Halloween

You can find out more about the history and traditions of Halloween here on wikipedia.

City Guides

As a follow up to today's class, you might like to have a look at these tourist information websites for Tokyo and Yokohama. Below is a video of an Oscar Wilde walking tour around London. For other city tours, just go to youtube and type the name of a city you're interested in

UK Q & A

Q & A stands for questions and answers, but before we get to those, here are the correct spellings of the people and places in the United Kingdom that you already knew about:

People: JK Rowling, Queen Elizabeth, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, The Bee Gees, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Prince Charles, Agatha Christie, Lady Diana, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightly, John Lennon, Harry Potter, Prince Harry, Prince William, Anne Boleyn, Winnie the Pooh, Elton John

Places: Birmingham, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Cornwall, Cambridge,

Things, groups, and football teams: The Lord of the Rings, the Glastonbury Festival, going to church, scones, tea, coffee, oatmeal, fish & chips, mashed potato, rabbits, The Beatles, cricket, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United (there are two teams in Manchester - United and City - so it's not enough just to say "Manchester"), Tottenham, West Ham

And by the way...

Frankfurters are German.
U2 are Irish.
Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, The Black-Eyed Peas, and The Backstreet Boys are American.
Escargot (snails) and frogs legs are French dishes.

What food is famous in the UK?
A TV Channel called uktvfood has created a list of its top ten British dishes here but the country's FAVOURITE dishes, according to a survey, are here.

Which do you like - Japan or the UK?
I like them both. Britain's far from perfect, but it's home.

Kaiser Chiefs, Blur, or Bloc Party - which band is the best?
Although I hated them 16 years ago, I think Blur are the best of those three. I was pleased to see that at least one student wrote "The Arctic Monkeys" because I think they're the best band in Britain at the moment.

What do British people do when they have free time?
A recent Euro stat survey, the EU's statistical office, discovered that people in Britain spend about 45% of their free time watching television, 24% of their free time socializing, 22-23% on sport and hobbies, and 10% on other activities. Other popular leisure activities are listening to the radio, listening to pre-recorded music, reading, DIY, gardening, eating out and going to the cinema.

What are the most famous sights to see in London?
There's a London website with a brief summary of the capital's sights and various links to other information here. The ten most popular London attractions are detailed here.

How often do you have parties?
I never have wild and crazy parties but we often invite people around for dinner, drinks, and conversation. If enough alcohol is consumed, there may also be some dancing.

Finally, a couple of videos linked to some of today's conversations...enjoy!

Movie Scenes

Making a Complaint

As a follow-up to the complaints you made in class (especially those of you who had to discuss "dead kitty"), you might enjoy this sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus:

Dragon's Den : A Sales Pitch

As a follow-up to today's classes, you might like to have a look at some other sales picthes. This one comes from a popular British TV show called Dragon's Den, in which "entrepreneurs" pitch to a group of millionaires in order to win investment in their companies or products.



This musical pitch was actually successful and you can find Reggae Reggae sauce on the shelves of supermarkets all over the United Kingdom.

The Surprised Panda

As mentioned in yesterday's class, this is the best thing I've ever seen on the Internet:

The Kaiser Chiefs on 6 Music

As we discussed in class, an online recording of the Stephen Merchant Show hosted by The Kaiser Chiefs is available from the BBC until Sunday. Click here to go to the programme website, and select LATEST SHOW under LISTEN AGAIN. You can use the BBC media player to access any BBC radio broadcast from the last week. Enjoy!

TOEFL

If you go to this website and scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can download some pdfs that might help you with your TOEFL preparation. The sample writing responses might be particularly useful.

Giving Advice and Making Recommendations

In class we used expressions like "you need to", "you should", and "you might like to" but if you want more variety of expressions, or just to explore the topic further, you could have a look at what kind of advice British readers of the Guardian newspaper give about Japan, or try the lonely planet website. And just in case you're wondering, the picture on the left is of Kurashiki!

Crash-Landing On The Moon

In case you missed the class, or even if you'd like to try the activity again, this website allows you to take the test online. There are also some more educational activities available here on the NASA website.

How to...

Make pancakes:



Make an origami box:



Use an abacus:



Want more? Go to Youtube and just type "how to" followed by anything you want to learn how to do. Let me know if you find one that tells me how to learn Japanese more quickly.

Essay Writing : Feedback

I've received a nice essay on whether it's better for children to grow up in a city or the countryside, so I've started a writing project on a separate blog and I'll start it off with a few lessons related to the essay.

Click here to go to the new blog.

What's It For?

A: What's this?
B: It's a garlic press.
A: A garlic press? What's it for?
A: It's for crushing garlic.

A: What on Earth is this thing? I've never seen one before.
B: It's a garlic press.
A: A garlic press! Hmmm...what is it used for?
B: We use it to crush garlic.

Vocabulary:

A cheese grater is for grating cheese.

A clothes peg is for hanging up / out your clothes.

A rice cooker is for cooking rice.

A pasta maker is for making fresh pasta.

A rolling pin is for rolling out pastry.

A potato peeler is something we use to peel potatoes.  

We use flashcards to learn vocabulary.

Shopping Dialogue

A: Good morning.

B: Good morning.

A: How can I help you?

B: I'm looking for some bananas. Do you have any?

A: I'm sorry. We sold out this morning.

B: Oh I see. Do you have any pasta?

A: Yes we do. What type of pasta would you like?

B: What types do you have?

A: Let's see...spaghetti, linguine, macaroni.

B: Ooh. Can have some macaroni please?

A: Certainly. How much would you like?

B: 500 grammes plase.

A: 500 grammes. There you are. Is there anything else you'd like. How about some tomatoes to go with the pasta?

B: No thanks. I think that's all I need. How much is that?

A: That'll be £1.19 please.

B: Can I pay by credit card?

A: I'm sorry. It's cash only for purchases under £10.

B: OK, no problem. Here you are. Sorry I don't have anything smaller than a twenty.

A: Thank you very much. Here's your change...and your receipt.

B: Thank you.

A: You're welcome. Have a good day.

Writing Task : Essay

Write an essay on one of the following topics and then either submit it to me on paper or, if possible, via this website:

1. It is better for children to grow up in the countryside than in a big city. Do you agree or disagree? Use specific reasons and examples to develop your essay.

2. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Universities should give the same amount of money to their students’ sports activities as they give to their university libraries. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

3. How do movies or television influence people’s behavior? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

4. In general, people are living longer now. Discuss the causes of this phenomenon. Use specific reasons and details to develop your essay.

5. Some people prefer to work for a large company. Others prefer to work for a small company. Which would you prefer? Use specific reasons and details to support your choice.

Onomatopoeia and the Poetry of Seamus Heaney

Onomatopoeia is a word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing, suggesting its source object, such as "click", "bunk", "clang", "buzz", "bang", or animal noises such as "oink", "moo", or "meow". The word is a synthesis of the Greek words όνομα (onoma, = "name") and ποιέω (poieō, = "I make" or "I create") thus it essentially means "name creation", although it makes more sense combining "name" and "I do", meaning it is named (and spelled) as it sounds (e.g. quack, bang, etc.)

Can you find any examples of onomatopoeia in this poem by Seamus Heaney?

English Challenge Grammar and Writing Extension

If you want a real challenge, try re-writing the text below by adding grammar to it. You'll need articles (the, a, an), prepositions (in, on, at etc) and pay attention to verb forms - I've reduced them all to bare infinitives (be, go, play etc). When you've finished...and only when you've finished...compare your text with my original below. Pay attention to any differences you find and try to figure out why I used them in my original text. Of course you are more than welcome to ask any questions you have ...Good luck!

My Order:

1. The boy
2. The girl
3. The friend
4. The boatman
5. The rich man

My reasons:
I sympathize most with boy, because I can imagine do same things he do if I be his situation. other words, if I have girlfriend who sleep with another man £500, I find it impossible forgive her. I feel sorry her, though. She do what she do for right reasons, but I think if she truly love her boyfriend, she know how much her action upset him. I no can make up my mind about friend. If my friends know something important my relationships then I want them tell me. However, if friend keep quiet, boy and girl no split up and they still be happy now. Also, if I be friend, I no think I be able to tell boy what really happen. I consider boatman and rich man be quite similar because they both take advantage girl’s situation. I no can sympathize rich man because I never ask woman sleep me in exchange money. boatman no seem so bad because “he only do his job” and if he take girl other island for free, then everyone else expect same treatment and his business collapse. However, he no show any compassion and only see her situation in financial terms, so I no can respect him.

KEY

I sympathize most with the boy, because I could imagine doing the same things he did if I was in his situation. In other words, if I had a girlfriend who slept with another man for £500, I would find it impossible to forgive her. I do feel sorry for her, though. She did what she did for the right reasons, but I think if she had truly loved her boyfriend, she would have known how much her action would upset him.

I can’t make up my mind about the friend. If my friends knew something important about my relationships then I would want them to tell me. However, if the friend had kept quiet, the boy and girl wouldn’t have split up and they would still be happy now. Also, if I was the friend, I don’t think I would have been able to tell the boy what had really happened.

I consider the boatman and the rich man to be quite similar because they both take advantage of the girl’s situation. I can’t sympathize with the rich man because I would never ask a woman to sleep with me in exchange for money. The boatman doesn’t seem so bad because “he was only doing his job” and if he had taken the girl to the other island for free, then everyone else would have expected the same treatment and his business would have collapsed. However, he didn’t show any compassion and only saw her situation in financial terms, so I can’t respect him.

Emotions

Expand your vocabulary as you look through Eric's pictures....

I'm not sure exactly who Eric is but if you ask him to convey an emotion, he'll do it with a photo. I think some of the pictures work as well as any dictionary definition. Click here to explore further.

Subterranean Homesick Blues

Not really part of today's lesson, but something for Shinya and Minami.  This is one of my favourite songs, and definitely one of my favourite videos.  If you ever understand all of the words, you'll know your English is perfect.

Changing the Subject

Here are some expressions from today's class as promised...

Moving from one topic to another:

- Speaking of ______

- That reminds me!

Changing the topic:

- By the way,

- Oh! Before I forget...

- Anyway

We also used the following language:

- When I think of _______, I think of _______.

- I associate _______ with _______.

- Why do you associate _______ with _______?

Please post any questions or requests to this blog.  In the meantime, it's not a great example of English language use OR music maybe, but I really like this lego version of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers' video to their song "By The Way":

Conversation Skills : Keep Talking

A: Do you enjoy travelling?

B: Yes, I love travelling.

A: Really? Which countries have you been to?

B: Ooh, lots of places: Scotland, Australia, Canada, Brazil.

A: Wow! I'm impressed.  What's your favourite place you've visited?

B: Hmmm. Probably Australia.  It was amazing.  How about you?  Do you enjoy travelling?

You can look into word stress (or pronunciation fighting if you prefer) in more detail here or watch the video below from Youtube.