Christmas caroling

Fredy and I were singing Christmas Carols on Monday with the kids, now here's a Christmas greeting from me.

I hope you all have warm and cheerful days with family and friends.

A very merry Christmas and a great start in the new year!!!

An advice because of Christmas surprise

Hello CAE- mates!

I just wanted to give you an advice for next Tuesday:
It would be better not to eat a lot before lesson 12.
Otherwise there wouldn't be enough space in your stommy for...

° an old Thanksgiving Turkey ?
° a Cappucino from the selecta box ?
° an original flabby Christmas pudding ?
° Jasmins special, healthy fruit-pie with a living cookie tase (receipe from Betty B.)
° big Chocolate Chip cookies ?
° Coca Cola Muffins ?
° a Berner Roesti ?

I will bring with me.

Who will find out first what it is?

Greetings from Betty B.

The big Santa Claus Myth

Here's a text related to the latest writing topic that I thought you might enjoy.

I think Santa Claus is a woman ... I hate to be the one to defy sacred myth, but I believe he's a she.

Think about it. Christmas is a big, organized, warm, fuzzy, nurturing social deal, and I have a tough time believing a guy could possibly pull it all off!

For starters, the vast majority of men don't even think about selecting gifts until Christmas Eve. It's as if they are all frozen in some kind of Ebenezerian Time Warp until 3 p.m. on Dec. 24th, when they - with amazing calm - call other errant men and plan for a last-minute shopping spree.

Once at the mall, they always seem surprised to find only Ronco products, socket wrench sets, and mood rings left on the shelves. (You might think this would send them into a fit of panic and guilt, but my husband tells me it's an enormous relief because it lessens the 11th hour decision-making burden.) On this count alone, I'm convinced Santa is a woman. Surely, if he were a man, everyone in the universe would wake up Christmas morning to find a rotating musical Chia Pet under the tree, still in the bag.

Another problem for a he-Santa would be getting there. First of all, there would be no reindeer because they would all be dead, gutted and strapped on to the rear bumper of the sleigh amid wide-eyed, desperate claims that buck season had been extended. Blitzen's rack would already be on the way to the taxidermist.

Even if the male Santa DID have reindeer, he'd still have transportation problems because he would inevitably get lost up there in the snow and clouds and then refuse to stop and ask for directions.

Add to this the fact that there would be unavoidable delays in the chimney, where the Bob Vila-like Santa would stop to inspect and repoint bricks in the flue. He would also need to check for carbon monoxide fumes in every gas fireplace, and get under every Christmas tree that is crooked to straighten it to a perfectly upright 90-degree angle.

Other reasons why Santa can't possibly be a man:

• Men can't pack a bag.
• Men would rather be dead than caught wearing red velvet.
• Men would feel their masculinity is threatened ... having to be seen with all those elves.
• Men don't answer their mail.
• Men would refuse to allow their physique to be described even in jest as anything remotely resembling a "bowlful of jelly."
• Men aren't interested in stockings unless somebody's wearing them.
• Having to do the "Ho Ho Ho" thing would seriously inhibit their ability to pick up women.
• Finally, being responsible for Christmas would require a commitment.

I can buy the fact that other mythical characters are men ...

• Father Time shows up once a year unshaven and looking ominous.
  Definite guy.

• Cupid flies around carrying weapons.
  Guy

• Uncle Sam is a politician who likes to point fingers.
  Ditto

Any one of these individuals could pass the testosterone screening test. But not St. Nick. Not a chance. As long as we have each other, good will, peace on earth, faith and Nat King Cole's version of "The Christmas Song," it probably makes little difference what gender Santa is.

I just wish she'd quit dressing like a guy!!!

Author unknown

Now for those men out there that beg to disagree, click here to find out why Santa Claus can never be a woman

I hope you've enjoyed this post! :-D

Practice tests

For those who couldn't come to the lesson and for those who want a bit more practice, I have a site from the IETLS where you can see, hear and do the different types of listening tasks.

You can click on each individual task and then you will find the task itself and the audio to go along with it (isn't the internet great?!)

Feel free to try out the other things there as well.

You can also see other parts of the exam such as the writing tasks.

Now I don't want to be biased, so I'll include the same information about the CAE.
There are two main places where you can see CAE materials. One is on the side bar called flo-joe and is full of practice materials, for example, the word bank.
The official site for the CAE is here.
You will see that the reading exam is there for you (including the answers) as well as the listening exam you have already taken (again, including the answers), so you can go back and do it again if you want.
The writing section begins on page 8. Have a look, compare it with the IELTS, and then I think we should begin a discussion here about which test you want to prepare for.

If you want to sign up for the CAE, you will need to know fairly soon. In fact, you should inform me by the end of January, if possible. If you aren't sure, then you can always take the IELTS as it is offered twice monthly (but only in Berne).

Parallel expressions

I here have some parallel expressions from the listening-text, we worked with last Tuesday Paper 4 Listening part 2 about the marine wildlife photographer. I promised Marina, to put these on the Wiki but unfortunatelly I didn't find out, how to do that (Illya, could you please do that for me? Thanks!) - that's why I write them down here.

most important aspect = the key to my work
right = appropriate
choose = position to select
disagrees = not everybody goes about / the opposite is true
creative = depict something new
important to find out = need to check
seas are often protected = particular place
ruined = spoiled
promising shots = potentially great photos / the photos you want
pleased = really delighted

Thanks (for) giving that movie

Great movie from a gorgeous actor indeed. A pretty sad theme, brilliant performed by Chaplin, and with almost no single word – I love such English tasks – Have you got more?
highly topical in the current (w)holesale money market and the anticipated economy crisis. And last but not least actually referring to the nineteen-thirties, when people hardly suffered under the depression.
I've got a movie too. It's about English learning, not as far as good as the Chaplin's is, but pretty nice as well. Have a look!




Oh, by the way, as regards the use of the metaphor "parasitic", I can only say, have a closer look at the bankers and traders which greatly succeeded in driving the whole world economy at the edge of its ruin, or maybe not only at the edge, but beyond the edge, who knows that yet.

Hoping my sad perspectives may not be worth the paper, where they are written on. O.k. there isn't any paper actually, but splitting hairs won't help make things better.

Greetings

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Animal metaphors

Since we are just finishing the topic of animals with a metaphor, I thought I'd share two with you in the form of a video.

Listen closely as you will hear some very interesting terms and vocabulary. Can you use the word 'parasitic'???

Can you think of any other animal metaphors? As you have noticed, we are moving into the philosophic zone.

Pets
Dear Barack Obama

I know, all little girls dream about having a pet - beginning with a cat, then a dog and in the end they all must have a horse. It somehow amuses me, that such a family-matter takes even place in your family and this makes you even more simpathetic to me.

At my doughters age of 5 years we first had a cat. It's name is "Streiffeli" and she loves to sit on my newspaper, when I'm reading. Streiffeli hat four kittens, Nero, Luna, Chiara and Zipfeli. We spent a great time with them, they replaces many bedtime story reading and filled our house with live and love. The kittens grew very quickly and the snuggle-effect didn't last as long as I hoped.

Soon after they had to leave our house, my girl talked me into to buing her a hamster. Mummy was always the one to clean the terrarium and to give some fresh food to this poor little animal called Nora. Nora just loved to sit on one's shoulder and was a sort of tickling machine. Unfortunately the poor hamster died after only 8 months because of a genetical illness. One more hard-breaking experience.

Of course we had to replace it, so strong was the craving for snuggle. We decided to buy mice. The shop-seller promised that they were much more interesting then such a sleepy hamster would be and assured us, that mice would love to play. So now Trixi and Traxi, two boy-mice, live in our house and give us a hard time. These boys didn't understand at all, that they were supposed to give us a lucky playing time. Instead they go for a run and attacke by biting your hand, as soon as you touch theyr living area. So we had to buy very thick garden-gloves to protect ourselves from this little monsters but even then we couldn't help ourselves and felled in love with them.

After all these emotional, funny and real experiences with animals we learned that a pet is and will always be a family-member no matter how big it is and it will take you a quite bit of your free time to care and to educate it.

So we wish you all the best and a great lovestory with your soon arriving new family member.

Mary

black or white

Sorry I've choosen the wrong color...
Next time in black... I promise you

Sämi

Sämis drama

Dear Barack O.

Thank You so much for your nice sms you wrote me last night when I wasn't able to fall asleep...

You know, at the moment I'm suffering, too here in Switzerland. May be you heard about the little desaster my surprising resignation has enrolled.
I tried to fight aganist my own mother-party the Swiss People Party, tried to be strong like you gave me the advice...but...
In the end my health problems forced me to make a painful decision...to resign...

I hope here in Switzerland there would be a Barack Obama like you as well. Then I'm sure Chris Blochers would fall in into oblivion.

Thank you for your great help. Now I like to do give you an advice, too.

I heard about your familie's plan to buy a puppy. If you are unsure which one's the best for you all so listen to me:
Here in Switzerland we have fantastic dog races called Berner dairy man dog.
If you prefere a mixture between two races: A mutt between a Berner dairy man dog and a Bernhardiner would be the perfect new family member of the Obamas!

I wish you know a powerful time and looking forward to hearing from you!

Greetings to Michelle and the kids

Sämi

Obama

Dear Mr Obama,

First of all, I’d like to congratulate you on your great victory. The whole nation is now resting on your shoulders. All wishes, hopes, dreams and aspirations should become true. Fortunately I am not in your position. You have to prove yourself. A long way and hard work lies ahead of you.

I would advice you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing and you are not alone responsible for bringing the world back in balance. But you have to make peace in domestic affairs as well as externals affairs. Actually you got the chance to show a direction towards better communication, into an environmentally friendly generation of energy, into a righteous welfare and responsible world power.

Good luck to you and your nation.

Yours sincerely,

Stefanie

YES WE CAN!

Hi dear classmates

Here's Bob the builder's website. Try it in English ...

See you next week

Fredy

Addition on sidebar / book choice

As you can see, I've ditched the voci since I wasn't using it and it was bogging down the blog. However, thanks to this blog's first follower (!), there's a new addition. This is for those of you in my class, and any other readers out there (Hi Gisela!). This might even be a way for you to connect.

Earlier I asked about which book you want to read first. Only Analise has answered up to now. She wants to go for humour (Lucky Jim). What about the rest of you?

All is fair in love and war, but defeated can still come out big!

I hope you enjoyed the lesson yesterday. It was, however, a bit one-sided. Actually, John McCain has been a very successful senator and would also have had the means to join the two parties, but not with his chosen vice-presidential candidate.

I was particularly impressed by McCain's Concession Speech, in which I think he showed his true value. If he had made more speeches like this rather than attacking his opponent, he might now be the President-elect.

If you are interested in his speech, here it is.

You can also see his speech on Youtube:


And now here is Obamas speech:

Obama Lessons

If you don't feel excited about the homework I've given you and would rather do more on our President-elect, here are a few sites for you to work on:

You can listen to/ read this text in US English. Perhaps only listen and take notes using the wh- questions. Make a gap fill or write questions and send it to someone else from the class to complete.
Pick out interesting vocabulary, analyse the use of tenses in the text. Maybe you also have good ideas. Leave them as comment if you do.

This is an interactive activity testing your ability to predict what comes next in a sentence and to help you with your syntax.

I really like this one: Five lessons Barack Obama can teach you

Finally, here are the two videos I'm planning to show you in class if all goes well. And if it doesn't, well, you can watch them here.

What my picture means to me

These are the blossoms of the japanese cherry tree in front of my living room window. I wait for them every spring in suspense. When they are in blosom, spring has truly arrived for me, and they brighten up my days.

First, I only see the buds, but they grow fatter and fatter, until each day I think the next day they will surely blossom. But this tree keeps me in suspense because it often takes a week or longer from this point for the buds to actually open. In the meanwhile, I share my expereince with another US citizen living in Japan. As you know, they celebrate the time of blossom. It's funny to see how I've become closer to the Japanese customs and culture all because of a little tree in my garden.

But now, the leaves are golden with shades of pink, reflecting a golden light through my window as I write. Soon the tree will be bare again and the long winter wait begins.

What does it mean to me?

Now and then I take one or some more picture of the Mount Pilatus directly from our balcony. I find it utterly interesting to catch these varied moods of light and weather. There are endless altered atmospheres of colors and plays of shadows, once you'll see the crisp air and nearly every blade of grass, then the whole mountain is covered of clouds and another time he blazes in red as he would actually be burning. Although I change neither my position nor the subject, there's no tedious photo to complain. So, I'll carry on taking photographs, because this Mountain deserves that attention and once I might print a photo-book, but just for me, not for sale.

Whenever I gaze at this mountain I'm getting aware of my grandmothers grave, for her ashes is strewn up on the summit of the “donky”. It has been her favorite mountain as she was living whole her live-time in the shadow of that giant rock. And she was actually the first woman who played Alphorn upon the top of Mount Pilatus and I guess the first woman playing Alphorn in Kriens after all.

But apart from this family tie the Mount Pilatus gradually has attracted my attention more and more, I'm not quite sure why, but may be it relies on the moment, when I first got aware of the really beautiful backdrop he's giving to Luzern and the lake before. When I realized the extraordinary shape as well as his special solitary location in front of all the Alps.

But perhaps It's quite my own laziness, that I fell in love with him, because I don't have to leave the flat to admire him - who knows.

What lies in my future?

As wintertime is getting closer, I hope to do some excursions on the skis to the mountains. In the time between Christmas and New Year, we are going to a hut in the mountains in the area of Entlebuch, close to Flühli, on an alp called "Engenlauenen".

Tomorrow, I am teaching after a break of one week, because I was on the PEP-Course in the "Sentimatt" last week.

In May, a friend of California, USA, will visit us. I am looking forward to meeting her, because we haven't seen her since 16 years.

Next summer, I will take the CAE-exam and I will go for a month to England. If I don't pass the CAE-exam in summer, I will do it a second time in december 2009. So, the time in England will either help me to pass the exam for a second time or help me to improve my oral English.

My husband and I are planning to put our daughter in summer 2010 to a family in California who are friends of us. At the end of her stay, in summer 2011, my husband, our son and I would like to go and visit our friends and then come back to Switzerland with our daughter.

Sunday, 9 November 2008, Gabi Kuhn, Kriens

The coulorful rainbow of Funchal

The picture was taken last week during our holidays in Madeira. It shows the view from our hotel to the port and the city of Funchal. Funchal is a large busy city - the main capital of Madeira, which attracts of many green places and beautiful blooming gardens between the buildings. As there was a lot of rain and sunshine, every morning we saw that spectacular and impressing rainbow with its magnificient coulors. To sum up, this picture shows the beauty of its island, with its luxuriant vegetation, its ocean blue and a part of its evergreen hills.

Awards and other news

I see this poor blog has been neglected during the past 2 weeks. It's been very hectic and there's another busy week ahead, but I hope that afterwards things will cool down and I can enjoy the wintery weather with a relaxing cup of tea and a good book.

As for last Tuesday, no speech was needed. However, I did have the beginning ready:

I'd like to thank my English class for letting me be here tonight. ... ;-)

It was all very exciting, and I thank you for letting me go! There were several photographers, with lights flashing left and right, so I'm sure there's a picture of me somewhere. I'll show you when (and if) I get one.

In the meanwhile you can click on the Award ball to see the link to the Awards.



Now I have something for you to add. Your job is to add a picture to the blog (use the picture icon and follow the instructions) and then write about the meaning this picture has for you.
I'm looking forward to your pictures!

The missing week

Hi everyone,
I haven't forgotten you, and so I'm giving you a few things to do here.
First, I promised you comma rules. Well, I googled and found an excellent site with rules. Be aware that they are US, so the names may be slightly different, and the rules themselves may be slightly different, but are relativized where ever this is the case. Rules for comma usage is also now under the links. There are exercises as well.
And here's one more place if you prefer: OWL (On-line Writing Lab) Using Commas

So here are a few things for you to do on your Tuesday away from the classroom:
You can continue on through unit 3 of both the Workbook and the Student's Book. There is also a revision at the end of unit 3 in the Workbook.

In the SB pg 41 there is an experiment. Try it out and write about your results here. Also comment on what others have said. Use the language of age while doing this.

Tomorrow evening, get in touch with someone and call them - or have a drink together!!! - and speak only English. You could once again choose one section from the speaking phrases and try to use them while doing it.
Or you could chat with each other on Skype, MSN, Yahoo, or whatever platform you use.

And there is still a task on the last post I wrote that no one has yet completed- review one of the links on the side bar.

If you don't feel like talking to anyone, then grab a good book and read it, or go to the movies - this could also be with others from the course! Then you can talk about it or leave a review about it here.

So many things to do :-)

Finally, as you can see, I've given you quite a few possibilities to practice your writing. Please do so. I'm a bit behind in correcting since I took the pleasure of enjoying myself an entire weekend long, but I'm trying to catch up quickly, and it's always good to write.

As my Uncle Fred used to say, "You can't swallow the slab of ham before you chew it."

As for my speech, I'm not that far yet. It looks like I'll be working on that on the train. In any case, I'll let you know how it went, so keep an eye on the blog :-)

Some more stuff to do

I have another couple of things for you to do while you await the next lesson.

First, you could go out and get one or both of the books to read. I was thinking about making sure we've decided and that everyone has the book by Christmas holiday (coming soon enough!)

So we will need to decide soon. Why don't you leave a comment to state which book you want to read (first).

I also promised a link to the wiki here, but it is on the side bar: http://caewords.wikispaces.com/Word+forms

And yet something else to do: Try out one of the links for language learning and leave a review on the blog for everyone, saying how useful this particular link is and what it can help you with.

And finally, here are some answers for you:

Spiders:
1-E; 2-H; 3-I; 4-D; 5-G
6+7- yeast+bacteria
8-protein; 9-chemical solvents; 10- (small) holes; 11- (the/a) (solid) fibre/fiber;
12-False; 13- true; 14- not given

Progress test 1-3
1: 1-death; 2- complications; 3- romantic; 4- every; 5- dancing; 6- villainous; 7- major; 8- remembered (18 points)

2: 1-b; 2-d; 3-c; 4-b; 5-c; 6-b; 7-c; 8-a; 9-b; 10-d; 11-a; 12-d (12 points)

3: a- on behalf of; b- set up; c- grateful I am for; d- to my taste; e-on the cards; f- made his mark; g-In addition to; h-are just around the corner; i- break up; j- in the long run (10 points)

4: a-reliable; b- tactful; c- contribution; d-inquisitive; e-hesitation; f-caring; g-recognition; h- unforgettable; i- carelessly; j- requirements; k-indicator; l- decisive (12 points)


Stay tuned for more!

Comma rules to come!

Link to the future

I found this link to help you out with your future forms (remember, although they are often called tenses, there are no real future tenses!)
www.englishtenseswithcartoons.com

Water Music

You are all doing a great job of using the blog, and I can imagine this will be a great tool for when we start discussing the books set for the CAE. I suggest we decide on which one to read first (you can leave your preference as a comment here) and then agree on when to begin reading or finish reading.

In the meanwhile, I've also been reading and would like to tell you about a book that was pretty juicy. I read Water Music by T.C Boyle, who is always good for a juicy reading!

The book is set in the late 19th century and Africa is a place of mystery. A couple of explorers have already set out to find the source of the Nile, but have failed to come back due to sickness or other more human causes.

When Mr Mungo Park is asked to go in search of the source of the Nile, he goes with a native Moor, Johnson, who has been living in England long enough as a slave, and then free man, to learn to appreciate the written word, including those of Shakespeare and others. In other words, he has become very literate.

Parallel to this historical story (bent a bit at both ends for the sake of fiction), the story of Mr Ned Rise is blended in. This is a man who was born in the scum of London and, although he always reached for higher aims, kept falling back into the scum of which he was made.

It takes quite a while for their fates to cross, but both live very eventful lives (and deaths of various kinds).

I won't tell you anything else of the plot, but it is loosely based on the real explorer of the same name.

This story leads you into the depths of a very scary and malignant Africa, yet keeps you laughing at each bum turn Mungo or Ned takes. It is humor at its blackest, and even the renowned author Salman Rushdie claims it's better than getting drunk. I don't know if I agree with that statement, but it certainly is enjoyable.

Having said that, the level of English is quite high. If you decide to read it and start getting stuck on the language, then go for the German. It would be a shame to miss out on the irony of thes story.

If any of you have read this story, or another other that's been written about here for that matter, leave a message stating what you thought about the book.

Gasparone

‘Gasparone’ review

During this autumn I’m spending the most of my freetime on the stage as a ballet dancer in the operetta ‘Gasparone’. That’s a good reason to write a review about this two hundred years-old thieve-story.

In Sicily, Benezzo, a mischievous landlord and his smuggler friends have spread the rumour that ‘Gasoparone’, a legendary robber, would practise his attacks in their region. While everybody is looking for the not subsisted ‘Gasparone’ the band of smugglers can do their duty without any suspicion.
If this were not enough, Benezzo also helps count Erminio to capture the heart of the beautiful, but engaged countess Charlotta. Together with the rumour of ‘Gasoparone’ all this results in a funny confusion story and Benezzo always gets a bit deeper into trouble and has to invent more noncredible excuses.

‘Gasparone’ is an utterly entertaining operetta with a good mixture of humour, love and profoundly moving singing and pieces of music. It lets you dive into the world and feelings of the 19th century in an extraordinary way. During the first act the audience have the opportunity to develop sympathy or antipathy for the main figure which let them fight together with the figures in the play for a good end.

Although ‘Gasparone’ is an old story, it’s exactly the opposite of a dead story.
Translating the topic of the play into the modern world let you show a lot of actuality. I found much more common ground with today as I’ve ever expected during our intensive rehearsals in the last few mouths. And that’s a good reason to let live up ‘Gasparone’ in your heart.



Yvonne Schmidiger, October 08

Trial test

I just found this link and thought it might interest you, especially if you are unsure of your level.

Test your English

It is a test of your English.
Let me know how hlepful it is!

my working-holidays

Hi my classmates

I'm looking forward to meet you again at school!
I needed my holidays to work a lot at home to settle me in in my new flat (before I didn't have the time). So I'm happy now and I don't have to live out of different boxes! :-)
I also had to work a lot for my class, because I didn't had a lot of time last summer holidays (as I told you, I've been in England for practising my English).
But of course, I enjoyed my holidays, too. I took everyday a little time to set a little highlight on this day. For example, I invited friends for dinner or on a other day I took a massage or bought me "Cremeschnitten" for pudding :-)

See you this evening!

A lot of greats

Yvonne

Greetings from Alex

dear classmates

when i saw these wonderful pictures on the blog i felt motivated to send you a short impression from my last summer holiday trip in namibia.it was my second time in namibia but i've never been in the northern part before.

I travelled from windhuk to the northern part of namibia with a 4 wheel drive car, something like a jeep! it was more than just a car, we could also sleep inside the car in a "roof tent" and the whole camping equipment was inside the car, that we were able to cook our own food. we were aware of not having fresh water, showers or toilets. but we knew that nothing would be a big problem or impossible for us, if we had a good organisation. at the beginning we bought a lot of fresh food and still water and put it on our fridge in the car.since then our car was our home...

i was astonished how different the northern and the southern part of namibia were. whereas the southern has the biggest sand dunes from all over the world, the northern is much more rude and you get a better chance to observe the animals. fortunately we saw the "big 5 "and took a lot of potographs.

during the night i felt quite safe in my roof tent and that was more than helpful because there were no fences and the wild animals came easily to our fireplace while we were asleep.

one day we met a man called marius who live there since he was child. he offered us to visit some of "his friends". they werent friends as you and me because they still live in their old tradition. they called "himba". marius told us a lot about these people and how they live. after these day i felt privileged to saw something like that.

now i hope you will enojoy the photographs. ( thanks illya to put them on the blog)

kind regards

alexandra

Greetings from Croatia

Hi everyone
After a great time in Croatia and then a very busy working weekend, I've finally had time to come and see what's on the blog.
WOW!
I am so impressed by the posts on here and it's really thrilling to see the pictures and read about the holidays, books and other messages you've left here.

So now it's my turn.
The 2 weeks in Croatia were lovely with only rainy day. We went swimming amost every day, but it was rather chilly both in the water and in the air. The beaches are rocky or are pebbly beaches, but we did manage to find one sandy beach, as you can see :-D

Although I love Sardinia, the one thing I miss there is abound in Croatia - culture. It's everywhere! The towns and cities are just full of history and the cities went through different rulerships. Of course, Venetian towners are everywhere.

The city of Dubrovnik was a highlight. By now I've seen quite a few cities in Europe, but never anything like this. It is so old and built differently than any other city I've ever seen. It's as old as Rome too. The scars of war are still visible, however, as they are in the countryside.

On the way to the lovely national parks they have we drove by several fields which are still infested by mines from the Yugoslavian war.

The Croatian people are very friendly and you are treated as a guest there, and the seafood is delicious. I also brought home honey with nuts in it - a delightful speciality of the area, along with olive oil and good wine.

Book review: The Notebook

As the holiday began I promised myself to read an english book. In the past I have startet many books to read but unfortunately I 've rarely ended them, because I hadn't got the patience.

A friend of mine advised me to read "The Notebook", written by Nicholas Sparks. So I began to read this book. I was really surprised by me, because in two days I' ve finished it.
I'd like to give you a review of this book. If you like to read a romantic love story I recommend you to read this book.

summary:
Noah has recently returned from the Second World War. He is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier.
One day Allie returns unexpectedly to his town, to see him again before she gets married with Lon. Lon is a nice man who loves Allie, but Allie never had the same deep feelings for Lon, like she had for Noah in this summer, fourteen years ago.
As Allie and Noah see each other, the feelings start growing again. Allie is forced to make a decision. Could she really disappoint Lon? Should she stay with Noah for who she feels deep emotion and love?
Allie decides to stay with Noah. They spend a wonderful life together.

I don't want to tell you the end. I know, it seems like the story is finished by spending a wonderful life together. But if you read this book you 'll see there is a turning point, which makes this book so joyful and tragic at the same time.

Holidays in Sardinia

Hi dear classmates


As you know, I was in Sardinia for a couple of days with my family. For the first time in my live I travelled with a big ferry, which was very impressive. Our flat was in a little village, called Santa Maria Navarrese, on the east cost of Sardinia.




It's a lovely place with a little beach and very old and famous olive trees. There were also big cacti with fruits we could eat.




The area around Arbatax, the city with the harbour where we arrived, is known for its red rocks. The whole island is very rocky and dry and the cliffs are washed out by the sea. I was told that it is a volcano island.






As you can imagine, I spent hours laying on the beach. Often I was reading in my chilling English novel about the dark secrets of Dracula's life.


Unfortunately, time went much too fast. I wished, I could have been there for a longer time ...


But at least I went back home very relaxed.

Now, I'm going to do my English homework. :)

See you soon

Fredy

Biking around Brig, Wallis, Switzerland

Dear English students of our class
As a conscientious student, I do my homework and put a note of my holidays on the blog.
Our daughter, my husband and I went to Brig by train. With the new basic tunnel through the "Lötschberg" the trip from Lucerne to Brig takes only about 2 hours and 15 mintutes!
At Brig, we went on different bike trips. A well known place we biked up to is "Belalp". From there you have a great view to the glacier of Aletsch.
Another day we biked towards the Simplon-pass but after one hour or so, we went to the right on an Alp, left our bikes there and hiked up for another 1000 meters to the top of the "Glishorn". Our daughter was very motivated doing a lot of sport and persuaded us to this big effort, at the end of the day, we had made 2500 meters of height!
My husband had found many bike-ideas on the internet and some of them we tried out. The most impressing experience for me was, when we were biking for 1,600km through a little tunnel, build for the transport of water. The water was running on our left in a wooden channel, the tunnel was dark, the unterground was hard sand and the space for riding our bikes was about 1 meter of width.
On Friday, our last day, we had a rest and went on a guided tour through the palace of "Stockalper". Stockalper was a successful business man in the 17th century.
The weather had turned cold and we went home.
I am looking forward to hearing from your holidays!
See you the week after next week.
Gabi Kuhn

How are you???

Hello everyone!

How are you doing? And what are you doing?
I'm wondering how your holidays are.

For me everything is just too much!!! I don't know where to take the time for all things I want to do... and tomorrow I'm going to Greek!!!

I'm looking forward to it. I' ve never been there before and I've never done holidays like I do now.

I made the choice to take only english books with me. I'll see how it works.

Otherwise I haven't done any english homework yet... It's not right! I' m sorry for telling you such a lie!!! I'm writing something for you :-) just now!!!!

I love English... especially talking :-) My writing is very bad. Illya encouraged me just to write, it doesn't matter how many mistakes I do. Just the writing is important. That's why I 'm writing... even I would prefere to write adequate!!! So maybe someone of you 'd like to help me in improving my English. Please let me know about my mistakes I've done... I 'm open and motivated to learn. So don't be shy and write to me:

marinakaufmann@gmx.ch

Thanks for your answer!!!

Actually I 've got two questions already: What's the diffrence between "if" and "when"?
and what's the difference between "as" and "like"

For sure one of you can explane it to me. So thank you for doing it. Otherwise I will bother you in the classroom :-)

See you soon again!!!
Love
Marina

CAE link

I just found a link that looks pretty good on the Oxford website.
It is chalk full of exercises to try out.
Let me know what you think of it.

Holidays

As I write this, one of you will be on holiday already. This picture is dedicated to you :-)
Others will be going away soon to other places, while still others may be staying home, hoping to get lots of things done during the coming two weeks.

I've left ideas for all of you to do, whether you go away or stay here. Look at the different exams, try out links, or write us a postcard while enjoying life at the beach, etc.

The idea is that using your English is even more important than practicing it. Sharing with each other is more valuable than doing something that is only for the sake of the teacher. That's the way I see it anyway.

I'm hoping that by the next lesson there will be more here than my own posts. A post can lead to discussion, so for example, if you don't agree with my statement above, say so! Write a comment expressing your opinion or dedicate an entire post to it.

But most of all, enjoy the two weeks of freedom you have. Get a book and relax in the sun, or go to the movies and have a good time with friends.

I'll be glad to see you all again in mid-October!!!

comments or posts?

HI everyone
Even someone like me runs dry.
Do any of you want to add something here? A question, a story, an invitation, anything at all!

I'm learning about social networking, so have lots of ideas now to bother you with ;-)

See you next week!

The "Nature" of Words

In class we quickly looked at words and problems involved in choosing the write word form. One example I gave was 'nature'.

You can see how words are used, and especially what words often come before and after these words by using a concordancer. A concordancer is a tool that accesses a HUGE databank of language that has been collected from many sources. The word is found and you get a list of excerpts using this word.

I tried it with 'whereas' and these are the first 10:

001.NO. 1 NEWBURY PORT, MAY 30TH, 1791_"WHEREAS, a Bridge over Merrimack River, from
002. displeasure.You treat the matter lightly -- WHEREAS I myself was never more serious." "I t
003. escribed by Bonifacio and Lugiato {7}, WHEREAS the Ikeda degeneracy splits to yield puls
004. extraordinary effort to lift himself up by it", (23) WHEREAS Joe Gargery endures the shrewish onslaugh
005. rtrays the proximal radial epiphysis for boy 34,WHEREAS the same epiphysis for girl 2 is portrayed
006. military National Guard, they number only 4,400, WHEREAS the normal US garrison of about 10,000 me
007. tribes of south-west Siberia referred to above. WHEREAS in sparsely populated regions of the north
008. ice Frankfurter's famous doctrine of abstention.WHEREAS the earlier cases turned rather narrowly u
009. effectively got a dead short through an ammeterWHEREAS a a volt meter's got a a hun , a high er r
010. "ticks"' with eachtick equal to &formula;% and WHEREAS, prior to October 1986, a typical spread

I also found out that 'but' and 'that' are the most common words before 'whereas' and 'the' is the most common after the word. (stated at the bottom)
You can choose the corpus, which is the place the language is collected.

So play around with 'nature' and see what comes up. There is another concordancer in the list in the links. Maybe you can compare which you think is most useful. Should I put both in? Should I use only the link from here? Let me know.

Finally, in the links you have one that say 'synonyms and antonyms'. This is very useful for expanding your vocabulary. Have a look at it and the 3 possibilitites, namely to find words with similar meanings, to find words with opposite meanings, and to find definitions.

great blog!

Dear Illya

this blog is really great, thank you so much for doing it. I have looked up some of the useful sites and they are really helpful, thanks for this again. Days should have more then 24 hours, at least 2 or 3 hours extra for learning English... for the case, that you find a special site, witch helps install such an extra-time, please tell me :-)

so, I'll leave you now, have to do some homework....

Greets
Maria

Rorschach blot tests

Okay, here's another task for you.

What do you see? Leave a comment (or leave another blot to comment on :-) )
and then you can also 'analyse' the meanings behind what others see.

If you're up for a bit of fun, this could be quite amusing!
To see what it reall is, read here.

New links and other news

As you can see, I've added the newest homework to the side, and I wrote Oxford University Press to see what they have to say about the key to the Student's Book. Please have patience. I'll also get the answers to the grammar section to you soon.

I've added a couple of links to the side bar.

FAQs for your questions, and your answers or suggestions are equally welcome. They are first on the list at the wiki.

Then I've found an excellent blog called Daily English Activities. The activities are all online, giving you a lot more practice in listening and you get the visual effects as well.

Then there's the Vokker link Maria gave us (thanks, Maria!) to collect vocabulary.

Finally, how ever do you keep up with the newest additions? Do you have to keep going back to them again and again? Do you forget the links too?
There is something called RSS (really simple syndication) that lets you know when blogs, wikis or other websites have been updated. The easiest and most practical I've found is: http://feedblitz.com/
This sends you an e-mail to let you know that there is something new on the sites you are interested in. If you are more advanced, then the best one I know of is Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/
but you have to open the program to see if there is anything new.

You'll find these all in the links - happy surfing :-)

letter from Marina

Dear Illya,

I'm so glad I can attend your class. And I really hope I will manage the exam at the end. I was impressed by seeing the real test we need to pass at the end of the year. So I know what I need to learn!!! I want to do more than I can. I couldn’t finish my homework yet but I hope to manage it till tomorrow!!! Because I really need to do it. I realize it will be heavy studying this year! But I'm still very motivated just because I really want to learn English. I like this language and the people who speak this language.

I'm interested to get to know all of you better. So I'll just let you know something about me:

(according to the homework on the page 13 J)

Hi, my name is Marina. I was born in Kleinwangen. It is a farmer village near Hochdorf. After my obligatory school time I spent one year in the Welsh part of Switzerland. I did the teacher training school and afterwards I taught third grade for two years in Schüpfheim . After two years I had enough and I had the possibility to teach in the jungle of Peru, which I finally did for the two following years. Afterwards I was in different countries to help in different projects. I enjoyed it very much. I have enough of travelling. And I'm happy to settle down in Switzerland. I never thought I'd be living so near my home once again. But I do now. I'm living in Hochdorf. I'm very happy for my job in Rothenburg, my own flat and my first car. For me there is so much luxury in our country I really enjoy being here… and learning the language properly as I desire!

Actually there is a lot more to tell but for sure there will be another chance!

So I wish you all a good Monday evening! Till tomorrow!

Your new classmate J Marina

Hi everybody

It was really a great start. I'm looking forward to next Tuesday.
I couldn't put all the adjectives to the names or the faces but I'll try again next time.

See you all tomorrow

Dear Illya

Thanks a lot for your simpatico nature, you have made my day and the start of this adventure called CAE-cours as well.
I really enjoyed the first lessons, and I agree with you, it was a positive vibe. It's quite late now and that's a good excuse to not have to write as much as you did. Ok, the excuse won't hold the water (nice expression found by leo.org), and holding water would be useful now, when I look out of the window and hear the raindrops' sound on the leaves of the beech.

I guess the your-CAE-blog will be helpful, especially to look up the homework, but the links as well. I'll have a look soon again. Perhaps to write something or to read the others statements, I'm curious. And I hope there aren't to many mistakes now in my text. But as I mentioned above, It's quite late!

See you all

Great start!

I felt last night was a great start and hope you all felt the same way. A friendly atmosphere is condusive to learning and I've learned that generally the better a group gets on, the better the test results are.

Just to help you out with the names, here are the adjectives that were use. Can you put them to the names, or even better to the faces?

lovely, serious, yodeling, motivated, inquisitive, lovable, joyful, kind, sadistic? (no, social) sometimes nice, musical, yellow, allergic, lovely, midnight-learning, motivated (again), and one person still needs an adjective.

As you can see, I've added the homework to the sidebar, but beware! I change this every week.

I've also added a section with links to the tests so that you can find out about them and try them out.

Now I'm looking forward to reading your reviews and hearing(reading) more from and about you!

Preview for next week: we'll be working with dictionaries, so if you have an English-English dictionary, please bring it in, and if you don't, this coming lesson will help you choose one.

Now I'd like to end with a question. In the homework I mentioned a place to troubleshoot (in different words). Have a look at the link on the right that says 'CAE wiki'. Could you imagine using that for problems, questions and to help each other out? I'd be there as well, of course.

Well, that's all for now.

See you next week.

Something about me

One of my favorite places is Sardinia (hence the picture of Sardines!)
I love this island and one of the reasons why is that it is an island. The inhabitants are much more within their own culture. Sure they're Italian, but they are different and much less willing to make compromises then they would probably have to be on the mainland.

One of the funniest books I've ever read is 'The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs' By Alexander McCall Smith. I don't think I've ever made such a fool of myself in the bus than when trying to hold in a laugh while reading. It's about oneupmanship and is simply hilarious. A German professor, Dr Moritz-Maria von Iglefeld, accepts the chance to give a talk in the United States, but has unfortunately been confused with the late professor Dr. Iglefold. This starts off a series of events that make his life difficult. It is a simple book to read, but thuroughly enjoyable.

I'm sure you'll find out more about me during the course, and of course I'd also love to find out more about you. So leave a comment and tell us about yourself :-)

Looking forward to the first lesson

Welcome!

I'd like to welcome a new class to this blog.
As you can see, it's been used by another class, and I'm hoping they will drop in every now and then and say hi.

Why do I have this blog? Well, I'd like you to have a place to communicate with each other and go beyond the artificial use of language in the classroom.

This is a place for you to be creative, to communicate and share with the others in the class, or to get ideas and links to help your individual learning process.

If you are acquianted with blogs already, then I'll gladly invite you to contribute right away - just leave a short comment. If you already have a blog, then I'll gladly add it to the blogroll on the side.

If this is a new area for you, then look forward to learning about something new. In my opinion it has the power of taking 'learning' to new levels, of going beyond 'learning' and into 'using'.

So, what can you expect here? I'll be leaving the homework on the side, but this is only a very small part of what it is about. Every week I'll encourage you to leave a comment or a post about a topic, although you can choose to write about whatever you want. It won't be corrected here as I'd like to stimulate true interaction. However, you can always send me your texts to be corrected if you prefer. Or you can open your own blog and write there, and I'll link it here.

To begin with, I'd like to invite you to leave a message by using the 'comments' button.
You can tell us something about yourself, about your expectations, what you are most looking forward to, what you worry about most, or anything else you like.

And to set a good example, I'll start.

I am looking forward to learning from you! In all my courses I find that, though I may be the expert in English, everyone has some new knowledge to offer to the whole class. It is this sharing and learning from you that makes the course so interesting for me.

Truly over, but not forgotten

Now that this class is really finished, I'd like to extend an invitation to you all to keep in touch. I'm considering using this blog for the next class if it's okay with you.

If I do, it would be a great possibility for you to continue using it to help the others in the new class and to keep up practice yourselves.

I also want to thank you all for being so patient with me and helping me in my learning process as well. I too learned a lot, which wouldn't have been possible had you not been willing to join me in this online-learning adventure.

So this is not good-bye but simply "Auf Wiedersehen".

The best to you all
Illya

A quiet Tuesday evening

Oh dear, whatever should I do with my time this evening? How strange to have a free Tuesday evening after so many weeks of class.

So I am writing to you all to tell you once again that you are a wondeful group. I still have my roses on the table :-) Thank you again.

I also want you all to know that you have made so much progress that those of you going for the exam will surely do a good job.

Remember on Saturday to listen to English radio, an audio book or anything else in English to get you into the language. Meet well ahead of the exam, get together and talk to each other. Have a laugh and relax.

Then enter the exam feeling confident - yes! you can do it!!!. Speak loud and clearly.
If you don't know what to say then say so, but make sure they know you've understood the task.

Good phrases are:
Oh, that's tough one. Hmm. Let me think. So I'm supposed to.. I really don't know what to say about that.

Generally, you'll think of something to say after you've said you don't know what to say :-)

and remember, I'm here for you all the way up to the exam.

Wishing you all the best!!!!!

THANK YOU

Dear Illya

tomorrow will be our last evening in your class, incredibly! I know, it was not always easy! Nevertheless, you've prepared very interesting and varied lessons to keep up our motivation. By the way, I learnt not only more in English! As soon as I have more time I will update my blogs! And by all the work we had to do, there was always time for fun and laughter.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Next class dates

Okay everyone, just to make things ABSOLUTELY clear, here are the last few dates for the course:
6th May! (changed!!!)
13th May
20th May (last course date)

And then you have the speaking exam.
If you want to get some practice in on the 27th, that can be arranged. I'll be at home and we could get together on Skype. Think about it and let me know.
It's very simple to download if you do want to practice. The more the merrier!

Is anybody there? (missing homework)

Has anyone noticed that I completely forgot to write the homework for week 26?
Did anyone besides me read Norberta's latest contribution?
Is there anyone out there?

I hope you're not all tiring now that the weather is finally turning a bit (expression chosen carefully!) friendlier.

So, here are a few things you can do:

Go to the wiki and find the letter of complaint.
There you can improve on it or simply leave a comment about what changes that would need to be made and why. On second thought, this is a rather good idea! You get to be the experts. What all is wrong with it?

In the WB at the back there are several pages on word transformation.
Find negative words beginning with dis- and im-.
How many are there? Which ones didn't you know before?

Work on unit 12, including the writing task.

Finally, does anyone have any advice to give to the others? (it doesn't necessarily have to be related to the exam) Any wishes? Any bets on who our dear Norberta wanted to be Mr. Switzerland???

the opposite of a dull saturday evening

It has really been a long time now since I have written something on our blog. So I do not want to withhold you from this special evening spent in Sedrun.

As always when I am at my parents home, we like to spoil each other by cooking special meals and drinking a good bottle of wine. It happened therefore, that I was lying lazyly streched out on a warm stove after a delicious meal my head feeling dizzy. Against our plan to go to the village having another cup of wine with friends, my sister and I decided to spend the Saturday evening at home.

When we had a look at the TV program, we noticed that there was nothing else than the Mr. Switzerland event life on our screen!

Except the show beeing boring and the presenter making jokes no one laughed about, it was quite funny. We enjoyed looking at these self-confident young men. It was great fun to watch them posing self-convinced in front of all the spectators. And we had a good laugh seeing them walk and dance robotically for whole Switzerland.

We started to guess which of the candidates would arrive up to the final. How relieved we were about some beeing send home. And how sad I was, when the jury decided to end my favourite's carreer as a Mr. Switzerland...

http://www.misterschweiz.ch/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=234

But I won't reveal my secret...

Have fun guessing and looking forward to seeing you tomorrow evening!

Norberta

Happy Easter fun!!!!

Happy Easter everyone!!!!
It may be the bunny that brings the eggs, but the chicken has to lay them first. Therefore, I'm putting a game here dedicated to the chicken this Easter.

Go to the link below or the picture above and see what you can get the chicken to do.

What can the chicken do? Leave the commands that worked as a comment and we can then count how many different commands we came up with.

http://subservientchicken.com/

Sorry for not getting your podcasts to you on time. I just need an our or two more in the day, but will get to it straight away when I'm back from having some holiday relaxation.

Speaking practice

I loved your stories below, and please feel free to add to them! I'm sure this kind of writing is adding to the general quality of your writing skills.

But now we are focusing on Speaking and I've recorded my version of the task in the CB on page 165.
You can find it here:
Part 2 -Long turn

I've also done the second part where you are expected to react to what your partner has said within about 20 seconds. And you can find it here:

Part 2-reaction

As you can see, this is a great possiblity to improve on your speaking.

• you see the amount of time you have been speaking,
  
• you can listen to yourself,
  
• you can improve and correct as many times as you want,
• you can send it to me (or put it on the blog) to be commented on
• you have the added aspect of video, which means you can also show the pictures
• you can get together and do parts 1, 3 and 4 as well!

You can sign in at springdoo.com or www.bedroomtv.com (same tool, new name)
I'd LOVE to hear from you :-)

What`s that ....?

One of the scariest, but also funniest stories in my life toke place in summer 2004. My best friend and I went to a trip around Denmark by train. It was a hot summer and the weather was just beautiful all the time. Therefore, we always slept in our tent mostly near the sea. One evening, we enjoyed the amazing atmosphere at the ocean with all the stars over our heads. After a nice barbecue at the ocean, we went to bed really late. Around one o`clock, we slipped in our sleeping bags and were ready to sleep. Listening to music, I tried to fall asleep and after a few minutes, my friend was lain in a deep sleep as I could hear her snoring :-) I don`t know why, but I just couldn't sleep.
Two hours later, just falling asleep, I heard an extremely strange noise somewhere outside. As I could locate that noise, I recognised that it must be in the awning. Someone or something rustled inside the tent. After breathing, I took all my courage and opened the zipper for an extremely short moment. I felt certain having seen a brown fur. Being scared and in panic, I woke up my friend. We discussed for awhile and finally I toke my pet-battle and tried to hit this unknown object. No reaction. It didn`t vanish!!!

Then, I thought it were more effective when I went outside and fought directly. For that reason, I toke all my courage I had for the second time and I opened the zipper again....From one second to another, I saw my nightmare: a little, young hedgehog and my friend and me, we both were just laughing. I had a long time not been so frightened than in that moment.

Alarm clock

Every morning at a quarter to six, it was the same awkward and desperate situation. The special shrill sound of the alarm was so annoying that I could throw the clock to the wall.
A few months ago, I saw a program on television. The presenter showed a new alarm clock.
He promised you would wake up gently and pleasantly.
Not surprisingly, my attention was attracted and I was really interested how it works.
The technology used in this product was developed in cooperation with leading sleep
scientists. By measuring the body movements, the alarm calculates your optimum wake-up time within a time spam of 30 min before your requested wake-up time.
The body movements are registered by a wristband and transmitted to the clock, which is called aXbo. On top of that, aXbo will not only ensure optimum wake-up, but also helps you fall asleep while listening to relaxing sounds from the nature such as the sounds of the birds. That will fade out automatically once you have fallen asleep.
Once we ate dinner, I told my family about the aXbo. Do you guess what my kids gave me for my birthday? I’m still happy with my new alarm clock and in almost every morning I feel in a good temper.

...the sound of Africa...

As everyone in our class knows, Kenya, with its colourful landscapes, tropical plants, fascinating animals, people and tribes is my passion.
Unfortunately it is not yet the time to stay there for longer.
When I’m overcome by homesickness, I cook ugali, Kenyan food, or I take my djembe and start to drum.
The djembe is not especially a Kenyan drum; it is believed to have come from the malinke people in the northeast of Guinea, west Africa. With tools for metalwork, smiths hollowed out trunks and formed them like the traditional mortar. Covered in gaot skin, the djembe’s sharp bright sound and dynamic range of colours made it an ideal drum for healers and storytellers, as well as accompanying dance or for communication between villages – we would say the “bush-phone”.
The sound depends on where you beat the drum. The bass is played in the centre of the drum. An open beat called tone and the sharp beat called slap are played on the edge of the skin. Professional players beat 21 different sounds….I still have to practise hard….After Easter holidays there will be a course at the PHZ and maybe we catch an ear when Daouda Coulibaly rolls the djembe.