February '09 Newsletter (4)
 
Hello to everyone Out There
 
What a week!  I really hope your February is finishing on a high like mine is. Amidst the comforting knowledge that bankers will still get their bonuses and that only one person complained about the joke last week.
 
Steven Pinker endorses LOT coffee table book 
Audio: This is your language class, don't say anything- part 2
EOT London re-opens for bookings at just 50 GBP for 15 hours
£1 a lesson plan - individual downloads for teachers
Old Jokes Home (steady, you know what happened last week!)
That complaint...
 
Incredible news this week...I have previously mentioned the forthcoming LOT book that will be published soon. The book very cleverly uses the English language to show why it is so hard for non-native speakers to master (includes things like homonyms, funnily enough).  I sent a digital proof to Steven Pinker and suggested that if he liked it he might like to endorse it.
 
This is what he very kindly said we could publish:
 
"A visual, verbal and intellectual delight."
 
Steven Pinker, Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Language Instinct, Words and Rules, and The Stuff of Thought.
 
So, those words will be going onto the book and should give you an idea of how good it is. Thanks a lot Steve!
 
It will be available soon through bookshops in London and probably online too. All profits from the book will pay to print more books and it is probably the world's first self-funding ad campaign.
 
Audio: This is your language class, do not say anything (part 2) - I saw eighty-five of you listened to the start of my interview with Nick Chaplin last week.  Here is the second bit where we get into the nitty-gritty of the course and the theory behind it. For those of you who didn't read last week's newsletter or listen to the first part this is about a very different type of language course which Nick did and which helped him to quickly become fluent in Thai.  I am fascinated by the way in which we learn or acquire languages, you might have gathered.
 
Here's the second bit of the interview:
 
http://www.languagesoutthere.com/articles/This-is-your-language-class-do-not-say-anything-part-2 
 
Here is the first bit, if you missed it:
 
http://www.languagesoutthere.com/articles/This-is-your-language-class-do-not-say-anything
 
Still more to come next week...if you can bear it.
 
There are now 10 teachers' lesson plans at each level available for individual download for just £1 each at:
 
http://www.languagesoutthere.com/store/
 
Just as EOT in London at UIC finishes today we have re-opened for online bookings for the 'all new' EOT in London, which will return to our spiritual home at 10 Coptic Street and will only cost an incredible 50 GBP for 15 hours or just 10 GBP per three hour lesson (that's less than the cost of a pint of beer per hour).
 
Of that amount the teachers will earn between 50 and 100% of the students' lesson fees. 
 
That means that with a class of 10 students a teacher could earn 33.33 GBP per hour for teaching EOT in London. More likely, with an even mixture of direct, agent and website bookings they could earn 25.46 GBP per hour.
 
Impressed? Tell your teacher friends in London to get in touch with us?
 
The new EOT in London will 'mostly be taught' all Out There (i.e. start Out There and finish Out There) to be greener, save costs and make the whole experience that much more memorable. The savings are being passed onto our students and the teachers.  We will only take a small cut.  More to come on this.... for more info now visit:
 
http://www.languagesoutthere.com/categories/london-english-courses
 
Or to book the cheapest, greenest and most definitely most effective short course in the whole of Olde Londonne Towne, click here;
 
http://www.languagesoutthere.com/store/
 
The old jokes home
 
An elderly man walks into a confessional. He tells the
priest, 'I am 92 years old, have a wonderful wife of
70 years, many children and grandchildren. Yesterday,
I picked up two college girls hitchhiking. We went to
a motel, where I had sex with each of them three times.'
Priest: 'Are you sorry for your sins?'
Man: 'What sins?"
Priest: 'What kind of a Catholic are you?'
Man: 'I'm Jewish.'
Priest: 'Why are you telling me all this?'
Man: 'I'm 92 years old ... I'm telling everybody.'
 
"I wish to register a complaint" - My one and only complainant last week told me I was 'sad' and then implored me not to mock 'the weak'.  Eh?? Did I read that correctly...?
 
Here's my blog on the subject of the complaint and political correctness; not gone mad as it is usually described...but maybe gone a bit over the head:
 
http://www.languagesoutthere.com/articles/I-wish-to-register-a-complaint
 
Until next time...
Cheers
Jason