British English or American English?

Are you learning British or American English? Do you find one more easy to understand than the other?

Watching films in English

Do you watch films in English, or do you prefer to watch them in your own language?

Some types of film (animations, cartoons etc) are easier to understand in English, but you can probably understand a lot more than you think! Next time you watch a film on your DVD player, go to the menu and change the language settings to English. You don't need to watch the whole film in English, but even five to ten minutes is good practice.

Which films would you recommend watching in English?

Can you help the people of Haiti?

Please help if you can. You can donate money using your credit card or paypal account to the World Food Programme:

https://www.wfp.org/donate/haiti

Thank you.

Practise your English writing skills

If you've got a Twitter account, use it to update your friends or colleagues in English. You've only got a maximum of 140 characters, so your message needs to be short. (= fewer mistakes if you're worried about this!) You can use the same abbreviations on Twitter as you do when you text, and you don't need to worry too much about punctuation. Just make your updates interesting!

English-at-home.com members – help save the planet!

Climate change experts are warning us that time is running out. The world is getting hotter, and more and more people are at risk of extreme weather conditions, and losing their homes and livelihoods. What can we all do to cut our energy use, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help save the planet? Every little counts, so here are my "resolutions" to become more energy-efficient and reduce my carbon footprint.

I promise to
- replace all the lightbulbs in my house with the new low-energy ones
- use saucepan lids when I cook to save gas
- walk or cycle to the local shop rather than driving (this is a hard one for me – the shop is a good 20 min uphill cycle away!)

What can you promise to do?

(PS: If you need ideas, click this link to the 10:10 climate change campaign.

Let's learn English together

Help Behnam and friends reach the magic target of 5000 posts in the penpals forum. Click here to join this thread and take part in their discussions. You can read the entire thread from start to finish, or just join it from the last page. Scroll down to the bottom of the first page and click on the latest page – which is currently page 448.

So, get yourself a nice cup of tea or coffee, and settle down to some great reading. We've had everything in this thread: jokes, virtual world travel, the differences between men and women, west and east, the importance of love and friendship…

Happy reading!

How important is English to you?

Do you need English for your job, or because you live in an English-speaking country, for example? Do you use English to stay in touch with friends around the world on Facebook or Twitter, or do you only use English at school or at work?

An English ghost story

How do you feel about helping me to write a scary ghost story? I can start it off, but then anyone can join in and write the next few sentences. All you need to do is to read what was written before, then carry on the story!

Here's the beginning.

… It was a dark and stormy night. Outside the wind was blowing through the branches of the old oak tree, making a "whoo.hoo" sound. Inside I was drinking a cup of hot chocolate in front of a warm, log fire. I was just about to get up to close the curtains when I heard a loud knock on the door…

Do you use an English coursebook?

Are you studying English with a coursebook? Which one do you use, and what do you think about it?

What are your favourite English songs?

Is there an English song you like listening to? Do you know all the words to it, and can you sing along, or do you have to replace some parts with "la-la-la-la"?