Teacher Discussion Forums

Yes, that's what happens when people leave school! It's hard to believe, but the real learning starts once the formal education is over. Well, maybe the Indian client had his/her reasons not to order - it probably had little to do with your language skills. It's the right attitude to be determined t...

Well, I teach at an Austrian engineering school which takes in students as young as 14. We also offer evening courses to people working in industry, and they're generally in between twenty and sixty. Our youngest students are children. They enjoy learning terms for different parts of excavators, for...

Are you talking to me? Maybe your English will pick up a little bit once you've gotten past your emotional involvement in this matter. I mean I should encourage someone to misrepresent something? for example, is this meant to be a question or a statement? Ah well. Have a good weekend and get some re...

Thanks, Maltezer, I took a look at that site, and added it to my favorites. Plenty of material there - the sounds and noises will go down well with mine, I'm sure. What kind of engineering are your Chinese students involved in? One site that my students actually pointed out to me as they apparently ...

Thanks, Maltezer, that site is awesome!

Dear Cute Cat, I also have the impression at times that time flies, especially when there's so much to fill it with that seems absolutely necessary. Inactivity makes it slow down, I felt, and I suppose that's a reminder to insert periods of inactivity into our daily schedule, where we just sit and c...

the teacher's main function is to get his or her students through the exam with the best possible results I think I don't see it that way. I don't think that exams ought to be all that central, because ultimately, it's competence in the language that matters, and not some grade on a piece of paper....

Dear Cute Cat, I'm sorry to hear that you haven't been well, but it sounds as if things are picking up again. I agree with you when you say that problems generally can be solved. Love, however, is something that cannot be forced, and sometimes one's efforts are bound to fail. Friendship after a love...

Dear Cute Cat, Yes, please do! You're so fortunate to live by the ocean. I can't imagine what it is like for it to be just 10 minutes away. It sounds very alluring, swimming, lying in the sun, sunbathing, playing with the waves. For us, "the sea" means taking a holiday. I know about the dilemma of c...

Just posting here to say how absolutely chuffed I am about the way these presentations are going right now. The two top girls of the class volunteered to go first, and oh my, they set a standard! You should have been there, really. I had stressed the importance of eye-contact, so they figured that t...

Well,

"Brimfull of Asha" was a song of a compilation that one of the waiters at a mountain hut, a young Czech, had compiled. He would treat us to his musical jems from dusk till dawn, until someone stepped up and pulled the plug....

I don't think there's any need for sarcasm around here.... It may well be that a particular hurdle seems unsurmountable to an individual, and then frustration finds its outlet. There are job interviews where the requirements are overdrawn on purpose, and there are jobs where a modest command of Engl...

Well, I hope you did get around to studying some business English, with all this housework to be done! The soup you're describing sounds good - I don't think we get Mung beans over here. There are Chinese restaurants, even one in my village, but they say that Chinese food in China is much better! I ...

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Not merely ask... in fact, we're having a tri-continental discussion about their lyrics here! That's the global village for you!

How did you come across them?

Yes, I'll be looking forward to welcoming you around here! It must be very different from Southern China, I looked up Shenzhen on a map, and it seems to be right there, on what used to be the border between China and Hongkong. So you know what it's like when borders cease to exist.... Last night the...