Two Christmas Plays December 2016

The Salle Lucien Marcon in Viserny is starting to fill up.     All 60 chairs were taken.

Marie Reine announces the Tuesday group play.

Daisy in her hair Saloon. 

Their Saturday afternoon customer has arrived. Elisabeth.

Pamela Daisy's assistant helps to prepare the "Trendy" new hair colour.

Oh my God !!  My hair is green.

Oh but I assure you client Elisabeth it is very nice, super trendy.   You look great.

Oh dear the cliet's hair has turned green and she has  a special date tonight with her boyfriend.

Excuse me Father, have you been drinking?
No I assure you it is only water ..... but then sniff sniff ...thank you Lord I see you have done it again turned the water into white wine.   Thank you.

This little polar bear is cold.

The angels hope it is going to rain so they can sit down on a cloud.

Christine's mathematical game - even Jean Marie couldn't figure out how she had done it.

Lady Sarah and Lady Lulu with Gertrude showing in the guests.

So nice to have you both for the weekend Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson

Soup with carrots and ginger ...Quails and Plum pudding.  Mathilda is serving the soup.

Have I seen these two women before somewhere?

What a nice necklace you have Lady Lulu.

Lady Annabel tries to solve the mystery.

We only went to the kitchen Sir.

Lady Annabel and Dr Watson having a delicious dinner.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

  Happy Spectators

Compliment and Complement

This week in our English Conversation in Viserny classes we discussed the difference between "compliment" and "complement".     

Compliment
 Do you make someone a compliment or do you give someone a compliment?
The inconsistencies in translation of words like french "faire" and german "machen and tun" compared to the english "make, do, take and give" bring confusion, even to my native tongue.
In the States usually you just "compliment" someone.   In the UK we would "pay" a compliment or "give" a compliment to someone.

 Some examples:

Appearance

• You look nice today.
• I love your new hairstyle.
• That color looks good on you. / You look good in blue.
• Your dining room looks beautiful.

Work

• You worked very hard on this.
• Nice work!
• Good job!
• This is excellent.

Talent

• You’re a great artist.
• You’re so good with kids.
• You have a lovely voice.

Food

• You make great cookies!
• You’re such a good chef.
• This pasta is delicious.

Indirect

• Your son is a great actor.
• Your mom has the nicest garden.
• I loved your sister’s book.

 Complement:

Something that contributes extra features to something else in such a way as to improve or emphasize its quality.

The e in "complement" means extra.  
I need to take complements to improve my health.
I am on a diet so I take vitamin complements too.
The colors in the pillows complemented the stripes in the sofa very well.
I would like to ask everyone to raise their glass in a toast to my sister and her new husband, they complement each other perfectly.

 So go out and give compliments and make people happy in this festive season.










 

A Christmas Carol to sing

We Wish you a Merry Christmas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4nwixJ_Q_8 

We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Good tidings we bring to you and your kin;
Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer
We won't go until we get some;
We won't go until we get some;
We won't go until we get some, so bring some out here

We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas; 
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Making a sandwich

 

 Mr Bean and his sandwich making had us all in stitches for this class.

Here is the link to the video if you would like to watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS1ePEZZCDY

 

This week we studied past perfect tense.   We learnt that it is an action that happened before another action in the past:

 Here are some examples:

I lost so much weight because I had begun exercising.

He stayed up all night because he had received a lot of homework.

Rachel hadn't lost hope, and in the end she found her baby.

I had met him before you introduced us.

They were in shock because they had never thought about it before.

We hadn't prepared at all before we took that test.

You said you had bought this dress in the mall.

You had studied German before you moved to Germany.

He hadn't studied Italian before he move to Italy.

I did not have any money because I had left my wallet at home.


 As we had been studying Past perfect I asked the class to put into sentences the sequence of events in this film.

The Pied Piper - A true story and video link

 

Many are familiar with the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Few realise however, that the story is based on real events, which evolved over the years into a fairy tale made to scare children.
For those unfamiliar with the tale, it is set in 1284 in the town of Hamelin, Lower Saxony, Germany. 


Here is a video that tells the story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54SosvLnCvU


This town was facing a rat infestation, and a piper, dressed in a coat of many coloured, bright cloth, appeared. This piper promised to get rid of the rats in return for a payment, to which the townspeople agreed too. Although the piper got rid of the rats by leading them away with his music, the people of Hamelin reneged on their promise. The furious piper left, vowing revenge. 

On the 26 ^th of July of that same year, the piper returned and led the children away, never to be seen again, just as he did the rats. 

Nevertheless, one or three children were left behind, depending on which version is being told. One of these children was lame, and could not keep up, another was deaf and could not hear the music, while the third one was blind and could not see where he was going.
The earliest known record of this story is from the town of Hamelin itself depicted in a stained glass window created for the church of Hamelin, which dates to around 1300 AD. Although it was destroyed in 1660, several written accounts have survived. The oldest comes from the Lueneburg manuscript (c 1440 – 50), which stated: “In the year of 1284, on the day of Saints John and Paul on June 26, by a piper, clothed in many kinds of colours, 130 children born in Hamelin were seduced, and lost at the place of execution near the koppen.”

The supposed street where the children were last seen is today called Bungelosenstrasse (street without drums), as no one is allowed to play music or dance there. Incidentally, it is said that the rats were absent from earlier accounts, and only added to the story around the middle of the 16 ^th century. Moreover, the stained glass window and other primary written sources do not speak of the plague of rats.

If the children’s disappearance was not an act of revenge, then what was its cause? There have been numerous theories trying to explain what happened to the children of Hamelin. For instance, one theory suggests that the children died of some natural causes, and that the Pied Piper was the personification of Death. By associating the rats with the Black Death, it has been suggested that the children were victims of this plague. Yet, the Black Death was most severe in Europe between 1348 and 1350, more than half a century after the event in Hamelin. Another theory suggests that the children were actually sent away by their parents, due to the extreme poverty that they were living in. Yet another theory speculates that the children were participants of a doomed ‘Children’s Crusade’, and might have ended up in modern day Romania, or that the departure of Hamelin's children is tied to the Ostsiedlung, in which a number of Germans left their homes to colonize Eastern Europe. One of the darker theories even proposes that the Pied Piper was actually a paedophile who crept into the town of Hamelin to abduct children during their sleep.

Historical records suggest that the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin was a real event that took place. Nevertheless, the transmission of this story undoubtedly evolved and changed over the centuries, although to what extent is unknown, and the mystery of what really happened to those children has never been solved. 

The story also raises the question, if the Pied Piper of

Hamelin was based on reality, how much truth is there in other fairy tales that we were told as children?

A book to read - The Old Man and the Sea

This week I should like to suggest a book to read for all you English learners.

It is called "The old man and the sea" by Ernest Hemingway.
A wonderful short story about an old man and the sea.

It can be bought on Amazon or see it in
pdf form to study if you like.

Follow the link:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_Xu94L2z5lDNDgzZjIyNDctYWQ0OS00Zjk5LWFhOTMtMDkxYTUzMTZhNWY0/edit?hl=en_US

Have fun describing

Excellent practice:

Describe something on your desk.  It maybe a book, a small pot or even a cup of coffee.

Describe something in the second person.   You are a ..... your  colour is .......and you are shaped like....
you are used for ........and you have been made in .....


Write several sentences then say the sentences out loud to yourself several times.  Listen to your voice and practice pronunciation.

Then, change to the 1st person.
   I am .....etc. etc.

Continue for as long as possible.

If you are feeling comfortable then  repeat using the third person.

Have fun.

Jackie

Intensive English Conversation Days

Intensive English Conversation

and an added bonus....make your own lunch!

Great fun and lots of practice

The English Galette

Two galette des Rois for 11 people.  Catherine very kindly made a galette and Annie brought one also.   They were both delicious and several Queens were crowned.