Heres an English lesson based on the Beatles song Yesterday.

1. Welcome today were going to talk about love! Does anybody know any good love songs? (Teacher writes suggestions on the board)

1. Play Yesterday

1. Arrange students into two lines, facing each other. Give each person in one line a card with a character on it Mother, Father, Child, Lover. These people must reveal their card to the person opposite them in the second line, and can only say one thing: I Love You. This has to be done in the style of the character on the card. The people in the second line have a response on their card, which they do not reveal: I hate you!; I know; I love you too; no response simply an expression. Get the class to do one couplet, using appropriate intonation and body language, and then pass the cards to their left. After one round, the cards get passed across to the opposite line. This exercise could be great fun, and teaches the importance of how a word is spoken in different situations.

1. The song Yesterday is full of phrases, and is all about the universally experienced concept of lost love. Gather a series of pictures that illustrate the different concepts and phrases included in Lennon and McCartneys ten different lines. Split the class by line or verse (depending on class size and time available), and ask them to match a picture or pictures to their line or verse and brainstorm the main concept of each line (which you can have underlined for them in advance). What does this mean? How do I describe what it means? Ask each group to prepare a brief talk to the class on that thought!

1. Review the song and the ideas in it, line by line each associated with a picture.

1. Play the song again, and end the lesson with appropriate farewells.

Andrew is a qualified TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher, with 15 years experience of the global Automotive Industry as a Sales manager with an International component and systems supplier. For more information about learning English with Andrew at his home in the UK, visit the Lets Talk 2 website.

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How John and Paul help me teach English A brilliant and accessible way of Teaching English as a Foreign Language which I learnt as a student has proved to be the best tool in my box! Using Song Lyrics is just excellent! Music has, for decades, been an International language all of its own. There are many globally recognisable bands out there, si...

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For the student wanting to learn Chinese, the first question that comes up is what Chinese dialect should I learn? There are several main regional groups of Chinese. The most populous dialects are Mandarin with approximately 850 million speakers, Wu with 90 million, Min with about 70 million, and Cantonese with 70 million.

Mandarin therefore is the main dialect in China both in numerical terms and as well as being sanctioned as the main language by the Chinese government and therefore of most benefit to the aspiring student. The word Mandarin is a translation from the Beijing expression guan-hu meaning “official language” that was the dialect of this city for several centuries. This dialect was accepted as the official language at the beginning of the 20th century. Mandarin is also spoken in Taiwan though differences in syntax and vocabulary do exist.

Wu is spoken in the Zhejiang province, the municipality of Shanghai, southern province of Jiangsu as well as parts of the Anhui, Jiangxi, and Fujian provinces. Min is spoken in the southeastern province of Fujian as well as by migrants from this province to Guangdong, Hainan, three counties in southern Zhejiang, and the Zhoushan archipelago, and Taiwan. In contrast, the areas with the highest concentration of speakers of Cantonese are in Guangdong province, parts of Guanx, in southern mainland China, Hong Kong and Macua. Of the four official languages that are spoken in Singapore, huyu, is based on the dialect of Beijing, though once again differences are present.

Mandarin speakers number about 70 per cent of the total Chinese population and live mainly in the western plains region. This region includes the central Yngzi, the plain of Hui, the neoriental plain, Sichuan and the the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunan.

The different dialects spoken are normally understood by the different language groups and can be divided as follows: Septentrional, spoken in the northern region and it includes the dialect of Pekn; Noroccidental includes the dialects of the Loess plain and territories to the west; Southoccidental, spoken in Sichuan and the adhacent regions; and Oriental, that represent the dialects spoken in Nanking.

Chinese is a tonal language. The tonal difference is one of the most common variations among the different Chinese dialects. At times it happens that the dialects of two villages separated only by a few kilometers have different tonal systems. For example, the tonal system of the dialect spoken in Pekin is the typical way of speaking in the septentrional region.

In this area Mandarin of Beijing represents one of the simplest Chinese dialects from the point of view of the tonal aspect, having four different tones that indicate the four levels of the words: high, very high, medium and fallen high.

The romanization system officially adopted by the government of Beijing, called pinyin, represents the tones making use of diacritical superimposed signs on the nuclear vocal of the word.

Jacob Lumbroso is a world traveler and an enthusiast for foreign languages, history, and foreign cultures. He writes articles on history and languages and has used Pimsleur courses to learn various languages.

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Learning how to speak in German with confidence is such an achievement when completely done later on. But similar to other challenges in life, there has got to be first hand difficulties one will experience. The only way to battle this through is to handle German lessons one step at a time.

This is not to say that there is no choice for a person to learn German the easy way. Of course there are various German medium and methods available for German learning. The internet, a wonder that it is, gives hundreds of options and choices for somebody interested in learning a foreign language, specifically, the German language.

The internet offers many German learning programs and tools. There may be many of them out there but there is a tool bound for you to like. So, take heed. Dont worry if you start learning German the wrong way. Sooner or later, you will find the tool that suits you.

Despite the unlimited access you have right now, learning German does not entirely rely on these methods and materials alone. You have to realize that learning really depends on you. It can be your mood, your behavior at the moment or your entire outlook towards German lessons and it might not be in tuned.

Learning something new definitely catches a persons attention and curiosity. Now, the question would be the interest you have in continuing to learn and speaking German later on.

Though most people think that having a great material for studying German is what makes a good German speaker, this is actually a great misconception. A persons motivation always counts when things like this one arises. You and your mind, the doubts that you have specifically are going to be the greatest hurdle you need to face. Asking yourself why you need to learn German may bring in hundreds of reasons why you dont have to learn the language. But if you are just completely motivated, you will also have hundreds of reasons more to continue on and learn German.

Shareen Aguilar is a writer for Learn German Program which has Memory Improvement Books and Memory Game Software for better German language memorization.

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One of the biggest difficulties in learning French is how
French verbs work. Here are some fundamental basics of
understanding French verbs and how they work!
You must know what a verb is and its present tense. The
infinitive of To have is avoir. Of course, if you do not
know how to conjugate it, you will have an uphill battle. You
must learn the basic conjugations for the major verb endings:
-er, -ir and re. Learn the past tense, future tense and subjunctive conjugations
of each new verb you are learning.

Speak in French. Again, this sounds obvious, but when you are
speaking to someone fluent in a language, you learn more!
If at all possible, try to enter a French immersion program. In
countries such as Canada, you are considered fluent after three
years in the program! Another (obvious) tip: Pay attention during class. Yes, it can
be boring, but if you truly want to learn the language, listen,
think and ask questions!

Buy the very best French/English dictionary that you can
afford. Read in French. This may sound simple, but it is
amazing how quickly you will learn words and phrases through
the context of reading. Seeing the words and rules you are
studying in practical application always helps!

Practice with someone! Whether it is a pen pal, or an online
community, you will find that writing the language and reading
their responses will help you learn more, faster!

STUDY! Every day. If you want to know the language, and be
fluent in it, you must practice it every single day!
Think in French. While you are at the grocery store, or mall,
or looking through your closet for your favorite trousers! Name
everything you see and do in French.

Learning French is a full time commitment. If you goof off
and only half heartedly try to learn, you will never be fluent.
Take it seriously. This does not mean you cannot have fun, but it
does mean that you need to practice and learn something new
everyday!

Keep a positive attitude! 175 million people in the world speak
French. That means, it is not impossible to learn! Some lessons
are harder than others, that is to be expected. Do not let one
or two difficult lessons detour you from learning the language!
Find an online translator where you can translate phrases you
use daily, then incorporate them in your life! Be careful,
though! Always check your translations with your dictionary and
teacher, because they can often be quite wrong!

When learning French in an immersion program or college is not practical, self study programs are the answer to learning French the fastest way possible. I invite you to this website to discover the top notch online and audio French courses available. French Program Reviews.

Or http://www.squidoo.com/frenchprogramreviews/

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When youre traveling to a non-English speaking country, you always need to know information about the food, things to do, places to go, prices to pay and the time. So you wont get lost, you need to ask for directions early on from some locals or if you want to know the total amount of expenses you have so far, you still need to do the same thing ask..

But whatever reason you have, asking questions is a good way of gathering information around you. Go to where the information is, not let them come to you. So if youre in Germany, dont hesitate to ask.

But one thing you should remember, get to know first question phrases to get your message across easily.

Question sentences always begin with question words:

What
When
Where contaminated
Who
Why
Where to?
How much?

When youre traveling however, you will most likely use everything on the list above when asking a question except why.

In the German language they are:

Was…? = What
Wann…? = When
Wo…? = Where
Wer…? = Who
Wohin…? = Where to?
Wie viel…? = How much?

Carrying around an English-German dictionary, German map and at least a mini German translation book will keep you on track of what you want to ask at any given time. Lets say you want to remember one place that you wanted to go to since the minute you stepped foot on German boundaries. A way to remember the place is to practice saying it with the entire sentence altogether.

Wo ist der Jahrmarkt?

In English, it means where is the fairground?. What you can do is picture a big jar with the market place printed on it. This usually works great in remembering certain words or phrases easily. What you only need to do is to picture an image of the word in a funny way so every time you think of the object that you have associated the word with, you will then remember what you have set to remember.

Shareen Aguilar is a writer for http://learn-german-program.com which has Memory Improvement Books and Memory Game Software for better German language memorization.

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They say that a picture paints a thousand words. We think of the value of the family album: theres Martin aged about one, when we were living in Stanley; theres Mum about a thousand years ago when we lived in Tewkesbury; and look, there we are on our wedding day! Get the picture (!)? One look and already thousands of words are flooding in to do with feelings, outstanding questions, and colourful, happy (and sometimes not so happy) memories. Word to start to describe the weather, the food, the smells, the hotel, the receptionist, the guy dressed up as a chicken, what the car was like, how much the whole thing cost, and how you were arrested the very next day I love looking through the albums how else to remember how small my six foot six sons once were? How else to remember what I looked like 25, 30, 40 years ago?

Then theres art: from Van Gogh and Rembrandt to Tracy Emin and Jackson Pollock each with his or her own style, all communicating with the viewer: what does each say to you? Each certainly requires words to describe both the picture and how it makes you feel, thats for sure! And advertising so often using a single picture to sell thousands of pounds worth of goods or services: what are they trying to say, what does the picture say about seller and goods? There are some great ones that spring to mind: a hippo catching a stick, an elephant in a kennel or a group of bodies making up a word or picture. So how about this for a technique? Take someone with very little English, from a child to a top executive. They need the language, for study, for communicating with the world (English, I would suggest, is the global language for many industries in this 21st century globalised economy). Show them a picture, or get them to show you, the teacher, one of theirs - preferably something with plenty to say (a picture of their home, their passion, their family) its like lighting the proverbial blue touch paper! They will have a mind flooded with those thousand words highlighted above; they will NEED the words in English in order to talk to you, the teacher: and when someone NEEDS something, thats when the real learning happens!

Andrew is a qualified TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher, with 15 years experience of the global Automotive Industry as a Sales manager with an International component and systems supplier. For more information about learning English with Andrew at his home in the UK, visit the Lets Talk 2 website. See here for teaching English as a second language in England.

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German is a great language and there are many ways to learn how to speak write and read the German language. Here are some tips on learning German.

Try and immerse yourself in the German language as much as possible. Pick a day out of the week where you can speak, read and write German. It doesnt matter which day it is, as long as every thing you say or do is German such as watch a film or write a letter in German and you make it fun.

Label objects in your house in German. Labeling objects in your house with sticky notes or magnets will help you to memorize the German word for these objects.

Get yourself a German pen pal. You can write in German to your pen pal and they can help you out with the language.

Watch films in German. Watching films in German will help you to pronounce words properly and clearly, also help you to remember the German language.

Read German magazines, books and comics. Reading German magazines, books and comics will help you recognize the German language. It also can be great fun. Keep a German/English dictionary by your side as you might not recognize a word and you will be able to look it up.

Go over to Germany for a holiday and talk to the locals in German. Talking to the locals in Germany will help you to learn German because you will be able to hear how they pronounce the words properly.

Invest in to a good German/ English dictionary. Purchasing a good German/English dictionary will come in handy just in case you forget how to say something or dont recognize a German word.

Buy a German course on-line. Purchasing a German course on-line will help you to learn the language easier from the comforts of your own home and you can do the course in your own time without any homework or deadlines.

Listen to audio CDs in the car. Listening to learning German audio CDs in your car will help you to pick up the language faster.

Just follow these tips and learning German can be fun and easy.

George Taylor is owner of the
Rocket German Review
website, where he collects information and articles on learning German, as
well as reviews on the popular Rocket
German home study course.

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Most people know that geisha, kimono and haiku are Japanese words, but did you know that typhoon, tsunami and tofu are also Japanese words? Here are a few other Japanese words we hear in our everyday lives: shiitake, karate, karaoke and Pokemon. Lets have a look at the meanings of these words.

Japanese is called an agglutinating language because new expressions can be made by connecting existing language elements together. Japanese is written using kanji and each kanji represents one or more ideas. Thus Japanese nouns are often created by putting two or more kanji together and the new words meaning is related to the combination of these meanings.

Tsunami for example is written with the kanji for harbor and waves, tsu and nami since in the past the waves arrived without warning and did most damage in harbors.

Another natural force, the typhoon, is also made with two kanji. This is pronounced taifuu in Japanese and is written with kanji for tai and fuu. The first kanji means standing and the second means wind. Despite having high wind speeds, typhoons travel quite slowly so the meaning can be imagined from the combined elements a typhoon is a wind that seems to stands in one place for a long time.

Typhoons can be very destructive and every year thousands of trees are toppled by them. Its not all bad news though because typhoons can lead to fresh, wild shiitake mushrooms! In the wild, shiitake mushrooms are generally found on the decaying trunks of fallen Japanese oaks. Shii-take literally means oak-mushroom. Take means mushroom and shi is a type of Japanese tree related to oak trees.

Heres another food from decay tofu. Tofu breaks down into tou-fu meaning beans-rot. It might not sound appetising but tofu is actually soured soy-bean milk so bean rot is a pretty accurate description.

Tofu can be part of a healthy lifestyle and doing karate can really improve your fitness too. As a pure martial art, karate has the meaning of empty-hand. Kara means empty and te means hand.

The kara in karaoke also means empty but oke is a Japanese abbreviation of orchestra. So karaoke means empty-orchestra. It might seem a strange name to English speakers but the idea seems to fit an orchestra without humans.

Pokemon is our last example. Foreign words are often absorbed into the Japanese language and reused in strange and unfamiliar ways, like the word orchestra in karaoke. Pokemon comes from POcKEt-MONster.

I hope this article has helped you make a little more sense of Japanese words and made learning Japanese seem a little less monstrous!

Enhance your kanji study with free kanji translation, instant online Japanese translation and kanji books from JP41.com.

Copyright 2006 James Penman

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First, Id like to clear up a common misconception: Castellano and espaol are two words for the same thing and both words mean Spanish. If someone asks you, Habls castellano? they want to know if you speak Spanish, not if you speak Argentine. I only point this out because many students, when they first come to Argentina, will think that castellano is a word which refers to the Argentine variety of Spanish, but in fact it simply means Spanish.

So why are there two words for Spanish: espaol and castellano and why do you more commonly hear the latter when people are speaking in Spanish?

It has to do with the modern-day politics of Spain, and in particular, the relationship of Spains minority cultures and languages to the dominant (Castilian) language and culture. Its more politically correct to say castellano rather than espaol because by saying the latter you are, in effect, belittling the other regional languages of Spain (such as Basque and Catalan) which are in fact also Spanish languages in the sense of being languages that are spoken in Spain. Castellano was, itself, once only a regional language of Spain, and even though its now the dominant language, calling it castellano instead of espaol is it is thought more respectful to the minority cultures, since it puts all of the languages of the Iberian Peninsula on a, more or less, even linguistic footing. (In spite of this, Spanish, on the other hand, continues to be the preferred word in foreign circles when the language is referred to as a second language, hence giving rise to the confusion.)

However, thats neither here nor there, because the Spanish which is spoken in Latin America is all castellano, or Castilian Spanish.

The variety of Castilian Spanish which is spoken in Argentinas capital city, meanwhile, is known as the castellano del Ro de la Plata, so named for the river which bisects the region and separates Argentina from Uruguay to the north.

Argentines will be the first to admit proudly, because they are a very proud people that their way of speaking Spanish is one-of-a-kind. The Spanish which is spoken in Buenos Aires is marked by strong immigrant influences notably that of the Italians. In addition, this Spanish has conserved certain traits of bygone eras, most notably the use of the vos pronoun (which, with its 17th century echoes, sometimes strikes other Spanish speakers as amusing, somewhat akin to what it would sound like to hear modern day English spoken with a Shakespearian thee). Finally, the Spanish of the Ro de la Plata is highly inventive and is noted for its use of local slang, known as lunfardo.

Here are a few of the principal traits of Argentine Spanish, with examples (you can skip this part if you dont already speak some Spanish):

1) The pronoun vos. The pronoun vos, even though ubiquitous and a little jarring at first, is actually remarkably easy to use and to get used to. The vos simply replaces the informal you (t) pronoun. Verbs are conjugated by dropping the last letter r of the infinitive, replacing it with an s, and adding an accent to the final syllable of the verb. The conjugation is thus significantly more regular than it is with the t pronoun, which is wrought with irregular forms. Examples of the use of vos include: Vos vivs en Argentina (You live in Argentina.) Vos habls castellano. (You speak Spanish.) The only irregular verb used with vos is the verb ser. This is conjugated with sos (in place of eres from the t form). Example: Vos sos de Argentina. (You are from Argentina). In the other tenses (past, future, conditional, and subjunctive, vos is conjugated in exactly the same way as t.)

2) The letters ll and y in Argentine Spanish are pronounced with a soft sh sound. Example: Yo me llamo sounds like sho me shamo; or calle is pronounced like cashe.

3) Lunfardo. These can include sometimes untranslatable words such as vivo a word that is used to denote a person who can get away with things; a hustler. A related term is avivarse: to get wise to things; gain experience; learn not to get taken advantage of. Another popular expression, with origins in lunfardo, is che which is roughly equivalent to the English hey. Certain Argentines use the word che all the time, especially when theyre angry. As in Che, what are you doing? Che, where are you going? Che, get back here! This way of speaking was how Ernesto Che Gueverra, apparently an easily frustrated person, was given his nickname.

4) Other words. Mainly related to food. Examples: Peach: known in many Spanish-speaking countries as melocotn; in Argentina (and Mexico), durazno. Strawberry: known in other Spanish-speaking countries as fresa; in Argentina, frutilla.

The point, if youre attempting to learn the language, is not to get overwhelmed. The similarities between Argentine Spanish and other varieties to which you might have had more prior exposure are really much greater than the differences, which are mostly fairly minor. Give yourself a few days at the beginning of your stay to get used to the new accent and to hearing the word vos thrown around, and within no time youll be having a great time expanding your knowledge of lunfardo and benefitting from those things language related or not which make a stay in Argentina truly unique.

A final note: its not necessary to learn how to speak Spanish exactly like an Argentine does. If youve already learned to speak Spanish using the t form, dont worry, Argentines will be able to understand you (though theyll most likely respond to you with vos.) Many of the students at our language school choose to focus on learning the t form of most verbs, since in future travels, or upon returning to their home countries, they will need to be familiar with this form of Spanish usage. The important thing is that you are exposed to how the language is used, both in Argentina and in other countries, so that you are able to react and respond to the language, however and wherever its spoken.

Scott Ferree is a translator and English instructor, as well as the study abroad coordinator for the Interhispanica Language School in Buenos Aires, Argentina:

http://www.interhispanica.com.ar

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For many people, the French language is viewed as more of a cliche than anything else. We tend to associate French with B-grade movies, brimming with excessive nudity and chain smoking/ To others, French is a sexy language full passion and charm but still, getting little credit as a global language. The reality is that French is not only a sexy language, useful for gaining the attention of the opposite sex, but it is also a legitimate language for international business and also, political affairs.

The United Nations communicates in both French and English, highlighting the fact that learning French is far from just an asset for understanding erotic films. It is a vital tool for operating in not only Europe but also much of Africa, where so much work remains undone. In fact learning French should be a pertinent consideration for anyone considering a career in international relations as a diplomatic envoy. Consequently, many government agencies and non-governmental agencies have a high regard for people who speak french, says http://www.learn2bfrench.com In fact many online and face to face courses have appeared in recent times.

Another practical consideration that make learning French more attractive is the ease with which English speakers can learn French. The alphabet is largely the same albeit with revised punctuations and emphasis on particular letters. This however is far easier than attempting to learn the hundreds of characters required to read mandarin chinese! Also, sentence structure remains very similar, allowing students to concentrate on expanding their vocabulary, rather than learning the grammatical nuances of a foreign language.

Overall, learning French can be particularly useful for those wishing to gain a foothold in foreign affairs, without having to stray to far from ones mother tongue.

The author is a regular contributor to http://www.learn2bfrench.com a website dedicated to studying french.

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