Idiomatics

No, I'm not talking about a newcomer to a Gaulish village we all know (I'd have to spell it with an "x", anyway) ;) If you really want to get into idiomatic expressions, here is a page that lists a humble 1,977 of them:

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/

To round it off, an exhaustive (or should that read "exhausting"?) dictionary of phrasal verbs:

http://www.englishpage.com/prepositions/phrasaldictionary.html

If, after careful, long and arduous studies, you feel you're ready to be tested on them, try this page:

http://a4esl.org/q/h/idioms.html

Mind you: I don't expect y'all to know all of these by the end of the term. 50% will do. (Just kidding.)

Life's A Show

Well, I'm not sure I should be saying that ;) Anyway, if you watched last year's E.T. play ("Hard To Be" by Nicole Jauernig), you should be familiar with this song on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni9TBUNZn9Q

I still like Nicole's and my rendition better, naturally :)

Speech Accent Archive

English is spoken all over the world - not necessarily all natives, but nevertheless...
You might already have noticed, for example, how strange a Welsh accent sounds (7c: remember that listening comprehension exercise?) to somebody who isn't used to it. This website will give you access to a great number of different speech samples, with speakers from literally all walks of life (and, more importantly, places) reading the very same text in their very own accent. Enjoy! ;)

Special Thanks To...

You might just think that this "E.T." group has a special place in my heart because I keep mentioning it here. Well, of course it does! Anyway, I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to y'all who went on without me (being sick) last weekend & gave a terrific performance (so I've heard) in front of the few viewers who had found their way to the Alex' postponed "Bazaar". You really are the greatest :)