You all know how much I love TED talks, and would like to use more of them in our lessons. But they sometimes speak SO FAST and the topics are sometimes tricky...

So wow what a brilliant idea, here you can find TED talks according to language level:

http://lingorank.com/talks/


Well here we are second Sunday in Advent already. Some of us have been looking at the magnificent Canterbury Cathedral this week. Here's more info:
 http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/

And that famous murder...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtJX0430bQw


And just in case you have time this week here's an online phrasal verb  quiz:

http://www.stuff.co.uk/phrasal.htm

Good morning and welcome to this week's slightly late Penguinet. Yesterday I was so caught up in pine branches and candles etc that I completely forgot I should be writing to you here.

So maybe this is a chance to consider different ways of apologizing:

http://esl.about.com/od/smalltalk/a/Apologizing-In-English.htm

http://www.engvid.com/ways-to-apologize-sorry/

http://www.english-test.net/esl/learn/english/grammar/ii064/esl-test.php


Now that I hope you have forgiven me, let's continue.

Today is St Andrew's Day, St A being the Patron saint of Scotland.

To whet your appetite about the country:


http://www.visitscotland.com/

More about St Andrew:
http://www.scotland.org/features/the-history-of-saint-andrew-of-scotland/


Braveheart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIpwE8_-tWs

And the lovely Amy MacDonald and the People of Glasgow at the opening of the Commonwealth Games (look out for old Rocker Rod Stewart at the end!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyrcQCYcn08

And our very own Pipes and Drums:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5q6odMvtJU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5q6odMvtJU

Happy Advent!

Good morning and welcome to our Thanksgiving Special.

The last Thursday in November is Thanksgiving in the USA. We've talked about this often in our lessons, but here's some extra info:

History of Thanksgiving Day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsdzjdT_LkY


Here's a tiny online quiz - choose the correct words:
http://a4esl.org/q/j/vm/m-thanksgiving.html

And a longer quiz involving (among other things) prepositions. Yaaaay!
http://www.manythings.org/voa/011119tia2.htm

And we can always count on National Geographic, this time from National Geographic Kids:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/history/first-thanksgiving/


Last but not least, let's watch what Charlie Brown has to say about it all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ961y0VKEk

How the world can change in a few seconds...

We are all thinking about France this weekend, so let's take the opportunity to look at French words in English:
http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/frenchinenglish_2.htm


It all started with the Normans of course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7SX3ulV_tk
(This is part one, other parts are available on YouTube)


A Battle of Hastings Game:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/normans/launch_gms_battle_hastings.shtml

And everything in England changed for ever:
http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/

Things went from bad to worse between our two countries:

All about Agincourt:
http://www.agincourt600.com/
and
The Battle of Trafalgar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muxsFSRQgbg

But sooner or later along came the the 'Entente cordiale'
http://www.guizot.com/en/politics/entente-cordiale/


Well, it's a blustery day here in Ahsen-Oetzen, so I will leave you with a weather vocabulary game:
http://www.eslgamesplus.com/weather-vocabulary-esl-interactive-board-game/

Oh my goodness, what an exciting 48 hours.

When I got back from work on Thursday, there was an email from the BBC.

The BBC!!!!

A Journalist had read something I had written about the refugee situation here, and wanted to talk to me.

Now, when the BBC calls I answer so I replied immediately and within five minutes Journalist Charlie and I were chatting away.

He said that Mark Mardell, a very famous BBC Journalist, wanted to visit rural Germany and see how the refugee situation was working out. (Last week he was in Strassburg talking to politicians.)

By 5.30pm Thursday evening we knew that Mark and his Editor, another Mark, would be arriving in Bremen on Friday morning. We arranged for Horst to pick them up and bring them to downtown Morsum.

I then phoned and emailed local people and students who I thought had connections with or opinions about the situation. And they came, along with some refugees.

On Saturday I escorted Mark through the market in Achim, for 'local colour' and more interviews.

It was all so interesting and both Marks were so interesting and interested.

I'm still pinching myself that this really happened.

But it did, and you can  hear the result here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnz4

Good morning again from Penguin HQ. Hope you all had a happy Halloween!

After a great few days in beautiful Stolberg it was back to work this week and of course back to the Rugby World Cup.

Here's the best of all hakas:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2015/10/30/haka-all-blacks-new-zealand_n_8429158.html

And here's an online preposition quiz  on the topic of Rugby:
http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-43382.php

Rugby is actually a town in England, here's a short clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Er3LQFbro
And the town Website:
http://www.enjoyrugby.co.uk/enjoyrugby/site/index.php

And the All Blacks, World Champions,  Website
http://www.allblacks.com/

One challenge many students face is hearing the difference between words like 'walk' and 'work' and pronouncing the difference between 'cherry' and 'sherry'. Here's an interesting online Audio concentration activity:
http://www.manythings.org/ac/ac.html

Enjoy!

Phew phew phew what an exciting day that was yesterday, two fantastic games of Rugby. Wales (sob) just losing to the Springboks and then the All Black taking France to the cleaners and showing everyone how Rugby should be played.

There's an idiom hidden in that sentence. Here are some more:

http://a4esl.org/q/h/9807/km-animalidioms.html

http://a4esl.org/q/h/9801/sb-idioms.html


https://www.englishclub.com/ref/Idioms/Quizzes/Food_1/index.htm


Some of us talked about the Queen last week. Here's a link to the Royal web page:


http://www.royal.gov.uk/

And here is the story of the Royal Family and the Rugby World Cup:

https://storify.com/BritishMonarchy/rwc2015?utm_source=embed_Header


So now I have to mentally prepare for today's games. Enjoy your week!

Good morning everyone: the first frost of autumn has touched our garden overnight.  Note to self: must bring in the agapanthus.

Britain has been in a baking fever the last weeks: The Great British Bake Off finished last Wednesday, and what a thrilling final it was.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013pqnm

is a link to the Programme Website and there you can scroll down for recipes and stories.

The World Rugby Cup continues and just gets more and more exciting. Next week we'll be looking at more flags and countries so here's some online practice for capital cities:

 http://www.eslgamesplus.com/countries-and-capitals-drag-and-drop-spelling-game-for-esl/

We saw last week how important it is to recognise if a word is a noun or a verb. Try out your skills here:

http://www.english-online.org.uk/games/verbnounbothnew.htm

Enjoy!

Jubilations here in downtown Morsum as Australia beat England in the Rugby World Cup yesterday evening. This means England and Wales are through to the quarter finals and England are out!

It was an Aussie week anyway, what with Cousin Nicholas' visit.
Nicholas' wife Lorraine told us about the Bilby, an Aussie animal, which is replacing the Easter bunny.

 
 
 
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/australia-quiz/
So Horst has been busy making bilbies.

Let's take the chance to look at some Downunder English


http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/english/english.htm

http://www.elllo.org/study/australia/english_2004.htm


http://www.australia.com/en/things-to-do/art-music-culture.html


 http://a4esl.org/q/h/9801/mg-australia2.html

Good morning from Penguin HQ!

The Rugby World Cup started this week, what excitement. Unfortuantely Wales has lost its two very best players due to injury, so we are not expecting  many wins.

Here's the official Website:
http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/index.html

And here's a worksheet about the competing countries:

http://www.henry4school.fr/Sports/pdf/20%20countries%20Rugby%20World%20Cup%202015.pdf

This week some students were struggling with since, for and ago.
Here's some practice:

http://a4esl.org/q/h/lb/usf.html

http://www.esltower.com/GRAMMARQUIZ/intermediate/since%20for%20last%20ago.htm

And a recommendation from a friend learning Dutch:

Duolingo:
https://www.duolingo.com/

Make sure the page is in German and then you can choose to learn English. It's free and, dare I say it, fun!

Good morning everyone, it being September, back-to-school month, The Penguinet is raring to go again.

It's been a busy summer.

Most of this year has been spent worrying about my Mum, who has been in and out of Hospital since April. I am now a very frequent flyer on KLM.
Anyway during my last visit at the end of August she decided she wanted to go into a Care Home and with 24 hours was in Hendford in Yeovil.
http://www.caspiacare.co.uk/hendford/
I then had five days to move everything personal into her new room and clear out her house ready for sale.
It was great fun for me to try and make her room as personal and homely as possible.
And she is loving the homemade cakes every day!


At the beginning of August we squeezed in a visit to the beautiful Spreewald - where it was absolutely boiling hot - including a Fürst Pückler Parfait in Schloss Branitz in Cottbus, home of Fürst Pückler himself.




So now you have caught up with our News and are eager to practise your English.

Here's a nice quiz about the use of already and yet:
http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/122.html


The Labour Party in the UK has had a busy week electing their new leader. Here's the BBC's Brief history of the Party:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_mAGXIWb9Q

Have fun!

Good morning everyone.
The Penguinet will be back in September. See you all then!

Good morning everyone from rainy (good for the garden) Morsum.

Much as I miss my dear students and our interesting discussions, having more time at home means more time listening to BBC R4. I cannot recommend this wonderful Station enough, and if you visit the Website you will find many programmes to Listen Again or download. It's all free.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4


I can also spend more time baking.  Today's cake is a Gooseberry Meringue pie.
Here are some gooseberry recipes:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/gooseberry

Gooseberry is also used in an Idiom:

To play gooseberry

https://www.englishforums.com/English/IdiomGooseberry/crmp/post.htm

Have a great week!

Good morning and back again from the UK, where my Mum is making unexpectedly good progress.
How nice.

I have been thinking about accents this week, so here are some interesting things to watch and listen to:

http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/seminars/speaking-bright-and-beautiful-english-shakespeare-english-language-council-lecture?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bc-teachingenglish


http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/seminars/iatefl-pronunciation-sig-natecla-london-conference-accentuate-bringing-pronunciation-fore?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bc-teachingenglish


Something we don't practise very often is spelling, although in English this is really, really tricky.
Here's an online spelling test:

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/spe-endings.html

And wow this is fun (once you learn how to do it!)

http://www.manythings.org/cts/8987.html

Have a great week!

Good morning from Penguin HQ, where I have been collecting goodies for you all to practise your English.


First, of course, a Borneo-Report:
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20150526-the-tribe-saving-borneos-forests

This tribe, the Penan, live in Sarawak which is the other Malaysian state on the Island of Borneo. But it's still a familiar theme for me.

Last week some of us talked about Music and poetry. Here are some poets reading their own work (Some of you will recognize Benjamin Zephaniah)


http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/poetry/outloud/

And yesterday there was a wonderful Play on BBC R4 about the Welsh Poet Alun Lewis. It's available to 'Listen Again':

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0613nxr


That's enough fun and loveliness for one day, so here's a Phrasal Verb quiz:

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar-vocabulary/phrasal-verb-videos/trials?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bc-learnenglishteens

Hope you all have a lovely day and a great week!
Next week The Penguinet will be away (yet again) in the UK; so see you in two weeks.

Well what with Yeovil and Borneo and Berlin things have been a bit frantic the last weeks. However with Her Maj visiting the Federal Republic this week, I cannot leave you all in the lurch!

This week we had a crisis re foil and film. Check out this useful glossary of packaging materials:
http://www.sealersales.com/uploaded/Information%20Only%20-%20Glossary%20of%20Packaging%20Terms.pdf

I've been looking for short stories to give you all to take to the beach. It's quite  tricky to find something to suit everyone, but maybe you can take a look here:
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/indexframe.html

There are also word games, puzzles and stories for all ages and levels. However they are not specifically for learners, but for native speakers, so be warned!

Here's a nice 'Adverb awareness Test'
http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/grammar/adverb/quiz200.html


Lots of us have been talking about the naked tourists on Mount Kinabalu.  Yesterday Laura posted a new photo of the mountain, which has suddenly developed white streaks...

Have a good day and an even better week!

What an exciting week this has been!

First, an explantory clip:

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/study-break/video-zone/how-general-election-works

Here's some political vocabulary:

http://www.learnenglish.de/vocabulary/elections.html

Some of you have to give presentations, here is an online tutorial;

https://www.englishclub.com/speaking/presentations-intro.htm

And for the rest of you, a quiz about Adverbs
http://www.esldesk.com/grammar/practice/identify-Adverb

And last but most certainly not least, Crest of Gordon led by Pipe Major Robin Davies at their Grade 3 Performance in Peine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl1s_szqyuw

Next Weekend The Penguinet is in the UK.

A new Princess! How very exciting!

Here's a documentary made by the BBC when Prince George was born:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8KS6XvlaEs


I spent yesterday planting new rhododendrons, azealas and tons of nastrutium seeds which were promptly eaten by two pigeons.
Shouldn't grudge them a Snack as today is International Dawn Chorus Day:

http://www.idcd.info/

Lovely photos and lots of information.


And here is an online Memory game for bird vocabulary:

http://www.eslgamesplus.com/vocabulary-of-birds-esl-bird-vocabulary-memory-game/


Back out to the garden!

Good morning everyone!

Some of us were tackling different types of adverbs last week. Still confused? This may help:

http://www.esldesk.com/grammar/Adverbs

(Scroll down to find it.)

Here's a nice easy quiz about adverbs & adjectives:

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/adjadv.html


Several students are planning their holidays in the UK/London.
Here's some great free info to download:

http://www.londonpass.com/free-download-centre.php

And for those of you who would like to read more English, this website has a (very) short story for all 365 days of the year:

http://www.eslfast.com/eslread/

Back from a busy time in the UK, The Penguinet welcomes all Readers!
This week lots of us spent time eating crisps.
Here's the Walker's Website
https://www.walkers.co.uk/
for further details.

I've been really busy getting ready for our Magna Carta lesson.
Here's a very short historical film about it:

http://film.britishcouncil.org/magna-carta

And some more modern treatments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xo4tUMdAMw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ7vUkbtlQA


For those of you wanting to work on your pronunciation,  the British Council has produced a new interactive Phonemic Chart:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/phonemic-Chart

And some 'Grammar Snacks':
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar-vocabulary/grammar-videos?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bc-learnenglishteens

Now off outside to enjoy the sun!
See you  next week.

At the end of a sad and horrible week, I just read this:


One tribal culture of South Africa has developed the philosophy of “ubuntu” – “I am because we are”.  It is described beautifully by the following story. “A researcher placed a basket of fruit by a tree, then challenged a bunch of children to race to the tree, and the winner would win the basket of fruit.  The children responded by holding hands then running to the tree together where they sat down and shared out the fruit.  The researcher asked the children why they had done this as the winner could have taken the fruit for themselves as the winner of the race, the children responded, “Ubuntu, how can one of us be happy if all the others are sad?”


The Penguinet will be in the UK next week.

It's a big week for King Richard III, or rather his Remains. More about that in weeks to come.

Keeping in historical mode, here is a short film explaining the history of English. I do wish they would speak more slowly on such films, but at least maybe it will help you all realize how s l o w l y and clearly I speak!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3r9bOkYW9s&feature=youtu.be


I'm a keen Facebook user thanks to my far-flung Family, but it's also great for finding help with learning English:

Voice of America:
https://www.facebook.com/voalearningenglish

BBC Learning English:
https://www.facebook.com/bbclearningenglish.multimedia

More Details on Wales:
https://www.facebook.com/storyofwales

And even some fun for you Grammar fans:
https://www.facebook.com/GrammarUpdates

Enjoy your day!

Just preparing some lessons about Pi day... great Information and Background here:

http://cheshirelibraryblog.com/

Of course Pi was first used by a Welshman from Angelsey:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2015/mar/14/pi-day-2015-william-jones-the-welshman-who-invented-pi

If you feel unsure about how to say different mathematical words and expressions, this YouTube Video can help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AOW3B1RKD4

And here's a fun online game to practice your maths:

http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/me3us/flash/index.html?launch=true


Enjoy!

Good morning, cough cough. My Cousin helpfully told me this week that in the UK the current cold/flu is being called "The 100 day cold"! Way to go, Cousin Janice!

Last week some of had fun introducing our favourite books, and what a varied lot they were.
This next week I will be bringing some extracts with me for the VHS Groups.

I think all of you will enjoy Benjamin Zephaniah. He's a Poet, Performer, author and "Troublemaker" and I think to get the full effect you have to watch him perform his Poems:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1DKCaR9OzQ

I love what he does with the English language and so do many others: in a BBC poll of the nation's favourite poets, he came 3rd after TS Eliot & John Donne!

Other students are going to be grappling with prepositions next week, here's some online practice:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/preposition_quiz1.htm

And this is a fun roulette-type game:

http://www.eslgamesplus.com/preposition-interactive-grammar-game-for-esl-wheel-game/

Now we all should go outside and get some sunshine!

I rise from my bed of sickness to pen you these lines...
Kidding aside I have really been what my Australian Cousins would call 'crook', but am hopefully recovered sufficiently to enjoy St David's Day, the Welsh National Day.
Climb onto our Magic Internet Carpet, and off we go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOv6qwIandk

Why not try a tasty Welsh recipe today?

http://mashable.com/2015/02/26/st-davids-day/

 And whilst you  tuck in, listen to some great Welsh Music:

The largest Male Voice Choir ever, in the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff (an older recording):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nFE3VSBWG0

 And our very own favourites, Only Boys Aloud, this time with subtitles in English & Welsh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwQu8aXl1b4


Hapus Dydd Gŵyl Dewi!

Good afternoon!
While I was looking for activities for next week I found some really exciting online things.
Macmillan has an excellent all-round site, but I have fallen  in love with this:
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/verb_wheel/

It's like a roulette wheel, or one-armed bandit, to help you practise your irregular verbs. Now that is fun!

Some groups have been listening to music to fill in the gaps in the lyrics. It is quite tricky. If you want to practise, try going to YouTube and then typing in the name of your favourite song then adding 'English subtitles'.
E.g.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJjvtNWV990

(That has Spanish subtitles too!)

A strange story this week was that Russian fighters were flying over (or near) Cornwall. So the BBC has published a handy guide to recognizing Russian planes:
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31537705

The BBC Magazine is always good anyway: short articles, Video links  and more.

Hope you all have a good week.

Welcome back everyone, and I hope it's not too late to wish you all a Happy New Year.
The snowdrops and cyclamen are already through in the garden. The cyclamen are particularly special as they are from Cornwall and I didn't really expect them to survive in this climate. Here's where I bought them many years ago:
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cotehele/
I planted them so they are the first thing I see when I open the door - a little bit of Heimat.

Some of us have been reviewing the present tenses this week. Here's some online practice for Eager Beavers:

http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/prestensum.html

I'm really excited about this afternoon as the second round of the Six Nations Championship is this weekend. This afternoon Wales play Scotland at Murrayfield:
http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/home.php

Here's a cute online Memory game to practise your sports vocabulary:

http://www.eslgamesplus.com/sports-vocabulary-esl-memory-game/

Have fun and Go Wales!