Monthly Archive for October, 2008

Languagelab is having a Halloween Party!

Languagelab will be hosting a range of activities, events and haunted attractions within English City with a super terrifying party at 5am PDT. Click here for the location.

The entire Languagelab team will be putting in a disguised appearance, so keep your eyes peeled, especially for our extremely shy friend “La-la”

Periwinkle’s currently stocks a variety of halloween costumes so make sure you wear your scariest outfits. There will be a competition for the best dressed male and female!

Make sure to check out the Gallery and the very Haunted House (beware of the trap door and…. !?!??!!)

Hahahahaaaaa

Languagelab students have their Common Room!

A mysterious donor gave Languagelab students an old building to host their common room, with a condition: there has to be a special corner for students to make their homework and meet their teachers.

What would you like it to have? how would you like to organise it’s space? What would you like to be able to do there? Any special object from yoru inventory you would like to display?

Now we can organise ourselves, discus and decide and make this space trully ours!

It will be a wonderful Student common room, and it will be fun!

Please contribute with your ideas!

Write them on a notecard and drop them in the letter box in front of the new student’s common room. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Play/214/206/23

Next week there will be two meetings (in two different time zones to allow everybody to participate), to discuss and take decisions. (time and place will be announced by Sunday)

You can read the different ideas and proposals collected here http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddgpgdnb_137gmmbvkc7

And see the building here http://slurl.com/secondlife/Play/214/206/23

If you have any question or doubt, please contact Anna Begonia (in world or by mail anna [at] languagelab.com)

Millie’s cafe – Conversations – is moving to a great new location nearby.

Millie has been so successful a large food company has bought ‘Conversations’ and it will move to an exciting new location in the plaza.

The new and improved ‘Conversations’ will have a Fast Food restaurant and a fine dining restaurant combined. Millie will continue to manage the cafe at the new food complex and she will also take her waitresses with her, so don’t worry she will continue making her famous pastries and you will still get the best cup of coffee in town !

See you at ‘Conversations’ !

My Languagelab Experience (Portuguese)

Ola, meu nome é Paulo, sou brasileiro e moro no Japão onde trabalho em uma fábrica de autopeças.

Estou estudando na Languagelab desde Abril de 2008 e descobri esta escola em um site de jogos online. Devo dizer que estava procurando uma escola ou curso de inglês online já havia algum tempo então decidi experimentar estudar na Languagelab para ver como funcionava este novo modelo de ensino. Talvez pela minha familiaridade com jogos digitais, foi muito fácil me adaptar com a interface e controles que na verdade não se diferem muito dos programas que usuários de computador são habituados a encontrar em suas casas.

Estudando aqui, aperfeiçoei minha gramática, vocabulário além da capacidade de compreender e ser compreendido em inglês, pois todas as aulas são lecionadas por professores nativos do idioma e temos a opção de conversar com moradores de uma cidade inteira, experimentando situações reais da vida cotidiana. Apesar de não dominar muito bem o idioma não tive grandes dificuldades, pois todos os envolvidos no ensino se esforçam para tirar nossas dúvidas por mais simples que sejam.

O que considero como maior vantagem e diferencial dessa escola é o fato de poder estudar no conforto de minha casa e interagir em tempo real com falantes nativos que estão sempre nos estimulando a praticar levando ao aperfeiçoamento global do idioma.

No futuro pretendo viajar para muitos países onde o conhecimento do inglês será vital e vejo que conseguirei atingir esse objetivo de uma forma muito mais prazerosa que eu imaginava, por isso agradeço a todos os professores, os assistentes e amigos da escola e parabenizo os responsáveis deste incrível projeto.  

Paulo Tanimoto (Spytani Aichi)

New Languagelab Blog!

Welcome to our new blog…

We look forward to using this better looking blog on the WordPress platform. With many new features to allow us to post more easily and frequently and a better browsing experience for our readers, we are delighted to announce that this blog will be faster, more efficient and convenient for all to use… A more user-friendly version on the whole!

The new blog will contain all the old postings and will allow you to browse the archives a lot easier plus more. Unfortunately we will not be able to carry over all your wonderful comments, so why not contribute your new comments with improved English on our new and improved blog!

New Payment System

We have a new payment system on the web site. It uses PayPal which allows us to accept payments from over 190 countries using a range of Credit, Debit cards and even bank transfers where available.

All those who couldn’t join us before because of payment issues now can.

Click here to see why we use paypal

DZIEN DOBRY! WELCOMING LANGUAGELAB POLAND

DZIEN DOBRY! WELCOMING LANGUAGELAB POLAND

Languagelab has selected Poland as the first country to introduce a designated learning support services team. Marcin Wawro (Learning Services Manager) and James Aldous (Development Manager) will assist and support Polish individuals and groups looking to learn English in a new and exciting way, as offered by Languagelab. To visit Languagelab Poland, go to www.languagelab.com/pl

If you or your company would like to speak with our Polish team to discuss ways of working together, do not hesitate to get in touch.

James Aldous (Development Manager, Poland)

james@languagelab.com

Marcin Wawro (Learning Services Manager, Poland)

marcin@languagelab.com

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Donatella Benoir back to English city

夏末的一天,在英语城购物的时候,终于又见到我最喜欢的英语城居民(English City people)之一Donatella,假期归来的她依旧谈笑风生。话题还是些老话题,但是每次都让我耳目一新。

英语城有很多故事,而Donatella总能把第一时间把第一手小道消息传给我,这次她谈到了pebblespebbles是另一位城市居民,一个做着好莱坞梦的乐观小姑娘,如果你常看美剧,说不定可以在屏幕中看到她)她告诉我pebbles的小兄弟也要搬来英语城生活了,然后不忘飞短流长的加一句pebbles的小兄弟是大胖子。

谈到最后她又要张罗着要给我找个如意郎君把我嫁出去,这个英国妞就是不顾文化差异,每次都是要用结婚的话题开我的玩笑,也不管我都羞的满脸通红了。还好她很快又转移话题说她迷恋的贝克汉姆马上要为她而和辣妹维多莉亚离婚了。

在Periwinkles 成衣店门前的Donatella总是一幅职业模特的姿态:) 她说自己还在为英语城筹备时尚设计和模特大赛,期待中:)
对于Donatella来说蜚短流长都是她的生活方式了,她总能用诙谐幽默和坦诚把说闲话演绎得精彩出色。她还是精明的生意女人,经营这英语城里最大的成衣店Periwinkles
如果你需要时尚、着装建议,一定不要错过Donatella:)

The end of summer is the beginning of new season Donatella Benoir back to English city

Grammar Girl Gets Going


The maestro’s Monday spotlight

Welcome to your Monday feature in which you get a different topic each week, in the following order:

  • Week One: All about reading (tips, interesting paragraphs to read and recommendations about books)
  • Week Two: Vocabulary Blasts (word of the month, it’s meaning and phrases that we associate with it)
  • Week Three: Pronuncation 101 (all about syllables, stress, long and short vowel sounds)
  • Week Four: Grammar 101 (from rules to explanations)
  • This month: Read it as quickly as you can …

    I’ve been studying Spanish so last year, for my birthday, a friend gave me a book – in Spanish. It was called ‘Eva Luna’ by Isabelle Allende . Unfortunately, the book she gave me was really difficult for me to read because the vocabulary was beyond my level. After the first two pages I was ready to give up – on the book and on Spanish – but I plucked up my courage and managed to read it in just over two weeks. I used a skill called ’speed reading.’
    Speed reading courses teach you ultra-rapid skim-reading techniques. This may be useful for absorbing information at a superficial level. It’s not really suitable for understanding and retaining information. It’s unlikely to help if you are engaged in studying. BUT, if you’ve bought a book in English and think it’s too difficult for you, read it quickly and finish it.

    Keep in mind the Woody Allen joke:

    “I went on a speed reading course last week – and it worked! Yesterday I read War and Peace in an hour … It’s about some Russians.”

    Here is the first paragraph of ‘Eva Luna.’ How quickly can you read it?

    “My name is Eva, which means “life,” according to a book of names my mother consulted. I was born in the back room of a shadowy house, and grew up amidst ancient furniture, books in Latin, and human mummies, but none of these things made me melancholy, because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory…“,

Art appreciation and ancient monuments for intermediates

This week’s lesson was at the LanguageLab art gallery. It was a chance to socialise, discuss art and practice expressing opinions in English, all from the comfort of home.

We looked at some paintings by Picasso and Banksy and discussed why we liked or didn’t like them. It was interesting to hear everybody’s ideas about what the paintings meant and how they made them feel. Everyone agreed that they liked both paintings but that they wouldn’t hang either of them up in their houses! Continue reading ‘Art appreciation and ancient monuments for intermediates’