30-day challenge for C2

If you made it here, congratulations! You have completed the 30-day challenge! You may be wondering, 'is there an extra challenge for today?' Or maybe, 'is this really over? I got used to it!' If you did, just know that that was the purpose of this blog: to help you create a habit. I hope that some of the resources I used during these days give you some ideas to continue the journey on your own. Maybe return to the crossword page? Or another riddle! Remember the "gaps" challenge? It came from a website with lots of tests. How about another video from Colbert's show to find more conversational English? The list goes on... And to go back to the question you may be asking yourselves: is there an extra challenge for today? Well, today's task is simply to share with us how this challenge went for you. Did you do every single challenge? How hard was it to keep a habit? Did you leave it and then come back? Who motivated you? Did you invite anyone to do it?...

It has arrived! The last day of your 30-day challenge is here. Here's a fun one that you can use to play with someone (I'm quite fond of that, as you may have noticed). Do you know the board game Taboo? The one with cards that gave you a word to define to other players and a little list of words that you couldn't use in your definition. Did you ever play that game when you were younger? Or maybe you played just a week ago, who knows! And have you ever played this game of forbidden words in a language class? There's something about it, maybe its simplicity, or the challenge inherent in forbidding the obvious, that makes it perfect to help students fix vocabulary. Plus, it can get really funny. I'd say the funnier the more competitive the players are! Easy instructions for our last challenge: - Read the cards below and choose six to define. - Try with a timer first! You have 30 seconds to attempt a definition. You can record yourself on the phone to test ...

Well hello there! We're so very close to the end! I had initially thought that the last week would be a reprise of "the best" challenges (who can determine which are the best, anyway?), but as time went by I kept finding new things I wanted to include. Some challenges, however, were very enjoyable to me personally, so there is no way I couldn't revisit them. One of such challenges was the riddle. And so here it is again! A new one, of course. The idea behind this riddle challenge is the following: - Try to solve the challenge (but of course!) - Explain your thought process, whether you reached a solution or not. What was your initial idea? Did you change your mind? How did you find the answer, if you did? - Here comes the conditional part: what other solutions would have been possible if one or more of the conditions set in the riddle had been different? In other words, how do the results vary if the riddle proposition changes? (Note: there are many con...

Hi there! This post marks exactly four weeks of challenges! How are you feeling so far? Tired? Enthused? Fed up? There was one challenge (I don't remember the day, I'm sorry for my awful memory, hahaha) in which you had to work out the best ways to use verbs like wish and hope . Today we expand on that challenge, constructing idioms to speak about hopes and fears. If you feel like making dominoes with it in order to play with friends and/or family (or on your own!), all you have to do is copy the words on strips of paper. Easy crafting time! It seems like we are all a bit into crafting these days anyway. So, here's the challenge: - Consider the words on the list below or, if you prefer, write them on separate strips of paper. - Construct twelve idioms with them. - Choose four and write gapped sentences where the answer is one of the idioms. How obvious or tricky was the sentence? The more obvious, the more likely it is you understood the meaning well and were u...

Contribute to science with these tests! These are some quizzes designed to map people's knowledge and perfect algorithms, so any help you can provide is valuable! I propose completing both quizzes and sharing the results with us. The first one is a veeeery hard vocabulary quiz that will tell you how well you did in the same (native speaker) age and education bracket as you. The second one aims at guessing the variety of English that you speak and your native language based on what you consider grammatical. I found this one really interesting! You can see my results below. I'm so proud that the second one guessed my native language would be English! Not to mention that my variety of English would be New Zealandish, lol. Love it! The challenge, then, is the following: - Go to this website and complete both quizzes. - Share your results with us. Which one did you prefer? How hard was it? Enjoy! PS: my results: The Vocab Quiz Your score: 27/32 ...

As I advanced on day... well, many days ago, here is a part 2 for our "alternative answers" challenge! In this challenge we'll be matching the answers to their function, something that is essential to start actually using them. Go for it! - Do the two parts of the challenge. - Share your answers with us in the comments. - As an extra: 1. try to give an extra answer for each question in the challenge, and 2. Tell us which answer sounds most formal/informal to you. Hope you enjoy this one and incorporate some of these into your production! 1. Let's find the function of these sample answers. Which response is used to show the speaker... a. ... doesn't believe something will happen? b. ... thinks something is desirable, but it doesn't happen? c. ... doesn't know something? d. ... is willing to do something? e. ... doesn't want something to happen? f. ... gives permission? 1. When will the cycle lane be built? - Don't hold your...

I can't believe we've managed to reach day 25 without touching on phrasal verbs! Now, it's very common to distinguish between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. Personally, I don't like going into that distinction (I wonder just how much classifying is necessary for one to be proficient), although we must be able to tell them apart for practical purposes, that is, for knowing when we can "split" the verb and preposition with the object pronoun. If you want to know what I'm talking about, you can check an entry like this one here . I came across  this entry on a business English blog and it gave me an idea for today's challenge: it's a list of 15 phrasal verbs for a "coffee break at work" situation. As you will see if you click on the link, the author of the blog gives you a full conversation where all 15 phrasal verbs on her list are used. So, here's the challenge:   - Find below a list of phrasal verbs we use when talk...

Hey there everyone! The other day I was here reflecting on how we had forgotten about adverbs, and then it occurred to me that we had also forgotten about this seemingly unimportant part of speech, one that we never seem to devote a lesson to, but which can do so much to a sentence's meaning: the conjunction. For today's challenge, I am introducing to you to some of the most advanced conjunctions. You probably know them, and if that's the case, today will give you a little bit of practice so you don't forget them. Introducing (in alphabetical order): albeit by the same token inasmuch as notwithstanding what with yet The challenge for today: - Complete the sentences with the right conjunction from the list. - Tell us in the comments which one is your favourite. Can you make a new sentence with it? Here we go! 1. No one wants the natural beauty of the area to be compromised ____________ they continue to build hotels. 2. ____________  some c...

Really, you thought we would get through the 30-day challenge without THE classic challenge? Really?? Here are some of my favourite tongue twisters in Egnlish. Now, the experts say (well, some people say this, including me) that the real deal is in saying the tongue twister at least three times in a row. Only then can you say you have mastered it! - Say these tongue twisters, and remember, try three times in a row for each one of them! - Tell us in the comments: which was the hardest? The easiest?  - Are you still struggling with any of them? Which favourite tongue twister of yours is missing on my list? 1. The first tongue twister I ever learnt in English! - She sells sea shells by the sea shore, but the sea shells she sells are not sea shells, I'm sure. 2. And the second one I ever learnt! - How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? 3. How can a clam cram in a clean cream can? 4. Send toast to ten tense stout saints' ten ta...

Hi everyone! I think we haven't, have we? Tsk tsk... We shouldn't neglect adverbs. At this level, I'm sorry to repeat myself, it's extremely important to develop an ear for collocation. This challenge is a series of four mini-challenges that are aimed at training your ear for collocation of adverb+adjective: - Complete all the challenges. Which one was the hardest? - What adverb+adjective collocation would you use to describe today's challenge? Go for it! 1. Take a look at these adverbs. Which ones can be used with tired? And with exhausted? Some can be used with both. a) very, terribly b) slightly, a bit, a little c) rather, somewhat, fairly, moderately d) utterly, absolutely, completely e) really, pretty f) quite g) extremely 2. Take combinations that you have made in 1 and rank them from "slightly tired" to "absolutely exhausted". How are you feeling right now in the ranking? How will you feel at the end of today...

Hello there! This is another instance of how to be creative with titles. The structure of the challenge is the same as the previous "catchy titles": - explain how the name given to the video is a play on words. - Watch the video. - Provide a summary of the video using the following words: behaviour, exhibit, diversity, filters, phenomenon, occurrence, landscape, reef, marine, serenity. Now, the title of this video on youtube is not that creative, but the one where I found about it was a clever one: Neon Seas . What is the play on words here? Watch and enjoy!

Hi everyone! Idioms today! Idioms related to choice and decisions, because I thought today about the simplicity of these days, where we can choose to feel restricted, or we can choose to feel freed from the burden of choice. For me, it's the latter. Where to go, what to do? Well, just stay at home, doing homely things. Of course, on any given day I can choose whether I would like to work a little, or a lot, or what I'm going to cook for lunch, but not even these things depend on me that much anymore. I may need to attend to the kid, or cook something that needs to be cooked before something else. I go with the flow a lot more, and it's liberating. So when it comes to the challenge, it turns out I don't have to choose that much either. I have my topic (choice) and my only requirement (advanced language), so a logical conclusion is: let's learn idioms to talk about choice! For today: - Read the sentences. The idiom is marked in bold. - A key word is missin...

Hi everyone! I've been racking my brains a little bit to find challenges that focus on writing, and I've finally decided to take inspiration from others. This is not plagiarism, it's just...fruitful multiplication of ideas. I'm borrowing this idea from "the 100 word challenge" for schools, which involves a series of prompts for creative writing. My version will be a 50-word challenge (I think it can actually be harder to write a proper story in fewer words). Write freely, but try to make it so that the reader can understand the situation or the action, that is, it shouldn't feel like a mere incomplete fragment of something else. Just do your best, as I know this can be hard. The prompts are a part of a sentence and five words, all of which must appear in your text. So, without further ado: - Read the prompts. - Write a short story, as self-contained as possible, in 50 words. It must contain all the prompts. - Share it with us, including you...

Hi everyone! Let's  puzzle everyone at home a little bit crazy, with you pronouncing words randomly! Here's the challenge for today: - Don't tell your family what you're doing. - Read the words below aloud and determine which sound the consonants in bold make. - Check with an online dictionary . - Tell us in the comments which ones were the hardest! Enjoy! First set! Are the consonants in bold pronounced... /ʧ/  as in cheer /ʃ/  as in fish /ʒ/  as in usual or /ʤ/  as in jump? avera g e ba dg e bei g e cabba g e coura g e dama g e deci s ion  fu t ure  in j ury in s urance litera t ure ma ch ine mar ch vi s ion mousta ch e opposi t ion par t ial pic t ure presti g e ques t ion Second set! Are the g or gh in these words pronounced... /g/ as in ghost /f/ as in enough /ʤ/  as in giant or  [silent] as in high? nought gesture sign signature margarine guilty draught ...