LEARNING ENGLISH AT HOME IN THE HOLIDAYS

Dear English Team Members,

First, I do wish you all a happy holiday, and may you enjoy a bit of English, too.

In our last lesson, you got a task to read page 72 in your package, a text titled "How to Buy a Safe"
The text has 10 rules.
Find the rule (or rules) that tells:

• why your safe should be attached to the floor (rule number(s) ____)
• you should not gossip about your safe (rule number(s) ____)
• 3 points for choosing the location of your safe (rule number(s) ____)
• the parameters for storing weapons (rule number(s) ____)
• when documents burn up (rule number(s) ____)
• something about stealing things from a safe (rule number(s)_____)

Find two more interesting facts in the text.



Second, here is another task for you:.................----------->----------------> the "Listening Melange" in the new "Hot Links" section of our blog. Click on Listening Melange, and choose something you like. There are lots of Christmas listenings, even a song from LADY GAGA! Have fun!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL FROM MARY

Listening and Video practice

Hello, English Team!

The weather this weekend will be cold and unfriendly, so it is perfect for listening and videos in English! Sit down with a hot cup of tea or hot chocolate and enjoy :


WHY OCCUPY?  WALL STREET (1 minute, 23 seconds) - play it two or three times. Collect new words and be ready to talk about the trouble on Wall Street in our next lesson.

OR...

MINE'S A MARS BAR   !NOTE! You must scroll down the page to the second listening! (3 minutes, 27 seconds) - play it two or three times. Collect new words and be ready to talk about chocolate in our next lesson.

Remember to write the words on paper and bring it to the lesson please!

What is your favorite kind of chocolate? Milk chocolate, semi-sweet, white chocolate or....

ESL Vocabulary Lists

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  ESL Vocabulary Lists

  
  

  tags:
  
  vocabulary
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

PASSIVE

Dear Students,

We will practice the English passive in our next lesson.


Here are some tips for you:

• Always ask, who is the active person (or animal, thing, etc) ? And who is the one that is acted on ? 

Criminals make counterfeit money. (Active sentence - Criminals are active people, money is acted on)
Counterfeit money is made by criminals. (Passive sentence - money is acted on, criminals are active people) 

• You should review the list of irregular verbs. Why? (Because passive verbs use the 3rd form verb)

 Here is a link to a game with irregular verbs. Have a little fun!

• Here is a video about the passive

• Here is a True/False quiz. Try to get all the answers right, then check yourself. Tell Mary your score!

• There are links on the right side of this page. Use them for practice, too.

Problem solving

Dear Team,

It was a good lesson yesterday:  lots of laughter and jokes (remember the one from Attila? if-if-if, hahaha).

Scratching his head

We learned about the three steps of problem solving - identify the problem, brainstorm, make a decision.

And the stages:
dealing with a problem (the continuous process), figuring out/working out the answer to the problem (the end)

Also, some new expressions were practiced:

• Can I have a word?
• What's up?
• It's a bit of a pain.
• So, what if we do a little experiment?
• I know what to do now.
• That was useful. Thanks!

I handed out a  practice paper with simple past and past continuous verbs. That's the homework.

Next week, the topic is "The History of Money" on pages 39-41 in your package.

Also, we will be practicing with passive verbs. I have put a new grammar practice on the links bar ---->

See you next week! And Attila: have a good trip to Denmark! Maybe you will practice English while you are there...

Sincerely,
Mary

Next lesson October 19

Dear Team,

The last lesson was about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and this year's new members:

Alice Cooper, Dr. John, Neil Diamond, Tom Waits, and Darlene Love

Alice Cooper and his snake

Some interesting notes from the listening: (with thanks to András!)

Alice Cooper: Phoenix Arizona

he became a solo artist

Dr John comes from Louisiana

His name was Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr.

Club musician by the time he was 17

Rolling Stone magazine ranked it in the top third of 500 greatest albums

Tom Waits - voice sounds like a truck crossing over hundreds of stones

He is alive!

Darlene Love had a band called The Blossoms

Only woman brought into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame this year

First big hit "He's a Rebel" 1962

Next week no lesson due to the conference.  Next lesson is Wednesday, October 19.

  

Homework is page 36 in your package titled "Problem Solving". Do tasks 1, 2, 3, and 4

See you later! 

Great Start!

Remember! Next week the lesson is Wednesday, September 14, 2-3.30 pm! 

Dear Team,


We have started the new school year at MNB Soroksár. Everyone brought their vocabulary exercise books today. I was just amazed at the wonderful and interesting words you collected during the summer break!

For example: weed, bottle (from Edit's garden), build-choose-put on/put off/put together (Attila's everyday words), in principle, measure (Erika's ECB law words), golf club, baseball bat, skyline (from András)

Everybody please bring your vocabulary exercise book to the next lesson, because you will build with them!


Homework is in your package: PAGE 29, Weird currency. There are 10 paragraphs in the article, and everyone has to do the tasks as follows and make a short report about them next week. 

Task list for page 29, "Weird Currency": 
Paragraphs 10, 9  -  Edit
Paragraphs 8, 7 - Erika
Paragraphs 6, 5, 4 - Attila
Paragraphs 3, 2 - András
Paragraph 1 - István

Looking forward to seeing you next week at the usual time: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2:00PM.

Mary 

Your review lesson is coming

Dear Students,

This week's lesson is REVIEW. Please look at your package and think about what you need to practice more.

I suggest more practice with comparatives and superlatives, speaking about ideas, vocabulary from the word bag, and passive verbs.

We can also practice how to say 'no' - maybe you want to say "No, Mary. I want to practice xyz." That's okay too!



You can write what you want in the "Comments" area below this post.

See you on Wednesday!

Comparative and Superlative this week

Hello, English Team!

Your homework is about comparatives and superlatives, so don't forget it on page 20 in your package.

Also you can see Attila's opinion about universal currency (package page 13) in the comment below. It's very interesting!

On Wednesday we will talk about schools, socializing, and...keys!

Sincerely,
Mary

 A lot of different keys

Alicia KEYS

This week in English

Dear Students,

If you follow our programme sheet, you will see that lesson 4 has not been done yet, but don't worry!

In the last blog post, I mentioned the Ivory Coast listening. We will do it on Wednesday. We have done the universal currency topic and Elizabeth Taylor already.

Saying 'no' and base forms with to or -ing are missing. Don't worry!

Your package has a lot of things in it -- many different things are called "stuff" in slang English. We have a lot of stuff in our package.

Don't worry, because you are learning a lot and speaking a lot. That is the most important. We can't do all the things in the  package--that's it! But...if you have free time and you want to read and do the missed exercises, please send them to me -- I will be happy to check them.

On Wednesday, we will do lesson 4 like this:

• Speaking: Building on Ideas - page 18
• Listening: VOA news from Ivory Coast
• Grammar: comparatives and superlatives - pages 19, 20, 21

Then next week (our lesson is Wednesday, June 8) we will have lesson 5.

Don't forget the word game I told you about in the last blog post! And...don't forget to bring a word card to the lesson -- remember, word on one side, example sentence on the other side. The bag collection is growing...

Have a good week at work, and I will see you on Wednesday.

Mary

Goodbye for now!

Dear Team,

Well, we won't see each other for a few weeks!

Here's a fun game with words: Quizlet for MNB

Play it and tell me how you like it! You can also LISTEN to the words by clicking on the "sound" icon.
I hope you will play it a lot.

In our next lesson, we will DEBATE the pros and cons of universal currency and listen to the news about the Ivory Coast. (this is a link to fresh news about Ivory Coast)

By the way, you can see on your programme sheet that we do not have time for everything -- no worries! You are learning a lot, and that is the most important thing.

Remember to tell me if you want to learn something different or do something different in our lessons.
And, remember to bring your new word card when we meet again on May 25.

Goodbye for now!
Mary

UPLOAD from Google Images

Grammar practice on the Internet

Dear Team,

That was a very good lesson on Wednesday. Everyone talked and learned a lot.

Your homework is in the new book, and it is about passive verbs.
On page 9 of the book you will read a text about cell-phone novels.
On page 12 of the book you read about passive verbs.

Here are some Internet links for you about passive verbs.
5percangol explanation and examples 
Exercise
Quiz: Active? or Passive?

Do you like reading about grammar in your book? Or do you like Internet grammar? Take your choice!

What do you choose? Internet grammar or your book?

This week in MNB English

Dear English Team,
This week's lesson followed the tasks.

First, you shared your new words, which are: subsidiary, enthusiastic, withdraw, pull the peel (as from a banana). We have a word bag, and you will add more words to it next time.

The memo about language study was written by everybody. Good job team!

Listening to the news: finding the topic and listening for ideas. This was okay, but everybody got tired. Listening needs much more practice! Don't forget to go to VOA news and listen when you have time.

Next we will read an article about protection from forgery (HU: hamis okirat; hamisítás; hamisítvány; koholmány; ). As István said, one good way to protect is know what counterfeit banknotes look like. A shopowner can do this. How does a shop owner learn it? I would like to know!

And here is the END of the story!

New course plan

Dear Team,

Here is a preview of what you will be learning on the new course. Any questions? We can discuss them in next week's lesson.

Copy and paste the link below into a browser window: 

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1LnP7owtZefTRPyZsSR5rd-EGBBdUNx0BlsAYWVdf7Wc

Sincerely,
Mary 

Writing a memo

Hello, Team!

In yesterday's lesson, you discussed the banknote handling machines and listened to a cassette about Triumph motorcycles. I think you are now better at listening, don't you?

The homework is to write a memo about English language training. You imagine that you make suggestions to the HR department. In your book of handouts, on the last page, you see 6 possibilities. Choose two and write them in your memo. You must write why you chose them.

FAQ's about memos (Frequently Asked Questions)
Who communicates with memos?
Memos are for communication inside a company.
What is the form of a memo?
To/From/Subject/Date
What do we write in a memo?
It must be short and only have the most relevant information.
How do we list the points of the memo?
In logical order.
What is the tone of a memo?
Very free: it can be formal, informal, or neutral.
How do you close a memo?
Write your initials, not your signature.

The other homework is your little card. In the lesson, you wrote one word on the face of the card. Now at home, please write an example sentence using the word, on the back of the card. Kindly bring your card with you to the next lesson, because you will need it for a new exercise!


Have a very nice weekend, everybody!

And finally, an article about ear massage - think about it!

Don't forget your cat's ears, either

This cat is enjoying his ear massage!

Questions? Answers!

Dear English Team,

In the last post, LOOK below, you see my face and a box below it. That box is for questions!

How to make polite questions:

Simple question: How are you today? More polite: I would like to know how you are  today.
To be polite, change the subject and verb.

Now please write a polite question in my "face box" and I will try to answer it.
If I answer, you can see your question on the right side of the box. Click and listen!

More examples:
Where were you when you made this video? -> Could you tell me where you were when you made this video?
Why did you go to Pécs last weekend? (really I did go...) ---> I wonder why you went to Pécs last wkd.
Do you like water polo? ---> Please tell me if you like water polo.

Now it's time for the news. Please go to VOA news and listen to an article. Write 4-5 sentences about it and send them to me by email.

This is your lesson for this week, and I hope you have a good one - both a good lesson and a good week.

Mary

Articles and more!

Dear Students,

This week both András and Attila have sent in links for articles, so we will have a busy lesson on Wednesday.


See you all in the lesson Wednesday!

Sincerely,
Mary

Small talk: family

Hello, English Team,

Your homework for Wednesday's lesson is page 60 of the handouts book. Talking about your family is a good small-talk subject.

Before you come to the lesson, be sure you know these words:

acquaintance - divorced - married - mother-in-law - only child - relations - relatives - separated - single - step-son

This is one of my relatives!Guess how he is related to me!

Here are 5 names of people in my family. You can ask me about them in the lesson.

FRED - TED - ELEANOR - MARY - PAUL

You can bring in photos of your family, too, if you would like to.

I would like to collect ideas from you about future lessons. What would you like? Reading, Grammar, Speaking, Writing, Internet games, something else? If you have an interesting article for the group, please bring that too.

Attila has sent me a good article about John Lennon, and we will look at that on Wednesday. You can see it here, too. JOHN LENNON'S KILLER SAYS WHY HE DID IT

Finally, here is a really mini grammar lesson, which we will practice on Wednesday. It's about "should have done" and "should be"


Sincerely,
Mary

Breaking News English

Hello, Everyone,

This is what I want you to do for the next lesson.

Go to the website, Breaking News English

You will find a nice list of recent news articles. Click on one that looks interesting to you.

For example, here is an article about Queensland Facing Major Reconstruction

When you click there, you can see the short article and a button for MP3 so you can listen to the article while you read. There are lots of activities, too.

Please try some of the listening activites. You can do some vocabulary learning tasks, too.

If you want to see more articles, on the home page, click on "See all 1,394 earlier current events lessons"

For homework, please choose an article and click on its title. Send me the address of your article by copying and pasting the address into an email message.

That's it for this week!
Sincerely,
Mary

PS Click on this link for an amazing graphic about our world!

OMG! I am late

Dear Team,

I have just remembered that I promised to send you the listening link for the article about China, and you have homework about that, too.

Well, now, here it is! I hope you still have time to practice listening and filling out the homework paper. This is an mp3 file called "China Protects its Language."
You can find it at this link on the left hand side under LISTEN.

This week in English we will revise vocabulary from the last 3 lessons, study determiners (that is a, an, the, etc.), and practice questions in a business role play.

See you very soon!

Mary

Next week at MNB English

Dear Team,

We are just about finished with our cycle of presentations. Tibor has promised to do his presentation as soon as he can. We are moving on to the following:

• intensive listening practice
• speaking about things that may, might, could, or must happen

Everyone has done the grammar test, except Edit, who was on holiday last week. Results coming soon!

Here is something new that I have tried: a Google Docs document. This is a story of people who returned to Algeria after many years. They had very strong feelings, too. Read and enjoy!

RETURN TO ALGERIA (a Google Docs document)

Sincerely,
Mary

Test Time! and Groundhog Day

Dear English Team,

You are going to have a short grammar test, so good luck! We will have the test on Wednesday, February 2--but it will only take about 20 minutes from the lesson, so be ready for more English practice after the test, including more practice with presentations.

Speaking of presentations...András, we are looking forward to yours!

Back to the test: it has only two topics (that's why it is short): relative clauses and reported speech. If you do the exercises I have linked for you in the previous blog messages, you will have a good test result, too. 5perc angol is the best one.

Our lesson is on February 2, and that is called Groundhog Day in the United States (groundhog=HU amerikai mormota). The legend is that if a groundhog sees his shadow (HU: árnyék) on February 2, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. Everybody hopes the groundhog will not see his shadow, and winter will be short--so that means we need a cloudy day. Well, in the U.S. on Groundhog Day, almost every year has been cloudy! And, the forecast for this year is the same. Punxsatawney, Pennsylvania is the big place for groundhog watchers.

The groundhog, or woodchuck, was a favorite animal of the Native Americans, and later the Christians had a ceremony on February 2, called Candlemas Day, when people lighted candles against the dark winter and hoped the end would come soon.

Here is a groundhog/woodchuck gallery. By the way, do these animals live in Hungary? Have you ever seen one? And is there a 6-more-weeks-of-winter tradition here, too?

See you soon!
Mary

Your First "Restaurant Lesson"

Hello, Everyone,


This week, our lesson was in an unusual place: the restaurant. How did you like the new place? 

What if the restaurant looked like this??

Please note, too! Next week's lesson will also be in the restaurant! 


We have had a lot of practice with reported speech and reported questions. These topics will be on your test at the end of the month, so review your papers, check out the online practice, and ask me questions if you have them.


Next week we will take a known topic, relative clauses, and add some new ideas ("which"), so if you cannot come to the lesson be sure to look at this great explanation at 5 perc angol, and also this useful online practice. Even if you CAN come, it's useful!


Another thing we will do next week is telephone practice in pairs.
 

We are also doing listening, and this week it was the VOA news about the Taliban, Pakistan, and the US unemployment rate -- which Attila updated for us (thank you very much!).


Okay, everybody, that's it for today. Remember, relative clauses next week, then the grammar test on Wednesday, January 26.


And here is a beautiful water drop, which I hope you will enjoy! (and here is a non-defining relative clause, which you also may enjoy...)

 

Grammar and more!

Hello, English Team!

We have started 2011 together with some numbers practice. Here is a number for you: 2011, pronounced in the US as "twenty eleven" - funny, isn't it?

Our last lesson was about numbers and grammar.Your homework is a practice paper about questions and reported questions. We also had a presentation about the Mazda company from Erika. This week we will hear from András and Tibor. Remember, guys, there are lots of links and videos on this blog to help you prepare your presentations.

You can practice listening to the news on VOA Special English (VOA means Voice of America). They have a daily 30 minute news program. The first 10 minutes is the news, and the last 20 minutes is a special report.

On the VOA website, look for these words on the right side of the page:
Listen to VOA Special English
News & Features, Listen to a 30-minute broadcast from today
Click to play--it is an mp3 format

And here you have a few snapshots of life in the Buda hills:  I hope you could go out on the weekend, and enjoy the winter weather!

Sincerely,
Mary

Tree at Normafa

Fried bread at Hüvösvölgy

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

2011 is here!

A snowy day at Normafa

 

Dear English Team,
I hope you enjoyed the holidays as much as I did! I ate lots of chocolate, got and gave nice gifts to people, and visited friends and family.

This week, on Wednesday, we are starting English again. What will we do?

First, we need to "warm up" to English again -- it's awfully cold nowadays.
So, we will talk about things in our bags -- that's easy!

The next part of the lesson will be listening and speaking about numbers.
Then, we will listen to Tibor and Erika make their presentations. Don't be nervous, T. and E.! You can do it!!

Finally, we will learn about reported speech in questions.
Please bring with you the book of handouts that I gave you at the beginning of the course.

Oh--almost forgot--your homework is a practice review test about grammar. You can preview it here.

See you all soon!
Mary