Make a child smile

Ladies and Gents,
First of all, I want to wish all of you a very good year. Should you feel bored in the Christmas holidays, you might want to spend some time writing a mail/card to a sick child. This website gives you information on children who would really welcome your mail. Please be careful to read the dos and dont’s that are also listed on the website.
This is the website I came across: www.makeachildsmile.org
Wouldn't it be great if you make a child happy and learn English at the same time?

"THERE" - and that is how it is...

In Dutch you can often use "er" as a sort of temporary/provisional subject. For example: "Er klopte niets van" or "Er wachtte een man op haar". For this reason English teachers come across less than perfect sentences such as: "There waited a man for her." In English you can only use "there" as a temporary subject in combination with the verb "to be", such as: "There are many pupils in this room". In other cases you have to figure out what the real subject in the sentence is and make your sentence from there. For the examples you could say something, like: "Nothing was right", and "There was a man, who was waiting for her. / A man was waiting for her."
So be warned: Dutch "er" can be tricky to translate in Dutch.

Why?

Ladies and gents,
I have just started checking your work and it is still far too early to say anything about results. However something is bothering me and I want to get it off my chest: "How come that you leave open items when you just have to fill in one letter as a sort of Multiple Choice?" It seems to me that you always have a chance that your answer is correct and your answer is never worse than plain wrong. So, please, in future always give it a go.

An American in Boxmeer?

Ladies and gents,

We may have the opportunity to invite an American student to our school, who is studying here in the Netherlands. I think this would be a great idea. Could you have a look at the link and share your interests through this blog: who would you really like to meet? What would you like to talk about?
This is the link:http://www.fulbright.nl/?menutree=5%7C219%7C224
I hope to see a lot of reactions when I return from my holidays.Have fun on yours.

All about the holidays

OMG I was the one that was picked for this 'nice' assignment about what I like about holidays with my family and about holidays with my friends.
The thing I like most about the holidays with my family is that my parents pay for almost everything and that I don't really have to do anything. Another nice thing is that my parents have a car, so I don't have to cycle everywhere.
The nice things about going on a holiday with some friends is that you dont have to care about things your parents don't want you to do. Like not sleeping at night, but during the day. With friends you will probably go to a lot more fun things instead of going to museums and stuff like that.
Here you go.. my writing assignment.

Equestrianism and some nice idioms

As some of you may know: the World Equestrianism (having to do with horses) Games are being held at the moment. On a website I saw the following news about Adelinde Cornelissen (by the way, a former English teacher, and her horse, who were eliminated while doing their test. I think the article contains some very nice idioms and therefore I want you to see it.

"The Grand Prix team competition at the 2010 World Equestrian Games, which resumed today with the second group of riders, has taken several dramatic turns so far similar to a tragic opera. The Netherlands' number two rider, Adelinde Cornelissen, who is a strong contender for the individual medals, was eliminated because her horse Parzival bit the tip of his tongue and blood showed in his mouth. It happened right in front of the judge's box at C during the rein back. Cornelissen was excused from the class and sadly for her the 2010 World Equestrian Games are over."

www.eurodressage.com