Merry Xmas

Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday that marks the traditional birthdate of Jesus of Nazareth. Christmas combines the celebration of Jesus' birth with various other traditions and customs, many of which were influenced by ancient winter festivals such as Yule[1] and Saturnalia. Christmas traditions include the display of Nativity scenes and Christmas trees, the exchange of gifts and cards, and the arrival of Father Christmas (Santa Claus) on Christmas Eve. Popular Christmas themes include the promotion of goodwill, giving, compassion, and quality family time.

The Top 10 Confusing English Words

Should you accept an invitation or except one? Do you eat dessert or desert after your meal? English is full of confusing words. Here are some tips on using the right word at the right time!

dessert and desert

Dessert is a sweet dish, while the desert is hot, dry and full of sand.

accept and except

To accept means to receive or agree to something, while except means excluding.

there and their

The former is an adverb of place while the latter is a possessive pronoun e.g. Their house is over there.

principle and principal

Principles are beliefs, values or basic truths, while principal means the head of a school, or the main thing.

advice and advise

The former is a noun while the latter is a verb, so you can advise someone by giving them good advice.

borrow and lend

To borrow means to receive something as a loan, while to lend means to give something as a loan. E.g. Can I borrow your car? Sorry, I can't lend it to you today

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despite and although

These have a similar meaning but are used differently. Despite is a preposition while although is a conjunction. E.g. He won the race despite his injury. He won the race although he had an injury.

affect and effect

The former is a verb while the latter is a noun, e.g. The effect of the war is enormous; it has affected all sectors of the economy.

personal and personnel

Your personal details include your name, age and nationality, while personnel means the employees of a company.

assure and ensure

To assure someone means to remove doubt or reassure them, while ensure means to make certain that something happens. E.g. I assured him that you would be there, so please ensure that you get to the meeting on time.

Words & Thoughts

Words & Thoughts

Imagine a boxer stepping into the ring, and telling himself:
"I'm a loser. I'm a chicken!"
How long would he last?

Imagine a singer walking onstage, and telling herself:
"I'm pathetic! They'll hate me!"
How well would she sing?

It's a recipe for disaster.

Yet, lots of us use this same recipe every day. We tell ourselves:
"I'm fat."
"I have a rotten memory."
"I'm always broke."
"I'm an idiot."
Then we wonder why we fail!

If you expect to forget, you will forget!
If you expect to be broke, you will stay broke.
If you expect to behave like an idiot ...

So how do we start to think positively?

The first step is to watch your mouth! Notice what you SAY about yourself.

From today, NEVER SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT YOURSELF.
Never tell people: "I'm hopeless, I always screw up, my boyfriends always dump me ..."

Make a commitment: "From today, I will not criticise myself. If I have nothing good to say about me, I will keep my mouth shut."

It's hard to control our thoughts - but we CAN control what comes out of our mouth. Once we take control of our language, we begin to have more positive thoughts ... and life gets better.

We become what we think about

The Advantages of Learning with Phonics

Even if you know some of the basics of English, you might find it helpful to review some materials on phonics. Basically, phonics is a method that teaches reading based on taking the audible building blocks of words and assigning meaning to them – similar to working with syllables. However, when you’re learning with phonics, there’s more of an emphasis on verbally sounding out each segment of a word. As you learn to recognize meanings associated certain groups of letters, you’ll have an easier time comprehending sentences – as well as speaking and writing them. Correlating sounds to written letters Once you know how to read, write, and speak a language, you may take for granted the ever-present relationship between what is heard and what is written. When you were learning to speak your native language, you probably encountered words that had to be broken down into smaller chunks that didn’t necessarily have meaning by themselves. Similarly, as you learned to read and write in your native language, you probably also had to rely on these verbal building blocks to learn how they were represented on paper. Therefore, when you’re trying to learn a new language, you’ll need to work with these pre-existing correlations – as well as try to develop ones for the new language you’re learning. Phonics can help you learn the patterns of the English language by comparing them to your native language. While this may at first seem confusing, once you learn to correlate sounds to images, you’ll be able to use much more of your natural language acquisition abilities to help you along. Getting the most out of your existing language patterns Babies are the masters of language acquisition. Before they begin to study one language exclusively, they are capable of babbling every sound found in every human language on earth. However, as they grow and begin to practice one language, they lose the ability to hear and speak sounds that aren’t used in the language they’re learning – which is why you’ll always speak a foreign language with an accent. Unfortunately, once the ability to hear these different sound patterns is lost, you aren’t likely to gain it back later in life. Even if you can’t hear a specific sound, you can still use phonics to help you identify those areas and build your comprehension skills. This will improve your understanding of written English, and may also help you identify weak points in your verbal speech patterns. While these exercises may seem very simple, they can be useful regardless of how much English you already know. Unfortunately, many teachers feel that phonics is not the best method for teaching people how to read and understand English. Therefore, it’s rarely mentioned to individuals that are trying to learn English as a second language. If you believe your learning style might be better suited to learning English through phonics, consider investing in programs like “Hooked on Phonics” to help you improve your language skills