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.