Christmas is coming

[Ursula Marx]

It was a really nice and sweet essay ! thank you ! and Happy Christmas !
Ursula

[Rosette]

Dear Alan,
could you please,explain this sentence: "you can catch the odd strain of music percolating through ether"?
Does that mean : you'd rather listen to pop music at a distance of at least 10 miles?
I understand you; I'd rather listen to classical music, wouldn't you?
BEST REGARDS,
rosette.

[Alan]

Hi Rosette,

Yes, that's right - the farther away the better. The trouble is you very rarely catch the sound of classical music 'percolating through the ether' unless of course you're sitting in a cafe outside the Arena in Verona.

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

[Hdx100]

Mr. Alan thank you

[Adia]

Humourous and interesting newsletter!
I, too, played in the Nativity Play some years ago in Bucharest in what was a teacher's performance. I was the Angel and while I didn't have any wing problem like yours, I still had a test to take. Our pianist was a music student and- although my part came out pretty well at the rehearsal and on the big night we started the song together just fine-, at the very climax of the play, when the Angel brings down the good tidings and I was about to sing 'Gloria in Excelsis Deo!', well, precisely then, from unknown reasons, he let me down. For a few seconds, I didn't know what to do. As I hadn't practised enough, I wasn't sure I could sing the whole piece by myself, panicked that I wouldn't remember the entire score. However, I kept singing without break and everything went smoothly to the end. Afterwards I was praised for not having been bothered by the lack of piano...All's well that ends well.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Peace and goodwill to everyone! Ada

[Adia]

...my part had come out pretty well at the rehearsal...

[Andson]

helo mr halan
yes christmas is rely at the corner but i want be clear and sincer with you. that God well send some one to visit you before the christmas day. stay bless from andson i could have help but.

[Lakarar]

thank you mr alan

[Alexandranow]

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Hi
I have to say thank you once again, for reminding the great Christmas Carol of C.Dickens, one of my favourite writers. And some expressions explained were useful too. The only thing is not quite perfect is timing for is very far for Christmas time now. I did not know that Dickens loved to attend parties, I love that, because means he enjoied his life.
Best regards
Alexandra

[Yuri Yurinov]

Hi Alan,

Thank you once again for your essays. They provide me with very useful information about your wonderful country and I am glad to share it with my schoolchildren.
Never mind that it is the 28th of February and it is a too long way to next Christmas. There is a proverb in Russian language that goes approximately like this, "Mend your cart in winter and prepare your sledge in summer."
So, I am looking forward to the next parts of your essay.

Best regards,

Yuri
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Everything is Anything.

Please NO Youtube on "My first steps in English" thread... Yuri Zverev

[Dieter Radke]

Thank You so much for got Your essays! I'm realy glad to get Your E-malis to improve my English.Aspecialy I would give my best thanks to Allan. Your English reminds me to a good penfriend in youth time fourty years ago. He gave me the will to learn English.
First time was realy hard to read and translate to got the point of his thoughts. I'll never forget when in a stormy autumn evening
our home bell was ringing and a well dressed young man asked for me on door. My parents could'nt get an answer to him because they never learned English. So they called me and I was realy surprised first time in my life to speak English with a native English speaker. It was a need to speek English for me a good experience in my life! Thanks for your efforts ! God bless You and Your crew!
Best regards Dieter Radke

[Yuri Yurinov]

Hi Alan, Dieter and everybody,

Yesterday I got the second part of Alan's essay and, as usual, found very useful new words and expression. Also I look through the dictionary and found out that the word 'humbug' is used as a verb in the meaning of 'deceive'. There is a couple of ways of using this word which seems to me rather interesting: "to humbug into smth" and "to humbug out of smth". Alan, may I use these expressions as in the following sentences: "They humbugged him into the jobbery." or "He was humbugged out of his money."?

As for Mr Scrooge, notorious for his worshipping money, in Russian literature there is another character who's name became a symbol of greed and mediocrity. His name is Plushkin and he is a personage of the novel "Dead Souls"(Мёртвые души) by Nicolai Gogol.

Best regards,

Yuri
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Everything is Anything.

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[Siarhei]

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Hello Alan,
Great contribution to mine knowledge of Britain. In my native country almost all old building were demolished during world war two. I feel a little bit envy for missed possibility to find out the history of old constructions and at the time have ability point on them by your thumb ))).
Best regards
Siarhei

[Siarhei]

I don't know where it comes from all this noise.(( On my local workstation everything sounds perfect.

[PhilBurk]

I think the noise is because there was some background noise, maybe a fan, and the voice level was very low. When you listen on your desktop the noise sounds normal and you can ignore it. But when you compress it using Speex and then MP3 the noise and your voice become very strange sounding. To get a better recording, get rid of any noise in the room, and record your voice more loudly. You may have to turn up the microphone in your computer's audio control panel.