Since English is the language spoken in the majority of countries in the world and is the language of business in the Western world, it is important for anyone wanting to do business or immigrate to English speaking countries to learn to speak and write the language. According to statistics, almost 100,000 non-English speaking people travel to the schools and universities of the US alone each year to take English courses. With the advanced technology of the Internet, it is now possible to stay at home and take English courses online.
Online English courses provide the same benefits as live instruction in classes and can be used to supplement the instruction in the way of providing extra practice. However, when you take a course online, you have reduced costs because you can stay in your own country and take the English lessons you need. There are many online courses that are free and which you can take on your own time. This means you can continue to work at your regular job and not have to prepare for any loss of income.
With the online courses in English there is always a dictionary on the site that can translate the English into your own language if you don’t under stand any of the instruction. The speaking passages and the grammar instruction start off with the simplest English, such as learning how to introduce yourself and others. This is a feature of English that you will really need if you wish to communicate in the business world or if you want to travel to an English speaking country for pleasure. You will also learn how to ask for directions.
Native English speakers read all the passages so that you hear the proper pronunciation of the words and phrases. The best way to use these passages is to listen to each one several times. Then listen to the passage and read along with it. Finally read the passage on your own, recording yourself as you do so. Then play back the recording and compare it to the passage in the course to determine how well you did and if there are nay areas in which you need to improve.
The best way to take an online course at home is to set a schedule for yourself when you will do your coursework and your practice. Most people like to do a variety of exercises in one sitting, such as practicing speech, comprehension and grammar. Don’t forget the games on the site because you can learn a lot of English vocabulary from playing games, such as Memory and Hangman. In Memory you have to match the English word with a picture and in hangman you have to form English words.
In addition to the online course, there are other things you can do to help you with learning English. These include reading children’s books for beginning readers and watching children’s programs on television. These are the same tools English children use when learning to read and write and since you are new to the language, you have to start at the beginning.
Posted on 5 May '10 by Admin, under Words. No Comments.
You’ll find many language learning sources stating that the best technique to learn a new language is to memorize words and improve vocabulary, as this will lead to a better understanding of the language, you’ll be able to start “thinking” in that new language, due to the fact that you won’t have to pause and research what a particular word means and so forth. Here are a couple of tips and tricks that should help you memorize words faster, easier and most importantly, for a longer period of time.
Avoid the Phonebook Method
This is the old fashioned, traditional vocabulary improvement method used for a long time in schools as a language learning technique. You probably used this in your primary and high school foreign language classes as homework. Remember your teacher going “I want you to memorize the words on the list at page 5, take them one by one and learn what they mean”. Basically that’s what the phonebook method is all about: having a long list of words, usually written in the column and another parallel column containing the translations. You will be asked to memorize each word, pronounce it a few times so it “sticks” inside your memory, then move on to the next, just like you would be memorizing entries from a phonebook.
First of all, I find this method of memorizing words terribly inefficient. By the time you reach the second part of your list, you’ve already forgotten the first ones, or most of them, simply because our brain is not used to acquiring so much information under the form of character strings, so your memory will lose out on some of these words. It’s also a very annoying and boring language learning and vocabulary improvement method and I suggest you focus on some other activity that also adds a bit of fun, since we all learn better if we’re having fun at the same time.
Using Imagery to Help Memorize Words
Like I said above, our brain is not in the best shape to memorize character strings, when compared to, say, images or audio. A lot of modern language courses and most of the free language lessons online that I saw focus on adding imagery to the vocabulary improvement process. Flashcards for example, are a great way to stamp a word with an image. Quizzes that let you add a certain word to a certain image are also efficient and so are education games that focus on teaching words based on images.
It’s also important to build links between the word and an image and this linking technique is based on language mnemonics. Language mnemonics use a certain image to link a word in your mother tongue, to a word in the language you’re learning. For example, let’s say you were trying to learn French. You’re learning the French word “grognon”, which means grumpy in English.
Now imagine a visual image of an old grumpy man, visibly annoyed. Now whenever the French word will come up, the image of the grumpy man will pop in your mind and you will instantly know what it means. Try using mnemonics and word imagery, at least for a bit and you’ll soon find out why this is one of the most popular language learning and vocabulary improvement methods of today.
Using Emotion to Help Memorize Words
Yes I know the subtitle sounds weird. After all, how can an emotion help you memorize a foreign word? It sounds silly but trust me, it’s not. And the most helpful emotion that comes into play here is “fun”. If you enjoy doing something, if you have fun with it, you’re bound to learn what everything about what you’re doing faster and for a longer period of time.
Think about playing a computer game about ancient Rome. Although you never were familiar with the terms related to this context, if you have fun playing it you’ll acquire a wealth of new information about the subject and words like Colosseum, Gladiator and Caesar will be naturally added to your vocabulary.
In conclusion, remember one thing: never learn new words like a robot. Try to include them to your vocabulary naturally and not force them in your brain. If you can’t find a way to introduce them naturally, at least get these words memorized with the help of sounds or images (or even better, both – there are plenty of audio/video interactive language learning websites out there and most of them offer free language lessons).
Increase your foreign language vocabulary at http://www.InternetPolyglot.com by playing online games. The site contains thousands of lessons in different languages from English, Spanish, French, Russian to Hindi, Turkish, Ukrainian and many others.
Posted on 4 May '10 by Admin, under Words. No Comments.
Take your English lessons in a different format when you take an English class online. This idea appeals to many adults who do not want or are unable to attend regular classes. You won’t have the benefit of a live instructor, but in many ways this is a good thing. When you attend class and you don’t understand the lesson, you may be fearful of asking questions or of asking the instructor to repeat the instruction. With the online English classes, you can repeat the instructions as often as you like to make sure you understand the lesson.
The best way to learn English is to immerse yourself in the language and you can do this when you take a class in English online. This is because all the lessons are presented in English along with a listening presentation focusing on the structure being presented in the lesson. You have practice exercises to complete and when you feel you are ready you can take a quiz on the lesson. In a regular class, the instructor usually has a schedule to follow and presents the quiz to all students at the same time. In an online course, you can choose when you want to take the quiz.
In a regular class in English, there will likely be many students with different native languages. It would be impossible for the instructor to speak all of these languages to offer further clarification. In the online classes, you have access to a dictionary in which you can translate English words into your own language and this makes learning English a whole lot easier for beginners. Simply click on the dictionary link and enter the English word that you don`t understand and choose your language to receive the translation that you will understand.
It is very difficult for Chinese speaking people to learn English, but with an English course for Chinese online this makes learning the language an easy task. The first unit starts off with learning common phrases in English and shows these phrases written in the Chinese language. If your native language is Arabic, you can still benefit from taking course in English online. Just about every language in the word is represented in the online dictionary.
You do get a chance to read English passages and books when you take such an online course. You can do this at your own pace and according to your individual interests. This means you won`t have assignments or reading that you have to complete by a certain date and you can take your time. Plus, you can read the passages aloud in the privacy of your own home and not feel any sense of embarrassment at having to speak in front of strangers. You can take your own notes and review any or all the lessons at any time.
If you do encounter difficulties, you do have access to an instructor who will answer your questions. There is also a community of English learners with whom you can correspond and this will enhance your learning how to write English passages in addition to the instruction and exercises provided on the site.
Posted on 4 May '10 by Admin, under Words. No Comments.
Winning the War of Words
Not only do I remember my first job, I remember my first memo, a recommendation on how to shorten a lengthy approval cycle. That was a long time ago, and I doubt that the cycle has changed a bit, but that’s not what I recall about the memo. What I remember is how quickly my readers forgot it. To me it was a work of art, worthy of a prize and a frame. To them it was just one more unsuccessful attempt to communicate in a world of controlled chaos.
Mildly curious, I wandered from office to office, asking friends and co-workers if they too were having trouble making words work. Yes, they said, but what really irked them was the nature of the organization itself, and how it seemed to undermine all their efforts to write anything and everything. On top of that, they were weary of the schoolmarm criticism continually handed out by management. In their words. it all added up to a loss of time, money, and patience. As I listened, I found myself trying to get the complaints on paper. Today, those notes are stiff and yellow, but the problems appear ageless:
Company politics…often distorting the objective judgment of both
writers and readers.
Distortion by design…intentionally corrupting the language for personal gain
Panic deadlines (both real and false)…rushing writers in and out of the writing while readers struggle to make sense of flawed first drafts.
Indiscriminate revisions…change for the sake of change, often to satisfy a power figure’s pet approach.
Committee journalism…or several voices are worse than one, especially
when they disagree.
Difficulty of measuring success…or when there is no editorial standard, good is usually what the highest authority says it is.
Lack of information…leaving writers with the frustration of trying to tell a complete story with incomplete information.
Poor setting…or how are we supposed to concentrate with ringing telephones, portable radios, uninvited socializers, clacking machines, carpenters, and
hallway chatter?
Policy strangleholds…the omnipresent force that says thou shalt write to satisfy policy first, readers second.
lndecision...those moments when you put your head in your hands because you know the decisions you need from other people will not be forthcoming.
Lack of formal training in business writing…making it doubly difficult and exasperating for people who must keep trying to do something they have not been trained to do.
The ostrich syndrome…or the unwillingness of organizations to openly acknowledge that business writing should be treated as a business skill
and not as a “personal thing.”
With booby traps like that planted all over the business landscape, my friends either succumbed to clinical writer’s block or plunged headlong against overwhelming odds, emerging with a variety of undesirable side effects:
Fear of Failure…brought on by high expectations, low confidence.
Frustration…igniting irrational behavior, the quickest way to make a
bad situation worse.
Procrastination…the aged and mistaken belief that if we put off the
undesirable long enough it will go away.
Expedience…grasping for any solution at all—right or wrong, good or
bad—as long as it beats the clock and satisfies those on high.
Herd instinct…forsaking individual expression, or trying to sound like
everybody else.
Apathy…giving up, giving in.
Remember…The Tortoise Won the Race
The product of it all was a lot of confused thinking, bad examples, and writing that just didn’t work. And it was happening in all types of companies and organizations everywhere, big ones, small ones, government agencies, universities, service companies, manufacturing firms, companies for profit and those for not, anywhere people had to write to get the job done.
And yet, some people were able to overcome. Facing the same problems, the same frustrations, they still managed to write effective letters, memos, reports, and proposals—and often in less time and at less cost. How did they do it? Were they experienced writers masquerading as workplace professionals? No, but they did have one thing in common: they had finally acknowledged that writing skill is a business skill, vital to their success, and not something that would always be “taken care of” by somebody else. They had set long-range goals, then gone after them one step at a time.
Today, that kind of commitment is helping more and more people become better business writers. Unfortunately, they are a minority, barely one percent of the workforce. Others, if they begin at all, give up when they run into guidelines that are either too shallow, too complicated, or poorly presented. The answer lies
in the right teacher and the right program, one that will lure us into a new
and palatable way of learning a skill that has too often been served up as
a dense, impenetrable mystery.
For many of us, those sleep-inducing schoolmarm lectures are but a faint memory. We’re no longer diagramming sentences or conjugating verbs. Back then, when
we were struggling students, language was a subject for close scrutiny, a
specimen under glass. In the office, language is a major force, affecting
everything — including our careers. If we do not respect its power, we are
sure to become its victim.
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Biography
A University of Miami journalism graduate, Lee Woods has been a reporter in Europe, a senior corporate staff writer, a marketing communications manager, an in-house advertising manager, a proposal writer/editor, a workshop leader, and a freelance copywriter for 25 years. Under contract to a variety of public and private organizations, corporations, local government agencies, advertising agencies and university training centers, he has planned, created, written and produced the gamut of both internal and external communications, including Web site content, magazine articles, newsletters, print ads, brochures, trade show presentations and display copy, product bulletins, slogans, news releases, proposals, and executive summaries for both domestic and international readers.
?
His 24 articles and essays have appeared in SAIL magazine, Caribbean Travel and Life, Defense and Foreign Affairs, Cruising World, Caribbean Sports & Travel, Military Technology, Vertiflite, Brevard Business News, Signal Magazine, the Miami Herald, Journal of the Society for Technical Communication, and the Journal of the American Sailing Association. He has also written three business communications guidelines: Writing Skill is a Business Skill; The 8-Hour Executive Summary (a workshop text), and a proposal development guide for the Raytheon Company.
?
He has created and conducted a variety of business writing workshops for the Raytheon Company, Harris Corporation, Brevard Community College, the University of Central Florida Career Development Center, and the Small Business Administration. His business writing workshop at the Harris Corporation lasted for ten years.
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Posted on 3 May '10 by Admin, under Words. No Comments.
It is not always very easy to convert English to Spanish. This is a dilemma faced by English-speaking people who find themselves in areas where Spanish is the primary language. While this might be difficult, this problem can be solved by using any of these three steps:
1. Asking for the help of a relative, friend, neighbor, or acquaintance who has a good grasp of the Spanish language. If there are some Spanish words that you do not understand, ask these people without hesitation. You will feel more comfortable asking them questions because you know these people. Make sure though that they both understand Spanish and English. This way, you will be more confident that their translation is accurate.
2. Another alternative for you would be to purchase a software for translation of English words to Spanish and vice versa. This will give you a quick answer to your translation inquiries. Moreover, it will allow you privacy as compared to asking other people to help you understand some foreign words spoken to you. With this software, all you need to do is key in words to be translated to your preferred language and within just a few seconds, you will have your answer. These may cost a couple of hundred dollars depending on their features. The quality of the translation is possibly not very high with this alternative, though. You might get some funny translations from using this because the software might only have a literal interpretation of the words that you key in.
3. Last, but not the least, among your options would be to hire professional translators. This translation service is unbeatable as you would be assisted by people who know what they do. Through these people, you will be sure that all the words that you want to be translated are done accurately. They would be able to effectively explain the words that may be foreign to you. The only downside with this is that you might have to shell out a hundred or even thousands of dollars to be able to avail of the services of professional translators. Many people, however, do not mind how much they will spend as long as the quality of translation is top notch.
Globalization is one of the important trends evident today. This allowed individuals and businesses alike to take advantage of the opportunities that they might find in other countries. This also brought forth the need to be flexible and to become more adept with understanding foreign languages. By knowing the options that you can use to convert English to Spanish, you should be able to master a language that was once foreign to you, with ease and confidence.
Discover how you can learn Spanish from home at this “Learn Spanish Language Software” site
Posted on 3 May '10 by Admin, under Words. No Comments.
A Professional PDF-creator easily enables you to be changing word to pdf, problem is – how and where do you find one? Whenever you go you see pdf and you quickly understand how widely it is being used to export files into one unified “digital paper” alike format, for instance text docs, jpg files, and even entire webpages. Want to start using this remarkable technology today? Take one minute of your time and keep reading this short review, it may save you a lot of frustration.
If you don’t know it yet, pdf converts electronic documents, no matter what their original format is, into a unique ‘generic’ format, so that it can be viewed by pc or mac users for example with different local configurations. Once you start using this solution you quickly realize how powerful it is, let’s assume for a minute that you’ve created a document by using the times new roman font type – it’ll keep that font style and settings, even if your pdfs are about to be opened on a windows or mac operating systems that do not have these fonts installed.
OK, so in order to be changing word to pdf you need to look for a PDFs converter – a professional tool that’ll enable you to do that properly. A quick web research quickly reveals that there are many programs and solutions in this field, however, you must identify several key features and benefits before you even try any of these tools. Begin your research by checking for these key features: should be able to let you control the security settings of your PDFs (passwords, access permissions, encryption), and it must support the latest Acrobat Reader format.
You can read ‘tons’ of reviews and spend hours on finding a tool that’ll enable you to truly be changing word to pdf – the easiest way to deal with that is to simply locate those who already offer free trials and evaluate their results. Make a quick testimonial research and check the ‘background’ of each application you evaluate. One more tip before you select and install one of these programs, it is necessary to make sure whether that software suggests constant software updates, this way it keeps you immediately updated whenever there are any changes with adobe’s pdf format.
Posted on 2 May '10 by Admin, under Words. No Comments.
A free English course online must be comprehensive in that it includes audio lessons, lessons in grammar, opportunities for you to read passages and books in English, play word games and interact with learners from all over the world. When you have such a course that is truly comprehensive, you will learn how to speak, read and write English very quickly. This type of course gives you a chance to learn from home, but you do have to set a schedule for yourself and be free of distractions that could interfere with your learning.
Browse the list of units included in the course to see that you will learn everything about using English grammar correctly. The units are generally arranged from beginner to advanced levels. Even if you already have some knowledge of English starting off at the beginner level will be advantageous because it will refresh your previous learning. Grammar lessons in these free online courses can be beneficial to those who are native English speakers and need to brush up on their grammar skills. They are also helpful for parents helping their children with their homework.
Games are a part of learning English that many adult learners overlook. Through games you learn and have fun at the same time, which is essential. You don`t want to be stuck with lessons all the time and having to do practice exercises and quizzes. Games are a refreshing break from the humdrum of lessons and do help you learn at the same time. If you were able to look in on an English learning class for native English speakers, you would see that the teacher breaks up the lesson into segments in which the students engage in different activities while learning one concept. Game with words and pictures help you increase your vocabulary about essential aspects of the English language.
An American English audio course helps to expose you to various aspects of the English language. The beginning lessons deal with greeting others and introducing yourself. The passages gradually increase in length and in the difficulty of vocabulary so that you get a good grasp of various situations. If you are attending school in an English speaking country, this audio course will also give you information about how to do research for assignments and how to study for exams.
If you are learning English in order to pass the TOIEC exam for work or study in an English speaking country, you can get the help you need with practice tests in an online course. You can improve your comprehension and listening skills with the resources available on the course site. If you need help with any aspect of the course, you will be able to contact an instructor and you will be able to communicate with other learners like yourself. By choosing to communicate with others and write all your messages in English, you gain further practice in using the correct written forms.
Having access to a dictionary in an online course in English is also an important part of learning. When you can translate any English word you don`t fully understand the meaning of, you can use the dictionary to translate this word into your own language.
Posted on 2 May '10 by Admin, under Words. No Comments.
Words from the mouth of a man ?
Dalip Singh Wasan, Advocate.
I had been in college for six years and did my post-graduation is the subject of political science. My friend Krishna had been with me throughout, because, we both were neighbours and we both were of the same age. Father of Krishna was in government service, but as and when he was transferred to some other station, he was leaving his family here because they were having their own house here and they had got some properties too and they needed persons to look after those properties and to collect monthly rent from the tenants.
My father was a contractor and we were counted amongst rich people of the town and I had noted that my parents were keeping me in schools, in colleges and in training institutions simply to defer my marriage, which they wanted should be conducted when I complete the age of 23 years. They were having certain boys in their mind who too were engaged in contractor business and they would not like that the wife should go to work in some office or in some institution.
One day my friend Krishna wanted to get her name registered with the local Employment Exchange and I had to accompany her. We reached the office late and he clerk concerned informed us that the register has been closed and he suggested us to come on the next day and that too before 1.00PM. I was insisting that name of my friend should be registered now and the employee should not direct us tomorrow. But the clerk concerned was not agreeing to my suggestion. I started speaking on the subject, “ You people never serve the people. In papers it is declared that you are public servants and the people of India are the real masters of this country. But in fact, you people could not change your attitude and still you are functioning as masters of this country and you are trying to keep us slaves.” But the clerk concerned could not agree to re-open the closed register. We both went to a senior official, and he too expressed his inability to reopen the register. When I started speaking once more, the official said, “ You are an educated girl. You are beautiful and sweet. You are well behaved. You seem to be belonging to an advanced family. You belong to a well settled family. We want to serve you and I should have been happy to serve you and get your pleasure, but I am unable to re-open the closed register. We are governed under certain rules and regulations and we have not been allowed to violate those rules. Sorry Madam. We are not able to help you today. Pleas give your ‘darshan’ tomorrow.” We came back, but I had in my mind that tomorrow I shall be making a complaint against these two official to their senior officer present in the office.
My friend Krishna was not ready to visit the Employment Exchange because she was not agreeing to my proposal of making the complaint with the senior officer. She had said, “ We should not make a complaint. We should develop- good relations with these officers and officials because they shall be present in each part of our life and since the whole administration is controlled by these people, they shall be useful for us if we have good relations with them and if we make complaints, those too shall be ignored, but the people against who we shall make complaint shall never forget the same and they would be causing harm and losses to us.” Krishna countered my speech and from that day I never talked on this subject. But still I could not forget my visit to the Employment Exchange and the blunt refusal which I had to face on that date. I had got some information about government offices through news papers and through some serials telecasted through TV Channels, but this actual experience was unforgettable to me.
I was married to a contractor and my friend Krishna got a job of lecturer in a high school and was married to a college lecturer. We had been meeting and we had been sharing those good days of childhood and those days which we had spent in the schools and colleges. Krishna had become a serving woman and I had turned a house wife and a society woman because my husband had been providing me with all the aids which could beautify me and as and when we were in some gathering, I had been adjudged the best dressed and the most beautiful woman. My husband was happy and we were living a very good life.
I had been sharing my experience in the Employment exchange with my husband and he had been telling me that there could be certain difficulties with the offices. All are not corrupt and all are not in favour of creating troubles for the people of India. He had been explaining to me that they too have to give some money for getting through their bills and estimates and he had been telling me that the people in the office have got their own distribution system and that is the reason none from the office makes a complaint against them. Similarly they pay money and get the work done so that they may not be bothered time and again. He explained that it is better to give money and get the work done than visiting the offices time and again. He told me that they pay because they try to save their time and energy which is more constly.
I had been sharing the views of my husband with Krishna as and when we had the occasion and one day she said, “ I was not having any ill will against the officials in the Employment Exchange because I have myself seen that the government servants have got their own limitations. They were right because they were bound to draw a line on the end of each working day and for registration purpose they had fixed1.00 P.M.” But I was not having a soft corner for those people even today after lapse of so many years. I still wanted to teach them a lesson. But once Krishna said, “ Can you recall those words which the senior official had said.” You are beautiful. You are sweet. Your behaviour is beyond our reproach. You belong to a well settled family. You are having more and higher qualifications. ……. I still remember those words because that was the first and the last occasion in my life when I had heard such sweet words about my personality. I have lived the last years with the help of those words. Those words are still echoing in my ears and are giving me booster. Your husband might have passed such appreciable remarks on you, but I could not hear such comments from my husband to whom I have offered whole of myself.” Krishna had expressed her heart to me without any hesitation because we both were fast friends and therefore, I too started thinking on the subject and within a few days, I decided to meet that official once again. I wanted to listen those words from him once again. I started longing for those words which had never been pored in my ears after that date.
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Posted on 1 May '10 by Admin, under Words. No Comments.
Most that is good in life comes from men’s ability to make their fellows share their thoughts and feelings. But it is not always an easy thing to make others see how we feel or think. The young child is called an infant, a word that means unable to speak. Half his miseries arise from his inability to communicate his notions. Men are but children of a larger growth, and much of their misery results from inability to tell what they think or feel. In a sense the case is worse for the man than for the child. The child makes gestures and grimaces to help his meaning out, but the grown man has to communicate by letters and other compositions.
Both in English writing and speaking there are many special laws that must be observed if there is to be real communication. The special laws of spoken language are not so numerous as those of written language. Written language has to be much more careful than spoken; the writer has no chance of correcting himself on the spot if not understood. All writing consists of sentences that may be defined as series of words so arranged that they express a thought. Sentences are the basis of written and spoken language. Words do not make sentences unless they are arranged in accordance with the rules of grammar, logic, or common sense. Nevertheless knowledge of how to communicate by written words is a very great help in communicating orally.
The art of communicating by means of written English words is called English composition, or rhetoric. A matter of prime importance to each man is that, in business or in society, he should be able to say or write exactly what he means. A businessman may lose money by failing to make himself clearly understood; misunderstandings and quarrels arise between friends because some one has failed to write just what he meant; a man is liable to be taken for a boor if he abuses the English language.
Writing is a trade in which every educated man, woman, and child should be skilled. Writing is a trade, which any one can master if he goes about it in the right way. It is true that writing skill is often the only trade of some people like the poets, novelists, newspaper reporters and editors. These might be called specialists in writing, and writing is their main occupation and way of making a living. But writing skill is a universal trade and it is necessary for every person to know it to a certain extent.
A person will never regret the time he spends in perfecting his instrument of expression. He should work steadily toward the point where he may come to have an abiding love for that which is lucid and beautiful in expression by words. No matter how practical the life he plans to lead, the power of writing down his ideas in good English, in a way that will leave no doubt as to what he meant and how earnestly he meant it, will always profit him.
Writing softwares like English writing software or business writing software with text enrichment tool can be used for writing a good personal or business communication. Writing software can also be used to check and correct English grammar, spellings and for proofreading.
Posted on 1 May '10 by Admin, under Words. No Comments.
Posted on 30 April '10 by Admin, under Words. No Comments.
