Making a Date

Recently we have been learning about dates and time in the FE4-Speaking Class at Toyo Gakuen University. For the next test you will have to make a date to go to a movie. Here's a video from EF Education First to help you. The video talks about polite ways to make a suggestion in English. There are various ways to make a suggestion including:

• How about....?
• Would you like to...?
• I was wondering if...?

Which of the ways above do you think is the most polite? Watch the video and find out.

Here's another video about making dates. This video is an animated video. My friend Paul made this video. Paul has a video podcast called ESLpodTV. It's a great podcast. This video is about an English man called Ed. U. Cator. He calls his new friend to invite her to his house. You can learn more about making suggestions, invitations and polite requests (丁寧語、招待) in this video. here's some vocabulary to help you:

guy - person, usually a man

anytime - whenever

nothing special - nothing different or unusual

accent - the way your voice sounds shaped by where you’re from

housewarming party - special event celebrating moving into new home

neighbours - the people living nearby

got nothing on - not doing anything at that time

few - a small number of something

funny - strange

I was wondering if… polite expression requesting somebody do something

If you’re free… - expression often used to ask for a date or request favour

Educator Diaries 3 from kibishipaul on Vimeo.

When we make a date in English we need to be able to say dates. For example: June 11th, August 30th, December 25th. We need to be make to make the "th" sound. You can watch some videos about making the "th" sound by clicking here.

When we make a date in English we need to be able to talk about time as well as dates. Here's a video from Real English about time.

Here's another video that talks about prepositions of time. This video comes from JenniferESL

For your next test you will have to make a date to see a movie. Good luck!

Talking about family

This is a great video from EF Education First. The topic of the video is talking about families.

Here's another video about families. This one is from Real English. Enjoy!

Going to a Movie
Making plans and Time

In the Freshman English 4- Speaking classes at Toyo Gakuin University students learned how to read a movie timetable and make plans to go to a movie with a friend. This video by EFpodEnglish shows two people making plans to go to a movie. Enjoy!

Conversation: More about hobbies - what to say and what not to say

Conversation Strategies: Natural versus unnatural questions

This is a video from Action Language Academy, an Eikaiwa (English conversation school) in Japan. The video is called, 英会話 名古屋 Typical English Mistakes-1: Hobby. The video talks about a common mistake students in Japan make during an English conversation. The mistake that they make is asking the question "What is your hobby?" They make this mistake because the Japanese word 趣味 (shumi) is translated as "hobby". However, "shumi" can be translated as interest or favourite pastime.

Greetings

Here's another video about greetings. This video comes UGoEigo. Some of the greetings are more formal. Some of the greetings are more casual. If you look at the shape of the speaker's mouth it will help you will pronunciation.

Making Introductions: Levels of Formality

In my classes at Toyo Gakuen University and Takushoku University my students have been studying introductions. In these lessons we looked at formal versus informal language, titles, relationships and the appropriate language to use in various situations.

The video I've posted today is an instructional video about how to introduce people to each other at a party. I found the video through esl teaching resources

VideoJug: How To Introduce People
Click "VideoJug" to go to the website and find more videos. Click "How to Introduce People" to find the text version of the video. You can print the text version too.

Conversation Strategies: Spelling

This video comes from a fantastic site called Real English.com. It shows people from many different countries saying their name. Sometimes it's difficult to understand. Therefore, the interviewer asks "Can you spell your name?" This video shows that spelling is an important conversation strategy. Enjoy