Languagelab.com Blog

Shakespeare once wrote,

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;”

What does this mean? He is trying to say even if a rose was called a daisy or a sunflower it would srill smell beautiful.

So what about ’swine flu’ ? There was a story today in the news talking about some people wanting to change the name of the disease to ‘Mexcian Flu’ or its medical name of H1N1 flu.  Do you think that names and labels are important? What do you think it should be called? Have you been affected by this illness?

Read more about the swine flu here.

Last week I promised to follow up on the discussion of ‘at’ and ‘in’ with some interesting expressions that you may find them in.  By learning the whole expression you’ll also learn the grammar girls. As I’ve mentioned before, you can use vocabulary to learn about grammar and grammar to learn about vocabulary.  Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate students shouldn’t really be separating the two.  They should be escaping grammar rules and I should really be Grammar/Vocabulary Girl.

Here is an expression that use ‘at:’

If things are AT SEA, or ALL AT SEA, they are disorganized and chaotic.  So, if you don’t organise your understanding of grammar into rules you might find yourself all at sea.

Here is an expression with ‘in:’

If something vanishes or disappears without trace, IT VANISHES INTO THIN AIR; no-one knows where it has gone.  So Grammar Girl’s glasses have finished into thin air. You won’t see them in her picture any more.

I’ll finish this week with the answer to the question in the subject line, which is that Grammar Girl lives in the English City and not ‘at.

See you soon !

Hi Languagelab students,

Last week I went to two really cool gigs, one of them was in a basement bar that used to be a public toilet in West London! The band I went to see is called ‘Empire of Lights‘ and they are a very cool Indie band that has a single coming out. The word Indie means independent and not so commercial sounding. Other famous Indie bands include The Smiths, Nirvana and the Klaxons. For more information about Indie music click here.

The other band that I went to see are a soul band with 12 people in it ! They had great energy and fantastic voices.  My friends and I danced all night and had a wonderful time as one of the singers is my friend! The band is called Hula Groove – check our their video.

Make some sentences about you favourite kinds of music:

1. classical
2. concert
3. country
4. dance
5. disco
6. download music
7. good beat
8. heavy metal
9. jazz
10. lyrics
11. mp3 player
12. music
13. pop
14. radio
15. rap
16. rock
17. stereo
18. punk
19. opera
20. hip-hop/ rap

• be crazy about / love / like
• dislike / hate / can’t stand

See you soon !

Jessie Teacher

Captain Salsita waiting for passengers

Have you seen this video before? It’s the flight attendant onboard a South West airlines flight who is ‘rapping’ the welcome aboard message.

Come along to conversation hour and learn how to ‘rap’ this song. I’ve posted the words below.

When? Tuesday 21st April, PST 11pm

Where? The airport at languagelab.com (Click here to teleport)

Watch the video here

Here are the words

This is flight 372 on SWA the flight attendants on board serving you today
Theresa in the middle
David in the back
My name is David and I’m here to tell you that
Shortly after take off
First things first
There’s soft drinks and coffee to quench your thirst
But if you want another kind of drink then just holler
Alcohol and beverages ‘ll be four dollars
If a monster energy drink is your plan
That’ll be three dollars and you get the whole can

We won’t take your cash
You’ve gotta pay with plastic
If you have a coupon
Then that’s fantastic

We know your ready to get to new places
Open up the bags put away your suitcases
Carry on items go under the seat
In front of you so none of you have things by your feet
If you have a seat on the row with the exit
We’re gonna talk to you so you might as well accept it
You gotta help us evacuate in case we need you
If you don’t wanna then we’re gonna reseat you

Before we leave
Our advice is
Put away your electronic devices
Fasten your seat belt
Then put your trays up
Press the button to make the seat back raise up
Sit back relax
Have a good time
It’s almost time to go so I’m done with the rhyme

Thank you for the fact that I wasn’t ignored
This is South West airlines
Welcome aboard

Salsita Almendros is returning to languagleab this week. Check out her blog Salsita Says to find out more about her classes.

Hi Languagelab Students,

We have great news for you !

The welcome area has moved to a brand new and improved space for you to get technical help and meet the Helpers.

Click here to visit.

Thanks and see you soon in English City,

Jessie Teacher

Easter is the springtime holiday marking the rebirth of Jesus and the renewal of the Christian faith. It is a festival that has both Christian and Pagan symbolism with the Easter Bunny, eggs and spring meaning fertility and being re-born.

However, many people who are not religious celebrate Easter with chocolate eggs and eating hot cross buns.  It is a popular holiday with children as they get to give and receive chocolate.

In many countries painting and decorating eggs is a traditional activity for the Easter celebration. This is a great video clip from Romania, a wonderful example of a decorative egg.

Define the following words and use them to write a short paragraph about Easter traditions in your country or if you don’t celebrate Easter a spring festival from your country:

1. decorate
2. resurrection
3. tradition
4. eggs
5. bunny
6. pagan
7. spring
8. chocolate

We would like to say Happy Easter to all our students – have a great Easter weekend and don’t forget to go and visit the city for more Easter vocabulary.

Hi Students !

The Languagelab Team have been in Cardiff for the IATEFL conference 2009. We have met a lot of interesting people including members of our team based in Spain  – Daf Smirnov and Cristina ,the Spanish language team at Languagelab, who were lovely !

We will be posting some videos for you over the next few days so you can get some tips from people for Grammar and IELTS and also watch a video of the Languagelab Team taking part in a Pecha Kucha - we will be be having our own Pecha Kucha evening at Languagelab soon so watch this space. Ok so enjoy the video and if you want to participate in the Pecha Kucha evening contact jessie@languagelab.com.

Scott Thornbury is a teacher, teacher trainer, text book writer and an inspiration to many people and this is why I suggest that when you’re trying to decide on what English language learning book to buy, you look for one that he’s written.

If you go to his website you’ll not only be able to find the right book for you but you’ll also be able to follow him on ‘twitter (write to jessie@languagelab.com if you want to know more about what ‘twitter’ is and how to do it).

Scott Thornbury encourages teachers and students to think about the best way to learn vocabulary and grammar.  He refers to something called ‘collocations.’  A collocation is a grouping of words in a sentence.  When we learn which groups of words go together we may find it easier to put phrases together.

For example, do we say ‘turn on the button’ or ‘push the button?’  Do we say ‘watch television’ or ’see television?’

In my next blog, I’ll be looking at collocations,

See you next Monday!

Grammar Girl at Languagelab