Friday, September 6, 2013

Do you learn English by yourself?

Do you study on your own or in a group?  Do you go to group lessons or learn by yourself at home?
"On your own" and "by yourself" both mean alone, but: when in the world do I say "on my own" and "by myself"???

You can practice that here: http://www.spotlight-online.de/language/basics/all-by-myself

Happy learning!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Correct these sentences!

Practice your English!  Each of these sentences has one mistake.  Correct the sentences and send them to us at sarah@virtualingua.com.  You will receive an answer from a live teacher with corrections and learning tips. 

1.  He go to work at 6:00.
2.  It's 10 o'clock thirty.
3.  Start you work at 8:00?
4.  He plays guitar at the moment. 
5.  He's sitting on the computer.
6.  I'm talking at the telephone.
7.  At Monday we'll start the new project.
8.  In the weekend we go hiking.
9.  Do you worked yesterday?
10. She don't work here.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Elementary English Podcasts--practice listening!













Listening is a skill that you should practice, but how?  Well, there is a series of great podcasts for elementary English learners that you can listen to for free on the British Council website.  You can not only listen to the podcasts, but also read along and do some exercises to check your understanding.

Try it here:  http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/elementary-podcasts/series-01-episode-01#tabset-tab-2

As homework, choose one of the episodes, listen to it, practice the language and send us an email using the vocabulary from the podcast.  Send it to us at sarah@virtualingua.de and get free feedback.  Test us today!

Es ist wichtig Hörverstehen zu üben, aber wie?  Jetzt gibt es eine tolle Podcastserie für Anfänger vom British Council.  Es gibt nicht nur podcasts, sondern auch den Text zum mitlesen und Aufgaben, die man während des hörens machen kann um sich selbst zu testen. 

Probieren Sie es aus:  http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/elementary-podcasts/series-01-episode-01#tabset-tab-2

Wählen Sie eine Folge, machen Sie die Übungen dazu und schicken Sie uns eine E-Mail, worin sie die Vokabeln aus dem Podcast benutzen.  Schicken Sie Ihre Arbeit an sarah@virtualingua.de und probieren Sie unseren Unterricht kostenlos!  

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!





The fourth Thursday in November is always Thanksgiving, and that's today!  Thanksgiving is a holiday similar to the German Erntedankfest, but in the United States the focus is on food native to and traditional in North America-turkey, squash, sweet potatoes, cranberries and co.

My family usually eats turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans, squash, corn, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner.  What would you like to have for Thanksgiving dinner?  Please visit this site (or do some research of your own online) and prepare a Thanksgiving menu.  Send us your menu at sarah@virtualingua.de.  If you are already a student with us, you can do this as homework.  If you aren't studying English with us yet, you can do this exercise and send it to us to test our tutoring for free!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday was Halloween, a much-loved and fun holiday in the United States.  Halloween is not a public holiday, so schools and public offices are open, it's mainly celebrated in the evening. 

Read more about it here in simple English:  http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

Answer these questions: 
1.  What do children do on Halloween?
2.  What is the origin of Halloween?
3.  Do you or people in your area celebrate Halloween?

Send us your answers to tutor@virtualingua.de.  If you area student with us already, you can do this as one of your tutored exercises, if you're new to Virtualingua, test us for free!


Friday, August 10, 2012

Summer vacation!

It's summertime!  Are you ready to go on a summer vacation, or did you already take a vacation this year?  What is or was your destination?  What did you see?  What did you do?  Write us an email at tutor@virtualingua.de and tell us about your vacation.  We'll correct your writing and send it back to you.  If you are already a student with us, you can do this as a tutored exercise for your Virtualingua course, if you are not a student with us yet, test our tutoring for free and send us an email!  You will get free corrections and learning tips!

vacation-Urlaub (American) holiday-Urlaub (British)
take a vacation-Urlaub machen
destination-Reiseziel

Es ist Sommer!  Sind Sie Urlaubsreif?  Oder waren sie schon dieses Jahr im Urlaub?  Wohin geht oder ging die Reise?  Was haben Sie gesehen und gemacht?  Schreiben Sie uns einen Text auf Englisch über Ihre Urlaubsreise unter tutor@virtualingua.de.  Wir korrigieren den Text und schicken Sie ihn zurück.  Wenn Sie schon Virtualingua Schüler sind, können Sie diese Aufgabe als Tutoraufgabe machen, sonst schreiben Sie uns und testen Sie unser Tutoring kostenlos.  Sie bekommen eine Korrektur und Lerntipps! 

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Book review: The Gruffalo

 
Sometimes it's interesting for my students to read children's books to practice their English, that's why I'm reviewing a children's book today.  The book of the day is "The Gruffalo", a children's book that is relatively simple, yet tells the sweet story of a happy little mouse just living his life in the forest.  He meets many animals who want to eat him, including a scary monster, but he outsmarts them all.  If you're interested in reading children's books in English, then this one is great.  It's especially fun to read aloud and has great pictures, too.  If you really get excited about the story, there's a film version of the book, too, which is also a delight!

Enjoy!

Here's a link to this book on amazon.de:  http://www.amazon.de/The-Gruffalo-Bilderb%C3%BCcher-Julia-Donaldson/dp/0333710932/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342118209&sr=8-1

Manchmal interessieren sich Englischlerner für Kinderbücher auf Englisch, damit sie ihr Englisch auf einem einfachen Niveau üben können.  Deshalb schreibe ich heute über ein englisches Kinderbuch.  Das Buch des Tages ist "Der Grüffelo", ein Kinderbuch, das relativ einfach ist.  Es erzählt die Geschichte von einer kleinen Maus im Wald.  Sie trifft viele Tiere, die sie fressen möchten.  Ein schreckliches Monster kommt zum Schluss auch dazu, die Maus ist aber zu schlau für alle.  Wenn Sie sich für englische Kinderbücher interessieren, dann ist dieses Buch eine tolle Wahl!  Es macht auch viel Spaß, das Buch vorzulesen.  Wenn Sie die Geschichte ganz toll finden, gibt es auch eine Verfilmung der Geschichte, die auch zu empfehlen ist. 

Viel Spaß!