Sunday, October 12, 2014

Steven Patrick Morissey

Steven Patrick Morissey is an English singer and lyricist. I don’t know if you have ever heard of him, but he is famous for his dynamic performances, his special baritono voice and  his quiff haircut - The quiff is a hairstyle that combines the 1950s pompadour hairstyle, the 50s flattop, and sometimes a mohawk.

He has provoked media controversies for his defence of vegetarianism and animal rights
Everybody knows he doesn’t accept to perform in  a concert if in the stall outside, people sell meat, all the food must be veg.

One of the songs of last Friday performance has the suggesting title “ the bullfighter dies”
The lyrics are easy to understand and the message very clear. I can’t decide if it  is polemic, or controversial, but it is stunning for sure.

Well , you can listen to the song in Youtube, I don’t want to leave the link in my blog ,just in case younger students watch it, but I am really interested in knowing your opinion about bullfight, so let me know in not less than 50 words.


To see quiff style: 





American British English


Recently I have read an article about an English journalist who had been working at The Guardian in New York for three years. She speaks about how English and American are divided by a common language, and, in the end she has decided to use communication accommodation, which is a real science to back this problem up. This theory says that, when people interact they adjust their speech, their vocal pattern and their gestures to accommodate to others. Scientists say the phenomenon of adopting first vocabulary and then even taking on a foreign accent is born out of empathy, or a subconscious desire to fit it.

Oscar Wilde in The Canterville Ghost  - the story about an American family who wants to buy an English haunted castle - wrote “ We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course the language”.

Thinking about all that, I have reminded a song by Sting, An Englishman in New York.


I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear
I like my toast done on one side
And you can hear it in my accent when I talk
I'm an Englishman in New York
I'm an alien I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York




Well, now just in case you have to go to New York and you don’t want to feel like an alien, find out how to say these words in American English.

Term, film, flat, taxi, return ticket, petrol, main road, motorway, underground, subway, pavement, lorry, car park, university, autumn, holiday, fortnight, tap rubbish, dustbin, wardrobe, ground floor, lift, toilet, chips, crisps.