Languagelab.com Blog » reading http://blog.languagelab.com Bringing the World of English to You! Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:44:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 What’s in a name ? http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/04/29/whats-in-a-name/ http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/04/29/whats-in-a-name/#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:58:06 +0000 jessie http://blog.languagelab.com/?p=927

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.

]]> http://blog.languagelab.com/2009/04/29/whats-in-a-name/feed/ 0 ‘Twas the night before Christmas – Reading by Judith http://blog.languagelab.com/2008/12/22/twas-the-night-before-christmas-reading-by-judith/ http://blog.languagelab.com/2008/12/22/twas-the-night-before-christmas-reading-by-judith/#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:01:10 +0000 jessie http://blog.languagelab.com/?p=635 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.

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