http://blog.languagelab.com The perfect practice place..... Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:28:36 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's summer here in London.  When the sun shines it shines brightly.  Oxford street is heaving with tourists, which means it's rising up, as if pushed.  There are tourists from almost everywhere in the world here.  London is particularly popular with Japanese and Korean tourists.  A lot of single, young ... http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/06/29/swimming-in-english/ I was working away on my island in Second Life and doing my best to make it easy for visitors to find their way round without getting lost. To do this I went to every location and 'installed' teleporter pads. If you are from my generation you'll remember ... http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/05/18/how-second-life-has-changed-vocabulary/ Hi Languagelab students, 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 http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/05/13/mary-poppins-or-scary-mary/ The past simple describes a complete event that took place in the past. If a verb is irregular, the past simple is a different word with different spelling. Some examples of this include run (run becomes ran) and get (get becomes got).  If a verb ends in 'ed' in the ... http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/05/11/pronounciation-of-the-past-simple/ 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 ... http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/05/06/nouns-and-verbs-ending-in-s/ Last week's conversation class about the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was quite successful. We met at the Egdgware arms pub in Second Life and spent about an hour discussing the first chapter. We mostly spoke about social changes, particularly the role of women in society in the ... http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/05/02/reading-pride-and-prejudice-at-languagelab/ 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' ? ... http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/04/29/whats-in-a-name/ 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 ... http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/04/26/does-grammar-girl-live-in-or-at-english-city/ 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 ... http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/04/23/cool-music/ [caption id="attachment_365" align="alignright" width="234" caption="Captain Salsita waiting for passengers"][/caption] 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, ... http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/04/21/pronunciation-practice-with-salsita-almendros/