So this is it.  England take on Portugal in the Quarter Finals of the World Cup tommorrow.  The expectations of the nation rest on the England team’s shoulders.  England have not got to the semi-finals of the World Cup since 1990 when we were knocked out on penalties by the eventual winners Germany.  Is it our destiny to go further in the competition or return to England without fulfilling our potential?

For many, although you could be forgiven for thinking so, this is the best group of footballers for a generation.  They have not played well in this tournament, although they have been getting better starting from a low base.  I can’t believe that they won’t put in a proper performance.  This is our moment, our hour.  England have to beat Portugal.  As Admiral Horatio Nelson remarked ‘England expects every man shall do his duty.’  Come on the lads and Come on England!

Totally London have put together a series of venues to go to if you Love Football or if you Hate Football and want to avoid it altogether.  Enjoy the game and let’s hope England win!

We are always on the look out for providing you with the best English courses and services in London.  That is why we are pleased to announce that we will be working with Saint George International a school based right in the centre of London.  We already work with 12 language schools around London, so you might wonder why we would want to work with another one?!  The reason being is that we believe that Saint George International offers a couple of things that other schools don’t.

Firstly where as other schools in the industry might claim to be in ‘Central’ London, Saint George International, really is.  They are based about a hundred metres from Oxford Circus, the heart of London’s shopping / tourist area.  I can promise you being a Londoner myself, this really is Central London.  Secondly SGI is realtively quite a small English school, meaning not only are there just 12 students in a class but there are only around 150 students at capacity.  This means you get a quality service from both the fully-qualified and motivated staff but from the support team as well.

For more information on Saint George International Contact Us

The Euro Pride events to celebrate the gay community across Europe come to a climax this weekend in London.  On Saturday the big finale will include an outrageous parade through the streets of the capital. 

If you were thinking of going shopping this weekend, and don’t want to get caught up in the event you can forget about going to central London.  The parade will cover the whole of Oxford Street, Regent Street, Picadilly Circus, Whitehall and culminate at Victoria Embankment!  80 floats, 200 costumed groups and thousands of individual paraders are set to join in the gay fest.  A quarter of a million people turned up in 2005 and the organisers are expecting up to half a million gays and lesbians to come this year!

According to Totally London ‘London Pride has been taking place every summer for over 30 years, is run by volunteers and is a registered charity. Since the organisation began the gay, lesbian bisexual, transsexual, transgender community has grown significantly in strength, and Pride is committed to raising awareness and funding for this community.’

For more information on the event go to: www.pridelondon.org

Late night opening bar, chill out room, canteen, pool tables, internet access, laundry, numerous bathrooms, central London location and space for 800 guests at anyone time, it is no surprise that the Generator Hostel is one of the most popular hostels in London. 

Amanda Armitage, front of house Manager, kindly welcomed me to the hostel this week to look around.  She explained to me how the Generator makes special arrangements for language and long-term students.  When you book an individual room you will actually be in a spacious room with a bunk bed, and they install a table for you to get on with your study in your spare time. 

They have also had a number of innovations like evening meal vouchers, so you can get a square meal for just £3 a day!  And are offering special rates of £200 per week for a week in an individual room for Answer English students.  This is a saving of £45 per week.  An offer worth taking up!

You can check out the Generator’s Website but to take advantage of this special offer you must Contact Us

London has many a legendary club, but few can match Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club.  Last night the club reopened following a makeover from its new owner Sally Green.  Monty Alexander played the opening night to a sell out crowd.

Although the club has been given a face lift, the red table lights and low ceilings remain, with the intention of keeping much of the same feel and all of the same high-quality acoustics.  Down the years Ronnie Scott’s has attracted the best jazz musicians from all round the world.

If you are into jazz and looking for an entertaining night out, albeit not a cheap one, Ronnie Scott’s is the place to go to.  Ronnie Scott’s Club is at 47 Frith Street in Soho, Tel: 020-7439 0747, Website: www.ronniescotts.co.uk

Strawberries and Cream, Ball boys & girls, Cliff Richard, British weather, Henman Hill or is that Murray Mountain?  And of course thrilling tennis.  These are all the lasting images of Wimbledon, the world’s premiere tennis tournament that begins today.

The competition runs through till the 9th July and draws tennis lovers from all over the globe to the leafy suburb of south London.  500,000 people go every year and players from over 60 different nations are cheered on to glory on the grass courts.  Players to look out for this year are Nadal, the young Spanish ace, the Williams sisters, and Andy Murray, the Scotsman rapidly racing up the world rankings.

One of the most enduring images of Wimbledon is of tennis fans that camp out all night to be the first in queue for tickets the next day.  Wimbledon is one of the few major UK sporting events where you can still buy tickets on the day.  So if you fancy going why don’t you head down to Church Road, SW19 and join in the action.  The nearest tube station is Southfields and there a lot of special buses put on from Central London and Wimbledon station to shuttle people to the tournament.

For more information go to www.wimbledon.org

Congratulations to Jimmy Goddard and his team on breaking a new world record.  You may recall a couple of weeks ago I told you about a school friend of mine Jimmy, that was attempting to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and break the world record for un-assited high altitude climbing.  It what comes as no surprise to those that know Jimmy, that he did it, setting a new world record of 5,650 metres (18,700 feet).  Brilliant! 

This is nothing short of astonishing and is typical of a man like Jimmy who embraces life and aims to make the most of it.  Lessons for us all.  I urge you to go on to Jimmy’s site Pushing Higher and read about his adventure.

Jellied eels, shepherd’s pie, cornish pasties, Yorkshire pudding, rhubarb crumble and gooseberry fool are all dishes the British are familiar with.  Unfortunately they have not gone down as well metaphorically or physically with visitors to our Isles.  That’s why it is great to hear of a new book ‘Language on a Plate’.  Written by Renata Beltrami and Silvia Mazzola, two Italian cooks who have set out to challenge the common perception of English food.

Having lived in Britain for years and endured jokes aplenty from relatives and friends about the state of English food they have served up a book that is part recipe book and part guide to the national culture and language.  Perhaps this book will do what other culinary literary classics like ‘Like water for Chocolate’ did for Mexican food. 

As the Milanese authors put themselves in the preface “Perhaps it’s about time we stopped complaining about bland vegetables, strange mixes of flavours and unknown ingredients, by learning to eat in English, we will better understand the language and the people and we’ll handle restaurants and supermarkets more easily”.

Bravo las italianas!  I’ll be interested to see how the book is devoured.  I can’t help being remined of the comment by Paul West in ‘A Year in the Merde’ about how the French considered all English food to be boiled.  ‘They’ve got it all wrong.  We microwave everything now.’

Language on a Plate is published by Mursia.

You’ve studied hard at school and university, you can communicate well in English socially and been on a number of courses abroad.  Does this mean there is no more English to learn?  And that you can just step into a job?  The answer probably is no.  Speaking English in a work environment is very different from that with friends. 

Apart from specific vocabulary, you will be expected to communicate in different ways from that which you may have done before: making presentations, writing letters, answering the telephone to customers and so on.  To answer this challenge London School of English has developed a course for 20 - 30 year olds called Young Business English.

This is a 2 - 6 week course and covers 3 key areas Discussions with Clients (current affairs, environmental and social questions, political issues, education & training, media, technology) Business meetings & Negotiations (agreeing & disagreeing, clarifying and confirming, summarising, persuading & compromising, opening & closing) and Professional Hospitality (meeting & greeting, receiving visitors, socialising, telephone language).

All the students on the course are at a similar stage in their careers.  Some are already working and others finishing their university degrees.  So not only will it be a worthwhile course from your own career progression but you will also meet lots of like minded people from accross the world.

For more information why not send me a mail or call our offices.  Contact Us

England’s draw last night with Sweden makes them top of the table and into the second round match against Ecuador.  But only just.  After a 45 minutes of flair and enterprise, England lost the impetus in the second half and Sweden could have easily snatched victory.  Sweden’s unbeaten record against England continues and even worse Micheal Owen is out of the World Cup.

Anticipation at Doggett’s	ZRSDP Waiter Service	Al gets the horn	England Goal Celebration

Moment of the night: ball come out to Joe Cole, he’s 30-odd yards from goal.  He chests it up to shoot at which the ITV commentator says ‘Go for it’ and boy did he!  Cue massive celebrations in Doggett’s pub!  Here are some photos from the night with ZRSDP who raised £1500 for charity.  Well done to them on organising a fantastic night out for their friends.  The England team march on but will have to improve and play more like they did in the first half.  Come on England!