin – getting ready in the morning action verbs
7) We Are Family, by Sister Sledge – family vocabulary, you can pair this with the exercise above!

* Doesn't hurt to make sure they've memorized the "Alphabet song", so that they can recall their ABCs!

The songs on this album by Lana del Rey are "chock full" of great one-liners
and classic code-switching references to Valleyspeak. My friend Chic Soufflé
wrote an entry (in Spanish) about it, with links to some of the more popular songs. 

Once you've picked the song, simply download the lyrics, remove some choice words or phrases, and have the students listen to it once to fill in the blanks. Then check with them what they got right/wrong, discuss the song, ask questions about what the song says/argues, discuss metaphors, phrasal verbs or idiomatic expressions used in it ("keep on fighting"), and then listen to the song again. (Though this time tell them to just listen, and not look at the lyrics.) Ideally, you should provide them a link to someplace online where they can listen to the song at home, so that they can do it on their own. 

Eh voilà! Instant 15-minute lesson, much more likely to teach them English-as-it-is-used than some dreary language book. Encourage them to take this practice home with them, to find songs that they like in English and practice studying the lyrics and their meaning. One of my students mentioned an incredible online tool to me when we did the Dictation exercise I developed last year (which I must boast is a _very_ popular exercise with my students): http://www.lyricstraining.com/. The site provides fill-in-the-blank lyrics which you type in as you listen to the song, and it adjusts for different language-levels. It is a great listening tool, and fun, too!

– – – I plan to continue this discussion of English-learning tools 
I've developed later in the academic year, in a Part 3 post of 
"Five More Ready-Made Lessons". Until then, I refer you back 
to my previous TEFL entry for further TEFl links and references – – –