Page 1, Communication is key!

Hello and welcome to our blog.
You are among the students to have visited our blog.


If you've been here before, you can click on the page on the right side of your screen and jump to the page you want.

You can also watch our Pronunciation videos by clicking this site; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuEFJzyasJo
Ya'll come back now....hear?

Please be patient, if your connection is slow, it may take a minute or so, but it will open.

I created this blog just for fun and to give you some of the videos, lessons and power points I show you in class. I hope you find it useful and if you want you can send me your comments to my e-mail. russnthu@gmail.com.

If you would like to study with us we
teach at C.D.M.T. English Center in
Bien Hoa.
If you have a small group we are also available for private classes.

Video #1 is a funny little video I found on the net. Enjoy!

Video 2, This is a video I came across that shows how accents can differ greatly even among native speakers of English. This lady is an actress and her different accents are right on.





















Video #3. In this next video 'A is for Apple', you can learn the sounds of the ABC's with a fun song that will have you singing along.





















Video 4, is called 'A sounds like ah'. another fun song to help you learn the phonetic sounds.

Page 2; Pronunciation Class

On this page I have converted some of my power points that we show you in class into video. It's not interactive but I tried to put in a long enough delay in places where you have to give an answer.

You can click the link and watch all my classes on YouTube.
Class #1 Long Vowel sounds with Russ & Thu

"Click on YouTube link to watch class for free."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuEFJzyasJo&feature=related

Class # 2; Short Vowels

Click on You Tube link to watch class for free."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WsCp68OYKc

Class #3 Consonants B-G

Click on You Tube link to watch class for free."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMvUi6GDD-w

Class #4 Consonants H-M (Students Day)

Click on You Tube link to watch class for free."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOtZ8E-qNMA&feature=email

Class #5a Consonants N-S with video

To watch class # 5 video or download from YouTube, click link below.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iNZeXfM_sN8

Class #6 Consonants T-W with video

"To watch class # 6 or download from YouTube, click the link below."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKF7XjPuWao

Just for a laugh; as one of my friends said, ' I have the weight of the world on my shoulders.

The Vowel Names and Vowel Sounds with Russ






Good songs to help you remember the Alphabet

Class #9, Consonants Past Participles, 'the 'ed' sound'









Class #10 The final 's' sound on plural nouns.......

Next is my hero, Dave Sconza from Englishmeeting.com

The /th/ sound with Dave Sconda

The long'e' sound; /i/ with Dave Sconda

The long 'e' sound; /i/

A,E,I,O & U song

Consonants and all

Page 3, My favorite Karoake's

Just for your pleasure, here are a few of my favorite Karoakes. You might enjoy music in English better if you can learn the words.

If you like what you hear please let me know by commenting at the bottom of this page.

This first one is dedicated to my school, Cao Dang My Thuat Trang Tri Dong Nai
and all our great students.

To Sir with Love by LuLu

'Hello. is it me you're looking for', by Lionel Richie.

Do you like spaghetti?

This is the first song I ever learned from my students at an english club. I've loved it ever since.

'Beautiful Sunday'

Having My Baby

by Paul Anka

A very nice romantic love song'Honey'

This next video needs an introduction to better understand it.
Imagine a young man that marries an older lady.
This lady has a single teenaged daughter and the man has a single father.
Now the man's father and and the ladies daughter fall in love and get married also.
Can you see the complicated relationship developing?
This is an unreal situation but it makes a very funny song.
Listen carefully and I hope you enjoy it!
The song is called, 'I am my own Grandpa'


This song is for all our great students.

English class for us is much more than a job.

It's a place to gather together with all our friends.

We're always glad you came!

funny song 'Pina Colada'



another funny song ' If you wanna be happy'


Funny song about learning English grammar
'We be talkin bad Gramma'
I love this song!


This next song is about hope, peace and love, I'm sure you know it.
We are the world


Everyone likes Christmas misic so here is my favorite.


Next is 'WestLife' with "Nothing's gonna change my love for you"


Here's a nice song from a Chinese CD I found, I don't know who the singer is...


Also on the same CD "you belong to me'

Page 4, A Taste of TOEFL

These videos come from my Pre-Toefl listening class.

If you need to take a TOEFL IBT test in the future try these videos first.

If you think it's hard then you must come and join us in our PRE-TOEFL class at Cao Dang My Thuat center.

Try to listen to the conversation and then choose the best answer 'a,b,c or d', before the correct answer is given.

#1. Listen to simple conversations.

Next up is the second level of listenning, just a little bit harder.
Remember you can pause the video anytime to give yourself time to think.
Try to answer yourself before the true answer appears.

#2. Complexed conversations.

# 3. Class discussion; 'Gibbons'

I am often asked by students, "Teacher, which is more difficult, IELTS or TOEFL or TOEIC tests?".

Well I'm afraid I don't have an easy answer for you. I think it depends on your individual frame of knowlege.

The response I give most often to this question is "buy the cd's that give you a practise test, for example 'Longmans TOEFL IBT'".

The copied cd can be purchased at many cd shops in Saigon for under 10,000 vnd.

You should buy the type of test you expect to take in the future and don't worry about which is the easiest.

If you are knowlegable enough to pass one, you could most likely pass them all.

The differant tests are all scored differently but if you just concentrate on passing with about a 70% success rate, you will be OK.

TOEFL Equivalency Table

Do you find all of the different English language test scores confusing?

Do you have trouble comparing a TOEIC score to a TOEFL score?

Well, that's understandable because there are a number of different language tests and they all have different systems.

Even the TOEFL Paper Based Test, TOEFL Computer Based Test (TOEFL CBT), and TOEFL Internet Based Test (TOEFL iBT) all have different scoring schemes.
The table below shows comparisons between various test scores and level systems (like TOEIC, TOEFL and IELTS) and the VEC level system.

Use this table to compare your own score or VEC level with the approximate equivalent score of another test.

Page 5, Meet my students

Hello everyone!

In this section I would like you to meet some of my more dedicated students.

Speaking a foreign language is never easy, but speaking in public or on video is scary!

Congratulations on jobs well done to these brave students.

This is Tien, he only studied two months with me but made great improvements in his confidence and pronunciation.

Tien, July 2011

Tien, September 2011

This next video is just to joke with Tien a little. Making s speech on video is not easy!

Meet two of my young students showing us there speaking skills.

Here we have two talented young reporters informing us of todays news.

This is Diem Huong, she is 15 years old and has been my student off and on for a long time. Diem Huong is also our unofficialy adopted daughter. She is a 10th grade student in Truong Tran Bien High school in Bien Hoa.

Next is a new student. She has only studied with me for two weeks.

Her name is Ngan, she is 21 and a banking major in HCM at Dai Hoc Hong Bang.

Next is my neighbor Miss. Thư. She is 10 years old and a 5th grade student at Trinh Hoai Duc School.

Today, we have another rising star joining our little group. In this video we have Thu' and her young cousin Loc Anh. Good job girls!

This is Vy Chai. He is a 4th year medical student from HCM city. He spent a few weeks with us this summer to try to improve his speaking skill. For a beginner he is doing pretty well, don't you think? He is telling a series of stories from our text book, Totally True Stories.

Here we have alot of fun with Diem Huong, her topic is 'Laughter' but it seems

that is all she can do is laugh.

Page 5b; Pictures of our students

Page 6, Phone calls

On this page we will practice talking on the telephone.
Everyone knows listening is one of the most difficult skills to master. Add in a telephone and you may think it impossible, but with a bit of practice we can do it.

In this clip we show (in a very silly way) one guy Lam, (Russ) he is sick and he calls his friend (Thu) to ask for help.





Next I am in a hotel room when I run out of beer, so I call to the receptionist and ask for more.




In this section you will first listen to a conversation between two friends. Try to listen and understand what each is saying.




Next try to imagine you are Ngoc. You will hear Terri speaking but you must speak aloud and answer for Ngoc when ever you see her picture. You will also suggest a meeting place and time.



Last, imagine now you are Terri. You need to call Ngoc, tell her your problem and ask for help.