The English Teacher wishes you a prosperous 2009! As tradition wants it, something new. I am glad to announce my makeover, after weeks of switching and swapping templates, here we finally have the end result.

A special thanks to Kay for making all this happen and for putting up with me LOL to all my readers old and new…Have a Happy New Year!

NB, you might see the site change overnight it depends on where in the world you live as I will be undergoing a provider change…Anyway watch this space! The English Teacher

This is The Queen’s Christmas speech.

The Queen’s (King’s) Christmas Message is a broadcast by Queen Elizabeth II made to the Commonwealth at Christmas. The tradition began in 1932 with a radio broadcast by King George V on the BBC Empire Service. Today the broadcast is made on television and radio via various providers.

The idea for a Christmas Message from the Sovereign to the Commonwealth was originally mooted in 1932 by the founding father of the BBC, Sir John Reith. The idea of the speech was to inaugurate the then Empire Service, which is now known as the BBC World Service.

The first Royal Christmas Message was issued by George V in 1932. The King was originally hesitant about using the relatively untried medium of radio to issue a Christmas Message. However he was reassured by a visit to the BBC in the summer of 1932, and agreed to try out the idea. So in 1932 on Christmas Day, King George V issued a Christmas Message from Ilmington Manor to the Empire via “wireless“.

Edward VIII abdicated before his first Christmas on the Throne, and therefore never issued a Christmas Message.

George VI continued the Christmas broadcasts. Perhaps his best known was delivered in 1939, in the opening stages of the Second World War, and contained the famous lines starting: “I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year”.

The tradition has been continued by the present Queen, Elizabeth II. Her first Christmas Message to the Commonwealth took place from the study at Sandringham House at 15:07 GMT on 25 December 1952 and was broadcast to the nation by BBC radio. She has delivered the traditional Message each Christmas ever since with the exception of 1969, and they have been fully televised since 1957. The message is broadcast in the UK at 3pm (15:00 GMT), and broadcast around the Commonwealth. Until fairly recently, a sound version of the broadcast was made on BBC Radio at 9am (09:00 GMT) on Christmas Day. The radio broadcast is now made at 3pm on Christmas Day. It is a shorter transmission due to the additional footage contained in the television version not being included in the radio transmission. In non-Commonwealth countries the Christmas Message can be heard on BBC radio or television, or can be downloaded at any time after 15:00 GMT on the Royal Family’s website or other websites.

TV production

Between 1957 and 1996 the Christmas Message was produced for television by the BBC. In 1995, Buckingham Palace ended the BBC’s monopoly and announced that production of the Broadcast would, with effect from 1997, be shared between the BBC and its commercial rival ITN. The contract would alternate between the two organisations on a biennial basis, with each producing two consecutive Messages.  ITN produced the Broadcasts of 1997 and 1998, and accordingly the duty has since alternated every two years.

There is evidence that the decision to bring in a rival to the BBC was brought about by the decision of the Corporation to screen an interview with Diana, Princess of Wales on its current affairs programme Panorama.  Philip Gilbert, Head of Events at the BBC in early 1997, said in a memo to Chief Executive of Broadcast Will Wyatt that, “It is widely perceived that the BBC is in effect being penalised because of the Princess of Wales’ Panorama interview, and thus we do not give up our responsibility for the broadcast.

Source www.en.wikipedia.org

The joyous themes for many traditional Christmas carols were banned in England by the staunch Protestant Oliver Cromwell and many of the very old Christmas carols and songs were subsequently lost for all time. Christmas carols were only fully popularised again during the Victorian era when they again expressed joyful and merry themes in their carol lyrics as opposed to the normal, more sombre, Christian lyrics found in hymns. As religious observances in the United States and England were closely linked the popularity of Christmas carols grew in both countries in the 19th century. Many Christmas traditions are relatively recent such as Santa Claus and reindeer and bear no relation to Christmas carols. We have reflected this in the unusual and beautiful Victorian Angel Pictures we have included for your pleasure and enjoyment. Today Christmas songs and carols are also fast becoming a tradition.

Source www.carols.org.uk and www.youtube.com

Have a free lesson on me. This offer is open to all my readers. A Christmas English lesson. All you have to do is sign up free at Myngle, register, and book your (free needs analysis) lesson with me. See you soon. Aniya

Source www.humorouscards.net

Today we are going to have some German lessons, not by me though but by my colleague, friend and business partner Kirsten it also happens to be her birthday too, Happy Birthday Kirsten! As you can see on the right-hand side bar I have a partner site www.deutschhappen.com

There are infact three of us in this joint venture, so I have to mention the man of the moment Kay
our so called “slave” he deals with all the technical issues and puts up with my pathetic questions eg “how do you do that” or “can you help me” LOL some of my dedicated followers have seen some changes here at The English Teacher and there will be other changes in the near future as my site will be hosted by myself as is my latest born Personal ESL Trainer the reason for the move is that my actual host Edublogs has somewhat deluded me, after me ranting and raving about it, never mind…Watch this space!

Source www.deutschhappen.com

• Say what you mean:  Sounds easy, huh?  Saying what you mean is more than choosing your words and stating them.  Words, after all, have at least three meanings:  what you mean, what the listener thinks you mean, and the dictionary definition(s).  Getting those first two meanings into alignment is the ultimate success of every speaker.  One way to be clearer about saying what you mean is to think about your message from your listener’s perspective.  Is the message crafted using words appropriate to the listener?  You’d use different terms and jargon with someone skilled and experienced with a topic than with someone new to the information.  It is up to the speaker to choose language that conveys the message and the meaning, rather than using language that makes the listener work to understand what’s being said.
• Mean what you say.  In order to mean what you say, you have to be very firm and certain about what message you are trying to communicate.  If your message sounds like your waffling about on a topic, and you’re not, you are unfairly misleading your listener.  This is no time for passive aggressive communication, hinting about hoping someone will “get” what you really mean, or outright disingenuous messages (frequently referred to as “lies”).  If you don’t mean it, best keep silent.
• Illustrate or demonstrate your message.  Once you have said what you meant, and meant what you said, you can take one further step to enhance the understanding of your message.  The simplest way to do this is with descriptive word and examples that clarify the message.  Descriptive words are not necessarily big words, and they should be used to more succinctly craft your message, rather than used to show off your vocabulary.  Think of the differences in a message using these terms:  a drink, a cold drink, and an ice cold drink.  See how the subtleties of the messages are made clearer by your choice of words.  Using an example or illustration further clarifies your message, again preventing confusion and misunderstanding.  Using the example from the last paragraph I could say:  “I’d like something to drink, some cold water, in a large glass filled to the top with ice.”

While these three steps may seem awkward and difficult now, when you start working the concepts into every day communication, you’ll soon see how quickly your communications skills improve.

That’s right, communication is a skill, which means with practice comes improvement

Source www.leadershipturn.com

This web site not only shows you through colourful, interactive cartoons the way tenses are used in English, but it also gives step-by-step rules of how to form the structure and when to use it, as well as common phrases used with the tenses. For those of you who have difficulty understanding the English tenses, this is a must have.

Source www.englishtenseswithcartoons.com