Farewell

Farewell

Well, the vioins are playing sadly in the background, and it's time to say goodbye. First, though, I'd like to say well done to James one more time - you rose to my challenge very impressively, and wrote a final blog with almost perfect singular and plural forms.

Have you guys ever watched the Oscars? If so, you've probably seen tearful film stars making long, emotional acceptance speeches, in which they say 'thank you' to God, to their parents, to their wives/husbands, to their managers, their producers, their directors, their hairdressers, their piano teachers, their piano teachers' wives/husbands, their hairdressers' parents, etc etc etc, until everyone gets completely bored and stops listening.

In exactly the same way, I'd like to say thanks to a long list of people. Please imagine me as a film star at the Oscars (you can imagine that I look like Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp, only balder and therefore more handsome). I'd like to say thanks first of all to James and Ana Paula, for working so hard and writing such useful and entertaining blogs, and for having the courage to make mistakes in public. I'd also like to thank Paul for giving me the job of teacher blogger in the first place, and Carrie who has the thankless task of editing these pages. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I'd like to thank Ana, Anna, Jameel, Maria (I hope you enjoyed the book), Leila, Adriana, Ha_na, Alexey, Romana, Hyoshil and her unruly son, Antonio, Adek (well done for spotting that mistake), Jill Huang, Mellisa, Marianna, Wisarut, the Mystery Student, and all the others who have read these blogs and taken the time to comment on them. It's been great fun reading your comments - sorry I couldn't respond to all of them!

I think I'll leave the last word to Friday the Cat, if I can persuade her to come over here and type a final message to all her fans around the world. Friday says:

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That says it all, doesn't it?

All the best,

Alex


Vocabulary

If someone challenges you to do something, and you actually manage to do this thing (especially if it's difficult), we can say that you rise to the challenge.

The Oscars are famous awards for the best films, actors, etc. They are handed out once a year, in America, and the ceremony (also called 'The Oscars') is often shown on TV.

If someone is tearful, they are crying, or they have tears in their eyes.
Acceptance is, obviously, the noun form to the verb 'to accept'. When film stars win awards at the Oscars, they normally come up on the stage and make 'acceptance speeches'.

Courage is an abstract, uncountable noun, which means the same as 'bravery'. If someone is brave, we can say that that person has courage.

If you do a job but normally nobody says 'thank you', we can call this job a thankless task.

If someone or something is unruly, this means that their behaviour is difficult or impossible to control.

Collected by camaraderie237@gmail.com