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.

A real story about strange sounds

As I am not a very gifted author of poems I decided to tell you about a funny day in my life. I hope a lot of other storys will follow...

It is now exactly three years ago since I moved from Baar to Emmenbrücke. I remembered my first night sleeping there as if it was yesterday. After a short night I woke up at 9 a.m. hearing the unmistakable sound of a brass band. "Where the hell am I?" I tried to remember. A short look from the balcony (still in the pyjamas)showed me a crowd of people following the brass band to the church where they were celebrating the "White Sunday" and the children in their white dresses got their first Holy Communion.
In the afternoon another piercing, incessant noise interrupted the relaxing silence. It was a constant, strange noise that reminded me of bees or hornets. I avoided to enter the bureau for the rest of the day. By laughing out loud the house owner explained me the next day what had caused this unbearable din. It had just been the wind that had blown threw a small gap in the window...

Besides, if you are fond of brass bands, it would be a good opportunity to visit the church in Emmenbrücke in two weeks when it is "White Sunday" again :-)

Wishes???

Now that we only have less than one third of the course ahead of us, it's time to dig into the exam itself.
We will begin each lesson with focus on one exam task. In order to get the most out of if, you need to tell me what you find most difficult or what in particular you want to look at. I will then plan accordingly. So leave your wishes here as a comment or write your own post (it's always nice to read what others write!)

And now...

Hello again!

Hi everyone
As you can read, I survived the week-long course! It was a good one, as Judith (your new teacher ;-) ) can confirm.
I'm also very sorry about being late with the text on the wiki. I was busy being a mother for an hour or two before running off again last night (ask on Tuesday), but it's on there now.

I also noticed that not much is going on here in general. So, maybe you could tell us all about a book you've recently read or a film you've seen.

I'd also like to ask you to go to flo-joe regularly to practice. They have good exam practice and models of corrected texts. I'll show you the possibilities next time if you want.

Hello everybody

I`m your new teacher ... :-)

Illya is really busy, so she ask if anybody would post a notice (todays programm and homework) on the blog.

...and that is what we did today:

-Warm up (what do you know...about tenses, defining-non-defining clauses, articles, countable and uncountable nouns,...)
-vocabulary of anger
-listening practice (CB p. 118)
-language of emphasis (some of us told stories about neighbours, children and parents in school and also about their own children)
-speaking practice (CB p. 120)
-writing (we got a really helpful sheet with short notices of all the writing tasks)

Homework:

-Illya is going to post a proposal on the Wiki (we have to improve it)
-CB p.119
-CB p. 121-123
-WB Unit 9

see you next week
Judith

Wishes??

Remember last week when I told you that I will take your wishes into consideration?

Well, I'd like to give you the chance to express your wishes here :-)

If you have any problems, be they specific or general, leave a comment or write a post. And you all are also invited to help out and answer as well! If we work together, everyone profits double.

And if you haven't taken time to fill out the survey in the post below, could you please do so? I thank you for it.

Survey again

This is just one more reminder so you don't forget the survey. Thank you for your time, it should only take a couple of minutes.

http://windev.humanities.manchester.ac.uk...

Survey on learning with technologies

After two weeks of 'Narrenfreiheit' (this should become an English word!) it's back to the classrooms again, including the English classroom.

You have all been very helpful in letting yourselves be recorded, quoted etc. and now I have another favor to ask of you.
Could you please be so kind as to follow this link and complete the survey on how you use technology for learning?

We will be using technology a bit more as I too have been learning over the holidays. My problem is often how to make the language relevant to you as the user, and at the same time prepare for the CAE exam. In discussion with other language teachers ideas have begun to ripen and I am ready to take on the learning structures.

One of the impetusses has certainly been the research I am taking part in, but seeing you do the same thing for a real purpose that the book would have you do for the simple sake of practice, and I would have you do in the hopes of stimulating your interest, has been a further motivator for me to look at my own role in our classroom.

Since this is all for your sake, I do appreciate your feedback and am also interested in how helpful the technologies I introduce to you are helpful for your learning. And if you would find them useful in your teaching!

Hello everybody

First of all: Happy new year! I wish you just the best for 2008 and hope your wishes will come true.
I thought it's the best to inform you all why I wasn't in the course the last three weeks. Not that a rumour will be spread :)
My sister was for two weeks in hospital and she was in a serious situation. She's at home since last Monday, but she has to be on a watch. The last weeks were utterly exhausting. So I decided to stay at home.
I hope this isn't a bad omen for my 2008...:)
I'm looking forward to see you all after the carneval break.

Greetings
Nadine Gerster

Links

I have two links for you. Both are on the list of links, but I'll give them to you here too.
First, I have a very god model of the report you were given to write on the last practice test: http://caewords.wikispaces.com/Reports

The second is on reported speech. There are explanations and exercises as well. It's the top one on the list of links.


Thanks for filling out the consent sheets. I think such discussions are an excellent way to make use of the language for a real purpose. I hope you all agree.

Eats, shoots, and leaves

I found a video for you about the author of the book 'Eats, shoots and leaves'. It's a shorter version than the original, but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway.

And here's the story:
A panda walks into a restaurant and orders a small meal. He eats it, takes out a gun and shoots into the air and walks out. The confused waiter follows him out the restaurant and asks 'Why?'

The panda gives the waiter a badly punctuated wildlife magazine and says, 'I'm a panda. Look it up.'

The waiter looks up 'panda' and finds the following entry:
Panda- Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots, and leaves.


Stay tuned for more over the Fasnacht holidays!

achievements in 2007

Well, thinking of the last year, I must admit, it wasn't really my best year ever. The relationship to Totor fell apart, no new challenges in the job and generally lot of "NO's" throughout all possible levels of life. Without having feelings of regret or bitterness, I can say that my last year was disorientating and provoked more than one question.

Fortunately, I had some great pleasures too. For the first time in my life I walked up to a mountain higher than 3000m above sea level. It was during my autumn holidays in Sent, where I spent several days in brightest sunlight. What a marvellous place to be! I can really recommend the hostel I booked: the swissroof (www.swissroof.ch). There is such a familiar atmosphere and if you like to live together with other people and share your life, then you'd like this cosy place.

But I wanted to tell you about the Piz Lischana. Sitting on the balcony of the hostel this peak layed across the valley in a majestically way. A great barrier - but an outstanding challenge as well. So, my friends Brigitte, Fabian and I took the bus to a tiny but beautiful village where our journey began. It was freezing cold and shadowy. Frost had changed the landscape with its white coat into a magical surrounding. Lifting my head I could see the powerful mountains in the most beautiful sunlight above us. So we gently walked up towards these peaks more than 1400m of difference in altitude. Arriving on top of the Lischana, we had to climb the last 50m - it was just splendid and liberating. I could have cried!

As a souvenir I took some stones with me, which have special colours: a greenish grey with violet patches. Every now and then, when I am feeling sad or discouraged I take it and it gives me back this feeling of strength and positiveness!

My 2007

My 2007 started in a difficult way. As the result of having been five month on an other continent, I found it difficult to acclimatize in Switzerland.
I still missed my life abroad without any bond. It was summer until I could say that I feel at home.
In summertime, I went to England by train. It required 10 hours from Lucerne to London, but it was a new experience! We visited the World Scout Jamboree in Chelmsford and it was an emotional and interesting time for me because I could have contact with people from all over the world. In addition, it gave me a punch of motivation to continue learning English.
In the last days of this year, I made my biggest achievement. After 13 years of snowboarding (without one day of skiing), I toke some skis up to the mountain and came down without any broken leg. It was more then fun!
For 2008, I hope that I can pilot my life in the right direction. Maybe, there`ll be some decisions which have to be taken.…but step by step ...

My achievements in 2007

In 2007 we got a new manager (a young man, 18 years younger than me) at the WBZA. So I had to find a new way how to cooperate with him. After one year of cooperation, I can say that we are a very good team. Moreover, we are working very hard, but there is a very good atmosphere!
In my private life there were some highlights too! In March, we were in a skiing vacation in Austria. There, we went hiking with our skis on a very high peak. We made more than 1700 m up with our skis and the furs. It was a big challenge for me, but I did it with all my energy! In May, I visited my relatives in Chicago of my own. It was the second time I was travelling of my own by plane so far away, so it was quite a challenge too. My relatives were very hospitable with me and we had a great time together! I was very excited to recover the very interesting city of Chicago again!
In the 2008 I hope to go on many peaks again; we are planning an other skiing vacation in a cabin. Furthermore, maybe I'll try to pass the CAE exam (I'm not sure yet...) And having fun with my family and that everybody can fullfill his dreams...

moja kwa moja

...it is kiswahili and means step by step. I made some smaller and some longer steps last year. But I think most of them went the right direction. So there are no great achievements... Apart to improve my english skills, I started learning kiswahili. Then I made the first time in my life shoes for myself. I had a excellent teacher at Nyali Beach in Kenya. And now all my pupils at school are proud owners of handmade leather shoes.

We could celebrate my father's 80th birthday... I finished my first halfmarathon...and I met many good people, shared precious moments with my family and my friends...

I will be on my way also in 2008. English will have highest priority! :)...but moja kwa moja...

My achievement in 2007

Unfortunately I didn't have such a great achievement as you had Illya. But during the last year there were numberous small things like try to improof my cooking skills or joining a lot of inline races, which I wanted to do since a long time.
The most lucky achievement was a nice guy who I got to know at a party at the beginning of last year and which whom I know live at the Sonnenplatz :-)
An achievement which wasn't lucky at all was the dead of my uncle in April last year. This was a very bad time especially for my mother. My sister and I had been with my uncle as he died and I will never forget the last minutes before he died. The following hours also had been unforgettable. The doctor came to proof if he is really dead, afterwards we had to clean my uncle's body and to put him on some nice clothes. In the morning three men arrived with a casket where they laid him in. Beside, my uncle left me a cow (my most favourite cow) after he died. So I am now the owner of a cow!!!
As you see, there wasn't one big achievement I could write about. Yet there have been a lot of impressive experiences that I won't forget as long as I live. Moreover, I hope that my cow will soon get a calve!

Reflecting on the past and moving forwards

I found a great idea on another blog. It asked readers to leave a statement about what they had achieved or learned in 2007. Now I'm asking you to do the same. What one thing stands out from 2007 that you learned or achieved? IF it's more than just one, that's okay too.

What do you hope to achieve in 2008? That's the step forwards.

I'll start here:

I think what stands out most is what I've learned through internet technology. I have made good friends from all over the world who help me in my endevours to become a better teacher using technology, and this blog is certainly one of the fruits of this learning.

In 2008 there are many things I'd like to achieve, but one stands out particularly.
I believe I introduced the Matopo primary school blog before. The person who runs the project is a very wonderful person and I admire her greatly for the work she has done keeping up this project.
Now I would like to help by encouraging teachers, pupils, classes, even schools, to begin collecting materials for these children.

I see that there can be profit both ways. Classes already learning English can actually use it for a concrete and real life task, regardless of their level.
They can leave a comment on the blog introducing themselves and documenting how they are going about collecting materials.
Pupils can learn about Zimbabwe as well as poverty.
And the children at the school will, of course, also benefit.
However, the materials should be at least near new since postage is so expensive, and money for postage can also be collected.


If you are interested in joining in, let me know or leave a message at the Matopo blog.

I'm looking forward to reading your accomplishments from 2007 and aims for 2008!

And one more Christmas post

I just couldn't resist sharing this :-)
By the way, this was actually the song I had wanted to sing with you. After you watch the video, take a look at the link below it.




The 12 Days of Christmas

And the background of the song and what happens when you take the lyriks too seriously ;-)
Happy reading!

http://www.cvc.org/christmas/12days.htm

My first Swiss Christmas

When I came over here many years ago as an exchange student, I stayed with a family with a small child. They were very kind to me and even had St. Niklaus come to visit. I was impressed because he only came when I was asleep in the US, and he clearly stayed on a diet here in Switzerland, being quite long and lean.

But the big surprise was that, after telling me all he knew (this wasn't the surprise) he brought forth from his big bag a pair of winter boots for me. And they even fit! This was a surprise. How did he know what size my feet were?

However, this was just the beginning of the surprises that were in for me.

On Christmas Eve I was banned from the living room, so I played with the little boy and waited, wondering what was going to happen next. Another Santa, maybe?

Well, there was a little tinkling of a bell and we were called into the living room.
Lo and behold, a living Christmas tree full of real, burning candles!
I had never seen such a sight before, for burning candles on Christmas trees are forbidden in the states (many a town has burnt to the ground on such festive occasions).
So my first reaction was - Where is the bucket of water!
After I had gotten over my fears, I ooed and awed the Christmas tree.

I will certainly never forget my first Swiss Christmas!

I wish you all and your families a very festive time during the Christmas season and a very Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart :-)

Preview of next week

So here's the scoop (= here is what's new)
Next week we start with a game about the world-famous Entlebuch. So what do you know already? I have to admit I don't know much, but I'm happy to learn :-)
We'l also do the listening part of the exam I've handed out and look at the writing, so try to come to the lesson!

I'll bring my little laptop along so you can try to write a post. So you might want to bring along your password or write it on the back of your hand.

Sorry, for the dull post. I guess I'm saving up for the last lesson of the year.
Oh, and there were some answers I was supposed to leave you from the book:
Common mistakes at CAE ...and how to avoid them by Debra Powell(CUP, 2005)

Letters for Christmas

You can either leave your messages here or write your own post.

Multiple Intelligences

First a big thanks to Gisela for sharing the writing project. I really think it's a great way to improve. When you share- which is what this blog is for - you learn without focussing on the learning process, so I hope you will continue to use it and share on it :-)

As you may have noticed, I am interested in the multiple intelligences, and in fact wrote a paper on how on-line studies can facilitate the MIs.

For this purpose I opened a blog - my very first one, in fact: http://mi-onlinestudy.blogspot.com/
but I recommend you go all the way to the beginning in the archive to really get an idea of what I did there. It begins with a description of each intelligence and how it can be supported. I haven't done anything with it lately, but I plan to go back to it.
Who knows, maybe you'll motivate me :-)


Here are a couple more sites, the first one is where you can test your own intelligences:
multiple intelligences test

This one is a model of how to integrate them in the primary classroom:
Multiple Intelligences in the primary classroom

There are many more sites, but if you are interested, I suggest you google to find more.

(and as you can see, I'm strong in the linguistic area ;-) )

Survey on learning with technologies

Hi folks
I've been asked if any of my students would be willing to complete a survey on the use of technologies in language learning (I did my part already :-) )
Gladys would be extremely grateful if you'd take the time to fill out this short survey.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=kattcpaFgLzGdemUbX_2bs_2bQ_3d_3d

Thanks!
Illya

ps- this is a note (see post below!)

Just a quick note

Hi everyone
Just wanted to say sorry for the badly organized writing task on Tues.
Hope you can forgive me ;-)
I've added a few comments to it on the side (see homework for 1st week in Dec.)

Any wishes for Christmas?

Greetings
Illya

Thanksgiving

Hi everyone
Today is Thanksgiving in the US, reason enough to think about all the things you are thankful for.

I'm thankful to have a job I like where I can talk to interesting people on a friendly basis. I'm thankful that you all seem more than just 'my students', in fact, I'm also learning from you.

It's wonderful to be in such a stable country with a good school system and little corruption.
Sometimes it's also helpful to see what others don't have to see just how good we have it here.
Full plates, full stomaches, heads full of education. Yes, I'm very thankful. I hope you are too.



And now for the occasion, here is the son of a friend of mine. She is from Brasil and now living in Florida. This is what her sons have to say about Thanksgiving.

So what are you thankful for?

Free writing course

I'd just like you all to knwo that there is an online course on writing that lasts for 6 weeks for upper-intermediate to advances at no cost!

However, please be aware that you are expected to commit yourself to the full 6 weeks and it is beginning this week. If you are interested, let me know immediately and I'll give you the e-mail address where you can sign up (don't .want to do it here), but here is the website where you can get more information
http://www.writeit.to/sys/

I'm sure that if you have the time, it will be a great help for you and your English skills, not just in writing!

Back again :-)

I was sorry to leave you all to yourselves, but happy to hear that you missed my contributions to the blog since it means you actually read them.

Well, I'm back and have a bit of a problem, so perhaps you can help me. I know I should do something for my body - fitness and all that, and I have started several times. I went swimming for a while and then stopped. I bought a fitness pass for a fitness studio for a lot of money, thinking this would motiate me not to throw my money out the window, but to no avail. I started, but not for long.
I am usually quite busy, but I know that I would profit from it. And, of course, I'm not getting any younger.
How can I discipline myself to stick with a sport? I know I really need it. I appreciate all the tips I can get!

(by the way, this is a picture of Abbey - actually her daughter, who has taken over mother's job). If you click on the picture, you'll see an example.

Senses

Since the topic last time was about smell, I thought I'd continue on that.

Do you teach using the senses? Which senses do you think are neglected? Which do you like using most?

I'll have to think about these questions myself.
Sorry to not write more today. Maybe someone else will take over?