Skills in English for the non-native professional
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  • Skills in English for the non-native speaker
    • Native Proficiency: La filosofía.
    • Native Proficiency: La metodología.
    • PLANNING YOUR LEARNING: WELCOME TO COACHING FOR ENGLISH
      • TRAINING FORMATS
      • Modalidades de formación
    • THREE LAYERS: UNDERSTANDING THE NATIVEPROFICIENCY APPROACH
      • LANGUAGE SKILLS
      • COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS
      • PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
  • Contacto – Acerca de esta web / Contact – About this website

Skills in English for the non-native professional

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Learning Tips

CoachingCourses and SeminarsFAQLearning TipsSoft Skills

No shame!

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Let’s talk about shame. Shame is one of the most dangerous enemies when learning a language. It can make you give up, it can make you go slower than you could, it could prevent you from using what you know. It can freeze you.

I want to send this message out: there are many things that can get in the way, but do not let shame get in the way of improving your english skills. It does not matter if you are one of my current students, a former student or you are thinking of becoming one. Or maybe you just landed on this post while browsing. If you need to ask anything about English, please, by all means do. Whatever worries you, no matter how silly it might sound.

“I am ashamed because I should know by now.” To hell with that. If you do not know, whatever the reason, ask. Even if the reason is that you were too lazy to take notes in that class you took.  Put that behind you, make a ball with your shame and throw it away.

I want this to be your safe place for all things english. No purchase required – it would be nice, though. Just drop a line and tell me your English worries.

 

No shame! was last modified: September 19th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
19th September 2018 0 comment
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CoachingCourses and SeminarsLearning TipsUncategorised

Missing summer already? Plan next summer!

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Look back on your holidays this year. Did you have any? Even if you did not, maybe next year it will be different. If you did, what would you change about them? Did you travel within the country? Or did you travel abroad?

Maybe you stayed put because money was tight. Then maybe you should make an investment – big or small – on upgrading your skills, with a view to getting that pay rise. Or travelling abroad. Or whatever your goals are. Short term, long term… it doesn’t really matter!

Planning ahead is a good idea. Always. So if you had plans to do something about your English, get in contact! If you didn’t have any plans, just think about it. Get in shape for next summer. Summer does not necessarily mean the one in the calendar. It could be the next great job opportunity, that might escape you if your skills are not ready (including job interview skills). It could be missing the love of your life because you do not have a common language to speak in. It could be not feeling lost and having a better experience in travelling abroad – for work or for leisure.

Write down your goals, your dreams and see what you can do about them. And if it involves English, drop me a line!

Missing summer already? Plan next summer! was last modified: October 3rd, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
19th September 2018 0 comment
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Language SkillsLearning TipsListening SkillsSpeaking SkillsUncategorisedVocabulary

Sing along to improve your English.

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Do you like listening to music? Do you like going to concerts? Do you like singing in the shower? All these things can help you improve your English skills, specially listening and speaking.

Listening is the most obvious since that is what you are doing: listening to the music. But if you have no idea what the song is about, you will never improve. Songs are usually short and repetitive, so they are ideal language bites that you can handle better than a film or a TV show. By singing along, you let yourself experiment at the same time as you have fun. It is a great way to practice your speaking and feel safe. And eventually try your skills at karaoke night.

As I have mentioned in other post about listening, there are many things that can go wrong when you listen to something, which can be summarized into “whatever is new and or unexpected“. It could be a new or unexpected grammar item, complex, unfamiliar vocabulary or an accent you have not been exposed to.  Many of these things could happen to you occasionally in your own language – it happened to me on a trip to Seville years ago. In any case, none of those problems are related with your ability to discriminate words or even sounds. They just make it harder. If it is new, you can not possibly understand it.

Songs, specially pop music are a controlled territory, a sandbox where you can play. In the old times we swapped photocopies of the lyrics. However, now there are lots of online resources. But beware, more often than I would like, those lyrics have been uploaded by fans and their listening skills can not be trusted. Even if they are native speakers. Why?

Because they have their own problems with grammar, vocabulary and spelling, and unless they take the trouble to check things… and you know, nobody likes to admit that they have to improve their spelling or their grammar in their own language! That’s why grammarly and similar services thrive.

So provided you got the lyrics right, you kill several birds with the same stone:

  1. you learn some new vocabulary and expressions but without being overwhelmed.
  2. you are going to listen to the songs you like many times… repetition is good practice.
  3. you may probably learn new cultural aspects.

Other useful resources you may need to use are genius and urban dictionary. These two are very useful: genius is a database of song lyrics. Those with a green tick sign have been verified. The others… up to you! Urban dictionary, like genius, is a collaborative platform in this case people upload definitions and explanations, as well as examples of slang terms and expressions (which may well be what you were not understanding in the lyrics). Careful with the definitions, sometimes they are not very scientific.

A warning: these days in commercial hip-hop music and other types, they include commercial brand names (drinks, clothing, fast cars…) in the lyrics (and you can see them in the music videos). That is product placement, just like the breakfast room in “Médico de familia” where all possible brands were visible, even on the calendar on the wall.

 

 

 

Sing along to improve your English. was last modified: September 18th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
25th September 2018 0 comment
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GrammarLanguage SkillsLearning TipsVocabulary

What Phrasal Verbs really are.

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Phrasal verbs can be defined from many points of view. For the learner they are a challenge, a mystery and a source of worry.  Traditionally they have been included in curricula as sets of vocabulary to be incorporated by learners. However one thing you notice is that there is no definitive, complete list of phrasal verbs. They are endless and every day a new one is created. Or maybe more than one.

A new one is created! but how are they created? If they are created there must be a system. There is a system, and understanding how it works, understanding what phrasal verbs really are will make it easier to understand their meanings.

One of the wonderful mechanisms in english grammar is the easiness with which words can change categories: from noun to verb, to adjective and so on. Often without changes. With this in mind, let us look at phrasal verbs. Each phrasal verb is, indeed a verb, but it’s components do not necessarily include a verb. There are many phrasal verbs which are made of nouns followed by a particle/preposition.

So what is going on here? The first thing to notice is that, as a result, what binds together all phrasal verbs as a category, is that they all have a particle/preposition. Therefore the roots of our problems, the essence of phrasal verbs must be there.

Particle or preposition? Sometimes both!

We keep hearing aboout particles and prepositions when phrasal verbs are discussed. Prepositions are a class of vocabulary which is closed (more or less extensive, but limited) and refers to dimensions (space and time). They help as define our vision of the physical world.

Note: There are prepositions and prepositional phrases: prepositional phrases are phrases that express meanings that could have been carried by prepositions but those prepositions do not exist in that specific language. Across languages, the same meaning could be expressed by a simple preposition in one language and by a prepositional phrase in other. And only if that meaning exists in both languages. e.g. In English there are two prepositions, between and among, whose meaning is covered by one, entre,  in Spanish. Different languages different solutions for the same problem.

Humans have this wonderful thing called imagination which is why we have particles. English has specifically taken advantage of imagination to extend the meanings of prepositions beyond the physical dimensions. That’s when we talk about particles.  And that is what puzzles learners because if you apply the literal meaning of the preposition, the phrasal verb may not make any sense at all!

So, how do I make sense of phrasal verbs?

The first part of the phrasal verb could be almost anything – even anything you want! So how do we made sense of them? Our reference, our foothold is the particle, the preposition. Fine there are many prepositions in English, but the number is limited, closed. Nobody is making new ones.

Do this, trust me: Set priorities: select the ones who seem to be most productive, like up or off. Make lists. Yes I am asking you to make lists, but with a difference: put together all the phrasal verbs you find with the same preposition and compare their meanings. Soon you will realize there are patterns, tendencies, whole families of phrasal verbs which are the same mold applied to endless nouns and verbs.

In this way, you will start corralling hundreds of phrasal verbs in a short time because you will not be memorizing them one by one. In contrast you will be learning how they are made, the recipe so to speak and so when you need them they will come to you.

So go from big families into smaller ones. By the time you reach the odd ones, you will have lost your old fears because you will have interiorized  the way to deal with them and they feel not feel menacing as in the past.

What next? Make your own phrasal verbs!

This is like taming a wild animal: once it responds to your commands, you can do incredible things… like creating your own  phrasal verbs. By the time you do that, you will be already enjoying phrasal verbs! Who would have imagined that!

What Phrasal Verbs really are. was last modified: September 17th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
5th March 2012 0 comment
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Language SkillsLearning MaterialsLearning TipsListening SkillsMusic Video reviewSong reviewVocabulary

Nicky Minaj’s lyric videos

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

One of the useful things about the internet is that you can find almost anything and that also applies to sources of information and learning materials, whatever your needs might be. If your needs are learning about your favourite artist’s lyrics, no matter how bizarre they are, you can find that out too!

The first source of information is obviously the artists themselves: lyrics still come with the CD, don’t they? But if you like an artist and you don’t have the CD… there is still hope for you!

One of the trends for artists to promote themselves has been to create lyric videos: it is cheaper and you help your fans or potential fans learn your lyrics which may bring them to attend your concerts. Let’s face it, concerts bring the money today, not selling records.

Anyway, in order for a lyric video to be successful you need to mix two ingredients: appealing lyrics and good visuals.

Some artists like Katy Perry have taken this seriously. Others have great material… but they did not do it themselves! It was the fans instead. This is the case for Nicky Minaj’s song starships. A fan made this video, which I think is visually great. Judge for yourselves!

Now this is real fun, isn’t it? It also helps you teach some stuff:

1) Lyrics are well timed with the sound so you can use them to work on stuff like vowel length or even intonation.
2) If your students often whine about not learning “real English” and fancy themselves streetwise, this is something you can retaliate with.

Now about the lyrics themselves, as you may have noticed there is a couple of problems: first, non-standard spelling (you can also use that to teach pronunciation as well as to emphasize how there is a place for bad spelling but out of it you should use the correct one!). Besides, you can challenge your students to find out where the video-maker went wrong with the lyrics: at some point in the lyrics he writes nigga, where Ms Minaj says “my name is Onika, but you can call me Nicky”. A great example to work on the difference between /k/ and /g/.

Additionally you can use the contents you will find on Rapgenius:

Rapgenius.com Nicky Minaj’s “Starships”

This is an interesting source for both teachers and students: it is a kind of wikipedia for lyrics. There is a lot of debate between comments and that is a great excuse for discussion in class.

Now, sit back and enjoy!

Nicky Minaj’s lyric videos was last modified: September 17th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
3rd October 2013 0 comment
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Language SkillsLearning MaterialsLearning TipsListening SkillsMusic Video reviewSong review

Katy Perry’s Lyrics Videos

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Hello everyone,

When I was a teenager, listening to music helped me a lot in order to boost my confidence in speaking and to improve my listening. Usually people tend to listen to some music over and over, because they are their favourites. That means they end up memorizing some songs and those can become a very good guide to expand your abilities in those two skills.

In this post I am going to use as an example one of the most popular artists in pop music these days, Katy Perry. She is probably the artist who has made most official “lyric videos” (as they are known). You can find many of these videos for many artists, but they are usually made by fans. For each of them, there is a conventional video, of course.

PART OF ME

The first video is for the song “part of me”. The conventional video features a story about a girl who finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her and leaves him to start a new life… as a Marine! The lyric video transmits the energy and determination which can be found both in the lyrics and in the story told in the video.

But the reason I have chosen this video is, obviously, because we can learn english with it! The most interesting thing about this song is how packed it is with … phrasal verbs! I keep repeating to my students how phrasal verbs are useful, condensed pieces of meaning and that is why native speakers use them so often. So here is a list of the interesting vocabulary in this song, including its phrasal verbs:
  1. To drive away: to go away, to leave a place driving a car. Other similar phrasal verbs include sail away (by boat), fly away (by plane or helicopter…), run away, and many other possible combinations with similar meanings.
  2. Shadow: it is easy to confuse shadow and shade. Shadow is the shape projected by something which stands in the sun or any other source of light. Shade is the effect created by a shadow or also a reference to very small differences in colours. See “50 shades of Grey”. Check out the word nuance, with a similar meaning.
  3. To fade: to disappear gradually.
  4. To chew up: to chew (break in pieces with your teeth) something completely. Here in the song she is referring to how she felt her boyfriend treated her. There are probably hundreds of phrasal verbs in which “up” creates a similar meaning (doing something completely or with great intensity).
  5. To spit out: to expel from the mouth. Spit is also the liquid we produce in the mouth to prepare food for digestion. Someone or something which is nearly identical to another thing or person is said to be its “spitting image“. By the way: it is an irregular verb: spit-spit-spit or spit-spat-spat.
  6. Like I was: In red because you need to be careful. This is a colloquial way of saying “As if I were“. Feel free to be colloquial, but be aware of it!
  7. You drained me down: the lyric video effect at this point is perfect, because to drain down means to extract all liquids from a place or thing. What a vampire would love to do with your blood, actually!
  8. To take away: extremely common phrasal verb. Also found as a noun: tonight we are having Chinese takeaway; or as an adjective as in “Chinese takeaway food”. 
  9. Throw your sticks and stones: a reference to a nursery rhyme in english “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. The meaning is that if you are insulted that does not really hurt, only physical violence.
  10. Throw away: another phrasal verb. Get rid of something by putting it in the garbage bin.
  11. Find out: another phrasal verb. I lost count, honestly!
  12. To rip someone off: To rip means to separate two things which are naturally connected. For example to rip a piece of clothing in two pieces. To rip someone off has the meaning of making someone pay an abnormally high price for something which should be much cheaper. In this case the price is not money, but the singer’s unhappiness. 
  13. Tearing at the seams: this means that something is at full capacity and a little more. Seams are the connections made with thread between pieces of clothing, for example at the side of a pair of trousers. So if something is tearing at the seams, it is probably near breaking.
  14. To let down: to make someone unhappy because they expected something better from you.
  15. To put out: to extinguish a fire.
  16. It don’t mean nothing: again a colloquial, grammatically incorrect expression. It should be “it doesn’t mean anything.

 

WIDE AWAKE
Here the video is cleverly structured as a Facebook timeline. Here are the interesting expressions in this song:

 

  1. I’m wide awake: it means that you are completely awake, not sleepy and your eyes are wide open.
  2. I was in the dark: I was completely ignorant.
  3. To read the stars: to be able to predict the future or to find which way to go, as sailors do.
  4. ain’t: this verb form is colloquial and it is used instead of “aren’t”, “isn’t”and “am not”. 
  5. to dive in: Literally to jump head first into the water. Instead of water it could be any kind of situation.
  6. to bow down: to lower your head showing submission or respect.
  7. falling from cloud 9: cloud 9 means a place or situation of extreme happiness. So to fall from cloud 9 is very bad, isn’t it?
  8. I’m letting go tonight: to let go means to eliminate self-control.
  9. to lose sleep: as in spanish, it refers to the idea of not sleeping for an unimportsnt reason.
  10. to pick up every piece: after something falls to the floor and breaks, you pick up every piece. In this case, it must be her heart.
  11. To land on your feet: what cats are supposed to do when they fall! See here.
  12. born again: after some traumatic experiences, people feel they are born again.
  13. the lion’s den: where a lion and his family sleep. A very dangerous place.
  14. thunder rumbling: the sound of thunder. 
  15. castles tumbling: to fall rolling on itself. So a combination of rolling and falling. Also what ice cubes do in a tumbler, which is a kind of glass used for drinks such as whiskey. After you wash your clothes, you can put them in a tumble dryer, and they will come out all warm and dry. Your clothes tumble inside it. For an example of a building (not a castle) tumbling down, see here.
  16. To hold on: to stay in a position or situation, for example on the phone.
  17. To see the bright side: to be optimistic. See the expression “every cloud has a silver lining”. (Lining, the inside protection layer of some clothes like jackets, coats, etc. )

 

ROAR

 

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/e9SeJIgWRPk&source=uds

This one, “roar”, is a bit tricky. The “emoji” icons from the well known app “whatsapp” are used but you can still follow the meaning. As with the other videos we can discover or review a number of useful words and expressions.

 

  1. To bite my tongue: exactly the same as in Spanish. What you do when you would love to say something but if you say it the effects will be negative.
  2. To hold my breath: to stop breathing. For example under water. Here it is a figurative meaning. 
  3. Rock the boat: to rock means to move from side to side. If you rock a boat what happens? And this is a rocking chair.
  4. To make a mess: to make something dirty, disorganized, chaotic or create a problem which is difficult to solve.
  5. To push someone past the breaking point: to annoy or make someone suffer so much that they can’t stand it anymore.
  6. To stand for something/anything/nothing: to defend something, to show that you are in favour of it.
  7. To brush the dust: Usually when you fall to the ground, you get dirty and you need to brush the dust from your clothes. If you fall in a metaphorical, non-physical way, when you recover you brush the dust too.
  8. The eye of the tiger: from a song in the 70’s which became famous for being part of the film “Rocky”. It means absolute focus.
  9. Stinging like a bee: bees have stings at their back, so they can defend themselves or their beehive (colony).
  10. To earn your stripes: the expression comes from the military. The more stripes you have, the higher ranking you are and the more merits you have made to achieve it. Also, bees have stripes and fight (a reference to the previous expression.

 

Katy Perry’s Lyrics Videos was last modified: September 17th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
8th February 2014 0 comment
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GrammarLanguage SkillsLearning MaterialsLearning TipsReading Comprehension SkillsVocabulary

Hackers and fridges… internet security!

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Here you have, yet another article: here some investigators found that among the devices used by hackers in an attack there was… a fridge. Yes that’s right. Here is an article (see the link below for the original) about what happened.

Warning: the topic is very interesting, but the article is very advanced and has incredible quantities of vocabulary…

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/feb/28/internet-things-hacked-security

Hacked by your Fridge? When the Internet of Things bites back

In the rush to embrace the Internet of Things and weave connectivity into every aspect of our everyday lives, security must not be forgotten argues Stephen Bonner
 
To hack: to cut into something with a heavy weapon like an axe. In internet vocabulary to access without permission a website or network, by breaking their security barriers.
Internet of things: a recent concept which means that “things” (computers, kitchen appliances or climate control systems) use the internet to “talk” to each other, without interaction with humans.

To bite back: to defend yourself by biting, like a dog, when you have been bitten first.
Rush: impuse to do things quickly, often with the risk of making mistakes.

to weave: the traditional way to make some kinds of clothing or carpets, by inserting different threads or yarn, forming patterns. See here.
To argue: to defend an idea by giving arguments to support it. 

A man holding open the world's first touch-screen fridge

Security first: are we forgetting the risks in a rush to embrace the Internet of Things? Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian
The common kitchen fridge has always been a potential source of trepidation. Most people will admit that, at some point in their lives, they have opened the fridge door fearful of finding food well past its ‘best before’ date, leading to the scuppering of well-made dinner plans, or worse infecting the household with unfortunate viruses.
 

Trepidation: being nervous or worried about something.
Fearful of: feeling fear that something will happen or appear.
well past its “best before” date: the best before date is the recommended date to consume some products. If it is “well past” it is probably dangerous to consume that product.
scupper: to ruin

As technology advances, so too it seems does our fear of fridges. Only last month there were reports of web-enabled domestic devices (including fridges) being hacked and used to generate spam email messages.
 

Only last month: “Only” here is used as “just” to reinforce how recent this happened.
Web-enabled: Devices that can connect to the web.

It led to wonderful headlines such as “Help! My fridge is full of spam!”, but the humour belies a simple truth. We live in a world where ever more devices are becoming network enabled. Just a few days ago, for example, a heating ventilation contractor was alleged to be under investigation as the possible source of intrusion into a major retailer’s electronic point of sale terminals. Remote monitoring of store temperature and energy consumption is commonplace in the retail sector and might have provided a possible route in.


It led to: to lead/led/led. To give directions, guide or give someone example. also to introduce the consequences of some action. Here the funny headlines are a consequence of the hacker attack. Also, a person who leads is a leader.
to belie: to contradict and invalidate. e.g. What the police found out belies what the criminal declared in court.
Ever more: constantly increasing quantities
heating ventilation contractor: a contractor is a supplier that provides you some services, like building or maintenance. And you have a contract with them.
Alleged: not necessarily true or false but people think so. The alleged thief (we don’t know if he was the thief or not).
Point of sale terminals. A point of sale is a place were things are effectively (* check second meaning) sold, usually with machines that can manage money or credit cards. Those machines are called terminals nowadays because they are connected to a central computer.

In the labs, we have already seen attacks against Insulin Pumps and Pacemakers; with the Food and Drug Administration in the US issuing guidance on the cyber security of medical devices. At home, it might be the Internet connection on your television or games console, the smart meter talking to your domestic devices over a home area network, or your car providing remote diagnostics and maintenance information back to its manufacturer.


labs: places where scientists work making experiments.
insulin pumps: devices that supply insulin to patients, usually fixed inside their bodies.
pacemakers: devices that help the heart regulate its rhythm in patients who have a history of cardiac arrest.
smart meter: devices that measure your utility consumption (e.g. water, electricity, natural gas) and send the information wirelessly to the supplier. Therefore they don’t need to send anyone to read the meter regularly.
home area network: the area and electronic devices connected to a local area network (LAN) in a house. 
remote diagnostics: using electronic devices to diagnose medical conditions without going to a hospital.

In our commercial environments we see intelligent printers and photocopiers, sophisticated building management systems, and now, the advent of Bring Your Own Device – at this stage ‘only’ a phone, but who knows what employees will wish to connect to the corporate network longer term.
 

Bring your own device (BYOD): Option some companies and schools choose, where they let workers or students use their own hardware (laptops, tablets…) for work or to attend classes. 


Bring Your Own Device
Analysts suggest that this explosion of multi-connected devices, known as ‘the Internet of Things’, will grow to over 26 billion connected devices by 2020, a thirty fold increase on today’s figures, and a market valued at over a trillion dollars.


thirty fold: Thirty times: if you multiply something by a factor of thirty, you make it thirty fold.
a trillion dollars: the number ONE followed by twelve zeros. A spanish billion. Compare:

1,000,000 = a million
1,000,000,000 = a billion (USA); a thousand million (Spain)
1,000,000,000,000 = a trillion (USA); a billion (Spain)

Yet, before we become too excited about the prospects offered by new connectivity, it is worth pausing to think about security.


Excited: anticipating or feeling something intensely. (sexual excitement is called arousal and the verb is to arouse/to be aroused).

On many occasions we have seen functionality fielded first, with security following as an afterthought. For example, we are now seeing industrial control system security rise to the top of the list of concerns, even though the first SCADA systems were fielded in the mid 1960s, albeit with very much more restricted network connectivity.


to field: to deal with something, usually a problem or some work. (= to address a problem)
afterthought: something added, casually, after something has been said and finished.
e.g. He signed the contract and as an afterthought he said: Maybe I should have read the contract more carefully, but what’s done is done.
albeit: however

In my experience, attackers, whether they are Nation-State driven or organised crime, can be surprisingly innovative in their choice of attack technique. An unprotected device can provide the first toe-hold for an attacker, allowing them to establish a presence in your company or home network, before moving on to their final, more lucrative, target.


nation-state: a state where all citizens are supposed to have a feeling of belonging to the same nationality. e.g. France
to drive: to lead, to make something or someone move in a specific direction. In this case crime motivated by the government of a country.
toe-hold: a very minimal contact or support point. This expression takes its meaning from the sport of climbing, where you use your feet – and your toes, if you are barefoot – and you hold to the mountain wall with your hands and your feet. Usually foothold is the word used. In contrast toe-hold means that the position is very weak and unstable. 
Note: toes are the fingers in your feet. In your hands in contrast, we have eight fingers and two thumbs (the big, thick opposable fingers).

While we will never conceive of the whole range of attacks when we first design a device, it does make sense to spend a little time thinking about the dependencies it introduces, how it might fail, and what might be done to counter the more obvious attacks including some basic design changes.


to counter: to compensate for something, for example by defending yourself from an attack.

At the risk of complicating how our devices work, some basic use of encryption to protect communications against tampering would help, along with authentication to ensure that only authorised users can interact with or manipulate devices.
 

to tamper: to manipulate something in an inappropriate manner, by someone who doesn’t know how to do it or to make it stop working properly.
to ensure: to make sure. (contrast: to insure: to sign a contract with an insurance company to protect people or goods; to assure: to make someone feel sure about something with words or evidence.

We may also need more flexible approaches to how we protect our networks. For instance, our home computer may be well protected behind a firewall and running malware detection, but possibly segregated from guest networks which host less well protected devices such as our fridge and games consoles. Corporate networks often now make use of Network Access Control, which ensures that only devices which are patched and running anti-virus are allowed to connect to the network. We could see these approaches extended to home networks.
 

Firewall: a protective system in computer networks. Also a wall in a building which will prevent the spread of a fire.
To run: to operate, to make something work. Often used with computer sofware.
Malware: a kind of computer software whih is designed to attack or damage computers an/or networks.
To host: a term used when talking about computer servers, to speak about the information or software that is stored in it. The collocation “host server” is common.
to host also means: to let someone stay in your house or to organize an event, such as a party, in your own house. People attending a party are the guests. A TV host is a TV presenter. 
To patch: to fix a hole by using a piece of material that is applied on the hole to cover it. Traditionally in clothes.

Perhaps we should also be a bit more picky about which traffic leaves our networks. Many security professionals have been surprised at just how many different internet sites our devices choose to talk back to, even when we think they are idle or even switched off.
 

Surprised at: surprised in a “negative way”.
idle: not working, but ready to do so, like the engine of a car at a traffic lights
switched off: completely disconnected.
grammar point: it is quite common to find prepositions at the end of a sentence in English. Usually there is some kind of complement that is before in the sentence. For example here the object of “talk back to” is “how many different internet sites”.

 
So, in short, the innovative new business model you are adopting around the latest smart device may not just benefit you or your organisation. Expect organised crime to exploit the opportunities they offer as well. It means you have to think like an attacker. You’ll be surprised what comes out of the process and it’ll certainly give you a different perspective on your fridge.
Stephen Bonner is partner for Information Protection & Business Resilience at KPMG
 
in short: an expression to introduce a summary of ideas previously expressed.

Grammar point: in contrast with Spanish, in English complements to a noun go before it in most ocasions. Moreover, those complements introduced in Spanish by “de” are also moved to the front, and they do not need any preposition: a noun in English can be modified by another noun. Here we have a noun “model” modified by a combination of a noun and two adjectives which modify it.

Hackers and fridges… internet security! was last modified: September 18th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
2nd April 2014 0 comment
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Communication SkillsLanguage SkillsLearning TipsListening Skills

Troubleshooting listening.

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

I have seen many learners of English panicking in class and in exams when the time came to do a listening activity or a listening test. people feeling sick and me feeling sick mfor them, because many of them were suffering for the wrong reasons: not knowing what to do about it, having spent endless hours frustrated, not understanding why they weren’t making as much progress as they wanted, as they needed. And in some cases, no progress at all.

Obviously I have spent a lot of time thinking about ways to help people. I looked in many places: I looked in books, I looked for answers asking colleagues over the years. And I looked into my own experience, reflecting in how I came to the listening skills I have now.

I am going to state the obvious now: if you are learning English, it is a foreign language for you. It is a language you are not familiar with. In teaching and learning it (I will speak about practising it which is a whole different matter), emphasis has been made on grammar (good!) and vocabulary (good!). However  something has been traditionally neglected is learning something that belongs alongside grammar structures and vocabulary items: the sounds of English and the rules to combine them.

Building blocks: not only words, but sounds too.

It is funny: I like to think of grammar and vocabulary as the building blocks you need to start combining to produce linguistic messages, to communicate in any language. Grammar structures and vocabulary items, abstractly considered, are what you need for the four traditional skills: speaking, listening, writing and reading. However, if you do not know how they are pronounced you will not be able to understand spoken messages and if you are not able to pronounce things correctly, your spoken messages will be problematic.

Therefore, establishing a comparison, the individual sounds of the English language are the building blocks, like vocabulary items. And the rules for combining them would be a kind of grammar. I would say we were missing a whole area that was very important.

A quick historical aside.

The reasons this has been neglected in the traditional language classroom  in Spain are predictable. The languages that were taught in Spain for many years were mostly dead languages – Latin and Greek. Until schooling became widespread, the only people who were likely to be bilingual were those in regions where there was a local language, like Gallego and Catalan.  French was for the elites and it was a symbol of status that very few people used outside the classroom.

To cut the story short, hardly anybody was learning to speak any other languages than their own. Therefore, why bother with pronunciation, if speaking and listening hardly ever happened. And if they happened “We can manage”.

So what’s wrong with me doctor?

The attitude to learning, as with any other task in life, is always important: if you see something as a problem – it becomes a problem for you. If you do not understand what your problem is, the solution with elude you. Unless you have some congenital or acquired medical condition, you are perfectly able to acquire a language, including speaking and listening skills. Here is a list, however, of the things you might need to pay attention to. They are not your fault… until you don’t do anything to solve them!

You are not tuned.

What do I mean by this? Imagine you are listening to the radio. if you do not tune to the exact frequency, you will have background noise or the signal will come and go. When we listen to people we are in the right frequency too. Sometimes it happens with people in your own language: you do not understand them. That is because you do not know their “frequency”: they speak differently enough so you have trouble understanding them:

 

 

This is a trailer for the Wreck it Ralph! sequel. Here, the other princesses who all speak standard English (Including Pocahontas!) complain that they cannot understand Merida, who speaks in Scottish English (I don’t think that’s gaelic, you would understand even far less). This is a joke among native speakers. So it could happen to you. If you happen to find yourself in such an extreme situation, do not blame yourself, ask for help!

But my point here obviously is that if you are not familiar with the way that native speakers – at least speakers of standard varieties – pronounce things, then you will be expecting whatever your brain makes up.

Solution (for this and other problems about your listening): Listen to video with subtitles in English or books with audio version. reading and listening to what you are reading. Look for lyric videos of popular songs on youtube (you can look at my posts on Katy Perry or Nicky Minaj) or use apps like “Learn English Podcasts” from the British council.

Obviously, no matter how much you have listened to native speakers, you could come across new vocabulary. That is not a listening problem, that is in the first place a vocabulary problem: you need to know the word, know its meaning and then hear it being pronounced. Even if you are a native speaker, if the word or the meaning with which it is used is new to you, that will create interference. But your listening skills are not to blame. The same applies to unfamiliar or new grammar structures, or simply new accents like Merida’s.

Therefore, be careful not to blame your listening skills when the reason may well be other deficits.  Even someone saying something completely unexpected: there is this line from the film “As good as it gets” where Carol (Helen Hunt) is packing for her first holiday in years and says “here is a suitcase, surprised to be used”. If you think about it all the words she uses are rather basic, it is the way she has created the sentence that is totally unexpected and anybody could reasonably ask her “Sorry, what did you say?”.

Expectations about what is coming next are a fundamental pillar of listening, it is actually our radio frequency tuner. The more we listen, the more samples we gather, the more precise our listening machine becomes. The good news is that our brain is very capable of extrapolating efficiently, so once you cross a certain threshold, your listening skills improve dramatically. But you need to give it food! The first day you work with a colleague from Australia you will probably feel lost, after a week, you may even speak a little like them!

Another factor that helps a lot, specially with the foundations of your english listening skills is repetition. I mean, listening to the same things over an over. I cannot thank enough those music casettes and CDs with the lyrics printed on when I was a teenager. I would listen to the music over and over and eventually, what they were saying became absolutely familiar. And then I thought, OK, let’s expand on this.

I could ramble on about this and other anecdotes… but this is getting long, right? So one final sentence: be objective and do not blame your listening skills when you might have other problems working against you.

And if you feel you need help and guidance, you can contact me here!

Troubleshooting listening. was last modified: September 17th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
15th May 2014 0 comment
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GrammarLanguage SkillsLearning MaterialsLearning TipsReading Comprehension SkillsVocabulary

Chlorine: From toxic chemical to household cleaner

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

Here’s yet another interesting article that I found. This time it is about one of the most common chemicals around us. It is massively used for cleaning and disinfection. We can say that we have mastered the beast, because it is a very dangerous chemical. However, we use it every day.

This article is as dense as it is interesting. So I split it in paragraphs for easier digestion.

This is the link to the original article, in case you want to read it directly:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27057547

BBC News Magazine 18 April 2014 Last updated at 23:26 GMT

Chlorine: From toxic chemical to household cleaner

By Justin Rowlatt BBC World Service

Few chemicals are as familiar as table salt. The white crystals are the most common food seasoning in the world and an essential part of the human diet. Sodium chloride is chemically very stable – but split it into its constituent elements and you release the chemical equivalent of demons. The process is brutal. Vast amounts of electricity are used to tear apart the sodium and chlorine atoms in salt molecules through the process of electrolysis. It happens at vast industrial sites known as chlor-alkali plants, the biggest of which can use as much electricity as a small country. Which is why the price of both chlorine and sodium tend to track the price of electricity very closely. It also explains why Industrial Chemicals Ltd’s chlor-alkali plant in Thurrock, Essex, is right next to an electricity substation.

 

  1. Seasoning: products like spices, used to improve or change the flavour and taste of some food. 
  2. Constituent elements: the parts of something.
  3. vast amounts: very big quantities
  4. tear apart: to separate by breaking something which is very strongly connected. For example a piece of cloth, paper, cardboard or meat (for example a roast chicken leg).
  5. right next: immediately next to something, very very close.

David Compton, ICL’s chief chemist, shows me a huge mound of pure white salt. It comes, he tells me, from the rock salt deposits buried under Cheshire, in the north of England, a resource that was first mined by the Romans. And it’s at least as pure, he says, as the salt you sprinkle on your dinner. It is mixed with water in huge basins to make a concentrated brine, which is pumped into a big industrial barn that contains what looks like a giant chemistry set. A series of huge tanks are connected by a web of pipes painted in different colours, all leading back to a big black tank. This is the business end of the process, the electrolyser. It exploits an equivalence between chemistry and electricity that was first codified by Michael Faraday.

 

  1. mound: an accumulation of something like salt, sugar, sand…
  2. buried: kept under the surface, for example, dead people in a cemetery.
  3. resource: something needed to do something else. For example oil, wood, gas…
  4. sprinkle: to distribute something in a way that it will not be concentrated, for example salt over a piece of meat. In many office buildings there are sprinklers on the ceiling, which spray water in case of fire. 
  5. basin: a container for liquids which is open at the top. For example, in a bathroom you have a washbasin, at which you brush your teeth, wash your face and your hands.
  6. brine: water with a very high concentration of salt. Often used in the past as a preservative for foods such as meat, fish or others.
  7. barn: a storage building in a farm, where food for the animals or farming equipment are stored.
  8. to exploit: to use something to your advantage.

Sodium and chlorine are both highly reactive – bring them into contact with each other and an electron passes between them, gluing them together to become salt. Reverse the process – by creating an enormous electrical current in the opposite direction – and you can split them apart again.

Inside the electrolyser, the brine is fed into a series of cells each separated by a membrane. Chlorine gas is produced at one electrode, and hydrogen gas – split off from the water molecules in the brine – at the other, leaving behind a solution of sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda. Until fairly recently the process used mercury as one of the electrodes. This produced chlorine-free sodium hydroxide, but released tiny traces of mercury, which is very toxic, into the environment. So mercury cells are gradually being phased out around the world.

 

  1. to glue: to put to things together so they will not separate, by using glue (e.g. “Loctite”)
  2. by: this preposition introduces some instrumental meaning. e.g. if you travel by car, it means you use the car to carry yourself from one place to another. 
  3. split them apart: to split means to break. to split apart means to break and separate.
  4. brine is fed: (see brine above). to feed means to introduce some material (solid or liquid) into a system. This includes food and drink in animals and people. You can also use it with things, such as “I fed the printer more paper”.
  5. split off: same meaning as split apart. Off means separation or disconnection. 
  6. tiny traces: very small quantities.
  7. to phase out: to gradually stop producing or using some product. For example mercury-cadmium batteries or CFC gases have been phased out. 

Inside ICL’s laboratory, Andrea Sella, professor of chemistry at University College London, hands me a fragile-looking glass balloon. It is an evil-looking greenish-yellow colour. “That’s chlorine,” says Professor Sella, with a wicked grin, “one of the most ferociously aggressive materials out there.” I grasp the bulb of lethal gas more carefully. Andrea describes chlorine as aggressive because it is very reactive. That makes it extremely useful, but also very dangerous. It takes its name from its sickly colour – chloros is the Greek word for green. As all chemists know, you need to be very careful with chlorine. Its reactivity makes it very toxic. If you inhale chlorine, it reacts with the water in your lungs, converting it into powerful acids.

 

  1. evil-looking: if something is evil it might have a negative effect or intention. Something evil-looking is something whose image gives you that impression.
  2. wicked: a wicked person is a very bad person. 
  3. grin: a face gesture between a laugh and a smile.
  4. to grasp: to hold something. Metaphorically you can grasp concepts or ideas.
  5. sickly: something with the appearance of being sick or causing sickness.
  6. inhale: to absorb through the nose or mouth some gas or smoke. The opposite is to exhale. 

The effects can be horrific, as the World War One poet, Wilfred Owen, witnessed first-hand. “Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.”

 

  1. dim: if something is dim, it means it is difficult to see clearly, for example if there is a lot of smoke. If light is dim, it means it is not strong enough to help you see clearly. If you ask someone to dim the lights, it is because they are to intense for you. Finally if you say someone is dim, it means their intelligence is limited.
  2. misty: as if you see something through the mist. So not very clear or defined. If someone has misty eyes it is because they are full of tears.
  3. panes: each section of glass in a window.
  4. to plunge: to throw something or someone (including yourself) into some liquid or substance. e.g. As soon as I arrived home, I changed into my swimsuit and plunged into the swimming pool.
  5. to gutter: to cry tears so they make gutters (channels) down your face.
  6. to choke: to have difficulty breathing because something is in your mouth or throat.
  7. to drown: to die of asfixiation caused by a liquid. e.g. he could not swim, so he drowned in the river.

In his poem Dulce et Decorum Est, Owen describes the effects of the deadly chlorine gas used by both the German and British armies during World War I. It was particularly effective as a chemical weapon because it is heavier than air and, on still days, would collect in the trenches. “Drowning” very accurately describes what happened to soldiers who were exposed to the gas. Their bodies responded to the irritation caused by the acid by filling their lungs with liquid. Many died from suffocation.

 

  1. deadly: something that can kill you
  2. still days: days when the wind doesn’t blow.
  3. accurately: with precision.
  4. suffocation: not being able to breathe.

But while chlorine may have been put to some dastardly uses over the centuries, its reactivity has also been incredibly useful to humanity. It means chlorine is relatively easy to incorporate into other materials and often makes compounds more stable. “That’s because,” says Andrea with relish, “chlorine hangs on like grim death to the atoms it bonds with.” One of the best examples is polyvinylchloride, or PVC, which consumes a third of chlorine. This incredibly versatile and durable plastic celebrated its centenary last year. PVC crops up everywhere – packaging, signage, old-fashioned vinyl records, the leatherette effect of many car seats.

 

  1. dastardly: intentionally bad or cruel. (in my opinion, very unusual, literary word)
  2. relish: pleasure, enjoyment
  3. hang on like grim death:ok let’s go one word at a time: a) hang on: to continue hanging, to insist on hanging from something. grim: sad, sinister. So to hang on like grim death means that something sticks to you so strongly that you can compare it with death (because death hangs to you forever… ) In Spanish you would say something like “hang on like a piece of chewing gum in your hair”.
  4. to bond: to connect in a solid way. 

But it is the construction industry that is by far the biggest end-user of this plastic. Over 70% of PVC ends up in everything from drainpipes to vinyl floors, roofing products to double-glazed window-frames. “We call it the construction polymer,” says Mike Smith, chlorine market expert at the consultancy IHS. “Chlorine also goes into construction in other forms,” he adds. “Polyurethane, which is a great insulation material.” And that has the odd consequence that the demand for chlorine rises and falls in line with property booms and busts.

 

  1. by far: this means there is a very big, clear difference between two things. So it is not only the biggest user, but the second is very clearly below. 
  2. end-user: final user in a production chain. This expression appears a lot in software products. (End-user agreement.)
  3. drainpipes: pipes (conducts) used to evacuate liquids from places, for example a roof or a kitchen sink. If they are open they can be called gutter (see gutter as a verb above).
  4. double-glazed window: a window which has two layers of glass to offer protection against temperature changes.
  5. insulation: double glazing is an insulation system. Insulation is protection against factors such as noise, heat, cold, humidity…
  6. odd: strange, unusual.
  7. in line: in parallell, at the same time.

And because the supply of sodium is inextricably tied to that of chlorine, it has an even odder consequence. A collapse in the housing market – as Spain suffered in recent years – can make it more expensive to manufacture staple products like soap and paper, which rely on sodium. But PVC is just one of chlorine’s many industrial applications. Chlorine is one of the most versatile and widely used industrial chemicals. “It is a real workhorse,” says Mike Smith, adding that much of the chemical industry would be impossible without it. Something like 15,000 different chlorine compounds are used in industry, including the vast majority of pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals.

Often chlorine is used during the production process and doesn’t actually turn up in the final product. That’s true of the production of two vital elements. From a battered cardboard box Andrea produces a cylinder 15cm long and 3cm wide, encrusted with crystals of a beautiful silver-coloured metal. It is, he tells me, titanium. Titanium is the basis of much of the paint industry. It is used in hi-tech alloys for aircraft and bicycles as well as in dental implants and chlorine is an indispensable part of the purification process. Similarly the incredibly high-purity silicon essential for the production of computer chips and solar panels is only possible thanks to a process that uses chlorine.

 

  1. staple products: basic products used by the vast majority of the population, such as soap, paper, milk, bread, eggs…
  2. workhorse: something or someone who will do a lot of heavy-work.
  3. to turn up: to appear, to be present.
  4. alloy: a mix of metals, for example, steel is an alloy of iron with different proportions of other metals.

But it was chlorine’s cleansing power that led to the first commercial applications of the element. Its efficacy as a disinfectant was discovered thanks to an early 19th Century effort to clean up the gut factories of Paris. The “boyauderies” processed animal intestines to make, among other things, strings for musical instruments. A French chemist and pharmacist called Antoine-Germain Labarraque discovered that newly-discovered chlorinated bleaching solutions not only got rid of the smell of putrefaction but actually slowed down the putrefaction process itself. Within a few decades chlorine compounds were being used to disinfect everything from hospitals to cattle sheds as well as to treat infected wounds in patients. Chlorine is credited with deodorizing the Latin Quarter of Paris, until then infamous for its terrible stench.

 

  1. cleansing: to clean or purify.
  2. to clean up: to clean something completely.
  3. gut factories: guts are things such as the intestines. These factories make their products with the intestines of animals.
  4. newly discovered: discovered recently.
  5. cattle-sheds: small buildings, usually made of wood, where you keep cattle. There are other kinds of sheds, like the garden shed, which many people have and where you keep your gardening tools.
  6. to be credited with: what happens when someone recognizes you did something, usually good things. 
  7. infamous for: the opposite of famous for. Being famous for a negative thing.
  8. stench: a very penetrating smell, like food in bad condition, or something putrid.

The early advocates of chlorine did not know how chlorine worked, they just knew that it helped clear the “miasmas” thought to spread contagion. It would be half a century before the microbes that chlorine destroys would be identified. Chlorine is used around the world to treat water to ensure it is safe to drink. It is the basis of many disinfectants and a key ingredient of the bleach you use to clean surfaces in your home and to purge any microbes from your toilet bowl.

It is also used to keep swimming pools free of bacteria, hence the distinctive smell. But here’s something you probably didn’t know, and if you are a regular swimmer, may not wish to know. That smell isn’t chlorine, at least not the element. It is actually a chlorine compound called chloramine, which is created when chlorine combines with organic substances in the water. So what are those organic substances? We are talking about sweat and urine. So if you’ve ever noticed that the “chlorine” smell is stronger when the pool is full of kids, well now you know why.

 

  1. advocate: someone who defends an idea or a cause. Not to be confused with “abogado” which is to be translated as lawyer, attorney, barrister and others…
  2. bleach: cleaning liquid extensively used to clean and disinfect floors and other elements. It’s main element is chlorine. It is also used to make clothes white, so the process of making something white by using bleach is “to bleach”. This verb is also used for intense hair lightening processes. 
  3. toilet bowl: an element in the bathroom where you sit and… do I need to explain more?
  4. hence: therefore, for that reason
  5. sweat: liquid coming out of your skin pores when it is very hot or you are performing some intense activity.
  6. urine: waste liquid from the body that usually goes into the toilet.

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Chlorine: From toxic chemical to household cleaner was last modified: September 17th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
26th June 2014 0 comment
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Communication Across CulturesCommunication SkillsLearning TipsProfessional Skills

Skills in English: the cultural shock.

written by Francisco Sanjurjo

When we acquire a skill in a new language it is more than just putting words together. When you come in contact with new people, even in your own culture, you store information in your brain about how to deal with them: how they need to be greeted, how they like to go about doing things or what sets them on edge.

When we approach a different culture, a different language, a different country, we need to acquire the “ways of the land”. That is the way things are done in the particular place where the skill is going to be used. This is particularly important when learning to do things in English. It is truly a global language and that means that people will use English in environments where nobody is a native speaker. English and “how things are done” do not go automatically hand in hand.

One factor in this is  the huge number of varieties of English: English has been nativized in many countries, like The Philipines, or Singapore. In other countries people do not use “English” strictly speaking, but creoles, local languages that have formed using English as their foundations – often because it was the language of the colonists –  but including many local vocabulary and grammar items.

Try this easy experiment: if you live in a medium-sized or big city and use public transport – or even walking down the street – eavesdrop subsaharan immigrants when they are talking among themselves. Often they come from countries that used to be british colonies and they speak english-based creoles. (Or French-based creoles in some cases.

A second factor is what happens in countries like Spain where English is not a language people use in everyday life. The influence on English when it is spoken as a foreign language or a second language depends on the contact the speaker has had with an English speaking culture and also with whether the person or people spoken to are native speakers or second language speakers as well.

People who come from monolingual contexts – quite common in Spain – will feel their heads spinning by now. What is the protocol if nobody is a native speaker? It is not an easy issue. Even if there are native speakers, they could be in the minority.  Usually native speakers are the most problematic in international environments, where they are just one more player in the game. In any case, common sense and politeness dictate that one should stick to the rules and customs of the host country. And of course, observe and adjust as you go. Again, common sense.

In conclusion, using English as a language for international communication is a matter of juggling with the different cultures, the origins of people and the location and situation where communication takes place. It requires an open mind, ready to not be shocked at anything – which doesn’t mean everything goes – and also ready to learn.

Skills in English: the cultural shock. was last modified: September 13th, 2018 by Francisco Sanjurjo
18th September 2015 0 comment
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