LearnEnglish Hub
In our new Learning hub, you can put your language into practice. Take part in the activities and practise your English skills by writing comments, recording yourself speaking and sharing photos with descriptions.
Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.
So cool to read about everyone's home tradition they miss the most! I'm from England but I've been living in the States for five years and the thing I miss the most is Bonfire Night on November 5th.
The best thing about Bonfire Night is the fireworks, oh, and the bonfires! … and the history behind it. Basically, Guy Fawkes and his friends tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill King James I. They nearly did it too – they hired a room under the House of Parliament and filled it with explosives. But someone told the royal palace. The authorities found Guy Fawkes in the room guarding the explosives, and he was sentenced to torture and death.
So it's a tradition that celebrates the fact that the king survived. It also means people don't forget what happens if you plot against your country. There's a kind of poem about it that starts 'Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot.' That's why we build a 'guy' – a life-size model of Guy Fawkes – and burn it on the bonfire. Pretty dark and horrible when you think about it!
Hello mafaa.k,
Thanks for telling us about Navruz and how you celebrate it. If any other person reading this wants to know more, there's also a page about this holiday in our Magazine.
I'm afraid we don't correct our users texts, but if there's a specific phrase or sentence you want to ask us about, feel free.
The best thing to do to improve your speaking is of course practise speaking with other people. Even if they are not native speakers, it's still useful.
I'd also encourage you to choose sentences from our Listening and Speaking pages that you think would be useful in your speaking, either because they are difficult to pronounce or because they could be useful in different conversations. Practise saying that phrase over and over again until it's easy to say. Check your pronunciation with the recording. Then do the same thing with the other phrases or sentences you've chosen. Do this a couple of times a day for several days, until you can remember and say them all confidently.
Write them down in a notebook and then choose another set of sentences from another listening and follow the same procedure. Gradually, you will build up your speaking fluency and vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation and listening.
Good luck and let us know if that works for you!
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team