Presentation time!

Dear Team Players,

I am really looking forward to your presentations this Wednesday. You have your ideas, your outline, your graph, information, and body language. I hope you are ready!

stage fright (HU: lámpaláz)

Also on Wednesday, there will be more practice and discussion about reported speech. Please check 5perc angol for an explanation. There is a handout about the time changes in reported speech here, which you can print out

Reported Speech - Függı Beszéd 1. - 5perc Angol Oktató Magazin - Ingyenes online angol tanulás 1. oldal

Amennyiben a függı beszédet bevezetı ige jelen vagy jövı idıben, illetve Present Perfect-ben van (tehát például Mary mondja), akkor a feladat nagyon

könnyő, hiszen az igeidıket nem kell egyeztetni, mindössze a helyes szórendre kell figyelni és még néhány egyéb apróságra: Ha ez van a direkt

mondatban: Akkor ez lesz belıle az indirekt, azaz függı mondatban:

tonight that night

today that day

this week/month/year that week/month/year now

then, at that time,

at once, immediately

now that since

yesterday the day before

last night/week/month/year the previous night/week/month/year

tomorrow the following day/the day after

next week/month/year the following day/month/year

two days/months/years ago two days/months/years before

A szövegkörnyezettıl függıen, az alábbiak is megváltozhatnak:

this/these that/those

here there

come go

Például:

Tom says (in his office): „I’ll be here again on

Monday.”

Tom says he will be there on Monday.

Sincerely,
Mary 

Get your presentation ready!

Hello, English Team!

It's time to get your presentation ready! We will have presentations in the lesson on DECEMBER 15.

Here is a link to a good example presentation. Please watch it, because we will talk about it in the lesson this week.


This week we will look at body language and gestures in presentations. Also, we will collect some useful words for connecting the parts of your presentation, for example: "next," "now we turn to," and " finally."

Last week, we discussed relative clauses and practiced listening. Everybody needs to practice listening regularly!

How?
Some people watch films with subtitles (HU: feliratos film)
Other people listen to English radio programs or watch English TV channels.
You can use the Internet, too. There are lots of mp3 downloads like THIS ONE.
And don't forget the links on the right side of this blog!

Your homework is to write 10 definitions with relative clauses, for example:

A bank is a place where you keep your money.
OR
A banker is a person who ... well, YOU can finish it, can't you??

See you soon,
Mary

First week of December!

Good evening, everybody!
This week marks the beginning of December, so those of you who have children are surely getting ready for Mikulás' visit.

How do you celebrate the December 6 holiday? Do you have some funny memories of it from your own childhood?

This week, we will practice listening, study relative clauses, and look at reported speech. Also, your homework is about business reports. What types of business reports do you read in your everyday work at the Hungarian National Bank?

If you want to prepare for the lesson, read this good information about reported speech. Also, there is a nice quiz about reported speech here.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Mary

Your next English lesson

Dear English Team,

PRESENTATIONS: Most of you have a topic now. The next step is to make an outline. Please give me your outline as soon as possible. Also, you must have one graphic chart of statistics in your presentation. Time is minimum 5 minutes, but you may go up to 10 minutes if you need to. Soon we will practice body language, too. You will give your presentations before the Christmas holiday.

HOMEWORK: Read the information about "Marcia Lee Jeans" in your book, check the words in your dictionary and be ready for the role play during our next lesson.

Finally, an (old) joke for you!
And here is a video of a funny cat, too.
Try to find something funny for the English Team, please!

Have a good week!

This week in English

Dear English Team,

Amanita muscaria, a mushroom

Here is a pretty picture I found on the Internet. Nowadays I go hiking in the Buda Hills every weekend, and I see plenty of people picking mushrooms in the forest. Do you pick mushrooms?

Attila and András, sorry you missed the lesson, but don't worry! The main points are here for you.

We played a past continuous verb game which István brought in. He found it on http://esl-galaxy.com/ a very big website for English learners. Lot of games there! Go and practice your grammar!

Next we told each other anecdotes, with lots of repeating for extra practice. The team said this was very useful. Attila, thanks for your anecdote! Tibor told it. András, we hope you will tell yours next week. Remember, in English the past continuous starts the anecdote to set the situation, and the real events are in past simple verbs. You can practice past continuous and past simple grammar at the GRAMMAR exercises on this blog.

Then another game, about prepositions. It was not easy! But everyone has copies of the game, so you can learn from them.

Skeleton

We talked about the presentation. Everyone will do a presentation in December -- before the Christmas holidays. Choose your topic - something about business! Next week, we will start the outline (=HU vázlat). An outline is like a skeleton
 - it is just the basic parts of your presentation.

HOMEWORK:  In your course book, fill in the page titled "PRESENTATION" and make three visuals about your life, for example, a circle shows your typical 24 day, divided into sections for sleep, eating, travel, etc. Make notes (HU: jegyzetel) about the visual, because next week you will talk about these.

Have a great weekend!
Mary

Sunday evening

Hello, English Team!

It's Sunday evening, and we are all getting ready for another week. Everybody gets ready differently. Some people are bathing their children, others are reading a book, maybe some people are having a party. (PLEASE note how I am using the present continuous verbs!)

What are YOU doing?

Last week, our lesson had four parts:

• dates and ordinal numbers - first, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. 
• checking the grammar homework about past simple and past continuous
• prepositions in pictures - for example, across the street (man walking on a zebra), a photograph of somebody, looking at each other, etc.
• making appointments on the phone

And the homework is:

Be ready with a story that has

• 3 past continuous sentences - to give the picture of the story
• 3 past simple sentences - to tell the events of the story

For example: I was riding in the bus. It was raining. A man was eating ice cream. He got off the bus, and slipped in the rain. Oh no! The ice cream went all over his shirt...very sad.

Well, that is a really simple story! I think the English Team members can be more creative, right?

Your OTHER homework is: tell me the topic of your presentation, please. Everyone will do a presentation in December. The presentation will be:

• Five minutes long

• Not PowerPoint - but please use photos, or draw something on the whiteboard if you want to

• About something in the world of business, for example:

• sports business management (this is Attila's topic)
• a profile of a company
• compare the websites of two companies
• how to get a job
• logos and brands
• ethics and business
•  advertising and marketing
• and more and more -- these are just examples 

Your presentation will be in December. We will go slowly and practice a lot.


Here are two videos for you to watch. They will help you learn about presenting in English.

How to Give a Presentation

An Example of a Good Five-Minute Presentation 

PS: Don't tell me the dog ate your homework!

Balance

Hello, E.T.! Hello, English Team!

We had a well-balanced lesson on Wednesday...checking the 'IF' homework, learning from the whiteboard, and speaking in pairs about using mobiles while driving (Tibor thinks it's okay) and a ban on smoking (András says it's too extreme). ("ban" means something not allowed).

By the way, IF you check out the IF music coffeehouse on Ráday utca you WILL want to go - nice place!

The homework is two exercise papers about past tenses. Check 5percangol for irregular past tense verbs!

You can find your homework at the following links:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/40478865/Test-Yourself-Past-Tenses
http://www.scribd.com/doc/40478773/Past-Tenses



Coming up next week: prepositions of place (IN, ON, AT), storytelling, and telephoning to make appointments

I chatted with Attila during the lesson, and we mentioned the beautiful, sunny autumn weather. Here is a photo of Lake Balaton in the autumn--really, really wonderful!

The Fishermen's Bastion

Hello, English Team!

Our lesson yesterday focused on Budapest. You discussed your memories of Budapest, growing up in Budapest, and places like Zugló and Kispest. Then you made two teams and suggested a day in Budapest for visitors.
One team suggested a circle walk starting and ending at Deák Square, the other team had a visit to Margaret Island. We talked about using "going to" for a fixed plan and "will" for a more general idea (e.g. "we will go to the theatre" - but not sure until the visitors agree with us).

Interesting words: agree with someone, appoint/name someone to a position, to be called xx = She is called Barbara.

Finally, the homework is "if" sentences about the Budapest visitors, 2 sentences of each of 3 types, that is 2x3=6!
For example:
"If I have time, I usually meet my friends at the Trofea."
"If you walk from Deák Square to the Danube, you will find the Vigadó"
"If we had time, we would go to the museum."

Sincerely,
Mary

Update October

Dear English Team,

Here is an update of our lessons.

• Verb tenses practice (don't forget to check the Grammar links -----> )
• Question forms - grammar links again!
• Email: information, action, help (there is a photocopy, get it from István, Edit, or Attila...)
• Countable and uncountable nouns (you know where to look!)
• "IF" forms (conditionals)

In the last lesson, we practiced these types of "if":

1. If I have time, I usually go jogging/read a book/watch television. (HABITS)
2. If I have time, I will write an email to my friend/will study my English words/will go for a walk. (FUTURE PLAN)
3. If I had time, I would do more sport/go on a long trip/knit (HU: kötni) a pullover. (NOT REAL, JUST IMAGINATION)

In our next lesson, we will:

• talk about Budapest and your favorite places in the city 
• practice conditionals
• do a pair exercise about prepositions (Attila finds this difficult -- maybe you, too?)

 To prepare for the lesson, please visit the Budapest Business Journal website and find 3 interesting facts to share with the group. Special vocabulary too!



Looking ahead, the next topic is writing practice (next week, October 27).

See you soon!
Mary

One lesson!

Dear English Team,

We finally had our first lesson after the summer -- and then I got sick!

Now I am better, and I am ready for your next lesson -- I hope you are, too.

In the first lesson, I really liked talking with everyone. There were many interesting questions. I tried to answer them well, too.

From your questionnaires (HU=kérdőív), I found out that most of the group want to do presentations in English in the future, and also most of you need to speak on the telephone in English. We will focus on presentations and telephoning soon.

The homework is about email. Three types of email are: information, action, and help. What kind of emails do you write? Do you ask for information? Do you need action? Do you want help with something? Or something different?

I have just looked at my recent emails, and I usually ask for information or answer questions from other people.

DON'T FORGET! Count the emails that you write! Start from September 23! Erika has already started - from 23-29 she wrote 11 emails, but the contest goes on until October 6, so keep on counting, Erika!

Finally, I want to tell you, the whole group is speaking English very well -- keep on working, everyone!

Sincerely,
Mary

First lesson of the autumn

Dear English Team,

We have had our first lesson of the autumn, and it was a good one. I was so happy to see how much everyone knows about question forms!

We did practice questions in the past, the present, and the future. Everyone made questions for me, and there were some "typical" and some very "philosophical" ones, too. I hope you found my answers interesting.

Now we go on to business English and email writing. Your homework has 3 categories of email: Information, Action, and Help. Your homework is exercises B and C. Be sure when doing exercise C that you follow the 3 categories.  Attila and András, you can get a copy of the homework paper from Edit, Erika, István, or Tibor.

Your next lesson is about meetings and presentations, and also some grammar topics such as present continuous and countables and uncountables.

How many emails will you write this week? Count your emails from Thursday, September 23 to Wednesday, September 29. The winner is the person who writes the most emails!

Don't forget the nice links on the right side of this page! Enjoy them!

Sincerely,

Mary

Questions, anyone?

Dear English Team,

The English say "Better Late than Never!"

That is true for the re-start of our English lessons. So next Wednesday is it - September 22. Hope to see you all there.

Before the lesson, you can think about QUESTIONS. How do you make questions in English? Do you like to make questions in English? What was the last question you asked somebody in English? Will you ask me questions in the lesson next week?

This picture is from the blog

http://merlegkepeskonyvelotanfolyam.blogter.hu/

Well, I hope so! Please write three questions that you would like to ask me, your teacher. They can be about the summer, about what I am doing now, or  future plans.

Here is a link about questions to help you remember the forms:  http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/blgrquiz_questionforms.htm  At this link you can watch a video about questions, too.


Sincerely,
Mary

Summer's almost over!

Hi, everybody!

Summer's almost over, and I hope you are enjoying this little blog.

Today I want you to focus on the "News on VOA" link  It is especially good for you:

• you can listen or download any article as an mp3 file
• you can read and listen at the same time

Here is an example: fresh news about women on the US Supreme Court, a new film series, and more.

Try it out!

I look forward to seeing you soon,
Sincerely,
Mary

English for the Summer

Dear Students,


We have a summer break from English lessons, but... 

You can practice English with the links on the right of this page.


Please choose a minimum of 3 from the list and practice during the summer.


Business English: it has many topics, and some games, too.
News on VOA: You can listen to a fresh news program every day!
Videos: listen and watch articles about news and people in the news
Weblinks: questions for you! Find the answers in the weblinks
Grammar: Choose one:  File 1, File 2, File 3 etc. and do all the exercises in the File.
Short articles: it is the website you used in the past. Choose a topic that is new for you!


We will have a review test when we meet again on September 7, so be ready!


Have a wonderful summer,
Sincerely,
Mary