Gogol Bordello

Last summer I had an opportunity to go to the concert of Gogol Bordello. This is a multi-ethnic Gypsy punk band from NY. Before the concert I had heard a lot about them, but I knew only one song ("Start wearing purple"), and also I knew that their front-man Eugene Hütz starred in "Filth and Wisdom" directed by Madonna. 

Gogol Bordello were the last to sing and what we saw on the stage was an extraordinary performance, which at first looked like a total chaos and mess, but one could not but notice an amazing coordination of the band. They were singing for about two hours, and all that time the crowd couldn't help dancing. Having seen their performance, I kinda felt sorry for our bands whose level is still pretty much domestic.

Anyway, Gogol Boredello is an extraordinary, modern and in a positive way a crazy band. I especially like their remix of Madonna's "La isla bonita". Watch it and you will understand a bit what is Gogol Bordello; then watch some other videos of this band on Youtube and you will start liking them; and after that, try to get to one of their concerts and you will love them. 

"Older people: age & experience" (Business English)

1   Demographics    usually    proves    a powerful force for  change  in the business- world,   and   the   rapidly ageing world population looks likely to continue the pattern. By the year 2050, according to the International Labour Organisation, the number of people aged over 60 will rise from 600m to 2bn. In less than 50 years, for the first time in history, there will be more people in the world over the age of 60 than under the age of 15. All this has profound implications (strong influence/effect) for employers and, says the ILO, should provide an incentive (something that encourages you to work harder) for companies to fight     age     discrimination     and accommodate older workers, creating challenging   careers   to   persuade them to stay in their jobs longer.

Business Correspondence I

SALUTATIONS

SURNAME KNOWN

If you know the name of the person you are writing to, write it as the first line of the address. Include either the person's initials or his or her first given name, e.g.Mr. J.E. Smith or Mr John Smith, not Mr Smith.

CouRte sy title s used in addresses are as follows:

—Mr (pronounced /'miste/) is the usual courtesy title for a man. The unabbreviated form Mister should not be used.

—Mrs (pronounced /'misiz/, no unabbreviated form) is used for a married woman.

—Miss (pronounced /' mis/, not an abbreviation) is used for an unmarried woman.

—Ms (pronounced /miz/ or /mas/, no unabbreviated form) is used for both married and unmarried women. It is advisable to use this form of address when you are unsure whether the woman you are writing to is married or not, or do not know which title she prefers.

—Messrs (pronounced /'mesez/, abbreviation for French 'Messieurs', which is never used) is used occasionally for two or more men, e.g. Messrs P. Jones and B.L. Parker, but more commonly forms part of the name of a company, e.g.Messrs Collier, Clark & Co. It is rather old-fashioned.

Negotiations

Have you ever negotiated?

I guess yes. You might have negotiated for a remote-control or your elder sister's bag or for something more serious, like contract, delivery or payment terms. 

There are many various resources connected with negotiation vocabulary. I strongly advise you to use BBC and British council materials to help you to enlarge your negotiations vocabulary. Using these two sources and a few business books I've elaborated a worksheet called "Negotiations", it can be downloaded here. Hope, you'll find it helpful.

New 7 wonders of the world

Have you heard about the new 7 wonders of the world?

Do you know what are Machu Picchu and Chichen Itza?

If not, you can learn about them using this info (a worksheet which includes listening comprehension based on VOA podcast & other activities) and by watching these videos:

This is the part of "The Bucket List" movie with two wonders of the world. It is a great movie (starring Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman) and I strongly recommend you to watch it all. Anyway, this "wonderous" part includes the scenes of the Egyptian pyramids and the Taj Mahal. Download.

Journey to the centre of the earth ch.3-4

Chapter III "Iceland"

It was very early in the morning when the boat got to Iceland. We could see the round body of the Sneffells Yokul volcano going up into the sky through the clouds. It had snow near the top, and it looked like an angry monster waiting for someone to try and climb it... Download audio.

Chapter IV "Inside the volcano"

The mouth of the volcano was one mile wide. We tied a rope around each other and began to climb down,. Hans went first. The inside of the volcano looked like the inside of an ice-cream cone. Its opening became smaller as we went down because of the rocks left there after explosions... Download audio.

Download the text.

Source: "Express Publishing", Elizabeth Gray

Telephone communication

This is just my short video cut about making telephone calls.

For more telephone expressions go to http://www.learn-english-today.com/business-english/telephone.html