h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Geez, that could sound bad... Anyway, my name is Aximili and I'm an unofficial ACe. Or, to put it another way, I'm bored and randomly found you, so I dropped in for a chat. I notice you are Russian, so (I mean no offence here) if you do not understand some of the terminology I use (rhyming slang, for instance) please do not hesitate to ask. I notice I am on your friends list. May I ask why, or was it a random choice?

Hi, Aximili, thanks a lot for dropping in! Promise of linguistic exchange tempting, I can't believe my ears, it's just what I need. More about it later. Sorry, I'm celebrating Christmas with friends and family at the moment, will write tonight. Merry Christmas and take care. Weirdo, decrepit teacher/mother of five.

In that case, Merry Christmas! I didn't realise that you were celebrating over in Russia. I thought you had your celebrations at the same time as us in the UK. Shows how little we know about other cultures, but how eager we are to learn.

Hi, Aximily! About my Friends list. It's my third day on the site, I couldn't wait to make out what it's like and browsed through people's personal pages. I found some of them interesting and made notes so I can get back to them later. Do you mind it?
I am an EFL teacher, my students are teenagers. I do sketches with my students as a great way of achieving all kinds of goals, but I am desperately short of material. In fact, the only books I've found so far are the English Teaching Theatre books published by Macmillan. I love them, and so do my students. These sketches were written for learners of English as a foreign language, but we could also use any 'real English' sketches, provided they are short and fun. I'm not a good surfer and couldn't find anything on the net. I was wondering if you could help an English teacher in distress. Any ideas?
Now to my own English. I'm trying to make it as real as possible, so everyone is welcome to point out any errors.

Your English seems perfect, from what I've seen so far.

I don't mind you adding mee to your friends, if I can add you to mine.

Off the top of my head, the best sketches I can think of are those made by a comedy group called Monty Python's Flying Circus. I don't know if you've heared of them, but they were really popular over here. Their material is very surreal and ridiculous, and depending on the tastes of your students it could be perfect. It's kind of hit and miss, though, you either tend to love it or not understand it... if you like the sound of it, the books of sketches are not too hard to get hold of, Ebay is always a good place to look for them. To get a taste of their material, there are some clips on YouTube, just type Monty Python into the search bar. If I think of anything else I'll let you know. Happy To Help!

Thanks a lot and good night, it seems we are three hours ahead of you. Hope to see you again soon.

Hi again. Monty Python wil do, in fact I can see that my ETT sketches borrowed pretty much from M.P. So they are in our line. Can you think of a way I could watch some recordings on the net? Are there any DVDs available? Sorry about asking, I'll search, of course, but you are on the ground. Many-many thanks for your help - need more smileys to express my gratitude.
Do you do any acting yourself? What's it like? My father was an actor, a director and a comedian, and when I talked about choosing this career, he would say:'Over my dead body!'

Over here, you can buy box sets of the movies and sketch shows, I'm not sure how much they would cost though. You could try Amazon or similar, though I never use it myself, so I can't say what it's like. www.youtube.com is a good place to watch recordings. Just go to the site, type monty python into the search bar and click away. That should keep you amused for a while .

I can't really give much of an opinion on acting, since I've never done it proffessionally. i'm only studying at colege for now, though I do hope to take it up in the future. From what I've heard, it's very competetive and very tough work. Before christmas we did a cabaret show loosely based on 'Lord of the Rings'. We did three shows a day for five days. My voice was knackered by Thursday morning. It was fun, though. Your father was probably right about acting, hey he was in a position to know, right? He probably knew how hard it was, and didn't think it was for you. No offence meant.

I'm going off topic here, but did you know about this smiley ? Some people use a smiley as a sort of signature at the end of posts and I saw this and thought it would be appropriate.

Sorry for eavesdropping but have just found this site with all the MP scripts - you can probably print them out weirdo and use them, and they won't cost you anything.

http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/justthewords.htm



Oh, and I think that o would be a great signature for you

Thanks, Feisor, nice of you to be nearby. Bookmarked the Monty site and am bubbling over with gratitude. Dream come true. You see,thanks to you and Aximili I have been studying Smileys - is this the right one? I miss the bubbles
I dropped you a sad letter on our initial thread. I was over-reacting, I suppose. Women, you know...emotional, jumping at conclusions, just plain ...(can you hear that I am being sarcastic? - I know there's a smiley for that, but I forget how to make it). (I presume you are male, that makes your imaginary personality more - what? - dependable...sturdy...firm...like your helpful instructions). Hope to see you again soon.

Thanks, Aximili! I'll try to use this Smiley, though I sometimes miss my own name.
What kind of subjects do you do at your college? I somehow thought it was a kind of drama school? Write soon.

Weirdo - there is nothing to stop you changing your on screen name - simply go to your space and find the Preference button where yo can change your onscreen name. I suggest that, to start with and to avoid confusion you could be your real name with a /weirdo07 at the end.

If you look at my name now you will see how it works

BTW - remember that this only changes your onscreen name - YOUR SIGNON DETAILS REMAIN THE SAME!!

Sorry about the caps but it is an important point.

If you want to think of me as a male that's fine - if you want to think of me as a female that's fine too - as I said I my space "I ain't saying!!"

If I find more scripts in my internet ramblings would you like me to post them for you?

Funny thing, Feisor, I'd always imagined you as a male too. No idea why...

Weirdo, I study Acting and Media. It's a mainstream college that just happens to have a Performing Arts course, not a specialist Drama School though I hope to attend one of those one day. Had any luck finding clips yet? The scripts are cool, but nothing beats seeing them performed.

Didn't notice you were here. I suppose being bodiless you are able to be in many different places at the same time. Of course more sketches will be welcome! Being unable to picture you as a man nor as a woman , I will think of you as my hoo-too guardian angel - the closest concept I can find to pure consciousness. Many thanks.
'o