VIV'S ENGLISH NEWSLETTER

By Viv Quarry. Edition Number 35 The nineteenth of August 2003.

Study English in England with Cicero International - See Viv for information & discount.

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Welcome!

Firstly I'd like to welcome Fernanda Thome and Verusya, who have started English classes with Viv.

Welcome back!

It's good to see Franciane again after the break in classes.

Good luck!

I wish the best of luck to Junior, who finished having classes after three years studying English with Viv. I also wish the best for Patricia De Nes, who was transferred to London in June. She had been having classes since March 2000.

Congratulations!

Isabel Faria and Marilena Souto have done well to complete the intermediate level. Samara Oliveira has passed the upper-intermediate level and hopefully the FCE.

Happy Birthday!

A late happy birthday to Marilena (3rd July) and Samara (14th August).  I also send my birthday greeting to Ana Paula (20th August), and to Fernanda, Sara and Verusya, whose birthdays are on the 17th, 20th and 24th of September respectively.

Oh no!!!! :-((

Yes, I'm sorry to say that it's time for everyone to do a vocabulary test again. I'm afraid that these tests are a necessary evil as your English will only ever be as good as the number of words you can recognise and use. So far, most of my students have passed. Anyone failing the test twice will be given the Wordstore computer program mentioned in edition 33 of the Newsletter (don't forget that past editions can be seen on Viv's website under 'the students' link).

In September, it will be time for another 'back of notebook' test, so why not start revising for this as soon as you've passed your vocab. test?

What's new?

Due to the rise in the price of paper and printer cartridges, Viv has decided that from August onwards he will be sending your bill for classes by e-mail. This of course only applies to those of you who have access to the internet at home or work. However, if you aren't able to access e-mail or would prefer to have a hard copy of your bill, just let Viv know and he'll print one out for you.

Student of the month

My student of the Month for August is Nara Borges.

When Nara, who works for Shell Brasil,  started having classes in January this year, she had a lot of difficulty writing and speaking English confidently. Since then, in spite of doing a stressful job which often involves trips out of Rio, she has made excellent progress. Both her speaking and writing have improved considerably due to the hard work she has put into her English studies.

Features

This month's feature shows the phonetic script Viv uses to illustrate the pronunciation of words. These symbols are not always the same as those you'll find in the dictionary, but they have been designed to make the pronunciation of difficult words easier for Brazilian students.

 

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