Good evening everybody,

Just waiting for my sweet potatoes and pulled pork to be  ready, makes me think of the Southern states of the USA and all that yummy food.

Here you can plan your trip:
http://www.travelsouthusa.com/

Here are some authentic recipes:
http://southern.food.com/

Oh how I love pecan pie...


And here are some lessons and quizzes to learn more about life in the USA:
http://www.esolcourses.com/content/topicsmenu/life-in-the-usa.html

As Diane always says, have fun y'all!

Good afternoon everyone,

Hope you didn't just get caught in the hail.

Those pesky adverbs continue to cause us trouble. So take a moment to practise:
http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/adverbsum.html

Now we've got that out of the way we can concentrae on the real stars of the week: The Queen and Shakespeare.

Here's the Website of the British Royal Family:
https://www.royal.uk/

Loads of lovely pix and lots of information.

Here's The Globe in London, so you can see what it would have been like 400 years ago to visit a Shakespeare Play:

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/

And here are more phrases we used everyday, from the Bard himself:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/phrases-sayings-shakespeare.html

The sun is shining again here so I can go and look at my tulips...


Enjoy!

I'm probably teaching my grandmother to suck eggs (Idiom!), but just wanted to check you are all enjoying Pinterest.
It's free, easy to use and has become  my go-to for vocabulary and lovely ideas.

Let's imagine we want to talk about tenses. Google 'Pinterest ESL tenses' and you will find pages like this:

https://de.pinterest.com/pinningteacher/teaching-verbs/

Click on one of the thumbnails and you will be led further to other similar and recommended pages, like this:


https://de.pinterest.com/source/en.islcollective.com/


It's an Aladin's cave of treasures...

Prepositions:
https://de.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=prepositions&rs=typed&0=prepositions%7Ctyped

Queen Elizabeth II:
https://de.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=queen%20elizabeth&rs=typed&0=queen%7Ctyped&1=elizabeth%7Ctyped

Corgis:
https://de.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=corgis&rs=typed&0=corgis%7Ctyped&remove_refine=queen%7Ctyped


But be warned, Pinterest is addictive!

Have a good Sunday and a wonderful week.

Sunday morning again so here I sit ready to share some ideas with you all.

Feel like reading some English?
Here are stories at all sorts of levels:

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/study-break/easy-reading?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bc-learnenglishteens


Not sure of your level? Test yourself here:

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/content?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bc-learnenglish

Prefer listening?

Visit and download ESL Podcasts:
https://www.eslpod.com/website/


For general browsing with lots of practice and help in all sorts of areas, visit the studyzone of the University of Victoria (Australia):

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/

Have fun and see you next week!

Good morning everyone,

What a lovely day yesterday! Just right for cleaning out our Pond.
Here's some vocabulary for Pond creatures:

http://www.wikipedy.com/pond_life_animals_plants_grass.htm

And some poems and quotations about spring (Horst is always talking about the blaues Band...)

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/springquotes1.html


Bluebells are a lovely sight in England in spring, here's the stunning Arlington bluebell walk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QYCveSKiEw

And here's a guide to other wildflowers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2niLTXqMkDc

Hoping for some sun today!

Good morning and Happy Palm Sunday.

Here are some Clips about traditions in English-speaking (well, one is Chinese, but it's Malaysia so that's OK) countries:

 Making Palm Sunday Crosses - A tradition at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox church:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WHMV1uADh4

 The distribution of Pax Cakes in Herefordshire : the round shortbread biscuits are given out by the vicar after the Sunday service. They are stamped with the image of a lamb and a blessing of “Peace and Good Neighbourhood” is spoken with each gift. The dole is believed to go back to a fifteenth century bequest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHLR6Jlfj0c

 I can’t resist this slide show of a Chinese mass in Penang, Malaysia on Palm Sunday 2013. (It’s a bit long.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDlhyUhpTXw

And let’s finish with “All Glory, Laud and Honour” on Palm Sunday in Stillwater, Minnesota.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vybSEKZQU6c



A Student mentioned this week that she thought she was having trouble with tenses.
Here's an overview:
https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/grammar/tenses_table.pdf
 and a quiz:
https://www.englishclub.com/esl-quizzes/grammar-5-tenses.htm

See you next week!

Good morning after a brief Birthday-Break The Penguinet is glad to return to normal Service.

What a few weeks it has been, and how I have enjoyed sharing my admiration for Ernest Shackleton with you.

Here's the short film many of us already watched, with original footage and photos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgh_77TtX5I

And here's a longer documentary (in German!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzA6msnWB-Q

This site is in general about the polar explorers:

http://www.south-pole.com/

Here are lots of quizzes to practise your Business English:

http://www.businessenglishsite.com/business-english-grammar-tests.html


To finish with a bit of fun, try these simple hangman games:

http://www.eslgamesplus.com/spelling-games/

Have an excellent week!

Good morning from bright yet chilly Morsum.

Although it's below freezing there are quite a few flowers to be seen in our garden; here's some vocabulary to help you:

http://www.anglomaniacy.pl/springFlowersTopic.htm

http://www.manythings.org/vocabulary/lists/c/words.php?f=gardening_verbs


For serious gardeners you can't beat the RHS:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/

and The National Trust:
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/gardens-and-parks

Or download the Podcast of BBC R4's Gardeners' Question Time:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qp2f


It's a big week ahead for me... just so excited!

Let's talk about Europe!

Here's the history of the borders of European countries - 6013 years in three minutes. Keep your eye on those islands at the top left, which from the Middle Ages stay remarkably untouched by all going on over on the Continent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxDyJ_6N-6A

So now the Brits have to decide what they want, and it's an emotional Argument.

Here Channel 4  clarifies some facts:

http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/


One Europe has a collection of interesting facts and infographics:

http://one-europe.info/

(I always wanted to know which countries in Europe are best at washing their Hands after using the WC.)

And here's an online quiz of European trivia:

https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/english/esl/activities_and_quizzes/quizzes/daily_life/europe

Good morning everyone and welcome, albeit February already, to The Penguinet in 2016!

I expect you are all bursting with good intentions to learn loads of English  this year,  and I will do my best to assist.

Here's a good place to start:

http://www.5minuteenglish.com/

Scroll down a bit and you will find a section on intonation, stress  and emphasis. You can click on the phrase to hear it being spoken, by an American voice.

This site also has a 'Daily Word'  and a "Q & A" section.

And for some fun (if you like crosswords) here you can find a load of online vocabulary-building crosswords:

http://www.eslgamesplus.com/interactive-crossword-puzzles/

It's Valentine's Day today so here's a quiz - are you a true romantic?


http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/love-sex/76824580/quiz-valentines-day

Have a great Valentine's Day and see you all soon.

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!