BBC Learning English

I explored this BBC Learning English website and I think it's very useful.
It has 9 main categories:

- General & Business English
- Grammar, Vocabulary & Pronunciation
- Quizzes
- The Flatmates
- Community
- For Teachers
- Specials
- About Us
- Downloads

Each one of them has a different color, so you can easily identify them. These categories are divided in sub-categories with useful content and examples, just like a good English book would do. But the difference is that here you can interact with the content and learn in a easier and more funny way. You can find videos, quizzes, activities, and downloads to help you practice your English and your pronunciation.

I've just read and listened to a summary of the news. It's cool. The news I read was "Tintin book on trial".

Another thing that called my attention was the "soap opera" they have, called "The Flatmates". There are 40 episodes, and each one lasts about 1 minute. I think the graphic sucks. It's very basic, cause they only use a background picture, and the characters are static, ugly drawings with no colors. But you can read the dialogue while they talk, so it works, though.

I also visited the "Teacher" section, from the Grammar, Vocabulary & Pronunciation category. There, you can see videos of a Teacher called Alex (a blonde british woman) who gives useful lessons, tips and corrections to help you improve your speaking.

There are so many things you can do on this website, I won't be able to write about all that. But I'll definitely be checkin' this website very often.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, BEETLEJUICE!

Today I’m gonna write about my favorite movie: Beetlejuice, by director Tim Burton. He directed great movies like Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Batman 2, Big Fish, Mars Attack, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd, and Alice In Wonderland.

I like Beetlejuice since I was a little girl. I remember I liked the fact that you could supposedly summon him if you said his name 3 times. But now I think it's more like a creepy joke about spiritualism. However, there’s something about this movie I love but I can’t explain. I like the characters, the aesthetic, the colors, the music, the life-beyond-death thematic, and the actors, of course! Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis and Catherine O’Hara. Their talent is notorious. It’s the perfect cast.

Beetlejuice is a “dark comedy” full of fantasy, absurd situations, and a little bit of terror. The movie sets a totally new scenery for ghosts. I mean, they aren’t creepy at all. In fact, you can sympathize with them along the whole movie. Except Beetlejuice. He’s the protagonist, but he seems to be the antagonist cause he's so annoying... You can hate him or love him.

What makes this movie better than any other movie for me, is the fact that, despite it was made 20 years ago, it keeps its charm intact. It’s magical, dark and funny at the same time.

And about the music... I simply love the soundtrack. There are two songs by
Harry Belafonte, who is known as the king of Calypso. These songs are "Day-O" and "Jump In The Line (Shake Senora)". You have surely heard them. Here you have both of my favourite scenes of Beetlejuice, with this two songs I love.

Day-O (Banana Boat Song)


Jump In The Line (Shake Senora)

Yo, Party! Giga Pudding!

Hi everyone!

Today I'm gonna share a cool video with you.

It’s a cute, colorful, extremely happy and epileptic japanese ad from the 'Takara Tomy' product called "Giga Pudding". I REALLY want one of those. A friend showed this commercial to me a couple of months ago, and from the first time I watched it, I simply loved it. The music is SO CATCHY I can't get it out of my head. And look at those kids! Come on... The little girl with a red hat, is the happiest person I’ve seen in my whole God damned life, hahaha.

It's a funny thing how different oriental and occidental 'advertising cultures' are. I mean, a commercial spot like this, here in Chile would be seen as a bad joke, or a publicity crime, or something like that. But in Japan this ad has become a complete success. You can even find merchandising of Gigga Pudding. Can you imagine a Giga Pudding plushie? Awesome. There's even a group of Giga Pudding lovers on Facebook.

I would buy this product ONLY because of this ad. Wouldn't you? It looks so cute and delicious.

The concept of this ad would be something like: "Eating Giga Pudding is like a real party in your house". Well, I'm smart enough to know there wouldn't be any party if I bought this pudding... But I'd do it anyway.


Giga Pudding

About The Earthquake

The night of the earthquake I was staying in my dad’s house, so I had to sleep in my brother’s bedroom, in the bunk bed on the upper side.

I was asleep. And when my bed started to shake, I woke up inmediatly.
At the beginning I was a bit upset ‘cause I didn’t want to wake up and get off of my bed. But then, the movement became stronger every second, and I got really scared and nervous. I woke up my brother and asked him to turn on the light, but when he did, the power went off. The earthquake wouldn’t stop. I got into my brother’s bed as fast as I could, ‘cause he sleeps in the lower bed and my dad says it is athe safest place in the house. I felt the earth move under my feet literally, like the song. A few moments later, my dad and my stepmother came into the room and did the same thing I did. We were all together. Even my dog Misi. She was sick, so she was sleeping inside the house with us.

Thank God, nothing else happened. When the earthquake stopped, the first thing that came into my mind was how my mom and my boyfriend were. My dad took a couple of lanterns and saw the whole mess. CDs and other small things scattered on the floor. In the living room, a beautiful glass bottle fell down and broke to pieces. That was it.

We tried to telephone the rest of the family, but we couldn’t do it inmediatly. It was the darkest night of my life.

Half an hour later, my boyfriend called me, so I felt much better. But I couldn’t talk to my mom until the next morning. Hopefully she was in Tongoy, so she only felt a small movement.

Now I don’t get scared when I feel an aftershock. I just say “OH COME ON… WHEN ARE YOU GONNA STOP!?” I just want things to get back to normal…