In language immersion, you don’t follow a traditional language course to learn.  You do every-day activities in the target language.  You live, breathe and eat in that language.  In other words, you go to where it is spoken.  This is why students come to the UK.

What do you do if you can’t afford to take time off work or your studies, or if your Daddy can’t send you to Oxford Street?  The answer is that you download Second Life software for free, and you visit English cities in Seccond Life.  It’s so much cheaper.  And you can speak to real people in English.  Go to Languagelab and ask for Grammar Girl.  I’m there at least three days’ a week at 4am PDT.

So I ‘installed’ teleporter ‘pads,’ which means I placed objects round the island. These objects would ’send’ people from one object to another, without the person having to move on their own. All they would have to do would be to ‘right-click’ on the object and select ‘teleport. Thus, ‘teleport’ is a verb and ‘teleporter’ is a noun.

Once you have chosen a location (or as we might say ’selected a location from the menu’ or selected a location from the ‘list’) you click on the word that says ‘energise.’ This squeezes you into a little ball and sends you to another location.

These space age words have become common vocabulary in virtual words. Here they are again:
install
teleporter
pad
teleport
menu
energise.

If you haven’t been to Second Life before, you might want to visit this virtual world so that you can experience what these words mean. You can to do that by going to http://www.secondlife.com. But Captain Kirk would probably say that he’s been using these words for years.

My friend sent me a funny clip yesterday…. Take a look:

I thought that Mary Poppins was kind and friendly? Hmmm….

What adjectives could you use to describe this clip?
Do you remember anything about the original Mary Poppins film?

See you soon and don’t be scared !

Jessie Teacher

Sometimes it may be a little difficult to pronounce regular, past simple verbs, which is quite understandable when you realise that there are three ways of pronouncing the ‘ed.’  You can pronounce it with ‘t,’ ‘d’ or ‘id.’

Here is a rule to help you along the way:

The only time you add a syllable is when the base form of the verb ends with a -t or -d:
start à started [star tid]     fold à folded [fol did]

The final sound is changed to t      Final sound is changed to d
when the last sound of verb is:     when the last sound of verb is:
k, ck, ch, sh, s, x, p, f              m, n, l, z, b, g, r, v
talk à talked [talkt]                     blame à blamed [blamd]
check à checked [chekt]               plan à planned [pland]
search à searched [searcht]                 pull à pulled [puld]

Next week, we’ll be making our way back to vocabulary.

Nouns and Verbs ending in /s/

Observing the spelling of a word might help you improve your pronunciation of the word.  For example, the endings -s and -es are pronounced as /s/– /z/, or as an extra syllable /iz/  at the end of third person singular verbs and plural nouns. The pronunciation depends on the final sound of the simple form of the verb or noun.

Here are some examples of verbs and their pronunciation:

slice   —-  slices (c = /s/)

lose    —-  loses (s = /z/)

wash    —-  washes

watch   —-  watches

judge   —-  judges

relax   —-  relaxes (x = /ks/ )

Here are some nouns:

price    —- prices (c= /s/)

size     —- sizes

dish     —- dishes

garage   —- garages (ge = /zh/

inch     —- inches

language —- languages.

Next week we’ll look at a rule for the pronunciation of ‘ed.’

Conversational English at the Edgware Arms

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

We talked about what the statement might have meant to the characters in the novel, to the narrator, to Jane Austen and to people living in the 21st Century in general. At times the debate got quite heated and I was pleased to find that the students who attended had strong opinions and really wanted to express them.

I’m not sure how we will manage to read the entire book, especially seeing that at the rate of a chapter a week it will take about three years! But people were really keen to continue the discussion this week, so we will keep going with this book until we tire of it.

This week we will talk about chapter two of the novel. Read chapter two here.

When? On Sunday the 3rd of May at 11 pm PST - Convert this time and date to your timezone here

Where? The Edgware arms pub. Click here to see the schedule and location

This class can be attended from anywhere in the world. All you need is a good internet connection and headphones with a microphone. If you would like to join us then be sure to do the following things:

1) Join languagelab.com

2) Read this post to find out how you can read Pride and Prejudice for free online

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 !

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