- like a bad habit or something you would like to improve for the next year.

The most popular New Years Resolutions are:

1. Spend Time with Loves Ones

2. Get Fit

3. Lose Weight

4. Stop Smoking

5. Enjoy Life More

6. Stop Drinking

7. Get Out of Debt

8. Learn Something New

9. Be More Charitable

10. Reorganize Life

The one I like most is learn something new.  This could mean learning a new skill or take up something you have never done before.  Perhaps you studied English at school and you have not spoken for a long time or you have always wanted to learn but never done it.

A new year is always a good time to start learning something, when you are full of enthusiasm about the year ahead, also if you want to try something new come and visit us at English City.

If you want to comment on your resolutions I will get back to you and we can see who has the best ones !

Languagelab is opening English City to the public for free !

1. FREE ENGLISH LESSONS We are holding lots of fun and interesting English classes for you to attend for FREE. You can explore English City, meet new friends and improve your speaking,listening, reading and writing FREE!

2. ONE MONTHS FREE SUBSCRIPTION And if you buy a subscription on New Years Eve or New Years Day you will get the 2nd month free! So pay for January and get February 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.

3. COMPETITIONS Languagelab will also be holding COMPETITIONS at the party, where you can win FREE subscriptions worth over $100. We have lots of other OFFERS and give a ways too! You will have to come in-world and see for yourself. So don’t miss out and start 2009 with a Languagelab bang! Click here to visit English City.

A full programme of events will be available in the welcome area and on the website but I will give you an idea of what will be happening, click on the link to go to the event.

2:00am PDT: The Party

begins with New Year at Christmas Island.

3:00am PDT: See in the New Year New

Zealand ! DJ and fireworks at the Manor in English City.

4:00am PDT: Darts quiz at the pub, the Edgware Arms - see in the New Year British style.

5:00am PDT: Languagelab’s Lowri Mills sees the New Year in Sydney! First prize of the night is up for grabs!

6:00am PDT: Pogo stick races and 250 Linden prize to the winner Vladivostock New Year !

7:00am PDT: Celebrate, watch and vote with the Coolest Quick Build Contest - 250L prize to the winner.

8:00am PDT: Think you are funny? Like comedy? Come, listen, participate and vote at the Funniest Avatar Joke Contest - 250L to the Winner at the Theatre in Arts.

9:00am PDT: Jessie brings in an Indonesian New Year with another large prize drawing come and join us.

10:00am PDT: Sailboat races at Hotel Pier - 250L to the Winner ! The New Year arrives at Dhaka!

11:00am PDT: Practice your best moves ice skating at the Home Sim. Enjoy some hot cocoa or get involved with a snow ball fight.

12:00pm PDT: Darts quiz at the pub, the Edgware Arms - see in the New Year British style.

13:00pm PDT: Funniest Avatar Joke Contest - 250L to the Winner at the

href=”secondlife://Arts/144/60/27″>Theatre in Arts.

14:00pm PDT: What kind of fish are in the sea? Come find out at the

languagelab.com Fishing

Contest -250L to the Winner, happy New Year Athens and Cairo.

15:00pm PDT: Sailboat races at Hotel

Pier - 250L to the Winner ! The New Year arrives at Dhaka!

16:00pm PDT: London celebrates New

Years Eve ! Lowri starts giving away major prizes while the

London Home Office is out in London celebrating….

17:00pm PDT: While the New Year crosses the Atlantic, we will enjoy hot cocoa,

skating and perhaps a snowball fight at the

href=”secondlife://Home/95/112/34″>Home Sim.

18:00pm PDT: Enjoy the New Year all over the world with dancing, singing and fireworks ! Dart contest too at the Edgware Arms

19:00pm PDT: Party at Ciudad Bonita!!!! Fun and Spanish dancing at languagelab.com’s beautiful Spanish City and all of it’s charm.

20:00pm PDT: Enjoy the New Year with the World as Languagelab.com opens all 18 sims to the public to celebrate our global New Year - Fireworks and fun, happy New Year to you !

21:00pm PDT: Pogo you way into 2009. Participate, watch and win the languagelab.com - Pogo Stick Races 250L to the Winner.

22:00pm PDT: Ami Champion is celebrating a Texas New Year with a large prize and Sailboat races at Hotel Pier - 250L to the Winner

23:00pm PDT: Bring in the New Year with laughter with the Funniest Avatar - Joke Contest - 250L to the Winner

00:00pm PDT: Celebrate the Second Life New Years with fireworks, crackers, the official dropping of the Ball! The Final Party of the Night! The biggest and best in SL.

So as we say good bye to 2008 and hello to 2009 we will have a very full programme of events at English City - 24 hours of fun and games and a special event for each hour - so to celebrate the New Year in every country ! Our students are from over 50 countries so there are lots of traditions and celebrations to take part in and also there are some special offers and prizes to be won for some lucky students ! Every hour there will be a prize given away one for each country.

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 !

Have you had the chance to meet Fran McMinnar yet? She is one of English City’s newest residents. This week she will be in the city talking about the latest news headlines (Monday SL 1am), writing thank you notes for all her lovely ‘Chrissie Pressies’ (Tuesday SL 1am) and making some New Year’s resolutions (Wednesday SL 1am).

Before coming to English City Fran was an English teacher so she is ready and waiting to help you practice your English. Can you guess where she is originally from?

Answers in the comments please.

Boxing Day dates back to past centuries when it was the custom for rich people to give presents to employees or to people who were less fortunate, most especially to household servants and other people who worked for them.

Now it is a public holiday and also is more associated with the after Christmas sales where shops have big discounts to attract shoppers to come and buy.  I know there are some sales at English City - Donatella is having a great sale down at Periwinkles and there is also a gift giving activity where you can learn how to buy the perfect gift in English.

In this activity you will help to select an appropriate gift for a friend, relative or colleague. You will consider such things as personality of the person who will receive the gift, the price of the gift and the cultural expectations of gift giving and receiving.

I was very happy with my gifts I received yesterday - I will give you a list of adjectives that could be used to describe my gifts….funny, beautiful, clever, strange, interesting. 

Also here is a little quiz on thanking people:

1. Words can’t possibly ……… how grateful I am for what you have done.

2. Thank you so much for helping me. I really ……… it.

3. A thousand thanks for all your hard work. I shall never ……… it.

4. They showed their great gratitude by sending us a large ……… of money.

5. Thank you for all you’ve done from the ……… of my heart.

6. I’m sending this bunch of flowers as a small ……… of my thanks and appreciation.

Back to my favourite topic - Christmas dinner ! Christmas dinner around the world is a very special meal where families get together and celebrate with traditional food.

In some countries the weather is hot and they eat barbeque food or cold meat, and in some countries the weather is cold so they drink warm mulled wine to keep cosy.

See if you can match up the country and the Christmas dinner in my little quiz for you.

Which is which ? Match them up to win a prize !

Countries: Foods:

Australia                                                                 Tamales
Denmark                                                                 Stollen
UK/USA/Canada                                                      Fried carp
France                                                                     Roast goose
Germany                                                                  Barbeque
Honduras                                                                La Buche Noel
Finland                                                                    Turkey
Austria

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

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 !

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.