Valentine's Day

Roses Are Red

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Carnations are sweet

And so are you.

And so is he

That sends you this

And when we meet

We'll have a kiss

When I was a kid, boys and girls used to send each other Valentine's cards, and write little poems in them, like the one above.

I was always jealous, because I never got any. My best friend, who was very handsome, got 18 one year. What a bore! On the outside of the envelope you would write S.W.A.L.K. - sealed with a loving kiss. But you never put your name. So, all the girls would run around screeching: "Who sent me this? Who sent me this?"

Actually, Saint Valentine had nothing to do with love, and like Christmas and Easter and other such holidays, Valentine's Day started with the Victorians, in 19th Century England. Card makers and flower sellers and shopkeepers found out you could make a lot of money from people celebrating holidays. They would attract people with beautiful displays in their shop windows and run promotions to get people spending.

The practice then spread to America, and eventually all around the world. Nowadays, not a lot of people send cards by mail anymore. It's all done by email. Will you be sending a special someone a Valentine's greeting this weekend?

Saying of the Week

Don't Put The Cart Before The Horse

A friend of mine was really determined to learn Thai. Every day he was going into shops and restaurants with his English/Thai dictionary and blurting out some phrase or other in his strong Ozzy accent.

Of course, nobody could understand a word he said. People would just smile at him and nod. And he would take that as a positive and keep talking and talking. His pronunciation was so bad, that he got louder and louder. "You have to exaggerate everything when you speak Thai," he was always saying. Funnily enough, I never hear Thais speak like that.

He was putting the cart before the horse.

When you learn a new language it's a good idea to do a lot of listening first. At AUA in Bangkok students learning Thai listen for up to 800 hours before speaking. You need to get your ear around the language. This can take some time. It's best to listen to native speakers as much as you can, before speaking. And it's the same with writing. All good writers do a lot of reading, before they become good writers. Kids know this instinctively. They listen naturally and don't try and talk too much in the new language. Eventually it all starts to flow.

The other cart, of course, is Grammar. Grammar is not language. Language is a naturally flowing and changing form of communication created by the people and culture it comes from. Then, somebody looks at that language and decides what the rules are, and calls the rules - Grammar. Therefore the grammar must follow the language, not the other way round. When I listen to second language learners with perfect grammar it sounds so unnatural, so robotic.

When you get up in the morning what do you do first? Do you put on your jacket, then your shirt, and your jeans, followed by your underwear, and go and take a shower? I hope not. Although it would be funny.

Don't put the cart before the horse.

New Moon English Project

"I Can't Live In A World Where You Don't Exist"

The 4 books of the Twilight Saga, by Stephanie Meyers - Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn - have become a huge hit around the world. Like Harry Potter, 2 movies have now been made of the first 2 books - Twilight and New Moon.

In the first book 17 year old Bella Swan leaves her mother in Phoenix, Arizona to stay with her father, a policeman in Forks, Washington. It's a small, boring town with nothing to do.

However, she soon meets the Cullens, who are both beautiful and rich. At first, Bella and Edward Cullen don't get on very well, but Edward saves her life, and soon they get drawn more and more together. Edward is a vampire, like all the Cullens, and this leads Bella into great danger. But with danger comes fascination and love.

Join us for our 3 week Diploma Summer Course: "New Moon English Project", discover the language of vampires and werewolves and teenage America in this wonderful fantasy about love and the choices of life.

Tel: 053 943764 to book your place from 22nd March to 9th April

Coming Soon

Saying of the Week

In life we just need a few things to survive. We need food and water, some basic clothes and somewhere to sleep at night. These are The Bare Necessities. 

We don't need an expensive car, computers and mobile phones, the latest game or gadget and all the rest of the stuff we spend our time trying to get. We all study too hard and work too hard. And what for? So we can spend our time shopping. Is that what life is all about? 

Forget about all that. Sit back and watch Balloo the bear tell Mowgli the man cub, from Disney's The Jungle Book, what life is really all about. Read the lyrics as you watch and then check the vocabulary below, by matching the meanings.

The Bare Necessities

Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
Old Mother Nature's recipes
That brings the bare necessities of life

Wherever I wander, wherever I roam
I couldn't be fonder of my big home
The bees are buzzin' in the trees
To make some honey just for me
When you look under the rocks and plants
And take a glance at the fancy ants
Then maybe try a few

The bare necessities of life will come to you
They'll come to you!

Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities 
That's why a bear can rest at ease
With just the bare necessities of life

Now when you pick a pawpaw
Or a prickly pear
And you prick a raw paw
Next time beware
Don't pick the prickly pear by the paw
When you pick a pear
Try to use the claw
But you don't need to use the claw
When you pick a pear of the big pawpaw
Have I given you a clue ?

The bare necessities of life will come to you
They'll come to you!

So just try and relax, yeah cool it
Fall apart in my backyard
'Cause let me tell you something little britches
If you act like that bee acts, uh uh
You're working too hard
And don't spend your time lookin' around
For something you want that can't be found
When you find out you can live without it
And go along not thinkin' about it
I'll tell you something true

The bare necessities of life will come to you


Match the meanings:

Match the meanings:

1. Bare necessities   a. Relax

2. Strife  b. Enough to live  

3. Roam   c. Hand of an animal

4. Fonder  d. The sound of a bee

5. Pick   e.  Problems

6. Claw  f. Like more

7. Cool it   g. Travel

8. Find out   h. Choose or take from a tree

9. Buzzin’   i.  Know

10. Britches   j.  Trousers                                                                

The Bare Necessities

Using Relative Clauses

Relative clauses are a type of clause that joins two thoughts or two sentences together.

A Defining Relative clause is one which defines what the writer or speaker means.

For example the two thoughts - a man lives next door to me and a man is from Australia - can be joined together like this: The man who lives next door to me is from Australia. This tells the listener or reader who we are talking about.

A Non-Defining Relative clause gives us extra information.

For example the two thoughts - Australia is a country and Australia is located in the Southern Hemisphere - can be joined together like this: Australia is a country, which is located in the Southern Hemisphere. This time the clause gives us extra information about Australia.

Note that when we are giving extra information we include a comma (,) before the relative pronoun. We can use who, that, which, where and whose to make our relative clause and sometimes we can leave them out.

For example: " Have you spent all the money that I gave you?" can be written or spoken as "Have you spent all the money I gave you?"

Watch and listen to the song below. Then read through the lyrics. The relative clauses are highlighted for you. Are they defining or non-defining? Can you insert a relative pronoun or take it away?

Green Eyes by Coldplay

Relative Clauses

Green Eyes by Coldplay

Honey you are a rock 
Upon which I stand 
And I come here to talk 
I hope you understand 

That green eyes, yeah the spotlight, shines upon you 
And how could, anybody, deny you 

I came here with a load 
And it feels so much lighter, now I’ve met you 
And honey you should know, that I could never go on without you 

Green eyes 

Honey you are the sea 
Upon which I float 
And I came here to talk 
I think you should know 

That green eyes, you’re the one that I wanted to find 
And anyone who, tried to deny you must be out of their mind 

Cause I came here with a load 
And it feels so much lighter, since I met you 
Honey you should know, that I could never go on without you 

Green eyes 
Green eyes 

Ohohohohooooo 
Ohohohohooooo 


Honey you are a rock 
Upon which I stand 

Saying of the Week

Too much on his plate

Bob is so busy these days. On weekdays he's studying every day at uni. And then in the evenings he's got a part time job in a restaurant, waiting tables. At the weekend, he takes classes in English - he wants to take the TOEFL. Also, he takes care of his mother when he can, Saturday and Sunday afternoons. He just can't get time to keep up with everything or even relax. 

You know, he can't keep going like this. Something's got to give. He's got too much on his plate!!!

All I have is a Voice to Undo the Folded Lie

In Level 4 we are studying protests, demonstrations and big events. We also listened to a woman talk about how she felt at an anti-war rally.

This is a poem written by the English poet W.H. Auden, as he was sitting in a bar in New York, and the German armies were marching into Poland to begin World War II. He writes how he is afraid of what will happen and how strange it is that everybody’s going about their business as normal, while Europe descends into a war that will kill millions. However, all is not totally hopeless. At the end of the poem he sees some lights in the distance that point to a more positive future.

It is an important anti-war poem that applies as much today, as we start a new decade, and an important warning to us and governments everywhere to keep the peace. It foresaw the 60’s slogan: “Make Love Not War”. Listen and read the poem. What did Auden mean and feel while he wrote the poem? Why are the skyscrapers blind? What does he think of the commuters? Who are the deaf? And who are the dumb? How do you feel about it?

We must love one another or die

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September 1, 1939 by W.H. Auden

September 1, 1939
by W. H. Auden

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong.

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
"I will be true to the wife,
I'll concentrate more on my work,"
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the deaf,
Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

Saying of the Week

What goes around, comes around

We use this saying a lot, in both a positive way, and a negative way. We call it Kharma, which is quite Buddhist.

Have you seen the movie "Pay it Forward"? In that movie a little boy decides to do good things for other people. He doesn't ask for anything in return, except that you do something good for someone else, and then that person also does something good, and it's passed around and around. It's a great movie. If you can get it out on video, it has my favourite actor, Kevin Spacey, in it.

My Uncle Jack was a special guy like that. I remember sitting in the Doctor's waiting room one rainy winter's afternoon. There was a long queue and everybody was really down in the mouth and looking glum. People were going up to the receptionist and complaining, and tapping their watches, and sighing. And then, my uncle came in and he started joking with everybody and telling stories. And soon everybody in the waiting room was laughing and smiling. We all forgot the time. When we got home we had smiles on our faces, and we passed on our good feelings to our families. That's the positive meaning to "What goes around, comes around". Whatever you do will move on and around other people and then come back to you - kharma.

The other way to look at this saying is in a negative way. When somebody does something bad to you, don't get angry. Just shrug your shoulders, smile, think to yourself: What goes around ... It's a good way to get over hurt. Justin Timberlake wrote a song using this saying - the lyrics and the song are below - in which he talks about a girlfriend he really loved and wanted to marry, who cheats on him with another man. She leaves him and stays with another man, but in the song Justin imagines the man cheating on her. She sits at home every night lonely, waiting on his call: "What goes around, comes around."

It's a good song. Watch and listen to the song - performed live in New York - and read the lyrics.

Great stuff! 

"What Goes Around, Comes Around" Lyrics

Hey girl, is he everything you wanted in a man?
You know I gave you the world
You had me in the palm of your hand
So why your love went away
I just can't seem to understand
Thought it was me and you babe
Me and you until the end
But I guess I was wrong

Don't want to think about it
Don't want to talk about it
I'm just so sick about it
Can't believe it's ending this way
Just so confused about it
Feeling the blues about it
I just can't do without ya
Tell me is this fair?

Is this the way it's really going down?
Is this how we say goodbye?
Should've known better when you came around
That you were gonna make me cry
It's breaking my heart to watch you run around
'Cause I know that you're living a lie
That's okay baby 'cause in time you will find...

What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around

Now girl, I remember everything that you claimed
You said that you were moving on now
And maybe I should do the same
Funny thing about that is
I was ready to give you my name
Thought it was me and you, babe
And now, it's all just a shame
And I guess I was wrong

Don't want to think about it
Don't want to talk about it
I'm just so sick about it
Can't believe it's ending this way
Just so confused about it
Feeling the blues about it
I just can't do without ya
Can you tell me is this fair?

Is this the way it's really going down?
Is this how we say goodbye?
Should've known better when you came around (should've known better that you were gonna make me cry)
That you were going to make me cry
Now it's breaking my heart to watch you run around
'Cause I know that you're living a lie
That's okay baby 'cause in time you will find

What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around

What goes around comes around
Yeah
What goes around comes around
You should know that
What goes around comes around
Yeah
What goes around comes around
You should know that

Don't want to think about it (no)
Don't want to talk about it
I'm just so sick about it
Can't believe it's ending this way
Just so confused about it
Feeling the blues about it (yeah)
I just can't do without ya
Tell me is this fair?

Is this the way it's really going down?
Is this how we say goodbye?
Should've known better when you came around (should've known better that you were gonna make me cry)
That you were going to make me cry
Now it's breaking my heart to watch you run around
'Cause I know that you're living a lie
But that's okay baby 'cause in time you will find

What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around

[Comes Around interlude:]

Let me paint this picture for you, baby

You spend your nights alone
And he never comes home
And every time you call him
All you get's a busy tone
I heard you found out
That he's doing to you
What you did to me
Ain't that the way it goes

When you cheated girl
My heart bleeded girl
So it goes without saying that you left me feeling hurt
Just a classic case
A scenario
Tale as old as time
Girl you got what you deserved

And now you want somebody
To cure the lonely nights
You wish you had somebody
That could come and make it right

But girl I ain't somebody with a lot of sympathy
You'll see

(What goes around comes back around)
I thought I told ya, hey
(What goes around comes back around)
I thought I told ya, hey
(What goes around comes back around)
I thought I told ya, hey
(What goes around comes back around)
I thought I told ya, hey

[laughs]
See?
You should've listened to me, baby
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Because
(What goes around comes back around)
[laughs]

"What Goes Around, Comes Around" by Justin Timberlake

Christmas Party 2009

A New Year's Wish from Ireland

May you always have walls for the winds,

A roof for the rain, tea beside the fire,

Laughter to cheer you, those you love near you,

And all your heart might desire.

Happy New Year Everyone

I hope you all had a merry Christmas and a great New Year. Classes for the Diploma start this evening, Monday 4th., as normal. See you all here.