Prepositions!

A link to a fun preposition game: preposition hangman

And a preposition quiz: you can do it!


Gloria Gaynor's version of I Will Survive:

Another version of I Will Survive by the rock band Cake

Past tense irregular verbs practice!

As promised, I found some more practice reviewing irregular past tense verbs.

Quizzes

10 question verb quiz multiple choice answers

Quick 10-verb quiz  English-Zone.com  type in answers

Another type-in quiz

Multiple choice was/were past tense quiz reminder: WAS is singular, WERE is plural (She WAS in the car, my brothers WERE upstairs)

Games!

Irregular Verb Jeopardy Game- can be played with a friend! 

Grammar Gold quiz game

More:

Irregular Verb Word List if you want to see a more complete collection of irregular verbs

Vacation and travels

Sorry about the troubles last week, and I hope you enjoyed sleeping in the whole week!

This week, we'll be wrapping up our talks about travel. See you on Tuesday!

Mr. Bean video links from class

Hello! I thought I'd post the Mr. Bean videos we watched to talk about travel. Enjoy!

Part one:

Part two:

Part three:

A few questions to think about:  (and perhaps answer one in the comments section)

• Does Mr. Bean behave like most people who travel?
• Which part of the videos do you think is funniest? 
• What can you say about how Korean and British hotels are different after watching this video?

Englishman in New York

Sting's official music video for "Englishman in New York."

Enjoy!

A few questions to think about-

• When do you think the video was made?
• What does Sting do in the video to show how he is different from other New Yorkers?
• How would you reshoot the movie today if you were directing it?

Here's a link to another version that has the lyrics printed in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1QkZhwylKA&feature=related

Stories for listening practice

I thought I'd share one of my favorite podcasts (recorded episodes available on the internet). Happy listening!

"The Moth" is an organization that collects stories told by people from all over the United States. Here are links to a few of my favorite stories:

It's a Bird, It's a Plane  -second story (that we listened to in class on Thursday) starts at 7:15 about problems while traveling

Sleepwalk with Me- a story about a man with a sleepwalking problem

Alex and Me- the story of a parrot learning to speak, read and talk



More about The Moth from their website (www.themoth.com) :

What is The Moth?

The Moth, a not-for-profit storytelling organization, was founded in New York in 1997 by poet and novelist George Dawes Green, who wanted to recreate in New York the feeling of sultry summer evenings on his native St. Simon's Island, Georgia, where he and a small circle of friends would gather to spin spellbinding tales on his friend Wanda's porch. After moving to New York, George missed the sense of connection he had felt sharing stories with his friends back home, and he decided to invite a few friends over to his New York apartment to tell and hear stories. Thus the first "Moth" evening took place in his living room. Word of these captivating story nights quickly spread, and The Moth moved to bigger venues in New York. Today, The Moth conducts eight ongoing programs and has brought more than 3,000 live stories to over 100,000 audience members.

• Does your family tell stories about the past? What's your favorite story?

Taking a poll!

We've finished our unit about talking on the telephone. What would you most like to study next?
(Leave your answer in the comments section!)

• Meetings
•  includes presenting ideas, agreeing and disagreeing, running a meeting, interrupting, structuring a talk and more 
• Travel
• includes how to book travel, checking in and out, eating out, riding in a taxi, dealing with airport problems and more
• Grammar 
• includes verb tenses, comparatives, questions, passive voice and more
• Email 
• making a first contact, writing either friendly or formal emails, writing a forceful email, explaining many ways, following up, complaints by email and more
• Projects  
• how to plan, make updates, justify changes, make excuses, announce a new project, talk about money, talk about employees, talk about future projects
• Dealing with people 
• small talk, making a suggestion, criticizing, praising, compromising, showing how to do something, ask for help, make offers and more
•  Socializing   
• how to meet up for the first time, how to catch up, how to tell a story, how to describe someone else, how to make and decline offers and more

More telephone practice

I hope you had a great Chuseok!

I found some great resources for more practice having telephone conversations. Visit the link below and click on the links under the "Module 1: Telephone" section. See you back in class on Tuesday!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/talkingbusiness/

Gaga meat dress update!

The designer of Lady Gaga's meat dress announced it will be dried so it can be saved. Wow!

http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2010/09/lady-gaga-meat-dress-to-be-preserved/

Telephone and Lady Gaga!

First a link to the Telephone song we've been learning:

And some of the costumes Lady Gaga wore in the music video:

And more interesting costumes and articles about the crazy singer!

• Click here- Lady Gaga's "meat dress" and other costumes the Video Music Awards
• Click here- Lady Gaga's "bubble dress"- is it copied from a famous designer?
• Click here- Lady Gaga loses underwear made by Queen of England's designer
• Click here- Time magazine names Lady Gaga "Most Influential Person of the Year"

Lady Gaga and Beyonce

Listen to sample telephone conversations!

Here's a great link to listen to and read telephone conversations. You can choose to listen, read or both. It's also good practice listening to a British accents.

Oxford English Press Telephone conversation

image from www.dr-susan.com

Cute panda bear welcomes you to Power Up blog!

Just to get things started, a cute panda bear who is not very good at hiding.