Languagelab.com Blog

Carols are traditional songs that people sing at Christmas, they date back to the 13th century and each country has their own traditional songs and customs that they follow at Christmas time.

They are often sung at church services or in public places like the town square where everyone can join in.

On Wednesday 24th December there is a Carols by Candlelight event at English City where you can learn some carols and practice singing them with the Enlglish City People and other students.

To help you practice singing here are the words for my favourite Christmas carol – ‘Jingle Bells’ and you can sing along too with the video kareoke! Have fun and come and join us at the Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve.

Jingle Bells

Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh
Through the fields we go
Laughing all the way.
Bells on bob-tail ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight.

chorus:

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh, O
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.

Vocabulary

Dashing : going very quickly
open sleigh : a type of vehicle that is pulled by horses over the snow
bob-tail : the horses tail
spirits : people’s emotions
jingle : to ring

If you have visited our website and been to see a Helper in-world but still don’t know what our classes are like we have taken a little video of a class about buying and selling in English City.

The students are trying to buy a car from our car show room and are working in pairs to negotiate and improve speaking.The students are all in their home country and meeting at Languagelab to practice and learn with their teacher. One good advantage for them is that they can speak with people from lots of different countries so they can’t use their native language!

All of Languagelab’s classes have a speaking element so that you can practice the language that you have learned at school or in a previous class. You also get to be in a multi-national class so all the students have to use English to communicate.

Buying and selling is important in all countries and in all situations, and if you don’t know how to do that you limit yourself

Here is a little challenge for you:

tag, label, cashier, bargain, receipt, exchange, take back, try on, fit, advice, shop assistant, credit card, check, select, cash, refund, size, sale

What do the words above mean and how can  you use them in a sentence?

Try to make some sentences and post them back as a comment to this blog.

Or join us and ask one of our teachers!

Bye for now !!

Jessie Teacher

Każdy, kto uczy się angielskiego z łatwością zapamiętuje słowa, które brzmią prawie tak samo jak w języku polskim. „Geography” to geografia, „anatomy” to anatomia, „dissertation” to dysertacja. Słowa te pochodzą z łaciny lub greki i maja takie same znaczenie. Nie zawsze jednak można stosować tą prostą przekładnie. Niektóre słowa, które nazywamy false friends brzmią podobnie w dwóch językach, ale różnią się – w niektórych przypadkach diametralnie – znaczeniem. Dlatego u lekarza nie poprosimy o “receipt”, bo angielskie “receipt” oznacza “paragon”, a nie “receptę”, a prezentera w telewizji nie określimy jako “speaker”, bo po angielsku oznacza to “głośnik”. Śmiech może spowodować użycie angielskiego „preservative”, czyli „środka konserwującego”, na określenie „prezerwatywy”. A obrażony poczuje się ten, kto lunatykuje w nocy, jeżeli nazwiemy go angielskim słowem “lunatic”, które oznacza “wariata”.
Dlatego aby uniknąć niekomfortowych sytuacji i wyrażać się precyzyjnie, musimy zdemaskować fałszywych przyjaciół. Aby wam w tym pomoc przygotowaliśmy specjalną listę najbardziej popularnych false friends.

Kliknijcie tutaj, aby ja ściągnąć!

Powodzenia w walce z fałszywi przyjaciółmi!

Hello Polish students !

Remember the other day when I mentioned that Languagelab were going to be on Polish radio station “Radio Orla” ?

Well, here is the link to the radio interview so you can hear Marcin the Learning Services Manager for Poland talk about us.

Tune in and learn more !

Bye for now…. Jessie

I was talking to one of the Languagelab Helpers today, Eid Avro and he reminded me that he had been working with us for a year ! It seems like yesterday that we first met.

He joked with me that the first time I spoke to him was via text chat on Livehelp on the Languagelab website, and he couldn’t even get into Languagelab or download the software!  Also when Eid started coming to Languagelab he used a translator to talk to me and was very shy to speak English, now it is a different story; Eid is never quiet !

The Helpers are responsible for introducing students to Languagelab and making sure they understand our system when they join our school.  They do a fantastic job and we now have an international team who can speak many different languages.  Ami Champion is the Senior Manager of the Helper team now and has become an expert at dealing with Human Resources issues from a multi-national team of people whom she has never met face to face!

As virtual worlds become more mainstream and people use them more for services and education, people like the Helpers and Teachers at Languagelab will be more common, but right now they are making history as the first virtual worlds workforce to be involved in ESL teaching.

To see more pictures of the Helpers and Languagelab check out our flickr group and come and visit them in world ! Ami Champion isthe Helper Manager and we have representatives from KSA, China, Sweden, USA and many more countries!

Take care and keep practicing!

Jessie Teacher

Radio Orla is the most popular online radio for the Polish community in the UK. We’re delighted to have been invited to appear on air to talk to the UK’s Polish community about Languagelab. Marcin Wawro (Learning Services Manager) from LL Poland will be talking about live on air this Tuesday (9 December) just after 16:30pm and 13:15pm on Wednesday (10th December) You can listen to the interview online at www.orla.fm.

Tune in !

Languagelab has just launched a twitter account.  We will be using it for ESL tips and adivce as well as languagelab news and updates.

http://twitter.com/Languagelab

Shiv

Creative juices are beginning to flow as people in Poland begin their designs for our exciting new competition. We’re looking for someone to design an exciting new building for the Languagelab City and have already had some press coverage on ARCHITEKCI.PL. Entrants have complete free choice of what their building will look like – it can even float above the ground! Not only will the winner get to see their building built in the Languagelab City, but they’ll also become part of our roster of regular professional designers. There’s also five ‘English for Architecture’ courses up for grabs for the runners-up too, so get designing today – but hurry, entries close on 20 December!!!

Details of the competition have been listed on BEC ZMIANA in Polish.

Get in touch with James Aldous for more information – james@languagelab.com

Sally Teacher

Bette Jarman

Bette Jarman is one of English City’s best kept secrets! She owns and manages the Smart Temps employment agency and she is always there for you when you want to discuss your employment needs.

Bette is very involved with the local community, I’ve heard that this week she will be making a Thanksgiving float and participating in the City’s Thanksgiving parade. Her daughter, Lane Jarman runs the local news agency called The City News, so between them the dynamic duo have a considerable influence over the daily events in English City.

The first time that you meet Bette she will make sure that you register with her agency. Once she has collected information about your interests, goals, skills and qualifications she may even ask you if you would like to be a Smart Temps assistant. If you decide to become an assistant then you will need to complete a short training course (in English), after the course you will be given an assistant’s badge and can help to register new clients when they come to join the Smart Temps agency.

Bette often runs skill seminars and workshops which you can participate in to help to improve your chances of finding a job that will suit you. In these seminars you will do things such as write a resume or learn how to perform well in a job interview, as well as learning about the different kinds of employment available in different industries and the skills and qualifications you will need to work in these industries.

Spending time with Bette Jarman is another great way to practice English at languagelab, so if you haven’t met Bette already why don’t you come along to the Smart Temps agency and register today!

To find out the days and times when Bette can be found in English City click on this link and browse the Languagelab schedule for her name.

Attending a seminar with Bette at Smart Temps employment agency