It's the middle of December and people all over the world are busy writing Christmas cards. It's an important part of the festivities and a good way to keep in touch with people you don't see very often, but if English isn't your first language it can be difficult to know what message to write to English speaking friends. One thing to remember is that we usually include a New Year's greeting with the Christmas message. Some people write a long message, but most people have to send so many cards they only have time to write a short message.

Here is a selection of some standard messages from cards we have received this year:

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Season's Greetings
Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year
Special Christmas Wishes
May your Christmas and New Year Shine
Christmas Greetings

Any of these will be fine for a message to a friend, family member or colleague. Don't forget to write the name of the person you are sending the card to, and to sign it. For example:

To Imagine's members
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
From us all at Imagine

It's very difficult choosing a name for your baby; it's a big responsibility! A British newspaper published the top ten baby names in England and Wales for last year. Can you guess what they were? Any ideas? They were............ Olivia for girls and Jack for boys. I really like them both, but you can imagine in a few years time every classroom will have several Jacks and Olivias - a tricky problem for the teacher, I'm sure.

After a lot of discussion, my husband and I decided to call our baby Henry David. Henry was a name we liked very much and it's NOT in the top ten list - hooray! In the UK most people have a middle name. Sometimes it's the name of someone else in the family, e.g. a father's or a grandmother's first name, and sometimes it just makes a nice combination with the first name, like Rebecca Jane ;-). We chose David for both reasons and fortunately, our family and friends approved of our choice - phew! Check out the article for yourself:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/sep/08/baby-names-popular-chart

Which name would you choose?

We are delighted to announce the birth of Henry David Price - or Henry for short. He was born in Ashiya Hospital on Tuesday 11th August, weighing 3552g. Henry and Becca are both fine, and doing well.

Many many thanks to all our friends, including all of Imagine's members, for their help and support. We really appreciate the kindness and understanding that everybody has shown. Henry is sure to be visiting Imagine from time to time, so hopefully you will have the chance to meet him for yourself soon.

Trafalgar Square is in the heart of London, and is home to Nelson's Column, one of the UK's most famous landmarks. It also contains an empty plinth (the base for a statue). For the last few years, various artists have contributed temporary artworks to occupy the plinth. Now is the turn of Antony Gormley, one of Britain's most famous artists.

His idea is to have real people, who have volunteered, to stand on the plinth for one hour, each and every hour between 6th July and 14th October 2009. That will be 2,400 people, doing whatever they want to do for sixty minutes. The project is called One & Other, and it is happening right now. You can watch the event live at this website:

http://www.oneandother.co.uk/

If it were you on the plinth, what would you do?

There are some great artists playing at Summer Sonic in Osaka this year, not least Sonic Youth and Aphex Twin. My number one recommendation however, has to be Phoenix. I saw them at Club Quattro in Shinsaibashi in 2006, and it was one of the best gigs I have ever seen. They come from Paris, although they sing in English, and their songs have a very distinctive sound: melodic, simple, and always memorable. Their new album "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" has just been released. I prefer their previous album, "It's Never Been Like That", but the new one is definitely worth a listen, especially the single "Lisztomania":

If you get the chance, see them for yourself at Summer Sonic:
http://www.summersonic.com/09/lineup/009.html?a=o08

In April my mother and aunty came to Japan for a holiday. They went to many places including Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nara, Hakone and Takayama. Luckily, I was able to join them on one of their trips. We went to a place which was different from anywhere else I had previously visited in Japan: Koyasan, the home of Japanese Buddhism.

After taking the local train and then a cable car high up into the mountains, we arrived in this extremely beautiful location and then took a bus to our Shukubo. The monks at our Temple lodging were really friendly and helpful and they prepared a simple but tasty vegetarian meal for us in the evening and, in the morning, we were invited to attend the morning meditation ceremony - a very interesting experience!

Koyasan is such a quiet and relaxing place, it was nice just to walk around the area and see the temples and cemetery, and take in the fantastic scenery and fresh air. We only stayed for one night but I think we all felt a positive effect from the place so, if you haven't already been, I'd definitely recommend a visit to this unusual but magical part of Japan.

I love trying food from countries I've never been to. It's a great way to visit new places without having to get on a plane. In that spirit, I've just come back from Sweden - and I can highly recommend it. We went to Ikea the other day, with great plans for buying a new coffee table. We couldn't find any furniture we liked, but the Swedish food store was great. We bought lots of foods we had never tried before, and had a Swedish feast. In the picture is some gravlax (a sauce made from dill which goes very well with salmon), smoked salmon (one of my favourite things), Swedish blue cheese, and pickled herring with dill (a Swedish speciality), all on dried bread flavoured with cardamom. It was delicious - I'll definitely be visiting Sweden again soon.

One of my favourite trips in Japan was to Naoshima, a beautiful island in the Seto Inland Sea. We travelled by car to Takamatsu and then took a ferry to the island. I remember seeing a huge black and red pumpkin on the pier waiting to greet us as we arrived.

This was one of many pieces of contemporary art on display, some in museums and some on the beach! We stayed in a fantastic hotel designed by Tadao Ando, and ate a gorgeous dinner there later that evening. We were on the island for less than twenty-four hours, but it felt a lot longer. The combination of fresh sea air, amazing art, tasty food and the beauty of the location resulted in an unforgettable trip; I've been recommending Naoshima ever since!

For more information about Naoshima: Benesse House - Benesse Art Site Naoshima

At imagine* we offer a variety of textbooks and learning materials to our members. We think it's important for people to able to choose what, and how, they want to study for themselves. Whenever possible, we also like to use real resources. This might be a magazine or newspaper article, a recipe, a website, or a clip from a TV show on You Tube.

Using real English language materials like these can be a challenge, but it's an excellent way to judge your progress - and you are more likely to find something that really interests you. If there is anything in particular you would like us to help you with, let us know - we're always looking for new materials. In the meantime, here are some links to authentic resources we have used in our lessons recently:

1) Video Jug is website full of "How to..." guides. In this lesson we helped a member with his Italian cooking:
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-gnocchi

2) For a lesson about describing homes, the singer Joss Stone helped our member with household vocabulary:
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=USMDU5abvxU

3) Some of our members are very interested in English football. This website helps us keep up to date:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/default.stm