IH Sofia

Shrewsbury, Shropshire’s county town, founded by the Saxons and most extensively developed by Tudors, lies within a giant loop of the river Severn and is famed for its castle, spires, abbey, parklands and half-timbered medieval houses. In the UK near the beautiful Peak District Groups of 3 6 days and 1 changeover day Any week [...]

Ето малко повече информация за пролетните ни курсове в International House . Започват между 25 и 31 март и се провеждат 2 пъти седмично или през уикенда. Продължават 10 седмици до 9 юни, 40 астр. часа. Цената при записали се поне 10 души е с 20% отстъпка, тоест 480 лева с ДДС с включени материали, [...]

The Shrewsbury Experience – Near the Peak District, homestay, full board, 15 hours per week and trips  € 1,000   IH and ELC Summer School – In Sofia, a 35 hour a week summer course from 9 to 5 weekdays from € 60 per week   The Black Sea Summer School – Near Lozenetz, 35 [...]

Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer, humorist and dramatist – Born 11 March 1952 Cambridge, England, United Kingdom and Died aged 49. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a “trilogy” of five books [...]

Here’s the original: And Here’s the translation: Veneta: You’re listening to Za Dumite (about words), I’m Veneta Gavrielova. Now I would like to introduce you to a young American, a Bulgarian zet (son-in-law or brother-in-law from the perspective of the wife’s family). Hear how Daniel Bensen deals with the Bulgarian language, and with Bulgarian family [...]

We are excited to announce the launch of the IHWO mobile phone app, called “My Words” –  an unique mobile vocabulary book, available in 15 languages! Designed as a mobile vocabulary book, the app stores words that students would normally learn in class, scribble on a piece of paper and then never look at again. [...]

As you can imagine, I see a lot of badly-written essays. Not that the people who wrote them didn’t have anything interesting to say, but they simply didn’t know how to arrange words on a page to convey meaning. Consider the following made-up examples: Essay question: Should the government ban smoking in public places? Answers: [...]

I stumbled upon a video this morning: Pretty good, if you’re into that sort of thing. Then I saw a comment that got me thinking: “Japanese are amazing…” Huh. Didn’t that commenter mean “Japanese PEOPLE are amazing”? It’s a positive comment, but something fells…off about it. Thank you, random commenter, for triggering an interesting bit [...]

Au naturel, double entendre, and negligee are all French, right? I mean, that’s why they’re in italics. That’s why they’re sexy and spelled funny. But actually use these words in front of a French speaker, and things will very quickly take a turn for the surreal. Un entretien au naturel is a backstage interview, not [...]

I love grammar. All those fun little rules that slot together to make a series of words change meaning. “Flying planes is dangerous” versus “flying planes are dangerous.” Представям пресидента” vrs.  “Представям се пресидента.” Lovely. But most of my students don’t agree, and I can’t blame them. My students don’t like grammar because: It’s opaque [...]

Let’s talk about the letter T. It seems simple, doesn’t it? We all know what it should sound like. Except it doesn’t always. Depending on the accent of the speaker, T can have as many as four different pronunciations. Why the differences? Because T is much harder to pronounce after a vowel than before. At [...]

I’ve said before that grammar is most difficult to grasp when you’re language doesn’t possess a similar distinction. English-speakers have trouble with Bulgarian noun gender, which have no equivalent in English, and Bulgarians have a similar problem with noun countability. It’s tough because you have to learn how to express grammatical concepts that you’ve never [...]

(This blog is a request from Karen. Rock on, Karen!) Ever hear of a split infinitive? You probably have. They were involved in a low-level geek-war that simmered around the theme music of the 80s-90s sci-fi show Star Trek: The Next Generation. Click on the link. You hear that? You like that? Of course you [...]

Dang those kids these days and their messy language. I used to be cool like them. I used to speak English at the bleeding edge of linguistic evolution. Phrases like “I’ma do something,” “I’m good,” and “better than me,” roll off my tongue like sweet candies. Yeah! Stick it to the grammar nazis! This ain’t [...]