The great thing is you have included detailed instructions about how to make your dishes so we can try at home. I now feel inspired to try cooking this meal; it looks like good winter food.

Another thing I love is your description of going for a walk through the mountains and finding some hot polenta at the top. I agree that food tastes better after some outdoor physical exercise!

In fact, the polenta and tapelucco looks just like a Scottish dish called mince and tatties. Try a google image search for this and you'll be surprised. The "tatties" are not the same as polenta though - does anyone know what the word tatties means?

LANGUAGE

Let's look at some of the language used in your last post.

1) Which phrase do both of these sentences contain?

After this meal can't miss an Italian "espresso".

Eating this dish can't miss a glass of good Italian wine...

It's the phrase "can't miss". In English, we would normally say one of the following things instead:

After this meal... you have to try / you must have / you simply have to have... an Italian espresso.

Try using one of these possibilities next time in English!

2) Check out this sentence:

Are necessary (for three person) some coffee, two eggs...
In English we don't start a sentence with "Are necessary". You could put it at the end:

Some coffee, two eggs ... are necessary.
Or - you can say "You need..."

You need some coffee, two eggs...

3) I like it when you use the phrase "pinch of salt". It's great, it's exactly what we say in recipes when we mean a small quantity of salt. Have you been reading English recipes? Or perhaps you've been looking at our recipes section?

Either way, keep up the good work!

VOCABULARY

Mouth-watering - so tasty it makes your mouth water
Gone to great effort - made a great effort
In our honour - for us (in order to celebrate something)

ARRIVEDERCI

Vito - we will miss you and your posts about your life in Italy. Please take care, keep learning English, and stay in touch with us via the blog. Your comments are always welcome! I am sure you have made some good friends from around the world. I think you have done a great job - though I worry that some people will be a little jealous of the beautiful place you come from with the wonderful food... Only joking, it has been lovely to share your experience as we share the process of learning English together.

It is also my last post as the teacher blogger for now. I've enjoyed myself too - it is a great to have direct interaction with learners around the world. I am very impressed by the level of English and enthusiasm in your posts. Thank you all and keep visiting the blog!

I hope to see all of you again soon. Our next teacher blogger will be Rob.

Best wishes,

Finn

Thank you for all your responses to my last post. I really enjoyed reading about your weekend activities - swimming, walking on the beach, picnicking by the Nile, reading the Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night's Dream, even watching awful movies... ;)

Anyway, last week I set a piece of homework. To capitalise the following sentence:

my uncle is a professor of chinese at the university of edinburgh. students call him professor jones but I call him uncle steven. he spent a long time in the east studying buddhism.

Well here is the correct answer:

My uncle is a professor of Chinese at The University of Edinburgh. Students call him Professor Jones but I call him Uncle Steven. He spent a long time in the East studying Buddhism.

Some of you were close but no one was completely correct! So which parts of this sentence are worth learning form? I want to pick out six points:

My uncle (1) is a professor (2) of Chinese (3) at The University of Edinburgh (4). Students call him Professor Jones but I call him Uncle Steven. He spent a long time in the East (5) studying Buddhism (6).

1) uncle or Uncle? Normally uncle wouldn't have a capital letter, unless it comes right before a person's name, like 'Uncle Steven' in the next sentence.

2) This is the same for professional job titles. As a noun professor doesn't need a capital letter, but when it is someone's title, like 'Professor Jones' or 'Dr Doolittle' it takes a capital letter.

3) 'Chinese' here indicates the language. Languages are capitalised, as are nationalities and of course countries.

4) 'The University of Edinburgh' is the official name of the institution. As the word 'the' is part of the official title, it also needs a capital letter. You can check this by doing a quick online search if you're not sure.

5) Compass directions like north, south east and west only take capital letters when they are part of a name established by popular usage to mean a certain region, for example: the Pacific Northwest, the South Pacific, or the East or West when talking about those areas in cultural terms.

6) Buddhism and other religions take capital letters.

So - by combining this post and the last one I hope you have some of the basic rules for capitalising in English. There are others - sorry - as we know English is a complicated language and many native speakers sometimes make mistakes with this kind of thing! But these should help you to start with.

Right, enough of capital letters. Let's turn to Vito's blog on Venice.

Beautiful Venice... I have to say again that your pictures are amazing! I was lucky enough to go to Venice a few years ago myself and it took my breath away. You have brought back some lovely memories for me. In fact, your blog was very practical with lots of advice for travellers about tickets, fares and transport in the city! What was your favourite part?

LANGUAGE POINT

Bearing in mind the lesson on capitalisation above, how would you modify this sentence?

"If you need a rest or if you want to see some really interesting Museums, Churches, Islands like Burano - Murano and Torcello, you can't miss this beautiful city..."

HOMEWORK

Vito - You finished your blog by talking about the unforgettable restaurants in Venice. So would you like to write a blog about Italian food. Pizza, pasta and risotto are all delicious and world-famous, but perhaps you could introduce some more regional specialities that we might not know about?

And everyone else - what is your opinion of Italian food? Is it popular in your country? What is your favourite and why?

Me - I have to say I love it - a freshly-made thin-crust pizza with moist tomato-based topping with different cheeses and ham is a real treat for me. Mmmm.

Ah good, it's time for lunch. Perfect timing.

See you soon!

Finn

Thank you very much for your responses telling me about how you unwind.

Deepak - I like your idea of staying silent for one hour in the morning and the evening. It sounds like a simple and effective way to distress. Coincidentally, today is what we call Remembrance Day in the UK. We hold a two-minute silence in order to commemorate the people who died in the First World War.

Vito - I think your idea of just lying on the grass to forget about your troubles.

Bomsan - You are very lucky to have the mountains and sea on your doorstep. And shopping is a very popular way to unwind - we call it 'retail therapy'.

Beatriz, Guido + Leonid199rus - Swimming and physical exercise are great ways to recharge your batteries!

Max - It's great you enjoy learning English so much. Does anyone else study to unwind?

Others - thank you for sharing your comments!

LANGUAGE

The other piece of homework I set was to capitalise a paragraph in the appropriate places. The correct answer is:

"Hello. My name is Finn and I'm a producer with BBC Learning English. This Sunday I am going to a pub in south London called The Orchard to have a roast chicken lunch with my mother. I can't wait!"

Hello - capital letter as it is the first (and only word in the sentence)

My name is Finn - capital letter as it is a person's name. Specific people, places and organisations are known as 'proper nouns' and are capitlaised.

and I'm a producer with - the pronoun 'I' is always capitalised

BBC Learning English - BBC is an acronym, Learning English is the name of a specific organisation.

This Sunday I am going to a pub in - days of the week are capitalised (as are months - January, and holidays - Christmas, but not seasons - summer)

south London called - place names are proper nouns; 'south' here is an adjective, and is not capitalised. If it was a noun, 'the South', it would be capitalised. We see this when we talk about things like 'the West' (Europe, America...) and 'the East' (Asia).

The Orchard - both words are capitalised as both are part of the name of the business. If it was just called 'Orchard', the word 'the' would not appear before it.

to have a roast chicken lunch with my mother. I can't wait! - mother does not need a capital 'M' as it is not being used to replace her name. If I said, "I am going to lunch with Mum", it would need a capital letter, but "I am going to lunch with my mum" does not.

I hope this helps you learn some capitalisation rules. I will give you one more sentence to help you practise these and learn the others.

HOMEWORK

1) Please capitalise the following sentence:

my uncle is a professor of chinese at the university of edinburgh. students call him professor jones but I call him uncle steven. he spent a long time in the east studying buddhism.

2) Why not tell me about your weekend activities? Hope you can all unwind.

Have a good weekend!

Finn

Let me give you the correct answers to last week's blog first:

1) written
2) writing
3) quite
4) quite quiet, or just quiet
5) country
6) countryside

Well done to Vito, Marcel and Titas and Crazyredly who gave the correct answers. Alfonso - there was only one mistake, but well done too! And yes, Mahjabeen - the lake with the monster is indeed called Loch Ness.

Vito - thank you for your third blog. I agree that you are very brave for doing this, but I'm sure that you will be encouraged by all the comments from learners around the world. You write with a natural enthusiasm that people can really respond to.

And of course - we love your pictures. I have to say that your blogs are making me seriously consider leaving London and moving to Italy! I like your attitude towards maintaining a good work-life balance (how you find a balance between work and the other things in your life like family, relaxation, hobbies etc). You said you work very hard like everyone else, but then try to get out to the mountains as soon as possible in order to regenerate. Another way to say this is to 'recharge your batteries'.

Personally, I love going to the mountains too. Especially when I am home in Scotland, where the mountains really are 'on your doorstep'. When I'm working in London it is harder to get to the mountains, so I like to go for long walks around the city in order to unwind (to relax and let go of stress).

Hiking in Orkney helps me unwind.

LANGUAGE POINTS

1) Spelling
In your Rome blog, there are two sentences with the same kind of spelling mistake:

a) Talking about the Trevi Fountain, you say "... we had staied to see it twice..."

b) And then at the end of the blog you say "... I really hope to not have annoied nobody..."

Can you spot the mistake?

2) Word use

'Suggestive' - this word appears in your Rome and PEACEFUL MOUNTAIN blogs. In these two sentences:

a) "...it's always less expensive but really nice and sudgestive."
b) "...really beautiful natural Likes like this one, with suggestive coulors and really peaceful."

In English we don't use 'suggestive' in this way. I think the meaning of suggestivo in Italian is slightly different to suggestive in English. Instead, you can use a word like 'evocative', or simpler descriptive word like 'striking' or 'stunning'.

3) Capitalisation
One small point here - I noticed that some words were written with capital letters: Lakes, Hope, Capital, Monuments, Summer and Winter. In English, none of these words need to be capitalised, as they are not what we call 'proper nouns'. We will talk more about proper nouns in my next post.

HOMEWORK FOR EVERYONE

1) Can you tell me about your work/life balance? What do you do to recharge your batteries?

2) Please try to correct this paragraph by changing the appropriate letters to capital letters. We'll discuss next time.

"hello. my name is finn and i'm a producer with bbc learning english. this sunday I am going to a pub in south london called the orchard to have a roast chicken lunch with my mother. i can't wait!"

That's all from me for this post. Hope to see you all again soon!

Finn

So, as you can see my name is Finn. I am from Scotland but I have been based in London for almost ten years. (Vito - "sono Scozzesi" is one of the few Italian phrases I know. Did I get the spelling right?) I have worked on English teaching media projects with the BBC in China, Egypt and most recently, Cambodia, where I have just spent the last seven months. I'm very excited to be the teacher blogger and look forward to getting to know all of you and learning about your experiences.

To give you an idea of where I come from here are a couple of pictures from my home in Scotland called Orkney, taken last Christmas:

Now, Vito let's come back to you. I really enjoyed reading your blogs. They gave me a clear picture of your life in a beautiful part of Italy. I have to admit I was blown away by the stunning photos you uploaded. My first reaction was, "I want to go there right now!" Judging by the comments on your post, I am not alone in feeling this. We have a famous lake in Scotland too where some people believe a monster lives. Do you know its name?

LANGUAGE POINTS

I think your English is fantastic considering you are largely self-taught and have only attended six months of lessons. I hope that by using this opportunity you will meet other people who wish to practise English and Italian with you!

As Alfonso, Seymur and others said: don't be afraid of making mistakes. This is so important for building confidence. Everyone makes mistakes and it's actually an essential part of learning. The crucial thing is being able to communicate, and you already do that very well.

But allow me to pick up on two points to help improve your written English:

1) Written / writing

Look at my last sentence above, and compare it to one early in your first blog:

"...please excuse me for all the mistakes that I'm sure there will be in my written."

There is a small mistake in your sentence. Can you see it? It's the word 'written'. This word can either be the past participle of the verb 'to write', or an adjective.

Instead, you need to finish your sentence with a noun. So you can either say:

a) Please excuse me for all the mistakes that I'm sure there will be in my written English. ('Written' used as an adjective to describe the noun 'English'.)

b) Please excuse me for all the mistakes that I'm sure there will be in my writing. (The noun form from the verb 'to write' - what we call the gerund.)

2) Word use - 'quite'/'quiet' and 'country'

Look at these two sentences:

"Unfortunately I can't go to the evening class this year because it's quiet distant from my country and to go there..."

"In this site I found a lot of interesting things to read and to listen but sometimes they are quiet difficult for me because I'm at the beginning..."

In both of the sentences above, the word 'quiet' should have been 'quite'. Quiet is the opposite of loud. Unless you mean your school is quiet? ;)

And one more area to be careful of in word use:

"We live in the north Italy in a little country near a beautiful like name's Lake Maggiore."

"Unfortunately I can't go to the evening class this year because it's quiet distant from my country and to go there..."

This time the problem word is 'country'. If you say "a country", or "my country", people will think you mean 'my country' as in 'nation'.

What you could say instead:

a) I live in an area near a beautiful lake... / I live in a beautiful part of the country near a lake...

b) ... it's quite far from my local area... /... it's quite far from my hometown...

HOMEWORK

Which word should go in the gap?

1) I find ________ English easier to understand than spoken English. (writing/written)

2) My English _________ has improved a lot since I started sending emails in English. (writing/written)

3) He is _______ good at hockey, he should play for the school team. (quite/quiet)

4) It's ______ _______ here. The other bar was too noisy. (quite/quiet)

5) Italy is a beautiful ________. (country/countryside)

6) The _______ near Lake Maggiore is stunning. (country/countryside)

VOCABULARY

blown away by - extremely impressed by
stunning - incredibly beautiful
judging by - basing one's opinion on
largely - almost completely
self-taught - learned or trained by yourself
building confidence - increasing confidence
essential - necessary, needed
pick up on - draw attention to something that has previously been said or happened