Some Useful Phrases

Useful Phrases for English Speakers in Germany, courtesy of Leo.

Repeat after me:

My threadbare overcoat was an embarrassment.
The coat will have to do for one more winter.
Whales cavorting in the river
fishy-back traffic
They invited friend and foe.
They agree like cats and dogs.
She is as good a warrior as you are
Paper doesn't blush.
She doesn't know her meters and bounds.
She believes that her house and telephone have been bugged.
With tender and loving care she follows him.
with rejoicings and embraces
We virtuously went to bed at ten.
He spoke about indifferent topics.
Cads' fighting when ended is soon mended
relation among traditionally linked fellow countrymen

UK accents and dialects

This site is really excellent:

Sounds Familiar? Accents and Dialects of the UK

Do you call a ‘bread roll’ a cob, batch, bread cake, barm cake or scuffler? How do you pronounce the words cup and plant? And are you sitting or sat at this computer? ... This site captures and celebrates the diversity of spoken English in the second half of the twentieth century.

... You can listen to 71 sound recordings and over 600 short audio clips chosen from two collections of the British Library Sound Archive: the Survey of English Dialects and the Millennium Memory Bank.