Speaking English for 20 seconds a day?

[Cgk]

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Hi Alan,

"boondocks" is American slang for "province" or "rural area". It is being used to say that one lives in the middle of nowhere. I've come to notice that English has a lot of cute expressions for that, like "dead end village" or "in the back of beyond". In Australia, for example, they say "beyond the black stump" or "where the crows fly backwards". I love the latter! lol. My husband used to use another amusing American idiom, but unfortunately I can't post it here because it includes a vulgar word.

Bill,

I hope the dog will feel better soon! It's great that you and your girlfriend are taking care of her like you do!

Claudia
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In the land of the ignorant, the biggest fool is king.

[Alan]

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Hi Claudia,

Thanks for the explanation. Another expression used here is 'living in the sticks'. To someone living in central London I could be said to be living 'in the sticks' although it's a mere 20 minutes by train from here to central London. In the words of John Lennon - it's all relative.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[ElvisFannetjeh]

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Hi Bill,

I am sorry to hear what happened to your dog. I am glad to hear that you take care for the little thing now.

Today I had to give another English lesson. I really really tried to think about the grammar and pronunciation before I said something. It's not easy to keep talking and thinking how you should form a grammatical correct sentence. And I made a huge mistake by being insecure about how to write the word "happened". I almost wrote hapenned but luckely I corrected it in time.
My mentor said the lesson was OK now. So I hope it goes that well on Friday too.

Lien

[Kitosdad]

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Please listen to my recording and respond with a voice message too. Many thanks.
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Tuwichi]

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Hello People,

This is me tuwichi. I am sad because it is monday and weekend has gone. I am happy because thanks giving is coming and it is a holiday time. I am very much excited about my vacations in Las vegas.Infact I can not express my happiness in words :-D. I have never been there and I am really looking forward to it. I would also like to know about other members plan for thanks giving. I arrived in US few months back. Therefore, it's a new festival for me and would like to know more about it.
From the next time, I will also try to record my voice message first and then write it down.

Bye for now.
Take care.

[Cgk]

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Hello Tuwichi,

welcome to the 20 sec. club!

I hope you will enjoy the USA as much as I did. I loved the turkey, sweet potatoes and cranberry jelly stuff that Americans eat as a traditional meal on Thanksgiving. While in America it is a holiday, here in Germany, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Claudia
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In the land of the ignorant, the biggest fool is king.

[Alan]

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Hi Tuwichi,

Thanks for your message. I'll look forward to hearing your report on your visit to Las Vegas. This seems a good opportunity, a golden opportunity for one of our American friends to tell us something about Thanksgiving. I'll sit back and wait - optimistically.

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Progressive Forms

[Ashabi]

hi
I am Ashabi from Bénin.
I'm really passionate about the english language and i want to speak it fluently.

Thank you

[John Nash]

hello everybody.my name is natiq.i'm from AZERBAIJAN.I'M a student.i learn math. now i'm in our university,in computer labaratory.it's too cold outside.it's raining a little.

[Marcelavel]

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Please listen to my recording and respond with a voice message too. Many thanks.

[Alan]

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Hi,

Had a bit of a disaster yesterday. I was painting the kitchen - no big deal you may say - and after a while I thought I'd have a break. All the stretching and bending was having a detrimental effect on me and so I took the paint pot through to my small office to put it out of harm's way. Unfortunately my grip on the paint pot wasn't very firm and the wretched thing leaped out of my hand and dived on to the floor spewing paint in a large pool. A large splash also went up the side of the desk. I can still smell the vestiges of paint as I type. Eventually I mopped it all up and then had to clean all the paint off my hands. Respectably paint free I then went to my local DIY store to buy another pot of paint. When I got to the checkout, I noticed that the girl who served me was giving me funny looks. Well, at my age I'm used to that. It wasn't till I got back to the car and happened to look at my hands on the steering wheel that I noticed I had a fine set of painted finger nails - no wonder she was giving me odd looks. Meanwhile back to the painting.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Passive Voice

[Torsten]

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[Biswaranjan]

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Please listen to my recording and respond with a voice message too. Many thanks.

[Jokiks]

I'm working on with my headset so I could join this thread. But for now please allow me to write something and I'll just do the recording later. Can you let me, Torsten?

I also wanted to hear comments from you about my written english. Is it good enough? My trainers would tell me that I already have good written english but I have problem with my pronunciation and accent. Something that I really want to improve on by hook or by crook. Can you help me, Torsten? Can't wait to hear a reply from everybody.

[Jokiks]

I'm working on with my headset so I could join this thread. But for now please allow me to write something and I'll just do the recording later. Can you let me, Torsten?

I also wanted to hear comments from you about my written english. Is it good enough? My trainers would tell me that I already have good written english but I have problem with my pronunciation and accent. Something that I really want to improve on by hook or by crook. Can you help me, Torsten? Can't wait to hear a reply from everybody.