Introduction

Dear Listener, more and more people in the world are learning English. English is the mother tongue of many countries not only Great Britain and the United States, but Canada, Australia and New Zealand. And English is also the language of international communication. New technology like the Internet is bringing people closer together and today we have the chance to exchange our thoughts and ideas with people from all around the world.

You are German and Germany has the biggest economy within the European Union, the EU. Your country is the number one exporter of goods and in the future you will do even more business with companies from other countries, especially within the EU. That's why you want to improve your English. Your children are learning English at school and probably they listen to English pop music and surf the Internet where most of the information is in English. There are so many motivations for you to learn English and we are very glad you have made that decision and we want to help you.

We are English-Online, a British-German company that helps German people learn English. We use new technologies such as email, the world wide web and SMS to communicate with our students. My name is Sue Darville and I am from Bristol in England and I will record personalized voice messages for you.

You can listen to these messages every day when you are at home maybe during breakfast or, when you are in your car or during your lunch break. The most important thing is listen to the CD over and over and over again.

In addition there will be an English class for you once a week. When you listen to the CD every day for 10 -- 15 minutes you will understand more and more. In the English class you will read the text which you are now hearing and you can ask questions. You will also practise the grammar. But the most important thing -- the backbone so to speak -- is this CD. Do you remember how you learned German, your mother tongue? Children hear their mother tongue every day for 12 hours or more absorbing the words effortlessly and then they start repeating words. You can do the same with English. Listen to this CD every day for a certain period of time and you will see how your understanding improves and increases.
I'm looking forward to working with you.

Best regards,
Sue Darville, Bristol, England.