Sort of an intro. :)

[Kleo Scanti]

Hi! I really like the idea of this community, so here I am.

I'm currently living in Moscow, but it may change in the following months.
I've been learning the English language since childhood. I started with self-study books, then had been going to the Diplomatic Academy courses for 2,5 years, then had spent almost three months in Oxford, and now I'm mastering my language skills by myself again.
I've got FCE, CAE and IELTS (General Module) Certificates, so if you have any questions about these exams, feel free to ask me.

Generally I'm interested in anime (and slightly less than that in the Japanese culture in whole), reading (from glamorous books like "The Devil Wears Prada" to fantasy books to non-fictional historical books), modern cinema, travelling (seeing new places is one of my top priorities when I should decide what to do) and many more (which can be found in my profile).

I've also got two journals in English. One is dedicated to anime, another is dedicated to my non-anime interests. If someone's intersted, I'll post the links.

@темы: intro

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World Wide Words

[r2r]

World Wide Words is a weekly newsletter by Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK.
www.worldwidewords.org

It's all about English - words, their meanings, phrases, weird and old words, new-coined words, silly or non-casual words' usage, mistakes etc...
Michael Quiniom writes about English from a British viewpoint (as site header says), that is also interesting.

I'd recommend a sample article - "How many words: how many in the language and how many does any one person know?"
www.worldwidewords.org/articles/howmany.htm

The site conains more than its newsletter, but weekly e-mail issue has a nice virtue of falling by itself into mailbox every Saturday.

@темы: links, that's useful

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[ru_english]

We're adding all members as Избранное. It is done for possibility to make posts "Only for Избранное" as we plan to discuss any meetings and other events with members only. If you're a member, you will be added by default, though it can take a little time.
The reason: we don't mind silent watchers here, but they may embarass us at live meetings ))

@темы: administration

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Kings and cabbages

[Firesong]

What do you think about cucumbers? do you like them or not? Why?

@темы: kings and cabbages

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an Idea!

[Firesong]

Sometimes it's not easy to start talking. Even whe you're actually writting. Sometimes it's just plain hard. So I propose to talk "nonsense", where each of us can write one-two sentences not struggling to find any special five-syllables words. it's ironic but that's actually a way to remember long-forgotten words.
What i propose is actually not 'non-sense", but talking about kings and cabbages. Like, what do you think about kings and who your favorite king was? )))
So, I'm putting here a tew tag kings and cabbages (it's not quite a discussion as I see it) and starting a new topic with a question which haunts me since yesterday. (Kings can be used tto, if you wish).

And I think tag "idea/suggestion" or something like it will be useful too. But i'm not sure how to call it.

@темы: discussion

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Project Gutenberg

[KattyJamison]

I suspect that almost everyone knows about this one, but just in case:

Project Gutenberg is a not-for-profit online library of English books which had lost the copyright due to time elapsed from the publishing date. If you want to read Jane Austin, Mark Twain, Stevenson or Swift in original - they're all here. There are also some books in other labguages, but the collections are, predictably, much smaller.

www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

@темы: that's useful

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TOEFL test

[KattyJamison]

TOEFL (test of English as a foreign language), is a required exam for almost any college in an English-speaking country. In the times I was taking it, almost 10 years ago, they were asking for a score of 550-600 (paper-test) for acceptance. It is a reasonably straight-forward test. As Чиффа reminded me, the results of TOEFL are only valid for 2 years, so one should only take it if one expects to need it shortly.

General information about the test:

www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.1488512ecf...

Free question samples at the link below.

www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.1488512ecf...

@темы: that's useful

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"Knock, knock" jokes

[Shae]

I love these jokes, they are quite useful. The reader can understand the last line if he uses his imagination - and distorts his beautiful standard English pronunciation. (So if you don't understand what the whole thing is about just read this joke aloud)
Here are a few such jokes based on homophonoids - words that sound alike but one of which is incorrectly spelt.

My favourite:

"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?'
"Oscar."
"Oscar who?"
"Oscar a stupid question and you get a stupid answer"

and this one:

"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?'
"Cows Go."
"Cows Go who?"
"Cows go moo, not who"

@темы: lol

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[Firesong]

First and foremost, i'm a language freak. I've learned some and understand even more, but have no/almost no active practice.

I never got much formal education in English. I've had school classes - an ordinary school, not the special one - and a lot of self-study. And I'm workking as translator for several years now. Ten-some years ago I''ve led an active life on english forums, but not since.

So what I have is rather big vocabulary and an eye for mistakes (doesn't prevent me from making my own though). And almost no active skills, that's what i'm here fore.

One more thing I have for now is a VERY troublesome keyboard with broken SHIFT keys and a prospensity to type double letters all by itself. I plan to change it soon, but please ignore any mistakes with capital letters and doubles till further notice? it's just a technical error and I don't have time to change it every time it happens...

i'm ready to discuss everything I know something about - the same I do in my diary ))

@темы: discussion

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Hello)

[Shae]

I live in Moscow and am currently working as a teacher of English (British English, as they say)). So I can be of help when it comes to grammatical theory, vocabulary, pronunciation and all that jazz – as I’m supposed not only to know, but to explain.

I’ve taken two of the Cambridge exams (FCE, CAE) and now making myself to sit for CPE.

I’m especially interested in everything connected with Ireland as I lost my heart somewhere in Munster… I’m also happy to talk about literature, arts, dictionaries, ways of learning English – whatever!

(feel free to point out my mistakes or misprints))

@темы: discussion

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Meet-and-Greet*

[KattyJamison]

I might as well start the ball rolling.

I have lived in the US, state Massachusetts, for 10 years this July. I work as a family doctor in a local hospital and am married to an English-speaking guy, so get plenty of language practice at home. I love languages and linguistics and will be very happy to discuss them with anyone.
I have taken TOEFL, SAT, GRE and what seems like hundreds of other exams, so I can be a resource on those.
I am reasonably fluent in American slang and bio/technical lingo, but hopelessly outdated in British or Australian English.
I am happy to talk about books, articles, dictionaries, translations and other things but I do not have any kind of a relationship with video-production, so chances are I have not seen any movie anyone wants to discuss.

Open to questions and over* to someone else.

* Meet-and-Greet is the "code name" of the first visit to a doctor's office.
* One says "over" when one is speaking on an old or poorly working communication device, indicating, that this is time for the other person to speak. One says "out" indicating that from one's point of view this communication session is done. So "over and out" means "I have said all I wanted; done unless you have a say." Used by military wuite a bit.

@темы: discussion

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About tags and links.

[Alario]

First of all, here is a list of tags which I thought could be useful:

Down there

* help needed
* discussion
* meetings
* links
* grammar
* punctuation
* idioms
* translation
* lol
* administration
* that's useful


What other tags do we need?)

Also, about useful links. I suggest that we all have some links concerning English. Let's share. We have a "My Links" option and also we can make a list in epigraph.

@темы: discussion, administration, links, that's useful

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Technical, to new members

[Firesong]

To join [any] community, you need to click Вступить в сообщество, not just Добавить в избранное. Then we'll get your request and can add you as a member.

@темы: administration

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The Very First Entry

[ru_english]

This is not a real entry, actually.
Just wanted to say hello to everyone and to make an announcement: we're open! )

@темы: administration