ESL Blogs

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Few days ago, Tara posted 12-12-12 What should we call this kind of date? to ask for suggesting a word in English for the day 12-12-12 ,and at the end of her post, she asked what other words we do not have in English. She also provided a link to 20 untranslatable words in English. 

This made me think back When I immigrated to Canada. The difference between my mother tongue language and English was so obvious and

My house is so well built that when I go out, the temperature at my room falls by one degree in Celsius.. But when I come back to home and keep the door to my room closed. It will soon again rise back up to +17C! That's how much heat my body produces.

Cool isn't? :D

While the EU officials did ban Incandescent light bulbs too.. the one extra source that could give more heat. :P No I actually would not heat with electricity anyways. I just wanted to point out how stupid are those careerist EU offici

Hello guys :) First time I'm going to try to challenge myself in writing! 

So my first friend I want to introduce is Jeocanda. In chat we sometimes call her Jeo. Her native language is Arabic. She is from Egypt and her nationality is Egyptian. Thanks to her I created Coffee Club in MyEC and Skype. Yeah we both like coffee.

The next member I would like to tell about is Oleh (that is how his name is pronounced in Ukrainian). He lives in Ukraine and his nationality is Ukrainian. His native language i

People around the world are talking about today's date.  December 12, 2012 (12-12-12) is considered to be a lucky day by some people, and an unlucky day by others. Some people think the end of the world is coming. Others believe it's the perfect day to get married or play the lottery! 

According to the Globe and Mail, there is no English word for a date that has matching numbers like this. As the article suggests, this is likely because this kind of date doesn't come around very often. The Globe

Hello there, I'm glad to join this challenge to write about my EC friends' nations and nationalities. It is so useful to choose topic that let us introduce ourselves to each others and be closer and more intimate. I will introduce 5 EC members from my friends list in my page:

Maia is one of my EC friends. She is from Philippines. She is a Filipino . Her native language is Filipino and she speaks English, too. She is serious in learning English and I hope to improve our second language together.

Dear friends, as I stated in my previous blog, that it was really hard to choose from among my friends as since I've got/gotten so many dear friends here. Therefore, this is my 2nd entry in Teacher Tara's challenge. I'll probably write a 3rd blog too, to include my other friends.

Today, I'm going to introduce you with some of my friends who are comparatively newer in my friends' list.

I'll start introductions by introducing acquainting you with a MyEC member who's sad because none of the EC blogge

I have been an IESOL and IELTS examiner for over 2 years and invigilating up to 10 exams every week and often see terrible cases of exam nerves.  While some people do thrive on  a little pressure a small minority can not control the anxiety they feel on the day.  It is very important that you are ready to take the exam, very often I have candidates who are not at a level to take the exam.

I have seen candidates visibly shaking with nerves as they sit in front of me.  My reaction to this is to hav

My best friend in EC is Anele. Almost everyone in MyEC knows her. She comes from Philippines. She is a  Filipina. Her native language is Filipino. She's also a fluent English speaker. She's a teacher and teaches many subjects including English language. She is has not been active in this club since for a few months because of her job responsibilities. However, when she was here, she was among the most active and helpful members of MyEC. She helped a lot of members in improving their English. She

Hello and nice to meet you all!

My sweet friend Maggie is a lovely Lady from Switzerland. It was a great chance to meet her and I’m so glad! She is Swiss and a quarter Algerian as she said. She speaks many languages; English, German and others. She practices and teaches Judo, I discovered that during a discussion in Creative Minds group. Maggie is a friendly woman; she met me with her family, we talked to each other by Skype and shared many topics, but still I didn't hear her voice! Maggie, Have

Today, I start writing the first blog for Teacher Tara’s Challenge. I myself have been learning so much from friends in EC. I’d like to say a Big Thanks for all. But I just can only introduce three one of my friends

Ha Nguyen,

She is one of some my first close friends in MyEC. She is Vietnamese. She lives in Vietnam like me but in different city. Her mother’s language is Vietnamese. And she is a diligent English learner even in MyEC or in real life. Her writing and communicating skills are good. I

LOL! It'll take a lot of my time if I introduce all MyEC friends one by one in this blog, so just let me introduce only five.:)

Aija is one of the very helpful member of MyEC. She has joined MyEC recently, but it seems as if she has been here for a very long time. She helps English learners over Skype and she also has a personal group on MyEC. She is from Latvia. She is a Latvian. The official language of Latvia is Latvian or also sometimes refereed as Lettish. Her profile shows that she speaks R

   EC Dream

        I always liked to be a millionaire, also I liked to travel whole the world. But one of my biggest dreams is visiting my EC Friends, and all EC members in the real world...

Now, this is my dream:

        I hope that we will be able to celebrate one day in a year as EC anniversary every year in one place in the world.

I also planned it in this way:

        I would be a millionaire then I would be able to prepare a party for all EC member in my country and invite them here, then

As many of you know, I am from Canada. I was born and raised here in Canada. This means I am Canadian. You could also say that I am a Canadian. My mother tongue (also called "native language") is English. In school we learned French as a second language.

Did you notice that I capitalized some important words in that introduction? Nations, nationalities, and languages are all capitalized in English. There are many countries in the world, and English learners often mix up nations and nationalities.

Hello everyone. 

When you are learning a language, not only English; there is a point when you feel that you are no learning anything new or that your level of English can go any farther. Sometimes, you study but you seem being learning nothing new. You think you are speaking at a natural pace and you believe you understand English not only with survival purposes but also with specific goals. Then, we question ourselves, what can I do if I am not improving?. 

Well, I think many people has been in

Deepawali or Diwali, is the ‘festival of lights’ celebrated popularly in India. Today I'm celebrating this festival with friends, far away from the family.

Office Celebration: Well I have been forced to take part in this activity and literally, I hate it! But at the end, when our team wins the free fantastic meal of 5-Star hotel, it seems to be wonderful idea! :D The whole idea something like, we have to show our creativity by the given flowers and create the best flower pattern. None of our team

[It's time for another guest post on my blog. This time my 8-year-old daughter is the guest. She told me a funny story on the way home from school last week, and I asked her to type it out so that I could share it with all of you. I thought you might enjoy it, and even learn something important about writing. If you're a teacher, maybe you'll even try this lesson! I haven't changed a word.] 

Hamburger Paragraphs and the Grade 3 Teacher

My silly teacher bought two hamburgers at Burger King on Wedne

 I badly need a capture for this photo. The best one will be added next Wednesday! Thank you so much!

I just entered into my room after having a head bath; yes, I felt a little sleepy so lay in my bed for a while. I was about to have a nap, but suddenly my mind drawn out to my key chain, which was next hung on a hook fixed to my wooden cupboard. Yes, I can remember the sleep-talk I had with my keychain. Yes, we discussed lots sitting side by side like closer friends.

I was really gifted my key chain almost a decade back by my elder sister (I’ve only two sisters; I’m middle) living abroad. Actuall

Have you heard of NaNoWriMo? This is the short form for National Novel Writing Month. Every November, at least 300,000 people try to write the first draft of a novel in just 30 days. To complete this personal challenge, NaNoWrimo participants have to write 50,000 words between November 1-30. 

I've always wondered what it would be like to write a novel so quickly. My first novel took me ten years to outline, draft, revise (a million times), polish, edit, and publish! This year, since I'm feeling a

You can listen to the audio version of the blog here.

I only have three keys. I never paid attention that I do not have so many keys:one for the entrance door and the other for my car. The third one is an extra key that I made for my dad last year.He came to Canada to visit me and as such, an extra key was made for him. I think the reason that I do not have different keys with different key-chains is that I do not like to carry so many objects with me. I like to have a neat and organized purse