Hi there! Ok, ok. How are things? I got news! The course for vocational students that are training for an internship somewhere in Europe has begun. So welcome y’all! First and foremost allow me to take care of some reminders.

For my intermediate crowd: please try and make sure you can handle verb+object collocations so that you don’t have to stop and think how to say something as simple as I’m going to have to call you back later.

For my FP pupils: the people from Djibouti are called Djiboutians. And I know you may think you will never need to talk about Djibouti. That said, you should be ready to discuss multiple nationalities and worldviews. At any rate, don’t forget we’re going to be dealing with personal descriptions pretty soon and the country of origin can be part of a descriptions.

This is for my C1 students: Yes. I know you already know your nationalities. You would never mix up the Swiss and the Swedes. However, I suspect you might have a hard time trying to come up with the nationality adjectives for certain countries. Are you sure you know what to call the people from Madagascar, New Zealand or Peru? And, by the way, what would you answer if someone asked you where do you hail from?

Ok, my up-and-coming wordsmiths, we're going to center on social types (again). That means you should be ready to a) learn relatively new vocab (fashionista, chav, etc.) and b) think of new social types. For some reason, the English language is great at noticing new trends and naming them. Sometimes neologisms never quite catch on (the word touron, a blend from tourist + moron is a notorious example). All in all, it's fun just to check out the suggestions. Take the Internet subculture, for instance, is a treasure trove for language learners that offers new words just about every day. In case you're interested here you have a list of neologisms which only true geeks may actually use on a daily basis. Still, it comes to prove that you can always find a new term for just about every new reality. Have fun!

Hi everyone! I'm still here. You know what? I'm not going to have all that much time to post elaborate stuff. That's actually one of the reasons why I decided to upload that excerpt from one my old video casts. I hope it helped you realize how one should pronounce those "-ous" adjectives... In the same vein I'm going to let my intermediate students take a gander at a little project I carried out some two years ago (yes, the "some" is intentional and correct). It's a simple magazine/newsletter I edited for my intermediate classes. It's not much but I thought I might use it again. If you're curious you can check it out by clicking right here.

As for our current classes, I suggest you take a shot at that simple exercise I discussed in the classroom, i.e. how to make a statement a little more natural. For those of you who may not remember what I'm talking about... let's just say that "That is funny" sounds dead boring and, depending on the circumstances, even robotic. However "Well, that's actually sort of funny, isn't it?". Just look at the unnecessary words in that sentence. Along those lines you may come up with stuff like: "To be honest, I happen to be a bit of a cook myself, you know?". See the difference?

How to pronounce the word "famous"

Hi there! We're still discussing personal names and their effect on people's lives. It now seems unavoidable to comment on celebrities and their outlandish tastes. Here is a list of questionable names that certain celebs chose for their own babies. The tone of the article (which is already two years old) is not exactly academic but leaving aside the fact that it's good for a few laughs, it may also help us learn some interesting vocab (to see fit, brood, offspring, etc.).

I know it's kind of early but, you know what? I figured you could start practising for this year's Halloween contest. It's going to be a newish literary competition. Entries will be posted on our Twitter account. It goes without saying the topic is horror and the length should not exceed that of a Twitter post. If you are curious the Twitter account of the school offers an example. You can check it out and then try and take a shot at it. What do you say?

Personal names

This is a truly bizarre coincidence... It just so happens that the two textbooks I'm going to be using (New English File B1 + and Speak Out C1) tackle the very same topic in their first units: personal names. Odd, isn't it? Anyhow, those of you that are interested in people's names might get a kick out of this peculiar list. We'll talk about it in the classroom. Actually, we already broached the subject in the Intermediate class, when I mentioned the name of that frustrated character that spends most of his free time trying to catch Roadrunner: Wile E. Coyote.

Anyway, if you feel like learning something about personal names in the United States, check out the clip below. You won't regret it.