ESL Blogs

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

Okay, let's show out what I learnt in here today.

Firstly, the combination of "ache".

Generally, we have five words often combined with ache to express a pain of parts of body. They are headache, earache, stomachache, backache and toothache. And there also are two combinations with parts of body, but its meaning are a bit different to the literal words. They are heartache and faceache. Heartache means an emotional pain, doesn't mean a physical pain in the heart. Faceache does not mean a pain of bo

[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

Time flies! I remember my first oil painting class that just started from Nov. 2010, and my first piece was completed on Nov.18th, 2010. The one with many trees and a frozen river seems awkward. I felt embarrassed when looking at it each time.

Last Friday we wrapped up another piece with two birds on a flower basket. Each of us was quite happy because it seems we "gave birth to" these creatures by our brushes. No doubt, my painting skill is still not deft, but I don't feel that embarrassed anymor

I cannot seem to think of anything now than of my fatigue. Feeling like my body is going to droop anytime this day. Wanting to succumb for slumber, unfortunately working is a must. A series of sleepless nights is never really a good idea when you are working more or less seventeen hours a day.  I do have a choice to rest last night, but I chose to accompany my mother tending my father who was just admitted because of an accident. He was just sent to the operating room this morning before I left

 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

There are not many keys on my keychain.  It says that my way of life is simple. There aren't many doors or locks I need to open, and it also shows that I like my bag lightweight, so I usually leave the keys I don't in use at home.  

One of the keys is my steel horse (motorbike) key, which tells that I need it to go to work every day. It's a good partner that is always ready for me no matter how the weather is, taking me to the places I need to be. I really appreciate it.   

The other two keys, a p

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

It has been a while since we've done a "getting to know you" exercise on MyEC. I hope you'll join me in this month's writing challenge! 

For this writing challenge, I will need you to reach into your purses, knapsacks, or coat pockets and grab your keys. Set your keys out in front of you and have a good look at them.

What does your keychain say about you? 

When we use the word "say" in this way, we do not mean to speak out loud. The word "say" can also mean "to reveal/show/prove/suggest". For examp

Are you an English learner? Do you like spending quality time on MyEC?

Do you have the following goals?

1. To be fluent in English.

2. To develop my confidence in speaking the English language.

3. To improve proper pronunciation.

If your answer is yes, then we have the same goals! I truly believe that learning a language involves commitment, hard work and patience. I would like to present to you some tips that I've been following to improve my English.

1. Set goal/s that you want to achieve.

    Your g

" Come here, messy boy, let me clean your mouth for you!"

The winning caption was submitted by Ha Nguyen. 

Hello, everyone welcome to Wordless Wednesday. At the very beginning, I didn't think I was lucky enough to catch these two creatures simultaneously. I only aimed my camera at one of them that was moving on the tree. After few minutes before I intended to shoot it, the other one appeared miraculously from another branch. No doubt I pressed t

Hi, everyone. 

First of all, receive my warmest regards 

Well, here I am again writing a few lines to express my feelings about EC. 

When I first came to EC in 2005 , I was barely an English teacher trainee and I was scared of making grammar mistakes on the forums. However, several members made feel comfortable to write as much as I could so that I would practice more and more. 

But I didn't come by chance. My "English I" professor asked me (us, my classmates and I) to meet people abroad and exchang

Learn English with Kaplan

From the infographic above, we can see that there are four main benefits from learning a language: love, travel, intelligence and money. And, it's interesting to see that being a bilingual person can increase our chances to get a better life. I remember I read research posted on an online news that bilingual students performed better in various tasks than monolingual students just like the result that was shown by the infographic.

If I was asked to determine, which is th

If life is a metaphor for an article, then taking a trip will be an exclamation mark. This year I've visited some places for a short trip not far from my city, but this time I spent three days in the north of Taiwan. During the trip, we explored the natural landscapes of the mountains, the coastlines and the old towns. In order to survey the best scenery and take some great photos, we didn't mind at all climbing and walking a lot to the top of the mountains. Imaging yourself is part of the local

In the fast changing world,public teaching is also changing.As part of the changes the teachers role and authority in the classroom .

In the past teachers used to be the major source of knowledge ,the leader and educator of their students ,they used to be the authority in the class, but nowadays teachers need to teach their learners how to gain the information and how to select and use them,but the main problem is that the role of the teacher is changing day by day ,and  teachers face many proble

Some of you took part in Kaplan's blog competition a few months back. It was a great experience, wasn't it? Here is another opportunity to practise your writing. Kaplan is holding a new blog competition (Sept 28-Oct 26), and you are invited. It is called "Inspire Language Learning". Find the details on how to enter here. You can write your post on your MyEC Blog. Let me know if you need help embedding the infographic. Don't forget to vote for your favourite post. You may recognize one of the jud

If you have ever seen a Japanese movie Quill, you would probably not unfamiliar to the dog Labrador. Last week, I got a chance to learn more about guide dogs from a non-profit charity organization. Here I'm sharing some of what I've learned with you, and was wondering if it is allowed to bring guide dogs or pets entering the public places in your country?

Commonly, the breeds of Labrador retrievers, Golden retrievers, and German shepherd dogs are most potentially to be picked thanks to their work

Story About My Painting - Colour of My Passion

Often I have something to tell, but I can’t really do it in words. I am kind a weak in describing things. That is when I will start to paint.

I will paint to describe how I feel about something. This is a painting about how I feel about my passion.Sometimes, the painting came out not as what I thought from the first place. I thought of something else but as it gets on going, something else came out.

First

I was sitting in a reception of an office, wait