Resource of the month: elllo

For online listening activities (there’s no spelling mistake, it’s a triple L!)
http://www.elllo.org/

I don’t know whether I’m coming or going

“I’m coming home” or “I’m going home”?

Generally, we use 'come' when we are talking about movement towards ourselves, or towards the person we are speaking to, and 'going' when we are talking about movement away from ourselves and the person we are talking to.So, "I'm going home" is away from where you are now, and away from where the person you are talking to is - perhaps you are both at work or school. But someone you live with might phone you and ask "When are you coming home?" (towards themselves), and you might say "I'm coming home now" (towards the person you're speaking to). A friend that you don't live with might phone you and ask "What are you doing tonight?" and you might answer, "Well, I'm going home for some dinner and then I was thinking of coming to see you." Your friend might reply, "Actually I'm going to the cinema with Bob and Jane. Why don't you come with us?"

(THANKS TO Dr Grammar, Churchill House - School of English Language, Ramsgate, Kent, England http://www.churchillhouse.com/)

Jokes

It is said you have acquired a language when you can think, dream and understand jokes in it. What jokes do you know in English?
Do you understand these? If you do, kudos! If you don’t, don’t give up, keep studying!!

“Why can’t you starve in the desert? Because of all the sand which is there”
“Why was the Egyptian boy crying? Because he found out his daddy was a mummy”
“What is the longest sentence in English? ‘I do’ ”
“Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be”
"Heck is where people go when they don't believe in Gosh"
"I'm an agnostic dyslexic insomniac that lies awake all night wondering if there really is a dog"

For in-company teachers (and students!): here are two good pages you don’t want to miss!
http://www.dilbert.com/
http://www.glasbergen.com/

Word of the month: milquetoast

A milquetoast is a timid, unassertive person (pronounced milk toast).
“He’s such a milquetoast that he’ll never make a good leader, even if you coach him.”
(An eponym derived from the cartoon character Caspar Milquetoast created by Harold Webster in 1924 for his comic strip The Timid Soul)