Articles et video cours d'anglais

Barack Obama's head speech writer a 27 year old who writes in cafes

An Australian man in Thailand whose novel sold just 7 copies is sentenced to 3 years in prison for insulting the Thai royal family

Woman who fell to earth case - a fake

Who were the Tuskegee airmen?

Tuskegee airmen video part one



Tuskegee airmen video part two at the inauguration of Barak Obama

New Class on Tuesday Morning

A new English Conversation Workshop will take place every Tuesday morning between 11am and 1pm. The level is intermediate/advanced starting 20th January 2009. Contact me if you want to take part.

Nouveau cours d'anglais "The English Conversation Workshop" tous les mardis entre 11h et 13h a partir de 20 janvier 2009. Niveau intermédiaire/avancé. Contactez moi pour encore d'information.

Articles from English Class

The French "Onion Johnnies" (onion sellers with beret stripy tops and bicycles) are dying out in England

Bad news there will be a galactic collision of immense proportions - but not just yet

Rachida Dati. Supermwoman or irresponsible mother?

Au revoir as hard-up Brits face exodus from France

An Onion Johnny

Actor Patrick McGoohan has died aged 80. Star of the cult 60s TV series "The Prisoner" about an ex-secret agent held captive on an island from which he is trying to escape. His most famous line from the show is "I am not a number I am a free man". Here is the opening sequence. Vocabulary: "By hook or by crook" is an English expression meaning by any means possible.

Life Coaching in English

An English friend of mine, Ashun Sierra, is currently in Paris. Ashun is an ICC certified Life Coach. Life coaching, if you are not familiar, is a form of one-to-one tuition to help determine and achieve personal goals. Ashun is offering the first consultation free of charge. To find out more information please call 06 43 21 04 25.

Brass Monkeys and Social Networking

It's bloody cold here in Paris at the moment. Here are a few words in English and French to help express yourself during these icy times.

Snow = Neige
Sleet = Neige fondue
Hail = Grêle
Blustery = Très Venteux
Windy = Venteux
Drizzle = Bruine
Freezing Rain = Pluie Glaçante
Showers = Averses
Snow Flurries = Légère Neige

It's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey! = ?? I don't know! Can someone help me with a translation of this peculiar English expression?


For anyone out there who has tried (and failed) to get the hang of social networking sites might find this video amusing.

Courses starting again

Happy New Year everyone I hope 2009 will be joyful and profitable for you all.

Courses begin on 5th January, if you want to participate (and you haven't already) contact me by the usual means. more details at www.letthemtalk.fr

Every year an update to the English dictionary comes out with a number of new entries. 2009 is no different a number of new words have entered the dictionary for the first time. Many of which such as frenemy and jargonaut I have never heard of myself. Full story here

New words in English

I have found an excellent new blog for learning English called http://www.anglais-facile-cours.com/ written by Jonathan Lewis an English teacher in Provence. He's recorded some videos too. This is Jonathan explaining the difference between "say" and "tell"

LetThemTalk Paris closing for the holidays

We are now closed for the holidays the English courses will recommence Monday 5th January 2009. I will be checking my email from time to time until then but perhaps less often than usual. If you have any queries about courses you can, however, still contact me.

I wish everyone a happy holiday and a great new year.

Recipe for flapjacks

Thank you to everyone who came to the LetThemTalk end of year party on Saturday. I hope you enjoyed it and best wishes to everyone for the holiday season and the New Year.

I was asked at the party for a recipe for flapjacks. If you’re unfamiliar with flapjacks they are a delicious crunchy tray baked cake very popular in Britain. Here is the recipe I use which is based on one by Delia Smith.

For about 10 flapjacks

Ingredients

110 g soft brown sugar
110 g butter or margarine
1 rounded dessertspoon golden syrup (if you can’t find golden syrup use honey)
175 g oats
¾ teaspoon ground ginger

Pre-heat the oven to 150°C.

You will also need an 18 or 20 cm square baking tin at least 4 cm deep, lightly greased.

Place the sugar butter and golden syrup, together in a pan and heat to it gently; so that the butter melts stirring the mixture from time to time. Take the pan off the heat and mix in the oats and the ginger. Now pour the mixture into the tin and spread it out evenly, Bake for 40-45 minutes. Then allow them to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before cutting it into oblong bars. Leave them in the tin until quite cold before removing them. Store them in a tin.

Cours d'anglais articles et video

Lebanon "immune" from financial crisis.

At Pasadena now news is outsourced to India

A bit of grammar practice - the zero article -


Here's a clip from one of the greatest British films "Kind Hearts and Coronets" A black comedy made in 1949. (known in French as Noblesse Oblige starring Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood and Alec Guiness.

Cours d'anglais Paris articles videos

Did you know that George Orwell wrote an article on how to make a nice cup of Tea? It was first published in London's Evening Standard in 1946. Follow the link to read it in its entirety.


A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell

Japan Centenarians at record high

Here's a little bit of grammar practice on the present perfect continuous


Introducing the Book - Medieval Helpdesk. (in Norwegian subtitled in English)

Cours d'anglais Letthemtalk Paris articles et videos

Italy set to become world's largest wine producer

Sark the last feudal state in Europe

Read all about it! US newspapers fall prey to the internet and recession

Derren Brown hypnotizes people on the London Underground to forget their stop.

The Cockney Bible

Cockney is the dialect of London recently a bible was printed in cockney.

Peculiar to Cockney is its rhyming slang. Wikipedia defines it like this “Rhyming slang is a form of slang in which a word is replaced by a rhyming word, typically the second word of a two-word phrase (so stairs becomes "apples and pears"). The second word is then often dropped entirely ("I'm going up the apples"), meaning that the association of the original word to the rhyming phrase is not obvious to the uninitiated. “

The Cockney Bible (from the story of Joseph) by God translated by Mike Coles.

The brothers want Joseph Brown Bread. He ends up in Egypt!

One day, Joseph popped off to a place called Shechem. His brothers were there lookin' after sheep. Jacob 'ad asked Joseph to check that everything was ok. When Joseph got there, 'e had a good ol' butcher's around, but couldn't find 'is brothers. Some geezer came up to 'im and asked, "Are you alrigh' me ol' china? What are you lookin' for?"

"I've been having a good butcher's for me brothers. They're taking care of their sheep," he answered. "You ain't seen them 'ave you?"

"They've moved on to a place called Dothan, I think I heard one of 'em say," replied the geezer. So, Joseph moved on to Dothan.

When 'is brothers saw 'im coming in the distance, they planned to kill him 'cos they hated his guts. "Let's kill that bloomin' little dreamer boy," they said. "We'll kill 'im and chuck his body dahn one of the dry wells. We'll say some nasty, wild animal killed 'im, then we'll see if his stupid dreams come true innit?"

One of the brothers Reuben, didn't want to see Joseph brown bread. "Don't kill 'im fella's," he said. "Let's just chuck him dahn the well for now." Reuben said this 'cos he wanted to return Joseph home safely a little later on. The brothers tore off Joseph's lovely new weasel, and they chucked him in the dry well.

As the brothers were 'aving their Judy and Punch, they saw some Ishmaelite traders pass by on their way to Egypt. The brothers suddenly came up with a plan. They said, "Let's not kill our little dreaming brother, 'cos 'e is our own flesh and blood. Let's just sell 'im to those traders." They all agreed, and they sold 'im for twenty bits of silver. The traders took 'im to Egypt.

A little alligator, Reuben returned to the well to get Joseph to send 'im home. When 'e saw that the well was empty, 'e got himself in a righ' ol' two and eight, and he tore his these and those. He wandered what 'e was gonna do.

The brothers then killed a goat, and dipped Joseph's weasel in its blood. They then took the weasel back to Jacob and said, "Dad. We found this weasel. Does it belong to your currant?"

"Oh no... it does," he said. "A wild animal must have killed him. My little currant has been ripped apart." Jacob was so sad, he tore his these and those (that's what they did in them days when they was really sad if someone died). He then wore some sack cloth material as his these and those, 'cos 'e was in a righ' ol' two and eight. His favourite currant was brown bread. He was real, real sad. All 'is currants and bottle's tried to cheer 'im up. But, 'e wanted no-one to help 'im. Jacob was never gonna get over the death of Joseph.

While all this was goin' on, the traders had arrived in Egypt. They sold Joseph to some geezer called Potiphar, quite an important fella. He was one of the Pharaoh's officers, captain of the Pharaoh's palace guard. Joseph became 'is slave.

Cockney rhyming slang glossary

Brown Bread = dead

Butcher’s =butcher’s hook = look

(ol') china = china plate = mate = friend

Weasel = weasel and stoat = coat

Judy and Punch = lunch

Alligator = later

two and eight = state = agitated

these and those = clothes

Currant = currant bun = son

Bottle = bottle of porter = daughter

Other cockney expressions

Geezer = guy, chap, man

Bloomin’ = damned

Innit = isn’t it (won’t we, aren’t they….etc)

‘cos = because

fella = fellow

dahn = down

gonna = going to

Jamie Oliver - a famous cockney geezer

Cours d'anglais articles et video

Tattoo culture under the spotlight

Greenland on the road to independence

Having a nap is better than coffee to pick you up



The famous mirror scene from the Marx Brothers - not much speaking in this but...I like it.

Sandrine's Blog

LetThemTalk's very own Sandrine writes a fascinating blog superflu full of book reviews and recommendations from the literary world. Check it out Here

Cours d'anglais articles et videos

Climbing stairs can prolong your life!

Paris to quadruple the number of CCTV cameras

Ten Endangered Languages

The Haggle scene from Monty Phython's Life of Brian. (Haggle = negotiate the price of somethig).

Cours d'anglais articles et video

US prison population dwarfs that of other nations

Let them eat spuds: potatoes - the world's new staple?

Cash to name babies for Mussolini

The Grim Reaper pays a visit

More Articles from the English class

Woman in Japan arrested for 'killing' her virtual husband

Regualtions concerning oddly shaped fruit and vegetables are abolished by EU

All around France cafes are closing

A car that runs on water (really!)