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