We came across this nice little coincidence in English recently and thought our students would like it! Why do you eat chocolate, ice cream and sweets when you are stressed?
Come and Go
Today we look at the verbs “come” and “go”, which often confuse English language students. We are also going to look at how to when we use the word “back” with these verbs.
“Me too” and “Me neither”
Some students get confused with when to use “Me too” and “Me neither”. Katie explains the difference between the two. We use “me too” when we agree with a positive sentence and “me neither” when we agree with a negative sentence.
Happy Bloomsday!
Today (June 16th) is Bloomsday. Bloomsday is a celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce during which the events of his novel Ulysses (which is set on 16 June 1904) are relived. Bloomsday was actually invented in 1954, on the 50th anniversary of the events in the novel, when John Ryan and the novelist Flann O’Brien organised what … Read More
Using Like to describe someone
There are three questions with the word “like” which often confuse students. Today, Mick explains the difference between the three.
The Olympic Flame passes by Alpha College!
All the staff and students in Alpha were very excited this morning when we lined the streets beside Alpha to watch as the Olympic Torch made its way through Dublin as part of the London 2012 celebration.
Making predictions in English using Will and Going to
Many students get confused when making predictions in English because we can use both Will and Going to. Katie explains the difference between the two.
Some & Any
Some students get confused with when we use “some” and when we use “any”. Today, Rachel clears up any confusion!
See, Look at & Watch
Today, Mick looks at three related verbs which often confuse English language students – See, look at and watch.
Lend & Borrow
In today’s video tutorial, Liliane explains the difference between two related verbs – Lend & Borrow
Happy St Patrick’s Day!
As usual, we met at Alpha College on St Patrick’s Day before the parade and made our way to O’Connell Street to get a great view of the festivities. If you have any photos or videos of St Patrick’s Day, please send them into us!
Happy International Women’s Day!
Today is International Women’s Day so we decided to get a photo of as many of our female staff and students who would pose for a photo. In this photo we have French, Swiss, Italian, Polish, South Korean, Czech, Venezuelan, German, Brazilian, Spanish, Saudi, Japanese, Colombian, Russian, Dutch and of course Irish women. Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are … Read More
First Certificate Class and Phonetic Sounds (featuring the Turtles!)
Ian’s FCE class were experimenting with Phonetic sounds and wanted to see how often some sounds appear in songs.
Pre Intermediate Frankenstein!
Eva’s Pre Intermediate class enjoyed reading Frankenstein last week that they decided to do a very mini version of the classic tale.
Happy Leap Day!
Today is the 29th of February. This date only happens once every four years and has some interesting stories and side effects. The current Lord Mayor of Dublin Andrew Montague is celebrating his 11th birthday today! Many people whose birthdays fall on Feb 29th celebrate every year either on February 28th or March 1st but every four years throw a … Read More
Happy Pancake Tuesday!
Today is Pancake Tuesday in Dublin so Marianne made some pancakes for staff and students to enjoy! The Nutella option was very popular and the jar almost ran out before the pancakes…
The world is tiny!
One of our senior teachers, Liam Bradshaw, headed off on a new adventure recently to set up a new Language Department in a school in Mexico. After a very long flight he was walking through Benito Juarez Airport and randomly bumped into a former student of Alpha College from Korea! It just goes to show you that it’s a small world … Read More
Mizuki’s time at Alpha
“The staff at Alpha College of English is kind and when I asked them something, they were always smiling. Every Friday, after we finish the morning class, a staff member gives students some sweets. I thought it is fantastic! I like the teachers in Alpha. Of course teachers are really kind, friendly and lovely, and their lessons are really interesting … Read More
Sung-Bae Lee comes back to Alpha College
We had a great surprise this afternoon when our former student Sung-Bae Lee dropped in to say Hi. Sung-Bae was a student in Alpha 5 years ago and has since gone on to work in the television industry in his native Korea. While he was studying with us he always said his dream was to work as a television presenter … Read More
Braulio “flying home” to Mexico
Today is my last day in the school and I feel so happy to have taken the decision to come to Ireland for 6 months to improve my English. When I arrived here, for the first month, I didn’t understand when other people spoke. Now my English is very good. The people, in general, in the school are so friendly. … Read More
