Blog | Centro de Idiomas UMH

The End is Near...!

For many, the end of the course means a period of relief and friendship bonds. It is as well when exams become more tangible, and our feeling of being under constant pressure skyrockets.

More importantly, this should be the right time to ckeck our learning experience and weighing the pros and cons: What have we learnt? What have we missed out? What can I do to imporve those questionable skills? This could be the best kick-off for next-year, new-level learning experience.

We wish you good luck during your examination period and hope to see you again next year!

A Series I Could Watch (and Learn)

At times, we wonder how we could improve our listening skills in a continuous way. Like we do in football, we could also find a topic we're keen on, or more importantly, a series that could meet our needs. There's a series online, fully available on youtube, which is ideal for beginners, pre-intermediate, or intermediate students, who can watch it whenever. It is called Extra English, and below you may find a sample episode. Enjoy it!

Do you Speak English?

The frustration felt by many when travelling abroad and not finding people who speak your language, is one of the reasons to add "learning languages" to our bucket list. However, the learning process is not a matter of one-year course or a few weeks in class: it involves full-time commitment and self-study. These are key to keep the language coming back to you when needed.

The following video is an exception of those who say not to speak English, in an attempt to get away with it.

Spoken English: Things You Should Know.

Have you ever written down (transcribed) a conversation between native or proficient speakers of English?

If you have, you will know that natural conversation is far more chaotic, far less structured than written text. It contains lots of reformulation, repetition, false starts, incomplete sentences, formulaic phrases, and unfinished questions.

Job Interview: Some Useful Tips

I know. Job interviews are probably quite scary, especially if they're in English. Hereby you'll find some useful tips:

Sing Along on SAY and TELL!

"Say" and "tell" are probably two of the most confusing verbs in English. And to help you understand the difference between them, there's no better way than singing. Pay closer attention to the expresions in which these verbs are used, and sing along!

My Co-Workers are simply the best! (or Not)

These are two hilarious videos on how co-workers cope with annoying situations from different perspective:

Catherine Tate is back! In this really funny video, she plays the part of a pesky co-worker who expects everyone to pay attention to her silliness. Check it out!

The other video takes place in an American office. Cindy Delmont is a voluptuous lady who works for a big corporate body. She claims to have been harassed by a co-worker. Her boss, nastily, gets on her nerves because he can't make out what was really going on.

Are co-workers meant to be that annoying?

One, two…ELEVEN!

Two co-workers are fascinated by the new voice-recognition lift installed in their workplace. They get into the lift, comment on the cutting-edge system, and are prepared to undergo a unique experience. But there is an unexpected (not really) problem: they speak Scottish! So the machine has a bit of a job trying to recognize the floor selected.

PET, FIRST...es Posible!

Los títulos de Cambridge PET y FIRST son reconocidos internacionalmente para aquellas personas que son capaces de utilizar un inglés de uso cotidiano a nivel intermedio, tanto escrito como hablado. PET y FIRST equivalen a los niveles B1 y B2, respectivamente, del Marco común de referencia de lenguas europeas.

“I Can Translate into Seven Different Languages”, so She Says!

A CEO desperately needs to find someone that knows how to speak 7 languages, and he runs into Helen! She offers to translate into seven different languages. Yes, that’s right: SEVEN different languages. Don’t miss this funny video!

Can you identify the nationalities indicated? Do Spanish people really sound like that? Which translation is your favourite one?...

NEW YORK, NEW YORK!

Check out this video and find out why New York is known as a “melting pot”. What do you think this is expression is used for? Is it used to describe people, food, etc.? Let us know your comments on this expression…

In the video, you’ll find where Juan, Mirko, Alva, Martin are from, how old they are, what their first language is, etc. Try to get as much information as possible through the video. Enjoy it!

Language Accent 101

Ben Affleck and Ellen DeGeneres work out how accents sound like. Ben really hits the dot in some cases, proving his incredible ability to come to grips with foreign or dialect accents. Watch this video and tell us what you think of the actor’s imitation!