Photo contest

Dear Friend,

Does '44' happen to be your lucky number? Well, this email contains your English online lesson number 44, and I really want you to enjoy it as much as possible. You've probably noticed that in our previous emails you received a lot of reminders about our online voice recorder, and maybe you've been asking yourself why. The reason is this: of the four major English language skills, speaking is the most difficult to master. Speaking English requires a lot of training because you need a good active vocabulary, clear pronunciation, and of course you should have ideas of your own that you enjoy expressing and sharing. But wait a minute- do you really need all of our aids if you want to speak English, Friend?

Actually, with our voice recorder you can practice your speaking skills in many different ways. For example, you can read out a short paragraph or the lyrics of your favorite song. Or you can simply speak your mind and ask our forum community to comment on your accent and pronunciation. This is exactly what one of our forum users has been doing here: Native speakers come here! Could you comment on my accent?

As you can see - and hear - Friend, a lot of forum members have responded to Blue's request, and you might like to get feedback on your speaking skills as well. Just post a voice message on the forum and wait for the responses.

Friend, this email is not just another reminder of our online voice recorder. (Don't worry, you'll be receiving more information on how to improve your spoken English soon). No, email lesson number 44 is about photos and images and your favorite places. That's right - we'll be running an online photo contest! Since our site is used by people from 235 different countries and territories (according to Google Analytics), you'll be able to see a wide variety of photos. Using images and pictures is a powerful tool for learning English, since 'a picture says so much more than 1000 words'.

But first things first. From now on, you can use two new forum features: the photo album and the 'Add image' button. This might sound complicated, but it's really a piece of cake. Let's start with the 'Add image' button. As the name says, it allows you to insert a photo, picture or image into your forum post. Here is an example: My back yard.

This forum post by Alan is a multimedia piece, since it contains text, photo and voice! Now, how do you insert a photo, image or picture into your forum post, Friend? Simply create a new post as usual and then hit the 'Add image' button at the top of the message box. Here you can see where it is:

Dear Friend, what's next? Well, first we should agree on a common theme for our forum photo contest, don't you think? And the best way to reach a democratic decision is by casting a vote. This is also called 'running a poll'. Below you will find a link to a forum poll that contains different options for our upcoming photo contest. Please cast your vote here: Help us choose a topic for our photo contest!

Dear Friend,
Do you have some friends who want to improve their English, too? I'll bet they'd be happy to start receiving free English emails just like you do.
As always, we look forward to hearing from you on our forums.

Yours,
Torsten Daerr