Hello everyone!

I'm sorry I didn't write during the open blog, but it's lovely to see all your comments and catch up on what everyone has been doing. I am fine and so is Richard and all my family, friends and animals. I hope you are all well too.

I think Naheed has become a true animal lover, and that is a wonderful thing. Did you know that it has been scientifically proven that animals improve our lives? For example:
1) People who own pets suffer from fewer allergies and asthma.
2) If you own a pet, you are less likely to suffer heart disease. Scientists think this is because having pets around lowers our levels of stress.
3) Pets are great companions. They don't need to be entertained and they never argue with you. They are ideal housemates for anyone living alone or suffering grief for a lost loved-one.
4) Children who have pets learn about being considerate to others, responsibility and dealing with death. They grow up to be caring and responsible adults.
5) If you have a dog, you need to play with it and take it for a walk. So dogs keep you active and fit!

So well done to Naheed and best wishes to all the animals and animal-lovers out there.

This year, I hope that I can organise my work better so that I don't have to work so many late nights, and I hope that all my family and friends (including friends of blog) remain healthy and happy. I wish you all the best for 2011.

Love,

Jo
(and cats Scratchy, Smokey, Panther and Socks; and dog Raffles)

I was the first ever BBC Learning English teacher blogger, way back in 2006 and have blogged a couple of times since then, so, if we've met before, nice to see you again!

2010 felt like a busy year, but now I look back on it, I'm not quite sure what took up all my time... Do you ever feel like that? Busy, but not sure why? I did manage to finish writing my first book though, with a colleague from York St John University and another from the University of EL Paso, Texas in the US. It comes out on February the 9th and I am very, very excited! We are planning an interactive website where teachers of additional languages will be able to talk to speech and language therapists, literacy teachers, forensic linguists, dictionary writers, translators and so on. Basically, anyone who works with language will be able to share ideas.

In the spirit of learning from other language professionals, I interviewed my friend Chandy, who used to be an English language teacher and is now a speech and language therapist. You can see the interview here. One of the things Chandy mentions is how the way we speak influences what people think of our personality. On that topic, I'm really looking forward to seeing a film that has just come out in York about the friendship between King George VI and a speech therapist who cured him of a bad stammer, The King's Speech. Have you seen it? I'll let you know what I think when I've been!

Talk to you again later in the month....

Hello everyone. It's great to be back online. I blogged back in June 2008 when I was studying German at Portsmouth University in preparation for a PGCE course. Well, I'm happy to say I passed both courses but decided not to pursue a career in teaching German in England; instead, I came to Paris to read for an M.A in Teaching French as a Foreign Language, which I also passed, but then again decided not to pursue a career in teaching French either.

Anyway, I'm enjoying life here even though I didn't think I would: in previous visits to Paris I found people to be either stuck-up and haughty or downright rude. They didn't like foreigners, especially tourists and their driving was terrible. Waiters in cafés and restaurants were quite disdainful. I thought I wouldn't be able to make friends easily and I'd feel alone and sad in a busy metropolis. In fact, I couldn't have been more wrong or prejudiced. It's a really cosmopolitan city with a great buzz: there's always lots to see and do. I've made lots of friends and I go out regularly to cafés, restaurants, cinemas, museums, theatres and concerts. Recently, I went to a fondue restaurant with friends from out of town and we experienced drinking wine from a baby bottle!

Of course it's all a drain on the purse but it's worth it. Why else live in a city?

But there are other advantages, too. The architecture is gorgeous

and in the summer most Parisians have left to go on holiday so it's quite peaceful except for the hordes of tourists! Oh dear, I think I've become a stereotypical Parisian!

If you've ever been abroad on holiday or for business and worried what the locals were going to be like or if you've visited Paris, do write and tell me all about it. I'd love to read about your experiences and share in the delights of your discoveries.

Till then, best wishes for 2011!
Sophie Handy

Vocabulary:

1. blogged: from the verb to blog, which means to write a web log (an online journal). Web + log = blog.
2. PGCE: abbreviation for Post-Graduate Certificate of Education, a one year post-graduate university degree allowing the graduate to teach a subject in primary or secondary schools in the UK.
3. read: to read for a degree is a very formal or possibly old-fashioned way of saying to study.
4. les Invalides: a French word. It was a hospital and retirement home for war veterans as well as a burial site for some of France's war heroes such as Napoleon Bonaparte.
5. fab: short for fabulous meaning great or wonderful.
6. stuck-up: an informal adjective meaning snobbish or conceited.
7. haughty: another adjective meaning condescending or behaving in a superior or arrogant way.
8. downright: adjective which means completely and utterly.
9. disdainful: adjective meaning to have extreme contempt or disgust for something or someone.
10. prejudiced: if you are prejudiced you have a preformed opinion, usually unfavourable, based on insufficient knowledge or inaccurate stereotypes.
11. buzz: if you look up this word in a good dictionary, you'll find lots of different meanings but in this blog I mean a vibe or feeling of excitement.
12. fondue: another French word derived from fondre which means to melt; a dish eaten by dipping small pieces of food into the contents of a pot, usually melted cheese, hot oil or chocolate sauce. In our case we dipped chunks of bread into hot Emmental cheese. Delicious!
13. a drain on the purse: a drain is something that uses up resources (in this case money). A purse is for a woman, for a man it's called a wallet.
14. hordes: a horde is a large group of people, usually associated with invaders such as Vikings or the Mongol horde of Genghis Khan!
15. till: informal use, short for until.

My favourite place to escape from our current cold, miserable weather has been the reference section of my local library. There I can sit back in a (fairly!) comfortable chair and flick through the newspapers and magazines.

But even those of us who spend an unhealthy number of hours staring at a screen would concede that it can be a joyless experience. It's also a recipe for sore eyes and a tired brain.

Using a library reference section is like taking the slow scenic route to knowledge. And if you spot an interesting fact or unfamiliar word you are in the perfect place to do more research.

The other day I was indulging in this pleasant pastime when I came across a news story about the incredible growth in the number of English words. Apparently the number has doubled over the last century, with 8,500 new ones entering the language every year.
Where are we going to put them all? I asked myself, looking at the 20 volume, 650,000 word complete Oxford English Dictionary (OED) on the shelf behind me. Even the comically misnamed Shorter OED is two very fat volumes.

I noticed that the foreign language dictionaries in the next aisle looked a lot slimmer. I picked up the German one - it had only180,000 words. The standard French dictionary had less than 150,000.

While I was thinking about this I could see the snow falling outside. It would soon be time to go out and do battle with the icy streets. But the complete OED costs £675 and it seemed a shame not to make use of it. I reached out for Volume U-V and settled back in my chair.

I suspect the library reference section as a kind of intellectual leisure centre may be a very British pastime. Does this happen in the part of the world you live in? I'd love to read about your library experiences.

Scenic Route - using slower roads through pretty countryside. Used here as a metaphor.
Spot - notice
Flick - move pages/photos quickly, usually using thumbs
Indulging - doing purely for pleasure
Pastime - hobby, pleasurable activity
(a) Shame not to - a missed opportunity

Happy New Year! Lovely to be back here on the blogs :-) It feels like quite a long time ago that I caught up with everyone and said hello to new readers in December 2009.

Perhaps the biggest change for us is that Louie, my eldest son, started school. Here is a photo of him just about to set off for school on his first day:

He loves school! Long may it last.

I agree with Cris over on the student blog that January is easier to write in than December. Our festive season has just come to and end on the 4th, as Louie went to bed after a fun-filled birthday. In our family we have an even more hectic holiday season than most families as my birthday is in November, my youngest son, Oslo's, birthday is at the beginning of December, then it's Christmas, then it's New Year and then it's Louie's birthday on the 4th of January! We have presents and cake and balloons and trees and Christmas decorations flying around for two months and then... ah... back to normal.

What did you do for New Year's Eve? We went to a party at our neighbour's house which was GREAT - best party I've been to for ages and a fantastic way to start 2011. We had a break from the freezing weather we've been having so could be outside for some of it watching the fireworks and chatting and laughing... it was very good. In fact it was so good that my neighbours are now planning another party, so perhaps the festive season isn't quite yet over after all!

I'm looking forward to 2011... most of all I'm looking forward to a holiday in Thailand in February where I will meet up with my best friend and her daughter. They live in Australia and I rarely get to see them. I can't wait to go.

So that's a little hello from me. I'll write more again in a few days. I hope you have all had a good year, a great holiday season and that you're looking forward to lots of adventures in 2011!

All the best,

Amy

Hi Everyone!

How good it is to be able to 'talk' to you all again. So much has happened since last Christmas. It's not easy to know where to start.

I have moved house. You perhaps remember that I used to live in a cosy little house in west London. I lived there for 28 years. Lucy, my lovely daughter, was born there 22 years ago, and it was the first and only house I had owned together with my late wife.

Meanwhile, back in October I moved from London to a tiny fishing village on the far north-west coast of Scotland, called Ullapool. I have bought an eco-house. It is newly-built and is one of a block of four which all have under-floor central heating, and solar panels on the roof. I have three bedrooms, a large living and dining area and a huge kitchen with panorama windows. The view from my house is spectacular.

I look out over the loch (Loch Broom) and the mountains, which right now, are covered in thick snow.

I have a sauna and a large spa bath, two bathrooms, three loos and a small utility room. Outside, there's a spacious terrace where I hope we can have parties in the summer.

Even though I have three teaching degrees and other academic qualifications from English colleges and universities, I am not allowed to teach in Scottish state schools. So I hope to do a little private teaching and a lot more writing. I have joined the organising group for the annual Ullapool Book Festival (check out the website, it's a great event!), and I also belong to a group of published writers which meets monthly in different villages around the region.

It's as different as it could be from living in London, and I do miss London enormously. But I intend to visit from time-to-time and also to continue travelling abroad. I'll be travelling by the time this blog is posted so I probably won't be able to respond to any of your comments, unfortunately. I'll be in London and Marrakech in the New Year, and I hope to get to Sweden, Norway and Finland during the summer.

One day, maybe, I'll be able to blog for a little longer with you. Meanwhile, I have posted a couple of photos you might find interesting.

With my warmest best wishes to all of you for a great 2011.

STEPHEN KEELER

Our Christmas decorations!