Learn English because…

 
1. English is the most commonly used language in the business world, and the second most widely spoken on the planet after Chinese. When different nationalities meet together to do business, English is the most commonly used language to communicate in. If you can’t speak English in today’s world, you are at a significant disadvantage compared to those that can.

 
2. English is a very difficult language to learn without support if you are not a native speaker. Attending an evening course will improve your skills and help you avoid any common English language mistakes that many non-native speakers make. Plus, if you manage to learn English the process will help you learn other languages much quicker.

 
3. The expansion and breadth of the British Empire means that English was widely exported all over the world, and is still the official language of many countries today. The British Commonwealth comprises of 54 independent States worldwide and English is the primary language used at official gatherings.

 
4. Jobs are always available for English speakers. If you can speak English you have the ability to work anywhere in the world. The demand to learn English is so great that if you become really good you could even start teaching the language as a TEFL teacher yourself!

 
5. If you can speak English you will finally be able to understand the words in your favourite films, and the lyrics in your favourite songs! The USA and British music industries dominate the world’s popular music scene, and most of the biggest bands and rappers on the planet sing in English.

 
6. Learning English will help you to make new friends wherever you travel in the world. If you are not sure what to talk about when meeting new people abroad, well known British brands such as the Royal Family and Manchester United are sure to provoke opinions no matter who you may be talking to!

 
7. English is not only the international language of business – it is the international language of the arts and science industries too. If you have any ambitions to enter the scientific arena you will have to know how to communicate in English. Likewise, Hollywood is home to the biggest film industry on the planet, and even many Indian Bollywood films are beginning to be shot using the English language.
 

Sources: http://thecommonwealth.org
www.stgeorges.co.uk

There is often a question regarding the correct pronunciation of often. Some people say that it should be said with the ‘t’ /ɒftən/ (ofTen) …and some say that the ‘t’ should be silent /ɒfn/ (oFFen). The argument being that if you think about the word ‘listen’, then the ‘t’ is silent.
If you are learning English, then I don’t think that this is one of the most important issues to worry about. It’s undeniable that within the group of native speakers of English, some people say /ɒfn/ (oFFen) and some people say /ɒftən/ (ofTen).
Strangely, I get asked about this in class quite a lot, because sometimes I pronounce often both ways. My English is OK, so I’d have to say that choose whichever pronunciation you prefer and stick with that one. …and then sometimes say the other one just for fun!

Just to confuse matters and make things more difficult, the Queen pronounces the word in an old school received pronunciation way. The Queen has softened her received pronunciation accent dramatically over the years to sound less elitist – you can hear the results of this in my blog from last year where I look at her RP accent changes. Often holds a special place in her RP accent though. This is possibly the only word that she uses that still recalls the way she spoke when she was a young woman. She says often /ɒfn/ like orphan /ɔːfn/…and it’s one way that you definitely know that Queen is giving her Christmas Message to the Commonwealth of Nations. Here is her 2011 Xmas Speech and the full transcript is below the video. She says often /ɔːfn/ four times, but you may notice that the second time she says it, it is slightly softer and a little bit different. Maybe in 20 years’ time, she’ll often be saying often!

Queen’s Received Pronunciation Speech

(with special use of ‘often’)

“In this past year my family and I have been inspired by the courage and hope we have seen in so many ways in Britain, in the Commonwealth and around the world. We’ve seen that it’s in hardship that we often find strength from our families; it’s in adversity that new friendships are sometimes formed; and it’s in a crisis that communities break down barriers and bind together to help one another. Families, friends and communities often find a source of courage rising up from within. Indeed, sadly, it seems that it is tragedy that often draws out the most and the best from the human spirit. When Prince Philip and I visited Australia this year, we saw for ourselves the effects of natural disaster in some of the areas devastated by floods, where in January so many people lost their lives and their livelihoods. We were moved by the way families and local communities held together to support each other.
Prince William travelled to New Zealand and Australia in the aftermath of earthquakes, cyclones and floods and saw how communities rose up to rescue the injured, comfort the bereaved and rebuild the cities and towns devastated by nature. The Prince of Wales also saw first-hand the remarkable resilience of the human spirit after tragedy struck in a Welsh mining community, and how communities can work together to support their neighbours. This past year has also seen some memorable and historic visits – to Ireland and from America. The spirit of friendship so evident in both these nations can fill us all with hope. Relationships that years ago were once so strained have through sorrow and forgiveness blossomed into long-term friendship. It is through this lens of history that we should view the conflicts of today, and so give us hope for tomorrow. Of course, family does not necessarily mean blood relatives but often a description of a community, organisation or nation. The Commonwealth is a family of 53 nations, all with a common bond, shared beliefs, mutual values and goals. It is this which makes the Commonwealth a family of people in the truest sense, at ease with each other, enjoying its shared history and ready and willing to support its members in the direst of circumstances. They have always looked to the future, with a sense of camaraderie, warmth and mutual respect while still maintaining their individualism. The importance of family has, of course, come home to Prince Philip and me personally this year with the marriages of two of our grandchildren, each in their own way a celebration of the God-given love that binds a family together. For many, this Christmas will not be easy. With our armed forces deployed around the world, thousands of service families face Christmas without their loved ones at home. The bereaved and the lonely will find it especially hard. And, as we all know, the world is going through difficult times. All this will affect our celebration of this great Christian festival.
Finding hope in adversity is one of the themes of Christmas. Jesus was born into a world full of fear. The angels came to frightened shepherds with hope in their voices: ‘Fear not’, they urged, ‘we bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. ‘For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.’ Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our recklessness or our greed. God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive. Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God’s love. In the last verse of this beautiful carol, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, there’s a prayer:
O Holy Child of Bethlehem, Descend to us we pray.
Cast out our sin, And enter in.
Be born in us today.
It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord. I wish you all a very happy Christmas.”

Listening Skills Improvement

1. First just watch and listen and try to understand as much as you can. Don’t stop the video though.
2. Secondly, try listening for a second or third time and using the transcript below the video to understand any words that you didn’t quite understand on the first time of listening.
3. Thirdly, if you want to improve your speaking skills, pick out sentences that you think are really good and then repeatedly listen to those sentences again and again and try to copy the rythym of the speech exactly. Say the sentencees out loud immediately after you stop the video. Maybe even record yourself and play it back against the original recording to see how close you can match the speech pattern. This is a really good method for improving your pronunciation and accent.

I am honoured to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2bn company with over 4,000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologise for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumour on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumour. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Thank you all very much.

RIP Steve Jobs

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There are hundreds of different accents of native speakers of English. We can instantly recognise if someone comes from Glasgow in Scotland, Sydney in Australia, New York in America, New Delhi in India: are any of these accents ‘wrong’? They all belong to native speakers! When students say that they want to speak RP, do they know that this accent is only spoken by a small minority in England and also has some negative connotations (as well as some positive ones)?

Also, what is the point of trying to learn a native-like accent, when for the majority of students the only people that they are likely to communicate with will also be non-native speakers? I think the goal for nearly all English language students might be better termed as not to ‘lose your accent’, but to be able to communicate effectively and to be understood.

OK, you might want to look at certain sounds that you are pronouncing and make them nearer to a native speaker to help being understood. For example, Japanese speakers might want to try to improve their pronunciation of /l/ and /r/, German speakers could try to differentiate between /ʒ/ and /ʤ/, Spanish speakers could concentrate on /i:/ and /ɪ/, Russian speakers could look at /θ/ and /ð/ and so on.

But if you are really motivated to lose your accent, then here are a few tips:

1. Become aware of the sound differences between the way you are pronouncing sounds now and the way that they are produced in the target accent that you are trying to copy. English has got 26 letters in the alphabet, but 44 phonemes (or sounds) that you need to learn to speak with a ‘correct accent’. You need to know the position of the parts in your mouth for each of these phonemes.
2. Listen to a native speaker. Easier said than done, I know. But by using the internet, there are lots of ways to find examples of spoken native speech. You can listen to BBC radio (not just the boring World Service, you can find and listen to any of the BBC radio stations here…), watch your favourite TV comedy series and soak up millions of YouTube videos.
3. Record yourself saying a short piece of spoken language that you can compare to native speech. So, maybe find a short YouTube video of speech that you like and then see how closely you can copy that accent. See where the differences are and slowly try to change the way that you say things to be closer to your target accent. You don’t need expensive equipment for this. Here’s some free recording software…
4. Speak with stress timing. Some languages are syllable-timed languages, where equal strength is given to each sound: English isn’t like that. Normally, we only stress the important words in a sentence and don’t give such importance to the ‘grammar words’, which we say very quickly.

Another option in trying to lose your accent is to come to SGI for summer school and actually be in London, where you can hear lots of ‘good’ English from the fantastic teachers!

Good luck!

Loads of students have said to me over the years that they want to ‘speak like the Queen’ or speak ‘Oxford English’. Well, the fact is that even the Queen has changed her accent over the years in an attempt to sound less aristocratic.

Look at this video of her Christmas Speech from 1957. Listen to the way the Queen says ‘often’ at 0:55. If you know phonemic symbols, then it is something like this /ɔ:fən/. It actually sounds like she might be saying another word -‘orphan’… which is a child who has no parents.

Nowadays, most people (and even the Queen) would pronounce the word ‘often’ like /ɒfən/ or /ɒftən/… both are accepted – with or without pronouncing the ‘t’
The Queen also says /lɔ:st/ at 1:55, instead of the current ‘lost’ /lɒst/ in another example of RP that sounds extremely old-fashioned these days.

You can hear how the Queen speaks now in the clip from her Christmas Speech in 2010. Her RP accent has definitely changed. Can you hear how she sounds a bit more approachable and less harsh now?

After the huge success of the film The King’s Speech at the Oscars, there is perhaps renewed interest and fascination in speaking ‘correctly’ like the King of England. This week you will be able to hear lots of ‘posh’ RP accents when Prince William takes his vows and gets married at Westminster Abbey. When you hear Kate Middleton speaking, you might even think that she speaks with a posher accent than William.

The Received Pronunciation accent is not an official way of speaking, but because school children ‘learn’ this accent at the most expensive schools in England, it used to be, and to some extent still remains, a sign of ‘a good education’ and a ‘certain social position’.
However, if you have a Received Pronunciation accent that is too posh nowadays, then people think it is ridiculous and possibly that you are a stupid aristocrat with outdated opinions.

If you don’t believe me, here’s a comedy sketch from a very popular show from a few years ago.

So, maybe it’s not the best idea to want to speak Received Pronunciation like the Queen.
However, if you want to know about phonemic script or speak understandable British English then you can learn both of these things at SGI in London this summer. See you there!

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released their latest results, which contained one finding that could lift British spirits. In the survey, the UK came 5th highest (from a total of 34 countries) in terms of ‘kindness’. Apparently, 57% of Britons will help you, for example if you are a tourist needing directions. I spoke about this in class today and lots of students had stories about how polite and helpful people are in London. The Brits also gave £73.4m to charity recently in one evening, which confirms the kindness of the nation.

The OECD figures brought up some stereotype busting results: The Germans have the 3rd lowest working time per day (7hrs 25 mins), while the Mexicans had the longest working day (10 hours). Check out the results for your own country.

This ‘kindness’ ratio ties in very neatly to another big story in the UK this week. There has been huge publicity for the ‘Action for Happiness’ campaign, which is a movement for positive social change to try and make a happy society. This is a program designed to create feelings of true, lasting happiness in your life. The 10 key steps have a great acronym: GREAT DREAM.

Giving – Do things for others – Q: What do you do to help others?

Relating – Connect with people – Q: Who matters most to you?

Exercising – Take care of your body – Q: How do you stay active and healthy?

Appreciating – Notice the world around you – Q: When do you stop and take notice?

Trying out – Keep learning new things – Q: What new things have you tried recently?

Direction – Have goals to look forward to – Q: What are your most important goals?

Resilience – Find ways to bounce back – Q: How do you respond in tough times?

Emotion – Take a positive approach – Q: What are you feeling good about?

Acceptance – Be comfortable with who you are – Q: What is the real ‘you’ like?

Meaning – Be part of something bigger – Q: What gives your life meaning?

You are already ‘Trying out’ because you are learning English and have ‘Direction’ because you probably have a goal to be a certain level or pass an exam.
If you leave a comment to this post you will be ‘Relating’
And if you have read this far, you should feel very good about yourself and your English level, so that’s ‘Emotion’ covered.
You also have ‘Meaning’ because you are part of the larger SGI community!

That’s 5/10 things free of charge that are bound to make you happy!!!

Twitter has recently celebrated its fifth birthday and the internet is full of stories discussing how useful it is or is not. For those of you who don’t know it, Twitter is a social networking service a bit like Facebook which allows you to follow people as they write messages, known as tweets, of a maximum of 140 characters.

What’s the fuss?

Twitter has really become famous for two reasons. Firstly, it has become a regular part of celebrity culture with millions of people following their favourite stars who tweet as they go about their daily lives. When Charlie Sheen, the controversial Hollywood actor, recently set up his account on Twitter he got over half a million followers in less than 12 hours.

The second reason is that it allows for direct and instantaneous communication between large numbers of people. From companies receiving complaints on new products to people reporting on tsunamis to demonstrators organising protests, Twitter is the quickest way to get a big picture.

A less famous but more useful reason to use Twitter is to be in contact with people who share your interests or profession and learn from one another.

Seven Ways to Learn English on Twitter

As with so many social networking sites, they are a great way to help you with your English. Here are seven possible ways to do this.

1. It is a great way to find people who have the same interests as you and exchange ideas. Doing this in English can be really fun and is probably one of the best ways of improving your English.
2. It is a good way to read English regularly but for very short periods.
3. It is an interesting way to learn about abbreviations and slang and how English can be shortened.
4. Writing tweets is a great way to improve your ability to write simply but clearly in English.
5. If you follow other language learners you can exchange tips and ideas on how to improve.
6. Lots of tweets have links to external blogs and web pages which, depending on who you follow, could have useful tips and information.
7. Twitter also has a discussion forum element, known as hashtag discussions (e.g #learnenglish), where you can follow and participate in open debates about anything that interests you.

So, why not try it out? It’s free, fast and fun. To get started, there is this student friendly website, which gives a clear guide to setting up a twitter account. This page gives you a list of useful ‘Tweeters who’ll help you learn English’. And of course you can start by following SGI @SgiLanguages.

See you on twitter! Enjoy!

Students sometimes complain that they don’t understand when they watch films and it is true that it can be difficult if you expect to understand everything all the time. The key is to watch in different ways depending on your energy levels and the amount of time you have.

Seven Watching Tips

Here are seven different ways of watching to choose from, all of which will help your English

Extensive watching

Watch a film in English but just for fun. Don’t worry too much about the new language or ideas that you don’t understand. This is perfect for a film that you have already seen or where you know the film well. What will you learn? It is a useful review of what you know and subconsciously you’ll absorb some new words and notice things about English pronunciation.

Assisted watching

Assisted watching is similar to extensive watching but you have some help. An obvious example of this would be subtitles in English or your own language. Once again, the idea is that you just sit back and enjoy the experience.

Attentive watching

Attentive watching is a bit more energetic than the first two. As well as watching, you also occasionally pause the film to write down some interesting words or expressions which either you don’t use or don’t understand. The idea is not to interrupt the pleasure of watching so you might make a note of just four or five items that you can then look up in a dictionary.

Active and predictive watching

To do active watching you need to invent questions in advance to answer as you watch. For example, for each scene you might want to summarise the three most important things which happen to the main character in the film. Predictive watching asks you to pause and think what will happen next. Both of these give your watching a clear focus and if you can’t understand, you watch the scene again.

Watching and repeating

You pause the video and repeat what you have just heard, which is a great way to improve your pronunciation. This could be one word but it is even more useful if it is longer phrases. For example, if somebody asks a useful question or shows surprise you can try and copy the intonation.

Watching in silence or translation

This is best done scene by scene. You watch in silence or in your own language and then try to create the dialogue in English. Then you watch it again but in English. Compare what they say to your version and make a note of any interesting new expressions or language.

Intensive watching

The idea behind intensive watching is to take as much as possible from a very short clip or scene. This could mean that you try to understand every single word that is said. Maybe you make a note of all the new language or try and write the dialogue you’ve watched.

Enjoy your film!

Who do you find it more difficult to speak English to, a native speaker or another foreigner? Lots of students say that they find the second option much easier. Often this is because English speakers are quite bad at making their language simpler, for example they choose less formal expressions, which are actually more difficult to understand!

7 Interaction Tips

Here are some tips to help you. Some are more about you speaking, some are about how you listen and some are about both.

1. Think in advance about what you want to say and how. Say it in your head first if you can but don’t translate word for word from your own language. Instead think of key words and phrases.
2. Think about how you can make what you want to say as clear as possible. Give examples, rephrase what you mean using synonyms and opposites.
3. If you don’t know a word that you need, don’t worry. Explain your way around any problems by using expressions like ‘What I mean is…’, ‘What I want to say is…’ or ‘It is like…’
4. A conversation is a two-way process. Give the other person the chance to speak but don’t be too quiet either otherwise it becomes a very difficult conversation for them.
5. Check understanding. Make sure they have understood you and you have understood them. For example, finish speaking with a question so that they can show they have understood.
6. Don’t just focus on the words. Look at the lips, face and body language of the speaker and listen to the tone of voice as well.
7. Be relaxed about it all and take some risks. Be confident enough to laugh at your own mistakes or difficulties that occur. The worst thing that can happen is that you will have to say it in a different way!

Please also look at these two useful posts which will help you, one about pronunciation and the other about listening

Good luck and enjoy!

How to improve your english level

Have you run out of steam and can’t think of anyway to get back on the right track to improving your English

Sometimes it’s very difficult to see any progress, even when it is actually happening…little by little.

Well, I have a suggestion for a short cut to success!

Why don’t you make small goals that are easily achievable and also show clearly that you are making progress?

Small, achievable goals

1. Learn 2 new words of vocabulary every day
2. Learn 1 new phrasal verb a day
3. Learn 1 new idiom a day

When you make these small steps, after 1 working week, you’ll have 10 new pieces of vocab, 5 new phrasal verbs and 5 idioms. That’s quite a lot, isn’t it?

After a month of doing that, you’ll have 40 new words, 20 new phrasal verbs and 20 idioms!!! Stupendous!

Make sure you write down everything you learn. Use a small, cheap notebook that you can put in your pocket and carry everywhere with you. Then if you find you’ve got 5 minutes in the day with nothing to do (e.g. waiting for a bus/sitting in a waiting room/waiting to meet a friend), you can have a quick revision session.

This will also be a written record, so that you can prove to yourself how much new stuff that you have learnt. Then you will know for sure that you are progressing step by step.

If you link this advice with my earlier blogs on filling your spare moments in the day with quick bouts of English practice, (learn English in 5 mins/learn English when travelling/learn English through songs) then the floodgates will open! The more you do, the more you’ll see and hear your new words and phrases in action. As you learn loads of new words, you’ll whet your appetite for more learning.

I’m sure that you will be making positive, noticeable progress very quickly. Just try it for 10 days and see how much you can improve your English level!

Just by reading this blog, you might have learnt some new idioms, which could broaden your English repertoire….

• To be stuck in a rut – to do the same things over and over again, so that sth is really boring (like playing scales on a musical instrument/doing hundreds of grammar questions), or to be in a situation, where it’s almost impossible to make any progress (like a low paid, low skilled job)
• To go nowhere fast – not making any progress
• to run out of steam – to lose interest in doing sth, or lose the energy required to do sth
• to be on the right track – to do something correctly well and in the correct manner that means the action is efficient, progressive and positive
• a short cut to success – normally used as ‘There is NO short cut to success’ meaning that you can’t do something correctly and be successful without hard work. I used the saying without the negative, because this article gives you tips on how to take the hard work out of learning a language – just do a little bit everyday to improve your English.
• To open the floodgates – used when a decision or action happens and that causes many, many more of the same actions to happen afterwards
• to whet sb appetite – sth interests a person and makes them want more of that thing

Do you ever feel embarrassed about your English pronunciation? Do you often feel that your reading, grammar and listening are much better than your speaking? Then this is the blog post for you.

7 Pronunciation Tips

You should never be ashamed of how you speak. It is perfectly natural to have an accent and it is part of your national and cultural identity. Remember the most important thing is to communicate with others, to understand and be understood. Also remember that English people often find accents sexy!

But here are seven tips on how to notice and improve your pronunciation if that is what you want or if your accent is causing you communication problems. These tips are about recognizing how native speakers speak and also actively helping yourself.

1. Language learners often accuse English people of ‘eating words’. It’s true that we eat parts of them. Stress (the emphasis we put on some syllables) means that some parts of words are said longer and louder than others. As a consequence, the other parts of those words become shorter and quieter. Stress is what makes the pronunciation of words like ‘sixteen’ and ‘sixty’ or ‘desert’ and ‘dessert’ different. Always make a note of the stress on new words and exaggerate the length of those stressed syllables!
2. English speaking people actually really do eat their words! Well, some words at least. Just like we stress some syllables in words, in sentences we also emphasise some words more than others. This means the words we don’t stress become shorter and quieter. Notice how English people use lots of contractions and ‘eat’ words like prepositions and articles. Try to copy them and, again, make a note of stress in new phrases or sentences that you learn.
3. One of the best ways to notice English pronunciation is to do lots of listening practice. If you find listening really hard, then try listening and reading at the same time, for example using graded readers or the CD and tapescripts at the back of your coursebook. Cross out the words which are ‘eaten’ and underline the stressed syllables.
4. Have a model in your head. Imagine your teacher or a famous native speaker saying the words or phrases and try to copy them.
5. Record yourself. Sometimes it can be difficult to recognize the mistakes we are making and one of the best ways to identify them is to listen to a recording of ourselves. At first it can be a bit embarrassing but you soon get used to it!
6. Learn the phonemic symbols which we use to show the pronunciation of words, or at least some of them. This will help you to note down how new words are said and distinguish between how you think it might be said and how it really is.
7. Practise a lot too. There are plenty of sites where you can match spelling, phonemic symbols and a voice recording, such as

• http://davidbrett.uniss.it/
• http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/
• www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
• www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/
• www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/

A lot of people go out and buy a novel in English, full of enthusiasm and motivation. They then read three pages and give up because it seems so difficult. Motivation disappears and the book lies like an old sock in the corner of the room, lost and unloved.

7 Tips

Here are seven tips on how to avoid this problem and make reading in English fun and useful.

1. The choice of book is so important. If you choose the wrong book, you might well find it too difficult, boring or slow. See this other blog post to help you choose the right book.
2. Try to read in English like you do in your own language! This means that you shouldn’t try to read and understand every word. When you read books in your own language you don’t actually read every word and normally there are some words that you don’t completely understand but this doesn’t stop you from understanding the story.
3. Don’t stop reading as soon as there is a word, phrase or structure that you don’t understand. Read to the end of the sentence or paragraph and re-read the previous sentence to see if that helps you. Essentially try to understand the new language from the wider context.
4. Don’t expect to understand everything! If there is a word that you don’t really understand but you understand the general meaning of the sentence, it is perfectly ok to ignore that new word. Remember you are reading for fun and pleasure, not as a torture!
5. Underline phrases, words or expressions that you don’t understand as you are reading. Then at the end of the page or chapter you can go back. But be selective! Choose just two or three things to look up in a dictionary, otherwise it will soon become boring.
6. Be active with the language you focus on. Don’t just underline things you don’t understand – also identify expressions which you like and want to use. Do something with the words that you look up in the dictionary!
7. Stay motivated! Remember that some books start slowly – I’d always recommend reading at least the first 20 pages. Also don’t forget the advantages of reading books in English and how it can help you.

Good luck and enjoy!

Choosing which type of book to read is very important. Choose the wrong book and all the advantages mentioned in this blog post will disappear.

1. Graded readers are novels in English that have been edited to your level. You can find them from Elementary to Advanced levels. Many of them also have the advantage of having comprehension questions with answers, a mini-dictionary of key words and a CD with story recorded on it as well. The one disadvantage is that graded readers have been simplified both in terms of the storyline and the vocabulary and grammar they use. This means you won’t always see so much new language and the story might be a little less interesting. Overall, though, these are an excellent choice, especially if you are still at a lower level.
2. Bilingual books are also a popular option. When you open the book the left-hand page is your language while the right-hand page is in English. The obvious advantage of bilingual books is that they allow you to compare paragraphs or sentences that you don’t understand with how they are expressed in English. One or two problems exist with bilingual books. The first is that sometimes it takes more words to express an idea in English so the paragraphs on the two pages don’t match. A second problem is that it encourages you to translate and think in your own language when reading in English, which is something you should try to avoid.
3. Books you have already read in your own language are also good idea. This way you already know the story and the characters. This allows you to focus on the English language element a bit more and also means that it’s not a huge problem if you don’t understand a section or sentence.
4. Books for children or teenagers have the advantage of often being slightly easier to understand in terms of language and storyline. It is also quite common now for adults to read these types of books – think Harry Potter or the Twilight series!
5. Slang and Jargon can be a problem. Be careful of fantasy books especially as they have invented words for new objects and actions, which can be confusing.
6. Books that have films are also a useful option and there are so many of them! The big advantage is that you can watch the film and understand the story in two hours, which will help you when you read the book. Finding the differences between the film and the book can then become a fun activity.
7. Nonfiction books are also an option. Biographies, popular science or history books are also good choices. Sometimes the language is actually easier to understand and the main ideas are easier to follow.

Now you have no excuse, go out and buy a book in English!

Do you want to become better at English as quickly as possible? Of course you do! Do you know that one of the best ways to do this is to study and use English outside class? Of course you do! Do you have lots of time and energy to study grammar books and do exercises? Of course you don’t!

One common suggestion is to read novels in English. This has the major advantage that you don’t have to be sitting at a table studying. You can do it on the bus to work, in a cafe, on the sofa or in bed before going to sleep.

They are also quite easy to find nowadays. Many larger towns have bookshops with English sections or foreign language bookshops and if not there is always Amazon! For more details on which book to choose read this post.

How can it help me?

There are several ways in which reading books can help your English.

1. It helps you learn new vocabulary by seeing and understanding them in context.
2. It helps you subconsciously learn new grammatical structures.
3. It helps you subconsciously absorb how native speakers express themselves which stops you translating word for word from your own language.
4. Your ability to read quickly and in quantity will improve.
5. Your ability to write in English will improve.
6. Your general confidence will increase.
7. As a result of all of the above your motivation to learn English will also shoot up.

So the next time you want to are too tired to study English but want to improve, go and buy a book. It’s magic!

England’s victory over Australia in the cricket has sparked huge celebrations. You might ask what all the fuss is about but this really is a big deal for cricket fans.

It is the first time England has won this competition, called the Ashes, in Australia in 23 years. The last time they played there England lost 5-0. Australia is also England’s greatest rival and this biennial competition against them is considered by many to be more important than the cricket world cup.

Cricket Confusion

Cricket is described by many as confusing, slow, boring and long. The last is often true – the Ashes, for example, normally has 25 days of cricket played over about six weeks. Unsurprisingly, there can be slow moments in a game of that length but is hardly ever boring…as long as you know the basic rules!

Cricket Glossary

Here are ten key cricket words to help you understand the rules of cricket.

1. A bat is the object made of wood which they use in sports like baseball and cricket to hit the ball. To bat is what you do when you hit the ball with the bat.
2. A batsman is the person who hits the ball.
3. To bowl in cricket is to throw the ball at the batsman, which you must do with a straight arm.
4. A bowler is the person who throws the ball at the batsman
5. A wicket is a set of five wood sticks, three vertical and two resting on top. The batsmen run between two wickets.
6. When the batsmen run between the two wickets they win a point, which is normally called score a run.
7. If a batsman scores 100 runs this is called a century.
8. A fielder is a player whose job is to catch the ball after a batsman has hit it.
9. If a batsman ‘loses’ we call this to be out or to get out. It is also known as to lose a wicket.
10. Each time a team bats this is called an innings (like a game in tennis). Each team has two innings in a test (like a set in tennis) and normally a complete match (a series) has five tests.

Cricket Clarified

There are two teams of eleven players and a bit like in baseball the teams take it in turns to bat or bowl. This means that at any one moment one team will only have two of their eleven players on the field. Their job is to bat, that is to hit the ball and then run between two sets of sticks, known as the wickets. Every time they do this they win a point. For this reason, winning points is called scoring runs and good batsmen regularly score centuries.

The opposition, on the other hand, have all eleven players on the field. One member of the team (the bowler) bowls the ball at the opposition and the other ten players, known as fielders, try to catch the ball and stop the opposition from scoring runs. They also need to get the batsmen out. If a batsman is out, he has to leave and is replaced by the next member of his team.

There are essentially two ways of getting a batsman out, which is also called taking a wicket. Either a fielder catches the ball directly without it touching the ground or the bowler makes sure the ball hits the wickets. Once one team’s batsmen are out, the teams change roles. In a full cricket game, called a test, each team bats twice and they have five days to play a test. A full series, like the Ashes, is the best of five tests.

Difficult

Maybe you have found yourself in a similar situation: your office phone rings. It’s an international call! Nervous, cold sweat starts to form and you look for excuses not to pick up. The call itself starts ok but soon there is something you don’t understand and everything becomes confused. Or maybe you are the one making the call. You plan it in your head in advance but soon there is an unexpected problem and the conversation takes five times longer than expected.

Why

Why can talking on the phone be so difficult? There are a few reasons.

Firstly, like we mentioned with listening more generally, a lot of our comprehension doesn’t come from the words we hear. Body language, facial expressions and gesture of the speaker play a very important role, as does their response when they see from our facial expressions that we, the listeners, have not understood. While Skype can help a little with this, it is often not enough.

Intonation, rhythm and stress also play an important role but unfortunately telephones often distort or change the voice a little, especially with long distance calls.

Finally, we are often not prepared enough or not expecting the call that arrives.

Solutions

Obviously the phrases which you can learn from a book in class are useful in making calls but often what you really need are time and strategies. Here are seven of them:

1. If you are making the call, plan in advance. Write down the key information you need to tell the other person, decide on the order that you will tell this information and even write down the key English phrases you need to be as clear as possible.
2. Remember who you are talking to! Think about their level of English and how nervous they might be. Be friendly and twice as simple and clear as you would be face to face.
3. Always check that you have understood what the other person has said. You can ask people to repeat but a better way is for you to repeat it back in your words. You can start with ‘Just to check. Do you mean…’
4. You can also buy yourself time to think by using short phrases like ‘let me see’, ‘hmm, interesting question’ or ‘yes, I see’. Don’t be afraid of a few seconds silence while you think!
5. You can also ask for a lot more time so that you can plan and formulate a clear response. Give a good reason, for example that you need to ask a colleague, check with your boss or think about a solution to the problem. Then use phrases like ‘could I call you back in ten minutes?’, ‘would it be ok if we talked again this afternoon’ and ‘would you mind if I rang you again later on’.
6. Have a list of useful English expressions and phrases on the wall or next to your phone so that you can focus on the information and ideas not the language.
7. Always ask for confirmation by email if it is something important and send an email repeating your key points for the record.

Good luck and above all relax!

1. Brainstorming and planning – these are especially useful for essays or longish compositions or reports as you may need to prepare an initial draft. Think about your position, your ideas and who you are writing to.
2. Be simple, clear and relevant – make sure your reader can understand what you’ve written about and what your message is. Always stick to the topic!
3. Three is a magic number – try to use up to (and preferably no more than) three elements. For example no more than three adjectives before a noun, three examples to support an idea or three main parts in an essay etc. It gives your writing a certain rhythm.
4. Keep it short! In Italian it is normal to write long sentences but this is not true in English. Try to use short sentences rather than long and complicated ones. This will help conveying the meaning more clearly and makes it easier for you if you are unsure about English grammar!
5. Check that you are using the appropriate style and register. Think about the type of text you are writing and who is going to read it. For instance, a neutral and impersonal style for a business report.
6. Be interesting – spice up your language using synonyms and metaphors. A thesaurus is really useful!
7. Last but not least… check your spelling! A good way of ensuring that there are no spelling mistakes is to read your piece of writing backwards. Don’t depend on your computer, for example it will consider both ‘hear’ and ‘her’ to be correct!

Which do you find easier, reading in English or listening to English? Which do you find easier, listening to another foreigner speak in English or listening to a native speaker?

Most students in my experience seem to find the last the most difficult of all. They complain about how English people eat their words and how they can understand the teacher in class but once they are outside the school…well, then it is all chaos and confusion.

The Reason

Why is this? Is it because teachers speak more slowly in class than people outside in the real world? Or maybe it is all just a conspiracy to make tourists feel unwelcome?! In reality most teachers don’t speak much slower in the classroom. After all, they would not be doing a good job of preparing you to use English outside the classroom if this was the case. Maybe they do speak a little more carefully though.

Why then?? To put it simply, how we say individual words is different from how we say them as part of a phrase or in conversation. As soon as we put words together they interact: they fight, crash into each other or join up and this means some words or syllables become softer and sometimes sounds are changed or lost completely. In fact, it is surprising that anybody understands English at all!

The reason we can understand is because we don’t actually really listen for words or hear every sound. Instead, we make predictions and imagine what we will hear. Then we study body language, facial expressions, tone of voice and intonation of the speaker. We also look at the reactions of other listeners to help us understand. From all of these elements we make conclusions about what people are saying. I think that is the real reason why it is normally easier to understand your teacher in the classroom than strangers on the street.

Some Solutions

1. Relax and accept that you won’t understand every word. Remember that in most situations you can ask questions to clarify or ask people to repeat things in a different way.
2. Prepare so that you can understand the most important information. Make predictions about what you will hear and then listen for those key words – but imagine how an English person would say them!
3. Listen to lots of English. For example, the BBC has hundreds of podcasts which are available to everybody and updated every day or week. Become a regular listener to some of the shorter ones – and remember you don’t need to understand everything!
4. Practise, practise, practise! Start by listening to this article. Underline any sounds which change and cross out any that are lost. Then try and say it yourself and compare it to my original!

Lost in Listening

Good luck!

Something completely different is working out and learning the lyrics to an English song. Then sing-along, of course!

But don’t just go to a website and download the lyrics. That makes it too easy. The challenge for your English is to see how many words you can accurately write down just from listening, before you see the proper, full version of the lyrics.

So here’s a challenge for you for today….Don’t say I’ll do it tomorrow – it never happens! DO IT TODAY!

Watch this video by Terence Trent D’Arby and write down as many lyrics as you can. It’s nice and slow, but it will still be difficult to get all the words correct. When you can’t understand a line, or word, listen again a few times and just write down what you think he is singing.

When you think that you’ve got all the lyrics, send me a reply and I will send you the correct version of the whole song. Then you can sing along at home, on the bus, at work…..wherever. Don’t worry about singing while you are on public transport: people will just think that you are practising to be a rockstar…and no-one will sit next to you either, which is always a bonus!

If you don’t like this song, then choose any song that you want and work out the lyrics to that one. Send me a link to the video and your version of the lyrics (NOT FROM A WEB SITE) and I’ll see how accurate you were.

WARNING: This video is 80s-tastic!!!

The Problem: New Words

You decide that you have the energy to study English and sit down to read a newspaper article or a book. Within minutes there are several words which you have not understood. Or maybe you are in class and you come across a new word. What do you do?

The Usual Solution

A lot of people tend to do one of two things: ignore or translate. Both of these strategies have their advantages. If you can understand the main idea of the sentence is it really that important that you don’t know a word? Not really I would say.

Translation gives you the meaning in a quick and easy way. But what’s the disadvantage of translating? Well, often one word can have several meanings. Another problem is that context and surrounding words can give a word a particular meaning which you can’t find in the dictionary. Translation limits your learning and we want to do the opposite. Also what is the use of translating the word if you then can’t remember it?!

Instead of using a bilingual dictionary, buy a monolingual learner dictionary e.g. Collins Cobuild Intermediate Dictionary or Macmillan Advanced Learners Dictionary.

Ten Tips

Here are ten suggestions to help you improve your vocabulary:

1. Write the word in an example sentence (and check it with your teacher!).
2. Write the word as part of a typical short phrase or expression, for example not just trip but go on a business trip.
3. Think about the grammar of the word. Is it a verb or a noun etc.?
4. Also think about the pronunciation. Think of words that rhyme or use phonemes if you know them. If your learner dictionary also has a CD ROM or you look online you will even be able to hear the words.
5. Attach a drawing or a picture associated to the meaning.
6. Think about using colour to reinforce the word or its meaning.
7. Think of other words you know which have the same or very similar meanings.
8. Find a word which has the opposite meaning.
9. Think about other words with the same origin.
10. Also think about words or phrases which could confuse, for example words from your own language which sound similar but have a different meaning.

Conclusion

Translating is OK but limiting. If you follow the tips above you can learn six or seven new words every time you come across a word or phrase that you don’t understand.

An Example

Please try the ten tips on the word heroic. Read below for the answer.

The answer:

1. He tried to save the girl from the fire. It was a heroic effort.
2. a heroic effort; heroic battles
3. to be heroic (adjective)
4. heroic (3 syllables with the stress on ‘ro’ syllable);  /hɪˈrəʊɪk/
5. It was a heroic effort
6. It is similar to  brave or courageous (more formal)
7. It is the opposite of cowardly
8. Hero is the root word

• A hero is the person – man or woman (noun).
• A heroine is the woman – often to describe the lead character in a book.
• Heroism is the characteristic (noun).
• Heroically is the adverb e.g. He fought heroically. This depends on your language.

Is the secret a special method that only English teachers know about? Is it something that only a few people can do? Is it something that is incredibly expensive? The answer to all these questions is an emphatic, “NO”!

The secret to learning English is motivation, motivation, motivation (The 3 Ms!!!).  J

When you are motivated to learn, you can achieve anything. When you are motivated you can live and breathe English and none of the work that you do will actually seem like real work.

In addition to my previous posts on learning English in 5 minutes and Learning English while you are travelling, I want to encourage you all not to miss a single opportunity to push yourself into constantly learning.

For example, when I first moved abroad to Hungary, I was learning Spanish. (I know that sounds a bit strange, but I was studying Spanish at university in England at the time.) Anyway, I bought lots of boxsets of my favourite comedies and TV shows. (I made sure that they had Spanish subtitles and audio). I didn’t have a TV, so these DVDs were my only form of TV-like entertainment.

At first, I started out by watching the shows in English with Spanish subtitles and I gained so much vocabulary like that, it was incredible. In fact, it was vocab-tastic!!! Then I gradually moved into watching the shows with Spanish sound and English subtitles and then finally, full-on Spanish. Even though I wasn’t living in a Spanish speaking country, I was constantly trying to make my brain function in Spanish.

Lots of students say to me that it is difficult to learn English because they have nobody to practise with. Well, reading online newspapers, describing daily scenes and watching programmes that you love in English adds up to a lot of time each day practising English. There is no excuse. You can spend a big part of your day making your brain use a foreign language, if you have the willpower!

Lots of people find it hard to get motivated though. Well, I have a question for you: Why were you taking English classes at SGI in the first place? You must have been pretty motivated to go to London and spend your summer learning English. Just remember those reasons and you will find plenty of motivation that can get you started with the biggest secret to learning! It’s very important to keep rolling with the momentum that you created for yourself by studying at SGI over the summer. If you stop now, all that time and effort will go to waste. As I mentioned in a previous post, the first rule with a foreign language is ‘use it, or lose it’!!!

Good luck. Let me know how you are getting on with your daily, personal English challenges.

The simple way to think of say and tell is:

* You say something
* You tell someone something (used to mean ‘instruct’ or ‘inform’)

Example:

Jim said that he was tired.                     Jim told Jane that he was tired.

But, of course, it is not always so easy. Here are a few rules to help…

1. Personal object

We usually follow tell with a personal object (the person that we are speaking to). We usually use say without a personal object:

* She told me that she was allergic to cats.

* She said that she was allergic to cats.

2. Say “to someone”

With say, we sometimes use “to someone”:

* He said to me that he was really tired.

* Sarah said to Jim that he had done very well in his first day at work.

3. Direct speech

We can use say with direct speech. We use tell only with direct speech that is an instruction or information:

* Amanda said, “Hello John. How are you?”

* He told her to “Open the door quietly.”

We can use say with direct questions, but we cannot use tell:

* She said, “Do you want me to help?”

* The boss said to the cleaner, “Where were you at 8am?”

4. Reported speech

We can use say and tell to talk about reported information:

* She said that it was raining.

* She told me that she would call at 5pm

We cannot use say or tell to talk about reported questions. We must use ask (or a similar verb):

* She asked if I had ever been there before.

* He asked her where she lived.

5. Orders, advice

We use tell + object + infinitive for orders or advice:

* She told him to sit down and be quiet.

* They told me not to wait for them.

Now a few questions to test yourself!

If you leave the answers in a reply to this post, I will mark your answers for you.

1. Arturo  says / tells / said / told  me that he would be a few minutes late.
2. She  says / tells / said / told  me this morning that September will be a bad month for sales
3. The government  says / tells / said / told  that inflation had fallen to 2.5%.
4. We hope that they are going to  say / tell  us that there will be an increase in demand.
5. Say / Tell   him to hurry up.

It’s difficult to find time for studying English everyday. We all know that. But every little bit that you do will help. You probably have to travel somewhere everyday, so  when you are commuting back and forth, look at the world around you and describe in your head everything that you can see in English. This is a really useful exercise to challenge yourself.

You could describe basic things: The man in the red t-shirt is reading the newspaper.

Or, if you are a higher level student, you should push yourself into using more advanced vocabulary and grammar: The man with the wrinkled face is probably reading the football report because he is a lifelong fan of Barcelona. He’s really gutted that he wasn’t at the match last night because Barcelona thrashed Real Madrid four – nil.

You can make your descriptions as easy, or as difficult as you like…depending on how tired you are.

The more you do this kind of exercise, the more inventive you will become. Then, of course you will need more vocabulary. Eventually, you will get to the point where you don’t have all the vocabulary you need and so you will want to check in a dictionary to get that perfect word.

So, a daily mental challenge on your way to work, or on your way home from school, has suddenly given you the inspiration to find out something for yourself (some vocabulary or grammar that you actually need). Using those 5 minutes on your daily travels has turned into something that makes you teach yourself some English…and that’s the best way to learn!

Unusual
Fortunately, London also has some less common transport systems. Firstly, there is the ‘Clipper Service’ of fast boats which run up and down the river Thames from Chelsea in the west to the City and Canary Wharf (the financial district) in the east. Secondly, there is also a bicycle hire service, which means if you pay £1 you can use a bike for an hour, taking it from one part of London and leaving it in another.

Cost
Travelling through London can also be really quite expensive. If you have a car and want to drive it in the centre of town, you have to pay a congestion charge. The tube and train system also isn’t cheap if you buy individual tickets. Luckily, there is the Oyster Card, a discount travel card which allows you to pay less for each journey or pay a fixed weekly price to use all the transport system.

A. Please find the italic (blue text) words from the text with the definitions below.

1. people who travel to and from work every day [commuters]
2. money you have to pay to try and stop traffic jams [congestion charge]
3. the transport you find on rivers or at sea [boats]
4. a busy time of day when people normally travel to and from work [rush hour]
5. a cheaper ticket which lasts for a longer period of time [discount travel card]
6. the underground train system in London [tube]
7. when the roads are completely blocked [traffic jams]
8. when you pay some money to use something for a short period of time [bicycle hire service]
9. when you don’t go to work because you are unhappy about something [were on strike]
10. a long line of people who are waiting for something [queues]

B. Now please visit www.tfl.gov.uk and find out how you can get an Oyster card and how much it costs to hire a bicycle for your next visit to London!

Look at the front page of a newspaper like the Times or the Guardian. Read the headlines. Set a task for yourself by changing headlines into grammatically complete sentences. By doing this you will practise grammar, improve vocabulary and learn more about the country you are visiting!

Here is an example:
Victoria station crime: 19 boys quizzed

If you converted the above into two complete sentences, you would say:

There was a crime at Victoria Station. (You need a verb / perhaps an article / and a preposition for a complete sentence)

Nineteen boys were quizzed… (Good practice in the passive!)
Vocabulary point: quizzed = questioned

Well, of course we all know that it isn’t really possible. However, I’ve got a tip that only takes about 5 minutes every day and will give a boost to your English vocabulary and grammar.

Every day, read a news article in your own language from an online newspaper. Choose something that is international news, like reports from the World Cup, Tour de France, the BP oil disaster, a review of the latest Hollywood blockbuster, Obama’s latest speech, a G8 protest, a national strike or a weather disaster like Hurricane Katrina. Every day you can find something that makes the news in every country around the world. Once you have read the news in your own language and you know the story, go to an English news website, like The Guardian, The BBC, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and read the story in English.

You will find that the story is almost identical and you can compare lots of vocabulary. You can also see the language in action and find lots of grammar patterns that you will have practised from your textbooks, but now you can see them working in reality.

Just think, if you pick up 3 new bits of vocab every day, you will have 15 new words or phrases by the end of the first working week. That’s 60 new words after a month. Also, this will be relevant vocab that is actually used by native speakers.

5 minutes a day is nothing! So, fill that time with productive learning. Remember the golden rule with languages: Use it, or lose it!!