I have such a problem in French with masculine and feminine nouns. I never know if something is le or la so I just choose one (50% chance of getting it correct, right?) Now my children are older, they always correct me when I get it wrong, usually while I'm trying to talk to someone in my best French. 

Do you always know how to respond in English? Even if you have been learning English for a while, you may not know useful phrases for every situation. Here are 24 phrases you need to know if you want to speak natural English. ​

I was totally amazed by this talk. As Terry Moore says, you think when you get to this age, one life skill you've nailed is tying your shoelaces.

Well, watch this and you might change your mind...

(I've added the English subtitles on here to help you.)

When you've nailed something, it means you can do it perfectly or successfully. 

It's back to school and back to English! If you're ready to practise your English, watch this video from France24 about "back to school and work" in France. There's also a vocabulary worksheet to download if you'd like to do a bit of extra practice.

And for all my readers who are French, watching "French Connections" on France24 is a fantastic way to practise your English: short videos in English about French culture. It's easier for you to understand because you already know the topics.

Want to practise your English listening but don't know what to listen to? Here's a great website with lots of true stories, told by real people. Most of them are between 5 and 14 minutes, which means you don't need lots of time to listen to one.

Did you ever do something when you were younger, that you were afraid to tell your parents about? Here's a lovely story from Chrissie Graham about something that happened to her when she was in her early teens.

A few words you'll need to know:
a dork someone not very socially aware, a bit silly. You'll often see this in terms of teenagers at school. A dork is someone who is not part of the popular gang, probably dresses strangely and has strange habits
cool In French, this word is used to mean relaxed, but in English it refers to someone who is socially adept, part of the popular gang, fashionable...
thick glasses what you wear on your face to be able to see, but if your vision is really bad you have ones with a big piece of glass.
contact lenses the tiny things you put into your eyes to be able to see, instead of wearing glasses 

What do you need to be able to speak a language? Words. That means you have to remember words. A lot of them. And this is not going to happen by itself, you have to put some effort into it. Your brain is a muscle and you have to train it. 

As you may know, Britain had a General Election about a week and a half ago. This video will help you understand why and how we had an election: 

And after the results, what is going to happen? Well....no one seems to know for sure. Here's an easy explanation of what happens when there's a hung parliament​ and what could happen now...
​
hung parliament = when no political party has a clear majority 

I've just spent a wonderful weekend in the Netherlands, where I was amazed at how well everyone speaks English. And by everyone, I mean old and young people alike.