21 June 2012 / by Radmila Gurkova

Potatoes with your car wash?!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Vs-KMuqjI

Attracting business is extremely TOUGH in today’s world but it seems that one Madrilenian car wash owner will go to any extreme to get your money.

He is offering to wash your car and you can take away a bottle of Rioja, three kilos of potatoes or he will buy you a beer in the bar across the road.

His business – The Garaje Espronceda - is in the Chamaberi district of Madrid. Segundo Martin said “We have been some time now with FEWER customers and we were cleaning only 15 cars a day to the PREVIOUS 20. We had to do something as five families live from this business” Segundo is the manager who has worked there for almost 30 years.

He told El Mundo that they all put their heads together and DEVISED with a plan that would revitalize local businesses with offers that could change daily.

They have negotiated with local businesses on discounts so as when clients go to collect their free wine etc they may also do their local shopping – or PARTAKE in a beer or meal.

The garage is surviving and it has brought SOLIDARITY to the district.

What do you think to this business idea? Could you do something similar with your business?!

12

June 2014

What makes a good ESL teacher. Preparation

by Radmila Gurkova

What are the qualities that make a good ESL teacher? When asked at a job interview what makes a good ESL teachers, candidates often praise personal traits such as patience, creativity, knowledge, skills, empathy, experience… But what if you have just finished your TEFL course and are not that experienced yet. Does that mean y...

30

May 2014

FM - Unifying format criteria for TEFL activities. The cherry on the cake!

by Radmila Gurkova

On debate: We need to unify format criteria when creating TEFL activities in order to create the perfect activity. The teachers creating activities and the ones correcting them have to use the same criteria. We agreed to: Creating st...

30

May 2014

TEFL classes by videoconference for elementary level students.

by Radmila Gurkova

TEFL classes by videoconference are often related to high level students. How should our teaching change in order to grant successful and exciting learning experience to our students? On debate: Elementary level stu...

16

May 2014

ESL activity lab. Creating functional beginners material - I play!

by Radmila Gurkova

The purpose of this piece of ESL activity belonging to our activities section for beginners is to introduce the verb 'play'. The previous ESL activity included the verb 'like' as well as 'play' so we removed the verb to like in order to simplify the activity. We introduced 4 Sports which all add something different to the ESL...

13

May 2014

ESL activities for beginners - a new ESL activity is born

by Radmila Gurkova

If you think these faces are too serious and concentrated, you are about right. The guys you are seeing in the picture, part of our Oxbridge TEFL teacher team in Madrid, are deeply engaged in creating ESL activities for beginners. Four teachers. One activity. An ESL activity for beginner learners of English t...

08

May 2014

How to teach beginners English as a foreign language- I want, I don't want

by Radmila Gurkova

How to teach beginners English as a foreign language in the target language only is sometimes a headache for ESL teachers. As it turned out, teaching the function I WANT in English without translating is not that easy. Students tend to confuse its meaning with I LIKE because this structure appears in similar contexts. How to teach beginners I...

20

March 2014

My favorite ESL class

by Radmila Gurkova

We asked different teachers about their favorite ESL class. We wanted them to explain what makes a great ESL class really memorable. We often hear teachers complaining about certain students and classes that were difficult. It's much more productive and rewarding to hear about TEFL teacher's favorite class...

14

March 2014

Positive learning environment: Learn from sports and apply to ESL classes to create the best environment for your students

by Radmila Gurkova

What is the best learning environment and how can we create a positive learning environment in our ESL classes? What can we learn from sports about positive learning environments? ...

07

March 2014

How to teach pronunciation through ESL activities. Say it clearer, not louder

by Radmila Gurkova

The OxbridgeTEFL community launched the project of how to teach pronunciation through ESL activities as a result of the necessity of creating specific tools -apart from the usual work on pronunciation through vocabulary activities- that would target Spanish learners' pronunciation. What moved us ...

27

February 2014

My Top 5 Reasons to do a TEFL course: featuring India Boddy

by Radmila Gurkova

Maki...

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21 June 2012 / by Radmila Gurkova

Potatoes with your car wash?!

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