Comments

Hello Trudi, your blog is tellilng us how much you and Teah are enjoying your stay in China. This blog of yours is really interesting and informative especaillly for all of us who have not the faintest idea of Chinese Culture. your description and some snaps help us to conjure whole picture infornt of us. Please also tell us something about the exquisite building of China as we have here worth seeing historical places like Shahi fort, Badshahi Mosque and Jahngir's Tomb in Lahore. It's architecture is marvelous and I must say unrivelled for it's delicacy. I would request to Anatasia to tell us something about the renowned places of Russia. thanks

Hi Trudi, This morning I made fun of myself. I got up at eight thirty because it is Sunday (usually I get up at ten to five). Before going to buy the croissants for breakfast I had a look to my emails and also it has become a tradition to the BBC LE to see it there were new blogs and/or comments. The sun was shining (it is not very usual, in that manner, in Belgium) and when reading your blog mi first thought was : How can people do so many things …. before I realised that of course you were already in the afternoon. Speaking about football, I use to listen to BBC when I am driving but not on Saturday evenings : all is football. What is quite annoying for me as I haven’t any interest in British football, just a far bit in Belgian and a farther bit in Spanish one. I used to play football when I was teenager but since I came to Belgium I lost that kind of passion. In some way I am happy because I cannot understand people spending most of their Monday speaking and even arguing about what their team should have or should not have done during the Sunday match. Your Weekend is nearly over as you say, I have still most of the Sunday. Of course, I have already my idea about the fourteenth. Antonio

Hello, Trudi! Your blog entries are very exciting. Apart from a great number of new expressions, I learned many interesting facts about China and Britain. Thank you! As for sports in Russia there is no kind of sport that can be considered as a national one. Nevertheless football is very popular among Russians. I’ m afraid of football fans who are being affected by the game gather in groups and become unpredictable even if their favourite team have lost the game. Personally I like riding a bike, swimming and playing tennis. Best wishes!

As it is my first performance learn english comunicate blogger. I just want to inroduce myself as English Teacher and English Student. And I am glad to see photos from Beijing and to know Teacher Trudi . Congratulations Sandra

Hello, Trudy. At least one of your wishes became true: here was a sunny, joyful day. So if it was so thanks to you, thank you so much.

Hi, Trudi and welcome at the blog! Loads of things to think about (or just re-think) starting with some socio-linguistic issues to end with great everyday habits. Thanks! Theah is so adorable – I can’t stop smiling while looking at her. All children seem to love hiding in a wardrobe and in Cracow (this is an artistic ‘capitol’ of Poland) they can even do it in public. This is a special, magnificent, restaurant, run by artistic couple, where you can sit inside a colorful, old fashioned but still maintaining their charm, wardrobes. Children can also have lots of fun while listening to the actors reading books (this is a part of social campaign ‘All of Poland reads to Kids’) or learning how ‘to do’ a theatre. Books – you can talk endlessly. Yes, I like to re-read some of my favorite ones, discover new things, and feel almost the same tension as for the first time. And this is partly an answer to your question whether we like to know the end of the story. Marquez, for example, plays with you while suggesting, in an introductory, delicately constructed sentence, what’s going to happen at the end of the book whereas he knows quite well (and is really right) that his narrative strategy will keep you tense to the very end of the book regardless what was said earlier (see for example ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’). As regards reading in English I would recommend a book I read recently – House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe. Beautifully written with a good, psychological background – I’ll re-read this one for sure. I also read simultaneously 3 books and that worries me a bit! Best,

Im arghavan ,22 and wiriting from iran.I saw this blog suddenly and Im so interested in writting blogs .as I was highschool student ,I got my fce certificate from cambridge university but after that time ,because of university and busy schedule , couldnt study english any more.here in my country ,just in english institutes people get a chance to talk and communicate in english.now after 4 years ,I have forgotten alot ,and I really need to improve my english because Im going to participate IELTS exams.I attended english class 1 month ago but It wasnt usefull at all so I decided to start self study . I ask u for some guidance ,that how can I start again and how is it possible to improve my 4 skills of language by self study?also Is it possible for me too to write in students blog?if yes ,what should I do?

Hi, Trudi and welcome at the blog! Loads of things to think about (or just re-think) starting with some socio-linguistic issues to end with great everyday habits. Thanks! Theah is so adorable – I can’t stop smiling while looking at her. All children seem to love hiding in a wardrobe and in Cracow (this is an artistic ‘capitol’ of Poland) they can even do it in public. This is a special, magnificent, restaurant, run by artistic couple, where you can sit inside a colorful, old fashioned but still maintaining their charm, wardrobes. Children can also have lots of fun while listening to the actors reading books (this is a part of social campaign ‘All of Poland reads to Kids’) or learning how ‘to do’ a theatre. Books – you can talk endlessly. Yes, I like to re-read some of my favorite ones, discover new things, and feel almost the same tension as for the first time. And this is partly an answer to your question whether we like to know the end of the story. Marquez, for example, plays with you while suggesting, in an introductory, delicately constructed sentence, what’s going to happen at the end of the book whereas he knows quite well (and is really right) that his narrative strategy will keep you tense to the very end of the book regardless what was said earlier (see for example ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’). As regards reading in English I would recommend a book I read recently – House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe. Beautifully written with a good, psychological background – I’ll re-read this one for sure. I also read simultaneously 3 books and that worries me a bit! Best,

Hi Trudi, Thanks for your tips to read more efficiently. I also tried some methods in recent times. I could manage to complete some story books. I finished “A love for life” by penny Hancock from Cambridge University Press. This the first time I went through the advance level book. I finished some of the lower intermediate and intermediate level books two months back. After finishing those books I checked my reading level in their website. The results of vocab test showed me to read advance level books. For me it was a great experience to finish some of the books. Only recently I develop the habit of reading books. In the past I tried and ended up in failure. The reason for not completing books was I did not choose the books which I could manage to read. Now I have become confident to read the books which I can manage to finish. Hope your suggestions will help me to spend time to read story book, subject books (I am a social worker and working in the health service sector) and health related books. Teachers’ blog help me in many ways to improve my English language learning every day. I will tell other ways of my learning English methods daily in the coming days. And I will also share my view on the story “A love for life” wish you a happy Chinese new year. Chin up.

Hi Trudi, I felt on top of the world as I saw my name mentioned by you in your recent blog. On the other hand taken aback as well by your such a tight schedule and yet giving us time to correct our language shortcomings. It is appreciatable to take on a great responsibility to teach the students all around the world. I agree with you not telling the whole story till the end as it mars one's interest. To maintain the level of curiosity and suspense it should be left at the point where listener feel like tempted to read it at once. letting the cat out means you're not encouraging the students to learn by themselves as now i am willing to read it as soon as possible provided i lay on my hand one immediately. please recommend us more good classsics that could help us to go ahead in learning English language. waiting anxiously for your next blog. take care

Good night Trudi! I´ve been a faithful reader and commentator on your and Anastasia´s blog since the very beginning. However, somehow my comments haven´t appeared yet. Maybe the greedy spam manager has eaten them. Who knows?! :-) Well, as I wrote in my last comment to you I enjoy very much reading, therefore I´ve looked for the synopsis of Fahrenheit 451. Once I´ve read it I´ve found very thought provoking. This book is already in my booklist. By the way Trudi, it´s very interesting to know about your master´s degree in Psychology. Could you tell us a bit more about it, please? Best wishes, Ana Paula

Dear Trudi, I've heard that American version of the English language is widely taught in China - is that so? (Judging by the influence of AmE you experience, it does seem to be the case...)Do American teachers use American coursebooks? What language do Chinese students opt for? Here in Moscow students are usually offered British English coursebooks (unless they need to study for a TOEFL exam). An American friend has to struggle with language differences as his school uses English textbooks and his young students won't have him say 'a truck' instead of 'a lorry'! Speaking of fur coats, I liked the delicate nature of your comment on culture differences...however, the word 'shocked' seemed to give away your personal feelings. I hope it'll please you to learn that fur coats are by no means a staple part of everyone's wardrobe here - and are likely to become a thing of the past if global warming is here to stay :)Still, they used to be quite common in cold countries. Has their been a major shift of attitudes in the UK, or in the West in general? Best regards, Elena

Hi Trudi, How are you and your little one Teah? Ah... She is so cute. I remember my daughter were little and the played in the closet. Now they are grown up teen girls.This is the most interesting age don't loose it.Fortunately you have a pretty flexible schedule to spent time with you daughter Teah.Trudi I sent a comment to your last blog, butit hasn't appear yet. I think that the new spam manager must have eaten my comments. He is very greedy person. The book "Fahrenheit 451 " you just finished reading was interesting and phenomenal. I would like to read that story , if it is written in simple english as you had written. Trudi, it is a shame that I never read a story book in english . What do you advice for me to read story books in english. Could you suggest some story books for my level. I am a beginner. But I read BBc world news almost everyday and I fairly understand everything in the context.Trudi, I am so pleased that you love indian spice foods. All south asian foods are more less similar. I would like hear more about you and your life in China. It is a great experience if you live in different countries other than your birth place. It is a privildge you to get such a opportunity to live in different countries.Most of the previous teachers bloggers from Britain who live in different part of the world. Each time we learn different culture and life style from teacher and student blogger. I will write more in next blog. Kind regards,

Dear Trudi, I am not sure spam manger like this comment or not. I am really enjoying that all my comments are eaten by spam manger. Even I am not going to give up. Most of the people enjoy reading books to empower their word power but as for me, internet is main source of reading. In Nepal, we are able to listen as well as TV channel in English. The main difficulty in my part is that I can’t allocate full time to whole movie either in TV or DVD. At the night, when I am in office I am able to read and watch TV in leisure time. At the same time, if I start to play game, it will kill my time unconsciously. When teacher and reader start to talk about novel, certainly I am at a disadvantage. Your synopsis about that novel has generated energy inside me to read that novel.

Hi, I must say that if you know one foreign language you can very quickly learn yourself other. In my opinion every way is good as far bring effects. I always repeat myself that I have time until pension (I meane study of English). Regards Majka PS. I wish you persistence in pursuing goals

Hi Dear Trudi, How are you? Nice to meeting you as a teacher blogger. Happy chinese New year.I heard on BBc radio that northern China had been affected by snow and ice storm,and many people are stranded in railway stations and airports. It is a chaos for chines people during the big holiday of the year. Trudi do you live in southern china, because you didn't write about the snow storm in china. Each one of your blogs contains many vocabularies that I have ever seen them before. It is fun learning new words and its meaning. To keep those words in memory we have to keep using them in our writng. I haven't read any story books in english yet, but, now I determine that I must read story books in english even in my busy schedule. I use to read readers digest that feed me some knowledge about other of the world , what is going there. I was so pleased that you love indian foods , once you addicted to spice foods your taste buds always ask spice foods. what Indian dishes are your favourite.Living in a big city in a country has a lot of disadvantage and advantages.One of the advantage is you can get different ethnics foods. That is all for today. Your daughter Teah is so beautiful. kind regards.

Hi dear Trudi , What are you doing ? First of all very thanks for your information about Chinese New year . I 'm happy my shot in the dark was true ( About Chinese new year ) . What a beautiful girl . I specially love the children in this stage (toddlers ) . My cheeky monkey send a hug to pretty Teah . Could you please tell us the meaning of her name and it's pronunciation .I love reading book in English , but unfortunately I haven't had chance to read an original one . I have just read Penguin Books in different levels and in the different areas . I have read ‘Wuthering Heights’ in Persian and I have bought it 's penguin version recently . But personally when I read those famous books in English it keeps me on my toes . I know that re- reading books is a nice idea for brushing up my English but most of the time when I 'm reading an English book, from the middle of it I just to know the line of the story and I forget about it’s learning aim . Yes it 's my weakness about reading novels . I 'm waiting to hearing from you as soon as possible .Kiss your pretty Teah for me and bye Best wishes

Hi Trudi!I completely agree with Leila, your posts are great full of with useful new words.It will be a great two month with you.I hardly know anything about Chinese people and their life, but I'm sure you'll write about it.Your daughter is so lovely... please keep sending us more pics.I'm looking forward your next entry.Bye, Erika

Hi Trudi! Aaaaah your little princess is so cute! Congrats :-)! I do re-read many books in English in order to absorb their vocabulary. I haven´t read Fahrenheit 451, but today, I took a look at the plot and I found it very interesting. It´s already in my booklist. Thank you for the tip :-). By now I´m in the middle of The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. A couple of weeks ago I watched the movie, and then I decided to read the book. I can tell you I´m enjoying very much reading this book, moreover it´s by far better than the film :-). By the way Trudi,I´ve learnt some interesting words from this couple of blogs you´ve posted, such as potted history and plethora( hmm... this one sounds like the name of sci-fi planet :-)). Just one more thing Trudi. Could you please explain us a bit about prepositions? I´m always get confuse about them. Best wishes. See you soon, Ana Paula.

Hello Trudi, hope you must be enjoying your stay in China. Chinese celebrate their New Year with great zest and zeal as this is the most important occasion of family get together. The way you expressed your ideas with cohesion is highly commendable. Actually this time I tried to read between the lines in order to get the meanings of difficult words without consulting your provided word lis. I must say your writing is just going with the flow if i am right to use this expression in this way. Being a teacher you must be well aware of the fact that learing a language is a very slow process and the mistakes we commit during learning make the teacher to crack up most of the time. bye

Dear Trudi, I don’t know should I believe what I read few minutes ago or should I believe what I am reading now? When I started reading you mentioned 6th February as Chinese New Year eve and 8th February as New Year. When I completed reading and think to comment on it, New Year day changed to 7th February. I don’t know we will be able to read this comment in time or not because either my comments are very favourable to spam manager to swallow my words or it completely hate them and are posted up after few weeks. Photograph shows that you have very nice looking girl. I noticed use of “Colloquial Pairs” in your writing like nearest and dearest, length and breadth etc. I expect use of such pairs so that we can learn more of them. You raise same question to Anastasia that what is the name of city where she is living. I like to request to comments on readers writing too if possible.

Hello Trudi, I'm a 20 years old student from Basel in Switzerland. In Switzerland we often have the name "Trudi" as the short form of "Gertrud" is "Trudi" in english also a short form? I'm really excited that you live in Beijing since my best friend lived there for a year and I visited her there last may/june. I'm really looking forward to read some things about Beijing, what you do there and where you go and I hope that I know some things or places you will write about. Oh, yesterday me and my friend cooked six chinese dishes for our parents as a new years meal. I know it was too early but we don't have enough time in the middle of the week to cook such a big meal. I really like learning english, I started it because I had to but I was really surprised how fast I learned and how much I enjoyed it. In school I didn't hat english but french (it was obligatory) and latin and greek (my choice) and while I wasn't a bad student in french I wasn't especially good either and I never enjoyed it much. I think I like english more because I mostly learned it from speaking with others, reading, watching movies. It's just more fun this way and you really learn the things you need while in school I had to learn a lot of french vocabulary and grammar you don't need regularly. Zai Jian!

Hello Trudi. Nice to meet you on this website. My name is Tom and I am from, you can see above this text.:o]. As I was reading this blog, i could not believe that someone can write as a good English as I will never write and speak. I have been studying this difficult language for two years. And I would like to know when the end could be. Anyway, I should apologize for having complained about my poor English. It was not nice at the beginning of my writing. By the way, I met my friend from China just yesterday and he tried to explain which flowers are important in China. Could you imagine how difficult it was. Anyone of us did not know any names of flowers and anyone can draw. It was quite funny. So I can imagine your first days in China. But take my hats off because you can speak Chinese. Have a nice day.

Nice to meet you Trudi, it was very interesting to hear that you are living in Beijing. I would also like to give you a special praise for giving Anastasia such a warm welcome. I was November 2007 blogger and I know how important it is to get bonded with your tutor. Chocolate and peanuts are tempting yes, but if I may offer a small piece of warning; they only stay a minute on the lips but years on the hips. Just for your pleasure I am going to add a small riddle for you to tell us the meaning of it. I do hope I can successfully send the text onwards, it is written in Chinese

Hello Trudi! Thanks for the very useful vocabulary in your post. I have been following the news about the cold weather in china. How are the conditions in Beijing? I am from Veracruz,MX, but currently I am in Colorado,USA. I know what it feels to be below 0F( -20C)!!! Cheers!

Hello Trudi, and welcome on the board. Since you are in china that means you are in my neighbouring country. I can say it's going to be a wonderful time with you. I find your question very interesting about English. As for me, I really enjoy learning English. Infact, I like learning languages very much. To me, languages are the channels through wich we can communicate to the peoples of the world belonging to different nationalities and cultures. There are four things which are very important to learn a language that's reading, writing, listening and speaking. I keep a note book in which I note down new words that I come across. I first try to understand their meanings through their context and then refer to the dictionary and practice that word several times to get used to it. For speaking, I've formed a little group with my sisters, everyday we sit for half an hour to practise our speaking. Along with that, it is also important to think in that langauge that you are learning. Trudi, as for your question about Chinese New Year animal, I think I'm completely illiterate in that. Looking forward to hearing more from you. Naheed

Hi Trudi, nice to have you as new blogger teacher. I do not know if I feel a different person when I speak English but I am happy to be able to. When travelling, compared to monolingual people, it is a great advantage because nowadays a lot of people, mostly young people understands or speaks English, quite often better than me. When visiting or touring we do not have to wait for a group in our mother tongue. I started studying English for pleasure, but thinking too to the advantage when looking for a job. Today, some thirty years later why am I still learning ? Of course, I have not been studying all these years, maybe three or four and then stopping for some years and restarting again, and so on. One thing has changed compared to twenty years ago. Today I am not afraid to speak. I have acquired a kind of maturity that makes me accept my mistakes and try to learn from them. Well, I am going to stop here. Read you soon. Antonio

Hi Trudy! Nice to meet you! I'm a reader of the blog and I must say that it's the best I have found to improve my poor English. I discovered it only three weeks ago, and I'm very very glad to have the possibility to learn English and (no less important) to know nice people of all the world making good friends. Sorry for my poor writing! I hope to learn lots and lots of English. See you soon!! Mercè

Dear Trudi, Very warm welcome to you as a blog teacher and giving hints that teachers are lazy learner. For my part, I have started learn English as a second language starting from grade 4 in school. When I remembered all the circumstance then, now I realized that to learn any language in proper way, one must get an opportunity to practice all essential components of language i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing. When I started to visit various sites in Internet to brush up on my language skill, I found phrasal verbs and English Idioms are really hindrance. I tried my best to catch them up and still confused with them. In my early childhood, I tried to memorise all things I have to write in my answer papers but one day my Nepalese language teacher suggested me to enjoy reading and writing in English as a means of communication and I tried to utilize even a single opportunity to talk with foreigner in English and I was unaware of the facts that every European is not able speak in English and try to convince to learn their own language. Up to now, I have not put any effort to learn other European and Latin American languages. Nowadays, I am devoting my time reading and writing in English though I don’t need this language in my official duties. Language learning can be really enjoyable if you think as a means of communication and mistakes in the second language is unavoidable.

I am sure your wishes will come true one day.Remain possitive and keep on thinking a huge money or windfall! you never know!! My son loves kicking a ball but he doesn't like to watch foodball matches on TV or a pitch.It doesn't matter how hard his dad trys to indoctrinate him.my son always says it's boring to watch a game of football on Telly. i hope your dream to make Teah a footy girl or foodball bug be successed.see you soonxx

Hello Trudi :-) I commented on your latest blog but unfortunately, my comment didn't appear, at least so far. Various things happen on the Internet. To come back to your blog, the red wall is a very interesting thing. In a lot of religious and non-religius beliefs people think that what you write has more power than what you say or think. I think it's bureaucracy that is based on such conviction. All best wishes!

Fantastic to see us all being so faithful and commenting here, Trudi has a real job trying to go through the comments. I noticed that “Spam Manager” spilled the lot out at once. May I take this opportunity to say hello to all old and new virtual friends. Out tutor Trudi is a real diamond in the sky for inspiration!

Hi everyone. Firstly I have to say that this blog is very useful and helpful to learn English, a lot of thanks all of you bloggers. And also thanks to Antonio because I'd understood badly the expression "be nearly over" and you've made it clear for me. I thought its meaning was "be nearly starting".

Hi Trudi, Shall I add one more windfall for you this Chinese New Year2008 with winning lottery? My husband should get more diamond and Emerald when he returns from the business trips this year. Don’t hide to tell us even if he buys small pieces of these ornaments. Please don’t trouble him as 14th is approaching. Are Chinese so superstitious? Why do they tie the sheet of resolution in the wood? What kind of religion they follow. So you are indoctrinating Teah as a great footballer. Good luck. Doesn’t he like cricket. We the Indians are cricket bug. Most of our people watch foot ball at the time of world cup. Other time we don’t bother about foot ball and footballers. It’s nice to know about your family history about the foot ball game. Why your husband not interested in any sport. Make him to do some physical exercises when you do it at home. You explained the reason for doing it at home. Now a days people equip machines at home and finish their routines. I enjoy my walking and physical exercises in the early hours of morning in the open ground. Lots of trees are surrounded in the ground. So I feel fresh and spring in my step.

Hello Trudi! What a wonderful pictures you´ve sent to us! Teah looks like a doll. It seems she can´t move her little arms because of her heavy winter clothes. So cute :-) Oh... by the way, the sunshine always brings a smile on my face too. Especially the winter sunshine when you go outside in the garden on a Sunday morning having as companions a mug of hot coffee and that dear old novel that you know by heart :-). Meanwhile, you try eagerly to soak some of those precious rays of sunlights... Ah,days like these are so wonderful, aren´t they? Well, I have to say good bye Trudi. I have to go to my FCE class now. Good night, Ana Paula

Hi Trudi!Shall you & spouce are more windfall for you this Chinese New Year2008 with winning lottery and joyfull? your husband should get more diamond and Emerald when he returns from the business trips this year. Don’t hide to tell us even if he buys small pieces of these ornaments. Please don’t trouble him as 14th