Role Play Hints: At the Doctor's Surgery

ROLE PLAY ACTIVITY 

Patient

You have a pain in your back and you go to the doctor’s looking for advice. Explain to him/her what happened and ask what you should do.

Doctor

You are a doctor, your specialty is back pain.

Listen to your patient’s problem and try to give him/her advice.

You have three minutes to speak. 

That was our task and here is the vocabulary that our class came up with. Thank you to all the NI1 Monday group. We had some great skits and I certainly hope you enjoyed acting out your medical cases and practicing English. 

Useful expressions:

(Dr) How long have you had this pain? =¿Cuánto tiempo llevas con este dolor?

(Dr) When did your pain start? = ¿Cuándo empezó el dolor?

(Dr)  Have you suffered a fall or accident?

(Dr)  Strong pain / stabbing pain  = dolor punzante

(Dr)  Why didn’t you come before? = ¿Por qué no veniste antes?

(Dr) Anti inflammatory medication

(Dr)  I am going to prescribe an anti-inflammatory medication.

(Dr)  I am going to you write you a prescription for an anti-inflammatory medication.

(Dr) Can you explain (describe) to me where the pain is located? = ¿me puedes explicar dónde te duele?

(Dr) Can you tell me where it hurts? = Digame ¿dónde le duele?

(Dr) Lay down = Lie down (tumbarse)

Spine, spinal cord  = columna vertebral 

(Dr) What is your occupation?

(Dr) Does your job require much physical exertion?

(Dr) What do you do in your free time?

(P) When I was cleaning the windows in the salon, I fell off the step ladder.

Vocabulary

Ache = headache, stomachache, backache 

(Careful: "ache" is pronounced “aik”

Medicine = drug, medication

Tiger balm = hot ointment  = pomada caliente

Check = oscultar

Geroge Washington Link

Here is the song that I recorded with my guitar accompanied by my dear fiddler friend Ian Tothill on his violin. Ian was also the sound engineer for this ditty which was recorded at Hen Shea Studios in La Atalaya, Spain. All rights reserved!

George Washington was a Nice Young Man

George Washington was the first president of the United States when that land, for Europeans at least, was very young and unexplored. Washington became a key figure in the country's early development. As a heroic figure and military leader, he was unrivaled. Indeed, the folkloric tales record that one of Washington's greatest attributes was that he was unable to tell a lie, a trait which dated back to his childhood when he apparently cut down one of his father's cherry trees at the family farm near the Potomac River. It is of course the stuff of legend but it made for a great song. This is perhaps the oldest US folk song I know and comes from the African American, southern US tradition. Thanks to David of El Cotillo for putting this class song on YouTube with some images he found on this blog and elsewhere in the www. We hope you like it and keep singing it as you improve your English.

 http://youtu.be/ZsQ1x-f5IZ0

The night of Halloween

An old legend tells the story of two witches, Dorothy and Anne who lived in a small village en La Laguna (Valleseco). They met every year on Halloween night to share charms and scare the children.The village children would collect sweets and then join to tell horror stories. This Halloween night was different.  

The children began to arrive at the village square and sat in a circle around a lamp that only illuminated their faces. The moon hung large and gloomy, in a cloudless night sky. The air felt cold. A black cat jumped out next to them.

The children heard the twelve chimes of the church ringing in the distance…and then, Dorothy and Anne appeared in front of their faces and scared them.

Finally, they ran home and promised not to tell stories of terror on Halloween because that was the most frightening experience of their lives. (by Laura from Antigua, Fuerteventura ... and Fataga in GC!)

Silvia’s Halloween Tale from Galicia

This could be a true story, why not?

A few years ago, I visited my father´s parents in November, just when Halloween started. If you have ever visited Galicia, you know that witches (known as meigas in their local language) are common and significant. Many people believe in them and so legends abound. Celtic culture left a very important inheritance.

One I recall from when I was a little girl. My grandma was preparing dinner, my parents were at the smokestack, my cousins and I were playing in our room, and my uncle was chopping wood. Unexpectedly, we could hear a very loud noise coming from the forest; a strong night wind blew. In a hurry, all of us ran directly outdoors and we could see something like a huge light storm, and scared, we saw that my uncle had disappeared. However, his steps led up to the forest, so we ran till the beginning of the trees but we could not see anything except little shadows throw the shrubs. Just in that moment my parents told my cousin and me “please, get inside the house” and then, since that moment, we would not see him again till next morning. They were looking for my uncle all night long, but they did not manage to find him.

Next day, all my family were very concerned and anxious, so the police went to my house and told us that lots of similarly mysterious events had happened last night. When the police were talking with us, and they were asking many questions, my uncle appeared like a phantom, he was looking tired, dirty, with scratches in his legs and he did not remember anything about what happened.

Since that they day, he has never been the same. Was it a witch thing? It could have been, perhaps.  What I know for sure is that was the most frightening experience of my life.

Silvia P Advanced Level I- Mondays (Puerto del Rosario).

STRANGE NOISES

This story I am going to tell you happened a hot August night in an old cemetery inFuerteventura.

That year I was a child of twelve years old. My brothers Oscar and Juan were fifteen and thirteen years old. Their friends said that you could hear strange noises in the old cemetery at night. We wanted to check it out. We believed ourselves to be very brave and we left the house with an audio recorder because we wanted to record these mysterious sounds.

We entered in the cemetery without difficulty because that place was abandoned for years. It was a hot, very dark night. I still remember the shiver which ran down my spine when I entered that ghostly place. There were many graves in the ground. It was deteriorated, very old and broken wood, all dusty with age and neglect. Suddenly, we heard a terrifying sound like steps on the wood creaking. We looked to where the spooky sound had come and something seemed to be moving. 

My brothers ran at full speed toward the gate. When I ran for the exit my feet sank into the old wood from a grave. I shouted out, while shivering with fright and I tried to free my foot. I just listened to my heartbeat pounding. When I got my foot free  I ran without looking back and I reached my brothers. We never told anyone this story and clearly that was the most frightening experience of our lives.

 

Stella Maris NA1 (EOI Puerto del Rosario)