Season greetings and Class Calendar changes

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
It's holiday season for many people in many places of the world, including Teachers, Class Runners and Help Team members.
The school is open for classes, but there are many changes in the calendar.
Check frequently, join the group in SL to receive class notices in SL or as an e-mail if you are offline.
Notices available also in Skype and SMS.

Candle in the Wing

ESL Group Story Writing Class December 5, 2010

                                                 
I could never understand why people who are given three wishes in books or in the movies never use their first wish to wish that they have an unlimited number of wishes.  That puzzled me before I found a magic wish-candle.

I wasn't really sure this was a genuine magic-wish candle. A very old man had given it to me on the street, but he didn't look like he was giving me something important. He just looked at me and said: "Take this candle. It's magic. Magic wishes, you know?"

Sometimes I hated wishing because my wishes never came true. So I didn't care about the candle, but one day the power was cut off and I used this candle.

I had always wanted to be able to fly, with a big excellent pair of wings on my back. One day when I was eating my dinner at my old table, I lit the candle and dreamed that a miracle would allow me to be able to fly one day.  After my dinner, I went to my bed and slept, and I woke up with a terrible back pain.

I thought a pair of wings had appeared on my back but actually, this back pain was from a long time ago. I thought I awoke with a miracle, but it actually was not a miracle at all. I kept staring at the candle that I put in my cupboard, when I awoke with curious thoughts in my head.  And then I realized that I had to visit the person who gave me the candle, to ask him some questions.

Thanksgiving Turkey

     

ESL Group Story Writing Class November 28, 2010

                                             
Thursday was Thanksgiving in the USA. When I first came to the US, I thought "What a bizarre holiday!" because almost every household in the country eats turkey on Thanksgiving.

I remember my first Thanksgiving very well. It was very cold, it was snowing. I didn't have any friends yet and I was alone.

Now I have a lot of friends, and I planned a party in my home. So I was happy to wait for my friends to arrive.

I bought a frozen turkey to cook for my friends.  My friends told me something.
When i was preparing the turkey for cooking, I heard a strange noise.  Something was rolling on the floor. It was a diamond ring. It had fallen from the turkey.

As soon as my hand touched it, I felt a weird, tingling sensation that spread from my fingers, up through my arm, and into my eye…my left eye, to be exact.
I felt my head spin and I had to lean against the wall. When I opened my eyes again I could see through things. I had X-ray vision.

When my friends arrived at my party, I knew I shouldn't use my eye but I was curious to see what was happening.  But a strange thing happened. All of my friends were wearing clothing that blocks x-rays. This made me think about airport events.

Anyway, it was my scary dream that I had on a lonely Thanksgiving day.  Now, at my party with my friends, some friends said, "Something is shining in the turkey's stomach!"

We cut open the shining turkey and took out the ring. Whenever i put it on my finger, everything was so clear. I was starting to see everything: cables behind the walls, bugs inside the carpets. And I could even see the eaten turkey inside my friend's stomach.

Time change.

EagleEye is away. He will be back by Dec 23.
Until Dec 23 this class is moved from 1pm to 12pm PST. One hour earlier, same day.
I'll teach this class (conduct the reading).
I will fill in for the class on Saturday at 6am PST as well.

Supermarket Rage

                      ESL Group Story Writing Class November 21, 2010

                                                                                                    
When I was a child, my mom told me to count to ten before I respond to someone or something that upsets me. I am usually successful at holding my temper this way, but sometimes it just doesn't work.

Yesterday I was in line at the supermarket, waiting to pay. And this little old lady with a cart full of groceries walks ahead of me just like I don't exist. I look at her but she just does like I don't exist.

So I count to ten but it doesn't work and I give her a very bad word. And she does the same thing to me. In no time, there is trouble in the supermarket.

Then I thought maybe I could pay at another counter, but I saw the other line was long, so I wanted to talk to her to let her know that I was first.

I just advised her not to be too selfish, that being selfish is not a good attitude. But then that woman got angry with me and threw a tantrum.

The "tantrum" was carried out on my head, and my head was bleeding. I was so annoyed that I wanted to kick her. But I had gone through therapy for anger management, so I had to control myself. I started to count again: 1, 2, 3...

But the woman didn’t stop.  She started slapping me. I shouted to her, "Hey what are you doing?  What’s going on here?”     The lady stopped suddenly, looked at my face and whispered "I know you!"

Igor’s Gory Adventure

                    ESL Group Story Writing Class November 14, 2010

                                      
                                      
Hey, did you hear about Igor's latest adventure? Even if you have, I'm sure you haven't heard the juicy details.

You know Igor, right? Not the smartest person around. So, a week ago he hears two girls talking on the bus about a club where wild things happen and he decides to go. He doesn't know the exact address, only the bus stop. He gets out of the bus and starts to walk around, but there’s no club in sight and no one to ask.

He thinks that maybe he should just wait. While he is waiting, he sees a very beautiful girl. And he asks her, "Do you know where there's a club around here?"  And she says, "Yes, but if you want to know, please give me a gift."

And she gives him a kiss.  She says, "If you get back on the bus and go to the next station, you will see a sign about the club." And Igor does what she tells him to do. When Igor gets off the bus, he sees a sign. It’s a vampire man with bloody teeth. And the club's name is "Bloody Night."

Igor stands for a moment looking at the club, wondering if he should enter. Just as he is about to touch the doorknob, he feels an icy cold hand on his shoulder. He turns around and sees this beautiful girl standing behind him. "Didn't you forget something?" she asks. But before he could respond, she says "You forgot to give me a gift."

"Is it your birthday?" asks Igor. The girl smiles mysteriously and says "Guess how old I am." Igor answers: “25?" "More like 250" answers the girl. "What's your name?" asks Igor. "Matalina" answers the girl.

Day Change

 
This week the grammar class on Monday at 4pm PST (Alianaluz) will be on Thursday at the same time (4pm PST)

Chocolate Dreams

ESL Group Story Writing Class November 7, 2010

Chocolate... Who doesn’t like chocolate? How could I know that chocolate would cause such a disturbance?

A friend told me they had opened a new store. This store was selling only chocolate of many different kinds. They were making it themselves, in a lab in the back. I went there to check it out.

The taste will be nice, I thought. I saw lots of queer chocolates. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a piece of chocolate that was as big as a person.

They were making all kinds of chocolate: nutty, black, milky. I was excited because I am addicted to chocolate… especially to black ones.  And I asked my friend to teach me how to make a big black piece of chocolate.

He told me that he couldn't teach me because his chocolate formula was a secret. But he said that he would give me some delicious dark chocolate.

He told me to wait in the front of the store while he went to get it. Then he disappeared behind a curtain at the back of the store. 

He returned after a few minutes with a tiny silver box. He handed the box to me and told me to open it. I did. There was a teeny, tiny piece of extra dark chocolate in the box.

"Sheesh," I said, "That's certainly a small piece of chocolate!"  "Don't let the small size fool you," he responded with a twinkle in his eye. "That little piece of chocolate packs quite a wallop."

He went back in the store and I kept waiting outside. But he never came back. So I went home and after dinner, when I usually have a craving for something sweet, I ate the tiny dark chocolate. I fell asleep immediately.

And then I was dreaming.  I saw a girl and I couldn’t believe my eyes. She was a big piece of chocolate.

It was so strange. I ate just a small piece of chocolate but it tasted like a big box of chocolate. It was like concentrated chocolate. I thought maybe it was not any kind of chocolate that I’d ever eaten before.

Call 911

               ESL Group Story Writing Class November 7, 2010

Have you ever had a strong feeling that you've been in a place that you've never been before?  You know what I mean: when you get that feeling of "deja vu."

I had read about it, but I had never experienced it until I met someone in SL. His name was XXX and from the time that he wrote his first words, I had the feeling I had met him before, but I could not remember who or when.

So I tried many times to remember his name while we spoke but I couldn't.  So I kept on talking to him until I remembered his name.

I thought maybe his name is very easy like "OO."  I thought that maybe this XXX guy was someone I knew years ago named OO. But I wasn't sure.

 Anyway, every time I spoke to XXX, he seemed to know what I was going to say, even before I said it.

He kept calling me to chat every time I was online. I deleted him from my friends list, but he seemed to know when I was online anyway. I became very uncomfortable in this situation, so I stopped logging onto SL. One day I received an e-mail from him.

He said: "Why did you delete me when we were good friends? Do you treat all your friends like that? Anyway, it was good knowing you."

After that, I felt ashamed of myself, so I decided to talk to him again.  I was working on my English, so I was very busy. That is what I told him. I added him as a friend again.

As soon as I added him, he began to send me instant message after instant message thanking me. He then told me to go straight home after work. He said, "Don't stop by your friend "Ken's house today." I sent you a surprise but you have to sign for it, so go straight home."

Time change

Time has changed in Europe; this week many classes will be at a different time. Next week time will change in SL too and everything will be back to normal.

These are classes that will start one hour later this week:

• Monday, International News, 12pm PDT (it was 11am PDT
• Tuesday, Grammar, 1pm PDT (it was 12pm PDT)
• Wednesday, Flat Mates 12pm PDT (it was 11am PDT)
• Thursday, Word Games, 2pm PDT (it was 1pm PDT)
• Friday, Excursion, 9am PDT, (it was 8am PDT)
• Saturday, Vocabulary, 7am PDT (It was 6am PDT)

Sunday: back to regular times until next spring when this mess will happen again.

Pushing Up Daisies

                    

ESL Group Story Writing Class October 24, 2010

                   
Last Halloween I decided to dress up as a vampire. I was too lazy to come up with a more original costume, so slapping on a set of false vampire teeth and draping a black curtain over my shoulders was an easy thing to do.

When I arrived at my friend Jim’s house where the party was, everybody had on great costumes. I was looking really sloppy.  It was still early so I left to go to a costume store to buy something better. When I arrived there, the store looked closed, but the door was open, so I walked in.

When I went into the store, I saw someone lying down, and I saw a lot of blood.  It startled me, but soon I got a hold of my emotions and decided to check things out. I approached the person, it was a young man. I poked him, but he didn't respond.

I was scared, my hands were trembling, but I had no time, and started to check costumes. I wanted to get out of that store as soon as possible.  And then I saw a costume that impressed me. It was a big, orange, funny, pumpkin costume.

I was still trembling a bit and I felt as if I were in a fog, but the sight of the bright, orange, pumpkin costume made me push my fear aside.  I had to step over the body that was lying in a pool of blood to get to the pumpkin costume.  I told myself that it wasn't a real person, that it was a prop for Halloween.

As I was going out of the door, a creepy laugh chilled the blood in my veins.  A voice said: "Where are you going, thief?" I froze there and I was afraid to turn. I sensed someone moving towards me and I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I wanted to run but suddenly I couldn't run anymore. My legs were not working. But then I thought "The blood is false, so maybe I can use it for my party."

Yes, the blood is fake! I was not scared anymore. I looked at the guy, smiled, and asked him: “Dude! Where can I get some of that blood?”  Maybe I can make my pumpkin bloody.

Class switch (this week only)

This week Nimlot's class will be Tuesday at 8am PDT (instead of Thursday) and Seikatsu's class will be Thursday at 6am PDT (instead of Tuesday)

Green Bear, Green Bear

              
                                  ESL Group Story Writing Class October 17, 2010
                                                
                                                                                                                                
I still remember it clearly: that day, because it was the opening of the deer hunting season.  Me, my friend Michael, and my brother-in-law James went to my cottage in the woods and spent the night there.  Finally the day that we'd been waiting for, for a long time, had arrived.

I thought it would be a good idea to have a barbecue.  So I thought we should go hunting.  "Are you crazy?” said Michael. “We can't have a barbecue here, in the forest. It's too risky; we could cause a big fire."

 "Besides, I hate killing animals, I am a vegetarian and in favor of animal protection."
“Forget this idea. What do you think Rilli? Do you agree with me?” “Yes I agree,” responded James. I’m a vegetarian too.

I looked at my brother-in-law in disbelief. "You're a vegetarian?” I asked.  "Then why did you agree to go hunting with us?"

“I like to walk in the woods, but I am scared to go alone. I heard that there are fairies and monsters kin the woods.  I would like to see them, but I'd feel safer going with someone with guns, just in case...

While I was still trying to understand my brother-in-law's worries, James called us next to him. A big brown bear was peacefully walking in our front yard, next his pick-up truck. After all, there would be something that might have spoiled our day in the woods: and it looked like a monster.

I was afraid that something would happen. So I thought that maybe we needed to take a gun.
I was sure there would be an accident. When he saw the bear, my brother-in-law became frantic, immediately.  He took my rifle and fired at the poor bear.

 The bullet from the rifle hit the bear in its heart, and the bear started to turn green.  And we watched as the bear slowly fell to the ground.

My brother-in-law, the vegetarian, went to look for help from the forest faeries. But I thought it's not bad to eat bear meat. I was sure that the meat of the bear would be a gourmet meal.

Since I thought It's OK to eat bear meat, I told James to go back into the cabin and bring out some sharp knives.  But then I gasped because when I looked down at the bear, I noticed that its fur had turned a pale green.

All of a sudden, my brother-in-law returned with a dozen faeries flying behind him, sprinkling some strange green-glowing dust all over everything. The dust made me sneeze.

And the Prize Goes To…

                                  

                   ESL Group Story Writing Class October 10, 2010                                     

                                                                         
Last month, I visited a friend who lives near the ocean. It was the first time in my life that I had ever seen the ocean.

It was a majestic view. The day was stormy, the water was dark gray. The waves were tall and strong.  I decided to take a walk on the beach. All of a sudden I saw a giant wave coming my way. I was scared but also fascinated and I could not run away.

I went to my friend's house, and we our other friends, “Do you like swimming? "I like swimming," one said. And we went swimming.

This was my future plan, but first I needed to think about how to run away. I was in love with the sea, and the more I saw those blue waves, the more I thought "I am happy here."

I was in love with the sea, and the more I saw those blue waves, the more I thought "I am happy here." We swam a lot, my friends and I and we walked on the hot sand.

I was having such a great time that I stopped thinking about running away. I thought about running away before, when I first saw the beach and my friends, because I was frightened of such a new and different thing and I didn't think I would be able to swim.  But I was able to swim!

To move in the water and float was a beautiful sensation. I looked down and I saw a lot of fish and sea flowers.  One big fish came up to me and said: "Follow me."

It was flipper. I grabbed my surfboard and started following it. I liked surfing and big waves but the waves were too much for me, that day.

When I went the fish place, to the fish's place, I saw a lot of hungry baby fish. I thought, "Now I'm food for fish!"

SL Gripe Session

ESL Group Story Writing Class October 3, 2010

                                         
Frustrated Avatar: Second Life was horrendous today! So many people had a difficult time teleporting.  Not a few of us cursed the blasted program. It’s so bad, sometimes, that we talk about SL as if it were a person, not a thing.

Exasperated Avatar: I could not agree more.  Sometimes I don't know if I should call the avatar who stands in front of me "he" or "it." Have you ever experienced the same, Broono?

Confused Avatar:  Yes. When the person is a cloud, it confuses me. I don't know what to do when that happens.

Annoyed Avatar: Because of SL, I was blocked in a place where there were a lot of people. Some were strange, and especially one in particular who was singing with a horrible voice.  We were all captive victims of that person.

Irritateed Avatar: I can relate to that, CEM. Because of the problems with SL today, when I tried to teleport to the school, I wound up stuck in a wall! And to make matters worse, there was an annoying person making weird noises on the mic [microphone].  Lucky for me, OO TPed [teleported] me out of there.

Black Hole Cinema

                                                  ESL Group Story Writing Class September 26, 2010


                                                                            Black Hole Cinema

What a disappointing movie! I thought I was going to be frightened out of my wits but instead, I fell asleep! Oddly enough, that's what happened to everyone who went to see the movie at Black Hole Cinema.

When I woke up I saw some of the other people still half asleep, others were still sleeping and some of them were even snoring. When we tried to exit the theater we found out the doors were stuck and that we could not get out. I went back to my seat to pick up my half full tub of popcorn.

I saw a doctor, and I asked a man how I could exit the theater, but he didn't know.

OK, while I was just thinking about why I couldn’t get out of there, a girl came up to me, hugged me and said: “Darling, we can have some fun.” I didn’t know what to say because I didn’t know this girl.

I was just about to kiss her after having given her a hot look when the speaker from the theater turned on and a voice said: “Attention, attention!" I was puzzled and mad at the fate that didn't allow me to kiss that chick.

The voice then continued:  “You are being kept inside for a test. Nobody can escape. We'll give you further details soon."

Suddenly, a group of zombies entered the theater, slowly marching down the aisle! Now we knew what was happening! The doors were being held shut from the outside by zombies! The announcer's voice had sounded a bit strange, come to think of it.

The Enemy

ESL Group Story Writing Class September 19 2010

I was preparing to go to sleep early because the next day I'd have to play the final of the city football cup. The phone rang. It was a sexy female voice. "I'm Christine" - she said - "I saw your profile on a dating site and I liked it. Let's go out tonight."

It was a very nice offer, but I was afraid to lose my chance to be one of the main players on my team.

The coach depended on me and I considered my decision to play this game as a challenge to prove my skills. "OK," I thought, "Just one night with this female won't matter so I decided to stay out all night with her. But maybe something had happened to her because when I arrived at that place, no one was there.

I was thinking that I may have made a mistake about the place when the cell phone rang. "Muahaha" -the sweet lady said- "I am Christine, your enemy. I am the coach’s daughter of the enemy team." "And now you are lost because I changed the schedules for the game tomorrow. It will start even earlier, muahaha," Christine said. I was mad.

Even though I was angry, I answered Christine in a calm voice. I didn't want to let on that I wanted to explode, to that wicked woman! "OK, thank you Christine. You're doing me a favor because I'm about to sign a contract with your team," I told her. That, of course, was a lie, but I wanted to throw her off guard.

"I don't really think so," - she answered- "If it were true, I would know about it. Anyway, you’d better hang up and start walking home." And she hung up.

I looked around. No one was around. My taxi had left, so I started to walk home. A car sped by, a paparazzi took a picture of me and drove away.

It was a risk to leave my house tonight and to go to meet Christine. I blamed myself for deciding to meet her at this critical time. I thought that it may drive me to lose my concentration during tomorrow's game.

I decided to forget it for tonight and went to bed to be ready for the game tomorrow.

Interview with an Alien

ESL Group Story Writing Class. September 12, 2010

There was broken glass all over the floor. There were feathers gently floating down from somewhere.

There was also a lot of blood and body parts all around. Special Agent Dale had no doubts. It had all started with a pillow fight. Other things he could not understand. Whose bodies were they? They were not human (phew). They looked like something he had never seen before.

I had just now reached the place. I thought it must have happened suddenly because 30 minutes ago, everything was all right. I had to meet the owner of the company that I wanted to work in.

I was very scared and didn't know why this case was here. I thought maybe whoever caused this came from a UFO or maybe they wanted to capture Earth.

My other illogical thought coming into my mind right after that was: "I've been pranked!"

By the way, that wouldn't be such a weird theory, being that I was applying for a job at Hilarious Pranks LTD: the biggest company manufacturing pranks and jokes of all kinds.

Learning in second life

I’m one of the second life residents, I have been living there since sep2009. I have a funny story about how I came to SL for first time. My story started with a phone call and an email, yes that’s the true , I’m not a native English speaker. I live in an Arab country and my first language is Arabic. I had studied English for 12 years as a separate subject in the school, and had used it for 5 years during my study in the university. I have practiced my English with people who were not native English.

In the country where I live, there are people from different non- speaking English countries , all of us try to let others understand what we want by using English language. The English we use is not like the English which is used by native English speaking people use and the accent also is different. I’m not talking about all the people in my place, but I’m talking about the people I’m dealing with. In the country where I live, native English speaking people do their best to let others understand their accents.

One day, I wanted to talk to a native English speaking man to arrange a work for my company. I Phoned his office and the secretary replied to me with such a hard English accent. In fact, I couldn’t understand 75% of her speech, she was talking very fast.

The man wasn’t in the office at the moment, So I told her about the subject and gave her my phone number to let him call after his arrival. Not long after I finished my call , the man called and talked to me slowly with understandable accent. I told him what I wanted and we agreed that he would send me an email about the subject we were talking about. When I received his email, I found out that the secretary sent him an email about my conversation with her and that she ended her email with a sentence which pushed me to look for a way to improve my English skills. Her notice about our conversation was “ His English is pretty poor.”. I was ashamed and felt very embarrassed about her notice about my English, so I decided to look for a way to improve my conversation skills. I searched in the internet about the teaching English websites. I found a lot of websites, each website had a different way of teaching English. I ran into the language-lab website. There I tested my level , then I followed the instructions to create an account to be able to study English. When I logged in, I found a weird place with nice graphics and Cartoon movies moved in front of me. At this moment, I wasn’t understand what was going on around me and where I was. I saw the name which I had chosen over the head of a character and there were many characters with names over their heads. I found out that there were many messages that were being written and there was a conversation between those names. Then I started to type and send Instant messages and I received instant messages too. I asked the people around me about the place, they told me it’s second life. “Where is language lab?” I asked. No one replied to me. I have spent the first three months hanging out to discover that new world. I also met many friendly people who taught me how to deal with the SL. During all this period of time, I was looking for English schools but I couldn’t reach to any of them.

One day, a friend asked me to go with her to a school where she wanted to take dancing classes. Maybe it was her first visit to the school , because we found out that there were no dancing classes there, but it was an English school. It was ESL-SL the English school. There I met a man , he talked to me in a very nice way . He explained how the school worked and how I could attend the classes. He gave me all the information I needed to be a student in the school. There was a problem to attend classes, the problem was that the school is not a free school and I have to pay to be able to attend the classes. I felt so sad because I couldn’t return back to attend the classes as I wished because I don’t have lindens and it is not easy for me to transfer money from real life. I received many announcements about the classes, but I couldn’t attend because of my Lindens.

One day, I received an Instant message from the school owner , he asked me if I was interested in attending the classes. I answered him “ yes, I want, But I couldn’t collect the lindens.”. Fortunately, he had the solution, he offered me to work for the school as a help team member and attend all classes for free. It was great offer for me, I started to attend the classes, I was very happy , the classes amazed me because of their way of teaching and also because of the different kind of classes. The classes dealt with all English skills Voice classes, text classes, Grammar classes, classes for beginners, classes for not beginners. Early on studying at the school I was attending most of the classes . I was spending long time in the SL travelling from class to class, I enjoyed studying the English language. Class by class and day by day I found out that my English skills were improved. I could understand more conversations and my vocabulary bank grew more and more. On top of that, I always found the native teacher who corrected my English pronunciation, corrected my English text , corrected the grammar. I was going to the school with a lot of questions and returned back with plenty of answers.

After more than a year I spent studying English in the SL, I can say that it is a wonderful mean to learn. Now, I have the self confidence which enables me to start conversation with the others without fear or shyness. When I talk to people who speak English with hard accent, I have the braveness to tell them that I can’t understand their accent without feeling of shame. I also learnt that there are slang, idioms, phrasal verbs which are very important to study to speak English natively. There is another source that helps me to improve my English, it’s the conversations I do with my native English speaking friends. Text conversation and voice chat help me to improve my skills. Thank you second life .

Not only learning English is the benefit I got from SL, but also learned a lot about others. Others means the people from different cultures. I learned how people deal in different situations, what is good to do and what is not accepted to avoid. I learned also when, how and where people celebrate . I also met friendly people who I exchange knowledge with. I tell them about my culture, my life and my traditions and they do the same with me.

In second life I usually meet people from everywhere, we talk and spend time even if we don’t have a common language. There is a wonderful mean used in second life: it is the translator which residents can wear and talk to everyone. This wonderful mean enables me to keep in touch with friends from countries far from my country. Using the translator eases the study of languages, I already started the study of Spanish language in SL and RL too.

I have a lot more to say about learning in the second life , but I have to finish now, RL is calling

Fade to Black

ESL Group Story Writing Class September 5, 2010

                                                                       
I was sitting at a table in the corner of a cafe when an old man burst into the restaurant.  His face was as white as a ghost and he was almost out of breath.
     
"The end of the world is coming, THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING" he was shouting. The manager looked annoyed. "Wasn't it supposed to end yesterday?"  "This time it's for real" said the old man.  A white burst of light and energy exploded in the bar.

Suddenly I noticed that old man had blood on his hands. The manager noticed it too, and he started to look white too.

“I'm afraid I don't know what to do.  Should I call 911 or continue to watch what's happening?” I thought to myself.

All the people from the restaurant went out into the street.  There were a lot of people in the street and they were all going off somewhere. The city was covered with a black cloud of smoke.

I also left the restaurant and ran into the street. I could hardly see because the black smoke was so thick. All of a sudden, I felt someone (or something) tapping me lightly on the shoulder.  I turned around to see who or what it was and I gasped.

Excursion class: David Lynch's new movie set

During excursion class we visited the set of  David Lynch's new movie and we ended up as extras in the film.





Here we are rehearsing  the bar scene, waiting for the star of the movie.

Mr. Lynch was very pleased with this shot and told us it will be included in the final cut.

New Class Sunday 2am PDT

New class on Saturday at 2am PDT (11am in Italy; 5pm in China, 6pm in Japan)

This class: VOICE. Keep your English up to date.
New words in English language Vocabulary, Idioms, Expressions.

The teacher will be Inge Qunhua. She has some experience in getting students stoned,

follow rabbits down holes (with students behind)

or mess students up in some other way.


But don't worry! This class will be in classroom 3.
Safe an quiet. She'll see you there.

Dusty Dream

  
                                    ESL Group Story Writing Class August 29, 2010
                                                                 
Last night I dreamed I was in a desert. In the dream, I was standing on a dusty road that stretched out behind and before me as far as the eye could see. I could taste the dust in my mouth and feel the grainy sand at the edge of my eyes. My clothes and hands and shoes and hair were all covered with a thin layer of the dull reddish powder.

I was thirsty, my mouth was dry. I could not understand how I had ended up there.  Then I woke up. I was thirsty, my mouth was dry. And I had a terrible headache.  The doorbell rang and it felt like a drill going through my skull. I went to open the door.

I waddled off up the passage to get to the door wondering who could be bothering me so early on a Sunday morning.  "May I help you?" I asked before opening the door.

The voice on the other side of the door answered that my antenna on the roof had been broken the night before by the strong wind and that he needed to enter to check for problems with my telly.

I asked again, "Are you sure?" The answer from the other side of door: "Yes!"  Let me tell you that no antenna is installed in my house but I watch movies every day using my laptop.

And I went back to my room to go to sleep.  I was dreaming again.  This time I was in the desert and I saw some people riding camels, so I wanted to join them.

I heard a knock on the door again, went downstairs, opened the door, and to my amazement, the repairman was covered in the same red dust as me. I realized I was having some sort of lucid dream, and wondered what would happen next.

Garden Discovery

               

  ESL Group Story Writing Class August 22, 2010

                                        
                                         This morning, I decided to work in my garden.  I had not cared for my garden in many months so it had become overgrown with weeds.  I took out my gardening tools, kneeled down, and began to work.
I had decided to remove all the flowers and plant a vegetable garden instead, so I would have food to eat.  When I was pulling up some roots, the dirt collapsed and fell down and a big hole appeared below.  Maybe it had been made by an animal. I decided to see how deep it was.
I thought it must be some kind of animal's nest, or so it seemed. Then I tried to look carefully down into the hole when I heard a big animal growling back up at me.
I wondered if I should run or just listen to what was happening. Then I saw some eggs in the hole. I thought it would be a good idea to cook them, so I needed to steal them and take them back home with me.
I tried to get a basket from my sister to put the egg inside and take them back to my home. I was happy because my sister could cook the eggs for us, then we would have a good meal today.
The eggs were partially covered by dirt so I gently pushed the dirt back away from them. Then, very carefully, I lifted the eggs out of the ground and placed them in the basket.  I was surprised to find that the eggs were very heavy. They almost felt like rocks! Also, they were a strange color. They were blue with tiny yellow specks, and the specks seemed to be glowing.

Changes in the School Calendar

The school calendar is changing fast.
Alianaluz is back at her regular times:
Monday at 4pm PDT: Grammar, Pronunciation. (Voice)
Wednesday at 4pm PDT: Grammar, Pronunciation, Comprehension (Voice)
Sunday at 8am PDT: Story Writing. (Text)

New teacher and new Class: Nimlot will teach a Reading, Comprehension and Pronunciation class every Thursday at 11am PDT. (Voice)

New Class Friday 4pm PDT

New class on Friday at 4pm PDT. It's a voice class and the teacher is Adhams Darkstone.
The first lesson will be about vocabulary: personality and behaviour.
Check out the calendar on the website http://www.drive-through-esl.info/ for more classes.

Refunds for Excursion class

Excursion class is the most dangerous English lesson ever taught.
Terrible things can happen to students but you are warned in advance so you can't complain.

If you soil your gown when you milk a cow the school will not pay for laundry expenses.

Students will have to pay their own bill for refreshments...

... or for cheese

You can ask for a refund if Inge, the teacher, is eaten by a refrigerator, but only if she is eaten during the first half of the class and doesn't come back within 5 minutes.

Practical English Program. 7 lessons in VR (Virtual Reality)

PRACTICAL ENGLISH PROGRAM

Starts Sunday, June 20, classes at 19h in Europe , 2pm Brasil
Teacher: Inge Qunhua
7 classes. Limit 5 students. Enrollment open. E-mail giovanni_tweak@yahoo.com

The beginner course is for students whose English is very basic or who have studied English years ago.
It is designed to give students language skills to deal with everyday situations in SL and rl.

A1 level "Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help."

1 Sun 20 June Café
2 Sun 27 June Airport
3 Sun 4 July Hotel Reception
4 Sun 11 July Bank
5 Sun 18 July Hospital
6 Sun 25 July Garage/Salon
7 Sun 1 August Home

Lesson 1 at the Café: introducing yourself, meeting people, ordering beverages
Lesson 2 at the Airport: Travel, custom, security controls
Lesson 3 at the Hotel Reception: booking a room, hotel check in and out.
Lesson 4 at the Bank: opening and closing a bank account, depositing, withdrawing and exchanging currency.
Lesson 5 at Hospital: arriving at the Hospital or Emergency Room.
Lesson 6 at the Garage/Salon: going to car repair and getting a haircut or a hair dye.
Lesson 7 at Home: everyday object and actions.

BASIC ENGLISH COURSE JAP - STARTER - INDIVIDUAL

BASIC ENGLISH COURSE - STARTER - INDIVIDUAL

基本的な英語のコース -スターター-　個人レッスン

30 Units

30項目

30-minute, individual lessons

３０分の個人レッスン

One lesson: L$ 2250

１レッスン：２２５０リンデンドル

Ten (10) lessons: L$15.000

レッスン１０回分：１５０００リンデンドル

Thirty (30) lessons: L$35.000; US$150.00; ¥190.000. You can pay using L$, credit card, PayPal

レッスン３０回分：３００００リンデンドル

1.1. After completing this course you will be able to have short, simple conversations in English, written and spoken.

1.1．このコースの完了後、短いながらも、簡単な会話、書き取り、話すことができるようになるでしょう。

1.2. Learn words and sentences useful when you travel, work, shop, search, learn, role-play.

1.2.旅行をするとき、または、仕事、買い物、検索、勉強、演劇のとき、便利な言葉、文章を学んでください。

1.3. At the end of this course you can continue to improve your English with more individual lessons, group lessons, and even on your own.

1.3.このコースの終了後、個人レッスンでも、グループレッスンでも、あなた自身だけでも、あなたの英語は進歩し続けることができます。

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2.1. Flexible days, times. You can choose the days and times for lessons, one or more times a week.

2.1.　柔軟な日程、時間に。週に１回、またはそれ以上の回数と日程を選択できます。

2.2. If you cannot follow a fixed schedule, call when you’re free for a 30-minute lesson.

2.2.あなたがスクールの日程に添えないときは、３０分間のレッスンに都合のいい時間をお知らせください。

********************************

3.1. One unit can take more than one lesson or less than one lesson. The pace of the course is adjusted to the pace of the student.

3.1一回のレッスンで、または一回のレッスンより短い時間でひとつの項目を消化することができます。コースのペース配分は、生徒に合わせて調節します。

3.2. Students who do not start from 0 can skip lessons and complete the STARTER course using less lessons.

3.2.まったくの初心者でない生徒は、いくつかのレッスンを飛ばし、スターターコースでより少ないレッスンで修了することができます。

3.3. It is strongly encouraged to review class materials between lessons. If you review class materials, you will learn faster and complete the course in fewer lessons. If you don’t review the material you will learn more slowly.

3.3.レッスンとレッスンの間、教材の復習を強く奨励します。復習すれば、少ないレッスンでより早くコースを修了することができるでしょう。復習を怠れば、学習速度が遅くなるでしょう。

3.4. Your credit is always  valid. Payments for prepaid lessons are not returned or transferred to other students or accounts.

3.4．あなたのクレジットは常に有効です。支払い済みの授業料の返金、または、他の生徒、または口座への移行は致しません。

********************************

4. PROGRAM(課程科目)

4.1. First part(第1段階)

Sounds, words. Learn spelling, how to say words and the meaning of the words.

響き、言葉、綴りの学習、言葉の意味と、言い方。

1. Pronunciation(発音)
2. Alphabet(アルファベット)
3. Sounds(響き)
4. 100 words(100の言語)
5. 20 sentences(20の文章)
6. Pronunciation(発音)

4.2. Second part(第2段階)

Useful words and sentences (便利な言葉と文章)

7. Expression to use during lessons(レッスンの間に使う表現)
8. Greetings(挨拶)
9. Getting to know each other.(互いを知り合う)
10. Pronunciation(発音)
11. Words: Human body parts(言語：人体の部位)
12. Words: Clothes(言語：衣服)
13. Numbers(数字)
14. Days, Months, Dates(日, 月, 日付)
15. Words: Restaurant(言語: 飲食店)
16. Words: Student’s choice(言語：生徒の選択した言葉、文章)

4.3. Third part(第三段階)

Grammar. How to make sentences(文法、文章の作り方)

• This part can start anytime after part one, either before or concurrent to part two
• (この項目は、第一段階または第二段階(どちらでも)同時に始める場合があります。)

17. Sentence Structure: Subject, Verb, Object(文章の構造：主語、動詞、目的語)
18. Nouns. Personal Pronouns, Subject/object, exercises(名詞. 人称代名詞,主語/目的語，練習)
19. Present tense. Simple/progressive(現在時制=現在の行為、現象、状態。　基本形/進行形)
20. To be, present tense, main auxiliary (～になる，現在時制，主な補助)
21. Present Progressive (現在進行形)
22. Interrogative and negative sentences(疑問文と否定文)
23. Prepositions.(前置詞)
24. Past tenses.(過去時制=過去の行為、現象、状態。)
25. Mixed Grammar Quiz(色々な文法を織り交ぜた問題)

4.4 Fourth part(第4段階)

Practical English(英会話の練習)

26. Coffee Bar(喫茶店で)
27. Restaurant(飲食店で)
28. Airport(空港で)
29. Hotel(ホテルで)
30. Bank(銀行で)

5. After the 30 units the student can continue with:

5．30項目終了後の生徒は以下を継続できます。

• 5.1. Individual lessons (Unit 31-70)　.個人レッスン　(30項目～70項目)
• 5.2. Group lessons (grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary) グループレッスン (文法, 発音,語彙 )
• 5.3. Repeat some lessons (Unit 1-30)　いくつかのレッスンの繰り返し (1項目～30項目)
• \\0// Most importantly, now you can start using English.
• 最も重要なこと, 今　あなたが英語を使い始めることができることです。

Nobody Move!

ESL Group Story Writing Class May 30 2010

Yesterday I took a trip into Manhattan. The first thing that I saw when I got out of the taxi was a huge, silver-green skyscraper.

Next to it there was my destination, the party on the attic floor of the Alberta Building. I love its interior and the architectural contraposition of two styles: the romantic and gothic. My friends were waiting there for me.

I saw a huge crystal, on the table. I love it. My friend was wearing beautiful clothes.

There was very romantic light music playing. I looked for my friend to have a dance with her. She was sitting a short distance away in a dark corner, at a small table covered with a red tablecloth. I went to her and asked her for a dance.
She accepted and we started to dance. The lights went out. I heard a loud "ooh" and some giggles. A voice shouted: "Freeze." I turned toward the voice and was blinded by flashlights. The voice said "Nobody move! Stay where you are and start emptying your pockets, rich dancing bastards!"

We’re being robbed! I cupped my hands over my eyes to block the flashlights. "Thwat!!"  I heard a swooshing sound and felt a sharp pain in my arm. My eyes filled with tears and when my vision cleared I saw a short, portly, red-faced man wearing a New York City Police Department uniform.

The uniform was too tight and the buttons on the uniform were almost popping off. The officer had a baton in one hand and a donut in the other. It was then that I realized that he had hit me with the splintery brown baton!

Bizarre Ending

ESL Group Story Writing Class May 23 2010

This morning, I woke up just as the sun was rising. I looked out the window and you won't believe what I saw!

The road in front of my window was covered with multicolored flowers. I quickly ran to take my camera out of my closet to take a picture of it when I heard my doorbell ringing.

I didn't expect anyone that morning, and that ring surprised me. I went to open the door and you will not believe who I found in front of me.

It was a young man. "Who are you?" I said to myself in my mind. I thought to myself: "He has so many flowers in his hand! I think he's going to ask me to marry him!"

Instead he hands me a bill and says: "It's $1,500 sir, for a complete front yard makeover."  "I didn't call anyone." I answer, while a red convertible parks in front of my house, driven by a beautiful blonde woman.

"Flowers and a blond woman in the morning, it seems it will be great day." I told myself while I was getting rid of the man who needed the money.

Love on the Wind

ESL Group Story Writing Class May 9, 2010

Yesterday, it was very windy outside. The weather channel forecasted a rainy, windy day but it only rained for an hour or so in the morning. I didn't want to go outside, so I decided to stay at home and watch T.V. I went to the kitchen, got some ice cream and sat in my comfortable chair. I thought about the day. I asked myself if I could be doing something else. I looked out the window and suddenly, the sky turned black, even though it was daytime. It didn't matter, my heart was light.

"It would be a hard day," I told myself when I was looking out of my window. There were too many dark clouds and the wind was becoming stronger. The trees were moving and the rain became very heavy.  But, the dark clouds and heavy rain and strong wind did not make me frightened or sad. And the fast-moving images and loud sounds emanating from the T.V. also did not bother me.  My heart was as light as a feather because I was thinking of my new, true love.

On television, I could see a love story about a man and a woman. The man told the woman of his love for her. Suddenly, a big storm hit my house. I didn't understand what was happening. The television became grey. I clicked on it with my remote, nothing. I became afraid. Maybe I should call my friend and tell him to come to my house. Then I heard some sounds coming from my bedroom.

“What's the sound? It is so strange? Who made it Oh, OMG, Is it a ghost? On this dark day, the light bulb wasn't working right. What could I do? I wish my mom and dad were staying with me. I was so scared. I went to my bedroom to see what was going on in there. The wind had blown open my window and the rain was collecting on my bedroom floor. Quickly, I closed the window and started to dry the water from off my bedroom floor. Suddenly, I heard a loud voice coming from outside.

New Skype class and new teacher: Friday 2am PDT

New Skype class on Fridays at 2am PDT.
The teacher is new too: JIhan Wonder.

In this class students will learn new words, idioms, expressions and grammar. They will also made aware of what are the most common mistakes in English. 
Bring your questions!


This class will be in Skype. If you have a Second Life account simply teleport to the infohub before class and contact the Class Runner. If you don't have a Second Life account contact the Class Runner in Skype. The Class Runner for this class will be giovanni_tweak, for the other classes you can find the name of the Class Runner in the calendar on the website.
More info about Skype classes here.

Unknown-Liquid-Drinking is Not Good

ESL Group Story Writing Class May 2, 2010

Today I think I'll go for a walk in the woods. I wonder what I'll see there. I usually take a walk once or twice a month because I like walking and maybe camping outside for the night. I was briefly checking that my equipment was alright when I suddenly noticed smoke on the horizon rising from the woods.

I know, I know, I should have walked in the opposite direction, but you know me...  I started to walk right toward the smoke. As I was getting closer, I started to smell it and it was an odor I had never smelled before.

Sorry, I couldn't understand.

I saw a small bottle on the ground and the bottle had green liquid inside it. I decided to drink it. When I was drinking it, my backside started to vibrate. I became anxious.

I couldn't understand why I drank the green liquid in the bottle, but I was curious to know the source of the smoke and the strange smell. I walked in the direction of the smoke. When I reached there, there was a surprise.

I was close enough now to see the source of the smoke. The smoke was coming from a strange-looking rock. A horrible stench was coming from the rock. I covered my nose with my hand to block the nasty smell. I squinted because the smell was burning my eyes.

New teacher and new class: Monday 6am PDT

This week Evvie Stromfield begins teaching at the school.
Her class is on Mondays at 6am PDT, it's a voice class and it's called: Let's Talk!
On each lesson we'll talk about one particular topic and how it relates to our lives.

The structure of each lesson is as follows:

• Presentation of topic and the teaching points (vocabulary, grammar, functions) by the teacher
• A set of trigger questions in order to start the chat
• Other speaking activities, such as role-playing, free speaking, guided speaking, etc
• Corrections on vocabulary, grammar, functions and pronunciation
• Questions by the students

The student will learn:

• Vocabulary related to the topic (selected by the teacher and elicited from the students)
• Grammar in use (the grammar items needed to talk about the topic)
• Functions, sentence blocks, idioms and expressions related to the topic

The first topic will be: Free Time.
Submissions of new topics for the following classes are welcome.

See you in class.

Naked Truth

ESL Group story Writing Class April 25, 2010

The other day, I bumped into an old friend at the mall. I was surprised to see him there because he had moved far away several years ago, under mysterious circumstances

"Hi, I'm so glad to meet you after such a long time. Do you remember me?” I told him when he was staring at me.

He didn’t seem to remember. I was disappointed.

I reminded my friend that we had studied together for three years at the university. You disappeared during the fourth year. I asked all our friends about you, but nobody knew what had happened to you.  "Where did you go? What happened?" I asked him.

I felt he was nervous, trying to hide something from me. And suddenly a little girl appeared behind him. She looked to be 5 or 6 years old.

The little girl grabbed his leg and rested her head against it. He looked down at her and smiled. "This is my daughter." "Oh," I said, and I bent down and faced her so that we were eye-to-eye. She seemed a bit timid and she stared back at me shyly. She had red hair like my friend, and huge beautiful brown eyes. "And what's your name?" I asked her. "Katie, and I'm 5 years old," she declared in a proud little voice.

When I asked her, I heard her father say, "Hi Alianaluz, would you like to have dinner with us? This girl is my adopted child.

"Sure! Lets go!" I replied. And we turned to cross the street. But suddenly, Katie ran in front of a car that was passing by very fast, and it hit the little girl. We were totally frozen, looking at the horrible scene. No words were spoken. Everything was silent for a couple of seconds. I felt as if each second were an eternity. Katie was lying in the middle of the road, dead.