Languagelab.com Blog

Want to come and visit English City ?

Never learned English in a virtual world ?

If you want to visit English City for one day and meet our ‘English City People’, students and teachers why not get a Day Pass – for the special reduced price of $2,500 Lindens which is less than $10 US dollars you can try all the classes and activities for 24 hours and also get help from our team on how to use your voice and move around in English City.

So to visit us:

1. Register

2. Visit our welcome area

3. Join the group Languagelab Day Pass

Start learning now !

Jessie Teacher

Hi Students,

There is scheduled maintenance on the Second Life Grid so SL will be closed until 8am PST (4pm UK time).

See here for more information.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and if you have booked a lesson and cannot get in email us on info@languagelab.com and we will give you back the lesson you missed.

Hope to see you all later !

Jessie Teacher

Do you want to know which country has the most English speakers?

Which type of English is better – American or British?

What about the future of English and why should everyone learn English and not Chinese?

If you have questions about the English language and how it is used around the world come and talk to language expert Samuel Teacher.

This event is open to all students and their friends so come along and enjoy the session.

Where : Languagelab welcome area

When: 8pm UK time/12pm PST

Who: English Expert Samuel Teacher

Using Second Life for education is something that Languagelab have been researching and developing since SL was in beta. Now educators all over the world are using SL to produce unique and innovative projects.  From learning a language to tracking flight paths in real time over a city, using a virtual platform to perform research and deliver education solutions is what many see as the future of Second Life.

The Second Life Education Support Faire has brought together educators from all over the world to showcase their projects. Languagelab has presented on several topics including; Lessons from two years of teaching in SL, the challenges of providing a multi-cultural registration area, The English City People and how acting can be used in teaching English, Languagelab’s history and the technology and logistics of running English City and the website.

Languagelab has received very positive responses from all the presentations so far and will be presenting again at:

Languagelab.com – “Operations a lesson in multi-sim, multi-data,& multi-cultural”

Languagelab.com – “Lessons from 2 years of teaching in SL”

Language.lab.com

We would like to wish all our students Happy Chinese New Year 2009 !

2009 is the year of the Ox.

We hope that 2009 brings you health, wealth and happiness and improves your English !

From all the team at Languagelab.com

If you are a Chinese student and interested in studying with Languagelab, we have Student Support Staff from China to help you who speak both Chinese and English.

Contact us at info@languagelab.com.

Buy on the 1st of January and get 1 month free !

If you have always wanted to study English with native speakers and never had the chance then 2009 is the year for you !

If you buy a subscription on New Years Day 1st January 2009 you will get the 2nd month free ! So pay for January and get February free. 

So you can explore English City, meet new friends and improve your speaking, listening, reading and writing FREE !

Included in a one month subscription you get:

Classes with native speaker teachers.

24/7 Access to our virtual City.

Games and online activities to help you to improve your English.

Students from all over the world to practice with. 

If you would like to take a look at English City and meet some of our actors, who are called the ‘English City People’ you can sign up and visit us free too – English City is open to the public on January the 1st.

There may be some special prizes and offers available exclusively in English City too – but to get those offers you have to go in-world and find them !

So why not go and visit English City and see the City People and enjoy our New Years offers.

See you there !

As we talked about before there are lots of different traditions connected to Christmas and the holiday season.  Some of these traditions are very old and some of them are newer, some countries have taken, adapted and used other traditions to create a unique Christmas culture.

The topics that will be talked about in this Christmas session are:

The origins of Christmas,
Santa Claus,
Christmas Trees,
Christmas Stockings,
Mistletoe,
The Holly and the Ivy,
Poinsettias,
Candy Cane,
Christmas Cards,
Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer,
Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

How many of these do you know about ? Why not join Lane Jarman and talk about your Christmas experience.  Sharing traditions is on December 25th at 6:00am PDT and 2pm UK at the Manor and is followed by Christmas Carols with Lane from 7am-8am (3pm UK).

So if you would like to sing again or missed the Carols by Candlelight, come along to the Manor and sing :-)

On December 25th you are invited to a float making session with Lowri Mills as part of a seasonal skills class. The float making is at 4am-5am PDT and (12 noon UK) at the Hotel.

The main parade is on from 8am-9am PDT (4pm UK ) starting outside the Grammar House.

You will learn how to make a Christmas float which will involve being able to listen to instructions.
To continue the theme of making things and instructions, here is a great video on how to make an origami Santa Claus !

Key vocabulary:

to fold       to measure

Origami Santa Claus! Marry Christmas!! – More free videos are here

“Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose….”

This is the start of a popular Christmas carol about one of Santa Claus reindeers.

When you go and visit Bonnie go ahead and ask her who the other reindeers are, there a quite a few to guess.

The last Christmas Eve activity at English City is watching the movie Rudolf the Rednose reindeer, sometimes if I watch movies in a language that is not my own I get confused and want to ask someone for help with vocabulary or the story, well if you watch with Bonnie you will be able to ask her for help when you need it.

The film starts at the Cinema in English City at 1pm PDT (9pm UK) and lasts for around an hour.

Have fun see you at the movie !

A good way to practice English is to listen to new words and hear people with different accents speaking and then you can learn how to improve your pronunciation and intonation.

On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, Judith Triellis will be reading the famous poem, ‘Twas the Night before Christmas’ at the Manor in English City at 12-1pm PDT (8-9pm UK)

Be prepared to tell your own holiday season stories and to share your tales with other students, great practice for listening and speaking.

Here is a little background information on the author of the poem.

Clement Clarke Moore (1779 – 1863) wrote the poem Twas the night before Christmas also called “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in 1822. It is now the tradition in many American families to read the poem every Christmas Eve. The poem Twas the night before Christmas has redefined our image of Christmas and Santa Claus. Prior to the creation of the story of Twas the night before Christmas St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children, had never been associated with a sleigh or reindeers!

The first publication date was 23rd December 1823 and it was an immediate success. Moore was the Bishop of New York who was famous for officiating at the inauguration of George Washington. The tradition of reading Twas the night before Christmas poem on Christmas Eve is now a Worldwide institution.