I had a great time presenting at the TESOL France Colloquium on Saturday morning. (It was more of a workshop than a presentation really.) I was very impressed to see so many people who braved the cold to be there bright and early - your higher level learners should know how dedicated you are! 

Here are the slides from that workshop. The videos are no longer in the presentation, but I have put links to them all underneath, as well as the handouts.

Thanks for coming and keep in touch! 

Irish Sheep Farmers
Joey speaks French 
Tumblr accent challenge Scottish 
Tumblr accent challenge  (I downloaded and trimmed this one as the intro is quite long.)
TED Try something new for 30 days
Parenting the Teenagers maiden 
Jon Snow at a dinner party 

Many of my students get "wait" and "expect" confused. Here's a simple explanation: 

Wait is used to talk about letting time pass. 
I've been waiting for you for hours.
I don't have time to read this book now - I'll have to wait for the holidays. 

Expect is used to talk about things you believe are going to happen.
I've been expecting you (= I knew you were coming)
I expect I'll get a promotion next year.
She's expecting a baby.

Now over to you:
What are you expecting to happen this weekend?
Is there someone you know who you always have to wait for?

Do you work with British colleagues? Or perhaps you've spent some time in the UK. Well, this might be useful. It's written as a joke, but in my opinion, it's only half-joking...

I'm going to admit that I'm really not a fan of Donald Trump. So I had a little chuckle today when I read that the White House asked for a loan of a Van Gogh painting from the Guggenheim Museum, but the museum turned them down and offered this gold toilet instead. (I'm sure Donald Trump already has a gold toilet actually.)

Here's a short article from the Guardian newspaper that you can read about it. Apparently this was a real toilet that visitors could use during the exhibition - I guess most people don't have a gold toilet at home. 

chuckle - a little laugh
a loan - something you borrow (often money)
to turn sb / sth down - to refuse somebody or something 

Do you want to improve your English in 2018? Well choose one of these resolutions:

1. Learn a new word every day. Choose a word, stick it somewhere you can see it (your computer screen or on the coffee machine, for example) and every time you look at it, try to make a sentence with it. When you've got it, change the word for a different one. (For more on learning vocabulary, see here.) 
2. Find a language exchange partner. Try the conversation exchange website and you can find people all over the world speaking all different languages who want to talk with you, either face-to-face or through a chat software. 
3. If you need English for your job, ask your company for English language training. Having face-to-face lessons with a good teacher is the best way to learn. 
4. Listen to the radio in English or listen to songs in English and practise with the lyrics. Karaoke is a great way to learn English and you can find a lot of songs with the karaoke lyrics on youtube. (Try this Backstreet Boys song for a blast from the past.)  
5. Read aloud. A great way to practise your pronunciation is to read aloud. Even if no one's listening, it will help you concentrate on how you're saying the words. Make sure you understand what you're reading first. 
6. Read something interesting. Don't feel you have to read a difficult novel to improve your English - you're not at school anymore. Whatever you're interested in , you can find articles and information about it in English.
7. Watch movies and series in English. Put the subtitles on - either in English or in your own language.

I promise you, if you choose even only one of these resolutions, your English will be so much better at the end of 2018.

a blast from the past - something very nostalgic

A very Happy New Year to all my students and blog readers! I wish you lots of health and happiness for 2018!

Every year in Britain, all the big retailers release a schmaltzy Christmas advert, designed to make you laugh or cry. Here are two of this year's offerings, both from big department stores:

retailers - companies that sell directly to consumers (shops)
schmaltzy - very sentimental

If you’re applying for a job in English, you need to make sure your cover letter is great. But writing well in English is very different from writing in French. Read my LinkedIn article for lots of tips to help you: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/french-speakers-7-tips-effective-cover-letter-english-catherine-aygen

Do you have a good work-life balance? Here's a very interesting talk from an excellent speaker (who is also the author of "Fat, Forty and Fired", which sounds quite interesting. You can read more about him here.)

To get the most out of this talk, I recommend downloading the worksheet here and checking some difficult vocabulary before you start.