Yolanda's blog

Some say it was invented in 14th century Germany. Others credit the Blackhawk tribe of Illinois. Still others point to a Kentucky farmer in the 1800s. Whatever its origins, the game cornhole emerged as a favorite pastime in Cincinnati about 15 years ago and soon spread like wildfire to back yards, beaches, breweries, and campgrounds across the United States, even here in the Empire State. In 2011 the New York Times declared that the Midwest’s favorite game is ‘’sweeping the Northeast.’’ If you’ve been to a professional football game and walked past pre-game tailgating parties in the parking lot, you probably saw people playing a version of the game, often called tailgate toss. That’s because fans of the Cincinnati Bengals introduced cornhole to fellow tailgaters from opposing teams, and it spread from NFL parking lot to NFL parking lot after that. Today cornhole games are sold everywhere in every imaginable form. In addition to traditional boards decorated with sports teams, fam...

An amazing set of personal tips on how you might live your days more gracefully till you get aged. Do you agree with them ? Leave your comments, your feelings on this! Source: CBC Radio

Discover how and when Americans celebrated Independence Day in the past. Although Benjamin Franklin thought we'd celebrate the 2nd of July; the 4th of July is closest to our hearts. Did you know New York City has the biggest fireworks display in the United States and that three U.S. presidents died on July 4?

Some of you have asked me about activities or programmes to improve your speaking skills during the summer. Well, this is one of the options available here in Santander, and... free: HABLAMOS is an agreement between the UIMP and our EOI to promote conversation exchanges among students.  One of my students took part in these exchanges and she was really kind to write an essay describing her experience to encourage other students to participate. CLICK HERE to read it. So, what are you waiting for? Click on the image and sign up.

Two famous authors, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, had a deep friendship. CS Lewis helped JRR Tolkien get published, but Tolkien admitted he didn’t even like Lewis’ work, especially "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," which he thought was terrible. Both were Christians and heavily influenced by Christian ideology. Tolkien says "Lord of the Rings" was a deeply Catholic book, while Lewis was more influenced by writers of the Renaissance who were fascinated by Pagan mythology. Listen as this radio story explores the two authors' friendship and motivations. Listening Comprehension Questions: What impact did Tolkien have on Lewis’ personal religious belief? How was Lewis responsible for Tolkien being a published author? Lewis was a fan of Tolkien’s work. How did Tolkien feel about "The Chronicles of Narnia" by Lewis? How did Lewis and Tolkien see fantasy differently? What other time periods and legacies influenced Tolkien? What influenced L...

Is it the end of language teaching and language learning as we know them? Meet the PILOT: Being lost in translation has happened to everyone while traveling, even us, and that's exactly how the idea was born. Waverly Labs is at the convergence of wearable technology + machine translation, developing the world's first smart earpiece language translator. Using the latest technologies in speech recognition, machine translation and the advances of wearable technology, our smart earpiece allows wearers to speak different languages but still clearly understand each other. Simply put, when one person speaks, the other hears it in their language. Science fiction has called it many things, but we call it Pilot. 

A Palestinian man says he was tricked into selling a mural by the artist, Banksy, that is estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rabie Darduna told the BBC he was given less than $175 (£118) for the image drawn on the only remaining door of his house in Gaza. It was one of thousands of homes destroyed during last year's conflict. Yolande Knell reports.