Sally Teacher

Kent Fromund

Did you know that Kent Fromund is really Griffin Morrisey’s nephew? Kent is one of English City’s newer residents. Actually, he’s not as new as some people think. If you’ve been coming to Languagelab for a while you may have met him in the past when he used to be called “Johnathon Shelman”. The big question here is why did “Johnathon” change his name to Kent? Read on to find out…

Warning, this story is complicated! You may need to read it several times to completely understand it. While you are reading please remember that Kent Fromund is the man who used to be called “Johnathon Shelman”

It turns out that Kent was not the first person to change his name in the Fromund family. Griffin’s real surname is actually Fromund but when he became a musician he changed it to Morrisey because he thought it sounded more musical. One day, not so long ago, Griffin and ‘Johnathon’ were chatting in the pub when Griffin told “Johnathon” that his (Griffin’s) real surname was “Fromund”. “Johnathon” was very surprised to hear this surname as, it’s quite unusual and … it was also the surname of “Johnathon’s” long lost father.

“Johnathon” never met his  father. He was raised by his Chinese mother who had met “Johnathon’s” father  when he was a young man backpacking through China. When “Johnathon’s” mother fell pregnant her family were very upset and sent her away to live with a relative in the USA.

Nobody knows what happened to “Johnathon’s” father. He was broken hearted after “Jonathon’s” mother was sent away (he thought that she had run away from him) and he disappeared himself not long after she was sent away. He never knew about his little baby boy “Johnathon”.

When “Johnathon” heard Griffin mention the name “Fromund” he immediately started to ask more questions about Griffin’s family. He knew very little about his father, but the one thing he did know was that Fromund was his father’s surname. It didn’t take the pair long to put two and two together and realise that Griffin was “Johnathon’s” uncle. Griffin confirmed that at around the time “Johnathon” was born his brother had disappeared after writing a letter telling of the Chinese woman who had run away from him and broken his heart.

Once “Johnathon” realised that his father had not deserted him and his mother he decided to change his name to Kent Fromund to honour the father who he had never met. These days Kent can be found hanging around in English City working on Art exhibitions and telling stories to those who will listen to him.

Why don’t you drop in for a visit and ask him to tell you the story of how he changed his name? In the meantime, can you answer these questions?

1) What was Kent Fromund’s name when he was a child?

2) What was Griffin Morrisey’s name when he was a child?

3) What country was Kent Fromund born in?

4) Who is Kent’s uncle?

Sally Teacher

Each week at Languagelab we will review one good English practice website that may complement your English studies with us. Each review will focus on two questions.

What are the key features of the site?
How can Languagelab students benefit from this site?

This week’s English practice website is BBC Learning English

What are the key features of this site?

The BBC Learning English site is a huge site with loads of resources, so instead of looking at the whole site we shall just focus on a few key selections.

Ask about English – A selection of  questions and answers about the English Language. You can browse the archives to search for questions already asked and if you can’t find an answer to your question then you can write and ask it.

Up to date English -A selection of the newest words in the English language. You can read about what they mean and where they came from. Or, if you prefer you can listen to the descriptions on downloadable audio files.

How to… – This section contains phrases and expressions which you can use for many different situations. There are over 50 units of different situations and each unit has audio, texts, quizzes and exercises to help you practice using them.

Face up to phrasals – A ‘live’ drama about the lives of four characters called Betty, Fred, Amanda and Daisy. The story line follows their lives in very short sections of dialog. Each  section contains a new phrasal verb and information about its meaning and how to use it.

The Grammar Challenge – A weekly podcast which explains difficult grammatical structures  as well as providing interactive quizzes and grammar tables to help you to understand and use the structures.

So how can Languagelab students benefit from using this site?

While I believe that all of the sections I have described are useful, the ones that I really think could complement your studies at Languagelab are “up to date English”, “How to…” and “face up to phrasals”.

Up to date English is an excellent resource for new vocabulary and also a great conversation topic. Why not learn some of the new words and then take them to languagelab and see if the native speakers who work there know them? These words are very new, so you might have the pleasure of knowing something that your teachers and friends don’t!

How to… is an excellent resource for all those role plays and unexpected situations that your teachers and the City People are constantly making you do. Why not have a browse through some of the topics today? Then the next time you are ‘thrown in the deep end’ you can quickly go to a rich resource of common expressions to help you talk your way through any situation.

Face up to phrasals is a fun and easy way to learn a new phrasal verb every day. It only takes a couple of minutes to listen to each part of the story. How about learning a new phrasal verb everyday and then logging in to Languagelab and making sure that you use it with everybody that you meet?

Sally Teacher

Have you been to the Grammar House yet? Do you know what it is and how it can help you to practice and improve your English?

The Grammar House is a new LanguageLab English class designed to help you to improve your English grammar skills.

Hosted by several of LanguageLab’s highly qualified English Teachers, it is an event that gives you the opportunity to come along and ask questions about grammar that you have always wanted to know.

Here are a few commonly asked questions about Grammar House:

Q) What can I expect from a Grammar House session?

A) A qualified English teacher who will explain your questions, provide examples and give you some practice exercises?

Q) What kind of practice exercises will I do?

A) That depends on the questions that you ask. It may be that your teacher will send you into the City to practice using the grammar you have learned in class with the City People (native English speakers from around the globe). Your teacher may give you some speaking or writing exercises to do in class, or play a game that helps you to practice the grammar point. For complicated questions they may direct you to a website for further explanations, examples and exercises. They may even write a blog post about your question on the LanguageLab blog.

Q) How can I get the most out of a Grammar House session?

A) When you are doing something in English, attending LanguageLab classes and events for example, or reading, or just spending time with your friends, make sure that you make notes about anything you hear that confuses you, or anything you want to say that you are uncertain about. Bring your notes to the Grammar House and don’t be shy to ask Grammar Teacher for some explanations.

Don’t forget that Grammar Teacher is a valuable part of your Languagelab subscription and is ready and waiting for your questions.

To find out when the next Grammar House session is make sure that you check Languagelab’s upcoming classes schedule.

Chris Teacher (a.k.a 'The Captain')

Do you like music? What kind of music do you listen to? How often do you listen to music? Here at LanguageLab one of our City People, Griffin Morrisey is a musician and composer.

Griffin does lots of activities which students trying to learn English find really helpful. Firstly, there is his regular sing along. Students who attend this activity find themselves learning new vocabulary and practicing their intonation by memorizing the words to a song and trying to sing along with it. People can be a little shy about singing in front of others at first. The shyness soon goes away though, because Griffin never forces anyone to sing if they don’t want to. Usually by the end of the session everyone is having such fun that they forget about their shyness and are happily ‘crooning’ away with the rest of the group. As you have probably already guessed, it’s also a great way to improve self-confidence.

When hanging out with Griffin you can also participate in his ‘learning about music’ activities. In these activities students learn how to read music and name and recognise different instruments from the orchestra. If you are wondering how this can help you improve your English, don’t forget that everything he does, he does in English and that sometimes the best way to learn a language is simply by learning about something in that language. Not to mention the fact that learning to recognize the sounds of different instruments is fantastic ear training, which in turn can really help with listening and pronunciation skills.

Finally, just like our resident actress Pebbles Kronfeld, Griffin does script reading activities with the students. To read more about how these activities can help people wanting to practice English click here.

Meet Millie Eames and the most comfortable place to speak English on the Internet

Something that many language students find difficult to master is the art of
‘small talk.’
In class we often practice talking about ‘important’ topics, such as politics, science, music and culture.
Or we practice more functional language, like checking into a hotel, making a complaint or going to the bank.
One thing that is often not covered is the small talk that happens constantly throughout our daily lives.

This is where Millie Eames, LanguagLab’s resident café owner and
manager can help you. Millie’s café is just like a real life café. It’s a place where you can go to listen to music, catch up
with friends and socialise just like you would in a café in your own country. The big difference is that everyone speaks in English.

Here’s a hint for those of you who are shy about speaking in English. Try going to the cafe and just listening to what people are
talking about. Make a list of the things that Millie says when she is greeting people and the questions she uses to start conversations.
Then, when you’re feeling more confident try using some of the expressions and questions yourself. You’ll find yourself chatting like a local in no time at all.

Click on the following links to download some helpful reference sheets that you can use if you’re not sure what to say to Millie when you meet her.

Elementary reference sheet for Millie
Intermediate reference sheet for Millie
Advanced reference sheet for Millie

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