Bienvenue à The Language House
Read our blog published by Le Temps
Et maintentant in English
There is something to read and learn for all levels of English, from beginner to native speakers. We even added some exercises so you can test your English. Go on! Click and start reading. You can even leave a comment. Subscribe here on right hand column under the photograph.
Read our Blog !
Level B1 and above
Change is good, change is hard, change is progress. Change is life... Even if we want to resist it, change is inevitable.
- With grammar and vocabulary related to expressing change in English, quotes, and songs.
Level C1 and above
The Oxford Dictionary changed the definition of “woman” in its dictionaries after a grassroots movement pointed out that the dictionary’s definitions saw women primarily “as sex objects, subordinate and/or an irritation to men”.
- With exercise.
Level B2 and above
Are you a narcissist if you post videos on Instagram of yourself every day? Not necessarily.
- With vocabulary exercise, video and song.
Level B2 and above
Switzerland has a terrible legacy. It is where witch hunts began and where the last woman was beheaded for sorcery in Europe.
Level B1 and above
Small talk, also known as light conversation or social English, is the ground on which great relationships are built.
- With expressions, exercises, and videos.
Level B2 and above
Who is the graffitist/provocateur/collective known as Banksy? Here are 10 of his famous works.
- With song, pictures and video.
Level C1 and above
European Union citizens living in or visiting New York will be airlifted out of the city, starting from midnight tonight.
Level B2 and above
The Great Pandemic has changed our lives and with that, the coded meaning of small talk.
- With song
Level B1 and above
Chances are, one of you is going to Mars.
- Comparatives and superlatives and exercise.
Level B2 and above
Gossip is informal conversation about other people’s private affairs. It’s like the news, but on a micro-level.
- With vocabulary, expressions, quotes and exercises.
Level B2 and above
Every day, we unknowingly organise our lives around a handful of ancient gods of war, thunder, wisdom, motherhood and various celestial bodies. Origins of the days of the weeks.
Level B2 and above
Is it better for a ruler – or a president, or a prince – to be feared or to be loved?
- With vocabulary, expressions, quotes, and exercises.
Level C1 and above
If you live in the USA, there’s another Roger making headlines. He’s the antithesis of the Swiss Roger and all things wholesome. His name is Roger Stone.
- With videos.
Level C1 and above
Meet Parler. It’s a new social network in the USA that wants you to speak freely. Channel your inner racist and your best hate speech.
Level A2 and above
The verbs say and tell are very similar, but say is more about expressing something, and tell is more about informing or instructing someone.
- With phrases, exercise and songs.
Level B1 and above
Telephone conversations can be challenging, or even terrifying, if English is not your first or second language.
Level B2 and above
Love it or hate it, football, especially English football, is often the stuff of fairy tales. Take Liverpool for example.
- With videos.
Level B1 and above
There are a few expressions to liberate the Italian in you and make your English more visual, theatrical and powerful.
- With vocabulary and expressions.
Level C1 and above
We’ll Meet Again, sung by Vera Lynn, became an anthem of hope and resilience during the Second World War.
Level B2 and above
Zombies are not your friends. They are the awakened dead who have an enormous appetite for human flesh – or human brains, depending on the story.
- With vocabulary exercise.
Level C1 and above.
You probably know the song, if you like your dogs with diamonds, know an astronaut called Major Tom, or like a little stardust…
Level B1 and above
When we give our opinion, we must be careful that we do not sound too cold and insensitive. And we often also need to give more subtle and nuanced replies.
- With exercises.
Level B1 and above
“You will meet a tall, dark, handsome stranger,” a fortune teller told me four months ago. This was a prediction – it was not an intention, a plan, a pre-arranged event, or a decision.
- With grammar related to predictions, vocabulary, video, and exercises.
Level A2 and above
Fun and funny are two different animals. Like alligators and crocodiles, they look alike and they can be easily confused.
- With videos, expressions, songs and exercises.
Level B1 and above
How well do you know your English prepositions? Here’s a little game for you.
- With expressions and exercises.
Level B2 and above
We live in challenging times. It is important, as the British say, that we Keep Calm and Carry On.
Level C1 and above
Do you remember sport? It used to quite a big deal back in the pre-pandemic days, if I remember well.
Level B2 and above
Watching The Matrix trilogy is always a pleasure. It’s the ultimate mind-stretching (or mind-expanding) work of science fiction.
- With vocabulary, videos, and exercises.
Level C1 and above
The plague was caused by a bacterium later identified and named Yersinia pestis, after a Swiss man born in canton Vaud; a brilliant, obsessive and eccentric bacteriologist.
Level B2 and above
“Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society,” wrote George Bernard Shaw. “The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.”
- With vocabulary, quotes, and exercises.
Level C1 and above
I am not quite as thick-skinned as the American president. So, it was relatively easy to puncture my upper arm with the syringe needle. Injecting disinfectant, he said, will do the trick.
Level B1 and above
Geneva ornithologist André Bossus writes that the Spring opera season performed by our feathered friends (birds) has been extraordinary this year.
- With videos.
Level B2 and above
Idioms are fun, but dangerous for speakers of English as a foreign language.
- With exercises and videos
Level B2 and above
There is nothing like a little murder and crime to take you mind off a pandemic.
- With videos and vocabulary exercise.
Level B2 and above
We asked four people to write about their very different experiences in the pandemic.
Level B2 and above
Stoics prized rational thinking, acting on good information and contemplating a situation fully rather than reacting in panic and anxiety.
- With videos, vocabulary, quotes and exercises.
Level B2 and above
There are reports of wild animals roaming the near empty streets. Some of these reports and true, are some are just fake news.
- With vocabulary, video and exercise.
Level B1 and above
Explore time travel with Vincent Van Gogh and meet the Time Lord Doctor Who.
- With vocabulary and videos.
Level B2 and above
Postcards from our readers in the time of the pandemic.
- With vocabulary, video, song and writing exercise.
Level C1 and above
There are too many words in the English language. Just get divorced or separated, get a new partner (that’s the easy part) and then find the right word to describe him or her… (that’s the hard part).
- With vocabulary and songs.
Level C1 and above
Switzerland engraved itself into the history of rock ‘n’ roll on December 4, 1971, in Montreux. Deep Purple in Switzerland.
- With songs.
Level C1 and above
I am a fan of one man. His name is Nick Cave. He has shared the fury and joys of my relatively mundane existence for many years.
- With songs.
Level C1 and above
You’ve got to feel a little sorry for Her Majesty. Queen Elizabeth had been mostly enjoying, along with millions of others, a five star re-run of her reign in the series, The Crown on Netflix. Then along comes Prince Andrew with his own bit of reality television.
- With videos.
Level C1 and above
Australia is so lucky that according to the Australian Government, there’s no such thing as climate change, and certainly don’t ever mention a climate emergency. And they will tell you that.
- With videos.
In French
Au fur et à mesure que vous assimilez la mélodie, votre pratique de la langue anglaise devient plus robuste. Vous parvenez à communiquer de manière plus efficace.
- With video.
Level C1 and above
The word of the day is wacko, kindly brought to you by the Mayor of Chamonix. He is urging President Emmanuel Macron to stop wackos, crackpots and oddballs from climbing the mountain, after a British tourist carried a rowing machine up the mountain to raise money for charity.
Level C1 and above
After his offer to buy the Arctic island of Greenland was rejected, the real estate mogul, golf player, connoisseur of fast food and US president says he’d now like to buy a little alpine territory.
Level C1 and above
The word bankrupt literally means broken table… Today in the USA corporate world, bankruptcy (better known as Chapter 11) is a well-used form of debt restructuring when business goes sour.
- With videos.
Level C1 and above
The Swiss export that has permeated every pore of this planet is something quite grotesque. Yes, grotesk!
- With videos.
Level C1 and above
Next time you have an abscess removed or your haemorrhoids treated, please spare a thought for one Charles-Francois Felix. I am sure it will make you feel much better.
- With video.
Level C1 and above
Why Teddy Bear? Why not Agatha Bear or Bertrand Bear? Why a bear? Why not Teddy Tiger or Teddy Mouse? The story behind your Teddy Bear.
- With video.