31st December: New Year's Eve

As you all know, in Spain we eat twelve grapes at midnight. The actual countdown is primarily followed from the clock on top of  the Correos building in Puerta del Sol square, Madrid. It is traditional to eat twelve grapes, on on each chime of the clock. This tradition has its origins in 1909, when grape growers in Alicante thought of it as a way to cut down on the large production surplus they had had that year. Nowadays the tradition is followed by almost every Spaniard, and the twelve grapes have become synonimous with the New Year. After the clock has finished striking twelve, people greet each other and toast with sparkling wine (such as champagane or cider).

New Year's Resolutions 2013

A New Year's resolution is a commitment an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. The name comes from the fact that these commitments normally go into effect on New Year’s Day and remain until fulfilled or abandoned.

Labor students: Are you making any New Year's Resolutions for 2013? Maybe working harder at school? Spending less time on Tuenti? Leave your comments and tell everybody what your resolutions for the New Year are!

Boxing Day Classic

D. Garrido, Á. de Prado, J. Saborido, A. Blanco, P. Castelo, F. López, F. López Sr., M.  Rguez Terés, J. Silveira;
Julio, J. Pérez, C. Montaño, A. Alonso, J. López, S. Fdez, R. Rguez.

Following the tradition of British football, ESO 4 students and teachers clashed on the astroturf pitch on the UVigo campus in a thrilling Boxing Day Classic Match that will go down into history books and football records as The Battle of Lagoas-Marcosende.

If in the year of our Lord 1314 patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered, charged the fields of Bannockburn, Labor teachers, overweight and breathless, played like warrior poets and outclassed their spirited young pupils before a passionate attendance of just 5 people (4 sons and a wife, actually). 

The youngsters' pace and energy was masterfully dodged by yet another unrivalled, magnificent, world-class display of tic-tac football. As a result of the prowess, skills and talent shown by the teachers team, the students were comprehensively trashed by many goals to few.

26th December: Boxing Day

Today is Boxing Day. No, it has nothing to do with the sport of fighting with the fists. This is the reason for the name:

A box, usually of earthenware, in which contributions of money were collected at Christmas, by apprentices, etc.; the box being broken when full, and the contents shared.

So, the name Boxing Day derives from the tradition of giving seasonal gifts, on the day after Christmas, to less wealthy people and social inferiors, which was later extended to various workpeople such as labourers and servants.

What if Virgin Mary had Whatsapp?

THE DIGITAL STORY OF NATIVITY

How would the birth of Jesus be experienced through digital media such as Facebook, Twitter, Amazon...? Have a look at the video below:

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Christmas' Eve Dinner 2012

In Britain, turkey is the traditional dish for Christmas' Eve dinner. Enjoy it!

No copyright infringement intended. For educational purposes only.

Merry Christmas 2012!

Labor English Zone wishes you the 

Season's Greetings

At Labor English Zone we know what present we want for Christmas!

7 O´Clock News / Silent Night

Recorded on August 22nd, 1966, "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" is the twelfth and final track on "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme", a 1966 album by Simon and Garfunkel. The track consists of an overdubbing of two contrasting recordings: a simple arrangement of the Christmas carol "Silent Night", and a simulated "7 O'Clock News" bulletin of the actual events of 3 August 1966.

Christmas Carols & Songs 2012

A carol is a song of praise or joy, especially for Christmas. But it is also an old round dance often accompanied by singing.  The word was probably from Old French, derived from Latin choraula, which means "choral song".

Enjoy a selection of traditional Christmas carols and songs in English. Lyrics are included, so you can learn how to sing them!

8 Facts about Spain's 'El Gordo' Lottery

The following article was published by PR Newswire on7th December 2010.

Labor Walk of Fame 1.0

The first term of this school year 2012/2013 has come to an end. As usually, we would like to give recognition to those students who did better in the subject of English in each group of ESO.

For this occasion, we’ve created our “Labor Walk of Fame”, whose stars (best students of English for this 1^st term) are…

                                                     

       

 

 

And overall, the Oscar for best student in this 1st term goes to Álvaro de Prado Saborido, from ESO 1A, with an average score of 9.6. Congratulations!

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Music for the Eyes

Recently, as a counter-attack against Karl Lagerfeld’s opinions about her being in need of weight loss, singer Adele made the following statement famous: “I make music for the ears, not for the eyes”. Leaving aside her fabulous reply, can we really say that music is exclusive for those able to hear or may a visual component be determinant in some cases?

How to Care for Extroverts & Introverts

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Where the Hell is Matt?

Matt is a 36-year-old American guy who decided to quit his job as a game designer to travel until money ran out. Once, when travelling, his friend said: "Hey, why don't you stand over there and do your stupid dance. I'll record it." Matt did it, and he thought it looked pretty funny, so he kept on doing it everywhere he went.

That turned out to be a very good idea. He put the video of his dancing adventures on his blog (later on Youtube) and became famous as "That guy who dances on the internet”.

In the meantime, Matt got an email from a chewing gum company called Stride. They asked if he'd be interested in making another dancing video for them. This was only the beginning of a series of four different videos shot at various different places all around the world.

In his beginnings, he mostly just danced in front of iconic landmarks, but along the way he went to a country called Rwanda, and since there aren't any landmarks in Rwanda that you'd want to dance in front of, instead he just went to a small village and danced with a bunch of kids. The kids joined him immediately and without hesitation, and taught him that people are a whole lot more interesting than old landmarks and monuments.

The video below was released in June 2012. It was shot at 71 different locations, comprising 55 countries and 11 US states. The interesting thing about Matt’s videos is to be able to visually travel to many different countries in about 5 minutes, appreciating, in some cases, various aspects of their culture, architecture, environment or traditions.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

'The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us', by Jocelyn McLean

At my brother’s convocation, my dad was asked to address the graduating class. The overarching theme of his speech was a question he had asked us regularly while we were young: if money were not an object, what would you do with your life? This question, and the ideas behind it, is something he reminds my brothers and I of regularly. What are you passionate about? When you take money out of the equation, what is it that motivates you?

I stumbled across this lively RSA Animate video by Dan Pink about that very question which  illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace. He tackles the fundamental assumption that (financial) rewards are the fundamental motivator for performance. Based on this assumption, performance quality should increase with larger incentives. An economics study found that this was true for tasks that required only mechanical skill; however, once a task required more cognitive and creative thinking, larger rewards in fact led to poorer performance.

According to Dan Pink’s research, there are three factors that lead to better performance and personal satisfaction: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

Labor English Zone 3rd Anniversary

Labor English Zone started on 6th December 2009. Since then we have published 600+ posts and have received over 23,000 visitors who have viewed more than 42,000 pages. Our busiest day was 11th May 2010, when our hits peaked at 122 visitors (we guess the following day there was a pbl deadline or some kind of exam!!). Posted on February 27th 2010, this entry about school jokes, with over 3,000 visitors, has been the most popular one during our first three years.

...and after all this time things can only get better: As you probably know, we have to boast our new writer at LEZ, Raquel LP, whose contribution and insight are truly invaluable.

We want to thank you all for being there and for your visits. We would like to encourage you to send us comments and messages with your ideas and suggestions for new posts. We are interested in hearing what interests you.

To celebrate we are 3 years old, we publish again our first post, "The Italian Man Who Went to Malta":

6th December 2009

Let's begin with some humour. Italian and Spanish are arguably the hardest accents to get rid of. Practise pronunciation drills and try to polish your accent in case you go to Malta too!!

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

If You Give a Little Love You Can Get a Little Love of Your Own

“If you give a little love you can get a little love of your own” is part of a song entitled “Give a Little Love” by the English band “Noah and the Whale”.

The aim of the video below is to show that a little kind action of ours perceived by another person may lead to this person acting in a positive way towards others.

As it is said, “Love feeds love”.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

The Phantom Traffic Jam - An Explanation

They appear from out of nowhere, cause chaos for hours on end, and then disappear without a trace. They are the 'phantom traffic jams' - queues of stationary cars that develop for no apparent reason - and they seem to happen very frequently on Rande bridge.

They have the power to completely ruin a bank holiday. It has been revealed that phantom traffic jams can be caused by the actions of just one driver: under the right conditions, one individual's bad driving can create 'a traffic tsunami which can affect traffic up to 50 miles away.

16 Things You Didn't Know about Sleep

Click here to see the picture enlarged

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.