Thursday 17th December 2009 – Class Review 18/12/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: Christmas, end-of-term
add a comment
As it was the last class of the year we decided to go out to a local bar for an end-of-term Christmas get-together.
Happy Christmas to everyone in the class and see you all next year. Classes start again on Thursday 14th January 2010. Enjoy your holidays!!!
Thursday 10th December 2009 – Class Review 14/12/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: animals, collective names, speaking
add a comment
It is nearly the end of term and Christmas is coming! It’s also very cold.
Tonight we reviewed the speaking from the recent SQA assessments and worked on correcting common mistakes.
We also looked at some animal vocabulary and animal group vocabulary… for example a murder of crows, an unkindness of ravens and a shrewdness of apes! English language at its strangest!!! In fact here is what wikipedia says about it:
“It is thought that many of the bizarre words used for collective groupings of animals were first published in 1486 in the Book of St. Albans, in an essay on hunting attributed to a Dame Juliana Barnes. Many of the words are thought to be chosen simply for the humorous or poetic images they conjured up in her lively imagination.”
You can read more about it here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animal_names
Thursday 3rd December 2009 – Class Review 03/12/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: Monaco, Poland, Russia, Spain, Statistics
add a comment
Tonight we completed the SQA assesments for the whole class… well done everyone! Good work!
We then did an exercise dealing with numbers/figures – concentrating on how we said certain things like: 7.59 secs, -12.2 C, 225,000 sq m and so on. We compared some statistics between Monaco and Russia – quite different countries! Homework was to look at some similar statistics and information from Spain and Poland.
Thursday 26th November 2009 – Class Review 26/11/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: Assessments
add a comment
Tonight we worked recording the speaking assesments for the SQA…
After the break we also completed the reading part of the assessment.
Good work everybody! More studies next week…
Thursday 19th November 2009 – Class Review 19/11/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: interviews, lottery, money
add a comment
Tonight we looked at the recent story about the two winners of the Euromillions lottery.
Here’s an interesting article about how much you would need to win to retire early… apparantly: £1,268,780 for a man aged 40 or £1,069,225 for a woman aged 40!
We decided £100,000 to £500,000 would be enough for us!!
Some interview tips here and here
Thursday 12th November 2009 – Class Review 12/11/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: 1989, Berlin Wall
2 comments
Tonight we completed the first assessment (writing) of the Intermediate 1 SQA. Well done everyone so far!
Then we talked about this week’s 20th anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Only one class member could remember those times. How quickly time flies! We watched some BBC reports from 1989 – which was interesting just to be reminded of those times. Learners could read some articles on the subject for homework.
Thursday 5th November 2009 – Class Review 05/11/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: Idioms, languages, sporting idioms, technology, translator
1 comment so far
Tonight is Bonfire Night / Fireworks Night / Guy Fawkes Night so lots of fireworks going off everywhere!
First we looked at an interesting article about instant translating glasses! Will learning a language ever be the same again? Maybe in 10 years everyone will have a pair?!!
After the break we looked at some sporting idioms.
“It’s neck and neck”, “Get your skates on”, “Moving the goalposts”, “To be below the belt” etc… My favourite one was “To take it on the chin”
Thursday 29th October 2009 – Class Review 29/10/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: Cockney, dialect, Glaswegian, slang
1 comment so far
Tonight we looked at the recent story about a job advertisement for a Glaswegian translator. We then talked about Glaswegian and Scottish words and accents – especially any experiences we have had in our jobs and everyday lives.
After the break we looked at another dialect / regional language – Cockney Rhyming Slang – which you can find in films, music, TV shows.
Are there any regional differences in language in your country?
Thursday 22nd October 2009 – Class Review 22/10/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: Police test
add a comment
Following on from the recent police visit, tonight we looked at the Police Recruitment Language test. You can find all the tests here.
There were some very interesting language points. With a lot of study and a lot of hard work we thought it would be possible to complete such a test. More study next week…
Thursday 15th October 2009 – Class Review 15/10/2009
Posted by ESOL in Uncategorized.Tags: images, nationalities, Stereotypes
add a comment
Tonight we talked about the economic situation, jobs and the recession.
Then we moved onto looking at the issue of stereotypes. We talked about the image of the Scottish stereotype and whether it had any truth in it. We then read an article about this subject. There were many interesting words and phrases involved. You can find the article here.
We then looked at a list of words and nationalities to see what images and stereotypes came up and to compare stereotypes in the UK and those in Poland. It was all very interesting!
