Bore Da! (That's Welsh)

March 1st is a red letter day - not only my birthday (yep) but, more importantly for the world at large, St David's Day. 'Wie bitte?' I hear you all asking. Keep calm. St David is the patron saint of Wales, and March 1st is his very own day.
The UK is exactly that - a United Kingdom, of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It's like a family - none of the members really like each other but they know that when push comes to shove they will defend each other to the death.
My family comes from Wales, although South rather than North so really only Welsh-ish. Not Welsh-speaking and not mad on Welsh cakes and lamb.
On St David's Day patriots will be wearing a daffodil (or for gentlemen traditionally a leek, how strange), and taking part in Eisteddfods - festivals of poetry and song.
Find out more on: http://www.stdavidsday.org/

Calling all couch potatoes

Talk about a let-down. I got myself quite excited about the winter Olympics, prepared all sort of lovely crosswords and quizzes... and happily invited the students to tell me which events they had seen, who was their favourite sportsman etc etc.
That penguin was whizzing around the classroom really fast. Nobody was really interested in the olympics. They hadn't really seen any events (except for the noble student who remembered it was to be our topic and bravely switched on, becoming entranced by curling, along the way). So this week was an uphill struggle to say the least.
I don't give up easily as you all guessed, so would like you to take a look at
www.nbcolympics.com
which for sure will inspire you with Olympic fever.

Happy Valentine's Day

The best thing last week was that so many students told me they read this Blog, and even follow the links and practice their English.
That was wonderful news for me and warmed my heart, much in need of warming in this bleak winter.
So while wishing you all a very happy Valentine's Day I would like to point you in the direction of:

http://www.history.com/content/valentine

with love.

Planning a holiday?

I often get asked for recommendations or tips for English courses in the UK (or Malta). It's not so easy. One thing you should look out for is that the course is approved by the British Council, who will have checked that your teachers have some sort of certification and are most probably not axe-murderers. Courses are often rather expensive and (to tell the truth) I'm not convinced of if they are really worth the money.

So my recommendation? Go on a National Trust working holiday.

The National Trust - as you know - is the simply perfect British organisation which takes care of countless historic properties and acres of countryside in the UK, keeping it in trust, as they say, 'For ever, for everyone'. That's not cheap of course, and the NT is funded by donations, members, charity events - and is based on the work of trillions of volunteers - including, over the last years, my Mum, Laura, Horst & me.

Visit http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ and click your way through "holidays" (right hand side) to 'working holidays'.

This holiday may be a weekend or up to two weeks - you will be working in a team of (mostly) Brits - young and not so young, men and women, under the supervision of professional NT people and volunteer leaders. You can restore old buildings, clear gorse from Cornish hillsides, rebuild dry stone walls - well, take a look for yourself what's on offer.

And you know what, it's cheap. You stay in a (possibly quite basic) "basecamp", take turns in cooking the meals. There's plenty of free time and always the chance to go to the pub with your new friends. You will never, ever, get a better chance to improve your English and experience real intercultural challenges - starting from about €100.

I don't know what you're all waiting for!