What was 2025 like for you?

 

 

Don't get blue! Once the year is finished and looking back, what is your overall opinion? It was reasonably OK for me, as many aspects in my life were positive. It is true that there are always hurdles on your way or things that didn't go so well, though. 

 

Anyway, every year is better than the previous one. Getting worse just happens once in a blue moon. And the key for this is to set up new goals to achieve and try to improve those aspects in your life that are weaker.

 

 

 

 

Learning English from the News:   2025: The year's big news stories  (BBC Learning English)  

 

 

The Reading Room:   Is your dog reading your mind?  (BBC Learning English) 

 

 

  Here's my musical hint for today:    Attention by Charlie Puth. And here's a version with the lyrics for you to sing along.

 

 

  

 

Learning English Grammar (the best, the most amazing, the most likely):   Highs and lows  (BBC Learning English) 

Here are some more activities for my students:

• Listening exercise for you to do:   Is it OK to disagree?  (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English) 
  

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  Real Easy English: Talking about New Year's resolutions  (BBC Learning English)  

  
  

• The Listening Room: Female friendship important to gorillas  (BBC Learning English) 

• English in a Minute: Phrases with 'blue'  (BBC Learning English) 

    

 

Work in the future:   What will work be like in the future?  (BBC Learning English)

 

English with Lucy: Do you have B2 ENGLISH? Take this test!    

   

 

"All work and no play makes Jack/Jill a dull boy/girl"

Learn English with    Mr Beast   - 7 days stuck on an island 

 

 

The Day Marat Safin took Pete Sampras to WAR! | Most DRAMATIC Match You've NEVER SEEN

 

Comic on The Thief of Always by Javier Lahora (2º ESO B)

 

 

 

 

"I'm walking away"

 

Are you? I am not. I have never chickened out and I will always stay by your side on this tough road of learning, although that is something I sometimes hear from some of my students. 

 

 

 

 Here's my musical hint for today:  Walking away by Craig David. And here's a version with the lyrics for you to sing along.

 

By the way, I wish you the best for the New Year. 2026 is another step in our lives and we must begin the best we can. Have you got any New Year's resolutions for 2026?

 

 

 

New Year's celebrations around the world | DW news 

Happy New Year Live! 🎆 London Fireworks 2026 🔴 (BBC News)

 

 

New Year’s Eve celebrations around the world (The Guardian)

 

 

Real Easy English:   Talking about laughing  (BBC Learning English)

 

 

The Reading Room:   Can we trust technology in sport?  (BBC Learning English) 

 

 

  

 

Learning English Grammar ('a/an', 'the' & 'zero article'...):   The great outdoors  (BBC Learning English) 

 

Here are some more activities for my students:

• Listening exercise for you to do:   How are influencers affecting politics?  (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English) 
  

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  Learning English from the News: First treasure recovered from $20bn sunken ship  (BBC Learning English)  

  
  

• The Listening Room: Michelin-starred chef's lobster bisque and foie gras heading to space  (BBC Learning English) 

• English in a Minute: Phrases with BABY  (BBC Learning English) 

    

 

Work in the future:   How can we stay cyber safe?  (BBC Learning English)

 

English with Lucy: Stop making these mistakes!!!    

   

 

"All work and no play makes Jack/Jill a dull boy/girl"

Learn English with    Emily in Paris    

 

 

This Irish Christmas Tradition Will Steal Your Heart | Dance, Little Wren    

 

 

 

GOALS, GOALS!!!!

No, we are not talking about football. We are talking about personal goals for professional development (Friday phrase, BBC Learning English). What are your personal goals for this year? Pass all the subjects, get your B1 or B2....?

Here are some related articles for you to read about the issue:

• Setting realistic goals (BBC News)

• Year-long resolutions don't work. Here's how to make 12 'micro-resolutions' instead (CNN, health)

• The six-pack can wait: how to set fitness goals you will actually keep (The Guardian)

 

News Review   >>   Neymar admits exaggerating (BBC Learning English)

 

Neymar admits to exaggerating his reactions during the World Cup | Your Morning

 

 

One goal our society has now in mind is to stop this epidemy. Latest news  >>>  Coronavirus: Third UK patient 'caught coronavirus in Singapore' - BBC News

 

English in a Minute:  4 uses of QUITE   (BBC Learning English)

 

 

Here's a good listening exercise for you to do: Could you give up fast fashion? (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English)

LINGOHACK  >>>

• Episode 200219 / 19 February 2020    >>>  New treatment for nut allergy  -    Language related to 'allergies'.  Need-to-know language: anaphylaxis, hives, tolerant, diagnosis & dietary restrictions.

Top 35 Legendary Goals In Football History

 

 

January, a bitter pill to swallow

Here comes January (a bitter pill to swallow, do we have the same expression in Spanish?). Back to our daily routines, but this time it is the start of a new year, time for resolutions, time to think about the future. So let's begin revising the FUTURE TENSES (remember you can have a loot at all the tenses and their uses in my site):

Present Continuous

• Future arrangements as part of your agenda (We have already bought the flights for Dublin, so we are flying there from Malaga airport on 14th March)

  
Future Simple

• Abstract future (One day the Man will travel to Mars and live there.)
• making general predictions or giving opinions about the future. (I hope I will win the lottery one day. I think she will visit us next summer).
• Decisions taken at this very moment. ('Someone is knocking at the door.'   'Don't move. I'll open the door). TO MAKE A POLITE OFFER. You can also use SHALL to make a polite offer ('Shall I open the door for you?')
• TO MAKE A POLITE REQUEST with WILL ('Will you open the door for me, please?). If you want to sound politer, you will use WOULD (Would you open the door for me, please? Would you be so kind...? Would you mind opening...?)
• TO MAKE A SUGGESTION with SHALL ('Shall we go to the cinema this evening?)

 GOING TO Future

• Predictions based on evidence. (Look at those clouds! I think it is going to rain this afternoon).
• Personal plans and intentions (They are going to spend their winter holidays in the Alps). When these plans and intentions are shared with other people, they become arrangements and then we use the present continuous.

 Future Continuous

• Actions that will be in progress at a certain time in the future. (Tomorrow morning at this time I will be lying on the beach next to my girlfriend).
• Formal arrangements, especially used by tour guides (On Wednesday we will be flying to Copenhagen and then we will be visiting the Lofoten Islands at the weekend).

 Future Perfect

• Actions or events that will be completed by a specific time in the future, often used with the time expression BY THE TIME (para cuando). (I will have written the composition by the time you arrive home).

 to be about to do sth

• It is similar to the GOING TO future, but it mainly has a time meaning  >>  La película estaba a punto de empezar (The film was about to start when the TV set broke down).

 to be to do sth

• It has a similar meaning of EXTERNAL OBLIGATION to the modal verb HAVE TO in some cases and in others it has got a time meaning (You are to watch That's English every morning).

So tell me about your plans, arrangements, resolutions, hopes...

And now what do you think about this issue: Will Obama ever pass a US gun law (News report) in the United States?

Articles to read:

• Obama's gun control plan may be watered down, but it's not flat (The Guardian)
• Obama details executive action on gun restrictions (The Washington Post)
• Barack Obama takes action over US gun laws (BBC News)

Talking about the future, have you made any resolutions about the way we look (listening exercise)?

LINGOHACK:  Episode 160106 / 06 Jan 2016  >>>  Expressions presented: announcement, suspended & bionic.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I wish all the best for the coming new year!!!

What are your New Year's resolutions? Remember that the tense required to express a resolution or a promise is the GOING TO future (Example: I promise I'm going to correct all your comments you make as quickly as possible.)

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

What are New Year's resolutions? 

Make a guess and then look up what they are about.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

Have you made any yet? Could you tell us some of them?



...and how many of them did you make last year and how many of them did you really keep?