Compass ELT

Vicki Hollet's video (I'm on it too)

2012-01-15T22:55:00.001+01:00

Business word of the day

2012-01-11T15:14:00.001+01:00

A very useful free app from Business Spotlight

Online tasks to check your Business English

2011-12-26T11:16:00.001+01:00

Business Spotlight have put together a collection of the most popular exercises of 2011.

Online tasks to check your Business English

Civets

2011-11-28T15:16:00.001+01:00

Do you know what CIVETS are?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15888069

Vulture funds

2011-11-28T15:11:00.001+01:00

Do you know what a vulture fund is?
Read the article and then follow the links on its right to read about DRC and Jersey

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/nov/15/vulture-funds-how-they-work?intcmp=239

Feedback

2011-11-28T08:05:00.001+01:00

There's a nice article / blog on the Harvard Business Review called
There's No Such Thing as Constructive Criticism

http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2011/11/theres-no-such-thing-as-constr.html

PPT help

2011-11-15T14:19:00.001+01:00

Have a look at this slide show

You suck at PowerPoint

useful writing tips

2011-11-13T11:12:00.001+01:00

How to Style Compounds After the Noun

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-to-style-compounds-after-the-noun/

Most but not all phrasal adjectives (two words that combine to modify a noun — hence the alternate name, compound modifiers) are hyphenated, which is confusing enough — though easily resolved: If a permanent compound is listed in the dictionary as open, no hyphen is necessary; otherwise, hyphenate. But that applies only before the noun.

What happens after the noun is a whole other matter: Usually, phrasal adjectives and similar (or similar-looking) constructions are left open in that position. Here’s a rundown on hyphenation rules for various types of compounds:
Categories

Age compound: “The eighteen-year-old (boy),” but “He is eighteen years old.”

Color compound: “The sky-blue paint,” but “The paint is sky blue.”

Fraction compound: “A half-mile walk,” but “a walk of a half mile.”

Number, spelled out: “Fifty-one,” “five hundred,” five hundred one,” “two thousand twenty-two.” (Hyphenate tens-ones figures in isolation and in larger figures, but leave open all other combinations of places.)

Number plus noun: “A five-year plan,” but a plan that will take five years”; “a four-and-a-half-inch gap,” but “a gap of four and a half inches”; “the fourth-floor office,” but “an office on the fourth floor.”

Number plus superlative: “The third-tallest player,” but “a player who is third tallest.”

Time: “They’re going to the eight o’clock screening” and “The meeting starts at six (o’clock)”; “I have a five-thirty plane to catch,” but “I’ll meet you at five thirty” (always open when time is on the hour, and hyphenated before the noun but open after when time is between hours).
Parts of Speech

Adjectival phrase: “His matter-of-fact manner,” but “His manner was matter of fact.”

Adjective plus noun: “A low-class joint,” but “The joint is low class.”

Adjective identifying origin or location plus noun: “An Indo-European language” and “the French-Spanish border,” but “She is a Japanese American” and “the latest Middle East crisis” (open unless the first term is a prefix or there is a sense of a distinction between the elements).

Adjective plus participle or adjective: “His long-suffering wife,” but “his wife is long suffering.”

Adverb ending in -ly plus participle or adjective: “Her rapidly beating heart” (always open).

Adverb not ending in -ly plus participle: “The little-read novel,” but “The novel is little read.” (See “More About Adverbs,” below.)

Noun phrase: “A feather in your cap,” but “He’s a jack-of-all-trades” (open unless hyphenated in the dictionary).

Noun plus adjective: “The family-friendly restaurant,” but “The restaurant is family friendly.”

Noun plus gerund: “A note-taking lesson,” but “a lesson in note taking.” (But beware of closed noun-plus-gerund compounds like matchmaking.)

Noun plus noun, the first one modifying the second: “A tenure-track position,” but “She’s on the tenure track.” (But leave permanent compounds like “income tax” open even before a noun, and check for closed noun-plus-noun compounds like bartender.)

Noun plus noun, equivalent: City-state, nurse-practitioner (always hyphenated).

Noun plus letter or number: “A size 34 waist,” “the type A personality” (never hyphenated).

Noun plus participle: “A problem-solving exercise,” but “time for some problem solving.”

Participle plus noun: “Working-class families,” but “members of the working class.”

Participle plus prepositional adverb plus noun: “Turned-up nose,” but “Her nose was turned up.”
More About Adverbs

When less or more modifies an adjective, such as in “a less frequent occurrence”/“an occurrence that is less frequent” or “a more qualified candidate”/“a candidate who is more qualified,” the phrase is not hyphenated either before or after a noun. The same is true of least and most unless ambiguity is possible.

For example, “a lesser-known rival” is a rival who is not as well known, but “a lesser known rival,” by contrast, might be a known rival of lesser consequence. Likewise, “the most-quoted orators” and “the most quoted orators” refer, respectively, to orators most frequently quoted and a majority of quoted orators. Again, however, the hyphenated version would be left open when it follows a noun, and would likely be worded differently than its counterpart that is not hyphenated before the noun, either.

Also, when an adverb that is part of a modifying phrase is modified by another adverb, as in “a very much praised debut,” the phrase is not hyphenated at all, even though a hyphen would appear in “a much-praised debut.”

Plurals

2011-08-31T16:29:00.001+02:00

Plurals
The Many Forms of Plurals

Link

Plurals take many (sometimes curious or counterintuitive) forms. Here is an outline of how to form various types of plurals according to the word form or ending:

For words ending in

nonsibilant, or voiceless, consonants: add -s (dogs).
voiced, or sibilant, consonant blends: add -es (riches).
vowels: add -s (knees).
-f: delete -f and add -ves (loaves) or -s (chiefs).
-x: add -es (foxes).
-y: delete -y and add -ies (bodies).

For words of Latin or Greek origin ending in:

-a: add -s or -e, depending on context (formulas/formulae).
-ex: add -es or delete -x and add -ces, depending on context (indexes/indices).
-ies: leave as is (species).
-is: change to -es (axis).
-ma: add -s or -ata, depending on context (stigmas/stigmata).
-um: add -s (aquariums), delete -um and add -a (curricula), or either depending on context (mediums/media).
-us: delete -us and add -i (alumni), -ii (radii), -era (genera), or -ora (corpora), or leave -us and add -es (octopuses) or use another form, depending on context (cactuses/cacti).

Types of irregular forms include:

ablaut, or mutated, plurals, with changes in the midst of a word (tooth/teeth; louse/lice).
identical singular and plural forms (deer, spacecraft).
-en and -ren endings (oxen, children).

Some words have more than one plural form, one of which may be archaic (cows/kine) or reserved for a distinct meaning (dice/dies).

One problematic category is in referring to fish in general and specific varieties of fish in particular: “Look at all the fish!” but “Gars are long, slender, predatory fishes.” Also, some types are given a distinct plural form (sharks, barracudas), though for others, the plural form is identical to the singular one (salmon, sturgeon).

Plurals of letters, numbers, or abbreviations are generally formed simply by adding -s, although occasionally, the otherwise incorrect use of an interceding apostrophe is warranted (“Mind your p’s and q’s”). Usually, however, pluralizing names of letters requires no special treatment, especially when the letter is italicized, as here: “There are five es in beekeeper.” Initialisms and acronyms also require only an -s: “Many NGOs are headquartered here,” “It’s like having two NASAs.”

The singular forms of some words are, because they end in -s, sometimes mistaken as plurals, and the letter is then incorrectly deleted to create a false singular form. Examples include gyros, kudos, and biceps (as well as triceps and quadriceps). The plural forms are the same, although the latter examples are also pluralized by adding -es. For other words, the original singular has been supplanted by a plural form used in both cases (alga by algae; graffito by graffiti).

Ethnic terms

2011-07-19T07:38:00.001+02:00

How do you say ......???

10 Ethnic Terms
by Mark Nichol

The vocabulary of ethnicity identity is fraught with peril. It is unfortunate that humans must at times distinguish between various subgroups, but it’s best to keep up-to-date on which descriptions are considered valid or acceptable among those belonging to those populations. Here’s a guide:

1. African
A person of African descent. Some people so described use this term even if they are US residents because, due to their recent arrival in the United States, they do not identify with black, or African American, culture.

2. African American
An American of African descent. Most people answering this description have no problem with the term black, but some groups and publications prefer this term, and it’s useful, at least, as elegant variation. Unlike as with the case of people from Asia, African Americans are less likely to be identified by their specific country of origin, such as in “Kenyan American.”

3. Asian
A person of Asian descent.

4. Asian American
An American of Asian descent. More specific terms such as “Japanese American” are used when necessary; note, however, that immigrants from nations from which relatively few people come to America can also be identified by such a construction, even if the phrase is not common (such as “Pakistani American”).

5. Black
An American of African descent; this term is generally lowercased but is capitalized by some groups and publications.

6. Chicano
An American of Mexican descent. This is one of those terms best reserved for use by those it refers to. People of similar ethnic heritage from countries other than Mexico may share communities and philosophies with Chicanos, but they may prefer not to share the name. (The feminine form Chicana is used when referring specifically to women.)

7. Hispanic
A person of mixed Spanish or Portuguese and Indian heritage. Some people of this description oppose the term because it emphasizes the European element at the expense of other identities.

8. Indian
This term has two distinct meanings: a person descended from people who long ago immigrated to the Americas from Asia, or people of Indian descent (that is, from India). Many people in the first category so identified prefer this term to “Native American,” and some use “American Indian” only to distinguish themselves from people originating in India. (American Indians were originally misidentified as such by Christopher Columbus, who believed, in error, that he had reached India rather than the Western Hemisphere.)

9. Latino
A person of mixed Indian and Spanish or Portuguese descent. This term, although no more etymologically valid than “Hispanic,” is preferable among many such people. (The feminine form Latina is used when referring specifically to women.)

10. Native American
A person descended from people who long ago immigrated to the Americas from Asia. Many people adhering to this description prefer to be called simply Indians or to be identified by their tribal name. (Note that the terms indigenous and aboriginal are not strictly correct, because Indians did not evolve in the Western Hemisphere. Canadian Indians who call themselves the First Nations are more accurate.)

Of course, many other descriptors for ethnic groups exist, including many broadly considered derogatory and even offensive. However, some people belonging to ethnic groups so labeled use such terms among themselves to reclaim them and diminhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifish their painful associations.

A final note: I use the term American (which need not be hyphenated to another proper name) to refer to US citizens, although Americans — meaning people who live in the Western Hemisphere — who do not reside in the United States outnumber those who do. This apparently arrogant appropriation of the term is objectionable to some people, but it is unrealistic to expect that it will be abandoned.

Source: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-ethnic-terms/

101 business quotes

2011-07-17T19:29:00.001+02:00

click here for the quotes slide show

Free online Business English dictionary

2011-05-18T08:48:00.004+02:00

Have you tried this dictionary yet?
Use it regularly to expand your Business English vocabulary.

BUSINESS DICTIONARY.COM

IATEFL conference report

2011-05-10T20:03:00.002+02:00

REPORT FROM IATEFL

Above is a link to my report and photos from the IATEFL conference in Brighton this April.

Microsoft buys Skype

2011-05-10T19:58:00.002+02:00

Microsoft confirms takeover of Skype
Skype website Skype had previously planned a share flotation

Microsoft has confirmed that it has agreed to buy internet phone service Skype.

The deal will see Microsoft pay $8.5bn (£5.2bn) for Skype, making it Microsoft's largest acquisition.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Luxembourg-based Skype has 663 million global users. In August last year it announced plans for a share flotation, but this was subsequently put on hold.

Internet auction house eBay bought Skype for $2.6bn in 2006, before selling 70% of it in 2009 for $2bn.

CLICK FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

Everyday objects that look like celebrities or religious figures

2011-04-27T20:10:00.002+02:00

Click on this link to see more...

Everyday objects that look like celebrities or religious figures

Good news for new dads

2011-04-03T09:13:00.002+02:00

Britain is finnaly catching up with the rest of Europe.

Paternity leave

Words in the news

2011-03-16T15:06:00.001+01:00

Have a look at the language help Business Spotlight gives for talking about nuclear meltdown.....

invisibility cloak a reality?

2011-02-11T13:59:00.002+01:00

Birmingham scientists create Harry Potter style 'cloak of invisibility'

How do you start your emails?

2011-02-01T20:19:00.000+01:00

Should we stop using dear? asks an article on the BBC.

What's your English?

2011-02-01T15:41:00.000+01:00

M-Learning

2011-01-24T08:14:00.001+01:00

I've joined an online course run by The Consultants-e. It's all about m-learning = learning using mobile devices such as smart phones and netbooks.

Similar to the Dualehochschule??

2010-11-08T13:04:00.002+01:00

Isn't this rather similar to what is offered in Germany at the Dualehochschulen?

Oxford ... Cambridge ... Harrods? London store to offer BA honours degree in sales

The difficulties of English

2010-09-15T14:32:00.002+02:00

Spend a penny

Foreign nurses are receiving a crash course in euphemism after bewildered patients expressing the wish to "spend a penny" found themselves being escorted to a hospital shop. Norfolk's Queen Elizabeth hospital has organised special "adapting to life in Norfolk" sessions for Portuguese staff whose otherwise excellent English results in too-literal translations of everyday expressions. Patients, particularly the elderly, face being met with incomprehension when complaining of "feeling under the weather", suffering "pin and needles" or experiencing problems with their "back passage".

Local expressions such as "blar", meaning to cry, and "mawther", meaning "young woman", are also likely to see mystified nurses flicking in vain through conventional phrasebooks. The distinct Norfolk brogue provides another linguistic obstacle for the recruits hired by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS trust. "One of the things people from overseas had difficulty with was our euphemisms such as 'spend a penny'," said a hospital spokesman. "In the past some of the new recruits from abroad, when patients used the expression, were taking people to the hospital shop."

"They all speak exceptional English, but that doesn't necessarily cover the type of English spoken in Norfolk. We have many different phrases and sayings in this part of the world. A lot of patients are elderly and use what can only be described as quaint phrases and descriptions, especially for body parts and common illnesses." The hospital has organised two-hour induction courses in dialect, idiom and colloquialism, covering phrases such as "spick and span", "higgledy-piggledy", "la-di-dah" and "tickled pink". Other useful terms on the agenda are "jim jams", "a cuppa" and "elbow grease". Nurses are being asked to write down any confusing phrases they hear on the wards so they can be discussed in follow-up meetings.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients' Association, said the training would ensure "safe service" in hospitals. "Anyone working for the NHS - nurse, doctor, other healthcare professional, healthcare assistant - must be able to be understood by the patient and must demonstrate that they are safe to treat patients," she said. But Fiona McEvoy, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, resorting to idiom herself, said it was "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut". It made more financial sense for foreign nurses to pick up local phrases "from hearing them used and being advised by peers", she said.

A comparison of Business English schools and courses

2010-09-09T10:29:00.000+02:00

link to the PDF about Business English schools and courses

Apostrophe rules

2010-09-01T14:30:00.001+02:00

The language of Starbucks

2010-08-23T15:33:00.002+02:00

There's a nice language-related article on the BBC about the language of ordering in coffee shops and Starbucks in particular.
Click here .....

The Famous Five for the 21st C.

2010-07-30T12:56:00.002+02:00

housemistress = teacher
awful swotter = bookworm
tinker = traveller
(etc, etc)

The language in the Famous Five books is being updated so that today's children can understand them.

A jolly shame or a bally good thing?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/23/enid-blyton-famous-five-makeover

Procrastination 2

2010-07-26T21:21:00.000+02:00

Procrastination

2010-07-26T21:08:00.000+02:00

No regrets

2010-07-26T11:56:00.000+02:00

Buzz words

2010-07-06T17:27:00.002+02:00

Denture Venturer is a great new term. Click here to go to the whole article to find out what it means and how to use it.

The World Cup

2010-06-13T09:29:00.001+02:00

In this video from the University of Nottingham's website you can watch a rather eccentric-looking professor explainng why he believes the world cup cannot possibly be made of solid gold.

Volcanic language learning quiz

2010-04-20T19:32:00.002+02:00

Business Spotlight - up to date as always - has written an article (with vocabulary help) follwed by a related language quiz.
Click here

listening practice

2010-03-13T13:49:00.000+01:00

This website may at first look slightly unserious, but the listening quizzes are really worth trying out.
elllo listening practice

BRICs, PIGs & STUPIDs

2010-03-10T12:36:00.001+01:00

Have you any idea what these acronynms stand for in the business world (and whether it is appropriate to use them)?
Read a short article to find out here

Acronym acrimony: The problem with Pigs

HR vocabulary

2010-03-04T15:13:00.001+01:00

Here's a pretty good website for Human Resources related vocabulary.

http://www.lexicon.adp.com/

Marketing with animated characters

2010-01-28T13:37:00.001+01:00

A British price-comparison website has had phenomenal success with Aleksandr Orlov, an animated meerkat.
Go to the website http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/to see how it is done, and to see what all the fuss is about.
And don't forget to compare the meerkats and watch the videos too :-)

Spoken poetry

2010-01-13T20:56:00.002+01:00

http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/21st-century-flux-dizraeli/

The 21st Century Flux

English. The new disease?
It pours out of television speakers and computer screens
Disregarding Babel with its very cocky fluency
Sticking on its labellings at every opportunity.
Nothing’s safe; it won’t stop when it begins to spread
it dominates the airwaves and reigns/rains on the internet
leaving cultures altered and confused as to what’s what
turns the dialecting of the youths to a hotch-potch
rag-tag scrabble bag; everyone’s affected
the little languages will not survive unprotected.
So hold your own, but get a firm hold of English
and every last one of us shall be a multilinguist:
sing it!
Shampoo juggernaut moolah hullabaloo
ad infinitum, pow-wow, kudos, déjà vu
Won ton, billabong, beef, potato, hobo, dream
Wha gwan with the wigwam boogie
mr Chimpanzee?
Welcome to the twenty-first century flux
for now, English is the language of choice
And when it dies, as every tongue eventually must
let it be said you added your voice
The professor said, “Pif! What language is this?
Degenerate slang isn’t standard English!
We at the top must establish limits.”
I said “Prof! Language is the people that live it.”
Get loose, give it some vision and foresight
and juice; we can fling the dictionary door wide.
I live in a city where it seems like
every single idiom is intermingling stream-like,
Like streams, that know no barriers
No matter what dams and channels are established –
they are irrelevant. What matters is the message that is put across,
and the passion that’s invested in it. Nothing’s lost
it merely mutates, and lets the people speaking it
tweak it in new ways.
Meaning that meaning is whatever you say
Jilly, Jack, Hussain, in Iraq to the UK …
to all corners; through all twists and bends
Six billion personal versions of events
It’s thrilling when you think of all the tongues on a jostle
to express their puzzle in the best words possible.
The more words we have, the more ways we have
to express the world we have to co-exist in.
And if the English language is the lingua franca of this planet,
never say that it should be a closed system.
Welcome to the twenty-first century flux
for now, English is the language of choice for the performers
But when it dies, as every tongue eventually must
let it be said you added your voice to the chorus
Cos English isn’t English; it’s an elastic patchwork
A fantastically insane confederation
a very strange tapestry of foreign vernaculars
borrowed from Norse kings, and fettered slavemen
So if language is linked to the land which it springs from
English is linked to the globe in entirety
With fragments of every language you’ll think of
Roots in every type of society:
Welsh, French, Jamaican, Indian, Italian
Dominican, Hispanic, Germanic, Norse, African,
Norman, Dutch, Latin, Greek, Japanese, Yiddish,
Native American, Antipodean and Finnish…
The list could continue till my tongue went blue;
what I’m saying is the owner is you.
It lives as it’s spoken, and it mirrors the truth
And there isn’t any owner but you…
Welcome to the twenty-first century flux
for now, English is the language of choice
But when it dies, as every tongue eventually must
let it be said you added your voice

written by Dizraeli

Breathing places

2009-12-20T14:08:00.001+01:00

After you have watched this video, go to the website.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Santa vs Nikolaus

2009-12-14T08:11:00.003+01:00

The Local tries to explain the confusion that appears to reign in Germany as to who really is Father Christmas.....

Celebrating Nikolaus in Germany

Pimp your vocabulary

2009-10-21T13:11:00.001+02:00

Here's a less serious look at the modern English language, but one that may be useful if you have any contact with British students.

Pimp your vocab link

Link to online quiz

The trouble with interpreting

2009-10-07T12:48:00.004+02:00

Every now and again I get asked to interpret - mostly at weddings. Although interésting it can also be tricky. So spare a thought for the poor man who had to simultaneously interpret Col. Gaddafi's UN rant/speech.

Gaddafi interpreter 'collapsed during UN speech'
Muammar Gaddafi's personal translator broke down towards the end of the Libyan leader's meandering 94-minute UN speech and had to be rescued by a UN Arabic speaker.
The Libyan translator matched the "Brother Leader of the Revolution" word-for-word for 90 minutes before collapsing from exhaustion, just after Mr Gaddafi denounced the popular Ottawa Treaty outlawing landmines

Read the rest of the story here....

New Business lessons

2009-09-12T09:10:00.002+02:00

Good news for those of you who teach Business English.
As of this month, to accompany each issue of Business Spotlight, there will be monthly ready-made downloadable and photocopiable, complete lesson plans with teaching notes - written by me, based around an original article from the current issue of the magazine.
The lesson plans are available on the Business Spotlight website and the onestopenglish website - see direct links below.
http://www.business-spotlight.de/teachers-zone/activities/group-work/a-new-series-by-onestopenglish

http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?catid=60069&docid=157513
The first complete lesson and the introduction to the series are free for all to download. After that the lessons will be free for Business Spotlight subscribers and Onestopenglish staffroom members.

Do not embrace technology without knowing why and for whom you are doing so.

2009-08-21T10:32:00.004+02:00

It seems we constantly hear about how using modern technology is the only way forward and to some extents this is so. But recently I've been wondering who the technology is for. My students do not write blogs, they have only disdain and contempt for people who twitter and they use other social networking sites in a completely different way to how we teachers do.
Now my feelings have been confirmed by a Microsoft researcher called Danah Boyd. You can read her article here
Some thoughts on technophilia
or simply go to her blog http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/

Are things looking up?

2009-08-13T15:12:00.002+02:00

Time for some good news.....

Read the rest of the article HERE

Infinite photo of Earth

2009-07-29T07:51:00.003+02:00

go to the website via the link - INFINITE PHOTOGRAPH - keep clicking into the photo and see what happens

literal videos

2009-06-17T22:39:00.002+02:00

time to have some fun with music, videos and the English language.
Have a look at the literal videos here plus more on youtube.

pronunciation workshop links

2009-05-25T09:22:00.004+02:00

Just a quick reminder to those who were at my recent Pronunciation workshop that you can find all the links we talked about (and more) here.

Business English videos

2009-05-03T21:13:00.002+02:00

Business Spotlight have launched a new weekly video training session called Business with Bob.
The videos give you tips and examples for improving your communication at work. The first videos look at topics relating to Socializing and the second set of five videos looks at Business Meetings.

nothing to do with teaching ...

2009-04-26T22:37:00.002+02:00

... but, Yeah! for (auntie) Verena.
The full articlew can be read on the Argus website here

Tricky translations

2009-04-16T09:30:00.002+02:00

This helpful advice came from Business Spotlight magazine

Brand new free online dictionary for learners of English

2009-04-08T17:04:00.006+02:00

Macmillan have brought out a brand new free online dictionary for learners of English. It's really easy to add this to your start page, toolbar or website so that you can look up words as and when you need them. You can also sign up for the Word of the Day keeping you up to date with new important terms such as this one ....
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/

Free mind mapping website

2009-04-07T13:46:00.005+02:00

Do you know about Bubbl.us? It's a free website that allows you to create and save mind maps. Here's a very simple one I made for a course blog reminding my students what we covered in a certain time period.

IATEFL conference interviews, article and photos

2009-04-06T17:26:00.002+02:00

Follow this link to see, hear and read about trends in English Language teaching and more from the IATEFL conference in Cardiff, Wales.
LINK TO ARTICLES AND MORE

The correct lyrics?

2009-04-06T08:16:00.001+02:00

There are times when it's difficult even for native speakers to understand what words are being sung in a song. When people sing what they hear rather than the correct lyrics, this is called mondegreen.
A good example of this can be seen on the video of the song "All by myself" which has been changed to "Obama's Elf". Listen to the clip; which words do you hear?
If you want to find the correct lyrics of a song just go to www.youtube.com and write in the title of the song and the word lyrics. E.g. All by myself lyrics.
Many thanks to Jamie Keddie for introducing me to this clip.

Political cartoons

2009-03-18T22:46:00.004+01:00

Can anyone think of a good caption for this cartoon?
You can find this and many more at the following website Political cartoons from around the world

Free photo manipulation website

2009-03-10T19:09:00.003+01:00

Turn your photos into works of art at Be Funky
Here's a photo of our Ella which has been manipulated in two different ways.

Lost in translation

2009-03-07T16:09:00.004+01:00

Russian media have been poking fun at the US secretary of state over a translation error on a gift she presented to her Russian counterpart......
Read on by clicking here to find out what can go wrong if you rely on someone else to translate for you.

Unfortunate names

2009-02-26T08:38:00.003+01:00

There is an interesting, light-hearted article on the BBC about how unthoughtful parents can ruin a person's life by giving them names such as:

Pearl Button
Jo King
Barry Cade
Carrie Oakey
Priti Manek
Tim Burr

Link to the article

In preparation for Valentine's Day...

2009-02-07T10:22:00.002+01:00

Valentines Day Funnies (what not to say!)

A local newspaper ran a competition asking for a poem with the most romantic first line, but the least romantic second line. Here are some of the entries they received:

I thought that I could love no other
Until, that is, I met your brother.

Roses are red, violets are blue,
sugar is sweet, and so are you.
But the roses are wilting, the violets are dead,
the sugar bowl’s empty and so is your head.

Of loving beauty you float with grace.
If only you could hide your face.

Kind, intelligent, loving and hot;
This describes everything you are not.

I want to feel your sweet embrace
But don’t take that paper bag off of your face.

I love your smile, your face, and your eyes
Damn, I’m good at telling lies!

My darling, my lover, my beautiful wife
Marrying you screwed up my life.

I see your face when I am dreaming
That’s why I always wake up screaming.

My love, you take my breath away.
What have you stepped in to smell this way.

What inspired this amorous rhyme?
Two parts vodka, one part lime.

Words and pictures

2009-02-05T19:57:00.000+01:00

Here's a fun way to find the right words.
Go to Merriam Webster's visual dictionary.

The categories at first seem limited, but there are a lot of sub-categories.
The picture shows what you get when you go to plants and gardening - miscellaneous - wheelbarrow.

Have a go - see if you can find any special words for your field of work.

The best job in the world

2009-01-26T20:58:00.001+01:00

Ever wondered why you need English? Have a look at the job description here for "The best job in the world". Would you like to apply? Download the application form and check out the tasks and job requirements. Are you tempted yet?

The kind of English you don't really want to aspire to... or, Goodbye George W

2009-01-16T17:57:00.001+01:00

"One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures."

This wonderful quotation is number 30 in the new list of the top 50 Bushisms
You can read the rest here on George Bush's 50 worst bloopers.

New Year's fireworks game

2008-12-30T13:11:00.005+01:00

It's almost New Year's Eve, and to get you in the mood, here's a simple but fun online game to play. Turn up the sound, and set off those fireworks over London!
Happy New Year!!

Fireworks

Start the New Year off with a bang!

Play this free game now!!

certificate

2008-12-23T12:48:00.003+01:00

Here's a new answer to the age old question of what to do with the certificate you get upon successfully completely a course... put it on your blog! (although the white certificate on a white background is not ideal)

Christmas cracker jokes

2008-12-21T18:13:00.003+01:00

If, like me, you're not able to make it to England this Christmas, you'll be missing the jokes that fall out of the crackers along with the paper hat.

So that you don't feel too left out, here (according to one national newspaper) are the top ten best / worst Christmas cracker jokes.

1. What is Santa's favourite pizza?
One that's deep pan, crisp and even.

2. On which side do chickens have the most feathers?
The outside.

3. What kind of paper likes music?
(W)rapping paper.

4. What's white and goes up?
A confused snowflake.

5. What do you call a woman who stands between two goal posts?
Annette.

6. Did you hear about the man who bought a paper shop?
It blew away.

7. What's furry and minty?
A polo bear.

8. How do snowmen get around?
They ride an icicle.

9. Who hides in the bakery at Christmas?
A mince spy.

10. What do you call a penguin in the Sahara desert?
Lost.

End of year stuff 2008

2008-12-19T16:58:00.004+01:00

It's that time of year when we start looking back and discovering what was the most popular this and that in 2008.
Here's an interesting one from Google. You can also find out what the most-searched for words were country by country.

2008 Year-End Google Zeitgeist

As the year comes to a close, it's time to look at the big events, memorable moments and emerging trends that captivated us in 2008. As it happens, studying the aggregation of the billions of search queries that people type into the Google search box gives us a glimpse into the zeitgeist — the spirit of the times. Google has compiled some of the highlights from Google searches around the globe.

Fastest Rising (Global)

1. sarah palin
2. beijing 2008
3. facebook login
4. tuenti
5. heath ledger
6. obama
7. nasza klasa
8. wer kennt wen
9. euro 2008
10. jonas brothers

How to say it

2008-12-17T13:31:00.003+01:00

If you would like to hear how individual English words are spoken, type the word into the box on the howjsay website, click submit and the word will be spoken back to you.

Creature Comforts Christmas video

2008-12-15T15:27:00.001+01:00

How to sound fluent in Business English

2008-12-15T13:32:00.002+01:00

These are the top 4 and 6 word clusters in Business English according to Cambridge and Nottingham Spoken Business English Corpus (CANBEC)
Scatter these phrases around in your English conversation, make sure you say them in one breath, and your English will sound much more fluent!

The top ten 4-word clusters:
1. at the end of
2. the end of the
3. have a look at
4. end of the day
5. a bit of a
6. I don't know if
7. at the same time
8. I don't know what
9. a lot of the
10. to be able to

The top ten 6-word clusters:
1. At the end of the day
2. And this that and the other
3. Between now and the end of
4. But at the end of
5. A hell of a lot of
6. Do you know what I mean
7. If you know what I mean
8. At the end of the year
9. Go and have a look at
10. The end of the day if

Chat with Santa (or Father Christmas)

2008-12-02T08:48:00.002+01:00

you can have a chat with Father Christmas, or Santa,and find out a bit more about him.
Be careful though as he only answers gramattically correct sentences.
Chat with Santa

Thanks to Nik Peachy for this activity.

500 places to see podcast

2008-11-30T18:43:00.005+01:00

This podcast accompanies the onestopenglish Guardian Weekly news lesson

click here

Frommers.com Podcast: 500 Places to See Before They Disappear

By The Frommer's Staff
November 24, 2008

Many of the world's most beautiful and fascinating sites are at risk from development, environmental factors and human presence. Author Holly Hughes and host Kelly Regan discuss some of these places and how they were selected for the new book, Frommer's 500 Places to See Before They Disappear.

BESIG Bonn

2008-11-28T14:44:00.002+01:00

If you didn't make it to Bonn last weekend, you can find and download many of the presentations from the BESIG website

Spot On monthly lessons for teens

2008-11-14T13:34:00.004+01:00

One Stop English www.onestopenglish.com have introduced a new monthly series of news lessons for teens. I'm very happy to be writing these as they compliment the weekly adult news lessons from the Guardian Weekly very well.
The first Spot On lesson in October was about New Zealand. The lesson for November is about Fairtrade and has just been uploaded to the website.
Here you can see a screen grab of the latest lesson (intermedaite level - there are also elementary and advanced levels available) and the new layout.

Glow in the Dark Cat Created to Treat Cystic Fibrosis

2008-11-13T22:26:00.002+01:00

Glow in the Dark Cat to Treat Cystic Fibrosis Created

A cat that may look like a normal tabby in light but glows in the dark has been created by scientists in New Orleans.

The six-month-old cat, named Mr Green Genes, has been genetically modified as part of an experiment at the Audubon Centre for Research of Endangered Species in New Orleans that could lead to treatments for conditions like cystic fibrosis.

It was created so that researchers could learn whether a gene could be introduced harmlessly into the feline's genetic sequence to create what is formally known as a transgenic cat.

If so, it would be the first step in a process that could lead to the development of ways to combat diseases via gene therapy.

Dresser said that the gene, which was added to Mr. Green Genes' DNA when he was created, has no effect on his health.

Dr. Martha Gomez, a veterinarian and staff scientist at the center, said that cats are ideal for this project because their genetic makeup is similar to that of humans.

To show that the gene went where it was supposed to go, the researchers settled on one that would glow.

News instead of weather

2008-11-11T20:31:00.004+01:00

For some reason the BBC RSS feed didn't work. Whichever town I chose, it gave me the weather forecast for August 2007. I will try again at a later date, but in the meantime I'll leave up the nice weather man (below) but change the feed to the latest BBC news.

New blog

2008-11-11T09:14:00.003+01:00

After playing around and becoming frustrated with blog.de I have decided to change over to blogger.com which seems easier and clearer to navigate. Time will tell...

The first fun thing I've done is add a three-day weather forecast for Stuttgart. :-)