Good byes and thank yous

I want to give everyone in my CAE class a huge thank you for the wonderful last lesson, which was full of surprises.

Please feel free to use this space and its links for as long as you like.
And good luck to all of you for your exams whenever they are, and in anything else you need luck in.

And now a small tribute to our last lesson:

Nearing the end

Hi everyone
Things have been quiet here and the course is fast nearing the end as exams lurk in the near future.

Good news: Eljakim and Helen both passed their exams!!
Congratulations!!
And I hope all of you will pass your exams whenever it is that you take them.

Until the end you will decide over your homework. There isn't much left in the book for you to work on, but you can do exams, work in Flo-joe, read or listen to grammargirl and explore the other links in the side bar to work on your English.

For those of you who have managed to write on this blog so far, it would be wonderful if you could leave a post for everyone in the course.

Hello from Australia

Hello my dear Englishclass friends
I'm quite fine in the nice climate of Australia, however, I have to work hard but it's actually efficient to study in the native speaking environment. Now, I would like to tell you a amusing story:

After I’d finished reading Donna Leon’s Thriller a second time I was looking for something new to read and so I went to a bookshop in Perth today. However, it was quite difficult to find the most entertaining, well-written and heartrending book under dozens of provided bestsellers.
I then asked a salesperson whether she could help me to find a suitable book. ‘What are you looking for? Fiction, non-fiction, crime, thriller?’ she asked me. ‘Well’ I answered, ‘I suppose I’d like something like ‘A Bag Of Bones’ by Steven King a read recently. Are there any other books written by this author available?’– ‘I know, there are some books of King, I can see it on the website, but we don’t have them in our shop. Do you want me to order any of this books for next week?’ – ‘Oh, no, thanks, next week I’m not anymore in Perth, ehm…’ – ‘So when you read a book of Steven King, do you like thrillers?’ – ‘Yes, why not, of course, I recently read a thriller of Donna Leon but…’
’You read Donna Leon!’ an older lady asked me who had overheard our conversation, – ‘Yes, I’ve read one.’ – ‘Which one?’ she wanted to know. – ‘Through A Glass, Darkly’ I answered. ‘Did you read it too?’ – ‘Yes, of course, and all the other ones. I like her, I like her so much!’ – I was curious to know what she meant exactly so I asked her, ‘You mean Donna Leon?’ – ‘No, no, not her, I mean the lady in the office, you know, the secretary, she is so funny, all the time, she is a good girl, Brunetti’s lucky to have her assistance’ she explained me. – ‘Ah, you mean Signora Elettra?’ – ‘Exactly, you’ve got it, she’s really nice, isn’t she. You should read all the books.’
After this overwhelming recommendation I first felt a little bit reluctant to choose again a book of Leon, but what should I have bought then. To look for an entirely suitable book seemed to be too time-consuming so I choose ‘Friends In High Places’, an other thriller by Donna Leon, hoping to be a little bit more thrilled than by the last one with the glass-factory case.

So, that's all for now. Enjoy the springtime and have a nice time.
See you in May,
Adalbert

Tips for IELTS

For those of you working towards the IELTS, you can also find a lot of good information on the internet.
First, here is an excellent site for advice on how to do the writing parts and everything else.

You will also find good examples by googling IELTS academic writing/reading

Here's a speaking video I found with rather good quality. You will find more



You will find further advice on youtube about writing and the other skills.
For general skills the CAE practice you get on flo-joe is great as well.

Tips for working on your English (CAE)

Here are a few tips for you for the Easter holidays.
If you are working towards the CAE, you will have a test from me and you also have several exams through your CD.

DON'T do them all at the same time during the Easter break! There is still quite a bit of time until the exam, so plan them carefully, distributing them throughout the rest of the time you have.

DO go onto flo-joe regularly and do tasks there.

DO practice your writing!
Do practice your speaking! You can even record yourself and send the recording to me for a bit of feedback.

Go to the Splendid-speaking website (see the side bar) to listen to people speaking and here what an examiner might say about how the person did.

Go to youtube and type in CAE speaking exam (or the other parts) and see what kind of information you can get there. IF you find any very good sites, please share them here!

Read a book or watch a film and write about it here for all of us to read- the others can write comments about it if they have read or seen it as well.

Take some time and relax from studying - don't pressure yourself the whole holiday. A break from English can help you unconsciously bring things together and internalize them.

Joke from Rama

One day a housework-challenged man decided to wash his Sweat- Shirt. Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to his wife, 'What setting do I use on the washing machine?'

'It depends,' she replied. 'What does it say on your shirt?'

He yelled back, 'Liverpool '

Ahhm, where's the washing machine?

Greetings from Rama in Edinburgh

Hi there

I hope you’re all fine.

I’m having a great time here in Edinburgh. But unfortunately, I’m not studying a lot :-(

There is so much to see, so I don’t have a lot of time to spend with my school books.

Twice I went to Glasgow over the weekend to visit an old friend from Switzerland, who‘s studying there at the moment. It was really funny.

Fortunately, the weather’s being kind to us. The sun‘s shining quite often and it’s even warmer than in Switzerland, I guess.

Yesterday we went to Loch Lomond. It was really beautiful.

I’m going to stay here until next Saturday, thus I won’t come to class, today!

Have a nice time!

Cheers

Rama

Learning about the English in Southwest England

Just so you all can see that I actually learned something while I was over in England having fun, here are some pictures with what I learned.

Very pituresque thatched cottages, just like the ones on the calendars. Actually, they ARE the ones on the calendars!
I bet you know this place. It was very parky the whole time we were in England.
Parky- the word of the day: nothing to do with parks, though you often feel it in parks. It means chilly - a chill that runs straight through you.

This is the pub we stayed at. Life there is just like in the films. The village gathers, chats and gossips - no tv, though, thank God!

One of the hounds waiting for a pint of Old Speckled Hen (very tasty, bitter ale - and not warm). This is actually the pooch of the house, and the owner of the pub is in the background. He is a VERY good cook and treated us to Monday roast, chicken and ham pie, crumble, and spotted dick - all very British!
Posh cream tea time at the Roman Baths in Bath.
The word of the day: Clotted cream- basically sweet butter that has been whipped.
Preparation of scones: first the strawberry jam, then the clotted cream.
Preparation of tea: first the milk, then the sugar if desired, then the brewed tea. In posh places you will always be able to top off the tea (add fresh hot water to the brewed tea).

IELTS

As promised, here are some IELTS sites for you to get an idea of the IELTS. I personally think the third one is pretty good.

IELTS exam practice

More IELTS exam practice

And still more IELTS exam practice

Any other questions??

Essays and vocabulary

Before I get started on essays, I'd like to draw your attention to a helpful site with the vocabulary from our coursebook (don't thank me, thank Sarah and Adalbert!)
www.oup.com/elt/result. You'll find quite a few resources, but especially have a look at Words and Phrases - Key vocabulary.

The vocabulary is presented clearly unit by unit, and was new to me as well (see, I don't spend all my time surfing the internet :-) )

Now for the essays:

Say what you are going to say.

Say it.
Say what you've said.

The layout is simple. You have an introductory paragraph where you will have your key statement. This tells the reader what you are writing about and what your position is.

The body is divided into 2-3 paragraphs, each of which should have a topic sentence, which tell the reader what the paragraph is about.

The concluding paragraph sums up.

This is a powerful tool for writing an essay successfully, and even more useful if you also use it when reading.

Remember when I told you to 'look at' the text before you begin reading it?
Basically, all you need to do is find these key sentences and you will already have an idea of the topic and the writer's view.

If you want more on the subject of essays, especially is you decide to take the IELTS, then this link may help you: Basic Guide to Essay Writing

In a nutshell by Andrea

Well, Andrea was up for the challenge and managed to summarize our book quite nicely with just 2 extra spaces more used.

After a dead man has been found in a glass factory in Venice, the reader is left in doubt who the murderer is almost up to the last page of the book.

Is anyone else up for the challenge?

A game from down under

Hi everybody

I'm writing you from overseas. I've been here since 22 of december and I will stay here till the 16th of january. So I thought you can learn from what I learned in Rosebud in a little house near the coast on NYE. :-)

It's a card game called 13.

You need poker cards (52 without the Jokers) and you play with four people. Everyone gets 13 cards and the one with the lowest card (in this game the spade 3) starts the game. He has to put down his spade 3. Then the next one (you go around clockwise) has to give a higher card. It can be straight a higher number like a 5, a lady or it can be a 3 as well. There it depends on the suit. First is the heart, then diamond, then the club and at last the spade. If you don't want to put a card on the table you can pass. If someone gives the heart 2 it can only be beaten with a chop. That would be three doubles in a row or four of the same card. When now one can beat, this person he has the power. That means he can start the new round. It doesn't has to be a single round. You can also start with doubles, triples or with a row of minimum three cards. The next has to give the same thing just higher. The first who has put down all his cars wins. The last one has to shuffle and deal out the cards for the next game.

If there are more players who want to play this game you can make out, that the last two or just the last one will be replaced by a new player.

I hope you can follow my explanations and have fun with the game! I'm already addicted to it.

See you in a couple of weeks.

Angi