jueves, 19 de julio de 2012

The English we speak: SLANG

Hi everyone!

How is your summer going? Hope you are doing well and improving your English.

Today, I am going to write about "slang”, what is slang? basically slang are those words and expressions you are not going to learn in formal education unless you have a teacher like me ;) or you go to live to an English speaking country, let’s say, England where you will pick them up as you go. It happened to me when I lived in London, the first time I heard the word "quid" I was on a bus on my way home until a night out with pals and there was a guy trying to get on the night bus and he was asking people for a couple of “quids”. I had never heard that word before after 5 years studying English at the school of languages plus other 5 years studying English at university. Isn´t it ridiculous? “quid” means pound and 90% of English people say quid instead of pound in informal situations. The thing is that we need to learn everything because at the end of the day we are going to interact with real speakers of the language so, apart from being able to write essays, we do have to learn slang and ....it´s fun!

Wanna learn slang? Try this website and have fun!

The English we speak by bbc learning English

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/theenglishwespeak/index.shtml

jueves, 5 de julio de 2012

English summer


Hi dear readers,

Sorry about delay in posting but the latest days of the academic year have been hectic and I have been very busy moving back to my city, etc.

Well, the academic year is over but you need to go on studying English so you have to read books in English, watch TV in English, travel to an English speaking country if you can afford it, etc.

Some of my students have asked me: what can I do now that you are not here giving input? I´m afraid you have to look for that input elsewhere… HOW? WHERE? WHEN?

HOW? Listening to songs in English, watching films, reading books, talking to foreigners,  or with a private English tutor over the summer.

WHERE? Everywhere really, download podcasts in English and take them to the swimming pool with you!

WHEN? Depending on your possibilities, a couple of hours a day may do.

Other students want to travel to the UK or Ireland in summer in order to improve their English and I think that´s an excellent idea and then they ask me: Do you advise me to go on an English course abroad? Where? Am I going to understand the accent if I go to Scotland?

Do you advise me to work as an au pair? Where? How can I find an agency?

Well, this will be my next post….keep reading!