Blog No Longer Active

As you have already noticed, this blog is no longer active. I have been granted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend a year in a Tibetan Buddhist institute and will therefore be leaving Germany soon and stopping my work here as an English teacher.

I hope you enjoyed the posts for the few months I was active here, and when I come back and resume my work here I am sure I will restart this blog.

In the meantime, you can follow my experiences in the Himalayas at my new blog: Dzongsar Diary.

Words of the Year

They call the summer the "silly season", but I think there is a second silly season for anyone who likes languages: the annual series of "Word of the Year" competitions.

To "hypermile" is the winner for Oxford University Press in America. The meaning: to drive in a way that uses the minimum fuel.

Now that's a good idea, so why not have a new word for it? Here's a British factsheet to help you - they don't use the new word! If you are interested in cars and driving, there are a lot of useful factsheets at the Institute of Advanced Motorists - a good way to read something interesting and useful in English.

Another word of the year finalist was "topless meetings". No, that is not something you do on a beach, nor is it something you will find on Page 3 of The Sun or in the BILD newspaper (a German tabloid which is now available in English).

No, 'top'-less meetings are meetings where laptops are banned. So that the people actually listen to and look at each other !

Europe's Easy Reading Corner

Here you will find booklets that explain, as simply as possible, what the European Union is and what it does.

You can also find maps, posters and postcards and booklets about the EU for young people.

(And if you are feeling lazy or if the English is sometimes too difficult for you, there are other publications in 22 official languages of the European Union which can be read in full at this site.)

A couple of things that particularly caught my eye:

A Panorama of the EU - What do we do?

A Panorama of the EU (as a colour leaflet to download)

Europe in 12 Lessons

Travelling in Europe - practical advice and tips



(A big thank you to Dr. Andreas Büsing for this tip.)

Find that word on the 'tip of your tongue'

This site is a new idea that is very useful.

If I say a word is 'on the tip of my tongue', it means I am thinking of a word but can't remember it exactly. Perhaps I know the first letters, or the meaning, but can't remember the whole word.

For example, what's that word that I can use if something has irritated me, but I'm not angry. I think it begins with 'a' like angry .....

Go to "Tip of My Tongue".
Type 'a' in "Partial Word - Starts with"
Type 'irritate' in 'Word Meaning - Word 1'

There are 22 results, and the word that was on the tip of my tongue is there halfway down the list "annoy" - "I'm annoyed!"

Success!

(Thanks again to Gabi for this tip.)

Learning new words - with Pons or LEO

The dictionary websites dict.cc and LEO are very popular, so now one of the large publishing houses, PONS, has reacted and it has created its own online dictionary:
http://www.pons.eu/dict/search

It also has 'Lexitrainer', which is an integrated program to help you learn the new words that you look up in the dictionary.

But, watch out! You have a lot of choice now, because LEO has also updated its vocabulary trainer and made it much better. Check it out - the Sprachtrainer.

How to ... - very useful English

From the BBC, this site looks very useful.

It has exercises for beginners and other levels which all show you how to do something useful in English.

For example:
# Expressing likes (Elementary level)
# Expressing dislikes (Elementary level)
# Expressing no strong emotions (Elementary level)
# Responding to compliments
# Telling someone about a funny incident
# Gossiping
# Getting back on topic
# Talking about serious incidents
# Chatting someone up

That will keep you busy for a while. Learn it. And then go out and practice, practice, practice - that means find some international people and try out what you learnt! Have fun!

Listen to English

Here's another blog that will be very useful for you.

Listen to English, the podcast website for people learning English.

The podcasts on this site will help you to improve your English vocabulary and pronunciation and your listening skills. There are two short (3 to 5 minutes) podcasts every week, in clearly spoken English. Many of them are linked to grammar and vocabulary notes, or to exercises or quizes. You can download the podcasts to your computer, or subscribe using a programme such as iTunes or Yahoo, or simply listen to them by clicking the Flash player on the web page beneath each episode. You can put the podcasts onto your iPod or MP3 player, and listen to them on your way to school or work. The full text of each podcast is on this site (and will also appear on your iPod screen), so you can look up the meanings of words that you do not understand in a dictionary. Then close your eyes and listen! Have fun!