BBC Learning English has two blogs. One blog is updated by a student and the other blog by an English language teacher.

Each month a new student will blog on our site giving daily updates about their life and their interests.

The teacher blog will give the student advice on what they write and suggestions for improving their writing.

And you will be able to ask questions of both bloggers and write about their blogs



What do you think about our blogging area


This discussion is now closed. Thank you for your comments.

Andrey, Russia
I am glad to find the new place or way to improve English. I suppose if you are interested in something it is studied good and easily. I like disscutions with real people about real problems. I am interested in the Wold Football Cup. I'm joining this blog. Thanks.

Wojtek, Poland
It's definitely a great idea. It would be nice if it was possible to ask akbout the finer points of grammar and vocabulary through the blog.

Waheed, Kashmir
Its really very exiting for me to learn and share my ideas with other friends around the globe. All the best.....

Ammar
We are deeply grateful to BBC Learning English.com for their great efforts in teaching English as second language, for i have been visiting bbc learning english website for one year and i find it really interestin site and its considered as the best site for teaching English online one of the latest services that you have just introduced is Blogger , its massively unique idea for improving learners writing. so i hope everyone enjoy and learn from this new service thanxxxx

Thomas, Germany
I think the blogging area is a good idea. I will look at whenever I can. It is a good way to share thoughts and to improve English as well.

Thaominh, Vietnam
" a journey of thousand miles also just begins with a single step" but now with blog, a global space opened, we'll gain what we want sooner ....

Hamad, Saudi Arabia
I think its a good way to improve our language especially for those who don't have time to regester in institute because of thier work, like me...!! God Luck to every boody.

Dream, China
Very happy. Always I want to learn English well,but it is no environment for me.I thought my reading ability is good, but writing ability is bad.Now I can write constantly here.

Hassania, Morocco
Blogging is undoubtedly a great means of connecting people of the same interest.I am sure it will benefit the elderly as well as young English lovers.I hope that my own children will join in .

Rommel, Philippines
Blog will certainly make things intimate in communication and learning. I'm looking forward to BBC's initial blogger, thanks!

Tauqeer, Pakistan
This is a unique service really that provide a great chance to learn English more interestingly...!

Xiao Qiang, Malaysia
Congratulation & i feel grateful to BBC in having such a powerful platform for the non-english speaking students from all around the world.thankyou!

Claudia, Mexico
I feel so pleased now that I'll have the chance to practice, to learn and to share my dialy life with people all around the world. Thanks for the blog

Aldo, Peru
The BBC keeps innovating ELT by adding this great way of practicing English. As Anniw from China points out, learning English is not only learning structures and vocabulary any more, but also exchanging experience and culture from around the world. Acquiring global English requieres interacting with people from around the world by chatting, exchanging email messages and indeed speaking through audio or video conferences. I congratulate the people at BBC for being so creative and the participants in this blog for contributing to excellence in English language learning. Regards from Lima, Peru. Aldo

Daria, Russia
Blog is certainly an awesome idea, only I hope that it won't turn into news feed, because we're interested in person's life and opinions, not in reading links'n'pages which we have seen on TV news already!

Anniw, China
It is great that there will be a blog on BBC.i think it is a good news for the leaners to practise not their writing ablities but also can change a lot of experience!

Paul, Uganda
English is a broad languge. It is good to introduce such a platform to enable people to learn at a minimum cost.

Isabel, China
I fell great about the blogging area. The importent thing is use English to write you fellings or ideas down. And I hope theren will have more people join the area,introduce her to the world I mean.

Biplab, Bangladesh
I think blogging is the best way to know our thinking through online.It may be like a normal diary.I think it should be fine,if anybody publish about oppurtunity of their country and bad side of their country.It will be easy to us to know about our world.

Aaron, Korea
It's great to hear that there will be a blog service on BBC English. Being read is as important as writing itself. I consider this is a good way of giving chance and motivate students to write. Thanks a lot! I just can't wait!

Tommy, China
Learning English is really a hardship, it is a long-term mission for me. Especially when you are not living in an environment that most of your friends speak good English. So Blogging online can help practising your English. Keep using what you have learnt it is the only way to master a foreign language.

YuZhen, Taiwan
Blog is a great platform for us to interact with different voice and cultures in the global village. Communication is a bridge between human beings. And the blog is key to international communication.

Tae-HO, Korea
I think it's a good way of studying English. I've been actually doing blog in english. But I don't have any friends and teacher who correct my errors. So I will say that it's brilliant!!

Sadeque,Bangladesh
That's a fantastic idea. I'm sure to remain with this endeavor. But one month, that's a long time.

Ivan, Russia
I think it will really help us to improve English. I hope teachers will be proud of their pupils but it lies in the power of us. Let writing and reading and thinking in English be like in our mother's language. Somebody said about motivation, I sure that’s it's first task -but motivation is based on love of language. Imagine that you trying to do something without love, perhaps you will achieve nothing.

Ricky, China
It is great to see BBC's Blog for english learners around the world. But if it is a really good Blog someone should put some pictures on it. This is not only for fun, but different people from different places could introduce their favourite parts of their lives and cultures to the other readers. Isn't it wonderful to use both language and pictures to accomplish the communication?

Ann, Taiwan
The blog service can really motivate the blogger to write and the blogger can get feedback from the teacher and others. However, the subject matter of the blogger's writings may determine whether other students keep interested or not. If the topic is boring, I may lose motivation.

Hamed, Morocco
Blogging is another way of communicating with the citizens of this global village! Good continuation!

Evan, Taiwan
I am happy to see the news! I just can't wait!

Sanan
It is good chance to learn English language.

Charles, China
Such a good idea.Let's begin to study English now!

Hukam, India
It is the fantastic method to teach the English in this way.

Hong Co, Vietnam
You know, I also blog in another site but not very often because I'm lazy, let alone no one corrects my mistakes. So, I think join BBC forum is more useful. But now, thanks to your idea, BBC, if I were the winner, I'd blog regularly because the teacher will be pleased to correct mine. But I think one month is too long for the others to wait. I want many many students have a chance to blog, just 12 students in a year

Gina, China
It's a wonderful idear. In my opinion, Blog would provide space enough for us to learning English. So we can communitate with each other freely and happily. Enjoy!

Mamun, Bangladesh
It's great! For the English learner it is a ingenious. It is very nice way to learn English. Thanks to BBC World Service.

Ricardo, Brazil
It is a good way for students and teachers from different countries stablish an exchange of knowledge, experience and most important getting to know each other. It is a big plus when students from different cultures get to know each other specially if they don´t speak the same language.

Papinchi , Japan
I'm exciting to learn new poroject. Read and think, write!

Amin , Iran
It is very good way for translate and learning English. Please continue this project and develop it.

Jawad
This is the most unique and helpful style for learning English. Especially if someone has English as a second language. Blogging is very common among peoples nowdays and this is a platform which will act as an effective medium of communication.

Vijay, India
I thank you for giving us this blogging area, so it will help us to give our ideas about English and I am very thank full for those working for this site. I learned more useful things from this site.This is a very good idea to share our toughts with others,thanks.

Ting, China
It seems to be a nice way to learn english as my second languag. let's communicate here, just for the same aim of us.:D BBS, have never let me down.

Naheed, Pakistan
It's a good idea of blogging specially with respect to language. This will give learners more space to think about great ideas to write.

China
I am very pleased to see what you send to my E-mail .Thank you very much for your kindly informing us the currently event ,then we will learn English with the time ,with the world and go straight side by side with the globle people !I love it very much !

Antonio Tanzola, Italy
I'm very interested in your new service. BBC Learning English improves day after day its services. Will the teacher blog be able to check the posts before their publication? I hope to be your first blog student (or the second one... :) ) Thank you very much
BBC Learning English says
The teacher will check blogs after they have been posted. Antonio, if you want to be a blogger with us then don't forget to enter the monthly competition

Almas Asrar, Canada
This is really good for english ESL students!

Le Hoa, Vietnam
That is an excellent idea. I love blogs. According to me, blog must include latest news. Hence, I think a month is too long. I suggest two weeks instead. Thereby, we can also share more idea to more people.

Andrey Tovkailo, Russian Federation
I don't like blogs but when we talking about english blog it sounds great! My worries are just about how not to catch other's grammar mistakes from the posts :( It'll be very exciting to have a talk with or read about Nader's exciting practice of using english in his exciting work :D Is there too many "EXCITING"?

Huong, Vietnam
It's really a great idea. But I wonder if we can have more than one student who will blog on our site?
BBC Learning English says
Hello Huong, for the next few months we will only have one student blogger. But maybe in the future we will offer more blogging spaces.

Kitenge Lody Jean de Dieu, Drcongo, katanga-region
I thank you for giving us this blogging area,so it will help us to give our idears about english and how to discuss some point of view with our student and help them to go ahead,finally I like it so much,I think that in the future I shall make my effort to give some suggestions about what I would like to do, thank you.

Paresh, India
This is most suitable way to communicate to people around the world.

Joice Zhou, China
I would like to see Nader's blogs about my favourite World Cup! Of course,if were Zinedine,I will be crazy.

Julia, Russia
I think it is a great idea to start this new blogging area. We'll definately have possiblities to imrove our communicative abilities and skills, to share our experience and interests. I'm sure there will be lots of discussions of world's current problems, of course, contradiction of viewpoints. It's no doubt it will be very popular among BBC learning English members!

Duy, Vietnam
i want to know how did he learn english? i have learn english but i feel too hard because i don't have opportunity to practice english.
BBC Learning English says:
Thank you for your question Duy. We have posted it as a comment on Nader's blog so that he can answer it for you

Naser Jalali, Iran
It is very good idea to improve our english and I like blog or weblog. I have a weblog with my language ( Farsi) about 6 months that I write about Total Productive Maintenance - TPM. So blogs are good way to share your idea with others, thanks

Jerry, China
I think it is good

Paul, China
The word of blogging or blogger seemed to be very strange and I can't even find the explanation in ordinary dictionary before reading this website. But now it is entirely different, I find that it is much interesting for me to learn people from all walks of life blogging into this website to show others anything from their daily life around the world.

Shirley, BAI
Yes, i like this kind of expressing style

Peter, India
Blogging is an excellent idea where one can read uncensored stuff. I hope there will not be an moderator to edit the stuff. Wish you a grand success.

The English language is permanently evolving and developing. New words and expressions are coined and existing words change their meaning as society, culture and technology progress.

Professor David Crystal is one of the world's foremost experts on language. He has selected another 24 words and expressions that have recently made it into the language, if not necessarily into dictionaries.

Each unit contains the text of the talk by Professor Crystal. You can also listen to the talk and download the transcript and audio.

In addition to carrying 100 percent cotton Men’s Underwear, 1underwearstore.com also offers cotton blends from a range of designers, intended for those with more active lifestyles. This is the right site for men and the next generation of style.

New Delhi, April 01: The flame of protests seems to be raging mightier than the Olympic flame itself with protestors from over the world doing their bit to highlight the Tibetian point of view. In a shock for all, India football captain Baichung Bhutia refused to run with the flame when it reaches New Delhi on April 17.

The decision to not carry the flame was informed to the Indian Olympic Association on Monday through a fax after he had been bestowed with the honour of carrying the Olympic torch on the India leg of its journey.

Talking to a leading newspaper, Bhutia, a gifted athlete and a devout a Buddhist, said, ‘‘I sympathize with the Tibetan cause. I have many friends in Sikkim who follow Buddhism. This is my way of standing by the people of Tibet and their struggle. I abhor violence in any form.’’

The star footballer emphasized that he had not been requested by any group to pull out of the torch run. ‘‘This is an absolutely personal decision. I feel what’s happening in Tibet is not right and in my small way I should show my solidarity.’’

Bhutia is among a growing list of celebrities who have refused to carry the Olympic flame as a mark of protest against the violence done against Tibetians.

In February, Hollywood director Steven Spielberg withdrew as an artistic adviser to the Olympics over China’s support to the Sudanese government at a time when the regime had been charged with massacres in the country’s Darfur region.

Last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he did not rule out France boycotting the games if the situation in Tibet worsened.

Suresh Kalmadi, president of the IOA, had apparently not received any intimation of Bhutia’s plans. ‘‘The fax has not reached me as yet since I’m not in my office,’’ he said. Kalmadi added that there were a plethora of top athletes like PT Usha, Milkha Singh and Gurbachan Singh Randhawa have been invited for the event.

Although Bhutia is known for not having strong political views, he has made up his mind to side with Tibet for their cause. Perhaps this stems out from the fact that even the most gentle of souls can be stirred beyond the point of being submissive when their core ethics are challenged.

Olympics 'worsening China rights'
China's human rights record is getting worse, not better, because of the Beijing Olympics, a rights group says.

According to Amnesty International, China is clamping down on dissent in a bid to portray a stable and harmonious image ahead of the Games in August.


It urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and world leaders to speak out against abuses, including China's handling of protests in Tibet.

US President George W Bush is facing calls to boycott the Games' opening.

"It would be clearly inappropriate for you to attend the Olympic Games in China, given the increasingly repressive nature of that country's government," a group of 15 US politicians wrote in a letter to Mr Bush on Tuesday.

Mr Bush has said he plans to attend the ceremony but Germany's Angela Merkel says she will not. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has not ruled out a boycott.

An IOC team is currently in Beijing to assess its readiness for the Games.

In a report entitled China: The Olympics Countdown, the London-based group said the Olympics had failed to act as a catalyst for reform in China.
"Unless the Chinese authorities take steps to redress the situation urgently, a positive human rights legacy for the Beijing Olympics looks increasingly beyond reach," it said.

"It is increasingly clear that much of the current wave of repression is occurring not in spite of the Olympics but actually because of the Olympics."

Activists and dissidents had been targeted as part of an apparent pre-Olympics clean-up, it said, with many under some form of detention.

Journalists, both domestic and foreign, were still prevented from reporting freely.

The group also called on world leaders to speak out on the situation in Tibet, calling a failure to address the issue "tacit endorsement" of human rights abuses.

It accused Chinese troops of using lethal force on Tibetan protesters and urged China to release information about those who had been detained, saying it feared for their safety.

'Prejudice'

On Tuesday, ahead of the publication of the report, China hit out at Amnesty and said any attempt to pressure Beijing over the Olympics would fail.

"The organisation holds prejudice against China, so you can imagine what kind of report it will release," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

Public Security Ministry spokesman Wu Heping also said that Tibetan "independence forces" were planning to launch suicide attacks as part of a wider uprising - a move he blamed on the Dalai Lama.

China says 18 civilians and two police officers died in the unrest in Tibetan and neighbouring provinces inhabited by Tibetans that began on 10 March.

Tibetan groups outside China put the death toll at up to 140, a figure that includes Tibetans they say were killed by Chinese security forces.

All claims about the unrest are difficult to verify because the Chinese government has mostly barred foreign journalists from these sensitive areas.

India’s biggest private broadband and telephone service provider, Airtel Telemedia Services has made announcement about the launching of its all-in-one internet portal “airtellive.com” for its customers.

In a declaration, the company said that the portal “airtellive.com” would be the initial portal launched by an Indian telecommunication company

Atul Bindal, Airtel Telemedia Services President stated, “airtellive.com is a milestone in Airtels broadband strategy and it builds upon the current broadband ecosystem infrastructure to establish an internet destination for web applications.”

The customers will get free access to the company's renowned Google Applications messaging and collaboration suite through airtellive.com. Some of the services include Google Docs for documents, Gmail email services, spreadsheets and presentations, Google Calendar, and the Start Page feature for creating a customizable home page.

The broadband of Google and Airtel will jointly co-brand and power the services offered.

In order to offer up exclusive deals and discounts on the portal, Airtel has also signed up a partnership deal with popular content leaders such as shaadi.com, 24x7guru, naukri.com and many others.

The partnership would also provide customers easy access to Google’s simple and influential web applications over Airtel’s speedy, safe and dependable broadband network.

''airtellive.com builds upon the current broadband ecosystem infrastructure to establish an Internet destination for web applications. It will drive towards the adoption of broadband in the country,'' Mr. Bindal added.

Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is India's leading integrated telecom services provider having around 61.91 million customers as of end of February 2008, consisting of 59.67 million mobile customers.

New Delhi, March 31: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the UP government’s petition against actor Amitabh Bachchan in the Barabanki land deal case. The UP government had filed a petition in the SC alleging fraud in the entries related to the land in the government’s revenue record. The state government had challenged the reprieve granted to the actor by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.

The Allahabad HC had absolved Bachchan of the criminal charges in December ruling that since the filmstar had relinquished his claim over the land, all criminal proceedings against him be dropped. The HC had on December 11 last year given a clean chit to the actor, observing that there was no finding that the actor "himself committed any fraud or manipulated any surreptitious entry in the revenue records".

The SC dismissed the petition saying there was no need of any action against Bachchan and gave him a clean chit. The SC, in its order, also declared that since the actor had returned the land in question, therefore he was not liable and strict action should be taken against the officials of the Land Transaction Department instead, demanding an explanation for the alleged discrepancies.

This comes as a huge relief for the actor as he was accused in the past of attaining the land with the help of Mulayam Singh, the then Chief Minister of UP.

Amitabh in his reaction to the SC`s judgement said, "I have always respected the law and I am very happy with the decision."

BEIJING: China celebrated the start of the Olympic torch relay on Monday, but heavy security highlighted concerns that protests over Tibet, human rights and other issues may tarnish its historic journey.

Chinese President Hu Jintao officially launched the Olympic torch relay on Monday amid dancing, acrobatics, waving pompoms at Beijing's Tiananmen Square, after the flame arrived from Greece.

The 130-day relay, hailed as the most ambitious ever, will cross 19 countries before returning to China for a three-month tour that includes an ascent of Mount Everest.

Hu held aloft the torch before passing it to Liu Xiang, a Chinese sporting icon who is the reigning 110m hurdles Olympic and world champion.

"The sacred flame is the symbol of the Olympic spirit," Liu, told the assembled officials, dancers, students and workers in the square, overlooked by the Great Hall of the People, festooned with red flags, and a giant portrait of Mao Zedong at the Gate of Heavenly Peace.

"It embodies hopes and dreams, light and joy and friendship and peace."

However tight security showed that China's communist rulers were intent on ensuring the torch relay would begin without any hint of the protests that activists have threatened.

Authorities sealed off Tiananmen Square, the scene of democracy protests in 1989 that were crushed by the military, on Sunday night ahead of the torch ceremony.

Security personnel could be seen on surrounding buildings, and nearby subway stations were closed off to prevent unauthorised people intruding on the ceremony.

The event was open only for 5,000 people selected guests, including cheer squads who waved Chinese and Olympic flags in unison.

Activist groups have warned they intend to use the torch relay to highlight their many concerns over China, including the crisis in Tibet, Beijing's close ties with the government in Sudan, and domestic human rights issues.

The highest profile issue on the global agenda is Tibet, where a crackdown on three weeks of protests against Chinese rule of the remote Himalayan region has raised concerns among world leaders.

Protests in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, on March 10 to mark a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule escalated into widespread rioting in the city, which then spread to neighbouring Chinese provinces populated by Tibetans.

The torch will pass through Tibet for the Everest leg in May, and then again when it goes through Lhasa in June. Chinese officials have already pledged tight security for the Tibetan legs.

After a protest at the lighting of the flame in Greece last week, Chinese state-run television broadcast Monday's ceremony, and the flame's arrival at Beijing airport, with a delayed telecast.

Pro-Tibet activists and other groups have said they are planning protests at key torch relay locations, including London on April 6, Paris on April 7 and San Francisco on April 9.

Other potential protest spots include New Delhi on April 17. The Chinese government has already approached India about security arrangements.

The torch heads to Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, on Tuesday.

Barely a month remains before the start of the 2008 County Championship season and English domestic cricket finds itself in a state of uncertainty.

The reason lies overseas, namely two rival Twenty20 competitions - the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) and the "official" Indian Premier League (IPL).

Late last week the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced plans to give one-year county bans to any player who takes part in the unsanctioned ICL.

With several counties facing the possibility of losing some of their star names this coming season, BBC Sport analyses how Twenty20 cricket has come back to bite its creator.

English players registered with both the ECB and ICL before the announcement was made will escape punishment on this occasion.

But a major problem for the counties arises in that while they may have had ICL players signed up on contracts, those players might not yet have been formally registered by the ECB.

If this is the case, then those players could receive one-year bans.
Apart from Kolpak players, EU or UK citizens or UK passport holders, non-English players require a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from their national boards to compete in English first-class cricket.

But every Test-playing nation opposes the ICL and so could refuse to provide NOCs for ICL participants.

As we have seen with Shane Bond, who had his contract with New Zealand Cricket terminated when he joined the ICL, many players who require a NOC might not be granted one because they are no longer associated with their national boards.

Some reports claim Kolpak players are exempt from punishment but Kent, who have just signed Justin Kemp, fear the South African may be banned, suggesting this is not the case.

And what about cricketers such as Stuart Law and Saqlain Mushtaq, both now UK citizens, and Nic Pothas, an EU passport holder? Would banning them be an illegal restraint of trade?