BlogCONSEJOS PARA APRENDER INGLÉS EFICAZMENTE
1. Comienza por mentalizarte que el aprendizaje de un idioma es una labor difícil y requiere
dedicación, esfuerzo y compromiso. Sé realista, ponte objetivos alcanzables y
acordes a tu ritmo de vida, si no te frustrarás y abandonarás rápidamente.
2. Toma conciencia de las puertas que te abre una nueva lengua e involúcrate en proyectos dentro
de la empresa o en tu vida cotidiana que requieran su uso.
3. Asiste regularmente a clase y, en caso de no poder asistir, averigua qué se ha dado en clase antes
de la siguiente lección y ponte al día con los contenidos y los deberes.
4. Piensa en qué nivel de prioridad está el inglés en tu vida y sé constante. Recuerda que para
cualquier aprendizaje práctico, es preferible la constancia que la intensidad.
5. Haz un análisis después de cada clase sobre la materia que se haya impartido, el vocabulario
nuevo y las estructuras trabajadas.
6. Toma nota de los errores que te corrija el profesor y haz un esfuerzo activo para no repetirlos.
Los errores se corrigen de mayor a menor importancia, no podemos acometer la
corrección de todos a la vez, hay que ir marcando metas. El profesor es una
pieza clave en este proceso y hay que seguir sus pautas.
7. Realiza los ejercicios de memorización y mecanización en casa para tener asimilada la
materia impartida y poder seguir avanzando en la siguiente clase.
8. Lleva un registro del nuevo vocabulario y tómate unos minutos diarios para repasarlo.
9. Intenta “chocarte” con el idioma siempre que sea posible. Por ejemplo: haz búsquedas de
información en internet que te resulten interesantes seleccionando el idioma a aprender.
Proponte tener conversaciones imaginarias en inglés aprovechando tiempos muertos
(cuando estamos conduciendo, en el transporte público, etc.).
Incorpora el inglés a tus aficiones y escúchalo y léelo siempre que puedas,
canciones, películas, libros, búsqueda de información en internet
Estudio Sotomayor ofrece los siguientes recursos a sus alumnos:
· Servicio de préstamo de libros de lectura, películas y revistas
· Plataforma de actividades de aprendizaje y práctica online
· ¡Pregunta a tu profesor sobre estos servicios!
10. Es importante perder el temor a equivocarse y el miedo al ridículo. No tengas vergüenza,
arriésgate para hablar. ¡Tus interlocutores son mucho más comprensivos de lo que imaginas!
11. Y por último persevera en el esfuerzo, los resultados no siempre se ven rápidamente,
el proceso de asimilación de un idioma nuevo y la producción de nuestros propios mensajes
con riqueza y matiz requieren tiempo y práctica.
Para evitar el Alzheimer, ¿Aprender un idioma?
Hablando sobre el poder de las palabras, hablar al menos dos idiomas puede reducir la demencia en un cerebro que envejece según demuestra una nueva investigación.
Los científicos ya saben que los adultos jóvenes bilingües y los niños realizan mejor las tareas que dicta el sistema de control ejecutivo del cerebro.
Situado en la parte frontal del cerebro, este sistema es “la base de tu capacidad para pensar de forma compleja, controlar la atención y hacer todo lo que pensamos como un pensamiento excepcionalmente humano” señaló Ellen Bialystok, psicólogo de la Universidad de York en Toronto, Canadá.
Actualmente los estudios revelan que las ventajas del bilingüismo persisten en la edad madura, incluso cuando la agudeza natural del cerebro se reduce, explicó Bialystok el viernes en una reunión de la Asociación Americana de Avance de la Ciencia en Washington, D.C.
Los cerebros bilingües retrasan los efectos del envejecimiento
Bialystok y sus colegas investigaron a 102 pacientes con Alzheimer bilingües durante mucho tiempo y a 109 monolingües que tenían el mismo nivel de agudeza mental. Aproximadamente unos 24 millones de personas tienen demencia en todo el mundo, sufriendo la mayoría de ellos de Alzheimer, de conformidad con la universidad médica del Karolinska Institutet de Suecia.
A los pacientes bilingües se les había diagnosticado el Alzheimer unos cuatro años después que a los pacientes monolingües, de media, de acuerdo con el estudio más reciente de Bialystok, publicado en noviembre en la revista Neurology.
Esto sugiere que el bilingüismo está “protegiendo a los adultos de más edad, incluso cuando el Alzheimer comienza a afectar a la función cognitiva”, afirmó Bialystok.
Bialystok también está estudiando las diferencias físicas entre los cerebros monolingües y bilingües.
En un nuevo experimento, utilizó TACs para examinar los cerebros de personas monolingües y bilingües con demencia. Todos los sujetos tenían la misma edad y funcionaban en el mismo nivel cognitivo.
Los efectos físicos de la enfermedad en el cerebro resultaron ser más avanzados en los cerebros de las personas bilingües aunque su capacidad mental era más o menos la misma según explicó a National Geographic News.
Aparentemente, los cerebros bilingües se compensan de alguna forma. “Aunque la “máquina” esté más rota, puede funcionar al mismo nivel que uno monolingüe con menos enfermedad”, afirmó.
No es demasiado tarde para beneficiarse de un nuevo idioma
Los beneficios del bilingüismo pueden comenzar en el útero, comentó Janet Werker, psicóloga de la Universidad de British Columbia, Canadá.
Por ejemplo, los estudios de Werker y sus colegas demuestran que los bebés expuestos a dos idiomas en el útero no confunden sus idiomas desde el nacimiento.
El entrenamiento mental que requiere mantener dos idiomas separados puede crear una “vigilancia sensorial reforzada” que tiene beneficios para toda la vida, afirmó Werker.
“Lo que me gustaría sugerir es el tipo de ventajas de las que ha oído [en el envejecimiento] pueden establecerse desde aquellos primeros días de la vida, en [bebés] que deben mantener los dos idiomas separados.”
Confirmado, los que han nacido en el bilingüismo, lo tienen más fácil.
“Los bebés tienen el lujo del tiempo, tienen la oportunidad de centrarse realmente en las tareas inmediatas”, afirmó Werker.
“Si queremos aprender un segundo idioma, [necesitamos] reservar algo de tiempo para ello y las pruebas sugieren que la recompensa vale la pena.
Incluso aunque no aprendas un segundo idioma hasta la edad madura, todavía puede ayudar a evitar la demencia según Bialystok.
Ser “bilingüe es una forma de mantener el cerebro activo” es parte del enfoque de reserva cognitiva para el fitness cerebral”, afirmó Bialystok.
Y cuando se trata de ejercitar el cerebro aprendiendo otro idioma, añadió, “cuanto más mejor y cualquier cosa por pequeña que sea ayuda”.
6 Minute Grammar Podcasts on BBC Learning
Learn English grammar in six minutes on your daily commute , when you are on a break or working out.
All possible with the Podcasts of BBC-Learning: 6 Minute Grammar
Dearest Creature... (a tricky pronunciation poem)
This is a classic English poem by Gerard Nolst Trenité, called The Chaos (1922), containing about 800 of the worst irregularities in English spelling and pronunciation. If you call yourself "Master of Pronunciation" see if you are able to tell the whole poem correctly..
Dearest creature in creation Studying English pronunciation, I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.
I will keep you, Susy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy; Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear; Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.
Pray, console your loving poet, Make my coat look new, dear, sew it! Just compare heart, hear and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word.
Sword and sward, retain and Britain (Mind the latter how it's written). Made has not the sound of bade, Say-said, pay-paid, laid but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you With such words as vague and ague, But be careful how you speak, Say: gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak ,
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via Recipe, pipe, studding-sail, choir; Woven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.
Say, expecting fraud and trickery: Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore, Branch, ranch, measles, topsails, aisles, Missiles, similes, reviles.
Wholly, holly, signal, signing, Same, examining, but mining, Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far.
From "desire": desirable-admirable from "admire", Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier, Topsham, brougham, renown, but known, Knowledge, done, lone, gone, none, tone,
One, anemone, Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel. Gertrude, German, wind and wind, Beau, kind, kindred, queue, mankind,
Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather, Reading, Reading, heathen, heather. This phonetic labyrinth Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.
Have you ever yet endeavoured To pronounce revered and severed, Demon, lemon, ghoul, foul, soul, Peter, petrol and patrol?
Billet does not end like ballet; Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mould like should and would.
Banquet is not nearly parquet, Which exactly rhymes with khaki. Discount, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward,
Ricocheted and crocheting, croquet? Right! Your pronunciation's OK. Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Is your r correct in higher? Keats asserts it rhymes Thalia. Hugh, but hug, and hood, but hoot, Buoyant, minute, but minute.
Say abscission with precision, Now: position and transition; Would it tally with my rhyme If I mentioned paradigm?
Twopence, threepence, tease are easy, But cease, crease, grease and greasy? Cornice, nice, valise, revise, Rabies, but lullabies.
Of such puzzling words as nauseous, Rhyming well with cautious, tortious, You'll envelop lists, I hope, In a linen envelope.
Would you like some more? You'll have it! Affidavit, David, davit. To abjure, to perjure. Sheik Does not sound like Czech but ache.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, loch, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed but vowed.
Mark the difference, moreover, Between mover, plover, Dover. Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice,
Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label. Petal, penal, and canal, Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal,
Suit, suite, ruin. Circuit, conduit Rhyme with "shirk it" and "beyond it", But it is not hard to tell Why it's pall, mall, but Pall Mall.
Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron, Timber, climber, bullion, lion, Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor,
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour Has the a of drachm and hammer. Pussy, hussy and possess, Desert, but desert, address.
Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants Hoist in lieu of flags left pennants. Courier, courtier, tomb, bomb, comb, Cow, but Cowper, some and home.
"Solder, soldier! Blood is thicker", Quoth he, "than liqueur or liquor", Making, it is sad but true, In bravado, much ado.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Pilot, pivot, gaunt, but aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant.
Arsenic, specific, scenic, Relic, rhetoric, hygienic. Gooseberry, goose, and close, but close, Paradise, rise, rose, and dose.
Say inveigh, neigh, but inveigle, Make the latter rhyme with eagle. Mind! Meandering but mean, Valentine and magazine.
And I bet you, dear, a penny, You say mani-(fold) like many, Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier, Tier (one who ties), but tier.
Arch, archangel; pray, does erring Rhyme with herring or with stirring? Prison, bison, treasure trove, Treason, hover, cover, cove,
Perseverance, severance. Ribald Rhymes (but piebald doesn't) with nibbled. Phaeton, paean, gnat, ghat, gnaw, Lien, psychic, shone, bone, pshaw.
Don't be down, my own, but rough it, And distinguish buffet, buffet; Brood, stood, roof, rook, school, wool, boon, Worcester, Boleyn, to impugn.
Say in sounds correct and sterling Hearse, hear, hearken, year and yearling. Evil, devil, mezzotint, Mind the z! (A gentle hint.)
Now you need not pay attention To such sounds as I don't mention, Sounds like pores, pause, pours and paws, Rhyming with the pronoun yours;
Nor are proper names included, Though I often heard, as you did, Funny rhymes to unicorn, Yes, you know them, Vaughan and Strachan.
No, my maiden, coy and comely, I don't want to speak of Cholmondeley. No. Yet Froude compared with proud Is no better than McLeod.
But mind trivial and vial, Tripod, menial, denial, Troll and trolley, realm and ream, Schedule, mischief, schism, and scheme.
Argil, gill, Argyll, gill. Surely May be made to rhyme with Raleigh, But you're not supposed to say Piquet rhymes with sobriquet.
Had this invalid invalid Worthless documents? How pallid, How uncouth he, couchant, looked, When for Portsmouth I had booked!
Zeus, Thebes, Thales, Aphrodite, Paramour, enamoured, flighty, Episodes, antipodes, Acquiesce, and obsequies.
Please don't monkey with the geyser, Don't peel 'taters with my razor, Rather say in accents pure: Nature, stature and mature.
Pious, impious, limb, climb, glumly, Worsted, worsted, crumbly, dumbly, Conquer, conquest, vase, phase, fan, Wan, sedan and artisan.
The th will surely trouble you More than r, ch or w. Say then these phonetic gems: Thomas, thyme, Theresa, Thames.
Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham, There are more but I forget 'em- Wait! I've got it: Anthony, Lighten your anxiety.
The archaic word albeit Does not rhyme with eight-you see it; With and forthwith, one has voice, One has not, you make your choice.
Shoes, goes, does *. Now first say: finger; Then say: singer, ginger, linger. Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, age,
Hero, heron, query, very, Parry, tarry fury, bury, Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth, Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath.
Faugh, oppugnant, keen oppugners, Bowing, bowing, banjo-tuners Holm you know, but noes, canoes, Puisne, truism, use, to use?
Though the difference seems little, We say actual, but victual, Seat, sweat, chaste, caste, Leigh, eight, height, Put, nut, granite, and unite.
Reefer does not rhyme with deafer, Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late, Hint, pint, senate, but sedate.
Gaelic, Arabic, pacific, Science, conscience, scientific; Tour, but our, dour, succour, four, Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit, Next omit, which differs from it Bona fide, alibi Gyrate, dowry and awry.
Sea, idea, guinea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean, Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion with battalion, Rally with ally; yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay!
Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, receiver. Never guess-it is not safe, We say calves, valves, half, but Ralf.
Starry, granary, canary, Crevice, but device, and eyrie, Face, but preface, then grimace, Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Bass, large, target, gin, give, verging, Ought, oust, joust, and scour, but scourging; Ear, but earn; and ere and tear Do not rhyme with here but heir.
Mind the o of off and often Which may be pronounced as orphan, With the sound of saw and sauce; Also soft, lost, cloth and cross.
Pudding, puddle, putting. Putting? Yes: at golf it rhymes with shutting. Respite, spite, consent, resent. Liable, but Parliament.
Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen, Monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk, Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work.
A of valour, vapid vapour, S of news (compare newspaper), G of gibbet, gibbon, gist, I of antichrist and grist,
Differ like diverse and divers, Rivers, strivers, shivers, fivers. Once, but nonce, toll, doll, but roll, Polish, Polish, poll and poll.
Pronunciation-think of Psyche!- Is a paling, stout and spiky. Won't it make you lose your wits Writing groats and saying "grits"?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel Strewn with stones like rowlock, gunwale, Islington, and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict.
Don't you think so, reader, rather, Saying lather, bather, father? Finally, which rhymes with enough, Though, through, bough, cough, hough, sough, tough??
Hiccough has the sound of sup... My advice is: GIVE IT UP!
If you are not sure how to pronounce the words correctly (believe me, no-one is) you can listen to an audio recording on deepenglish.com
10 reasons to learn English
There are many reasons to learn English, but because it is one of the most difficult languages to learn it is important to focus on exactly why it is you want to learn English. Here we will look at ten great reasons why English is so important. Post this list somewhere you can see it and it will motivate you to keep going even when you are tired of trying to figure out which witch is which!
1. English is the most commonly used language among foreign language speakers. Throughout the world, when people with different languages come together they commonly use English to communicate.
2. Why learn English when it is so difficult? Well, knowing English will make you bilingual and more employable in every country in the world.
3. Despite China, the United States is still a leader in technical innovation and economic development. English is used in the United States and in each of these fields.
4. English is commonly spoken throughout much of the world due to Great Britain’s expansion during the colonial age. People in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, parts of Africa, India, and many smaller island nations speak English. English is the commonly adopted second language in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. Speaking English opens these countries and cultures up to you.
5. Another reason why English is so important is that it is the language of science. To excel in science you need to know English.
6. English is based on an alphabet and, compared to Chinese, it can be learned fairly quickly.
7. English is also the language of the Film Industry and English means you no longer have to rely on subtitles.
8. In the United States, speaking English immediately opens up opportunities regardless of your ethnicity, colour, or background.
9. Learn English and you can then teach your children English -- or if they are already learning, you can now communicate with them in English.
10. English speakers in the United States earn more money than non-English speakers. Learning English will open your job prospects and increase your standard of living.
Differences between British English and American English
There are some differences between British English and American English not only in pronunciation but also in spelling and in the usage of grammar.
In our daily lives it doesn´t matter which version you are using, just if you have picked one stick to it and be consistent. If you decide that you want to use American English spellings then be consistent in your spelling (i.e. The color of the orange is also its flavour - color is American spelling and flavour is British).
Here are some examples for you:
