Dead Air

Dead Air

By Bulldog ZEducationLanguage Learning
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Dead Air episodes

  • SoundBook - The Signalman by Charles Dickens

    The signalman is an eerie horror suspense story by Charles Dickens, first published as part of a collection of railway-themed stories called The Mugby Junction in the 1866 Christmas edition of All the Year Round. All the Year Round was a weekly literary magazine founded and owned by Dickens himself, it hosted the serialised versions of many prominent novels including Dickens’ own A Tale of Two Cities’ The Mugby Junction was a project very close to Dickens’ heart, on June 9th 1865 Dickens survived the Staplehurst rail crash. For more information on the background on the work please head over to our article on the story here. The short tale is a first person account of a mysterious encounter between a doctor and a signalman. The railway man seems troubled and as the doctor pursues his concerns a ghastly series of incidents and paranormal happenings emerge, building toward a chilling climax. The full text is available on our website. Read more about the life and times of Charles Dickens with our article "Charles Dickens, Father of Christmas" This audio drama was produced by Bulldogz featuring Merrick Wells as the narrator and Benjamin Ansell as all other parts. The original music is by Merrick Wells. Produced as part of the Bulldogz SoundBook series.

    33 min
  • Inside Aragón - November 6th
    An overview of the latest restrictions in Aragón, the trend of young people renting flats for weekend parties and the reclassification of the Spanish language in education.
    Latest restrictions
    The Aragón Government published the latest State Bulletin on Thursday 5th November setting out the new restrictions in place across the region which come into force Friday 6th November.
    More information here:
    https://www.bulldogz.org/post/arag%C3%B3n-restrictions-what-can-t-we-do-now
    Renting Houseparties
    With the COVID crisis driving politicians to implement escalating restrictions on everyday life, enterprising young Maños in Zaragoza have taken to renting empty holiday apartments so they can socialize in relative peace. The trend has been met with a wave of concern regarding risks of contagion.
    More information here:
    https://www.bulldogz.org/post/renting-a-house-party-a-growing-trend-in-zaragoza-draws-criticism
    Spanish declassified as the official language
    In an amendment agreed between the PSOE, Podemos and ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya/ Catalan Left Republic) the reference to Spanish being the "vehicular language" throughout Spain has been removed which effectively means it is no longer classified as the default or primary working language in the education system.
    More information here:
    https://www.bulldogz.org/post/spanish-declassified-as-the-official-language-of-the-state
    We also confirm that autonomos can self certificate for perimeter crossing and we ask you to adopt a local brewery once again. Check out the home delivery offers from our friends at Ordio Minero and Liquidos and tell them Bulldogz sent you!
    18 min
  • Inside Aragón - 31 October Locked down again?
    Our latest news round up podcast covers the uncomfortable development of potential return to national lockdown alongside some other local stories, including the Cocaine shipment intercepted by the Zaragoza city perimeter check points, the unfortunate optics of leading politicians attending banquets in opulent surroundings and an interview with a local chef about how the hostelry sector are adjusting to the challenging reality of the new normal.
    13 min
  • Inside Aragón 24/10/2020
    We await the next political decision which will have profound implications on ll our lives, but, at least, not until next week...Read more at our website www.bulldogz.org
    15 min
  • Interesting Etymologies - Recent Creations
    In this short instalment, we take a look at some recent words that have come into being. Charly manages to surprise us all with the unexpected etymology of the word "vegetarian", seriously, it is not what you think it is. Otherwise, this is a whirlwind tour around the recent language of the internet. We recommend taking a trip to the Urban Dictionary web page to investigate some of these recent phrases and words. https://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...
    5 min
  • Interesting Etymologies - Folk etymologies
    Our series continues with an exploration of some common "folk etymologies" in English. Many of these come from French. These are words where we all think we know the back story but in fact coincidence of sound or something that seems obvious on the face of it can be misleading. Charly does talk about Russian words for the first couple of minutes, do not be alarmed, it does not last for long!
    8 min
  • Interesting Etymologies - diacritics
    A short tour of diacritics in English, and their absence. The circumflex accent and the acute are often substituted for a missing letter. What looks like an impenetrable and intimidating topic can quickly be understood in context of the etymology.
    4 min

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Learn about the English language, culture, history and traditions with the Bulldogz team of native teachers and special guests!