Improve your writing

So we're coming up to that time of year again - exams! Some of you may be about to sit the Cambridge exams in March and some of you may be thinking about signing up now for the June exams. Whether you are doing the exams or not, it's always a good time to work on improving your writing in English. Purdue Owl has a good online writing lab which gives you advice on a wide range of things, from spelling and punctuation, grammar and writing conventions. There is also a useful section on emails. The website is designed for native speakers but it has some useful tips that are applicable to you too, so check it out.

Go to the website > > >

Another Student Story

A few months ago, back in December I posted a story which one of my student's had written as practice for the First Certificate Exam. I had promised to post another story but I got side-tracked. However, finally, here is that other story from one of my student's.

Emma could not believe what she saw in front of her. She had been waiting for that moment for a long time and the time had come. Her father was in front of her holding a bunch of keys, it was her birthday present!!!. They have bought a car for me!, she thought. She was really excited and she started to shout and jump. Since she was eighteen she had been thinking about all the things that she could do with a car; go to the beach, drive around Europe, run her brother over... Having a car was her biggest desire. When she stopped shouting and jumping, her father, who had been watching that incredible show, walked up to her and said "Emma take these keys and go downstairs, you have to help us to bring in the shopping from the car".

(Javier Perez)

Personally, I thought this story was really funny! I hope you enjoyed it too. Come on guys! Feel inspired and send in a story of your own for the blog!

A Student Story

One of my First Certificate students has very kindly allowed me to publish a story she wrote as practice for Part 2 of the writing exam. I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I did and that it inspires you to perhaps send in a story of your own to be published on the blog. The only rule is that the story must begin with ‘Emma could not believe what she saw in front of her” and be no longer than 180 words.

Here is Monica's story.

Emma could not believe what she saw in front of her. For the first time in her life she was afraid. She started to sweat and for a while she stopped breathing.

Come on, Emma. It's impossible, you've never been a fearful person. But, she realized after a few seconds that over the last two weeks strange things had been happening around her.

First, each time she came home the door was open. It was probably her husband's fault, however he doesn't usually forget to lock it. Secondly, why did the lights turn out so often? And it always happened when she was alone. And finally, the most frightening thing, what about this sound (so scary) that she had been hearing lately?

Then she remembered an old story; if someday, somewhere, somehow you see your own vision in front of you, you'd better run because the curse is following you.

(Monica Huerta)

Email English Returns

For those of you who did the Email English abbreviations quiz earlier in the month, you might like to check your answers while learning more about email abbreviations and emoticons. Don't worry if you didn't do the email quiz, you still might find the Oxford Better Writing website useful, especially if you are thinking of doing an exam. And for those of you who are not interested in exams or improving your writing, the site also has some groovy word games such as crosswords, hangman and scrabble. So there is no excuse! Go check it out now!

English Exams

In three weeks some of you will be sitting an exam in English, either the Cambridge First Certificate, the Advanced or the Proficiency. Hopefully, you will pass this exam with flying colours! (If you fail it though, you can always resit it at a later date). However, I hope that everyone is successful and to help you study and revise for these upcoming exams I have found a few links to websites that can help with exam preparation.

Cambridge ESOL > > > (This is the official site for the Cambridge exams where you can find out general information about the exams and what is expected of you and you can download practice papers.)

Flo-Joe > > > (This website contains advice and practice for all parts and levels of the Cambridge Exams. A lot of the site is free of charge but if you want to have full access you will have to pay a subscription fee.)

Splendid Speaking > > > (This website aims to help you with Paper 5, the oral test. It contains useful phrases and vocabulary, tips and podcasts of people doing speaking tasks with tapescripts and comments.)

Fullspate > > > (This site has some tips and set phrases to help you improve your writing in Paper 2 of the FCE and the CPE, although it is also worth a look if you are doing the CAE.)

Hope this helps! Happy studying and lots of luck in June!

World Book Day

As you may have heard, today is World Book Day. In 1995 UNESCO decided to make this day the international day of reading, publishing and copyright. The 23rd of April was chosen for two main reasons. The first is that since 1923 in Catalonia people have celebrated Saint George's Day with men giving roses to their sweethearts and receiving a book in return. The 23rd of April is also the date on which many great authors from history have died including Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare, Inca Gasrcilaso de la Vega and Vladimir Nabokov. To find out more about World Book Day you could check out the UNESCO webpage.

Do you like reading? Do you think you are a bit of a bookworm? Have you always got your head in a book? If so, why don't you write me a review of the last book you read or your favourite book. I would love to read them and the best ones could be published on the blog! Tell me something about the plot, the characters, the reasons you like the book and who you would recommend the book to. I look forward to receiving your reviews. Remember you can send them to me at blcblogger@british-blc.com. Happy reading and writing!

Emails in English

Do you have to write emails in English for your job? Do you wish you had a list of useful expressions to help you write those emails? Do you want to know how to sound polite even when you are requesting things with urgency? Do you want to know the best way to start and end your emails? There is a website with activities that you can use to teach you all that. So what are you waiting for? Get practising right away!

TEACH ME EMAIL ENGLISH PLEASE! > > >

Writing Film Reviews

When deciding to watch a film many people like to read what others have thought about it before paying to see it at the cinema or on DVD. I personally like to find out what people have said about a film by reading viewers reviews on the IMDB website. However, perhaps you prefer to read what professional critics have said, in which case you could check out the Rotten Tomatoes site.

Perhaps you have seen some of the recent releases in Spain at the moment and would like to voice your opinion? You could check out this site on how to write a review and then send one to me to publish on the blog! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that somebody out there will send me something!

Christmas Acrostics

An acrostic is type of poem, although it doesn't have to rhyme, which utilises the letters of a word to begin each line. The poem then explains the word or the topic throughout. Here is an example of an acrostic I have written about Santa Claus.

Slowly he creeps down the chimney
And leaves gifts under the tree.
Next, he has a sip of whisky
That was left out by you and me
And then he fills up our stockings and
Calling Ho, Ho , Ho,
Leaps back up the chimney
And away he goes.
Usually we wait a while before waking up out parents,
Shouting "Santa has been, come on, come on, lets open up our presents!

Why don't you try to write an acrostic about something Christmassy, we would love to read it!

What colour am I ?

Can you guess what colour I am from the following description?

I am a bright colour. I can be seen flying through the air on the wings of the Admiral butterly and slithering across the ground in the markings of the Coral snake. I'm the ladybird scurrying along the garden wall in summer.

You can see me in a glass of fine Ribera and on the lips of children eating chips drenched in sauce. I'm the sweet strawberry and the spicy chilli, the colour of pain and yet the colour of love.

I'm the colour of postboxes and phone booths and double decker buses along the streets of London. I'm the apple that poisoned Snow White.

I'm sexy and I'm dangerous. What colour am I ?

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment box. Perhaps you would even like to submit your own colour riddle?

Halloween and Autumnal Haikus

The 31st of October is Halloween and children all over the US and the UK will be out getting dressed up as ghosts, vampires or skeletons and running around their neighbourhoods knocking on doors and shouting 'Trick or Treat'. If the neighbours have any sense they will fill the children's buckets with sweets (candy - AmE), or wake up to find that they homes have been covered in egg!

Although dressing up and going trick or treating is the traditional way to celebrate Halloween, we at the BLC Blogger have thought of a cleaner and less troublesome way to mark the occasion...

...Have you ever heard of a Haiku? A Haiku is a Japenese style of poem which usually consists of three lines which have a 5, 7, 5 syllable pattern. Haikus usually contain a reference to a season of the year or to the natural world and therefore Halloween and Autumn provide lots of scope for a haiku.

Can you write a Haiku for our blog? If you are feeling creative post an entry in the comments box! If you need some inspiration, or if you just fancy reading some autumnal haikus, check out this web page.

No besos

Contrary to popular belief, in English we do NOT end personal letters with "Kisses,". The closing you use will depend on your relationship with the person you are writing to, and will range from "Love," (for family and close friends) to "Best wishes," or "All the best," (for people you know personally, but are not very close to you).

If you would like to add some kisses (and hugs), you can include "xxx ooo" ("x" for the kisses and "o" for the hugs) after your name. These are usually written like the example: three and three, but of course, you can add as many or as few as you like.

Collins Word Exchange has some nice examples of personal letters.

More simile stories

Here are a couple more simile stories, these ones written using as + adjective + as + noun similes in English. One's a brain teaser. Can you work out the answer?

A friend of mine wanted to set me a problem to solve. "It's as easy as pie," he said.

In the story, two friends meet in the street. One asks the other, "You were as crazy as a loon and you got married 20 years ago, didn't you?"

The second one answers, "Yes, and I am as happy as Larry."

The first one asks, "And do you have children?"

The second man answers, "Yes, I have three daughters with hair as black as coal. If you multiply all three of their ages, the product is 36. And the sum of theirages is the number of this house. If you are as clever as you think you are, you will be able to tell me my daughters' ages."

The next day, the first man phones the second and says, "Last night I was as busy as a bee trying to calculate your daughters' ages, but I thought you should give me another clue."
The second man says, "You're right, I forgot to tell you that the eldest plays piano."

What are their ages? [See below for the answer.]

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My friend Daniela told me the most incredible story last week. Of course, she's as mad as a hatter, so you have to take everything she says with a grain of salt.

Now, the first thing you need to know is that she and her boyfriend Jeffrey are as different as chalk and cheese. He's as sweet as pie, and she's as happy as a cat with two tails to be with him. They were hiking in a national park when they suddenly came across a bear standing in their path as bold as brass.

As Daniela's as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, it's not surprising that she turned as white as a sheet and ran off as fast as greased lightning. Bob, however, remained as cool as a cucumber, and just stood there on the path as quiet as a mouse. And wouldn't you know it, as sure as God made little green apples, the bear slowly walked up to him. Bob was as pleased as Punch that the bear only sniffed [smelled] him a bit, cuffed [hit with an open paw] him hard across the head as playfully as a kitten, and ambled off [walked slowly away]. Jeff had been as helpless as a baby in the situation, but luckily he survived.

Why don't you try writing a story yourself using some other similes, and post it here?

[Answer: The girls are 2, 2 and 9. This is the only possibility, because there are only two sets of numbers which add up to the same total (13): 2, 2 and 9 and 1, 6 and 6. As the first man knows that 13 is the house number, he needs more information to determine which choice is correct. When the second man tells him that the eldest ONE plays the piano, he knows it can't be the 1, 6 and 6 option, in which there are two eldest daughters, six-year-old twins.]

Similes with "as if/though"

We've been talking about similes in one of my classes, and my students wrote some group stories to practice similes with "as ... as ..." and "as if/though". They're really very interesting, so I thought you might like to read them. [The parts in quotes are my editorial suggestions] They were given themes to start them off:

Fear

I was in the middle of the Amazon, desperately running and escaping from someone, I don't remember very well who, when I suddenly fell down with no possibility of getting up [and couldn't get back up]. I realised five snakes were beginning to surround me as if an octopus was trying to embrace me. My skin felt dirty and sticky as if I were covered with amniotic fluid inside an octopus egg about to hatch. But my soul was as calm as that of a baby. I felt that peace inside, then I knew, I was dead.

Freedom
Suddenly I found myself in the middle of an unrecognizalbe city. I was lost and felt like a dog abandoned at a petrol station [AmEng gas station] or a Touareg in the fog. Suddenly a noise coming from the end of the bridge made me move towards it, as alert as if an intangible force was drawing me. I could feel myself floating along quickly. The nearer the sound I was, the more excited I got, as if I were approaching to meet the one possessing the secret that could bring the world to a peaceful era. Suddenly the light of a headlamp focused on my eyes, I could not continue walking ...

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If you notice the grammar, there are three different types of similes in these stories:

as + adj. + as + noun
as if/though + subj. + past tense
like + noun

NB: In the second type, you may have noticed that the forms of the verb 'to be' (was/were) do not correspond to those used in "real" time. This is because when we talk about "unreal" or "imaginary" time (for example, in the 2nd conditional), with I and he/she/it you can use either "was" or "were". Using "were" is normal in American English, and considered more formal in British English.

Many thanks to my students for allowing me to publish their writing here.

Brave Gelert

Here is a version of the story Brave Gelert written by one of our students:

Once upon a time in the Middle Ages, in an unexplored part of North Wales, there was a gorgeous valley surrounded by enormous mountains. The mountains protected the valley against the cold winds from the north. Thus, the climate was warm for most of the year. This fact, together with the frequent rains, led the soil to yield sensational harvests.

The inhabitants of the valley were happy people who worked the land, from which they got sufficient money, so they lived comfortably. Part of the money they earned by selling their produce in the city at the end of the valley was sent to their much-admired prince Llewellyn. Llewellyn lived in a luxurious castle with his baby son Peter and his dog Gelert. Gelert had been Llewellyn's main support since the death of his wife, Alice, when she gave birth to Peter. If it hadn't been for Gelert, Llewellyn wouldn't have succeeded in coming to terms with his wife's death.

One sunny day it happened that the three of them went to spend the day in the southern part of the valley, in a small cottage of theirs. After having lunch, Llewellyn went hunting, leaving Gelert in charge of little Peter. While Llewellyn was enjoying himself, two wolves smelled the little baby and went to him: that day they were going to have a great feast. But when the wolves were approaching the cottage, Gelert heard them. Like a loyal friend, he hid the baby in some bushes
behind the cottage. Afterwards, he faced the wolves fiercely, without thinkin of his own life. He managed to kill both of them. However, that was at the cost of a serious wound to his neck, which oozed blood continuously. Tired, he lay down to sleep.

In the meantime, Llewellyn had been hunting and having fun. In such happiness, he couldn't imagine what danger his companion Gelert had been in. Despite the fact that he was having a good time, he decided to come back when it started to rain.

When he reached the cottage, he could see Gelert covered in blood. Just an instand afterwards, he could see that his son's cot was empty. The logical conclusion sprang to his mind immediately, so he took up his sword to take revenge. After having killed his sleeping dog, he heart his son's cries, which led Llewellyn to him. Just behind the cottage he found the two dead wolves, which made him understand everything.

Deeply sad and wanting to die, he couldn't regret his rash and unfair attitude more. Close to tears, he carried the dog to the top of the hill and buried him. Then he collected a pile of heavy stones to mark the grave. He couldn't be the same again. His soul was dead forever and the fertile valley turned into a desert. The grave is still there.

-- Beautifully written, Ana!