English in Madrid

Source:  Tim Mossholder on Unsplash Learning a language is resolution for one in five Brits, survey says   Learning a language will be a new year's resolution for about one in five Britons in 2018, a survey suggests. About one in three said they intend to learn at least some key phrases. Spanish was the most popular language among 2,109 UK adults questioned by Populus for the British Council. "If we are to remain globally competitive post-Brexit, we need more people who can speak languages," said British Council schools advisor , Vicky Gough. Of the representative sample of adults polled : 64% said they had always wanted to speak another language fluently  56% said they regretted never hav ing made the effort to do so   58% agreed it was more important than ever for people in the UK to learn another language  but only a third said they could currently hold a basic conversation in one  45% were embarrassed by their poor langu...

Source:  Annie Spratt on Unsplash Polar bear video: Is it really the 'face of climate change'? It is harrowing footage . An emaciated polar bear searches for food on Baffin Island, north-eastern Canada.  Exhausted, it drags one leg slowly behind it, eventually trying to eat some discarded seating foam among rubbish humans have left. Polar bears hunt from the sea ice, which is diminishing every year, and the photography team are certain the unfortunate animal died within days . Watch the video here     Source : National Geographic "This is what starvation looks like ," wrote one of the photographers, Paul Nicklen. "The muscles atrophy. No energy. It's a slow, painful death." Mr Nicklen's colleague, Cristina Mittermeier, said: "We cried as we filmed this dying bear. This is the face of climate change." The clip has gone viral, widely shared as a warning about the dangers of climate change. But is there more to it ? ...

Source:  Annie Spratt on Unsplash Warmer Arctic is the 'new normal' A warming , rapidly changing Arctic is the "new normal" and shows no signs of returning to the reliably frozen region of the past. This is according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Arctic Report Card . Director of the administration's Arctic Researcher Program, Dr Jeremy Mathis, said the region did a great service to the planet - acting as a refrigerator. "We've now left that refrigerator door open," he added. Dr Mathis was speaking at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans, where Noaa presented its annual summation of Arctic science. This is the 12th report the administration has produced. And although it pointed to "a few anomalies" in a recent pattern of warming in the Arctic region, Dr Mathis said: "We can confirm, it will not stay in its reliably frozen state." "The thing I took t...

Source:  Ric Matkowski en Unsplash Garden shed becomes best rated restaurant on TripAdvisor - but it serves up Iceland ready meals  Oobah Butler created the fake "appointment only" restaurant in his garden using photographs of food and decoration made up of shaving foam and bleach A garden shed became the top-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor after a writer tricked the popular review site by submitting fake reviews. Oobah Butler, who writes for Vice, created the fake restaurant in his garden by setting up a website with photographs of food, which were in fact made from shaving foam, bleach and extra texture provided by using his bare foot as a backdrop . He based his meals on moods in a bid to set it apart from other restaurants - but many of the dishes served on opening night were in fact, Iceland ready meals . He bought a mobile phone and registered the number as the restaurant's while refusing to give an address as it was "appointment-only...

Source:    Bas van der Linden en Unsplash On Thursday I went to a vegan restaurant and without a doubt , it was the tastiest vegan meal I have had in Madrid. I will certainly go back. Ver esta publicación en Instagram Una publicación compartida de • V E G A • Restaurantes (@vegarestaurantes) Here are some of the reviews of Vega on Trip Advisor : ***** 28 September 2017 Dinner We went last Saturday evening. Food was yummy . Simple wholesome dishes filled with organic veggies and accompanied by some yum black rice. The mushroom croquetas were really tasty. As was the dessert, Panna cotta. The staff were helpful and very friendly. Would definitely go back. ****  22 June 2017 Fun, different and tasty ! We visited on a Saturday night and they were full (so definitely book in advance , thankfully we had). The atmosphere was great, it's a small place and it was bustling . The dining style is fairly casual with high tables, people eating at t...

Source:  Jay Wennington en Unsplash How to crowdfund a restaurant empire   When award-winning chef Gary Usher was * turned down for a loan to open a second restaurant, he * set up a crowdfunding campaign. Now he 's about to launch his fourth restaurant.  All restaurants have a coming-of-age moment, the point at which they survive and thrive , or go down fighting . For Gary Usher’s Sticky Walnut, in a two-up two-down house in Hoole, just outside Chester, that moment came in 2013, about 18 months after they had opened. Usher, like any ambitious young chef * starting out on his own aged 30, had * ploughed every penny he had into Sticky Walnut. He had gone back to Chester to open the restaurant – not far from where he had started out working in pubs – after successful stints in London at Michelin-starred Chez Bruce, and running Gordon Ramsay and Angela Hartnett’s kitchen at the York & Albany. He couldn’t afford to fail .  Sticky Walnut had started well. H...

Source:  Elisa on Unsplash I have been doing this blog for over ten years now. There are times when I felt like giving up but for some reason or other I never did. I've been looking at the first 50 posts; from Sept 8th 2007 to Apr 9th 2008 (see all the posts using the Archive in the top left of the blog ). These are the posts that never received a comment : Have you seen the film Catch Me If You Can ? The Flatmates was a fun way to improve your English. Halloween doesn't have its origins in the United States. We'll soon be hearing Last Christmas in the shops again. A politician claimed the Spanish left  €1 Tips for a coffee. Advice on how to keep your New Year Resolutions . There are controversial lines in God Save the Queen . Pancake Day is a fun tradition in the UK. The (lack of) Rain in Spain was a problem ten years ago too. There was Rioting (again) in Madrid by football hooligans. A bit of a gamble made a man wealthy. We had Roun...

Source:  Chewy on Unsplash Pets in the doghouse as ownership falls When it comes to the cost of owning a pet, many people in the UK are finding that there's just not enough money in the kitty . Modern economic pressures mean that fewer households now own a pet. Just 56% now have one, down from 63% five years ago, say retail analysts Mintel. Because many people cannot afford to buy their own home, more are renting from landlords who don't allow animals. People are also having a family later in life, and children are big pet fans. " Shrinking household sizes and the trend of consumers starting their families later in life are all having a negative effect on pet ownership," said Emma Clifford, associate director of food and drink at Mintel. " Additionally , the shift towards privately rented accommodation continues to put downward pressure on pet ownership."  Ownership of pet fish, including goldfish and tropical fish, has take...

Source:  Dorian Hurst on Unsplash French language watchdogs say 'non' to gender-neutral style  The Académie Française, France’s ultimate authority on the language, sparks national row after describing inclusive writing as an ‘aberration’  The Académie Française, France’s ultimate authority on the French language, is under fierce attack for describing gender-neutral text as an “aberration” that puts the language in “mortal danger”. The “Immortals”, as the 40 academy members – only five of whom are women – are known, have sparked a national row after declaring that “inclusive writing” has no place in the country’s grammar books, or anywhere else for that matter . In a statement full of hyperbole, the academy condemned the increasing use of new spellings aimed at making written French less masculine, arguing that it could not see the “desired objective” of the changes. French grammatical rules give the masculine form of a noun precedence over the female. W...

Source:  Natalie Runnerstrom on Unsplash World's most expensive dram of Scotch was a fake   A dram of vintage Scotch bought by a Chinese millionaire in a Swiss hotel bar for £7,600 was a fake, laboratory tests have concluded. Analysts from Scotland were called in by the Waldhaus Am See hotel in St Moritz after experts questioned the authenticity of the 2cl shot . It had been poured from an unopened bottle labelled as an 1878 Macallan single malt. It is believed to be the largest sum ever paid for a poured dram of Scotch. But analysis found that it was almost certainly not distilled before 1970. The hotel said it had accepted the findings and reimbursed the customer in full . Zhang Wei, 36, from Beijing - one of China's highest-earning online writers - had paid just under 10,000 Swiss francs (£7,600, $10,050) for the single shot while visiting the hotel's Devil's Place whisky bar in July. But suspicions about the spirit's provenance surfaced so...