How the Arch got its Shape

This is a pretty cool video. I learned the word catenary from one of my TU students who studies architecture.
Do you know how to pronounce it?

Now the culture question: In what American city can you see such an arch, a really big one?

Watch the second video to learn more...

Symmetry

Marcus du Sautoy: Symmetry, reality's riddle

Radiolab Presents Symmetry

American Accent Training

Rebecca Linquist is an American teacher who is an expert on teaching people how to improve their pronunciation.

Have a look at some of her videos!

Start with this one perhaps...

She has made many more.
http://www.youtube.com/user/rebeccalinquist#p/u

Late Night Jokes

Late Night Jokes
Have you ever heard of Jay Leno, Conan, David Letterman, Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel, or Jimmy Fallon?

Well, you can subscribe and have their best jokes emailed to you everyday.


Or you can look at the jokes in the archive and see who and what was the butt of their jokes over the past days, weeks and months...


Late Nite Jokes Archive

TASK: Look at the jokes for two or three days in a row. Do the topics change a
lot? What or who is being made fun of? What do you learn about American
culture from this resource??

Richard Lederer is truly a Pun-dit

If you like English, the pieces written by this very funny English teacher will keep you amused for hours. Or three...;)

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/richard/lederer1.asp

Lyrics Training

My daughter really likes this one because she loves to sing in both Spanish and English.

It's fun listening to songs and then typing in the missing lyrics. The cool thing is that the song waits for you to finish typing the missing word or phrase. Different levels. Highly recommended!

To watch a screencast made by an English teacher named Russell explaining exactly how the site works, click here.

What would you like to ask an American about the USA?

Sean Banville is a man with a lot of questions...

Even though he is actually British, he has written this question and 19 others that are bound to get you and your speaking partner talking about that little insignificant stretch of land between Canada and Mexico.

For more than 13, 000 other questions, go to Sean's complete index of over 650 topics!

Which vocab game is better -- knoword or freerice?

Both of these games fun and challenging.

The main difference:

• knoword.com gives you the dictionary definition of a word and the letter it starts with. You type in the word being defined. You try to score more points by guessing correctly and quickly.

• freerice.com gives you just one word and a choice of 4 other words. You click on the one closest in meaning. The more you get correct, the harder they get. You try to reach a higher level.

Try them both and let me know which one you like better and why!

Funny sketch in two languages

Do you find this a little funny or a lot funny?

Which word play is really clever in your opinion?

The United States IS or ARE?

Here is some feedback on the homework

The United States IS part of North America but not Latin America. More
A number of problems HAVE arisen recently. More

Grasshoppers taste GOOD; at least some people think so.

Do you have too many?
No, not enough!

What are some ways of translating bekommen ?

Ethnic is a word; ethnical is not.

I have trouble rememberING her name.

Admittedly is a FORMAL word!

How do we use the word RATHER? EXCEPT?  AS?

And remember to ALWAYS spell-check your work!