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!