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!