TO ALL MY ESL STUDENTS and TODAY, to YOU, someone NEW! !

You are all invited to join in and be pro-active! This blog also belongs to you.

Here are some of the ways you can participate:

* COMMENT (even if you make mistakes) C'est pas grave!
You will get better and better! You cannot GO BACK!
PLEASE leave a COMMENT (click on comment at the bottom of post and follow instructions)

* SHARE INFORMATION with your classmates, they will surely appreciate your findings:
New ESL sites, stories, anecdotes, jokes, games ...
* WRITE what's on your mind! How you feel about your learning process.
You are not alone! Group 'therapy'!!!

HAVE a dose of FUN!!!
* LET me KNOW that you are there to encourage... ME TOO (inside joke)!

LISTEN to this INTRODUCTION VIDEO:

NOTE TO THE READER:
- CLICK on Ctrl and +++ to enlarge TEXT
- anything UNDERLINED ia a link to click on



Saturday, February 27, 2010

WHY WE LOVE CHILDREN! They are the best comedians and they make us laugh.


A  nursery school pupil told her teacher she'd found a cat but, it was dead. 'How do you know that the cat was dead?' she asked her pupil. 
'Because I pissed in its ear and it didn't move,' 
answered the child, 
innocently.'You did WHAAAT?' the teacher exclaimed in surprise.
'You know,' explained the girl, 'I leaned over and went 'Pssst' 
and it didn't move.'
KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS!

Friday, February 26, 2010

LAUGHTER ...The greatest medecine!

LAUGHTER is the best WORD for FUN
Because it is CONTAGIOUS and INFECTIOUS

to laugh
laughter (physiological reaction to humour)
laughing (the sound)
make someone laugh
belly laugh
LOL (laugh out loud) 
ROFL (roll on floor laughing)
to tickle your funny bone



*** Derived terms: 

laugh a minute (une attend pas l'autre)for a laugh ( juste pour rire)have a laugh (rire ou ris donc!) have the last  laugh (rira bien qui rira le dernier),

laughing stock (de quoi rire en parlant d'une personne, être la risée de ...)
.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

WHAT YOU HEAR IS NOT NECESSARILY WHAT WAS SAID!!!

A FUNNY STORY TODAY!       

A little boy was doing his math homework ...
He said to himself, 'Two plus two, that son of a bitch is four. Two plus three, that son of a bitch is five.'

His mother heard what he was saying and gasped, 'What are you doing?' The little boy answered, 'I'm doing my math homework, Mum.' 'And this is how your teacher taught you to do it?' the mother asked.

'Yes,' he answered.





Infuriated, the mother asked the teacher the next day, 'What are you
teaching my son in math?' The teacher replied, 'Right now, we are learning addition.' The mother asked, 'And you are teaching them to say two plus two, that son of a bitch is four?'



After the teacher stopped laughing, she answered, 'What I taught them
was, two plus two, THE SUM OF WHICH, is four.' 
JUST GOES TO SHOW YOU, what you hear may NOT be what you thought you heard but what you might have expected to hear.
C'est un bel example de l'apprentissage au son! Et ce qu'il faut corriger par après!



Tuesday, February 23, 2010

ABOUT E.S.L. ... and my name ??!!


I have to share this with you! WHY?
Because I had a 'super-dooper' good 'belly laugh'!
Thank you Diane R.
Diane sent me an email this afternoon and wrote:    
Je savais que E S L voulait dire  E S L, mais avant de le savoir 
je croyais à ENGLISH SUZANNE LORD.N'est-ce pas que ça marche.


I had never seen the coincidence!
I had never made the connection before!
I hadn't 'burst into laughter', in such a  long time!
What a great word play, Diane!
And  with an acronym 'to boot'.
DIANE ... You are a genious!
and
Thanks for the laugh!


Sunday, February 21, 2010

ANECDOTE TIME! Discovering the REAL person and MAXINE Click here

ANECDOTE

A true story,
about somebody!
interesting
entertaining
amusing 
and biographical
There's a mouthful!
And your next assignment



Friday, February 19, 2010

PARDON ME? I DIDN'T HEAR YOU!"

Are you 'up for ' a little challenge?
  SILENT LETTERS in English Pronunciation
Silent letters can be found in the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of words. The most well known are the words that end with E.
Below are some sentences with words containing a silent letter. FIND the letter in each sentence that is silent, then write it on the next blank line at the bottom of the page. 
1.             Tom’s program starts in an hour.
2.             My sister told me this psychology class is hard.
3.             I make every bed.
4.             The sky is gray.
5.             Sandpaper is very rough!
6.             I think the gas gauge is broken.
7.             Steve’s new jeans look stiff.
8.             Mrs. Bony wanted to sing during our party.
9.             Look! The crane is tilting to the left.
10.       She is an honest and genuine girl.
11.       The teacher asked Pam to discuss her project.
12.       Hurry! Put on the windshield wipers!
13.       The wind howls in autumn.
14.       A foreign exchange student is coming this year.
15.       The circuit shorted out again.
16.       The column on the left is longer. See!
*** CLUE: Remember that when you have two vowels (ai,ei, ie, ae), one takes over
the sound. Look at these two videos: 


FOR FUN (children songs) on YouTube







         When two vowels go a walkin'
Here is the order in which to put the silent letters 
as you find them in each numbered sentence. 
Write them on a separate piece of paper.

What does the MESSAGE say?
_ o _ _    _ _ _    _ _ _     _ _ v _  _  _     f _  _ !
         1   2 3    4 5 6    7 8 9   10 11 12 13 14   15 16          


                                                                                      
    

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

TWO BIRDS with ONE STONE ...


What am I talking about? 
What do I mean by two birds and one stone ...?!
First the movie, MARY and MAX. 
I told you a little bit about it two weeks ago.

SYNOPSIS: An unlikely pen-friendship develops between Mary Dinkle, a chubby, lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia and Max Horovitz, a 44 year-old, severely obese, Jewish man with Asperger's Syndrome, living in the chaos of New York. Their correspondence, the KEY-word here, over the years, reveals their fears, foibles and obsessions, including chocolate and a TV show. They are penpals of the seventies,  like we had, except here, the story's undertone, speaks about what is the essential quality of friendship: unconditional love! Stunningly frank and witty.


Second, if you decide to see it, you will hear two different and distinct accents ... (Ah! Ha! there's the second bird) which you can sample by clicking on the title. The link will automatically take you to the official TRAILER (bande annonce). 
TRY IT!
I'm sure you'll enjoy the movie, 
as we say in English, IT'S VERY ENDEARING!
. . . . . . . . . . . .


ONE of the questions that MAX asks Mary 
in one of his letters is: 
"Do you have a favorite SOUNDing word?
I have one,  L O V E L Y  and another,
S E R E N D I P I T Y 
What yours?


Saturday, February 13, 2010

LOVE and be LOVED!






Posted by Picasa

My Favorite LOVE STORY "Wuthering Heights"

I am a 'hopeless' romantic! 
When I first read this Emily Brontë novel, I was overcome with the most intense, passionate and romantic feelings!  And, as many times that I have read it, they always come back. Intense longing and desire! OVERWHELMING!
 At the same time, I wonder if I'm influenced by the fact that the story has as a background, the Yorkshire Moors, where I was born! Click on title for a short description of the novel


LOVE 
that intense sentiment
that is definitely felt, 
and  leads you into the most creative 
ways of expressing it!
HOW do you express your love and affection? 
Words: letters, notes, poems. 
Gestures: touching, kissing, hugging, walking hand-in-hand.
 Creations: gifts, labor of love, romantic meal.



Why I fell IN LOVE with "The Alchimist" ...... 15 years ago ... and I am STILL "IN LOVE"



I love this book with all my heart!
C'est mon coup de coeur (pour toujours)!

My favorite book, The Alchemist, by one of my favorite writers, Paulo Coelhois a wonderful FABLE about following your dreams.  I give it as a gift whenever possible.  The gift I am sharing with you today!

MY FAVORITE QUOTES 

“ ... , when you want something, 
all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
When you want something with all your heart, 
that’s when you are closest to the Soul of the World. 
It’s always a positive force.”

“When we strive to become better than we are, 
everything around us becomes better too.”

“When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. 
When you are loved, there’s no need at all 
to understand what’s happening, 
because everything happens within you.”

And my favorite one:

Remember that wherever your heart is, 
there you will find your treasure.”


I like to say that this book FOUND ME at a very important part of my life when I was in a crucial and transitional moment, at a crossroads! Because it is inspirational in its WORDS and because it is a FABLE, it becomes YOURS TO INTERPRET. This is the 'beauty' of the writing. The story continues to inspire me today because it is also about the journey of discovery! And it is never over!