Tag: UK

  • False friends: a real language trap

    False friends: a real language trap

    Uno degli errori più comun per noi studenti di Inglese è di cadere nella trappola dei false friends (lett.falsi amici) perché questi termini vengono spesso tradotti letteralmente adattando per somiglianza ed assonanza l’Inglese all’Italiano e creando invece difficoltà di comprensione perché non hanno niente a che fare con la giusta traduzione del termine e  a dire il vero ci provocano a volte imbarazzo.

    Analizziamo in questa rubrica tra i più comuni false friends di cui alcuni già saprai e altri potrebbero esserti sfuggiti.

    A few false friends to be aware of:

    Accident: it seems like accidente but it means incidente

    Actually: it means in realtà while it seems attualmente che si traduce currently

    Agenda: it doesn’t refer to a diary or agenda but ordine del giorno

    Annoy: it is a verb and you translate it annoiare istinctively but it means infastidire, irritare

    Argument: it is not argomento but litigio

    Apology: it is not apologia or defense like the Italian meanin: it means scusa

    To abuse: it seems like abusare but it means approfittare

    Brave: bravo as translation is completely wrong it means coraggioso

    Candid: sincero and not candido is its meaning

    Cartoon: Don’t translate cartone please because cartone is in English cardboard. The right translation is vignetta

    Casual: it means informale instead of casuale

    Chest: it’s not cesto but petto

    Cold: it’s one of the most misunderstood, it means freddo but we often translate caldo

    College: Collegio is completely wrong; this word means università

     

    To be continued

  • Idioms

    Idioms

     

    Questa sezione nasce dal bisogno di prendere confidenza con espressioni idiomatiche che gli inglesi amano utilizzare nelle conversazioni quotidiane, e che spesso si trovano nei libri, nelle serie TV e nei film. Poiché il significato corrisponde a modi di dire che non sono sempre letteralmente comprensibili, è necessario familiarizzare con il loro significato e imparare ad utilizzarli correttamente. Anche se questo potrebbe sembrare molto difficoltoso, non fatevi spaventare: imparare le espressioni idiomatiche inglesi può essere molto divertente, soprattutto se si confrontano con quelle italiane.

    Let’s start then!

     

     

    All hell broke loose: tutto l’inferno si è liberato? Equivale all’italiano: è successo un finimondo. E’ successo qualcosa di veramente grave.

    Meaning: to refer to violent and destructive situation that suddenly begins.

    Ex: The policeman shouted but the robber started shooting and all hell broke loose.

     

     

     

    Ants in your pants: formiche nelle mutande. Equivale all’italiano non stare mai fermi un attimo, essere agitati.

    Meaning: be extremely resteless or excited.

    Ex: I think John likes him. He has annts in hir pants when he meets her.

     

     

    Apple of my eye: mela del mio occhio? Noooo. Luce dei miei occhi.

    Meaning: when a person is very important for you.

    Ex: My Husband is the apple of my eye.

     

     

     

    A bad egg: un uovo cattivo? Equivale all’italiano: persona inaffidabile

    Meaning: To refer to someone as a bad egg means that they cannot be trusted.

    Ex: His boyfriend was a bad egg and she lost all her money.

     

     

     

    A flash in the pan: un lampo nella padella. Equivale all’italiano: essere una meteora.

    Meaning: something that happens once and only for a short time.

    Ex: That singer was just a flash in the pan with his hit in 2001.

     

     

    A piece of cake: un pezzo di torta? Equivale all’italiano un gioco da ragazzi. Una cosa facile.

    Meaning: a very easy task.

    Ex: Don’t worry! Your exam will be a piece of cake.

     

     

     

    A pain in the neck: un dolore nel collo. Equivale all’italiano: una gran seccatura.

    Meaning: something or someone that is very annoying.

    Ex: My son is sometimes a real pain in the neck.

     

     

    A cash cow: una mucca da soldi. Equivale all’italiano: essere una mucca da mungere

    Meaning: a person or a business that generates a consistent profit.

    Ex: Rob loves gambling and his friends think he is a real cash cow.

  • Spreading love is what Valentine’s Day is all about.

    Spreading love is what Valentine’s Day is all about.

    Valentine’s Day is a celebration of that feeling called Love. Love between lovers (man and his woman, but nowadays between two people who love each other, no matter their sex), in a word love of all kind, is beautiful and thus, needs to be celebrated. However, Valentine’s Day is celebrated to pay a tribute to Saint Valentine who gave away his life for the cause of love. If you do not have a girlfriend or a boyfriend or someone to love, do not start to feel sad. Instead, search out your life and find people who truly loved, in any form and in any way,

    If you are a wife, express your love to your husband and vice-versa. However, do not forget to express your love to those other people who are also important in your life. This is the day to thank people, whosoever they are, for being there in your life and being there with you when you needed them. To start with, thank your parents for the love that they have given you is above every other kind of love in the world. Thank them for making you the person that you are. Buy them gifts and write messages to them that would make them feel happy.

    Next, say thank you to your partner for being there with you in times of highs and lows. If they have stood by you through thick and thin and have always been on your side and made efforts to make you happy, it only means that they love you a lot and thus, their love needs to be cherished and appreciated. A good way to appreciate everything that they have done for you is to buy them something that they would love and cherish. Also, you can tell them how you feel about them by simply telling them how you feel.

    On Valentine’s Day, one should also thank their friends. Friends are people who keep their faith in us even when everyone else seems to be losing theirs in us. Friends are those people who understand those problems of ours that our family, parents or partners do not understand. Thus, every Valentine’s Day every person should thank their friends. Do things for them that they would like and appreciate and would make them feel good.

    Lastly, since Valentine’s Day is all about love, one should make it a point to spread love around them. On this Valentine’s Day, do something that would make people around you feel happy. Do something for the little kids around you who do not have anyone to take care of them. Similarly, a person can go to an old age home and do something for the old people who also do have anybody left in the world to call their own. Valentine’s Day is all about showing and expressing your love and doing things that would make someone feel that they are loved. Spreading love is what Valentine’s Day is all about and don’t think too expensive gifts and sometimes impossible to find. A flower, a good deed, a word of consolation may be the most tangible way you love and never forget to peek into the best love poems of all time. Here my help to draw from and show your qualities of a true poet.

    https://classicalpoets.org/2016/10/27/10-greatest-love-poems-ever-written/draw

  • Wikipedia turned 20 on 15 January 2020. Happy birthday!

    Wikipedia turned 20 on 15 January 2020. Happy birthday!

    It’s extremely known and used, the Diy- encyclopedia Wikipedia. Its name is a blending of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites, from the Hawaiian word wiki, meaning “quick”) and encyclopedia. Most of the people consider  Wikipedia an important source of information also because a lot of information gets added in a short space of time. You can get a wide variety of subjects on the site, some of which are eclectic. If someone spots an error, they can quickly change it. You can get a lot of different angles to a subject and use different themes but not always relatable. Anyway, Wikipedia is one of the biggest resources in the internet to find all types of information we need and is the eighth-most-visited site in the world. The English-language version recently surpassed 6 million articles.

    But who invented Wikipedia? Who got the idea of creating this website?

    Jimmy Wales is the man who started Wikipedia, the one behind the concept of this very successful and controversial on-line encyclopedia.

    He was born in Alabama, more precisely in Huseville in 1966.

    He received his education from his mother and grandmother, he also used to go to a small private school. Wales obviously spent a lot of time studying the World Bool Encyclopedia.

    Then he went on to attend the University of Alabama and he gained a Master Degree and he was that skilled that in the meantime he taught at the university, he studied for PhD in France. He became so successful that he earned enough money to guarantee his family welfare for the rest of their lives.

    Lucky him!

    He also launched a search portal called Bomis but after that he got some unpleasant accuses by some journalists.

    (He was accused of making money selling pornography but he denied this).

    Who inspired Wales?

    Wales was a follower of Ayn Rand’s philosophy which says that knowledge and understanding are fundamental; he taught as well that happiness comes from heroic and noble acts.

    What a clever and open-minded philosophy!

    So Wales had been influenced from Nupedia.com, an on-line encyclopedia through which everyone could share their knowledge.

    In 2001, the following year, he created Wikipedia but its purpose was to collect all the contributions for Nupedia site but Wikipedia literally exploded!

    Nobody could predict such a success; in just five years it has grown into one of the world’s largest and most used encyclopedias with versions in 100 languages.

    Who collaborates with Wales?

    The heroes of Wikipedia are not giants in their fields but so-called WikiGnomes editors and volunteers who sweep up typos, arrange articles in neatly categorized piles and scrub away vandalism.

    As Wikipedia isn’t raised up wholesale but like a barn, it’s assembled grain by grain, like a termite mound. The smallness of the grains, and of the workers carrying them, makes the project’s scale seem impossible. But it is exactly this incrementalism that puts immensity within reach.

    Wales’ (and his team) mission is to offer the world free knowledge for everyone.

    He explains: “We want to share knowledge in a million ways. We have the people to do it and we have the technology to do it. And we will do it.”

    Some brave and inspiring words that should let us think about the importance of always studying and learning new things in all the ways possible.

    Because it’s a fact: only knowledge can give us freedom.

     

  • Don’t let Blue Monday get you down!

    Don’t let Blue Monday get you down!

     

    Do you ever feel “blue”?  No, I don’t mean if you listen to blues music or if you have blue skin or if you look like a smurf.  “Feel blue” means feeling melancholic, sad or depressed

    So we all feel “blue” after Christmas holidays, the gifts, the family’s board games and the start of school.

    The Blue Monday is the third Monday in January. It falls on January 18th this year and the least upbeat day on the calendar has taken on new meaning in 2021due to Coronavirus with the stress and uncertainty that comes along with it.

    The psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall calculated the date using a formula with many factors like levels of debt, motivation and time since Christmas.

    While some people happen to feel “blue”, others think it’s ridiculous. In fact, many people argue that there are no valid reasons or authentic scientific basis for Blue Monday.

    But what can we do to give yourself a necessary dose of positivity as we kick off 2021?

    Here some easy ways you can add some lightness and positivity to your life to boost your mood on Blue Monday or any day.

    • Encourage your friends to have a virtual drink, staying connected and have a chat;
    • Listen to your favourite songs, a podcast or watch something fun on TV;
    • Read a self-care book;
    • Wear something colourful ;
    • Buy some flowers;
    • Have a hair makeover
    • Indulge in aromatherapy, right down to your fragrance.

    By the way! Don’t worry! There isn’t only ‘The saddest day of the year’ but also the happiest: the new formula of Dr Arnall says that “The Happiest day of the year” will be around June 20th, when the days are longer and there is sun and holiday are getting a little closer.

  • No vaccine, no fly?

    No vaccine, no fly?

    During this year one of the most disrupted sector is certainly the air travel. When in April all the world was locked down and the borders were closed all the airlines around the world founded themselves without passengers, and so, without a revenue. Most airlines decided to ground all of their fleets or use a small percentage of it to fly cargo planes or repatriation flights, like Alitalia which flew during all the first lockdown non-stop from Rome to Hong Kong, Beijing, New Delhi and so forth.

    As of December 2020 the first vaccine is going to be given to the population and is expected that in a few months we will achieve herd immunity. The states administrations all around the world want an answer by the IATA (International Air Transport Association) on how air travel will be in 2021. IATA still does not know the answer yet, but two major airlines have already independently exposed themselves; Qantas and Delta Airlines.

    “Our position on this is clear. We have a duty of care to our people and our passengers, and once a safe and effective vaccine becomes readily available, it will be a requirement for travel on our international services,” said Mr Joyce, Qantas CEO, in comments to the media on Thursday.

    In Europe, the EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) still follow the special guidelines for air travel: wash your hands, keep a seat empty, use of a safe mask for all the duration of the flight and so on…

    On the other hand in the US the FAA (Feder Aviation Administration) has authorized pilots and air traffic controllers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, subject to certain conditions.

    The authorization comes as the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared a vaccine. It is important to clarify that in the US the Covid’s guidelines are still not followed due to the position of their President: Donald Trump, a convinced negationist.

    We hope that the travel will begin again and there will be a full recovery after this pandemic. From almost a year we are waiving our youth away to reach the safeguard of elder and fragile people, we are blocked from seeing the world and explore, but, we know that these special measures are going to end and we personally hope that with this vaccine we are a step closer to win this tremendous virus.

     

    Giulia Franchini, Davide Palumbo IV B s.a.

  • WHAT TO GIVE A QUEEN? THE STRANGEST GIFTS THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND RECEIVED

    WHAT TO GIVE A QUEEN? THE STRANGEST GIFTS THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND RECEIVED

    Despite the difficult situation we are facing due to the pandemic, no one has forgotten the Christmas spirit, not even Queen Elizabeth II.

    The Queen is forced to spend Christmas away from her family without sacrificing her Christmas speech and her traditional gift exchange to which she is very fond, all strictly by video call on the Zoom platform.

    But what gifts do you give to Queen? In her 67 years as Queen, Elizabeth II were given every kind of gift to amaze her. People just send stuff to the Queen: milk bottles, cakes, biscuits. They think she looks a bit hungry, so they send her some cake or boxes of chocolate.

    Remembering her passion for horses and horse riding, in 1991 the United States government honored her with a pair of cowboy boots and, last year, a 24 carat gold-plated for horse from Slovenia’s President Borut Pahor. As a company for her horses there is an elephant of the African forest, a gift received in 1972 by the government of Cameroon (Africa).

    Who would give 500 cans of pineapple to Queen? It was a gift received in honor of his marriage by the Australian government, given to the neediest.

    As we give lucky charms, even the Queen needs it: the Fiji Islands gave her the Sperm Whale’s lucky teeth and the Virgin Islands (or Salt Islands) gave her one kilo of salt.

    Don’t worry, if you are stuck for ideas about what to give a Queen, consider that her son, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan Markle gave her a shower cap with the sentence: “Ain’t life a Bitch?” and a singing toy hamster, both very popular.

    Sometimes I think:  what should I give her if I had the possibility? Not a precious item because I know she likes simple things and cheap presents. So I’d give her as a gift her handicraft miniature figure made by the famous Neapolitan artisans from  San Gregorio Armeno in Naples and an invitation to visit the famous market with its endless shops dedicated to the Christmas Nativity tradition famous all over the world. Of course she could enjoy a magical Christmas atmosphere together with a special guide: “ME”.

     

  • Goodbye to the eclectic teacher who helped us to get by with English language

    Goodbye to the eclectic teacher who helped us to get by with English language

    John Peter Sloan, a great singer, a theatre actor, a comedian, a book writer but above all an eclectic and excellent English teacher died suddenly on 25th May (at the age of 51) for serious breathing problems while he was in his house in Melfi (Sicily).

    The Birmingham-born teacher had lived in Italy for thirty years now and was working on several projects, including online lessons from the schools of English he founded based in Rome and Milan, temporarily closed due to the lockdown.

    He became soon popular because he was able to teach English in the best way that is involving the students with English and a smile, trying first of all to create an emotional and human bridge between English and Italian culture. That bridge then made access to English grammar more agile which, according to John, is often taught in a peremptory and boring way in Italian schools.

     

    He landed in Milan for the first time in 1990 with his band “The Max” with which he had several concerts scheduled. As soon as he set foot at Linate airport, John noticed that “people didn’t talk, they screamed. Since than he decided that the “Belpaese” would become his new home.

    He was immediately one of Zelig’s (the stand-up comedian broadcasted on the Italian channel Italia 1) most loved faces. His English lessons became a cult.

    The success came in 2010 with the publication of an English tailor-made course for Italian speakers that became the Best Seller “Instant English”, with the sale of about 300 thousand copies of the first edition. All the gains were then reinvested in the schools of English he founded and directed.  His  famous method:  the “Sloan Method” was based on irony and charisma an integrated approach with non-formal education which combined play and smile with rules and vocabulary.

    We hope, as students, that his brilliant ideas, criticisms, methods and proposals can have a following and a development, always seasoned with some laughter and with the sweet memory of his figure.

    And I can say that your way of teaching that was a real labour of love, is for me as you would say “a big feather in my cap”.

  • Earth Day’s 2020- 50th anninersary

    Earth Day’s 2020- 50th anninersary

    In recent years, the focus on Earth Day has become ever greater.

    But what is Earth day? Mainly, a day dedicated to the environment for the protection of the planet: every year, in fact, on April 22, events are organized all over the world, during which you become aware of the theme of ecology and get information on the health of the planet. In short, a great ecological event that originated from a very serious environmental disaster that involved the United States in 1969: the oil spill from a Union Oil well.

    This event led Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson to become more interested in environmental issues, and people were so interested in the problem  to participate  actively.

    There were many American citizens who participated in the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 , about 20 million people among citizens, universities, institutions – to the point that the following year the UN formalized its participation and commitment to the ‘initiative. Since then 175 countries have been involved.

    Every year on Earth Day a point is made on the state of health of the planet and, in some cases, international agreements are  being signed for the reduction of emissions or the use of green energy.

     

    But…Earth Day is going to look a little different this year (22 April 2020).

    With the Coronavirus pandemic continuing to spread, cities, counties, states and entire countries are taking measures to try and reduce its effects. Many have shut down businesses and have set travel restrictions, but each place is dealing with the situation differently. “Social distancing” is strongly recommended,

    COVID-19 has also posed a challenge for what was predicted to be the largest global mobilization in history. April 22, 2020, marks the 50th anniversary of  Earth Day. The long list of Earth Day events which had to take place locally and around the globe have been restructured or canceled. Many mobilization efforts are now taking a digital-first strategy to observe Earth Day unlike any other.

    In celebration of its 50th anniversary the Earth Day Network is organising the multiple special programs that include Citizen Science which is to collect one billion data points to measure air quality, water quality, pollution and human health and Foodprints for the future  to educate people about the connection between food and climate change.

    On April 22, join another important global digital mobiltization  EARTHRISE, that drives actions big and small, gives diverse voices a platform and demands bold action for people and planet. EARTHRISE will fill the digital landscape with global conversations, calls to action, performances, video teach-ins and more.

    While Earth Day may be going digital environamentalists’ goal remains the same: to mobilize the world to take the most meaningful actions to make a difference. Below are ways to participate:

    Exercise your right to express, promote and defend your ideas. While it is   not be able to assemble in-person, we can still create a mass outcry and a mass outpouring of support online.

    • Take action: Share what you’re doing, today and from where you are:What are you fighting for — it could be for your children, for frontline communities, for safe water to drink. What compels you to act, and why are you in this fight?
    • Add your voice to this global demand for action with #EarthDay2020 and #EARTHRISE.

    ACT: Everyone can do something. Join on the earthday.org; earthdayitalia.org and on @earthdaynetwork on social media for 24 hours of action with EARTHRISE

    A new, powerful way for us to demand action and drive change.

  • NEW EPIC HEROES

    NEW EPIC HEROES

    This year we have started studying English history and literature. A very exalting topic has been the epic poem and the fascinating figure of a Scandinavian legendary hero: “Beowulf”. When our English teacher asked us what the word and the figure of a hero made us think of, our mind flew to a mythical, unreal world made of men and women endowed with deep values such as bravery, loyalty, altruism  but our attention was also focused  immediately on  those  who are on the frontline in the fight against the Coronavirus Pandemic in our real world.

    From health workers to public servants, they all are rightly getting our plaudits for their brave and tireless work in this very critical time due to this epidemic.

    But the crisis has also revealed some unexpected heroes who are showing ingenuity and community spirit to tackle the health emergency that is engulfing the world.

    In this tough period we cannot but think particularly of all those wonderful people who are providing ceaseless care and attention to those most at risk helping to provide vital support and reassurance: doctors, nurses, paramedics and the  medical staff who under enormous strain and  at their own risk  are dedicated to save lives in intense care wards  and to contain as much as possible the spread of this virus; marvelous people whose extraordinary skills make us so very proud. Other people are volunteers offering their help to do whatever they can to provide support to those on the frontline.

    And let me say in these hard times we are probably all secret heroes.

    We are all fighting against an invisible enemy. Mankind will find a way to get out of this even though right now with no cure seems the right one and no timeline available for this, we don’t know. We don’t know what’s going to happen. We don’t know how long it will last, and we don’t know how many more deaths it will take in each country. We only know that we’ re going to find a way.