Why Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day

Remembrance or Armistice Day is also commonly and popularly known as Poppy Day. If you want to learn about the story behing the Poppy, watch the following video with a delicious Scottich accent.

Countdown to Christmas. Make your own Advent Calendar.

If there is a thing people go all crazy about, that is Christmas time. Celebrations, family and friend gatherings, that special atmosphere and the presents. We all know it is a very materialistic festivity, although that is only so, whenever we choose to go along with the imposed shopping fever.
It is very common in cities to boast a massive Christmas lights switch on event, as well as season adverts by the hand of popular business, such as Morrisons, John Lewis or the classic Fenwick themed windows that everyone loves!
I propose you a countdown to Christmas time with another all-time favourite: Advent Calendars. I offer you the chance to make your own digital version and surprise anyone you want or ,simply, treat yourself!
Click on the link provided let your creativity take over! There is a Monty Python version to let you see a final version of the product :)

http://advent-calendars.org/

Gunpowder Plot. A treason never to be forgotten.

Tonight you'll hear it all over Britain: "Remember, remember the fith of November" and the kids' old story "a penny for the guy". It is the night of gunpowder, bonfires, fireworks display and celebration of a plot fail. Do you know about the popular rhyme and the history bihind it?

Click the link to learn more about Guy Fawkes and The Gunpowder Plot. 

Market Day: Spitafields

One of the best options in East London. You don't have to wait for Saturday for it to open  as it is a seve-day- a- week option. Old Spitafields Market is one vibrant  place to go. If you love antiques and bargains, thursday is your day! Clothes and art are the main attraction on Friday. Every Saturday, you'll fing a themed market, whereas Sunday offers a bit of everything, the usual :)
Here is an extract of Totally London tv about the market. Enjoy the virtual visit!!!

The Fake Moustache Trend

In the last couple of years I've noticed an increasing interest for any kind of fashion articles in the shape of or containing the popular handlebar moustache. That made me do some research and here is the answer:
THE MOUSTACHE TREND article
We will see how long it wil last, but it seems the thing to have at the moment, especially with so much merchandising out there. Name the thing and they will moustache it for you :-3

Accents and their "fun"

Accents are really complicated when it comes to language learning. If you get used to listening to Received Pronounciation (RP English) only, then, you are very likely to struggle with the rest of English accents: local, national or international. Yes, that's where the "fun" lies....
American vs British English
Australian vs American and British
Indian English Accents
Canadian Accents
British Accent deserves a post on its own, due to the diffentent accents, slang and interesting bits and pieces it has to offer :)

The Roman Invasion of Britain

I just bumped into this hilarious description of how the Romans invaded Britain (newsport style). Fingers crossed, you like it as much as I did. If satisfied with the humour and the accent, keep on watching more Horribe Histories to learn while having fun ;)

-ED pronunciation

More often that not, we struggle to get the pronunciation of regular verbs in the past right. Tricks to it? We need to focus a bit on phonetics to master this area.
If the chart on the left means little to you in terms of actual help, try listening to this -ED pronunciation tutorial. 

Lie or Lay?

In my opinion, with the learning of Lay vs Lie comes one of the biggest challenges in the irregular verb list!!!
This generous teacher gives us a lesson (click here )on how to distinguish between:

• LAY LAID LAID (irr. transitive verb meaning to put something down)

• LIE LAY LAIN    (irr. intransititive verb meaning to recline)                                                      

• LIE LIED LIED (regular verb meaning to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive) also gets by to make things a little bit more complicated...

Watch and learn...

VOA's Learning: Another tool to learn English.

When you click in VOA's Learning English link, you'll be directed to a two-column chart in which you can either
1) select youtube videos with a news-telling format and subtitles available
or, which I think it is the most attractive service,
2) a selection of news articles. So far, nothing special! but wait and see. Once the piece of news is opened, an emerging orange dialogue box will pop out so that you can  work on what you really need regarding the article you have just read in terms of vocabulary, comprehension and listening. Sometimes, it is accessible at the bottom of the page. More than recommendable!
In case you haven't realised, it is AmE, as VOA stands for Voice of America.