Learn English with Teacher Joe

Hello Everybody!

In a week I will be going back to New York for a much needed rest. As I told my students, I have also forgotten so much English while in China that I need to go back to study! Seriously, though, I have a lot of plans during my weeks at home (hopefully at the beach!) but my plans center around making lots and lots of pages for my new web site Laugh and Learn English. I am doing a lot of the preparation work for the site now. This morning, before going to work, I made a riddle page which you can see at Laugh and Learn English Riddle One. If you could, please give me some feedback on this riddle. In particular, try to answer these questions:

1. Is it too easy, or maybe too difficult?
2. Is the explanation clear?
3. Do you think I should put the answer on the next page, before “Riddle Number 2″? (That would mean that visitors to my site would have to wait several days, or maybe even a week, for the answer.)

Any other comments welcome!

Hi Everybody,

I’ve been very busy recently looking for a new job while also dealing with other, personal, issues. Although I haven’t had time to post here, I have put up some simple web pages that provide a variety of daily lessons. I’ve mentioned the games before, but there are other interesting lessons too, including new jokes and new quotes. Check them out here:

Learn English Every Day

As always, I welcome your comments!

Okay, the Hangman game wasn’t very popular - too easy, as Rosa pointed out (and for most students, she is right!) and can become boring. Here is a better game for you to try:

http://www.teacherjoe.us/Learn_English88.html

You can try to guess the word from the definition first, then listen to the word by clicking on the “speaker”. Be sure to use the “easy” mode. Many of the “easy” words are even difficult for me! Good luck and please don’t give up. I think you can really learn a lot from this game. Be sure to let me know what you think!

Hello everybody. I’ve been very busy with work and have had little time for blogging or other online fun stuff. Over the past weekend, however, I did find time to make a few new web pages. I’d like you to try out one page that I think will be useful for many students. It’s a very popular game called Hangman that helps introduce English spelling and new words. Please give me your feedback in the Comments section after you’ve played it a few times. I’d like to know what you think! Click here to get started…

The Jing (I mean the North Jing, or Capital City, or Beijing) has entered Spring! We have warm days, cool nights, with a dust storm thrown in from time to time to keep things interesting. I spent my last day off in “Houhai”, where there are several man-made ponds that once-upon-a-time were the Emperors’ playground. It was nice to just sit in the sun, enjoy the sounds of small paddle boats drifting along the pond, and forget that I am in the middle of a huge city.

The scene is so different from spring in my hometown. On any day in April we might have a little sunshine, lots of wind and rain, or even snow. It snowed in Rochester last week, I heard. Rochester is sometimes called the Flower City and there is a big ”Lilac Festival” every spring - in May! Here in Beijing, the lilacs are already out, as well as magnolias, cherry blossoms and plum blossoms. It’s nice to have an early spring…

Hi Everybody,

Sorry for not having posted for a while. I’m now working on a new website, totally dedicated to learning English from humor. I believe learning English in context is important, and everybody likes to have a good laugh, so the new site should be very popular. It is, however, a LOT of work.

Here is a set of riddles for you. Each one includes some interesting language for you to think about. Please leave possible answers in the “Comments” section. Don’t worry if your answer is not right, just give it a try. Sometimes, just trying can help you to learn. Good luck and have fun!

Q1: Why did the man throw a bucket of water out the window?

Q2: Why did the man throw the butter out the window?

Q3: Why did the man throw a clock out the window?

Q4: Why did the man put the clock in the safe?

Hi Readers!

What do crazy people and some good language learners have in common? No, this is not the Riddle of the Week! So, let me give you the answer. Some good language learners practice by talking to themselves. They try using vocabulary and sentence structures that they’ve been studying to think about what they are doing in their daily life. You can read more about this Talk to Yourself approach by clicking here.

What do you think? Do you ever do this? If so, how often, and what were the results. If not, do you think it might be helpful to you? Who do you think this can help the most, beginners, intermediate students or advanced students?

When a younger sibling (a brother or sister) copies their older sibling, the older one might call the younger one a “copycat”. Older children often say “Don’t be a copycat!”.  Well, here’s a riddle about some copycats:

Ten copycats were sitting in a boat, and one jumped out. How many were left?

Yes, this was pretty easy. Of course if one jumps out, nine should be left. However, as Nafis pointed out in the Comments section, since they are copycats, all of them will follow the first. So, there would be zero left!

Today I was noticing how my students are reluctant to change old habits, even if those habits are holding them back from achieving their goals. So, in my classes, I try to get students to try many different ways to practice, helping them to break bad learning habits. How about you? Do you always practice the same way? Do you feel your learning is boring and maybe too slow? Here is one idea to try to help you liven up your speaking practice:

http://www.teacherjoe.us/LearnEnglish15.html

I think this can help you. Let me know what you think!

Many children’s riddles are based on letters of the alphabet. Here’s an example:

Why is the letter A like a flower?

Okay, nobody even attempted to guess this time. You might think about things that go with flowers - a beautiful scent, sunshine, green grass, bees… Bees! And what comes after the letter A? The letter B! So, why is the letter A like a flower? Because it is always followed by a B!