The London School of English World Blog

We have moved

2010-08-04T11:18:00.003+01:00

We have moved!

The London School of English World Blog has a new home:

http://www.londonschool.com/language-talk/language-blog/

The new blog promises to be bigger, better and faster! Thank you all for your support and readership over the past year as we have developed and established the blog.

We look forward to hearing from you on the new site in the future.

Many thanks,

Andy, Luke, Ben, Heather and Sophie
(The Blog Team)

Culture Shock

2010-07-28T17:52:00.004+01:00

A couple of months ago, here on this blog, I wrote about my experiences of homesickness and culture shock when I was out in Azerbaijan teaching IELTS. Although a lot of water has passed under the bridge since I was in Baku, and I now look back fondly on my time there, I vividly remember the feelings of loneliness and frustration I encountered. It made me wonder why I was feeling the way I was, and whether these feelings were natural.

It’s generally accepted that there are four common stages of homesickness:

Exaltation – when you first arrive in a new country everything is so new, fresh and exciting. You feel a sense of wonder as each day is like an adventure. This can last for a few days or a few weeks. But it won’t last forever.
Frustration – after you’ve been in a new environment for some time, you begin to ask yourself why you’re there – or more specifically, what are you doing here when you could be back home with your friends and family where you belong. You begin to miss the things you took for granted at home, like watching familiar programmes on TV or reading the paper.
Depression – this is the next, and the hardest, stage of homesickness. You often feel isolated or reluctant to go out. You may find that you sleep a lot more than you usually do, and that you are generally unhappy.
Acceptance – at this point you come to the realisation that although your new home isn’t perfect, neither is anywhere else. You start to adapt to the culture and begin to feel that you fit in more. You develop routines, learn a bit of the lingo and even make some friends among the locals.

In my case, I experienced all of these stages bar the last one. I was only away from home for a few weeks, though had it been longer I’m sure I would’ve got to stage four. We see a lot of students here at the school that go through some, if not all of these phases. The main thing to remember, and I have experienced this first hand, is that they are only temporary, and there are always things you can do to speed up the process.

Have you ever experienced culture shock or homesickness? If so, how did you get through the darker days? Please let me know, and I’ll write again soon with some ideas of my own to help speed up the process.

If you'd like to read my original post on homesickness, you can do here.

water under the bridge - (idiom.) an expression meaning that a lot of time has gone by
to look back fondly - (phr.v + adv.) to remember something in a positive way
vividly - (adv.) clearly
exaltation - (n.) a feeling of excitement and happiness
a sense of wonder - (fixed expression) a feeling that everything experience is exciting and new
more specifically - (adv.) more importantly
take sth for granted - (fixed expression) to get used to having something which you would perhaps miss if it was taken away
to adapt - (v.) to change in order to suit certain conditions
lingo - (n.) language (slang)
bar - (v.) apart from
phase - (n.) stage/period
to experience sth first hand - (idiom) to have personal experience of something
darker days - (adj. + n.) difficult times

Top 5 Things to Do in London in the Summer

2010-07-20T19:28:00.008+01:00

London is at its best in the summer. This city has so much to offer, and when you add good weather into the equation, I think it is one of the best cities in Europe.

We have a lot of students in the school at this time of year and they all want to know about some of the best things to do in order to make the most of their time in London. So, here's my personal list of the top 5 things to do in London!

1. Go rowing on the serpentine in Hyde Park

Hyde Park is one of London's best known tourist attractions and it's a fantastic place to be during the summer. It's a really big park with lots of people enjoying themselves everywhere. It's also quite a historic place, with plenty of interesting sightseeing spots such as the Albert Memorial opposite the magnificent Royal Albert Hall in Kensington, the various Victorian era statues around the park and of course the Serpentine lake in the middle. Here you can rent rowing boats for an hour or more - what better way to enjoy the sunshine in a great location? You can row around and enjoy the peaceful feeling of being on the water and it's easy to forget you're in one of the busiest and largest cities in Europe. Lovely.

2. Go to the outdoor cinema at Somerset House

Somerset House is a very impressive neoclassical building on the north bank of the river Thames near Waterloo Station. It was built in the late 18th century and it's definitely one of London's most beautiful and interesting buildings. There are all kinds of events and exhibitions held there including music, art, an ice-rink and on warm summer evenings they show old movies on a big screen in the courtyard. Imagine sitting with hundreds of Londoners, surrounded by 18th century architecture, watching a classic James Bond movie such as Goldfinger (showing this August). It's magical!

3. Watch a game of cricket at Chiswick House

Cricket is the perfect summer sport in England. The atmosphere of a peaceful village green on a lazy Sunday afternoon is what cricket is all about. Chiswick House is a great place for this, and not many people know about it! The house (built in 1729) is beautiful, and there's a cricket field nearby. Go there on a Sunday afternoon and you'll feel like you've discovered the real England, with sporting gentlemen, cups of tea at 3.30, the sound of leather on willow, and long shadows as the afternoon becomes the evening. Don't worry if you don't understand cricket - just enjoy the ambiance. It's idyllic.

Walk along the canal from Camden Lock to Regents Park and have a picnic

This is a great way to sample the variety of enjoyment available in London. Start by taking the tube to Camden Town. Here you'll see a cool side of the city with plenty of live music venues, old fashioned pubs full of trendy young people dressed in the latest fashionable gear and market stalls selling cheap clothes and all kinds of cool hats and sunglasses. Walk along the high street past Camden Market and you'll get to Camden Lock where you can stop for a coffee and grab some sandwiches for your picnic later. Then walk along the canal (built the early 19th century) and you'll see lovely canal barges, some beautiful houses by the water and some genuine graffiti by Banksy. If you keep walking for about 10 minutes you can leave the canal to get into Regents Park. If you like you can stop and look at some of the animals in London Zoo before you find a quiet spot in the park to eat your sandwiches. Mmmm, nice.

Go on the London Eye during sunset

Why not finish your perfect day by seeing all of London, all at the same time? You might have to queue for a while, but it's worth it, especially if you get the timing right and go up while the sun's going down. The London Eye is one of the city's best attractions because it gives you the best view of the whole city. It makes you realise that London is very big indeed! Try spotting famous landmarks like Wembley Stadium, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and Waterloo Station. During sunset it is absoultely stunning, and with a glass of champagne - perfect.

So those are my top tips for enjoying London in the summer. Of course, there are plenty of other things you can do so get out there and enjoy yourselves!

Luke

Have you been to London? What would you recommend?

What about your city? Do you think it can beat London for interesting things to do?

Feel free to leave your comments below.

Image courtesy of FreeFoto.com

Practising Language Skills

2010-07-19T20:07:00.006+01:00

I had a holiday a few weeks ago and I went to Alicante in Spain. I chose to visit this city because I know someone who has a flat there and I have recently been attending Spanish classes. I’ve visited different parts of Spain at various stages of my life a have picked up a few words and phrases, however I had never attended a class until recently. I found the class allowed me to put more structure and cohesion to my sentences and I was able to say and understand more.
I was really excited when I arrived in Spain and was really keen to practice my Spanish. However, I soon became really disappointed and frustrated when the people I talked to, spoke really fast and I couldn’t understand them apart from the odd word. It was also annoying to see their puzzled faces as they tried to work out what I was saying. I felt a bit useless but I realised that this is a normal feeling to have. It’s impossible to learn a language over night and I understand that I now need to work harder and practice more with native speakers if I’m going to improve.
While I was in Spain I found the opportunity to practice helped my Spanish mainly by making me aware of what I can and can’t do and what areas I need to improve. The most obvious area that I need to work on is my listening. It’s fine being able to understand a teacher or class mates but speaking outside the classroom is a lot faster and less structured than I’m used to.
Since I’ve been back I’ve started listening to 5-10 minutes of Spanish every day and I feel I’m getting better. I focus on key words and try to get the main ideas of what I’m listening to rather than worry about trying to catch everything, as I know real life won’t give me time to stop and try and understand every word. I’m making progress slowly and the main reason is that I know my weaknesses and these are the areas I’m trying to improve. Let me know what you think of my experience and how you feel when trying to improve your English.

various – n different
to pick up - phr. v [t] to learn some thing from experience
cohesion – n uniting different phrases, sentences or text
disappointed – adj. saddened or depressed by the failure of hope or expectations
frustrated – adj. not satisfied because of being unable to do something
puzzled – adj. feeling confused
to be aware of – adj. phr. having the knowledge of
obvious – adj. easily seen or understood

Answers to Wordforming

2010-07-04T18:40:00.007+01:00

Here are the answers to the word forming article. Hope you got them right. To read the first part click here.

1. She was delighted when she heard that she had been successful in her interview.
2. He always waited for her to choose the film, he was so indecisive.
3. Due to the recession a lot of people don’t have jobs and therefore unemployment is high.
4. When selecting our new suppliers, reliability is the most important benefit to us.
5. The sales forecast was promising but the results were dramatically better.

Passive Verb Forms Part 2

2010-06-20T21:56:00.004+01:00

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about passive verb forms which included an exercise in which you had to read an article about Michael Jackson, find the passive forms, identity the tense for each one and then decide why the passive is used in each case. Doing this exercise should give you a clear understanding of how and why passive structures are used in English.

To read the first part of this post, click here.

Below you will see a table in which I explain the passive sentences which were used in the article about Michael Jackson. This table will explain which tense each sentence is in, and why the passive is used in each case:

If you have any questions, just add a comment at the bottom of the page.

Example

Tense

Why is the passive used?

Paramedics were called to the singer’s Beverly Hills home

Past simple

It is not important/we don’t know who called the paramedics

He was pronounced dead

Past simple

It’s obvious that doctors at the hospital pronounced him dead

Jackson had been due to perform a series of comeback concerts

Past perfect

Actually, it is impossible to put this sentence in an active form. To be due to do something is just a fixed passive expression

He is believed to have suffered a cardiac arrest

Present simple

Obviously, doctors/experts/journalists believe this

Jackson’s body was flown

Past simple

We don’t know/it’s unimportant/obvious who flew the plane – and the story is all about Jackson’s body.

a post-mortem was carried out

Past simple

Obviously, doctors carried out the post mortem

The results have not yet been published.

Present perfect

We don’t know/it’s not important/it’s obvious who publish the reports. Doctors or lawyers or something…

Concerns over Michael’s health were raised last month

Past simple

We don’t know – just that people were concerned. Putting the concern at the beginning (as a noun) is better than saying ‘people were concerned’ – the important thing is the concern, not the people.

four of Jackson’s planned comeback concerts were postponed

Past simple

Obviously, they were postponed by Jackson’s managers & promotors

the dates had been moved

Past perfect

Again, we know who moved them – it was his managers

I hope this post has helped you to understand passives a bit more. Remember, if you have any questions about passive verb forms, just add a comment below!

Luke.

Word Forming

2010-06-14T23:13:00.007+01:00

I’ve recently had the pleasure of preparing a highly-motivated class of 9 for the BEC Vantage exam which they took on Saturday 29th May (fingers crossed they’ll all pass!) This is a Cambridge business exam for upper-intermediate students and is the same level as the FCE (Cambridge First Certificate) however, in my opinion it’s slightly harder as you must have a good range of business vocabulary. One of the things that helped my class with this is exam was learning how to form words in English and so I thought that this may help you with your English too. My advice is to learn the main prefixes and suffixes that we use in English and then practise word building by adding them to the ‘base’ form of the word. Why learn one word when you can learn 4 instead?!

So what is a prefix?

Prefixes are at the beginning of word and they often change the meaning of the word. Here is a list of some common prefixes and what they mean:

Anti - against e.g. anti-war
Co - with e.g. coordinate
Dis, in, il, im, ir, un - opposite or not, e.g. discomfort, indirect, impractical, irregular,
unimportant
Ex - former
Mis - badly or wrongly e.g. misbehave
Re - again e.g. reread

So what is a suffix?

Suffixes are at the end of the word and they change the form of a word and these endings show us which are nouns, verbs, adjective and adverbs. Here is a list of some common suffixes and what they mean:

Able, al, ant, ent, ful, ible, ic, ical, ive, less, ous - adjectives e.g. profitable, vital, tolerant, excellent, successful, feasible, artistic, musical, creative, hopeless, fabulous

Ance, ee, ence, er, hood, ism, ist, ity, ment, ness, sion, tion, ship, - nouns e.g. ignorance, employee, independence, employer, neighbourhood, Buddhism, vitality, employment, fitness, decision, induction, friendship

Ify, ise - verbs e.g. intensify, criticise

Ably, ibly, ily, ly - adverbs e.g. predictably,reliably, happily, absolutely

OK, let’s see if you can use this information to form words below. Fill in the gaps using the base form of the word given in brackets.

1. She was delighted when she heard that she had been .................... (success) in her interview.
2. He always waited for her to choose the film, he was so......................... (decide)
3. Due to the recession a lot of people don’t have jobs and therefore............................. (employ) is high.
4. When selecting our new suppliers, ......................(rely) is the most important benefit to us.
5. The sales forecast was promising but the results were ..............................(dramatic) better.

I’ll put the correct answers on our blog next week, good luck!

Glossary

Highly-motivated - Very very keen to do or achieve something

Fingers crossed - To hope that something turns out the way you want it to

IBC Course

2010-06-07T18:35:00.004+01:00

Today I started teaching a new class on the IBC course at Holland Park. IBC stands for International Business Communication. It's our class for professionals who want to improve their business English for international communication.

I have taught this class a number of times before and it is always an interesting experience for me. The people who enrol on this course are usually professionals who work in top positions in different areas of business, so they are always interesting and dynamic people with experience or expertise in their particular field. They're busy people which means they have to make the most of their time here in London.

The course runs for 6 hours a day, but the participants are always willing to concentrate and focus throughout each lesson. It's inspiring for me to see students who know how to manage their time, and to be efficient. It just goes to show - when you work full time, you don't have much time for anything else, and that includes studying English, so you have to take advantage of any learning opportunities.

If you're young, and haven't started working full time yet, you should learn a lesson from my current IBC class. Make the most of your time, focus and try to learn and practise as much as you can, in every minute of your lesson. Do it now when you have time, because later on you will be rushed off your feet answering emails and attending meetings and you won't have any spare moments to brush up on your English.

The students in my class are motivated, and that motivates me too. As well as that, they are usually a bit older and more experienced. This means that they have plenty of things to say about business. I have met directors of large successful companies, former prime ministers, television journalists and even movie producers on this course, and they all have their own stories to tell and their own insight into how to achieve business success in their own particular context. As well as helping them learn, I have also learned a lot from them, and it makes me realise that one of the most satisfying things about this job is the contact I have with interesting people from many countries. In the end, it proves to me that it is people, not money, that make the world go round.

stands for - We use this expression to explain what an acronym (letters that represent a longer phrase) means. For example, FBI stands for Federal Bureau of Investigation.

enrol (v) - This means to sign up for a course

field - this is your 'area of expertise'. For example, my field is English language teaching.

make the most of their time - This means to use your time as effectively as possible, without wasting any.

It just goes to show - This is an expression which we use when we point out that something proves something else to be true. E.g. I see you're going to the dentist again. It just goes to show that you shouldn't eat so much sugar.

To take advantage of something - This means to use something as much as possible in order to get the benefit of it. It is similar to 'make the most of'. For example - you should take advantage of the free internet access at school and use it to save money.

rushed off your feet - to be very busy

brush up on - to improve something, typically language

money makes the world go round - this is an old saying, which means that money is what motivates everyone in the world to do things, and it is money which is responsible for making everything happen.

Image courtesy of www.freefoto.com

Our New Government

2010-05-25T23:42:00.013+01:00

So we’ve now had a coalition government for two weeks, which means that the government is made up of more than one party. Those of you who followed the election will know that the results were very close (Conservative 306 seats, Labour 258 seats, Liberal Democrats 57 seats with the others getting 28 seats) which means with no overall majority for the Labour or Conservative party, the Liberal Democrats were put into the interesting position of being able to decide which party they would most benefit working with. After a week of toing and froing Nick Clegg chose to work with David Cameron, a decision which many fear will be doomed to failure as their policies have been as different as chalk and cheese in the past!

Today, in the Queen's speech, she announced the ambitious legislative programme put forward by the new coalition government which they hope to achieve over the next 18 months. These are the keys points, obviously the main priority is to reduce the deficit (which Cameron points out is bigger than Greece's). They also aim to promote energy efficiency, give more power to local councils and open more schools. Additionally, they'll introduce a referendum to change to the alternative vote for the whole of the UK and parliamentary reform, introducing fixed term elections every 5 years. And just to add insult to injury the unpopular ID cards that Gordon Brown's Labour government hoped to introduce, have been scrapped.

This is a new and potentially difficult period for British Politics with Harriet Harman (the Caretaker Labour leader) watching and waiting for the 'happy couple' to make their first mistake...I, for one, will be watching this space with interest!

Glossary

to to and fro Continuous movement from place to place
doomed to failure Sure to fail
as different as chalk and cheese Complete opposites
a referendum People vote to make a decision about subject
the alternative vote a ranking system of voting
add insult to injury to make something that is already bad, worse
to scrap to get rid of something
caretaker Labour leader a temporary leader until another one is chosen

Passive Verb Forms

2010-05-15T19:34:00.009+01:00

Students at LSE often ask us to help them understand passive verb forms. Many learners get frustrated by passives in English. Some students don't even believe they are used by English people! Of course, they are very common, and very useful. This blog post should help you to understand how and why passive verb forms are used. There is a task at the end of the blog post, which will be answered in my next blog post. If you have questions about passive forms, please leave a comment below!

Why is the passive difficult to understand and use?

In my opinion, there are a few difficult things for students to deal with when studying the passive:

1) The complicated form – it is hard to manipulate sentences using the passive in different tenses and after modal verbs. This is because of all the different auxiliary verbs and past participles used to make passive structures.

2) Understanding how and why the passive is used. Many students say they know how to construct passive sentences, but don’t know when they should use them.

3) The pronunciation of passive forms – it can be difficult to hear all the little words used when native speakers use passive forms. Also, it’s difficult to pronounce them correctly if you’re not a native speaker.

What's the difference between active and passive forms?

To understand passive forms, we need to compare them to active forms.

Active sentences are in this structure:

SUBJECT/AGENT – VERB – OBJECT

E.g. Michael Jackson – wrote – this song

The subject is the agent (the thing that ‘does’ the verb)

The agent is included because it is important, or is the topic of the sentence (e.g. if the question is “who wrote this song?” it is important to say “Michael Jackson wrote it”)

But sometimes it is better to order the sentence in a different way. Like this passive sentence:

SUBJECT – VERB - (PREPOSITION + OBJECT/AGENT)

E.g. The song – was written – (by Michael Jackson)

What is the form of passive structures?

The basic form is: be + past participle

The auxiliary verb be can come in many forms, eg. being, been, was, were, am, are, is

Past participles are the 3rd form of a verb. E.g. eat - ate - eaten. Past participles are sometimes difficult to remember.

The agent (the one who 'does' the action of the verb) is often not included.

If the agent is included, you have to use a preposition (by).

Why is the passive used?

They are used a lot, and they are useful. But, why? and how?

Here’s a list of reasons why the passive is used:

The agent is unknown (The diamond was stolen at midnight last night - at the moment, we don't know who the thief is)
The agent is not important (The diamond had been valued at over £1o million it's not important who valued the diamond, we can assume it was an expert)
The agent is obvious (“The thief was arrested” -obviously it was the police because they usually do that)
The action (the verb) is more important than the agent (the one who did it) “The door had been smashed, the cabinet was broken into and a guard was killed”
The diamond is the topic of the sentence or story, so it is put at the beginning of the sentence.

Real Examples: BBC News Report

Read the following news story about Michael Jackson’s death (adapted from a BBC News story, linked here)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8119993.stm.

Find examples of the passive in the text. There should be 10. Think about these things:

1. Which tenses and verb forms are used? (e.g. present simple passive, past simple passive, passive infinitive)

2. Why has the passive been used in each case?

I will give you the answers to this task in my next blog post.

Pop star Michael Jackson has died in Los Angeles, aged 50.

Paramedics were called to the singer’s Beverly Hills home at about midday on Thursday after he stopped breathing.

He was pronounced dead two hours later at the UCLA medical centre.

Jackson, who had a history of health problems, had been due to perform a series of comeback concerts in the UK, beginning on 13 July. He is believed to have suffered a cardiac arrest.

Speaking on behalf of the Jackson family, Michael’s brother Jermaine said doctors had tried to resuscitate the star for more than an hour without success.

Jackson’s body was flown from UCLA to the LA County Coroner’s office, where a post-mortem was carried out. The results have not yet been published.

Concerns over Michael’s health were raised last month when four of Jackson’s planned comeback concerts were postponed, but organisers insisted the dates had been moved due to the difficulty of organising the show.

Some words and expressions in the story are defined below.

Paramedics – Doctors who drive ambulances

Beverly Hills – An area in California where lots of famous people live

Suffer a cardiac arrest – to have a heart attack

To be due to do something – to be arranged to happen. It is going to happen because it is planned

To resuscitate someone – to bring someone to life – using electricity, or breathing or pumping the chest

A post-mortem – a medical examination of a body after it has died

Bye Bye Baku

2010-05-05T19:10:00.009+01:00

My time here in Baku is nearly up, and as I write this post I have just over 24 hours left in Azerbaijan. That is of course unless the Icelandic volcano starts playing up again.

The past four weeks have taught me a lot about learning, teaching, culture and myself. I hope too that my students have learnt enough about IELTS to get them through their exam on Saturday. It hasn’t all been smiles, as you can see in my previous post, but I would say that overall I’ve had a lot of fun, met some really interesting people and made some good friends.

A lot of people here have asked me what I will miss about Baku and Azerbaijan, so here is my top five:

1. The people – very friendly, hospitable and inquisitive.
2. The city at night – all the old buildings are illuminated, making Baku one of the most beautiful places you could ever visit in the evenings.
3. Icherisheher – a fascinating glimpse into the past. You can see photos here.
4. The service in restaurants – efficient but unobtrusive.
5. The tea – the Azerbaijani people drink much more tea than us Brits, and the accompanying sweets are delicious.

So, if you ever get the chance to visit Azerbaijan and you would like some advice, let me know and I can give you a few pointers. In the meantime, I look forward to blogging again when I’m back in London. Thanks for reading.

time up to have run out of time
to play up phrasal verb meaning to cause problems
to get through to be able to complete something difficult
to not be all smiles an expression used to describe an experience which was not always positive
inquisitive showing curiosity
illuminated provided with artificial light
glimpse an indication of what something is/was like
unobtrusive not noticeable, in a positive way
pointers pieces of advice or tips, informal
in the meantime during the intervening time, or the time between two events

Election Special: What is a Hung Parliament?

2010-05-04T17:33:00.005+01:00

So, if you are following the election campaign you’ll see that many of the polls are saying it will be a very close race and this could lead to a hung parliament. So what is a hung parliament? As Ben mentioned in the last blog, it is when none of the parties gains a majority. As there are a total of 650 seats, this means that one party needs to get 326 Members of Parliament voted into the House of Commons.

How can we stop a hung parliament?
Firstly, Labour will stay in power if they don’t lose any of their seats however; if they lose 24 seats they’ll lose their absolute majority. If the Conservative Party get an extra 116 seats, they’ll gain a majority; but the Liberal Democrats need a further 264 seats for an absolute majority. Everything else would lead to a hung parliament.

What would a hung parliament mean to Britain?
This is an interesting question and we may well find out very soon!! If the election results in a hung parliament then Gordon Brown remains Prime Minister unless he decides to step down (unlikely). He may then decide to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrat party (lead by Nick Clegg) if their joint number of seats reaches a majority, if not they can invite other smaller parties to join them until they have 326 seats or more. The main concern with a hung parliament seems to be that it can be very difficult to pass laws because they aren’t supported by enough MPs; however this could be unfounded because many countries seem to successfully run a coalition style government such as Germany and New Zealand. The last British hung parliament was in 1974. Edward Heath (Conservative PM) called a hasty election after finally bringing the minors strike to an end. He looked certain to win but on polling day, the Liberal vote surged. The final result was Labour 301, Conservative 297 and Liberals 14. Heath tried to form an alliance with Jeremy Thorpe the Liberal Leader but failed so he resigned and Harold Wilson of the Labour Party became PM. Between March and October 1974 only 27 laws were passed and these weren’t contentious relating to roads and railways. In my humble opinion, a hung parliament could be just what this country needs. To keep up-to-date with the election go to the BBC election website.

Glossary

Poll (n) - the process of finding out what people think, survey

Close race - the two main parties may be quite equal in the end

Seat (n) - a position as an elected member of a government

Absolute majority - when a party wins more than half the total votes in an election

Coalition (n) - a union of two or more political parties to form a government

Unfounded (adj) - something that is wrong because it's not based on fact or evidence

Hasty (adj) - done in a hurry, often with negative results

Strike (n) - a period of time when a group of workers deliberately stop work

Polling day - the day when the public votes in an election

Surge (v) - to suddenly move quickly in a particular direction

Resign (v) - to officially announce that you have decided to leave your job

Contentious (adj) - causing a lot of argument and disagreement between people

Humble (adj) - not considering your ideas to be as important as other people's

General Election 2010

2010-04-29T09:37:00.016+01:00

Image from http://www.freefoto.com/

The UK electorate will head to the polls on May 6th 2010 to cast their votes in a general election. The race to become the next government is extremely close and it seems any party that wins will find it difficult to get an overall majority. This could mean that we will have our second hung parliament since the end the second World War .
The Labour Party has been in power since 1997 and Tony Blair led the party and the country in the role of Prime Minister until 2007. He then passed the role to his sidekick Gordon Brown who was the Chancellor during Tony Blair’s reign as Prime Minister. Many people believe that after thirteen years, it is now time for a change of government, and that the Conservative Party and their leader David Cameron should be elected into power.
What’s interesting about this election however, is that the Liberal Democrat Party have gained a lot of popularity in the opinion polls as a result of the performance of their leader Nick Clegg in the first televised Prime Ministerial Election Debates to be held in the UK. In the debates the leaders of the three main parties discussed the key issues facing the UK today such as crime, education, defence, the environment, parliamentary reform, health, immigration, the economy, Europe, foreign policy and the war in Afghanistan.
Many of the UK voters are still undecided about who to vote for so all the parties are campaigning really hard to attract these floating voters and make sure that they win the majority of seats in the next parliament. Whatever happens, it’s sure to be one of the most exciting elections we have had for a long time and one that will change the future of the country.

Glossary

the electorate - (n) all the people in a country that have the right to vote.
to head to the polls - (col.) to go to give your vote.
to cast their votes - (col.) to give their choice officially.
a general election - (n) an election to choose the Prime Minister.
to get an overall majority - (col.)to get more than 50% of the positions in parliament.
a hung parliament - (n) a parliament in which no party has more than 50% of the votes.
the Prime Minister - (n) the leader of the UK.
a sidekick - (n) a person who often spends time with and helps another person who is more
important or powerful than they are.
the Chancellor - (n) the member of the government who manages the UK's finances.
a reign - (n) a period when some on is in charge of and organisation or country.
to be elected into power - (col.)to be chosen as the government by vote.
the opinion polls - (n) the process of asking a large number of people question to find out
their view of something.
Prime Ministerial Election Debates - (n) discussions between the leaders of the main
parties before the election to be prime minister.
parliamentary reform - (n) changing the system of parliament and voting.
foreign policy -(n) the governments attitude and plans regarding other counties.
to be campaigning - (v) promoting the party and their policies to the public .
floating voters - (n) people who haven't decided .

Feeling Blue

2010-04-28T10:18:00.005+01:00

I’ve been here in Baku for two-and-a-half weeks now and although it’s been an incredibly interesting, exciting and rewarding experience, I can’t get away from a nagging feeling that things aren’t quite right. It’s a feeling of loneliness, of isolation. In other words, I’ve come down with a bout of homesickness

.
Let me explain. In London I’m constantly surrounded by people – I’m a very sociable person and have a very full social life. I live with my girlfriend and the only time I get to spend on my own is either when I’m out running or cycling! Being in Baku is different. Don’t get me wrong, the people here are very friendly and helpful, and the students in my three IELTS classes are all lovely.

The problem is when I leave work and go home. Although my apartment is very nice and I have everything I need, the one thing I don’t have is company. Living on your own in a foreign country can be a very difficult experience. I read a lot and try to go online, but I miss conversations. If I turn the TV on for company, all I can watch are channels in a language I don’t understand. On a good day I’ll get an English Premier League football match, on a bad day I might get a badly dubbed movie!

It’s a strange feeling, and it has really helped me to put myself in the shoes of some of our students and London school, and understand how and why they can often feel blue. The good news is that these feelings never last for too long, and there are things we can do to help us avoid feeling down.

I’ve heard that there are four common stages of homesickness: exaltation, frustration, depression and acceptance. I’ll talk about these more in a later blog, but for now I’d like to know if you’ve ever experienced any of these feelings when you’ve been away from home? Why don’t you drop me a line and let me know.

a nagging feeling a negative feeling or emotion that won't go away and that you can't ignore

isolation being completely alone

to come down with a bout of to be affected by a negative force, often illness

sociable an adjective used to describe a person who likes to be with other people

don't get me wrong an expression used to make sure that you are not being misunderstood

dubbed to provide a film with a soundtrack in a foreign language

to put yourself in somebody else's shoes to imagine how another person is feeling

to feel blue/to feel down to feel depressed, sad or upset

exaltation a feeling or state of being very excited

to drop somebody a line to contact somebody, often by phone but also by email

Image from istockphoto.com

Baku in time

2010-04-19T19:43:00.016+01:00

Hello again everybody from Baku. I’m now into my second week of teaching IELTS out here and things are going very well. As promised in my previous blog post, I’m going to fill you in on a bit of the history of Baku and Azerbaijan. Did you know that although Baku has existed in some form since the 12th century (Icherisheher, the Old City, can be seen in the photo to the right), Azerbaijan has only been an independent state since 1991? Recently Azerbaijan celebrated the birth of its nine-millionth citizen, yet there is another Azerbaijan with over 20 million inhabitants – in Iran. Strange as that may sound, in1828 Azerbaijan (as it used to be) was divided between the Russian empire and Persia (now Iran). The province in Iran is still known by the same name as its European neighbour and both areas share cultural and linguistic ties.

The republic of Azerbaijan was first declared in 1918 and lasted for two years before the Red Army invaded and the republic fell under Soviet control for the next 70-odd years. Baku today is an fascinating mix of Islamic, Soviet and modern architecture, the latter being driven by the abundant oil and gas in the surrounding areas. The region has always been oil-rich, so much so that the Nobel brothers set up an oil company in the town back in the 1870s. The money they made in the city funded the Nobel prizes for many years.

Azerbaijan strikes me as a nation still finding its feet, still growing up, and the pace of change is phenomenal. While certain parts of the infrastructure are seriously underfunded, many parts of the city are shrouded in cranes as high-rise hotels and luxury apartments go up. A number of people have told me to come back in five years time “when the country will be finished”, though I get the impression that as long as there is oil in the area, the cranes will remain.

to fill you in to give you some information about something
an independent state a self-governing, unoccupied country
strange as that may sound discourse marker often used after some unusual or surprising information
ties links, connections or similarities, especially between families, cultures or countries
to fall under control to become under the rule or responsibility of a person or government
70-odd approximately 70
the latter the last thing mentioned in the previous sentence, in this case modern architecture
abundant available in many places

so much so that another discourse marker used to emphasize the result of a situation
to strike you to give you the impression, to make you think
to find your feet to become confident or established in your surroundings
phenomenal amazing
infrastructure the basic facilities needed for a country to function such as roads, water and electricity

shrouded covered
high-rise a building with many floors (like a skyscraper)
to go up to be built

Eruption Disruption Continues

2010-04-19T11:49:00.012+01:00

Images b y Photoeverywhere
Travel disruption to UK airports continued all weekend and planes are now grounded until 1.00 pm Tuesday 20th April, although this may change again depending on the situation. There have been no flights in or out of the UK since last Thursday and experts don't know exactly when they will allow planes to take off again.
The volcano in Iceland is still erupting and sending volcanic ash into the air which is then being blown by winds over the UK and much of mainland Europe. It's extremely hard for scientists to predict when the airspace in the UK will be safe again or when the volcano will stop erupting so the travel chaos is set to continue for a few days.

If you are planning to fly in or out of the UK visit The British Airports Authority website. for details, alternatively you can find lots of information on the volcano and the travel disruption on the BBC website. If you are worried about visiting the school please contact us on +44207 605 4123 (Holland Park Gardens) +44 208 563 6501 (Westcroft Square). If you are fortunate enough to be on holiday abroad make the most of the situation as it looks like you will have an extra long break before you are able to return to the UK.

disruption - (n) Difficulty in things continuing in the normal or planned way.

grounded - (adj) see previous post

erupt - (v) to eject matter from a volcano

chaos - (n) a state of total confusion or disorder

ash - (n) the powder that's left after burning

fortunate - (adj) lucky

make the most of - (exp) to use or do something so you get the greatest advantage

Are you travelling to the UK this weekend?

2010-04-16T16:23:00.006+01:00

Following the Icelandic volcano most UK and many European flights have been cancelled until tomorrow morning. The flight restrictions will mean planes are grounded until at least 0700 tomorrow (Saturday) morning.

If you are flying to London this weekend to start a course with us on Monday and you are going to be delayed, you will need to do the following:

If you are staying with a homestay family, call the family to let them know when you expect to arrive.
Call the school on Monday morning +44207 605 4123 (Holland Park Gardens) +44 208 563 6501 (Westcroft Square) to let us know when you think you will be arriving.

For up to date airport information visit the British Airports Authority website.

Grounded - When an aircraft is not able to take off. Also used when teenagers have been naughty and they are not allowed to go out and see their friends, for example 'you've failed all your exams, you're grounded for two weeks!'.

Come in London - Azerbaijain calling

2010-04-15T09:02:00.012+01:00

Hello everyone from chilly Baku. If you’re not sure where Baku is, it’s the capital of Azerbaijan. If you’re not sure where that is, perhaps it’s time you bought an atlas! To be honest, before I came here, I wasn’t quite sure where Baku was either, but for the record, it’s about as far east in Europe as you can go, sharing borders with Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey and Iran.

It’s a fascinating place, and I’ll write more about why in future posts, but for the time being perhaps it’s best if I explain why I’m here. As some of you may know, I’ve been teaching at the London School of English for nearly three years and in that time I’ve taught several IELTS courses. About a month ago, our courses director, Pete, asked me if I’d like to teach another IELTS course. "Of course" I said. "In Azerbaijan" said Pete. "Oh" I said, "let me think about it". After I’d slept on it (and hit the internet) I agreed to go, feeling that it was a great opportunity to visit somewhere well off the beaten track.

So here I am. I’ve been here for five days and taught for four of them. It’s been fascinating so far, and a real eye-opener. I’m teaching three IELTS groups a day for one month, in preparation for their exam on May 8th. The students are really switched on and keen to learn about the exam and Britain in general. I haven’t had much of a chance to explore the city yet, but I plan to have a good look around this weekend. I’ll let you know how I get on.

chilly quite cold, often after rainfall
for the record officially
for the time being until something happens at a later time
to sleep on something to wait a day or two before making an important decision
to hit the internet to use the internet a lot in a short period of time. You can also hit the books (revise a lot in a short time) or hit the shops (do a lot of shopping)
off the beaten track an unusual or uncommon place for tourists to visit
eye-opener a very interesting or educational experience
to be switched on to be intelligent and able to learn things quickly

to get on to make progress

Image taken from acus.org

The Hardest Job I've Ever Had

2010-04-08T16:00:00.007+01:00

I was talking to Andy recently about some of the best and worst jobs we’ve had in our lives. It was a pretty interesting conversation, so I thought it might make a good blog post. Also, it’s a good way to introduce a few idioms which can be used to talk about work. So, here’s a description of one of the worst jobs I’ve ever had. You’ll find 8 idioms. Can you guess what they mean? Definitions are provided at the bottom of the blog post.

The Hardest Job I’ve Ever Had
When I was a teenager I got a job in the local pub in my village. It was a busy pub with a large kitchen. I was given the job of kitchen porter, which means I had to do all the dirty jobs which no one else could be bothered to do: cleaning the pots and pans from the kitchen, washing all the dirty dishes from the restaurant, sweeping and mopping the floor and cleaning the ovens and washing machines. I used to work my fingers to the bone in that place, scrubbing, sweating and getting covered in grease and muck from head to toe. There was another kitchen porter who worked with me, but he was too lazy to lift a finger so I always had a lot on my plate. On Saturday evenings the restaurant was always full, so in the kitchen we’d be rushed off our feet, completely up to our eyes in work. I took the job to get money so I could go out and have fun with my friends. They used to be jealous of the extra spending money I had because of my hard work. I used to burn the candle at both ends sometimes, especially at the weekends, and then I’d be exhausted at work. In the end, I decided that I had to leave that place. It was a dead end job to be honest. I knew it wasn’t going anywhere, so I handed in my notice. These days I’m much happier working as a teacher and I don’t miss the kitchen, but sometimes I might have a cheese sandwich and it takes me back to those long evenings when I used to slave away over a hot sink.

to work my fingers to the bone = to work extremely hard
too lazy to lift a finger = too lazy to do any work
to have a lot on your plate = to have a lot of work to do
to be rushed off your feet = to be very busy and in a rush
to be up to your eyes in work = to have too much work to do
to burn the candle at both ends = to get tired because you are working hard during the day but also socialising and going to be late at night
a dead end job = a job with no future or career prospects
to slave away = to work hard on a tough job

Other vocabulary from this post:
can’t be bothered to do it = to be too lazy to make the effort to do it
sweeping = cleaning loose dirt from the floor with a broom
mopping = washing the floor with soap and hot water and a mop
scrubbing = cleaning something which is difficult to clean, using lots of speed and pressure
grease = fat or oil
muck = general dirt (quite an informal word)
to hand in your notice = to tell your boss you are going to leave your job
takes me back to = reminds me of

Easter Weekend

2010-03-30T14:33:00.008+01:00

To continue the holiday theme of the last few posts, I thought I’d write about this weekend. As you may or may not know, it’s Easter this weekend and for many people in the UK, including those at the London School of English, it means a few days off work. We have bank holidays on Good Friday and Easter Monday so it’s a 4 day weekend. Easter is a Christian holiday which commemorates the death and celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is one of the main Christian festivals of the year, but for people less religious it is often viewed as a nice break from their daily routine. People often take the opportunity to visit family or friends in other parts of the country or if they stay at home, spend some time in the garden or doing some DIY around the house.

There always seems to be a lot going on at Easter and this weekend is no exception . Not only is there the top of the Premiership clash between Manchester United and Chelsea, but also there is the Oxford v’s Cambridge boat race along the River Thames. This will be the 181st year the two universities have competed in the race and it draws many crowds to the riverside.

Personally, my favourite thing about Easter has to be the food and when I say food, I mean Chocolate Easter eggs. It’s common for people to spend all weekend giving, receiving and eating chocolate eggs and me being a bit of a chocoholic, I have to say that I love it. People often have big family meals and cook all sorts of delicious dishes and the most popular are lamb and fish. Overall, Easter is a happy time of the year for a lot of people although it’s nowhere near as big as the Christmas holiday.

Glossary

as you may or may not know - a phrase used to introduce some information that is possibly new to some people.

to commemorate the death - to keep alive and remember the memory of someone's death.

to celebrate the resurrection - to engage in festivities relating to dying and then returning to life.

to do some DIY - constructing and repairing things in your home yourself.

a lot going on - many events happening

no exception - not excluded from the general rule or pattern

it draws many crowds to the riverside - many people are attracted to the riverside

a chocoholic - a person who loves and eats a lot of chocolate

nowhere near - far from, used to emphasize the difference

Indian Words Used in the English Language

2010-03-20T13:17:00.004Z

Hello there, those of you who have read the recent blogs will see that holidays have featured highly; Andy wrote about his holiday in South Africa, Ben mentioned his recent trip to Morocco and I’m going to talk a little about my fabulous holiday in Southern India (Kerala and Tamil Nadu). Actually, it was Ben who suggested that I go there, thanks Ben!

In Kochin I watched the local fishermen and sampled their catch in the evenings with a cold Kingfisher beer. I then visited the green and lush hills of Munnar and saw wild elephants and buffalo; next I took a houseboat through the backwaters of Appelley and then went south to chill out on the beach. My final destination was Madurai where I visited the Ski Meenakshi Temple (see photo) it’s definitely worth seeing, it’s 52 metres high and covers 6 hectares, it’s amazing.

Travelling around, I was impressed how well most Indians speak English even though British rule finished over 60 years ago. This made me wonder about Indian words that are used in modern English. Below, are some words of Hindi and Urdu origin that the British have 'borrowed' and still currently use today. Enjoy using them!

Bangle - a solid bracelet
from Bāngṛī बांगड़ी, a type of bracelet

Bungalow - a house which is all on ground level
from बंगला banglA & Urdu بنگلہ banglA, literally, "(house) in the Bengal style".]

Cot - a bed with high sides for a baby
from Khāt, खाट, a portable bed

Cushy – easy, e.g. a cushy job
from khushi, cf. Hindi ख़ुशी - Urdu خوشی "easy, happy, soft"

Doolally - crazy
from Hindi डॆऒललि via Marathi देवळाली Deolali, a hospital in Maharashtra,
India. It means having an unbalanced state of mind

Guru - Someone who knows a lot about a particular subject
from गुरु Guru, A teacher, instructor, intellectual or spiritual leader who
councils or advises

Jungle – a thick tropical forest
from जङल् jangal, another word for wilderness or forest

Karma - the belief that all the good and bad things that you do in this life affect how good
or bad your future lives will be
from कर्म Karma , meaning acts or deeds

Pukka - good quality, well made
from Pakkā पक्का,پکا cooked, ripe, solid

Pyjamas – trousers and a top that you wear in bed
from Persian پايجامه Payjama meaning "leg garment" which originated in Hindi पैजामा

Shampoo - a liquid soap for washing hair
from chāmpo (चाँपो /tʃãːpoː/) to smear and massage

Thug – a violent man
from Thag ठग, meaning thief or conman

Remembering how to spell new words

2010-03-12T13:06:00.007Z

I have recently been on holiday Morocco and I’ve just come back and had a look at Andy and Luke’s recent blog posts. I saw that there was quite a lot of vocabulary to remember so I thought I’d give you some advice on spelling English words.

Remember English is not a phonetic language meaning that the sounds made do not always match the way the words are written and the combinations of letters that are used. This means that both pronouncing new words and learning to spell them can be difficult at times. When you come across a new word to spell try this method.

LOOK – Sounds obvious I know but spend a bit of time looking at the word. How can you break it into smaller bits / syllables?? Do any of the bits remind you of the patterns of letters from other words? Pay attention to prefixes and suffixes.
THINK – Think about the parts of the words which might cause problems - double letters for instance, or a vowel that isn't pronounced as you would expect or combinations of vowels.
COVER – Cover the word or close your eyes. Try to see it in your head. Look again if you need to.
WRITE – Write the word down without looking back, if it doesn’t look right try another way and compare with your first attempt.
CHECK – Check to see if you're right. If not, look carefully at where you went wrong and try again.

Some more advice

Whenever you have to copy a new word from the blackboard, from a book, or from the dictionary, always try to write the whole word in one go. Don't keep looking back after every few letters.
Try finger-writing: while you're THINKing about the word, pretend to write it with your finger, on your desk or on your hand.
Try to notice common patterns e.g prefixes and suffixes / words with the same sound.
Break the word down into syllables and chunks and say these in your head as they are spelt not as the word sounds e.g. together to - get - her

I hope you find this method and advice useful. English spelling is not easy and native speakers often make mistakes. Don't worry if your spelling isn't perfect and remember, if you use a computer always use your spell check.

A postcard from South Africa

2010-03-03T18:45:00.007Z

Hello everyone! Having just returned from my holidays in South Africa, I thought I'd fill you in on a few bits and bobs that you might find interesting about the country.

Did you know that as well as English, there are ten other official languages in South Africa? Although English is the country's lingua franca, it is only the fifth most commonly spoken language. In fact, if you are of Dutch descent, you would probably understand much of Afrikaans, a very widely spoken language (especially in the west of the country) which has its roots in 17th century Dutch.

When most people think of South Africa, they probably think of its troubled and often turbulent past, but the South Africa of today is a modern, vibrant society which, despite it's many problems, attracts almost ten million visitors annually. Of course, this trend looks set to continue with the country hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We visited the stadium in Cape Town and it is an amazing building in a fantastic location with the famous Table Mountain as a backdrop. I hope that the tournament is a success, both on and off the field.

We spent most of our time in Cape Town, though we also travelled around the Western Cape from the coast to the desert! Everywhere we went we were given a very warm welcome, had great weather, ate delicious food and visited some amazing places. In other words, the perfect holiday!

Glossary

to fill sby in to update sby, or to give them some new information
bits and bobs random assortment of things (informal)
lingua franca a common language used by speakers of different languages (from Latin)
to be of Dutch descent to come from The Netherlands
turbulent difficult, unsettled, sometimes violent
annually every year
backdrop the scenery behind something
warm welcome a friendly welcome

Social Event: The Comedy Night

2010-02-22T17:23:00.015Z

Last week, as part of our weekly social programme, I accompanied a group of students on a visit to a stand-up comedy night in a local pub. Although I have been to lots of comedy shows before, the students had never attended such a night. It was their first experience of live stand-up comedy in London, and one which I am sure was not only fun but also good for their English.

First of all, what is stand-up comedy? It is very popular here in the UK as well as in other English speaking countries, but as far as I know it is not so common in other countries. So, if you are not familiar with stand-up, let me briefly outline its features:

It is performed by one person each time: a stand-up comedian who stands up on stage and talks to the audience
The only aim of the performance is to make people laugh
The comedian doesn't use a script (unlike in theatre plays), and they often improvise and ask the audience questions
Sometimes the comedian will pick on members of the audience, but it is just for fun
They share personal stories and experiences with the audience, as well as talking about recent news stories or politics
The night is hosted by a compere or MC who introduces the acts and warms up the crowd

Secondly, what was our comedy night like? Well, at the beginning of the evening we went to a lovely pub which is in walking distance from school and had a drink. There we talked and shared information about our different cultures. I was curious about the role of comedy in the cultures of other countries. I was interested to see what they would think about the performance and whether they would understand everything. The students were also curious about what the comedians would say, and how much of it they would catch. Then we walked to the comedy venue where we ate some food and waited for the performance to start. The show took place in a small room in a pub, where there were rows of seats for the audience, a small stage, a light and a microphone. The students were a little bit nervous because they were worried that the comedians might ask them difficult questions.

During the show, the students laughed and had a good time. I was pleased because they managed to understand quite a lot, although when a comedian from Scotland took the stage, the students didn't understand a word because of his strong accent. He was very funny though, particularly his slapstick routine about London pigeons. One of the comedians did ask the students some questions and I was glad to see that they answered without being too shy. What a confidence booster!

It was great to see the students enjoying some real British entertainment, and it really was a good way to practise their English. In my opinion, if you can understand stand-up comedy, you will be able to understand all the nuances and subtleties of English as a spoken language, and it comes with another reward - laughter.

So, in conclusion, I highly recommend that learners of English experience some stand-up comedy for themselves. Not only is it good for your listening, it is also a great insight into the culture of the English language, and a fantastic way to enjoy yourself while doing it.

If you would like to find out more about stand-up, then you can click here to listen to a conversation I had with a friend recently.

To find out more about stand-up comedy shows in London, click here.

a script = the written words of a performance (used in plays, films, television shows)

to improvise = to perform without any preparation, to make it up on the spot

to pick on someone = to make fun of someone, to say things about someone in order to make other people laugh

compere or MC = the person who hosts an entertainment event and introduces the other performers. MC means Master of Ceremonies

to be curious about something = interested in learning more about

to catch something = hear and understand

didn't understand a word = understood nothing

slapstick = physical comedy

a routine = a part of a comedy performance

pigeons = birds which are very common in London, as well as in many other cities

a confidence booster = something which 'boosts' (pushes and improves) your confidence

nuances and subtleties = specific little details

a reward = a good thing you get as a result of doing something difficult/worthwhile

insight = a deeper understanding

brave = courageous

elsewhere = somewhere else

Image: www.dailycomedy.com

Courses

2010-02-13T15:04:00.009Z

Every week at the school we have new courses starting. This week the Young Lawyers courses started. It’s a three week course designed for newly qualified lawyers and law students, to give them the specialised language that they will need for their careers. It's the second time we have run this course this year and it's usually very popular.

Also at Holland Park this week we’ve been running Communication Skills for Bankers. This intensive one week course is for experienced banking and finance specialists who receive English language skills training within the context of banking and finance.

At our Westcroft Square centre, a new seven week Intensive General English course started, as well as a seven week English for University course. We have also just started a six week IELTS preparation course. The course is designed to prepare students for the IELTS exam, which includes practice of the test and strategies which will help them to succeed.

Training the Trainers

2010-02-10T18:32:00.003Z

At the London School of English we often have Teacher Development sessions. These are an opportunity to share ideas and improve the way we, the trainers, deliver our lessons. Today Ben and I led the session which was all about using technology in the classroom. In the picture above you can see Ed and Andy, two of our trainers, checking out http://www.sporcle.com/, a website I previously wrote about here.

We think this is a really important part of what we do at the school, because anything that can make learning English more interesting and stimulating improves the learning experience.

It's quite strange teaching your peers. No matter how much experience you have teaching English, nothing quite prepares you for being in a classroom full of other trainers! Here's a picture of our handout, showing some of the tricks of the trade that we shared today.

I personally found it all quite nerve-wracking, but overall Ben and I thought it went well. I think that our colleagues found it useful and productive, and hopefully the results of our work will soon be seen in a classroom near you!

Glossary

to lead a session/workshop to be responsible for teaching/organising something.
to check out to look at/study something (informal)
peers people who do the same as you e.g. workmates or classmates
tricks of the trade useful information or skills based on a certain area of work
nerve-wracking something that makes you nervous or anxious

FCE Course at London School of English

2010-01-28T21:53:00.006Z

At the moment I am teaching an FCE course at Westcroft Square. The First Certificate of English is one of the Cambridge exams we help students to prepare for at London School of English. It tests speakers of English at an upper intermediate level and if they pass it, they are awarded a certificate which proves their level of English. They can then add this to their CV or use it to show potential employers or universities that they have a good level of English.

The exam tests the four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. It is quite a tricky exam, so the students on our course do lots of preparation work on their vocabulary and grammar as well as important reading and listening skills. Also, we help our learners with important strategies to help them to deal with the difficult exam tasks they have to complete.

For example, last week in my class the students looked at skimming and scanning as ways of reading texts quickly for general understanding (skimming), and in order to find specific information in a reading text (scanning). We also looked more specifically at the different exam questions and how to deal with them. Multiple choice questions, for example, are often misunderstood by students. They often get distracted by the different answers they can choose from. I taught them that it was much more important to fully understand the questions first, ignore the given options, find the answer to the question in the text, and then pick the option that matches that answer.

For example, here is a typical multiple choice question which tests your understanding of the first paragraph in this blog post.

1. The Cambridge First Certificate of English is an appropriate exam for which type of person?

a. Learners of English at an advanced level

b. People who want some evidence of their English competence

c. Students who want to improve their interview skills to help them get a job

d. Students who study at the London School of English

First you should ignore the four options a-d

Then you should scan-read the first paragraph in order to find the answer to the question.

Then find the answer in the text.

Now read the four options carefully and choose the one that matches the answer you found.

Eliminate any options which are clearly not the correct answer.

Double check your answer carefully, and never leave a question unanswered!

The answer is, of course, b.

So far, I think the course is going well. I'm giving my students feedback when I can. For example, I think they have good written English, but they need to expand their vocabulary and take more initiative in the speaking part of the test. I think they are all capable of passing, and I expect them to.

Changes in GSV visa rules

2010-01-26T08:21:00.003Z

Some important changes in the General Student Visa (GSV) rules will come into effect in a few weeks. At the moment we send a letter for use when someone applies for a GSV. As from 22 February, visa letters will no longer be valid, and an electronic system will be used instead. This only applies to students coming to study in the UK from outside of the EU or Switzerland. Visit our website to read more.

English for University

2010-01-20T15:56:00.015Z

We have just started a new course at our Westcroft Square school, English for University. English for University is an intensive course specially designed for motivated adults who need to improve their English language skills in preparation for university study as well as general English skills. The course is fun and lively, but also serious and suitable for people with a real need for results. The emphasis is always on learning in a practical way. This course is not designed to be purely an IELTS preparation course but rather combines an element of IELTS preparation with many other topic areas necessary for students to study successfully in the UK. If you would like to read more about this course, please go to the school site. I've just interviewed Laura, one of our teachers on this course and next week I'll be interviewing one of the students who is on this course.

If you are interested in hearing more about this course, please contact the sales office on +44 20 7605 4142 and http://uk.mc245.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=sales@londonschool.com

Glossary
to cope with (phr v) - to succeed in dealing with a difficult situation
overall aim (adj, noun) - main aim
participant (n) - someone who is taking part in an activity or class
long-term (adj) - continuing for a long period of time into the future
to focus on (phr v) - to give attention to something
to pay off (phr v) - to be worth the effort

Social Programme

2010-01-20T09:45:00.047Z

Conversation in The Grand Union

Last week about 30 students and three teachers from the Westcroft Square School visited some local pubs. We left school at 4.30 and walked through Ravenscourt Park to a pub called, The Grand Union. This pub has recently been refurbished and has modern decoration and some slightly crazy artwork. As we arrived quite early and most people in London hadn’t finished work we were able to take over a large section at the back of the pub. The students were able to relax after school and practise using their English in a more natural setting than the classroom.

Teachers Howard and Raphael

Howard, a teacher from the school, was in charge of the event and I attended to take photos, along with another teacher Raphael. There were students from over 11 different countries and there was a lot of discussion about culture, customs and places from various countries. Sometimes students become a bit more fluent after a couple of drinks but it can mean they lose some accuracy. The important thing is that English is being practised in a relaxed environment.

Students and the pub artwork

After about an hour and a half in this pub Howard and the students moved to another more traditional pub called The Goldhawk on Goldhawk Road. This pub is a little more old fashioned but still has a relatively modern feel. Some of the students tried some traditional English ales, while others drank wine and soft drinks. Some even had a snack or some dinner there. There was a band playing later on in this pub and a few of the students were happy to stay there for the evening although some left to do their homework. Overall it was a successful event, everybody enjoyed themselves and a lot of English was spoken and heard.

Glossary
has recently been refurbished - has been redecorated and modernised

to take over - to take control of something
a more natural setting - a a place and situation which is more normal than the classroom
customs - traditional habits in a country or culture
a relatively modern feel - having modern look compared to siome other pubs

Idiomatic illness part 2

2010-01-12T19:48:00.005Z

Hello again everybody. So last week I told you all about my miserable Christmas holiday and how ill I felt. You can see the original post here. Well, you'll be pleased to hear that I'm much better now and busy teaching and IELTs course at snowy Westcroft Square. Well it's not too snowy now, but apparently there's more on the way. If you look at Ben's post from last week you'll be able to see what it was like here!

You might remember that my last post was full of idiomatic language. Congratulations to Bahar who managed to guess some of the health idioms from last week's blog. She correctly worked out what to be at death's door and to bounce back meant.

How many did you manage to get right? Have a look below for the answers:

to be/feel under the weather to feel unwell
to be at death's door to be very unwell
to bounce back to recover quickly
to be on the road to recovery to be getting better after an illness
to be chomping at the bit to be very keen to do something
to be right as rain to have recovered
to be over the worst to have overcome the hardest part
to feel full of beans to feel full of energy

That's all for now, thanks for reading.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow...

2010-01-07T11:55:00.035Z

Our Westcroft Square centre 06/01/2010

As some of you may know, the UK has been hit by heavy snow this week and on Wednesday it hit London. Snow began to fall around lunchtime and it got heavier in the afternoon. Luckily, there are no General English classes at our Westcroft Square centre on Wednesday afternoons so the majority of students were able to travel home safely before the travel disruption caused by the snow and ice. Most students have made it to class today, although some arrived late as the problems on the roads, buses and tube continued.

Picture of the school from Westcroft Square

The big freeze is set to continue for a few more days and temperatures are not expected to rise much above zero. The overnight temperature was -3 in London and this means the streets and pavements are quite icy today. In fact, it has been so cold that many primary and high schools have had to close because teachers and pupils were unable to get to class and the central heating systems packed up. Fortunately, a lot of the teachers at the London School of English live quite close to the school and because our homestay families are quite near, the students have been able to come and the school has remained open.

The outside area at our Westcroft Square school

Personally, I really enjoy the snow. It makes everything look pretty and adds some excitement to the city because it doesn't snow here very often. It annoys me a bit when the snow begins to thaw though, because it turns to horrible brown slush and then makes the city look dirty. If you're planning to visit London or the school in the near future, make sure you bring some warm clothes and some sensible footwear. Hopefully this will be the last of the really cold winter weather and in a month or so, we can begin to look forward to the spring when the temperature will rise and the daylight hours will get longer.

Glossary

be hit by heavy snow - be affected by lots of snow falling and staying on the ground.

snow began to fall - it stared snowing

travel disruption - problems travelling on buses, trains and roads

the big freeze - a period of extremely cold weather

the central heating systems packed up - the systems that heat houses by using radiators stopped working

the snow begins to thaw - the snow starts to melt and turn to water.

horrible brown slush - partially melted snow that has become dirty and turned brown

sensible footwear - suitable shoes, boots etc to deal with certain conditions

Idiomatic illness

2010-01-04T13:32:00.007Z

Good afternoon everybody and Happy New Year! How are you? Did you have a peaceful holiday? My Christmas and New year were a bit of a wash out. I'm sorry to say that I've been a bit under the weather. In fact, on New Year's Eve I even felt like I was at death's door! I bounced back though and was on the road the recovery on Saturday, and was chomping at the bit to come back to work yesterday. Although I wouldn't say that I was as right as rain yet, I'm over the worst of it and am feeling full of beans today and raring to go!

Now, how much of my post do you understand? If you know what an idiom is, you've probably realised that I didn't have a very good New Year because I was ill. But what exactly do the idioms in bold mean? What do you think? I'll give you the answers next week!

Image taken from www.hunt.fm

Do it Yourself

2010-01-02T19:15:00.003Z

The Christmas holidays are a great time for visiting family, going out with friends and eating and drinking more than usual. In between all of that most people like to lie on the sofa, watch films, read the paper or a book and generally take it easy.

Unfortunately this Christmas holiday I have been busy with different pass time, DIY. DIY (said ‘D’ ‘I’ ‘Y’ , not ‘die’) stands for Do it Yourself. It is the term used to describe work you do to your home that you do yourself, for example decorating or putting up shelves. You can pay people to do these jobs for you, but a lot of people prefer to save some money and do it themselves. Like me, most people I know hate doing DIY, but you normally have a huge sense of achievement when you have finished.

This holiday we have been working on our sitting room. First of all we stripped the wallpaper. We used a steamer which makes the job easier and it’s very satisfying to get rid of the wallpaper, but that’s only the beginning. Then we had to prepare the walls by sanding them to make them smooth. Next we painted the skirting boards and the door frames before painting the walls and the ceiling.

Now all of that is finished I can sit down and see what films are on the TV. Then again, the television has been so bad this Christmas I think I’d rather watch paint dry.

The paper – the newspaper
Take it easy – relax, don’t do much
Decorating – paining walls or putting up wallpaper etc.
Sense of achievement – a feeling that you have worked hard at something and feel you have achieved something good
Sitting room – the room where most people go to relax, watch television etc; sometimes called the lounge
Stripped the wallpaper – took wallpaper off the walls
Steamer – a machine to help strip wallpaper; like a big kettle that uses steam to loosen the paper
Skirting boards – the wooden boards that are at the bottom of a wall, next to the floor
I’d rather watch paint dry – an expression that helps you describe that something is/would be very boring
‘Would you like to come to the Natural History Museum to see the new dinosaur exhibition?’
‘No thanks! I’d rather watch paint dry!’

New Year's Resolutions

2010-01-02T00:55:00.007Z

So Christmas is over and another year begins, what will it bring? The first of January is a time when many people decide to make New Year’s resolutions. These are generally designed to improve our lives or make us better people in some way. Over the years, I’ve made many resolutions and over the years I’ve also broken many of them as they are often very difficult to stick to! The most common ones usually involve giving up something that you really enjoy such as smoking, drinking, biting your nails and chocolate (in fact all delicious food) or starting something new such as getting fit or learning a new language. At the party I went to last night everyone was discussing what resolutions they were going to make. Lynn is giving up smoking (for about the tenth time) so are Mark and Jules however, they said that New Year’s day doesn’t count so are starting on the 2nd!! Harry is giving up drinking for 2 months to prove to his wife that he can! Janice wants to give something back to society so is going to do voluntary work for a local charity, more surprisingly she also said that she’s going to get married...you may not think this is strange however, I do as she currently doesn’t have a boyfriend! Oh well I guess you have to admire her optimism! Steve and Kevin both want to change their jobs as they both hate them (I can highly recommend teaching). Then there’s Chris who says that they are pointless and you should make anti-resolutions like put on weight, start taking drugs and drink more alcohol (quite difficult if you are British!) I really hope that David Beckham has made a resolution to win the World Cup because that would make many Brits very happy, we can dream!! Anyway, this year I’ve made more than anyone I know. Here they are:

1. See my friends and family more.
2. Each month visit somewhere in London that I’ve never been to
3. Be much tidier at home and at work (my desk is always a mess)
4. Laugh more
5. Get fitter
6. Do my Greek homework every week

I’ll let you know how my friends and I get on with these resolutions and if you have any unusual resolutions yourself let me know, I wish you good luck with yours. Hope you have a happy and prosperous 2010!!

Glossary

Resolution - a decision or statement that is agreed by an individual or a group
To stick to (something) - to keep or continue with something
to give up (something) - to quit or stop doing something
to prove - to show something is true by providing facts
Voluntary work - work that you aren't paid for
Charity - an organisation that gives money, goods or help to people who are poor, sick or in need of help
Strange - odd or unusual
Optimism - tendency to believe that good things will happen
to put on - to gain
Brits - British people
Mess - untidy or not neat
Prosperous - rich and successful

It's Christmas!

2009-12-21T20:24:00.007Z

At the London School of English we've been celebrating the festive season with our Christmas staff dinner, Christmas concert and Christmas themed lessons. Now the school is closed until the new year but everyone in London is very busy getting ready for Christmas.

So, what do people in the UK do at Christmas time, and what do we say to each other? Here's a list of cultural references about an English Christmas, and some Christmas language too.

Christmas Displays in Shop Windows

Christmas seems to start earlier every year. Shops start putting up Christmas displays almost as soon as Halloween has finished. So, seeing Christmas decorations in shop windows as early as October sometimes makes people feel a bit cynical towards the commercialisation of this traditional festival.

What people say: "I can't believe they're advertising Christmas already! It's disgusting how commercialised it has become. Christmas decorations in October? I mean, come on!"

The Christmas Office Party

Every office has to have a Christmas party, even if all the members of staff don't want to do it! An office party usually involves the staff members getting drunk and doing embarrassing things in front of the boss. Sometimes it is the other way round - and the boss gets drunk and does embarrassing things in front of the staff. Whatever happens - it usually involves drinking and embarrassment!

What people say:

"Thanks for all your hard work this year!"

"I love you Tracy... I've always loved you... give me a kiss will you? Tracy? Tracy I'm sorry... I ... Sorry Tracy! ...oh... oh no."

The Christmas Get-Together with Friends

This is one of the best parts of the Christmas season - the opportunity to meet your best friends and have a drink together to celebrate Christmas. Often this will be done in a good pub or restaurant. Sometimes friends will meet at someone's house and drink together, and be merry.

What do people say?

"Merry Christmas"

"Cheers!"

"What are you up to for Christmas?"

"Where are you spending Christmas?"

"Are you going back to your parents' place?"

"Have a great Christmas, won't you?"

Christmas Songs

There are two types of Christmas song: the Christmas carols, and the modern pop songs. Christmas carols are traditional religious songs which are sung in public places by groups of carol singers. It is a very traditional image: carol singers from the local town who stand in a public place, hold candles and sing.

The old pop songs from the 60s, 70s and 80s are also an important part of a typical Christmas here in England. Wherever you go, you hear these songs. They are played on the radio, in shops, in pubs, at the office party or on a CD player at home. Everyone knows them, and everyone can sing them (especially when they've had a few drinks). Some of the most famous Christmas pop songs are: Merry Christmas Everyone by Slade, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day by Wizard, Last Christmas by Wham and The Fairy Tale of New York by The Pogues. You can check YouTube and Google for all of those songs, and the lyrics are all available online too.

What people say:

"Oh look - it's some carol singers! Oh how lovely!"

"Oh, I LOVE this song!"

"Oh no, not this old Christmas song again... I can't stand it..."

Christmas Shopping

Giving gifts is one of the most important parts of Christmas, so it is important to buy presents for your family members, and some of your close friends. The clever people (usually women) do their Christmas shopping in advance. The stupid ones (usually men) leave it until the last minute, and then have to struggle through crowded streets and busy shops to try and find good presents for their loved ones. Doing your Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve (December 24th) is definitely not recommended, as this is guaranteed to make you very stressed out!

What people say:

"Excuse me! Sorry, can I just squeeze past you? Sorry! Thanks!"

"Excuse me, have you got any wrapping paper left?"

"No, I'm afraid we've sold out"

"Oh my god, I wish I hadn't left this until the last minute"

"Have you got any idea what I should get Dad for Christmas?"

"Haven't you bought him anything yet??"

Bah! Humbug!

Anyone who doesn't like Christmas, is called a 'scrooge'. This is because of the story A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Scrooge is famous for saying "Bah! Humbug!" as a way of complaining about Christmas.

Christmas Pantomimes

This is a fun theatre performance which is designed for children, but which adults usually enjoy too. Christmas is pantomime season, and most of the theatres in town will show a pantomime at this time of year. Pantomime stories are usually based on well known children's stories, such as: Cinderella, Aladdin, Peter Pan, Snow White etc. The most popular pantomimes in London have celebrities as the main characters. Pantomimes (or pantos) always have a funny character, a loveable character and an evil character. The audience is encouraged to join in the performance by shouting lines such as "He's behind you!" when the evil character enters the stage. This year, Pamela Anderson (from Baywatch) is performing in a pantomime in London. Many people think she is doing this because she's bankrupt and really needs the money!

What people say:

"He's behind you!"

"Oh no he isn't!"

"Oh yes he is!"

"I hate pantomimes"

Snow

A white Christmas is a traditional image, but snow is quite rare in London these days. Snowfall on Christmas Day is a little more common in the north of the country and in Scotland where the temperature tends to be colder. Weather forecasters are saying there is a chance of snow this Christmas, so children all over the country might wake up to a snow covered garden this year.

What people say:

"Oh, how lovely - a white Christmas!"

"Daddy, Daddy! Can we go outside and make a snowman!?"

"Due to extreme weather conditions, all train services out of London have been cancelled."

Mistletoe

This is a plant with green leaves and white berries. It is traditional to hang mistletoe from the ceiling or some other high place. If you meet someone underneath the mistletoe - you have to kiss them!

The office party + alcohol + mistletoe = possibly embarrassing office romance which everyone talks about for the next twelve months!

What people say:

"Oh, look, it's some mistletoe - what a coincidence. Come on, give me a kiss then!" *smooch*

Christmas Eve - 24th December

Many people in England have to work on this day, but they will often leave the office early in order to travel home to be with the family. The evening is typically spent either at home with the family, in the pub celebrating Christmas, or in church for midnight mass. These days fewer people are attending church service than before, but there are still plenty of Christians who do go there to sing hymns. After the church service, people often gather round and drink mulled wine together. Before they go to bed, children leave stockings out for Father Christmas. If the children have been good, then Santa will come down the chimney and put gifts in the stocking. If there are any children reading this, get ready for the truth: Father Christmas doesn't exist. Your parents are liars. Sorry to tell you that, but it's a tough world out there - so, better start getting used to it now.

What people say:

"Be a good boy, or Father Christmas won't leave you any presents"

"My friend Jack in my class at school says that Santa isn't real, is this true Mummy?"

"No, your friend Jack is a terrible liar! Of course Father Christmas is real darling. Now shut up and go to bed."

Christmas Day - 25th December

For Children, this is the most exciting day of the year, because they get to open lots of presents! For the adults it is a chance to just relax with the family, eat lots of food, drink some booze, share gifts and fall asleep in front of the TV. Presents are given and received, a lunch/dinner of roast turkey and vegetables is eaten and quite a lot of alcohol is drunk (often starting before lunch). The Queen broadcasts a speech (actually written by the government) in the afternoon, there's usually an entertaining family blockbuster on the TV, and the Dad of the family usually falls asleep while watching it. Despite this emphasis on relaxation, Christmas Day is often a stressful experience, and families will sometimes argue because of disagreements over preparing dinner, what to watch on TV and the noisy & hyperactive children who are running around the house.

What people say:

"Oh, you shouldn't have!"

"It's the thought that counts"

"ZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzz"

Boxing Day - 26th December

This is the day after Christmas Day. No one really knows why it is called Boxing Day, but some people say it is because this is the day that factory workers were given gifts in boxes. Anyway, it doesn't really matter because this day is a public holiday and so everyone just continues doing what they started on Christmas Day - sitting around, eating, drinking and falling asleep. Great!

What people say:

"ZZZZzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz"

So, that's basically it. Merry Christmas everyone, and have a happy new year!

Luke

Glossary:

commercialisation - the act of making something commercialised - making it involved in commerce (buying and selling)

merry - happy and having fun

What are you up to? - What are you doing? / What are you going to do?

I can't stand it - I hate it

leave it until the last minute - do something at the latest possible moment

loved ones - people you love

can I just squeeze past you? - can I get past you? (We use this expression when we need to walk past someone when there is no space)

wrapping paper - paper we use to wrap Christmas presents

berries - small fruit that grows on trees

midnight mass - a church service which happens at 12 o'clock at night

hymns - religious (christian) songs

mulled wine - a combination of wine and spices, which is served hot

stockings - long socks

chimney - the part of a building which transports smoke out of the roof

booze - alcoholic drinks (slang term)

blockbuster - a very successful and popular movie

you shouldn't have - What someone says when they are given a gift. It means "You shouldn't have bought this for me!" or "You didn't need to buy me a gift!". It is a modest way to accept a gift.

Image courtesy of FreeFoto.com

http://www.freefoto.com/preview/90-13-2?ffid=90-13-2

Business Collocations

2009-12-15T22:37:00.013Z

What is a collocation? It’s, two words that are commonly used together and therefore sound natural; such as do and business.

Our company does business in the Far East.
I'm going to give you ten words, see if you can think of any collocations for them:

1. Business
2. Sales
3. Customer
4. Target
5. Market
6. Brand
7. Money
8. Product
9. Highly
10. Commercially

Now read the following text and see how we can use them.

In order to make money in business you should have a good business plan. Firstly, you need to identify your target market and use your product knowledge to sell it. The product must be commercially viable to make a profit. In order to gain market share and increase sales figures, your product should be highly competitive. Once you have done all this you need customer satisfaction because this leads to brand loyalty, which is what all companies would love to achieve.

Other collocations with the above words are:

1. Business opportunity
2. Sales representative
3. Customer services
4. Target audience
5. Market leader
6. Own brand
7. Lose money
8. Product range
9. Highly motivated
10. Commercially successful

I'll write a follow-up blog giving you more examples of these collocations in use soon.

2009-12-15T11:14:00.008Z

Here are some answers from the 'Decisions, Decisions' post. The correct collocations and the examples of the past tense have been highlighted in bold.

Can you choose one from each pair?

- We had to make a snap / click decision
- It’s a tough /strong decision
- It’s a(n) soft / easy decision
- You need to make a quick / speed decision
- That’s my final / end decision

Johnny in Fundon
Johnny arrived in Fundon feeling both excited and a little nervous. It was his first time away from his family, and he was looking forward to his new freedom, but also worrying about looking after himself. So, how did Johnny get on with his new life?He started well at school and was very enthusiastic about his lessons and about his new friends. He organised his study materials, kept up with his work and spent most of his free time doing lots of interesting cultural stuff around Fundon. Gradually, he was getting used to living away from home and the culture shock was not as strong as it was at the beginning. Johnny kept in touch with his family and friends back home and they were happy that he was having such a great time, as well as learning a lot too.After a few months, however…

Johnny’s attitude began to change. He started oversleeping in the mornings and getting to class late. Some days he didn’t even manage to come to school at all. Instead, he just stayed at home or walked around by himself. The energy he had at the beginning suddenly disappeared because he knew it was difficult to learn a language and he was getting frustrated because it takes time to make progress. The problem was that because Johnny now decided to hide away from these difficulties and spend his time speaking his own language and going out with people from his own country, he couldn’t develop his Pinglish.To be honest, Johnny didn’t really enjoy studying that much. He preferred listening to music, watching films and meeting new people (especially women!). What he didn’t understand was that with more Pinglish, he could enjoy these things more. In fact, his best friend Ronny was one of the best students in the school and because he really tried to improve, his life in Fundon really changed. Not only could he go back to his country with an excellent level to impress his friends, but he was also having a great social life: meeting people, doing a wide variety of different things, and really getting to know another culture. It was strange because he studied more than Johnny but he always seemed to have more free time and fun too. His philosophy was ‘Work hard, play hard’.
Unfortunately, Ronny didn’t really influence his friend and Johnny ended up going back to his country early. His parents were a bit surprised, although of course they were happy to see him. He got used to his normal life again, and slowly his Pinglish disappeared.A few years later, he was walking down his local high street and he saw a group of young Pinglish people playing music in the street. One of them was a beautiful young lady; a modern day princess. The music they were playing was great and Johnny really, really wanted to talk to them. They seemed so full of adventure and magic. But…of course he didn’t. Instead he just carried on walking and…he remembered clearly his time all those years ago in Fundon. I guess he regretted the opportunity he wasted. ‘I wish I could go back’ he thought. But time is a bridge that goes in only one direction!

...

Learning English Outside the Classroom

2009-12-11T17:10:00.013Z

Working in a language school as a teacher, I’m often asked by students how they can improve their English when they return to their home countries or when they are not in the classroom. There are many ways to do this. So, I’m now going to share the best ideas with you.

Reading
Whatever level your English is, reading will help to consolidate what you have learnt in the classroom or from a grammar book and is a great way to learn new vocab. Reading should be an enjoyable activity so it often helps if you choose a subject that you have an interest in, for example I love football so I enjoy reading about football in another language (I’m currently studying Modern Greek at evening classes). You can read most English newspapers online nowadays. Something I sometimes do in class is compare a news story that has been written about in two different newspapers, you can see how the language and style varies in each newspaper, for example comparing an article in The Sun to the same article in The Guardian can be very interesting and shows how an article in the tabloid press (The Sun) can often be harder to read than an article in a broadsheet because The Sun uses far more phrasal verbs and colloquial language than The Guardian. See links for both newspapers below.

All good bookshops will sell graded readers from beginner to advanced; you can read anything from Shakespeare to John Grisham. Sometimes it’s a good idea to read a book that you’ve read in your language. Lots of my students have read Harry Potter in English and because they’ve already read it in their own language they don't feel the need to look up every word they don't understand.

When you are reading it sometimes a good idea to focus on one thing, for example, you just read one column of a text or newspaper article and you focus on one aspect of language such as prepositions or phrasal verbs. You can then see which preposition is used with which noun, adjective or verb.

Internet

There are so many internet sites for English language learners to use. As I mentioned earlier, most English newspapers have sites. If you are studying for one of the Cambridge exams like FCE or CAE then you can go on to Flo-joe and practise grammar, reading and listening. See link below.

My favourite site is the award-winning BBC website, as well as having podcasts and interesting news stories it has an English language learning section which is excellent. It an easy site to navigate so try it and see. See link below.

Films, TV and Radio

Watching films is a great way to improve your English, you can turn the subtitles on and play back scenes again and again until you understand or can follow what is being said. TV can be a lot harder to follow but can be good if you watch the same programmes each week like the Apprentice and Dragons’ Den (both on the BBC) and understand what’s happening. I like to listen to Greek radio so that I hear Greek everyday and I try especially hard to listen to the news. Find an English radio station that you like and listen regularly; there is a broad range to choose from such as Radio One with DJs from all over the British Isles with their various accents, to LBC which stands for London’s Biggest Conversation, this station has discussions and phone-ins, it never plays music. See links below.

Out and About

Something that I do and encourage my students to do is to use ‘dead’ time to learn English. For example, when you are travelling on a train or bus or are queuing in a museum or shop; you should look around and see if you can describe your surroundings and the people around you in English, is there any vocabulary that you don’t know? If so you could make a note of it in your own language and look it up later.

Finally, speak English as often as possible. If you go to English classes, ask the people in your group if they want to go out and speak English together. If you aren’t having lessons and live outside the UK then you could see if someone wants to do a language exchange with you. If you have a language school or university near you then you may find that there’s a native speaker who is willing to speak English to you for an hour or so in exchange for you speaking or teaching them your language.

Learning English should be fun…try some of these methods and let me know how you get on and if you have any tips on how you learn English outside the classroom let me know!

Good luck and have fun!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/
http://www.lbc.co.uk/

Decisions, Decisions......…

2009-12-09T09:33:00.020Z

The word ‘DECISION’ has many different collocations (word partnerships). Which ones of those below are useful collocations?

1. Can you choose one from each pair?

- We had to make a snap / click decision

- It’s a tough /strong decision

- It’s a(n) soft / easy decision

- You need to make a quick / speed decision

- That’s my final / end decision

You’re going to read a story about a young guy called Johnny. He’s a university student in his country and his family have decided to send him to Fundon (a great European city) to study Pinglish.

2. What kind of decisions do you think he will have to make?

Read the first part of Johnny’s story quickly and find all the decisions he made.

Johnny in Fundon

Johnny arrived in Fundon feeling both excited and a little nervous. It was his first time away from his family, and he was looking forward to his new freedom, but also worrying about looking after himself. So, how did Johnny get on with his new life?He started well at school and was very enthusiastic about his lessons and about his new friends. He organised his study materials, kept up with his work and spent most of his free time doing lots of interesting cultural stuff around Fundon. Gradually, he was getting used to living away from home and the culture shock was not as strong as it was at the beginning. Johnny kept in touch with his family and friends back home and they were happy that he was having such a great time, as well as learning a lot too.After a few months, however…

3. What do you think happened next in the story?

…Johnny’s attitude began to change. He started oversleeping in the mornings and getting to class late. Some days he didn’t even manage to come to school at all. Instead, he just stayed at home or walked around by himself. The energy he had at the beginning suddenly disappeared because he knew it was difficult to learn a language and he was getting frustrated because it takes time to make progress. The problem was that because Johnny now decided to hide away from these difficulties and spend his time speaking his own language and going out with people from his own country, he couldn’t develop his Pinglish.To be honest, Johnny didn’t really enjoy studying that much. He preferred listening to music, watching films and meeting new people (especially women!). What he didn’t understand was that with more Pinglish, he could enjoy these things more. In fact, his best friend Ronny was one of the best students in the school and because he really tried to improve, his life in Fundon really changed. Not only could he go back to his country with an excellent level to impress his friends, but he was also having a great social life: meeting people, doing a wide variety of different things, and really getting to know another culture. It was strange because he studied more than Johnny but he always seemed to have more free time and fun too. His philosophy was ‘Work hard, play hard’.

Unfortunately, Ronny didn’t really influence his friend and Johnny ended up going back to his country early. His parents were a bit surprised, although of course they were happy to see him. He got used to his normal life again, and slowly his Pinglish disappeared.A few years later, he was walking down his local high street and he saw a group of young Pinglish people playing music in the street. One of them was a beautiful young lady; a modern day princess. The music they were playing was great and Johnny really, really wanted to talk to them. They seemed so full of adventure and magic. But…of course he didn’t. Instead he just carried on walking and…he remembered clearly his time all those years ago in Fundon. I guess he regretted the opportunity he wasted. ‘I wish I could go back’ he thought. But time is a bridge that goes in only one direction!
Written by Rui Da Silva & Ben Butler

4. What do you think of the story?

5. What do you think the message of the story is?

6. How do you think you can get the maximum benefit from visiting and studying in a native English speaking country?

Think about some of the bad decisions you think Johnny made and then consider what you think he should have done.

7. He should’ve…

8. He shouldn't have...

Can you find all the uses of past tense in the story? How many are there?

Come to the Christmas party!

2009-12-07T09:32:00.002Z

This Friday, 11th December, Banned Practice will be performing at the London School of English Christmas party. The party will be at The Hops Poles on King Street, Hammersmith. Tickets are £6 in advance (if you're at the school you can buy tickets in Reception) or £7 on the door. Everyone is welcome.

Hope to see you there from 8pm on Friday!

The School Band

2009-12-03T22:31:00.010Z

Not only are our staff at LSE very experienced and well qualified in teaching English as a foreign language, they are also great entertainers! In fact, I think we might be one of the only schools in London to have its own band.

The group is called Banned Practice and is made up of teachers and members of staff at the school. Banned Practice have been practising, writing songs and performing for at least 20 years. The group has had many different members and has played possibly hundreds of different songs over the years.

I am the most recent member of the group. I joined about 3 years ago when I started working at the school. I play the drums, and I sometimes sing (but the less said about that the better). Teachers and staff members from both Holland Park and Westcroft Square are involved in the band. We have two guitarists (Robin Gray and Francis Duncan), a bass guitarist (Johnny ‘Danger’ Diablo), and lead singers (Michelle Oldman, Richard McNeff, Kevin Scanlan, Carrick Cameron, Simon Williams). Some of those singers are also guitarists, keyboard players, flutists, saxophone players and even tambourine players. There is so much talent packed into this group that sometimes it feels like we are going to explode!

We play cover versions of classic rock and roll songs from the 50s to the noughties, and we also write some original material. Richard McNeff in particular has written quite a few of his own tracks (Richard is also a published novelist – check out his website here).

We practise once a week either in the school or in a local rehearsal studio in Shepherds Bush, and we perform concerts to our staff and students regularly during the year. The concerts are usually great parties in which everyone has a good time grooving to the music or just observing the incredible display of musicianship and entertainment on stage! Our gigs often end with the crowd shouting “Encore encore!”

Being in the band is great fun, especially during gigs, but we also work very hard at learning the songs. Hopefully the hard work pays off when we get in front of the audience and start our set. We aim to entertain, and always hope that everyone enjoys themselves.

If you come to LSE or you are a student here now, watch out for up-coming social events involving Banned Practice. We are also on Facebook, so check us out!

Definitions:

is made up of - consists of

over the years – during the long time since it started

the less said about that the better – don’t talk about it

cover versions – songs which were written and recorded by someone else

the noughties – the informal expression for the decade 2000-2009 (e.g. 80-89 = the eighties, 90-99 = the nineties – 2000 – 2009 = the noughties). The word ‘noughties’ is a kind of pun on the words ‘naughty’ which means ‘badly behaved’, and the word ‘nought’ which means ‘zero’ or 0)

original material – songs written by the band (not cover versions)

tracks - songs

rehearsal studio – a place in which a band practises

grooving - dancing

musicianship – the ability to play a musical instrument

gigs – live concerts

to be in a band – to be a member of a musical group

the hard work pays off – hard work is rewarded in the end

a set – the whole list of songs which a band plays in one concert

English Expressions and their Origins

2009-12-01T22:45:00.007Z

Today I thought we’d do a little quiz. Please read the story below and decide where the expressions in bold come from, Shakespeare, the Bible or elsewhere. Good luck!

Amy was from very small village in Kent and when she was 20 years old she was invited to her best friend Adam’s party, which was quite exciting as nothing ever happened in the village. She dressed up and spent a long time doing her hair and make-up and when she got to her friend’s house he told her to eat drink and be merry…so she did! She met Mark, who was tall dark and handsome. He told her that he was very successful and had a huge house in the next village, he asked her to go out with him. Adam was worried about his friend Amy and warned her that all that all that glittered is not gold. She replied that she understood this and wasn’t wearing her heart on her sleeve. She also told him that there was Hobson’s choice in this small village and if she didn’t go out with him then someone else would.

They dated each other for six months, then, he got bored and left her high and dry for a member of the Royal Family. She felt a bit sad and rather silly and went to talk to her best friend Adam about it. He told her that he was glad that she wasn’t seeing Mark anymore because he wanted to tell her how he felt about her. He told that he had loved her since he was 12 years old and that he would stay with her through thick and thin. She told him that she didn’t deserve his love as she had not been a good friend but he told her that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet and that, for him, it was better to give than to receive. She then realised that he was right and they got married and are still together 40 years later!

Now look to see if you have guessed correctly!

Answers

Eat, drink and be merry is from the Bible, Ecclesiastes VIII 15. The meaning is clear.

All that glitters is not gold has many references; the most common is from Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice (1596). It means that, just because something looks good, it may not be.

Wear your heart on your sleeve may be from the middle ages. Knights used to wear the colours or ribbons on their arms of the lady that they were trying to impress or support. It is also more famously in Shakespeare’s Othello (1604).

Hobson’s choice means that there is not choice at all. It is believed to come from Thomas Hobson (1545-1631) who rented horses to people; however, they could not choose the horse so they had to have the horse he gave you or no horse.

High and dry is from the language of sailing. If a boat is high and dry it is out of the water and has been for sometime, the situation is not good. It usually means that there is no hope of recovery or of things getting better.

Through thick and thin is a very old English expression. It refers back to a time hundreds of years ago, when England was mainly trees and woodland, there weren’t many roads therefore travelling was difficult. Through thick and thin meant how many trees and bushes there were (a lot or a few). It now means whatever problems or obstacles there are. It is usually used to express determination.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet is from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1594). It means that it doesn’t matter what we call something but what it is that is important.

It’s better to give than to receive is from the Bible, Acts 20:35. The meaning is clear.

Word games

2009-11-25T14:38:00.012Z

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. I could lie and say that I've been busy putting the world to rights, making a change so that we all have a brighter tomorrow. But the sad truth is, I haven't done anything of the sort. No, the reality couldn't be any further from this. The fact is, I have an addiction, and I need to share it with you all.

Like many people nowadays, I've become hooked on the internet. Or more precisely, I've become addicted to a particular website. Once I power up my laptop, I retreat into my own little cyberworld and can spend hours, days even, on this site without eating anything or speaking to anyone. It drives my girlfriend mad! I am what you might call a cyber-junkie. The irony that I'm writing this blog is not wasted on me.

So what website has done this to me? What site has got so far under my skin as to make it almost impossible to do any work? I'd like to tell you, but I feel I must absolve myself of all potential blame and attach a health-warning before you click on any of the links below - THIS WEBSITE IS VERY ADDICTIVE AND WILL TAKE UP ALL OF YOUR FREE TIME IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL!!!

Phew! Got that out of the way. Okay, the website in question is www.sporcle.com. It's a great collection of "mentally stimulating diversions". Guessing games mostly. They cover a wide range of topics and there are, at the time of writing, over 2,000 games which have been played over 130,000,000 times! So I'm not alone with my addiction.

In terms of improving your english it's a fantastic website, especially the language section. See below for a few of my favourites. Good luck, and try not to become a Sporcle-junkie!

http://www.sporcle.com/games/common_english_words.php

http://www.sporcle.com/games/usuk_words.php

http://www.sporcle.com/games/common_english_adjectives.php

http://www.sporcle.com/games/3letterbody.php

http://www.sporcle.com/games/corplogos.php

Image from www.freedigitalphotos.net

Glossary

putting the world to rights solving all the problems in the world

a brighter tomorrow a better future

to be hooked on to be addicted to

to power up to switch a machine, such as a computer, on

to retreat into your own little world to become so interested in something to the point where you ignore everyone else

to drive somebody mad to frustrate, irritate or annoy somebody

cyber related to computers and the internet

junkie informal expression for an addict

to get (so far) under your skin to be unable to stop thinking about or do anything else

to absolve yourself of all blame to make it public that you are not responsible for something

mentally stimulating diversions activities or games that require the use of your brain

Writing Emails in English

2009-11-21T16:16:00.005Z

Writing in English is sometimes seen as easier than speaking because you usually have more time to think about what you are writing and can correct any mistakes. With spoken English you need to respond immediately and can often forget words and tenses which can be embarrassing. I’m going to look briefly at some formal and informal writing styles, including some useful phrases that will hopefully help you. All correspondence should have a purpose, so ask yourself ‘why am I writing?’ The subject should be clear to the reader immediately; if action is required by the reader then this should be stated in the subject line and then repeated in the first line of the email. The emails below are about the same subject, however the first is formal and the second informal.

To: Brad Pitt
From: Heather Daniell
Subject: Action required re Marketing meeting Nov 25th
cc: George Clooney

I am writing with regard to next week’s meeting on November 25th at 9.30 am. I have already received confirmation that Angelina, Tom, Clint and Keira will be attending and have had apologies from Elvis and Michael. I would be grateful if you could bring samples of the new posters and leaflets that you have produced. Clint has kindly offered to present the pricing strategy to us at 9.30 however, will have to leave at 10.00.

I would appreciate confirmation of your attendance by return email. If you have any questions regarding this matter please do not hesitate to contact me.

I look forward to seeing you next week.

Regards

Heather

Just a quick note about next week’s meeting on November 25th at 9.30 am. I’ve heard that that Angelina, Tom, Clint and Keira can make it and Elvis and Michael can’t. Please can you bring samples of the new posters and leaflets that you’ve produced. Clint will present the pricing strategy to us at 9.30 but, has to leave at 10.00.

Please let me know if you’re coming asap. Call or email if you need to know anything else.

See you next week.

Bw

Heather

Most emails are informal, however if you are writing to someone you’ve never met before or someone quite senior in a company then you may wish to ‘play safe’ and use more formal language. If you aren’t sure then you should copy the style of the incoming email. Good luck and happy emailing!

Football at LSE

2009-11-16T18:21:00.014Z

On Wednesday afternoons at our Westcroft Square school some of the teachers and students play football.We play on an Astroturf pitch in Ravenscourt Park which is a 5 minute walk from the school. How many players we have, depends on the time of year and the British weather of course, but we usually have between 8 and 15 from the school, sometimes more. We often play if it's raining a little, but we sometimes call it off when it's pouring down. We play against native English people from the local college and if we have a lot of players we play on an 11 aside pitch. When there's less people however we play smaller games of 5 or 7 aside on a smaller pitch. We have players of all different nationalities and abilities and we've even had a few female players. Sometimes when the weather's nice, some students just come along to watch and cheer us on.
It's a great way to relax and unwind after class by letting out some energy, as well as, it being really good exercise. Most of the courses at Westcroft Square finish at 12.45pm on Wednesdays so we start playing at about 1.00pm. Everyone enjoys playing and it provides an excellent opportunity for students to interact with native speakers in a fun and informal situation. Not only do students get to interact with teachers, they also get the chance to meet native English people. It's a natural way to practise English because communication is one of the keys skills in football. If you don't know how to tell a teammate to pass, you won't receive the ball and your team could miss a good opportunity to score. There is also some fun competitive banter between the different nationalities at times which adds to the enjoyment. So, if you plan to study at our Westcroft Square school and you enjoy football, don't forget to bring your kit!

Glossary

it's pouring down = it's raining heavily
a pitch = where football is played
Astroturf = false grass
banter = light joking talk
kit = the clothes and shoes you need to play football

The Beautiful Game

2009-11-16T17:21:00.003Z

This Saturday was the first leg of the world cup play-offs, with two of Europe’s biggest teams still fighting for places. France played the Republic of Ireland (away) and Portugal faced Bosnia-Herzegovina (at home), both teams won by a single goal and need to put on more convincing performances in their next games on Wednesday 18th November. They should both beat their opponents and then take their rightful places in the World Cup. Greece and Ukraine were very disappointing and neither deserves a place in the world cup if they play like that, a very dull match with no goals. Russia beat Slovenia 2-1 and look sure to go to South Africa.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the fact that England qualified so early and that, for once, we were not part of these dreaded play-offs! I’m looking forward to the draw on December 4th and am feeling strangely confident about our chances next year. Capello, the 63-year old England coach, has brought hope to the English fans, he’s been in charge for 21 matches, and we’ve won 15, drawn 2 and only lost 4. The England team respect him and so do the fans. He stated:
"This is the final appointment of my career. It would be nice to finish on a high."
There could be no greater high than winning the World Cup, you may think that is a wish too far but I believe he can take us a long way in the tournament and who knows….dreams can come true, they did in 1966!!!

Glossary

Convincing - making you believe that something is true or right
Opponent - someone who you try to defeat in a competition or game
Rightful - according to what is correct or what should be done legally or morally
Thoroughly - completely
Dreaded - making you feel afraid or anxious
To be in charge - to be in control, to be the boss

Money & The Financial Crisis - 12 Phrasal Verbs

2009-11-10T23:10:00.005Z

This blog post is about money and the economic crisis. It is full of useful financial vocabulary and expressions. Also, there are 12 phrasal verbs connected to money in the text. Can you find the 12 phrasal verbs? Definitions are provided below.

These days, many of us are living in tough times. The economic crisis is making life difficult for lots of people in this country. We're all having to economise and cut back on our spending. There is less credit available in the money markets at the moment and this is having a knock-on effect in our lives.

Unemployment is going up and house prices have gone down over the last few years. The Bank of England recently used tax payers' money to bail out many of the banks which were facing insolvency due to their poor investments in so-called 'toxic assets' (many of them originating in the American sub-prime real estate markets). The government lowered interest rates to help people pay off their bank loans and mortgages. VAT was lowered to 15% in order to encourage us to splash out in shops up and down the country, and inject more money into the economy.

Some people are not being affected so seriously; particularly the wise individuals who have saved up their money in secure savings accounts. When they need to, they can just dip into their savings in order to pay for an unexpected household repair or a much needed holiday. But for many of us, we just have to get by every month on our monthly salaries. It's not easy though, particularly in London when everything is so expensive. We try to pay off our loans and mortgages while trying to avoid taking too much cash out of the many cash machines which are available to us all over the city.

The energy companies in particular seem to be ripping everyone off with the price of oil and electricity. It's almost as though they're using global warming as an excuse for charging us extortionate amounts for our energy, even though wholesale market prices have dropped in recent months.

Big companies and banks seem to get protection from the state, while the average tax payer has to pick up the pieces by working harder, cutting back on our spending, moving into more modest accommodation, or accepting badly paid work because we have no choice. Perhaps it has to be that way - the big companies have to be protected in order to support the economy. It just seems a little unfair that's all, and I'm sure there are some CEOs and directors who are still doing very well while the rest of us struggle to get by.

Still, it's not all bad. The lower interest rates on bank loans and mortgages mean we don't have to pay back so much money each month, and there is now so much freely available entertainment on the internet that it's quite easy to have a good time without reaching too deep into our pockets. So, take advantage of free internet content like this, and use it to help you improve your English wherever you are in the world.

Did you find the phrasal verbs? Here they are:

1. to cut back on spending - this means to spend less than before. To try and reduce your spending. E.g. "I'm going to have to cut back on my spending in order to save up some money"
2. to go up - this means to increase
3. to go down - this means to decrease
4. to bail someone out - this means to save someone by giving them money. It's usually used when the government gives money to a company or bank in order to save them from insolvency. E.g. "The government bailed out the banks by giving them £5billion of tax payers' money"
5. to splash out - this means to spend quite a lot of money in a care-free way when you go shopping. E.g. "I was feeling a bit depressed, so I went to the shopping centre and just splashed out on some new clothes"
6. to save up - this means to save money. E.g. "I'm saving up for a holiday in Italy next year"
7. to dip into savings - this means to go into your savings account, and take a bit of money out. E.g. "I can't afford to pay my electricity and telephone bills this month. I'm going to have to dip into my savings"
8. to get by - this means to survive, usually on a small amount of money. E.g. "Students in London find it difficult to get by on money they earn from part-time work"
9. to pay something off - this means to completely pay a loan or debt. E.g. "YEAH!!! I've finally paid off my student loan!"
10. to take some cash out - this means to withdraw money from a bank or cash machine
11. to rip someone off - to charge too much money for something. To give a bad price. E.g. "You always get completely ripped off in Harrods. You can by the same stuff in other shops for much less money. The prices are just high because it's Harrods."
12. to pay something back - to give money back. When you have borrowed money, you have to pay it back each month

Image courtesy of FreeFoto.com – an online resource for copyright free photo downloads. Click here to visit the site and read the free use rules.

http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp

How I spent Halloween

2009-11-05T18:45:00.004Z

My Halloween was actually really good fun and one of the best that I’ve ever. Early Saturday evening I went down to my friend’s house in Kent dressed as a vampire and from there travelled down to a farm in the middle of the countryside for a ‘ghost walk’ that was organised by the Local Council. There were eight children ranging from 8 to 15 years old and six adults, all in fancy dress (witches, ghosts and devils). We split into 2 groups. Each group was given a gas lantern and told to follow a path marked with small florescent lights in the trees. I found myself holding hands with two eleven year-old girls who became more and more frightened as the walk continued. It was pitch black and we were walking through muddy woodlands. We heard rustling noises in the bushes and then various ghosts and monsters rushed out of the woods, I don’t know who screamed loudest, me or the girls!!! After a petrifying 45 minutes, we finally reached the safety of our cars and headed home.

The evening had only just begun. Back at my friend’s house we gathered around a fire and started playing games, bobbing for apples (the apples are floating in water) followed my finding sweets with your teeth in a bowl full of flour, of course the your face ends up covered in flour (made more amusing for the adults as the drinking had begun!) As my friend lives in a residential area, the kids decided to go trick or treating and many children came to the house too. There was a really friendly atmosphere. We partied until 3.00 in the morning (well the grown-ups did anyway!).

I now realise that Halloween is a much bigger festival than when I was a child and certainly a lot more fun. Roll on next year!

Glossary

Countryside land that is outside cities and towns
Fancy dress clothes that you wear that make you look like a famous person or character
Lantern a lamp that you can carry
Fluorescent colours that are very bright and easy to see, even in the dark
Pitch black completely black or dark:
Muddy covered with mud
Woodlands an area of land covered with trees

Rustling making a noise as they rub against each other

Bushes plants with many thin branches growing up from the ground
Petrifying extremely frightening
Gathered come together and form a group
Amusing funny and entertaining:
Residential a residential part of a town consists of private houses
Grown-up an adult
Roll on next year looking forward to next year

Andy's Mum Visits him in South Korea

2009-11-03T11:30:00.003Z

Here is the final part of Andy's adventures in South Korea. Andy's going home to Scotland for Christmas next month but he'll be back in Daegu for more adventures in the new year.

'The following week my mum came to visit, and we had a great time seeing the sights, eating all the traditional meals, drinking together, etc! We spent the 2 weekends in Gyeongju, the old capital, where we went to the biggest and oldest Buddhist temple in Korea, and in Seoul, where we visited a magnificent, historical palace. We also browsed in an old district full of shops with antiques and other traditional Korean items (Insadong), bought a camera in the largest electronics complex imaginable (at an amazing price), and rounded it all off with a pint of Guinness in a British-style pub in Itaewon, a foreigner-packed district. My mum is full of the whole Korean experience now she is home - I think she wants to emigrate here!'

I'm going home after this contract for a couple of months, to spend Christmas with family and old friends, but I'll be back here in January to continue the adventure, as there is still so much to see and do.....

Glossary

seeing the sights – visiting/seeing the attractions

to round something off – to finish something

emigrate – move to another country to live

Halloween 1

2009-10-30T18:08:00.009Z

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

2009-10-26T08:48:00.005Z

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

2009-10-23T14:33:00.003+01:00

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

2009-10-19T12:55:00.016+01:00

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

2009-10-14T11:28:00.005+01:00

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

2009-10-09T13:28:00.003+01:00

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!