on November 11 at 11.11, Carnival begins. In some areas, for example in Cologne, the stores are closed because they take that day off to celebrate. They call it “the beginning of the fifth season”. The Elferrat (which means “council of eleven”) meet at that time, hence the magic number 11. What you experienced in Aachen was the end of the fifth season, when the costume balls and the parades and all that stuff are happening. The celebration begins on Rosenmontag (Rose Monday) in February, reaches its height on Faschingsdienstag (I believe this is called Shrove Tuesday in the English speaking countries) and ends on Aschermittwoch (Ash Wednesday), when Carnival is symbolically being brought to the grave. These days are holidays, I believe, for all of the Germans, and perhaps for the Austrians, too.
Tonight I will eat at a Greek restaurant. I love Greek food!
Today I’m very angry I had some exercises to do in class and the bad is that I forgot some phrasal verbs - put up and the p.v for decorate(do up).Whatever next time I’ll know them.
I think the vaccines don’t help you every time and there is no men who can guarantee you won’t catch anything.
You will find it funny or childish but the best way to protect yourself is eating ample vegetables,fruits and do physical exercises and sports.My father told me that in every grocery the garlic and the lemos are over - people are curing with them.
Besides I haven’t made a vaccine I don’t like them.Most of my friends have but not me.
Hieupt good luck to the driving test you will pass it easily
Kitos I have Raymond Murphy’s grammar books too here they are red for begginer and blue for advanced learner
The main task for me this morning will be to put everything in its right place in the house. No, we haven’t had a riotous party! The other day we had what is euphemistically referred to as a ‘refurb’ in our kitchen. Everything had to come out and be put in other rooms so it’s difficult to remember where everything is until things are put straight. It’s just as well it’s a rotten day weather wise and the kind of day it’s best to stay indoors.
Just heard on the radio the kind of nonsense that comes out every day: research has shown that adults can consume more calories than was first suggested but on the other hand this doesn’t mean we should eat more because there are an awful of people who are overweight.
Morning,
I just passed the toefl test yesterday.
Unfortunately, I didn’t do well in the speaking part.
I have recalled most examination questions except one. I have tried hard to memorize the missing one. Still no track is found for me to follow.
First of all, I want to introduce myself. My name is Greta. I was born in Lithuania in 1992. For most people, there is a big question: where is Lithuania? Well, it is a small country in Northern Europe and also it is one of the three Baltic States.
Now I am focus on my studies. I want to finish my school with good grades and study at a good university. Actually, I am thinking about studying abroad. I am really interested in London School of Economics and Political Science but I know it is very difficult to pass into.
I really enjoy English language and when I found this website few days ago I thought it would be a great opportunity to improve my knowledge. Well, I have been studying English since I was 9. But I do not think I am good enough. Last year I had a holiday in England. And when I was there I began to think that I knew anything. It was hard to understand what people were saying. But after 3-4 days it was easier. I want to improve my speaking, listening and vocabulary skills.
Well, this is my first voice message and I hope you will tell me what is wrong:-)
you’ve come to the right place to practice your English! Keep recording voice messages here and you’ll feel more and more comfortable each time. It’s a bit of a strange feeling, but it helps to think of it as “speaking on an answering machine”, but then there are people who are not comfortable with that either. Don’t you hate it when they hang up instead of saying hello?!
Congratulations, Naiverock, on passing your Toefl test. It’s okay that you didn’t do so well on the speaking part. You PASSED the test! You can now practice your speaking skills here and get better at it!
The Greek food was GREAT as I knew it would be. I had what is befittingly called the Greek platter with Souvlaki, Bifteki, Calamari, Tzatziki, and garlic potatoes.
Today is a grey and dreary day here in Germany and I don’t have anything planned for today. I guess I’m going to read a book or something.
I have mixed feeling about answering machines. It can be terribly annoying when you phone up and just get a recorded message. I usually leave one but the trouble is that very often I have this uncontrollable urge to burst out laughing because of the absurdity of the situation talking to a machine. If you do that of course, you just have to leave it because there is no way of cancelling it once you’ve said something. I’ve tried to put a message on my answering phone but it’s very difficult to strike the right note. Should you be serious or humorous? The trouble is you don’t know who is calling and what they have to tell you. As a result we’re stuck with a prerecorded message that came with the telephone and says : Hallo. we’re not in at the moment … It’s more likely to put people off but at least it’s impersonal. But then I don’t really like phones anyway. I prefer talking face to face and that’s the great thing about Skype.
There I didn’t laugh once during that message. Maybe I’m getting better.
I’ll leave another message soon and look forward to hearing others do the same.
I had the great pleasure of being able to go to the celebrations marking 20 years since the Berlin wall fell. I remember with astonishment and like it was yesterday, the television pictures of November 9th 1989 and wished i had been there then to take part in the sheer joy.
I was only able to get to about half way between Potsdmer platz and the Brandenburg Gate, but it was an amazing evening. What really surprised me was how international the evening was - i think i heard more english voices than German. There were also lots of italians there.
I thought the whole evening was exceptionally tastefully done. It could so easily have become overly jubilant or even overly german, but a true international feel was maintained with the participation of other former east european countries. My favourite part was undoubtedly the five tenors singing “Freiheit…Freiheit” - FIVE - it seemed to tie in the the world unifying effect of the five olympic rings.
Welcome to english-test.net! This is Tom Kane from the United States writing you. I listened to your message.
Do you want to know what I think is wrong? NOTHING! I think you’re doing fantastic, and I think you sound great! You can obviously write very well, too.
Please do not be too hard on yourself. Learning a new language takes time, but you are actually beyond that. You know and understand the English language. Now it is a question of “polishing” your skills.
Please just continue to do what you’re doing. Post messages in the forum and speak English everyday.
hello Torsten how are you? Iˇm fine, I´m the pensioner. Today I met my brother.He’s fine too. I don’t speak english every day.I read books every week. leo lanča.
A brilliant first message! I can only repeat what Tom has said and agree that your presentation was terrific. Let’s hear more about Lithuania. I stayed only a short time there on a visit to the northern capitals a couple of years ago and our guide was extremely helpful and courteous. But I should be fascinated to hear more about daily life in Lithuania and i should also be interested to hear which part of the UK you visited. I live about 20 miles north of London.
Hello everyone !
I think it is a very good idea to improve our speaking.
I listen to the others speakings, it’s very impressive, very impressive.
I want to choice a topic soon and I will speak about that in some stages. but as you know, the time confined about 20 seconds.
see you later!
thank you.
Thank you very much for your messages. I really appreciate that. Actually, I was very pleased to hear such nice compliments and I always try to do my best.
Alan, I am glad to hear that you have been to Lithuania. Well, I was born in Alytus ( a small city in south of Lithuania). It is beautiful place surrounded by forests. There are four major regions of my country – Aukštaitija, Dzūkija, Suvalkija and Žemaitija. I live in Dzūkija. There are amazing places to visit in Lithuania. I would like to know what have you seen as I understood in Vilnius? Please correct me if I am wrong. I am going to tell you, friends, some places which you have to visit if you are visiting Lithuania. First of all, I think you should visit Anykščiai which is famous for the impressive pine woods, the narrow gauge railway, and the Horse Museum. Tourists visit the Puntukas Stone which is largest one left by the receding glacier.Also, the Hill of Crosses nor far away from Šiauliai has become the symbol of the nation’s belief and hope. What is more, the centre of Europe is 26 km away from the capital Vilnius. It was established in 1989. There are many other wonderful places where you can go as well:-)
My holidays were amazing in England. I was visiting my godmother who lived in Manchester (she lives near Birmingham now). I went to many interesting and beautiful places. I was impressed about York’s cathedral and Hull’s the Deep Aquarium. And, of course, London is amazing. There are so many places that we did not get a chance to visit them all because we were only one day there. London, Hull, Manchester and York are cities where I have been.
Thanks again Tom and Alan for your messages and I am looking forward to hearing from you!
First of all, I would like to introduce myself.I am Ranjan from orissa , a state in india.For the first time
I touched this beautiful mother earth on 12th july 1985.since I was in standard 4 I have been learning english but feel not good enough in this field. But have a great desire to enhance my english.My fathere used to give some english text to speak out in debate competition but I never did that even for a single time.
Year by year I did complete my schooling and then 10+2 and then did complete my engineering career as well.
And from God’s grace I got a job in a MNC and working currently in that.I love my country and its culture.
I am new to this website and listened all the voice messages and feel really great.I hope I can rectify my fault and will learn good english from you people.
From this voice messages I found some of the guys pronounciation and style of speaking is quite impressive like alan ,tom ,torsten,claudia and others too.
I really enjoy english language and love it very much .I do read english news paper and watch BBC news channel.
Anyway I have spoken much .This is my first voice message and looking forward to what is wrong.
Thank you for your message and welcome to this section of the forum. It would be interesting to hear something about the work that you do. It’s people like you that help keep this part of the forum going and you need have no fear about your English, which can easily be understood. There was only one problem and that was the quality of the recording but that is just a technical matter. Look forward to hearing from you again.
