First I'd like to thank you for the interesting questions you asked Dorothea before and while she was visiting the class. She really enjoyed the visit and agrees with me that you make a wonderful class.I’m pleased that you will be our guest. Surely, it will be an interesting evening.
Firstly I will tell you something about me.
My name is Agi Holdener, I’m married since nineteen years and I’ve got four children. With my family I’m living in Sörenberg, it is a beautiful small village in the mountains. Now with the Christmas stars and the snow it looks sometimes like a fairyland.
I’m working as a teacher for about 70%. The most important thing in my life is my family and even though I like my job I’m sometimes dreaming about staying at home and doing only the housework.
The whole family likes sport, in winter we’re skiing and in summer we’re hiking.
My boys are interested in football and hockey and if I want to talk with them I should also be.
If I can find any spare time I spend it in reading. It is possible that I’m reading a whole rainy Sunday… if my family let me do it and one of the children is keen on cooking.
I’m looking forward to seeing you.
Best wishes
Agi
And now my questions
Ø What was your first impression from Switzerland when you have been visiting for the first time?
Ø What do you think is typical Swiss – and what is typical American?
Ø Illya lives in Switzerland since several years. Are there any points she has changed in her views?
Ø And last but not least – what is your greatest wish for Christmas?
Root, 10 December 06
Dear Illya, dear Dorothea
My name is Mascia Zemp and I come from Ebikon, nearby Lucerne. Since about one year I leave in Root and I feel very well there.
I am 38 years old; I haven’t own children but a lot of them at school because I am a primary-teacher. Three hours a week I teach Italian at the secondary-school. I love speaking foreign languages and it’s why I am learning English. Perhaps the year after next I can start with teaching English but until then I have a lot to learn and to improve.
I would like to ask you some questions, dear Dorothea:
How did you feel, when your daughter Illya went to Switzerland?
Did you immediately agree with her or were you a little suspicious about her lives-plans?
What did you think, firstly, about her future husband and the different way of life of Swiss people?
How many times do you see Illya in one year? Do you miss her very highly sometimes?
What is your opinion about Mr Bush? Would you like to have another President?
I hope that my questions aren’t too indiscreet! J
I’m very pleased to meet you!
Love
Dear Dorothea
To get an introduction of me as a person you have to know some details about my self. I am 21 years of age and I am called Alexandra. There is one significant thing you have to know about my appearance - I have red hair and brown eyes.
Since the day of my birth on the 19th of February in 1985 I live in Lucerne. I am certain that the fact that on this 19th of February was carnival in Lucerne is the cause of my enthusiasm and fascination for carnival – but of course any the carnival in Lucerne I do like.
I am the result of a mixture from diffrent Germaine speaking courtiers of Europe, because I am not only Swiss I am also Austrian, what I am very proud of. My father’s family went after the Second World War to Switzerland and my great-grandmother went first from Bavaria to Austria. So through my vein flows Germaine blood too.
I work as a primary school teacher and I do this job now for the second year after the teachers college.
You know now what my profession is but you might be interested to hear what I am doing during my leisure time. As I kind of summary I can tell you that I really like to dance. This is my favorite sport and I do it passionately. Since about three years I dance ballet, before I started to do gymnastics what I still do. As a child I always wanted to learn Rock n’ Roll because my cosine danced it, but unfortunately there was no Rock n’ Roll dancing for Kids, so I never learnt it.
Questions:
What is Seattle famous for?
Have you always lived in Seattle? If not where have you lived all over the world?
What do you like about switzerland?
What do you do? What is your profession?
What is in your oppinion the biggest advantage of living in the USA, compared with other countries?
Dear Dorothea
7th December 06
Dear Dorothea,
I hope you don’t mind when I’m not that formal. My name is Sabine, but you can call me Bee!
I was born in Lucerne in the year 1977. I’m the youngest of four children. We lost our father when I was three years old. My mother decided not to marry again.
I went seven years to primary school (I repeated one year). Afterwards I went to the secondary school for three years. Then I took the chance to become a teacher. I passed all exams of the Teachers College with success.
That was a time I had enough of school and I worked as a shop assistent. Then I went back to my roots and taught children in Zurich. That was a really hard job. Later I also worked as a security for one year. It was interesting but didn’t give me enough challenge!
Fortunately, I found in Emmenbrücke a place where I can work as a teacher again.
My appearance is not very conspicuous. But everybody can hear my laughing. I have red, middle-short hair. Actually I’m not really thin! I’ve got blue eyes and big lips.
I’m very excited to meet you. I wonder how you look and how you are!
Now to my questions:
· I’d like to know how you think about George Bush.
· Which is your favourite for the next President?
· Can you remember what you exactly were doing at the time point when the plains crushed into the Twin Towers?
· What is the worst thing that could happen in your life?
I’m happily looking forward to seeing you soon.
Bee
Where is this foreigner, this speaker of English, this mother of Illya? Oh where can she be?As usual we started punctually. Illya asked who would like to write the summary. …. And then there was a long silence in the class room. After a few minutes we discussed if the summaries are useful and necessary. There’s no doubt that it would be helpful for the writer – he or she can improve their writing skills. Another aspect is that anybody has a chance to get back and can see what was important for the writer.
The result of this discussion was that I write the summary. It was because it is not too hard – so I'll do it now.
Illya said that her mother would be with us during the last lesson before Christmas. What shall we do at this time? Now, everyone has the possibility to come up with some valuable ideas for this special lesson.
After it, we looked in groups of 4 people at the life maps and the drawings which we had done for homework. We had to find out which picture match with which writing. It was enjoyable and interesting.
The next point was a vocabulary exercise. No time to loose… we had to fill in the gaps with collocating words like invest, save, make and so on.
In groups of two we tried to find an example and a definition for each time – word. And I recognised that I could save time if I organise my daily work, so maybe I have a lot of free time which I can invest in improving my English, and probably in the test I will not run out of time…..
Before we enjoyed the break, we had done a Listening task (p 126 in the coursebook).
Making notes could be helpful.
After a break we could practise the grammar part. Gerund or infinitive – that was the question.
Illya gave us the rules and the examples and after looking also in the grammar part in the book on page 219 we did a Practice Sheet and discussed about the solutions.
So I hope I’m in the know.
The last few minutes we looked at pg 56 and 57 and discussed in pairs about the meanings of the words.
And now in final step, I write the homework:
Vocabulary Coursebook pg 54 time
Writing Workbook pg 41 – 43
Reading Workbook pg 28 / 29
Invest time in looking at the blog….
I would just like to add that it was another very interesting, informative and well-structured lesson.
Last week we watched a video about a teaching challenge, and about punctuation. Now I have to admit that the benefits for your own punctuation may not be great, but you certainly will have gained an awareness of the damage that can be done with false punctuation.To warm up, we exchanged homework from the listening text “gathering information” (p.31):
- Agreement: yes, I do go along with the fact that,…(note: you can use do to emphasize sth)
- Comparison: men often exaggerate…, whereas women tend to do the opposite.
- Phrases not topic related:
- Useful words like immerse yourself, to blend into, subconscious, stay ahead, in turn,…
Today’s topic: Ads
How effective are ads?
Metaphors or similes
A car is like an egg carton…
A car is as protective as an egg carton
As fun as…
Teaching is the same as all those jobs rolled up together (into one).
Some useful words:
| Informal expressions | Formal expressions |
| A really good time | An interesting, enjoying time |
| A lot of good things | I gained much useful information |
Note:
What’s more? We did another good speaking task: How influenced are you by ads???
Furthermore, we carried on a special reading task such as “gapped text” in course book p.36.
There are some useful tips in the blue box on p.36!
Moreover, we listened to an interview about the minority languages.
We answered some questions after the first listening, than we finished the multiple choice task on p.38.
Writing: reports on p. 34/ 35
Voc: advertising hoarding = billboards = poster boards
pithiness = succinct = to the point = clip and clear
Tips for a good report
Homework
To sum up, the lessons were changeable, fruitful and an effective. The eve flew in no time once again.
Have a fruitful week…
Written by MM
Firstly, we built groups of three then we discussed about our solutions on the sheet of Union Jacks. After a few minutes we started to bet on our solutions. We had to decide whether the flag is written right or wrong. If the flag was wrong, we had to consider which verb tense might be the right.
Secondly, we read a worksheet about tenses in context. Afterwards we added the different verb phrases on the timeline. Illya gave us some examples of sentences in which the time tenses also differed. Then we shortly played those situations like in a theatre. It was really funny!
Thirdly, we heard the listening about ethnography on page 31 in the coursebook. Furthermore, we talked about convenient adjectives which go with gathering information. In order to this we discussed about the advantages and disadvantages in different ways of obtaining information.
Finally, Illya gave us our homework for the next tuesday. We have to do the writing on page 26/27 in the workbook. On page 33 laguage focus 1 and page 34 word formation in our coursebook. In addition, we have to do the worksheet 53 and 54 with key. On page 227 we can read the text of the listening (voci).
This week we begin a new unit on gathering information. While browsing some of the links I get from various sources, I found this. This text- The Future of Communications - is quite appropriate, and there are many many more texts to read!
Since I failed to designate someone to write a summary, and since quite a few participants were missing or had to leave early, I've put myself in charge for this week.After two weeks of holiday everybody was full of enthusiasm and curious about the evening. As usual we learnt lots of interesting and useful things. I will note the most important points.
At the beginning we made a brainstorming about weather words and expressions such as “a cloud on the horizon”, “to be snowed under”, “to freeze your buns off” and more. Then we could hardly wait to talk to each other about our absolutely marvellous and awesome holidays. Illya listed a few expressions for the reason that we could not only talk about our “nice holidays” but also about our incredibly enjoying time we had.
After that we continued with a class activity which consisted of a very ordinary but useful topic: time and money. Every student got either a comment or an answer and everyone had to look for his or her partner. As all had found each other we got a work sheet which we answered with our partners.
Before doing the listening part in our books (p. 18) we made an oral exercise. The task was to compare three pictures (which were taken about 50 years ago) with the present. Then the very interesting listening exercise followed, it was about time capsules. The text was quite funny, it was unbelievable what a particular Dr Thornwell Jacobs put in his time capsule for our posterity (e.g. kitchen utensils, a Donald Duck doll, fruit made of papier maché or beer).
At the end we got to know useful things about how to write a formal or an informal letter. We had to put together two dissected letters and try to find out which one the informal and the formal letter was. In order to not forget these differences we noted the most important expressions in our notebooks (e.g. I’m writing to ask you a favour. è informal / I have a further request. è formal)
Homework:
- Writing task: complete the formal letter (B) on the worksheet about Timson’s Historical Tours and finish both letters. Write it on the backside of the sheet.
- Book p. 20: Language focus 1: study the meaning of tenses
- Book p. 23: Reading: check your speed rate (section 1: ca. 178 words)
- If you have enough time: book, p. 27
As it is in heaven
It’s a must for everybody who wants to watch such a marvellous and touching dramatic and humorous film.
The story is based on a famous star conductor who finishes his international musician’s career after a heart attack. He goes back to his “life roots”, the place where he grew up. Settling in the small Swedish village, he buys an old former school building and wants to start a new life. A short time after, he becomes the conductor of the village choir which sings very badly at the beginning. In this choir there are different singers, who have special characters. Some of them are witty, others are strong believers in God and one of them is physically disabled. But each of them plays an important role in this choir. In the choir’s rehearsal there are ups and downs. But the rehearsal is a very important part of their simple lives. Most of them had never left this village. Nevertheless, they take part in a choir competition abroad.
Firstly, I loved this film due to picturesque film scenes and the story, which contains countless humorous sequences of ordinary life. Secondly, I was very impressed by the good amateur actors and actresses. Thirdly, the funny and tragic story has a vivid atmosphere. In addition, the film shows how people first suffer from the “small village life” – everybody knows and controls each other – but at the end they free themselves little by little.
It’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen for the last 10 years.
It’s at the Atelier cinema in Lucerne (the 48th week).
Written by Markus Meier
When looking through this site there is an extremely useful option you can use with it. You can double click on any word and you will find a dictionary entry.
">Link
