One word a day

No time to learn English? Too many other things you need to do? Here's the solution for you! How about learning just ONE new word every day? That shouldn't cost much time.
Paul Smith will provide one useful word or expression every day together with the German translation, a mini quizz on how to use the word correctly and with the option to listen to the pronunciation. Check it out here.
This way, in as little time as a minute a day, you can continuously improve your professional English. Why not sign up today?

Short Stories

The other day I discovered a site full of short stories in two versions, German and English. These stories are really short and a fun way to practise your reading skills. Reading regularly in English will help you to pick up more idiomatic expressions, and it's a good way of learning new words. Check out the titles and see which stories you like. As these stories are so short, they are ideal for a bus or train ride to work, the doctor's waiting room or even your lunch break. Have fun!

Becoming a better presenter

Giving business presentations in English can be very challenging. But, the good news are, you can prepare for presentations and do not have to go on the stage spontaneously. There are some very useful techniques you can apply to ensure that your audience will enjoy listening to you, to make your presentations memorable.

Some people have a great talent as presenters, but they also follow the same basic rules that make their presentations stand out from others. One of those popular presenters is the Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Every single of his product presentations is an event.

Before preparing your next important presentation, watch this video called 'Present like Steve Jobs' which gives you valuable hints of how to become a better presenter. It's no miracle - you can do it too!

False Friends

Historically, the two languages German and English have common roots. Therefore, there are a lot of words which sound similar and often those words also have similar meanings which makes it easy to understand and learn them.

Yet, some words took different 'roads' and changed their meaning along the way so that identical or similar looking words now have completely different meanings. For you as a learner of English this can lead to misunderstandings and awkward or even embarrassing situations if you are not aware of this difference in meaning as the example in this video shows.

Check out the links on the left and test yourself on false friends.

The Royal Wedding

It will be the wedding of the year: Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting married on Friday, 29 April 2011. If you want to work on your royal and/or wedding vocabulary in preparation for the big event, here are some useful links:
The official Royal Wedding website
The BBC coverage
Wedding Quiz

Learning with videos (2)

You can find a wonderful selection of short videos from all fields of interest on a www.yappr.com.
The topics range from music to commercials to business and nature videos. The great advantage for learners is that the text is shown in a window next to the video so it's like watching a film with subtitles. Users have to register and then the videos can be watched for free. Here's my favourite commercial. Have fun!

What does Business Spotlight offer you?

Some of you may already know the magazine Business Spotlight which is aimed at German learners of business English. I feel this magazine offers a fantastic variety of articles and language tips for learners of business English. The topics are current and deal with all aspects of the business world and learners at all levels of English can find suitable texts and activities. Each article comes with an English-German glossary, so you do not need a dictionary to read the articles.

Even more attractive is Business Spotlight online. Apart from current news topics and language activities, you will find videos and podcasts to train your listening skills as well as blogs on different topics. Have a look. It's great fun!

If you also want to deal with more general topics from time to time, there is also the Spotlight magazine and Spotlight online which offer more information on culture, travel, sports etc.

Check out those sites and get inspired!

Easier listening with podcasts

Do you find it difficult to listen to texts in English or to speak to someone on the telephone? Then podcasts will be ideal for you. Podcasts are audio files which you can download onto your computer, mp3-player or mobile phone and then listen to them wherever you like. When commuting to work, you can listen to podcasts in your car or on the bus or train. Because of this flexibility, podcasts are a wonderful way for improving your listening skills, and if you listen regularly, you will notice the difference. Some podcasts which are made for language learners even come with a tapescript so that you can read along or check out new vocabulary. You will find podcasts on the language learning websites I introduced before and on many other website. Some examples are:
Professional English Podcasts, Business English Pod, BBC Podcasts. Give it a try and prick your ears!

German news in English

Several German news portals are available in English versions on the internet. Reading and listening to news familiar from German TV or radio may be easier than listening to news from the UK or the US.
I can highly recommend the English website of the Deutsche Welle as it offers the latest news as written articles, audio files and videos. Written articles only are available from Spiegel online and from The Local, a website which presents German news in English.

Electronic vocabulary trainer

Let me tell you something: Learning a language is a continuous process and never ends. Most of you will not have the opportunity to spend time abroad for a longer period which would make learning English much easier. If you want to build up your vocabulary in a structured way, there are different options.

Have you heard of electronic vocabulary trainers? These are software programmes which help you memorise new words in an organised fashion. My personal favourite is 'Phase 6', a simple software programme which is basically an electronic version of the index card system.

This programme is no shareware but is reasonably priced and very simple to use. Have a look at their website where all features are explained. You can test the programme for some time before you decide to buy it. You will be surprised how much fun learning vocabulary can be!

Learning with videos (1)

Learning English can really be a lot of fun with the internet. Most pages on the web are in English which means that everyone can find something of interest.

Let me start by showing you one site with short video clips. It's called 'Video Jug'. Choose from variety of topics such as food & drink, sports & outdoors, money & careers, home & lifestyle and more.

Most videos are only a few minutes long and you can listen to people with very different accents and dialects. It's great fun and good practice. Below the video, if you scroll down a little on the page, you can find the complete script for each video. So, if you cannot easily understand the speaker, you can read along and read the text. You can download the videos and print the text, so they are also perfect partners for a mobile session on the train or elsewhere. Just give it a try!

What's in this treasure box?

On this page I will share with you all the wonderful tools available on the web that make learning English real fun.
Today, I will start with presenting two websites which offer a wealth of options for you to discover. On the BBC and British Council learning websites you can find short videos and podcasts to practice your listening skills, and you will always find the printed texts to help you learn new words and phrases.
The sites also offer games and quizzes and more exciting surprises. Just check them out and enjoy learning!
BBC Learning English
British Council Learning English