Summertime!

Thanks everybody for your involvement in our lessons and our extra projects, and for keeping high spirits despite all your hard work. Best of luck with your tests and exams! And then... 

RELAX! :)

A life to be remembered

To my second-year students:

As a follow-up to seeing The Young Victoria, I would like you to think of a historical figure whom you find fascinating and inspiring in any way. Apart from giving us a few basic facts about who the person was, please explain why you have chosen him/her, write about the way he/she affected you, and try to add an image and/or some video material (an interiew, a documentary, a lecture - anything) to give us some backround to the person's life and achievements. No "copy-and-paste" writing, please, but feel free to add links to pages  which offer information about your chosen hero/heroine.

Other students are also welcome to join in, if anyone finds the idea interesting enough.

First picture of Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth filming 'Before I Go To Sleep'

First picture of Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth filming 'Before I Go To Sleep' in London - London Evening Standard

"Debut novelist tells of thrill at watching his book brought to life."

Here is the first officially released image from the movie based on the book we listened to in class. Click on the link above to read more about the book, and to find out how the author feels about the adaptation. Would you like to see it?

DT in Warsaw

David Tennant talks about the Old Town in Warsaw, where he made his recent TV series "Spies of Warsaw". Has any of you seen it? It was on Polish TV in February, but it was really badly dubbed. How can anyone even try to sound like THAT! ;) You may hear that David Tennant's English sounds a bit different, and that is because he is Scottish. He didn't use his original accent in Doctor Who, though.

Five Card Story: Shopping gone bad

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Here is what I managed to come up with in response to the five pictures that came my way. I'm sure you will be much better at this ;)

a Five Card Flickr story created by alewan

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by Serenae

flickr photo by Serenae

flickr photo by Serenae

A young woman went shopping, but was lured into a strangely lit hair salon and decided to have an image makeover. When she finally left the shopping center it was dark outside. Then she remembered that she was supposed to buy a Christmas present for her baby-niece. She went back inside to find a toy shop, but when she reached it the whole building went dark! Was it a power cut? Then, one light bulb began to flicker faintly. However, there was no shop any more, just a damp, empty cellar. The only thing in it was a beautiful, rich, red flower lying on the floor. The woman thought, "I wish I hadn't gone shopping today." The flower filled the cellar with such an intense aroma that she... woke up, with her hair nicely cropped and dyed, and the hair salon full of floral scent.

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Work on your vocabulary!

As you can see, there are many more ways to say that something is "nice". Remember to express yourself in precise and interesting ways. Your readers will be much more involved in what they are reading, and will remember it better. This is what varied and rich vocabulary is for.

New team on board

Since the blog project has now been joined by a new group, I would like to welcome everyone and wish you a lot of ideas to write about and the willingness to share them with your readers. Since the "new" group's topic now is taking risks, you may write something about yourself from that perspective. Are you a risk taker? Do you take a plunge decisions easily? Or do you tend to play safe? I don't really mean extreme sports, but big life decisions and choices. Perhaps you want to tell us what your recent important decision was and how you went through the process of arriving at your choice?
If you have other ideas for this week's post, you can go ahead and use them instead. Whatever you write, please read it before you publish, just to make sure your English turns out as good you can make it. Also, if you notice an error after you've published your post, you can easily come back to the editor and correct it.

Here is something that should encourage you to write on your blog:



Have fun blogging!