It’s a subject that I have become rather boring on of late, but I need to repeat to you that listening to and singing along with songs can help you to improve your English. I know this because of my own experience of going to Madrid many years ago, with absolutely no idea how to speak the language. One of the things that helped me gain some understanding of the language was the music of Mecano. I know a lot of Spanish students might laugh at the idea but the point was that I loved their tunes, arrangements and Ana Torroja’s voice so much that I listened to their songs over and over and,indeed, over again. I soon found myself using phrases from their songs: Hoy no me puedo levantar being a common Saturday morning favourite!

And what of your own experience? Well, I’m sure that in many of your cases it was (oh no, here he goes again!) The Beatles who performed a similar service for you.

Their story is in fact as fascinating as their music was and since last year, I have been conducting occasional Beatles Walking tours, called , ‘Let me take you down.’

We visit the places in the capital where the fab four made history, singing their songs and even dropping into some of the pubs they used on the way!

Naturally, the tour finishes at the iconic pedestrian crossing outside the EMI studios on Abbey Road .The coolest thing about this is that there is a 24hour webcam positioned right beside the studios so you can get your family simply to log onto http://www.abbeyroad.co.uk/visit/ and you can wave at them in Brazil or Turkey or Japan and they can see what a great time you’re having in London!

The whole tour costs a fiver ( and you will need to make one tube journey, so bring your oyster card) and lasts from 11am to around 6pm, including lots of extra information about hidden London that you would otherwise never find out about! It’s a great day out and I’m looking forward to  seeing you at Hyde Park

Corner  Tube Exit no.1 at 11am on Sunday the 19th of April.Let me take you down………….

Mike

This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 10:45 am and is filed under The English Studio news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.