Victoria Ellis English

One of my students told me last week that she had been watching a YouTube video about Aberdeen being one of the most depressing places in the UK to live.

It's true that, like most cities, it has its "grotty" bits.

But my daughter and I spent the morning on the beach - a 10-minute walk from home, and I've just been watching dolphins at Greyhope Bay, a 10-minute drive from home...

So Aberdeen definitely doesn't feel depressing today!

Do you like where you live? Tell me in the comments about your favourite parts of your town or city... ⬇️

Catching up!

Here's a little bit of what we've been looking at in lessons over the last few weeks:

- street art and Aberdeen's Nuart Festival
- modal verbs
- comparing where I live in Aberdeen to where two new students (in Poland and Saudi Arabia) live
- discussing daily routines with excellent Twofold English resources
- an interesting article with a lot of "flowery" language about Warsaw

And I've also had my Language Travel Tours hat on as we welcomed a fantastic group of students and teachers from Metz in France - they stayed with equally fantastic host families in and around Aberdeen, and spent a few days exploring northeast Scotland in beautiful sunshine! ☀️

A quick walk and some wave-watching between lessons... 🌞 🌊

Happy Easter! 🐣

We were up (too!) early for an Easter egg hunt, and we'll be heading out for a walk soon (and hoping we don't blow away), before attempting to make Mazurek this afternoon.

Do you celebrate Easter? I'd love to know about your Easter traditions... let me know in the comments! ⬇️

Do you know this idiom? Do you have a similar one in your language?

Do you know the ordinal numbers?

This is something students often find tricky... here's a helpful little reminder!

🤔 Ever wondered what the short form of the word 'first' is? 😊 Maybe you wanted to know how to write 2nd as a full word! Now you can learn some the ordinal numbers from 1 - 10 with this table! ✍️ Which ones were new for you?

(Image: Getty)

Sunday was Burns' Night - a significant day here in Scotland, to celebrate the life and works of Scotland's national poet, Robert (Rabbie) Burns. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🥃

My student on Monday was interested to learn more about Burns and about how Burns' Night is traditionally celebrated. He's also keen to try haggis again as he didn't like it much the first time but thinks it might be an acquired taste!

Do you celebrate Burns' Night? And are you a fan of haggis, neeps and tatties?! Let me know in the comments... ⬇️

You've probably heard that the Australian government has introduced a ban on social media for under-16s, and there are discussions about a similar ban here in the UK. 🚫📱

We had some really thought-provoking conversations in my lessons last week, about whether a ban like this is the best way forward - and plenty of opportunities to practise using language for agreeing and disagreeing.

What do you think? Do you think the Australian government have made the right decision? Would you support a similar ban in your country? Let me know in the comments! ⬇️