Halloween 1

Where did it begin?

Halloween (whose meaning comes from All Hallows’ eve) is celebrated on 31st October and although many people think this is an American festival its origins are Celtic. It represents the summer’s end and also combines some parts of the festival of the dead (All Saints’ day 1st November). During the mid nineteenth century America accepted a lot of European immigrants, a large number of them Irish escaping the great famine. Americans seemed to enjoy learning these lively peoples’ traditions and were soon dressing up and joining in the party atmosphere of Halloween by going to house to house asking for food or money, which is how the tradition of ‘trick or treat’ began. It’s fair to say that the American celebrations are on a much bigger scale than British ones and it is now the second largest celebration in America.

Is it a religious festival?

The short answer to this question is no, most people nowadays see this as a secular celebration. Additionally, British and American film makers have commercialised the images of Halloween and created endless horror films giving this celebration a darker and more evil feel moving it away from religion.

What do people do?

Many people dress up in costumes such as ghosts, skeletons, devils and witches and may go to parties. Children go trick-or-treating on Halloween in fancy dress too. They go from house to house asking for sweets or cakes and if the homeowners don’t give them anything they can play a ‘trick’ on them such as crack an egg on their car!


Popular games to play at Halloween are ‘apple bobbing’ and ‘hanging doughnuts’. The first involves floating apples in a tub and someone has to get one out using their teeth. The second involves hanging doughnuts up by a string and them being eaten without using hands. People often eat toffee apples (apples on a stick covered in caramel) delicious but bad for the teeth!



Things to do in London for Halloween

So why not have a fancy dress party or go on a ghost walk or if you fancy something a little less active then go to the cinema and watch an old British Hammer Horror film!

My Halloween

I shall be going on a ghost walk and then to a fancy dress party. I’ll let you know how I got on in a couple of days. Have fun and happy haunting!!!

Glossary

Immigrants - a person who goes to live in another country, usually for
permanently
Celtic - of Irish, Scottish or Welsh descent
Lively - full of life or energy
Secular - not religious or spiritual
Skeleton - bones of a human
Floating - being buoyed up on water (not sinking)

Picture of pumpkin courtesy of FreeFoto.com - a resource for royalty free photographs for sharing on the internet. Click here to visit FreeFoto.com

Andy's Trip to Jeju-do

Andy, who is a teacher at the London School of English in Daegu, continues to tell us about his adventures in South Korea.

'The following weekend was a long one, so a couple of workmates and I went to Jeju-do, a sub-tropical, volcanic island about 100 miles off the south coast of Korea. We had an exausting time of it, cycling literally continuously uphill from the sea-level airport for 4 hours, gaining a height of 2000ft, after which we stopped at a solitary mountainside pension (like a cottage) for the night. The next morning we climbed the remaining 4000ft of the volcano - 'Hallasan' -which formed the island, in blistering hot sunshine, finishing on the lip of a magnificent volcanic crater, with great views over a blanket of cloud. We descended back to the pension, then the next day cycled another 80K, virtually all downhill, to the east coast, where we stopped for a great lunch of cold beer and raw fish by the sea, in front of a stunning volcanic crater out in the water, before testing ourselves to our physical limits to get the bikes back to the hiring place in the city for 6pm! After that we had a much-deserved rest, before heading out to the casino, where we were nearly tossed out for gambling too little, and pushing their free beer concept to the limit! I broke even on the roulette, which was cool, it being my first time, but then lost 15 quid on my first hand at blackjack, and decided to call it a day (canny Scot that I am!).'

Glossary
workmates - people you work with
solitary - alone, with nothing around
cottage - small house usually in the countryside
crater - the hole at the top of the volcano
tossed out - thrown out/asked to leave
roulette - a game in a casino
quid - slang for £
canny - clever
Scot - person from Scotland

A message from Andy at LSE in South Korea

Andy Innes is from Scotland and he is a teacher at the London School of English in Daegu, South Korea. He's joining the blog over the next week or two to tells us some stories about his time in Daegu.

In this post he's going to tell us about a 10km race he did.

'All my training in my excellently-priced gym came to a peak recently (in theory!), and I entered a 10K run here in Daegu. It was a fabulously crisp and clear morning, but my joy was eventually worn down as my nights out made themselves known and my fatigue took over! However, having the energy to sprint past so many people to the finish on the same running track the 2011 World Athletics Championships will be held on was something special, and the old feeling of forgetting about finishing times and enjoying the communal spirit took over! What a day! I got a cool medal with 'International Marathon' on it (with '10K' in small letters), as well as some Korean writing, so I was quite happy! I got a cool certificate too, even if the time on it was my worst ever!'

Look out for some more stories from Andy in the next couple of weeks!

Lost for words 2

Lost for words 2
Fillers
Learn useful words for spoken fluency and speaking examinations.

Here is the reduced text from the post on fillers. Were you able to get the basic message? Remember the text was exaggerated and no body would really use that many fillers altogether in such a short piece of speaking, but they are used regularly in everyday English conversations. See the notes below taken and adapted from the Longman Exams Dictionary (Pearson Longman 2006) for more information on the fillers.


There are lots of times in our daily conversations when we use unnecessary words. It’s like, what we say has no real meaning and sometimes we just need to keep on speaking while we’re trying to think about what we want to say and how we’re going to say it. Being able to use these unnecessary words can help with spoken fluency, which improve our speaking by filling the gaps we would leave if we didn’t use these words.

Actually - Used to add new information to what you have just said, to give an opinion or to start a new conversation. Also used to emphasize the real truth of something.

Sometimes - on some occasions not always.

Well - Used to emphasize what you are saying or used to pause to give yourself time to think.

In a manner of speaking - in some ways but not exactly.

If you catch my drift - used to check if someone understands the general meaning of what you have said or if they are following the conversation.

At the end of the day - used to give your final opinion after considering everything.

The bottom line is - used to tell someone what the most important part of a situation is or what the most important thing to consider is.

A bit - slightly, to a small degree.

Whatchamacallit - a word used when you can't remember the name of something.

In some way - used to say there is a fact or feature of something that makes a statement true.

In fact - used to add something or to emphasize what you just said.

From time to time - sometimes but not very often.

To be honest - used to say what you really think.

Maybe - not certain, possible

I hope these are helpful, try to notice native English speakers using fillers to develop your knowledge of how they are used. Being able to use fillers in you speaking will help you to become fluent and as i said in the previous post they are useful and positive in all English speaking exams.

Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space

This week, I’m preparing to teach the Cambridge Advanced Certificate here at the school. One of the tasks in the Writing exam is to write a review. A good review should do the following:

• Immediately get the reader’s attention.
• Clearly describe something the writer has done or experienced.
• Give a clear impression of what the item discussed is like.
• Give the writer’s opinion, positive or negative.
• Usually make a recommendation to the reader.
• Be between 220-260 words.

Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Well, I thought I’d give it a go, so this week’s blog post is my review of a concert I went to see last night. Please let me know what you think!

Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space

Last night I went to see a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank. It was by a band called Spiritualized and they were performing their seminal 1997 album, Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space, in its entirety. Now, I love this album and it is one of my all-time favourites. I would recommend it to anyone! It’s a timeless, beautifully recorded masterpiece which mixes rock, R & B and blues, with a full orchestra and the London Community Gospel Choir thrown in for good measure.

Because of this, I must admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect. How could the band reproduce the sound of all of the musical elements on the CD live on stage? Would the performance live up to the high standards of the album I’ve been listening to for the last 12 years? Would the show be a disappointment?

As it happened, I needn’t have worried so much. As well as the band, the Gospel Choir turned up on stage, along with a horn and string section. There must have been over 50 people on the stage, and most of the time they succeeded in creating an amazing sound, although at times the sound levels were a bit off. For example, it was quite difficult to hear the violins over the guitars and occasionally the lyrics were incomprehensible.

All in all though, it was a fantastic gig and a great experience and certainly something I won’t forget in a hurry.

Glossary

to give something a go to try to do something, especially something you have not done before.

South Bank the southern bank of the river Thames in central London, famous for its museums, galleries, concert halls, theatres and restaurants.

seminal an important piece of work that influences the way things develop in the future.

in its entirety including every part.

timeless remaining attractive and not becoming old-fashioned.

masterpiece a work of art, a piece of writing or music etc that is of very high quality or that is the best that a particular artist, musician etc has produced.

thrown in for good measure to add something to the value.

reproduce to make something happen in the same way that it happened before.

to live up to to be as good as an expected standard

to turn up to arrive at a place.

horn/string section the part of an orchestra with brass/stringed instruments

a bit off not quite correct or normal

incomprehensible difficult or impossible to understand

gig an informal word for concert

Some definitions taken from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Pearson Education Ltd 2003

Image taken from http://www.spiritualized.com/, copyright Melanie Nyema.

Wonderful words

What is your favourite word in your own language? Have you ever thought why it is your favourite word? Why do you like it?

It might be because of how the word looks written down. It might be the sound of the word as you say it. It could be the feeling that you get about what the word represents. Or it could be something else completely.

According to Godfrey Smith in Beyond the Tingle Quotient these are some of the most attractive words in the English Language:

shimmer
murmur
darling
silken
willow
golden
caress
tranquil
crystal
mellifluous
peace
autumn

How many of the words do you know? My favourite word is murmur, which means to speak very quietly or in an unclear way. I like it because of how it looks and sounds – it’s two sounds repeated (mur-mur). It also reminds me of one of the first CDs I ever bought which was simply called “Murmur”.

Quite often we like words, even if we don’t fully understand what they mean. It doesn’t really matter, unless you want to use the words when speaking or writing. Which word is your favourite? Why?

Let me know and I’ll tell you what it means!

Lost For Words -
Fillers
Learn useful words for spoken fluency and speaking examinations.

I'm currently teaching the IELTS course at The London School of English at our Westcroft Square school and I have been talking to my class about how to use fillers. These are spoken words we use to fill the gaps that we leave when we are thinking about what to say. They are helpful for all speaking exams because they help to give you some time to develop your ideas, while keeping the conversation going. They can make you sound fluent and more natural, as well as help you to avoid long pauses when you are speaking.

Have a look at the following text which uses a large number of fillers. Can you reduce the text to it's most basic meaning?

Basically, like, there are lots of times, kind of, in our daily conversations, when we, sort of use, a lot of unnecessary words, if you know what I mean, and, y’know it’s a bit like, what we say has no real meaning, and, um, actually, sometimes, well, it’s like we just need to keep on speaking, while, we’re trying to, kind of, think about, what we want to say, and, in a manner of speaking, how we’re going to say it, if you catch my drift? At the end of the day, the bottom line is, being able to use these unnecessary words, a bit, can, kind of help a bit, with whachamacallit, spoken fluency, which, in some way, can, in fact, improve our speaking, from time to time, and, to be honest, by, sort of, filling the gaps, we would, sort of leave, if we, maybe, didn’t use these words.

I'll post up the reduced text next week. In the meantime,how many of the fillers do you know and use when you are speaking?