Get to France !

Every male actor's aspiration is to raise that skull and utter " To be, or not to be, that is the question"...

Uncanny Valley by Gary Dumbill

Gary Dumbill invites you into his Uncanny Valley, a nostalgic and familiar place that looks and feels very much like the human experience, but not quite there. There is a prominent strange element in the clip... can you explain what it is? What does the artist want to communicate via his uncanny valley? 

You can find the artist's answer here

Quote of the day

Well said !

Do you agree with Goethe? Has learning English helped you with your mother tongue, or caused you any problems? How? Comment below, please!

Immersion in art

The art of looking

Watch this 10-minute video using mindfulness techniques to enable you to slow down, look at and engage with Van Dyck’s last self-portrait. After this brief meeting with the Flemish Baroque artist, elaborate below what conclusions you could draw regarding his character just through mere observation (mention at least three character traits, while providing explanations). 

Reminder !

Energy around us!

(Think Teen 3rd Grade of Junior High, Unit 9)

(Warm up)

We use energy every single day in our life, but do you know its various forms? Watch the video where Dr Binocs talks all about it.

The 3 passages below explain how energy is produced in 3 different countries- sometimes with negative effects on the environment; read them through and do the exercise that follows!

A.   Beijing bicycles 

Hallo! My name is Jiang An Li. I live with my mum and dad in Beijing, which is the capital of our country. Because the streets are polluted from the cars, mum says that everyone should go on bicycles because then the air would be cleaner. When I asked her how this could happen, she said that the government should ban all cars. When I don’t have school or things to do around the house, I go for a ride on the bike with my sister and friends. Our electricity comes from a power station outside Beijing that burns coal. This makes the air very dirty, but at least it’s not in our house. In Shanghai people also have electricity, but it comes from hydro-power. The hydro-power comes from the water falling over the big Three Gorges dam, which has been built across the Yangtze River.

B.    Boiled alive!

Hallo! My name is Brynja. I live in the capital of Iceland. In winter we have only four hours of daylight. When my cousin from Spain visited us last year he said it felt strange to have the lights on during the day. He told me that in Spain people used solar power to heat their houses and for showers. The water for the shower in our house comes from underground, where it gets heated by lava. The pipes sometimes freeze because of the low temperatures and we have no hot or cold water. This water also bubbles up and fills the lakes and ponds. In winter, the water is really hot, so we can go swimming. We also love to spend our free time in this way. My mum asked me if I wanted to go swimming this afternoon at an outdoor pool. Of course, I agreed. As for public transport here, our new buses run on electricity instead of petrol and they don’t produce exhaust fumes. It is much cleaner than the combustion engine which runs on fossil fuels like petrol.

C.    An Indian summer

Hallo, my name is Lalita. I live in India. Our farm is miles away from everywhere and we use a horse-driven cart to get around because we don’t have a car. Travelling around is a real problem. The capital Bombay is nearly 1,000 kilometres away. I have never been there but my mum told me that it was a huge city. Horrible smoke and fumes come out of the exhaust pipes of old buses and cars. This pollution is really smelly. Although we are extremely poor, we are happy. Mum cooks in the small room using a wood fire. We don’t have enough wood to heat water to wash in, so I wash under the pump in the yard. Dad has told us that one day he would build us a new house. Each day, after school I collect firewood or help mum with dinner. When it gets dark we light our kerosene lamp, which lights our room with a bright flame. Mum sings and dad tells stories.

   

Exercise : Click on the right answers and become a millionaire !

Untranslatable words into English

Lost in Translation : Words with incredible meanings 

Provide your own definition in English for the following Greek words: Filotimo, Meraki, Levendis, Mangas, Palikari

English is a crazy language! Here's why...

Any other reasons why English is a bit crazy in your opinion? Are there any features that do not make sense to you?