Category: Conversation Classes

Conversation Classes

Sight – A Short Film and Conversation Lesson about…

September 16, 2015September 16, 2015
by Justin Donlon

Sight is a short film about augmented reality so in honour of such a great topic Multimedia English created a conversation lesson about modern technology.

Discuss these general questions with your teacher

Sight Intro Questions:

What’s your favourite gadget?

How many apps do you have on your phone?

What’s your favourite one?

Are apps really useful?

Do smart phones really make our lives easier?
If you could invent a gadget what would it be?
Gaming – do you have an Xbox or Playstation? Do you like it?

Vocabulary in the film

If you were to visit NY where would you go sightseeing?

What’s your favourite beverage?

How often does your computer or a program crash?

If someone says “you really get me” what does it mean?

In regards to drinking alcohol, what is a nightcap?

When was the last time you made “a toast“?

What is a junkie? What is a creep?

Please watch the film and try to listen for the new vocabulary.

Comprehension Questions:

What’s the name of the dating program he uses?
Can you tell me one of the girl’s interests? (activity/hobby/passtime) How does he select from the menu and pay?
How did she discover his secret?
Do you think she is real?

General : Please try to use the new vocabulary in your answers

What is Sight?
What is augmented reality?
Would you like to have Sight?
What would you use Sight for?
Do you think it could help you pick which cloths to wear?

General Discussion:

Would you like to do another conversation lesson about modern technology?

Are we integrating with computers more and more every year?
How far do you think we should integrate?
Can you think of any practical ways which you could use augmented reality? How might a technology like this be misused?
Is it a clever substitute for TV?

Exercise: Create sentences / example / new context for the following words and phrases:

sightseeing beverage crash

get me

a nightcap

a toast

a junkie

a creep

Phrasal Verb exercise using the verb “get”

We already used the phrasal verb “get me”. Now change the preposition and try to use them in new contents.

For example: “Try to put “get it” into a sentence. Do you get it?

Get can be used with many prepositions, up, down, in, out, off, on, into,

Conversation Classes

How honest are you?

September 14, 2015
by Justin Donlon

How honest are you?

$13, 238.86 left in an NYC Taxi. by Casey Neistat

Intro Questions:

Have you ever lost anything in a taxi?

Did you every lost something and got it back?

What do you do if you find something in a taxi?

Can you trust taxi drivers?

What would you do if you found €5000 in an envelope in a taxi?

What would you do if you found €5000 in an envelope on the street?

Comprehension Questions:

What’s the first line on the web page that really matters?

What happened to Casey?

How long had it been before he realised he had forgotten his bags?

What was the first thing he did?

What happened the next day?

Why was it a big deal to lose his bags?

What was the first time he could see the taxi driver’s face?

How much did he reward the taxi driver?

Complete the sentence “It was a lot more than I could afford but a lot less than he …………….”

Discussion:

Have you every found something and given it back?

Did it make you feel good?

Have you every found something that was impossible to return?

Do you agree with Casey in the end when he says “it’s people like him that makes this city honest?”

Do you think some nationalities are more honest than others? Which?

QUIZ: Honestly? How are honest are you?

1. A cashier mistakes your €5 for a €10 and gives you an extra €5 back. Do you speak up?

– Nope, it’s not your mistake!
– Yes, you give her the $5 back

2. Your sister /friend asks you if she looks fat in that outfit. Yup, she does. Do you fess up?
– No, you tell her that she looks fine. You don’t want to upset her.
– You tell her straight up that it’s not very flattering.

3. You dent a car in a parking lot in the middle of the night. What do you do?
– You take off quickly.
– You leave a note with all your info.

4. Your friend is cheating on his girlfriend, who also happens to be a friend of yours. When she mentions that your best friend’s been acting strange lately, you:
– Tell her about the cheating
– Keep out of it

5. You’re late to a job interview for a position you’re really hoping to get. You:
– Claim that you got caught behind a horrible accident
– Apologise for being late, but give no excuses

6. Downloading movies and music illegally is:
– Something you’d never do
– A great way to get free stuff

Conversation Classes

Running My First Marathon. Finally.

July 9, 2012
by Justin Donlon

NY Times: Health

Source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/running-my-first-marathon-finally/?ref=health

Intro:

What do you do for exercise?

Do you like to run?

How much do you run?

What are the “pros & cons” of running?

Have you ever wanted to run a marathon?

How about the half marathon?

Vocab Questions:

When was the last time that you felt agony? Tell me what happened.

When was the last time that you had a cramp?

How many calfs do you have?

Do you always stretch before exercise?

If a bad smell “lingers” what is it doing?

If you used retrospect, what would you look at?

How often is “every other day”?

How long does a broken leg bone take to heal?

Where’s the farthest place that you even travelled to?

If I tell you that I have a “make or break” presentation, what do I mean?

Some good advice is to take things in your stride, do you agree?

Do you have a preferred Spanish / Catalan vineyard?

Tell me about some random luck you had?

It was almost the time for my first marathon to start. I’d been talking about running one for four and a half years, and now, finally, I had trained enough and avoided injuries, and I was ready to go. I leaned over to take off my sweat pants and was hit with an agonizing, paralyzing cramp in my left calf.

The pain made me drop to the ground, trying to somehow stretch out my calf. Another runner came by and pulled my toes back, telling me the cramp would go away and I would be fine. He was right that the cramp went away, but the pain lingered through the marathon and for the next week.

How typical. There are so many random things that can go right, or wrong, when you are preparing for a race. In the end, despite months of preparation, I ended up getting injured — while removing my sweats. It seems that there is always an element of luck that determines your fate in the marathon.

Why, people have asked me, did it take me four and a half years before I ran a marathon? Well, I got injured four times, two so-called overuse injuries (although overuse is obvious only in retrospect, when the injury suddenly appears) and two freak accidents. So I must have done something different this time, perhaps trained more sensibly?

Not really. I have the same coach, Tom Fleming, and he has always insisted that I run only every other day in order to minimize my chance of getting injured. And he has always increased my distances gradually and has always kept the speed work to a day or so a week.

I actually have no idea why I was able to train consistently this time, but since last May, when I healed from my final freak accident (I broke a bone in my foot when I stepped in a hole while I was running around a curve), I have been fine. It took a long time to build up distance and speed again. And even with all those months of training from May until March, the farthest I’d ever run before the marathon was 18.7 miles.

The weather, of course, can make or break your race time. My friend Jen – who has run 38 marathons – suggested we run the one in Napa, Calif., because not only is it beautiful, it is likely to be an ideal temperature on race day, with a high in the low 50s. As it turned out, our race day was the hottest day of the week. When the race started, at 7 a.m., it was fine, with the temperature in the low 40s. When we finished, nearly four hours later, it was close to 70 degrees – way too hot.

If you want to race like the really good runners, I have discovered in reporting for my Personal Best column, you should focus on your running. Think about your stride and your effort, break the race into segments and concentrate on getting through each segment with good form and at your goal pace. Try to keep a steady pace or, even better, go faster toward the end.

I couldn’t do it. Instead, Jen and I played a mental game that a good runner would not use. We pretended we were in our hometown, Princeton, N.J., running three 6-mile loops and one 8.5-mile loop on familiar roads. In my mind, I was not running past vineyards. I was on Prospect Avenue, crossing the street at Harrison. Now I was turning onto Roper Road. I never saw the scenery.

We had fun, and it all worked. My quadriceps hurt so much in the last four miles or so that I could barely lift my legs and I had to take walking breaks, but we ran across the finish line with smiles on our faces.

Would I have done better if I had not gotten that cramp? Maybe. Would I have done better if I had trained more and run farther than 18.7 miles? Probably. Would it have helped to eat something during the race? Probably. Would I have run faster on a cooler day? Maybe.

But then, who knows what other random things might have gone wrong.

As Tom told me, “running a marathon is a personal adventure for each individual — all different and yet all very much the same in the end.”

And, he added, I should be happy with what I had done. “Breaking four hours is as exciting as breaking 2:20,” Tom said. “Runners are a different breed, highly motivated and never happy with the end results, because you know you can go faster.”

So true.

Discussion:

Would I have done better if I had not gotten that cramp? Which conditional? Why is it used?

Do you agree that runners are highly motivated?

Why is running a marathon such an attractive challenge?

Do you think there is a age limit for people?

Have you ever had any sports injuries?

Conversation Classes

Welcome to the Anthropocene

May 16, 2012
by Justin Donlon

Definition:

The Anthropocene is a recent and informal geologic term that serves to mark the evidence and extent of human activities that have had a significant global impact on the Earth’s ecosystems. The term was coined by ecologist Eugene F. Stoermer but has been widely popularized by the Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvgG-pxlobk

A 3-minute journey through the last 250 years of our history, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the Rio+20 Summit. The film charts the growth of humanity into a global force on an equivalent scale to major geological processes.

The film was commissioned by the Planet Under Pressure conference, London 26-29 March, a major international conference focusing on solutions.
planetunderpressure2012.net

Listening Comprehension:

Please watch the video and answer as many questions as possible:

1. When does the latest chapter of our story begin? and Where?

2. What happened then?

3. Complete the expression – “It spread like _________________”

4. What connected people across the globe?

5. What saved millions of lives?

6. What did the 1950’s mark?

7. Name 3 things help to fuel enormous growth?

8. Health, Wealth, security, longevity – “Never has so many had ______ _______”

9. How many people are malnourished?

10. How much of earth’s land do we manage?

11. When was the last time we saw similar Green House Gas Levels?

12. What did we do to the Ozone layer?

13. What are we loosing?

14. Complete the sentence – “Ocean acidification is a real ___________”

15. Complete the sentence – ” We are altering earth’s ___________ ___________”.

We have entered the Anthropocene. A new geological epic dominated by humanity.

This relentless pressure on our planet risks unprecedented destabilisation.

16. What human characterises offer hope?

17. What does she say about “As the population reaches 9Billion”

Conversation Classes

New Businesses in New York (Business Vocab and Conversation)

May 16, 2012
by Justin Donlon

Viewpoint: Why New York City is best for small businesses

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18020624

Words & Phrases:

to draw ( 3 meanings)

vitality

a blueprint

to access

to assess

pro-bono

to enrol

the red tape

obstacle

to fill out (paperwork)

to streamline

to oversee

to thrive

A recent study commissioned by Citigroup, and conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, found New York to be the most competitive city in the world, edging out London for the top honour.

What’s behind New York City’s success?

Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently wrote that “talent attracts capital far more effectively and consistently than capital attracts talent”.

To draw that talent, New York City has taken a multi-level approach: improving quality of life, investing in the future with development and infrastructure, and encouraging innovation and economic competitiveness.

We’ve also created a pro-growth, pro-business environment, making it easier than ever to start, operate, or grow a business in New York City.

New York City’s 200,000 small businesses employ more than half of our private sector workforce and are a critical component to the city’s economic vitality.

To encourage small business growth, the mayor created the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) in 2002, the first agency of its kind dedicated to serving New York City’s small businesses.

Our agency was tasked with developing a blueprint for how to best serve small businesses, so we went straight to small business owners and asked what they need.

Wish list

Accessing capital, business courses and training, and navigating government regulations were at the top of the list. To address these needs, we built a set of services called NYC Business Solutions.

Today, there are NYC Business Solutions Centers located in all five boroughs of New York City, providing services at no cost to entrepreneurs and businesses of any size and at any stage. Business owners can find everything from help getting a loan to pro-bono legal assistance to marketing courses.

And it’s working. In 2011, NYC Business Solutions provided 12,600 services to 7,600 entrepreneurs and business owners in all five boroughs of the City.

We helped 650 customers access 800 financing awards totalling $39m (£24m). We connected 445 small businesses with pro bono legal services, saving them an average of $1,280 in fees.

Since 2009, 2,000 entrepreneurs have enrolled in our free entrepreneurship courses: FastTrac NewVenture and GrowthVenture.

From the NewVenture course 36% of alumni launched a business within six months of completing the program, and 61% of GrowthVenture alumni grew their business by increasing revenue or hiring employees within six months of completing the program.

Bureaucracy one-stop shop

Regulatory requirements are vital for consumer protection. But cutting through the red tape can be a significant obstacle to small business growth.

So, we created NYC Business Express, an online, one-stop resource where entrepreneurs can quickly and easily learn about licenses, permits, and other government requirements for doing business in New York City.

New York City is leading the charge for small businesses, according to Rob Walsh

NYC Business Express allows entrepreneurs to run their businesses without spending valuable time waiting in lines and filling out duplicate paperwork.

The mayor also launched the New Business Acceleration Team to coordinate and streamline inspections from different agencies, saving many new businesses valuable time.

We are also helping to develop talent through workforce development. The mayor integrated the Department of Employment with SBS to create a demand-driven workforce system that compliments our business services.

The Department of Employment had only been placing 500 people a year into jobs. Under our new model, we are placing more than 35,000 New Yorkers into jobs via 15 career centres across the five boroughs, and partnering with public libraries, community organizations, and academic institutions to reach even more people with our services.

Millions of tourists

We also have a program called Training Funds where we co-invest with businesses to train employees for increased skills, efficiency, and wage gains.

In order to attract customers, businesses need clean, safe, and marketable neighbourhoods.

New York City’s 67 Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are public/private partnerships that provide supplemental services like sanitation, security, marketing, beautification, special events and more to make the City’s commercial corridors great places to live, work, and enjoy.

The Bloomberg administration has overseen the creation of 23 BIDs, many along smaller commercial corridors, and 20 in the four boroughs outside of Manhattan.

New York is a city of neighbourhoods: 300 exciting, unique, and diverse communities that attracted 50.5 million tourists in 2011, including more than a million from the UK.

So the next time you come to New York, visit a new neighbourhood and support a small business.

Stop by Cheryl’s Global Soul in Brooklyn for some home-style comfort food. Buy a new suit at Rothman’s in Union Square. Check out a show at the Pregones Theatre in the Bronx, or dine at one of our many Indian and Latin American restaurants in Jackson Heights, Queens.

As the Big Apple, New York City’s core depends on successful small businesses, a trained workforce, and thriving neighbourhoods.

Discussion:

What similarities do Barcelona and New York have?

What can Barcelona learn from this article?

What type of small businesses could do well in Barcelona?

Have you ever wanted to start your own business?

Is it expensive to create a business in Barcelona?

Is there a lot of paperwork?

What’s the name of Barcelona’s organisation that helps new businesses?

Exercise:

to draw, vitality, blueprint, to access, pro-bono, to enrol, the red tape, obstacle, to fill out (paperwork),

to streamline, to oversee, to thrive.

1. The worst thing about going to the tax office is all the _______ _________, it takes hours to ________ _______ all the paperwork.

2. There are many __________ on the road to success.

3. I think that he’ll do an excellent job for us but I would like to appoint Xavi to ___________ his progress in the first 3 months.

4. Bruce Springsteen always _______ a large audience to his concerts in Europe.

5. Helping new businesses _____________ in their early years is essential for the economy.

6. “I just heard that they employed someone new in HR to _____________ the company” “Is this good or bad for us?”

7. To ___________ the free information you must first ________ in our database.

8. Sometimes, on rare occasions, you can find a lawyer who will do _____________ work for a good cause.

Conversation Classes

Google Art Project

April 3, 2012
by Justin Donlon

Source: The Guardian

National Gallery joins Google Art Project’s virtual culture tours

Ten British galleries join likes of Palace of Versailles and the White House as online museum grows to 30,000 objects

Google’s Nelson Mattos unveils the latest Art Project updates in Paris

1. What’s the difference between wander and wonder?

2. What are in the mood for tonight?

3. Is there a good crowd-free location to eat near here?

4. Can you a tech company with a vast array of products?

5. Do you have a favourite masterpiece and a favour artist?

Google has added a further 151 galleries and museums to its Art Project, allowing anyone with a computer to consider a virtual wander through the treasures of Versailles, the joys of the National Gallery in London or, if the mood takes them, Brazilian street graffiti in São Paulo.

The expansion of the project, which allows virtual access to artworks in 40 countries, means more than 30,000 objects are available to view, compared with 1,000 in the first version launched last year.

The head of the project, Amit Snood, said: “The Art Project is going global, thanks to our new partners from around the world. It’s no longer just about the Indian student wanting to visit Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It is also about the American student wanting to visit the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi.”

Ten British galleries are joining the National Gallery and the Tate in the scheme. In London they include England’s first public gallery, the 201-year-old Dulwich Picture Gallery, the V&A, the Serpentine Gallery, the Royal Collection, the Imperial War Museum and the Jewish Museum. Also there are the National Galleries of Scotland and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

A total of 46 museums have been given the 360-degree Google Street View treatment, allowing visitors to wander through crowd-free galleries using only their mouse – from Tate Britain to the White House to the National Gallery of Australia.

For the others, users will be able to browse a vast array of treasures in high resolution, whether paintings, photographs, sculptures or decorative pieces.

The V&A’s director of programming and public affairs, Damien Whitmore, said he was delighted to be joining up. He said: “Some of the V&A’s greatest treasures will be able to view in extraordinary high resolution for the first time – from the famous Gloucester candlestick, a masterpiece of English metalwork, to the Ardabil carpet, one of the largest examples of Islamic carpets in existence, the wedding suit that the Duke of York wore to his wedding in 1673 to one of the finest examples of Donatello’s work in relief.”

Google also said it was adding new explore and discover tools allowing users to find artworks by period or type or artist.

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMkh-apVZx8

1. What technology is used inside the museums and galleries?

2. What can drop down menus do?

3. What other functions can you do?

4. What does it allow you to do with social networks?

Reference: www.googleartproject.com

Conversation Classes

Goya at CaixaForum

March 28, 2012
by Justin Donlon

Goya goes to Barcelona

Intro Questions:

Do you like Goya?

What do you know about him?

Would you like to see this exhibition?

Why is his work popular?

How many meanings of the word draw do you know?

A conservationist inspects the Goya painting El Pelele before it was hung for the CaixaForum exhibition in Barcelona

Words & Phrases: Create sentences with context that explain the meaning of the following words.

hosting

didactic

A joint venture

emblematic

to draw

exhaustive

depicted

precursors

elite

oeuvre

facets

curators

condemning

astonishing

he laid the way

Barcelona’s CaixaForum is hosting Goya: Light and Shadow, a didactic exhibition of almost 100 works that explores the main themes of the painter, who lived between 1746 and 1828 in chronological order.

A joint venture between La Caixa and Madrid’s Prado Museum, the exhibition includes some of Francisco de Goya’s best-known and most emblematic pieces such as The Clothed Maja, The Umbrella, Flying witches, and Still Learning. And the public is showing its appreciation of the Aragonese painter’s work from the Spanish capital, with the Caixa Foundation reporting 10,000 visitors over the opening weekend.

Nearly two centuries after his death, Francisco de Goya continues to draw an interest matched by few painters. In part this is due simply to his genius, but also because much of his life remains surrounded in mystery and popular legend.

The works being shown in Barcelona have been selected with the intention of offering the visiting public a chronological survey of the work of Goya. Without aiming at being exhaustive, the exhibition is structured into different sections in the manner of small visual accounts that analyze the principal themes depicted by the artist during the course of a career that saw him develop from court painter to one of the precursors of modern painting through his depictions of war.

The result will be to present a series of fundamental ideas around which Goya’s artistic, political and social thinking was articulated. The different sections of the exhibition thus reflect the social reality of Goya’s life, in which monarchs, the social elite, his friends and the working people all played prominent roles.

The show also focuses on the thematic variety and impressive technique evident throughout Goya’s oeuvre in all the different media in which he worked, as well as the fact that he simultaneously produced official commissions and other works of a freer, more critical nature in response to his own expressive needs.

“It’s not an anthological exhibition of Goya, per se,” says the Prado’s director, Miguel Zugaza. “But it is an anthological exhibition of the Prado’s Goya collection: we have tried to tell his story through all the facets of his life: as a court painter, as a sketcher, as an engraver, and above all as a man of his times, and who was concerned about what was going on around him.”

This is the first Goya exhibition in Barcelona in 35 years, and Manuela B. Mena and José Manuel Matilla, the exhibition’s joint curators, say that they are expecting it to be a huge success between now and June 24, when it closes. The Caixaforum will be extending its visiting hours in expectation.

Mena says that she is very pleased with the approach that the organizers have taken. “It’s about Goya, but rather than simply telling the story of his life, we have tried to explore the way that he approached the different subjects he painted,” she says, highlighting for example that Goya was not a lover of bullfighting.

“Goya painted the world of bullfighting in the same way that he did war, and many of his works on the subject are his way of condemning it. They are highly critical of the way that the bull was killed,” says Mena, pointing out that bullfighting was prohibited by the authorities in the late 19th century because it was seen as endangering public order.

An important aspect of the exhibition is its emphasis on Goya’s astonishing mastery of the different techniques employed in his paintings, drawings and prints, which laid the way for the subsequent liberation achieved by modern art. Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to appreciate technical and conceptual links between Goya and later artists that established a unique path and one that earned him the title of “first modern artist.”

Goya: Lights and Shadows is the first show planned as part of the joint exhibition program established by La Caixa Foundation and the Prado National Museum, the result of an agreement made between the two institutions last year.

Discussion:

Would you like to visit this exhibition?

Do you think his decision to condemn bullfighting would have been popular?

Do you agree that Goya was the first modern artist?

Can you name contemporary artists that are critical of society?

Exercise:

Please put the words below into the correct sentences.

Group 1:

hosting, didactic, a joint venture, emblematic, to draw x 3, exhaustive, depicted

1. Some of Goya’s paintings we see ______________ tales and hellish legends.

2. In 2013 Europa Fira will be __________ the Mobile World Congress.

3. Goya exhibitions always ________ a huge audience.

4. The walk around Montjuic and Plaza España was ______________ .

5. Could you __________ a picture of his face for us?

6. The story ____________ a perfect world.

7. The result of the football match was a 1-1 _________ .

8. A recent __________ ___________ between Europe and Russia will see new supplies sent to the international space station.

Group 2:

precursors, elite, oeuvre, facets, curator, to condemn, astonishing, he laid the way

1. I read yesterday that 1 new previously undiscovered piece has been added to Mozart’s ___________ .

2. The way that Messi plays and scores in almost every game can only be described as _______________ .

3. Bob Dylan _________________ for many other similar folk musicians in the 60’s.

4. The USA are asking China ______________ the attacks against civilians in Syria.

5. The __________ of Spanish athletics will compete in the Olympics this summer.

6. The latest trend on the internet is to _____________ information on a specific topic.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO9FNSwh3dM

BCN.CAT

Can you tell me 5 points from this video?

Conversation Classes

Euro Vegas : Madrid V Barcelona

March 21, 2012
by Justin Donlon

Spain’s dilemmas over ‘Eurovegas’ mega casino plans

BBC.co.uk

The Spanish government will make the final decision as to whether a Las Vegas Sands resort like this in Macau will be built near Madrid or Barcelona

Intro Questions:

What is a dilemma?

Have you ever been to a casino?

What’s your favourite game at a casino?

Do you like to gamble?

Are you good at gambling?

Do you get the trill of gambling?

If you were to go to a casino, how much money would you bring with you?

Have you ever been to the casino in Barcelona? What’s it like?

Video: Before we start let’s look at this video of the proposed complex.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-VD0KzW9Tw

Vocab & Phrases:

Can you name a famous mogul in the media industry?

Name 2 different ways we can use dub?

Have you ever been an official witness to an event ?

Why do children always defy their parents?

Is it possible to light-up in the classroom?

Can you name a tax haven close to Spain?

How many points do Barcelona need to catch up in the league?

If you make a pledge, is it permanent?

Sometimes the smell of garlic puts me off, it can be too much. Know what I mean?

Under which circumstances would you need the consent of someone?

Spain’s two great rival cities, Barcelona and Madrid, are competing to attract a mega casino project planned by US multi-billionaire mogul Sheldon Adelson. Dubbed “Eurovegas”, the vast 16bn euro ($21bn; £13bn) complex of hotels and casinos will, say Spanish officials, generate up to 200,000 jobs.

For a country with a struggling economy and high jobless rate, the temptations are clear. But Mr Adelson’s investment comes with conditions, and some argue he should have to play by the same rules as others in Spain.

The contest to win over the 14th richest man in the world has become a casino version of the El Clasico derby that Spaniards are more used to witnessing on the football pitch.

Barcelona, the Catalan capital, has beaches and a port where cruise ships dock on a daily basis. Madrid, the national capital, has the bigger, and better-connected, airport.

Mr Adelson owns casinos in Las Vegas and in Macau, China. Three years ago he opened Marina Bay Sands, a huge complex of hotels, shops and casinos in Singapore.

‘Low-tax haven’

Sheldon Adelson’s company, Las Vegas Sands, says the project will generate, directly or indirectly, 260,000 jobs.

The Eurovegas project has sparked street protests by some in Madrid

The Spanish capital’s tourism boss, Ignacio Fernandez gives a slightly more conservative, but still impressive, figure of 200,000 jobs.

Either way, with Spain’s unemployment standing at 23%, Mr Fernandez openly admits that the casino project’s job-creation potential is its “biggest attraction” and makes it something “politicians have to get for their country”.

The main sticking point for negotiations between Spanish politicians and Mr Adelson is a list of conditions which, according to Madrid’s tourism authority, the American businessman has given in order to agree to invest in Spain.

It says Mr Adelson is unhappy about the level of social security he would have to pay his workers; he would also like immigration laws to be relaxed so it would be easier for him to bring some workers in from abroad.

The tourism authority also says he would like to defy Spain’s nationwide smoking ban in public places by allowing people to light-up in certain parts of the casino complex.

Mr Adelson’s company insists it has not made its investment dependent on a list of conditions, describing its talks with the Spanish government as “positive”. “While we are not going to discuss specific topics we have discussed, those conversations should not be characterised as our company presenting a list of demands,” the company said in a statement.

But the reports have led to criticism, particularly from politicians on the left, that the resort would become a low-tax haven.

Gregorio Gordo, of Spain’s United Left party, disputes claims that the project would be a true source of real employment, pointing out that Mr Adelson would bring some workers in from abroad.

He also argues that local hotels would lose business to the 12 hotels which are planned as part of the complex.

Political risk

Catalan President Artur Mas admits his region has always been behind Madrid in the race, but he believes in recent weeks Barcelona has been “catching up”.

Sheldon Adelson’s ambitions have not been dented by the eurozone crisis

As one of his officials points out, Barcelona has the sea and is a “much cooler” city.

But politicians in the Spanish capital have been working on Mr Adelson for much longer.

They also have the added bonus of political harmony: the city, regional and national governments are all controlled by Spain’s ruling Popular Party (PP).

The Spanish national government will ultimately decide whether to grant Las Vegas Sands their requested concessions. However it has pledged to remain neutral.

If Spain’s government was to allow an American billionaire to build an enormous casino project, which was subject to different rules that the rest of Spain, a political risk would come attached.

However, Eurovegas would potentially pull in a new market of thousands of tourists, generating significant revenue.

Sheldon Adelson’s visits to Spain, most recently to Barcelona, suggest he is serious about the project.

And he does not seem to have been put off by the eurozone crisis. He told Forbes’ magazine that the project would take four to five years to build, by which time he believes “everything will be solved”.

From what officials in Madrid and Barcelona are saying, the economic potential of the project means it is a gamble either city is willing to take. First though, they need the consent of Spain’s national government.

Discussion:

In your opinion which city deserves to have the casino? Why?

Is Barcelona “much cooler” than Madrid? Why?

What do you think about Mr Adelson’s conditions to invest in Spain?

What do they mean by political harmony ?

Do you think that Madrid would let the casino go to Barcelona?

Exercise:

a mogul, to dub, to witness, to defy, to light-up, a tax haven, “catching up”, to pledge,

to be put off, consent

Please use the words and phrases above on the sentences below:

1. Switzerland is best known as a ______ _________ .

2. Was there any ____________ to the accident?

3. Some people describe Richard Branson as a __________ .

4. Where can I go to ________ _____ a cigarette?

5. I’ll have to work this Saturday and ________ ______ on work.

6. A lot of people could be ______ _______ from visiting Barcelona if the casino comes here.

7. Before I start my new job I need the _________ of my boss, I don’t want to ________ his orders.

8. Dublin is sometimes __________ “dirty auld town”.

Revision questions for the week after:

a mogul

to dub

to witness

to defy

to light-up

a low-tax haven

“catching up”

to pledge

to be put off

consent

Conversation Classes

Swimming & Diving in Montjuïc

March 18, 2012
by Justin Donlon

Dive into Barcelona’s Olympic swimming pool

The outdoor Olympic swimming pool in Barcelona (Piscina Municipal de Montjuïc) boasts stunning panoramic views of the city and costs only £4 to visit. Pro-diver and Barcelona native José Marillo shows us round his ‘office’

Intro:

Do you like to swim?

Where do you swim?

When did you learn to swim?

What’s your favourite swimming stroke?

Do you prefer the sea or the pool?

Comprehension Questions:

Which phrasal verb does Jose use about “every morning”?

What expression does he use to describe the views?

What does the term “rip entry” mean when talking about diving?

What is his life’s work about?
Discussion:

What do you think of Jose’s office?

What do you think about Jose’s work?

Conversation Classes

Mobile World Congress 2012 – Modern Tech Language

March 4, 2012
by Justin Donlon

Mobile World Congress: Will this be the year for NFC?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9701830.stm

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona has been host to over 1,500 companies hoping to have the idea that will take the mobile industry by storm.

Spencer Kelly takes a tour round the conference floor and reveals the show’s big themes.

1. NFC: Near Field Communication

2. 4G

3. New Intel Chips

1. NFC

The First 2 minutes:

What is the next tech trend to catch on?

Can you name one thing that you can swipe?

Would you like to own a digital reader to practise reading in English?

What type of expenses can you deduct from your taxes?

Does your smartphone have in-built bluetooth?

What’s the best way to manage payments effectively each month?

Do demos are trade shows represent the real product?

If you have plenty of money, how much do you have?

Why can you buy with loyalty points from the bank?

What is a digital wallet?

Can you name a young footballer that has a little way to go before he plays in the first team?

How long does it take a virus to work it’s way into your system?

How many handsets do you own?

How many years has Puyol been knocking around ?

Comprehension Questions:

What can you get for your loyalty points?

What’s the idea for the NFC tags for your office and car?

How long does it take to switch contacts?

Interview with Dave Birth (Digital Money Forum)

From 2 mins to 2.45

According to Dave Birth how does NFC help with identification?

How does he imagine it being used?

2. 4G

From 3 mins to 4.40

The Mobile Congress is on the move next year but do you know where?

In what way is Greece struggling?

What’s the difference between a pop up book and a pop up on the internet?

What types of information can be transferred through the radio spectrum?

Have you seen a speed test app and what does it do?

Name a hotel at the top end of the market?

What animal is blisteringly fast?

Can you name one video on demand provider?

Comprehension Questions:

What does LTE stand for?

The presenter says that 4G could be faster than our ________________ ?

3. Intel Chips

from 4.40 onwards… Discuss the follow words.

false starts

failed announcements

getting into

it boasts

Comprehension Questions:

How long does the battery last?

Which operating system does it use?

In which countries do they do on sale first?

And when do they do on sale?

Exercise:

to catch on, to swipe, a reader, deduct, in-built, manage payments effectively, a demo, plenty, loyalty points, digital wallet

1. We have __________ of time to get there, slow down !

2. With 5000 ________ _________ we can get a new DVD.

3. No more PIN numbers, just ________ your card and you’re done !

4. Have you seen the latest ________ for the 4G network?

5. I really don’t think it’ll _______ ____, it’s just a passing trend.

6. The Amazon Kindle is the popular _________ in the market today.

7. This year your smartphone will become your _________ __________.

8. Could you __________ the 3rd salad from the bill please, we only had two.

Exercise 2

it has a little way to go, to work it’s way into, handsets, knocking around, on the move, struggling, a pop up, radio spectrum, a speed test, at the top end, blisteringly fast, video on demand

1. Just around the corner there is a police office doing a ________ ________ on all vehicles.

2. I’m thinking about subscribing to a ____________________ service, what do you recommend?

3. All the major construction companies are _____ ______ ________ to lesser developed countries.

4. What’s the most popular ________ in the market today?

5. I hate _______ ______ online, I’m happy we installed a blocker.

6. In my opinion the network has ____________________ before it is ready for public use.

7. _________________ for have wonderful champagne like Mumm or Bollinger.

8. The Scottish MP Salmond has been ___________ __________ for many years, he has a lot of experience.

9. The euro has been ____________ for 3 years now, I don’t know if it will survive.

10. The service at the restaurant was _______________ ________ but the food was terrible.