A history of the world...

... in a hundred objects.

Many of you are already tuning in to wonderful BBC Radio 4, and in that cas you will know about the series "A History of the World in 100 Objects". It's a magnificent row of 15-minute talks describing 100 objects which can be found in the glorious British Museum. Members of Staff there chose objects which they considered vital steps in World History. You can still download the podcasts, but why not visit the British Museum Site and find out even more:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/

The picture on the left shows one of the objects, a plate commemorating the Russian Revolution.

Writing this has ben unusually tiresom, as the letter "e" keeps getting stuck on my laptop. I think this is a consequence of eating toast too close. Or too clos.

Hav a good wk:)

When the autumn leaves fall...

Good morning all from beautiful autumnal Morsum.

Isn't that word "autumn" wonderful? Of course, our US cousins call this "The fall". Last week when I was in beautiful Maryland, people often said to me, "I love your accent!" "You're the one with the accent," I thought privately. But on that I'm not quite right. In many cases - and autumn is one - it's the US word which is the original, it's the Brits who changed - in the case of "autumn" during the 18th century when all things French became very fashionable.

Try this quiz to find out how bilingual you are:)

www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz113979dOe8bO.html

Hi from the US!!!

Really quickly from the US, to say... this Sunday Diane and I are off to New York City to see The Lion King on Broadway and I am So EXCITED!!!!!
Back home next week and more English for you then.
Love from all of us in Columbia Maryland.

Superheroes

When Laura was a little girl we lived in Florida. She went to the Montessori Kindergarten in Merritt Island in the afternoons and when she got home she could hardly wait to turn on the TV and watch "Superfriends".

Don't you just love Superheroes? I especially like the capes.

We could have done with Superhero several times this week; lots of things going wrong, misunderstandings - and the dreadful news from Borneo that a disgruntled employee had poisoned the water treatment system with cyanide: many fish died.

But we never let our heads hang and in the Quest to improve your English I have found the answer:

GRAMMARMAN

http://www.grammarmancomic.com/

It's great!

The last roses of summer

Good afternoon all, slightly later today as we whizzed to the fleamarket in Thedinghausen to buy games for your lessons - successfully I'm glad to say.

The news is so weird these days, isn't it? Single persons make strange pronouncements which are then flashed around the world, causing chaos and mayhem.

Anyway, good old VOA will certainly help you improve your English. Visit and explore this site, you will find links to grammar/vocabulary sections as well as interesting news stories.

www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home

Back now to the Thanhäuser Markt (this time by bike), promised His Nibs a Currywurst...

The Battle of Britain

Oh gosh, had the website chosen and the text partly written (mentally at least) for you this morning - when we listened to BBC Radio 4 while munching our broetchen. The news from the UK has been full of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain the last week or two, and today seems to be The Day. So, still in my slumberwear, I leapt to the laptop to quickly find some info for this week's students.

I stumbled upon

http://vimeo.com/cambridge

And wow wow wow!

Vimeo is a video-sharing site and lo and behold Cambridge University has a portfolio of fascinating videos there, you can even download them...

Have a great week!

Guten Appetit!

Well to keep you busy right from the start, I just read and loved:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/weekinreview/05gilbertson.html?ref=world
It's a great article about what different countries troops take with them to eat. You can click on Great Britain, Germany, Ukraine... fascinating.

Some weeks ago Laura-on-Borneo told me she was leaving work early to fetch Anya from Kindergarten, "To avoid the Ramadan traffic jams". Sabah is of course part of Malaysia, an Islamic state. Sabah itself has a mix of Islam, Christianity, and all sorts of other religions who all seem to get along just fine.
This week Ramadan was brought a bit closer to me when I was bleating in one group about not being able to drink tea or coffee in the morning (due to Lyme Disease medication) and one especially dear student looked at me. In that moment I remembered she is Moslem and asked if she is fasting. What a silly question, of course she is. In discussions this week à propos Thilo S., it struck me that I really do not know very much about Islam, or Islamic beliefs or customs.
So, for a tiny introduction I took a look at


http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/religion/Islam.htm





... maybe you will enjoy that too.