Barcelona 2018 - Tibidabo

Barcelona 2018 - Circuit de Catalunya

Got the full driver experience as we got to have our thoughts on the Grand Prix results.

After looking inside, we headed out for a look at the Pitlane and saw a few cars stop.

Got to see a hairpin of the track as we sat in the vip section and got to embrace the cars.

We had an inside peak at how the fia race control works and how much they really have to do for the running of a race.

Text and photos Leo S. Video Dylan W.

Barcelona 2018 - day 1

These photos are when we visited the Sagrada Famila on 9 July in Barcelona.
This is when we went into the cript which is a section of the nearly finished Basilica which is open to the public during certain times as long as you are quiet and respectful. We had a quick prayer and left reverently as there was a funeral go no on in the cript when we visited. The photos shows sections of the cript depicting certain saints and important roman catholic figures.
The Church / Basilica has been in building for over 100 years.
Text and photos by Luke B.

Barcelona

Powerpoint presentation previous to the Barcelona trip can be access here.
The booklet is also available here.

Meet at the school 5.40 am, very early Monday (9th of July) morning.  Airport transfer will take us from the school to Gatwick Airport.

Easter revision

Please follow the link to find the presentation.

Also, a comment on BAD revision.

Speaking exam - How to score a 4/5

Four tasks:
Task one your choice of topic and questions, prepared beforehand. Task two, a picture based discussion. Task three, a role-play. Task four, a question-based conversation. Sample link here.

Grammar

• Three tenses - past, present, future
• opinion with extension
• range of vocabulary, including some adverbs. 

Communication

• Not too much hesitation, reasonably confident and if possible, spontaneous (you don't sound like you are answering a pre-memorised sentence).
• answers are consistently good.
• Your answers need to be relevant to the topic, the title and each question.

Accuracy

• fairly good accent or pronunciation, everything is understood.
• grammar needs to be reasonable correct. (verb endings, etc)

With task one, remember that it is a PERFORMANCE. It doesn't matter if the set of questions you prepared was great, it only matters what you PERFORM in the exam. 

Chunk it up and practice as if you were preparing for a theater play. Not reading, not writing, but SPEAKING IT.

Shy holiday Britons 'point at menus' to avoid foreign words

BBC News article -

The Populus survey found 37% of British holidaymakers always tried to speak a few words in the local language but 29% said they were too scared to try.
It also found that 36% felt guilty at asking locals to speak English, while:

• 56% resorted to pointing at menus
• 45% relied on the assumption that all locals would speak English
• 42% spoke English more slowly and loudly
• 15% even tried speaking English in a foreign accent 

Previous research by the British Council, the UK's international culture and education organisation, has found that the UK has a shortage of people able to speak the 10 most important world languages, which is likely to hamper the country's future prosperity and global standing.

To read the full article click here.