This lesson is a good one to use when you've just finished talking about travel and countries. It was planned and used with a multi-national class at an upper-intermediate level. It's possible to grade it for lower levels, but you will probably need to change the video for the listening. This lesson has plenty of opportunity to speak, a listening based on a travel video for Stockholm, Sweden, and some useful vocabulary when talking about different types of town, city, or vill

is such an important word in English because of its many different meanings. It's like James McAvoy's characters in the film Split. It is deranged and has many different personalities that you just don't know which one you will hear next..... But, on a serious note, feeling comfortable using this word in the many different situations when it can be used will not only help you sound more natural, but it will help in understanding. It must be really strange to hear someone say

You might think it is great and life is rosy to be a native speaker of English, but not all the time. Firstly, some people feel a little pressured and nervous when speaking to native speakers. The fear of making mistakes, and the fear of embarrassment of not understanding what they say is quite real. Many moons ago I once asked a receptionist where I was staying 'do you speak English' which she replied 'no, sorry' I then went to sit down across the room and watched as she wa

I thought I'd write a post looking at words, mainly phrasal verbs, connected with travel and transport and tell you about my journey to Lviv, Ukraine. There will probably be a number of words you might be unsure of, but I have listed them all at the bottom of the text with simplified meanings. Hopefully you should be able to get the meaning from context. Note: The difference between trip and journey is a journey is from A to B and a trip is A to B and back to A. When often sa

American or British English? Which do you reckon you use most of? Let's see. What do you call those sugary things kids love so much ? What do you take to get to the 10th floor of a building? What do you call that part of the road where people walk? If you said sweets, lift, and pavement to the above questions then you, like me, use British English. Of course, it doesn't matter which you use, but for me, a man from England, it feels weird to use certain, if not all, American

Are you a film buff like me? - a person who is very interested in and knowledgeable about films. When was the last time you went to the cinema? I went just the other day and saw Dunkirk. It was pretty good. I got to see my friend who was an extra – a person in the background - in the film Note: When Russian/Ukrainian speakers talk about films, a common mistake that they sometimes make is the use of the verb play. They might say a sentence like this '̶B̶r̶a̶d̶ ̶P̶i̶t̶t̶ ̶p̶l̶a