Text message abbreviations

A very complete list: http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp

Can you try and read this? http://www.ego4u.com/en/chill-out/curiosities/sms-english

What about this? http://www.world-english.org/SMS.htm

Optional Reading and Writing Activity

Some classes ago, we dealt with hotel problems, remember?

Here is an optional reading activity connected to this topic. If you decide to do it, you can either:

a) send me the answers by email (on a Word Document)

b) bring the answers to class on Saturday and hand them in for correction

1) Read the following newspaper article about hotel problems. What title would you give to it?

An international travel site conducted a survey on hotel complaints around the world and found some unusual things. The travel website Skyscanner.net surveyed 400 international hotel staff in 39 different countries. It asked them about the strangest things guests had asked for or complained about. The site said that most of the unusual complaints were about food. Other weird requests were related to the room. Not every hotel room or the services on offer are to everybody's taste, but the complaints in the Skyscanner survey were so strange it makes you wonder how the hotel staff responded. It would be impossible for any hotel in the world to make some of the complaining guests happy.
The food-related complaints were very weird. One guest asked for 16 cucumbers a day, while another requested only the right legs of a chicken. The staff had no idea why just the right leg, or whether the left leg of a chicken didn't taste as nice as the right leg. One guest asked for something not normally found on the room service menu – crocodile soup. Other complaints were crazy enough to make staff wonder about the mental age of the guests. A man at a luxury hotel in London complained that his room did not have a sea view. The nearest beach to London is about 75 km away. Other guests wanted the toilet filled with mineral water, a bath full of honey and a discount because his girlfriend snored.


2) Read the article again and decide if these sentences are TRUE or FALSE.

a.	A nationwide website did a survey on hotel guests' complaints.	T / F
b.	The site asked 400 staff from international hotels in 39 countries.	T / F
c.	Most of the unusual requests were about the shower and bathroom.	T / F
d.	The article said it's impossible to keep all hotel guests happy.	T / F
e.	One guest wanted the hotel to give him/her 16 cucumbers a day.	T / F
f.	Another guest wanted only the right leg of chickens.	T / F
g.	A man at a London hotel complained he could see the sea.	T / F
h.	A woman wanted a discount because her boyfriend snored.	T / F

3) SYNONYM MATCH: What do these words mean? Read the article again and match the words (1 to 10) to a synonymous expression (a-j).

1.	conducted	a.	questioned
2	unusual	b.	think
3.	surveyed	c.	were about
4.	related to	d.	requested
5.	taste	e.	closest
6.	asked for	f.	carried out
7.	normally	g.	price reduction
8.	wonder	h.	liking
9.	nearest	i.	strange
10.	discount	j.	usually

4) LETTER:Write a letter to an expert on hotels. Ask him/her three questions about hotels. Give him/her three of your ideas on how to make hotel stays better. 

Writing: Describing a picture

Last class, we described these famous historical pictures:

TASK:

Choose one photo and write a short description

1) Who were the people in the picture? Where were they? When? 
2) What were they doing when the picture was taken?
3) Were you alive when this happened? If so, what were you doing? If not, what do you think most people were doing?

Optional writing activity: My ideal holidays!

Hello everyone! How are you? Did you have a good weekend?
I'm sorry for the delay, but I've been having some problems with my computer and I couldn't enter the blog.

Here's the guide I promised last class, in case you want to do this writing activity.

 My ideal holidays
TASK: A magazine has opened up a contest to win an airplane ticket to your dream destination. Readers who want to participate have to send a description of their ideal holidays. The most creative description will win the airplane ticket! In the description, readers should include the following information:

a) What's your dream place to spend your holidays? What is it like? 
b) Would you go there in summer, winter, spring, autumn? Why?
c) What activities can you do there? Which ones would you like to do? Why?
d) Who would you go with? Alone? With friends? With family? Why?

Speaking and writing activity: Describing people

Assignment #2

Here is another optional activity for you to do at home. 

SPEAKING

Go to your Students' book, page 7 (or look at the photocopy I gave you last class!)
Work on activity 6 (Speaking and writing). Complete the chart with information about a friend/family member. Using your notes, get ready to tell me about your friend/family member! The idea is that you practise what you are going to say at home! On Saturday, I'm going to ask you about it. 


WRITING

Using the same notes as in activity 6, write a short description o f your friend/family member. Remember to separate into paragraphs according to the topic you're writing about:

PARAGRAPH 1: Introduce the person (name, age, job, nationality) + your relationship with him/her
PARAGRAPH 2: Physical descriotion (use the vocabulary we learnt on Saturday!!)
PARAGRAPH 3: Personality
PARAGRAPH 4: likes/dislikes 

You can include a picture, if you want.

IF YOU DECIDE TO DO ANY OF THESE ACTIVITIES, LET ME KNOW ON SATURDAY!

Video activity: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

Assignment #1 

Here is a video activity that you can do at home. You can write the answers in a comment below this post, or you can write them on a piece of paper and give it to me on Saturday. 

NOTE: This special activity is optional. If you decide to do it, please let me know on Saturday.

BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER!

BEFORE WATCHING THE VIDEO

1) What is beauty, in your opinion? 

2) Can you make a list of 5 qualities that define beauty? (Number 1 should be the most important one)

3) Look up the definition of the following proverb in a dictionary (or you can also google it!): BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. 
Do you agree with this proverb? Why/why not?

WHILE WATCHING

4) Watch the following video and pay attention to the general message.

AFTER WATCHING

5) Answer the following questions: 

• How does the film make you feel?
• How do the women in the film feel when they see their portraits? Why?
• What’s the message of the film?

6) At the end of the movie, you can see the following phrase:

“You are more beautiful than you think.”

This is the publicity slogan of Dove the product which made the short film. 

Do you agree with this slogan? Why do you think it was chosen?

7) Go back to the list you made before (task 2). Do you want to leave it the same way, or would you like to make any changes? Why?

8) Imagine you are the publicity manager of a MAKE-UP product. Think of a good slogan that represents the idea on the Dove video.