Galway's Craic

This superb BBC description of Galway's "craic" (which is a kind of light-hearted, mischievous approach to life) portrays the atmosphere of the streets, pubs and people in that Western Irish, bohemian town. In only 12 slides and a video, you will come across words like bustling pubs, freshly poured pints, lilting music, fiddle, mischief, craic, a local, promenade, odd, damp, to strip down to swimsuits, to plunge into, roiling waters, shivering, dripping, wont, to go with the flow, gale-force winds, counterweight, to breed, laid-back spirit, to foster, layout, an out-of-towner, low-key, to pervade, buskers, winding streets, a month goes by, to distil, pretention, uncontrivedness, breakdown, to edge in, to clutch, to connect with other people, to settle for something. 

The text is short, but the vocabulary is very descriptive, so it is suitable for C1 students, although B2+ students can also enjoy the pictures and get the gist of the text.

Music & Craic in the Streets of Galway

If you want to feel the "craic" of Galway from your own home, even if your level is B1, you can watch this You Tube video of some Galway buskers performing Hit the Road Jack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUQaf_kcPK0

But if you prefer something more Celtic, this video of Irish folk music and dance is for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t03aMiKnU4A

Here, you can find some buskers playing an anthem, Song for Ireland by James Gallagher:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4TYvl6xub4

If you like an unpretentious, young, hippy style, try this cover of The House of the Rising Sun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkn-RfhyFeU

More street talent with a fiddle and some Mexican flavour: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKL1EwoIE0

This video shows the largest performance of the song Galway Girl in the streets of Galway in 2016: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNs0vKDvs0g

I hope you have enjoyed Galway's "craic" wherever you are, 

But if you still want some more, you can watch this tourist documentary which includes, at the end, 20 minutes of Irish  music from the pubs and streets, with visuals of Galway, the Connemara region and the Cliffs of  Mohair. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usAvzbDq6-c

Rowan Atkinson's Sermon

Rowan Atkinson does not play Mr. Bean here, but he is very funny, too. He plays an Anglican vicar giving a Sunday sermon, the Gospel of St. John. You will come across literary language and archaic grammar structures from the Bible, like it came to pass, he said unto them, waterpots, he knew not, they inquired of him, behold, lo!, wailing and gnashing of teeth, ye (archaic for you), you shall be known, hearken onto somebody, Pharisses etc, but there are English subtitles, so, it can be accessible to B2 students and above.

 

"Shirley" Starring Elisabeth Moss

Elisabeth Moss plays the role of writer Shirley Jackson in the movie Shirley, which began to stream on virtual cinema platforms on June 5th.  Here you can read and listen to a 7 minute review of the film by Los Angeles Times critic Justin Chang, broadcast on NPR's Fresh Air. Film reviews are usually very rich in language, and when they are broadcast on the radio, they are particularly difficult to understand for the density of information, as they are usually literary essays read out loud, so both the audio and the text are classified as C2.  You will come across words like bond, fraught, glimpse, to chime, to deserve, script, loosely, insight, bout, to pursue, chore, vicious, to thrive, to get back on track, to root, wrinkle, muse, stand-in, layers, dizzyingly, jagged, close-up, to swerve, handheld, score, to pulse, to grapple with, conundrums, to blur, uncannily, to excel at, exertion, to tease out, odd, tenderness, prickly, to awe, to bind, to cheat on somebody, to endure to chafe against something, and snobbery. 

You can also do a listening comprehension exercise based on the interview that Elisabeth Moss gave to NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday when she was promoting her film The One I Love.  The pace of this 5 minute, 7 sec radio interview is fast, but natural, and the language is rather colloquial, you will find words like time-shifting, impressive, rom-com, widespread, to set up, plot, crossroads, to send off, retreat, to reset, hijinks (high jinks), to ensure, to end up doing something, boundaries, shooting, breakneck, naive, calculating, gullible, weird, show runner, roles, to get something down, to work on something.  In the file you will find a recording of the interview, the script, a multiple-choice listening task and the key.  You will also find a lesson plan for both the film review above and this radio interview. The listening and speaking task has been designed for C1 students.

If you still want to listen on, you can click here to find a 47 minute long interview to Elisabeth Moss from NPR's Bullseye with Jesse Thorn.  As there is no script, this interview is recommended for C2 students or for experts.

Future Boyfriend (2016): a Sci-Fi, Romantic Film

Future Boyfriend is a short (11 minute), romantic film with a clever sci-fi twist in the plot. I would like to thank my student May L. for sharing this video with me.

The film was first written as a one-act play by A. Vincent Ularich and it was accepted in the Sci-Fest festival in Los Angeles in 2014,  Subsequently the actors raised $12,645 in donations to fund the production and the shooting of the film, David Alayón reports for Medium. The dialogues are fast, but they can be subtitled, so the movie should be accessible to B2 students.  

Some of the new, colloquial language you may find is: I should come clear about something, disrupting the fabric of time, to take in, to have a lot to handle, weird, gross!, grisly, a better shot, a creep, to work out, to get this straight, deal?

If you want to know more about the film, you can watch this 5 minute video, Behind the Scenes of Future Boyfriend, where the main actors, Ron Morehouse and Emily Bell talk to some of the movie technicians and relatives the day the movie was shot.  You will find lots of technical and colloquial words related to movie-making, like  sneak peek, prepping, shoot, clips, behind the scenes footage, crew, picture lock, premiere, make-up and costume person, on set, cameo, to steal the show, being background, a stern look, handled, appreciative, I'm drained, stills (Watch out! The subtitles are not always perfect!). This sneak peek view of the film is also suitable for B2 students.