Blog
Idiom of the Week: Eating Me Out of House and Home
"Bruno is a good dog and my best friend, but he's so big. He's eating me out of house and home! I'm going to have to get a part-time job just to buy him dog food." If someone eats a lot, it costs a lot of money to keep them fed. If you spend all your money on food,...
Word of the Week: Hold
"Can I hold the baby?" "He was holding a gun!" "Hold" has many meanings. It often means to have something in your hand(s) or arms, such as the baby or the gun above. With the gun, you could say, "He has a gun!" without changing the meaning much. If he is holding a...
Picture of the Week: Picnic
In summer, especially around the 4th of July, many Americans like to have barbecues and picnics. Have you been to an event like this? What do you like to do in the summer?...
Phrase of the Week: If You Ask Me
"If you ask me, he should just apologize." You will occasionally hear someone say "if you ask me" while giving their opinion. It can be rude to give your opinion on things that aren't related to you, but it's usually okay to give your opinion when you have been asked....
TOEIC Practice Question of the Week
"Before I can help you with your problem, I need you to ____ which of our products you are using." Fill in the blank. A. tell B. indicator C. specify D. spectacle 「問題を解決するには、どの商品をご利用いただいているかを教えていただく必要があります。」...
Practice basic English with Kinka from Happy Valley! ハッピーバレーのキンカと英語の基礎を練習しましょう！
This week's video is a chant featuring the phrase "It's a". This phrase is very common in English but often hard to pronounce for young learners. Use this video to practice it with Kinka! 今週の動画は「It's a」のチャントです。この「It's...
Trivia of the Week: The Boy Who Cried Wolf
An old story tells of a boy who got bored while watching the sheep and yelled, "Wolf! Wolf!" He played this trick too many times and when a wolf really did come, nobody came to help because they thought he was lying again. Have you ever known someone who lied or joked...
Idiom of the Week: Rock Solid
"Are you sure Jenkins can make the sale?" "Sure, he's a rock solid salesman." Something that's solid is reliable. And there's not much more solid than a rock. So someone or something that is rock solid is very reliable. 「ジェンキンズはクライアントと契約できるかしら？」 「大丈夫だよ、彼は頼もしいから。」...
Word of the Week: Seconds
"This is really good. Can I have seconds?" "Sure, there's plenty!" When we say we want "seconds", what we mean is a second helping of some kind of food. What if you have three helpings? The third helping doesn't have a special name, as "thirds" won't be understood...
Picture of the Week: Fireworks
Last weekend was the biggest time for fireworks in the U.S. Saturday was the Fourth of July. This picture gives us a good view of the fireworks first shooting up into the sky and then exploding....
Phrase of the Week: Head for the Hills
"It's an attack! Head for the hills!" "No, Dad, it's just fireworks. It's the Fourth of July!" "Head for the hills" or "run for the hills" means "run away". The phrase might originally refer to running away from a flood, because the hills are high ground. As the water...
TOEIC Practice Question of the Week
"The paper is in this drawer, so just put more in the printer as need." Find the mistake. A. The paper B. the drawer C. just put D. as need 「この引き出しに紙がありますので必要に応じてプリンターに入れてください。」 プリンターには紙が必要です。紙が必要とされます。Needは名詞でも動詞でもありえますが、名詞のほうだと「according to...
Happy Valley Storytime – New video and learning tips! ハッピーバレー ストーリータイム 新しい動画と勉強のヒント！
Songs are great learning tools, but not the only ones! This week's video is a short story about Kinka and Pinka in the garden. 歌は素晴らしい学習ツールですが、それだけではありません！今週の動画はキンカとピンカのお庭でのお話です。 Classroom Tip This Storytime is used first to introduce language in Unit 2. Before...
Trivia of the Week: Sour Grapes
One of Aesop's fables tells the story of a fox who was walking along and saw some grapes. He was hungry, so he wanted to eat the grapes. However, they were up very high and no matter what he did he couldn't reach them. "They're probably sour anyway," he said, giving...
Idiom of the Week: A Screw Loose
"That's a crazy idea! Do you have a screw loose?" If someone "has a screw loose", it means they are crazy. Imagine them as a machine or a robot. If a machine has a loose screw, it might not function properly. So when someone acts or talks in a way we find bizarre, we...
Word of the Week: Born
"I was born in the year 2000." It can be easy to make mistakes with "born" because it's actually the passive form of "bear". If a woman bears a child, the child is born. The past tense is "bore": "She bore two children." But we often just say, "She had two children."...
Picture of the Week: Galaxies
This is a picture taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Although you can't see anything in this tiny square of the night sky with your eye, the powerful telescope found many distant galaxies....
Phrase of the Week: Give Up
"This is impossible. I give up." "Don't give up. You'll never achieve anything like that!" "I just can't get this program to work on my computer. I'm going to ask my sister to do it. She's good with computers." If something is truly impossible, it may be best to give...
TOEIC Practice Question of the Week
"It's a difficult problem, but if we put our heads together I'm sure we can figure it ____." Fill in the blank. A. up B. down C. in D. out 「難しい問題だけど皆で力を合わせればきっと解決法がわかるはずだ。」 努力して難しい問題を解いたりするときに使う動詞。Figureだけでも「考える」として使うことはあります。I figure he must be lying.とすると...
New Happy Valley TV videos and learning tips!
We are delighted to announce our newest videos, now uploaded to our YouTube channel - Happy Valley TV. 1 - The Hello Song. 2 - The Goodbye Song. 3 - The Phonics Song. Classroom Tip The Hello Song, Goodbye Song and Phonics song are ones we use in class each day. If you...
