Overview

Welcome to Half Moon Café! Credits
Are you curious about why I designed this hypertext?

What is the story?

Half Moon Café is a story about daily life for some people in an American city. Each time you read an episode, you choose which character to follow.
Link example.
[Previous] Louise [Next]
As shown in the example, links allow you to see what happens next, or even what happened before. To find out more about a character, click on the name between the arrows. You choose whether to plunge ahead in the story or study the words and structures in an episode more closely first.

How well should I know English?

The story is written in everyday American English, with situations and speech that are part of the real world. You should have a basic vocabulary and knowledge of grammar but be ready to expand it. Here's a checklist of the English skills I expected when I wrote the story, but you can always find out if it's the right level for you by starting the story. Where earlier in your studies you may have memorized phrases and verb forms, now I hope to help you to try new combinations and really communicate.

The episodes of the story you can read now are all connected in some way with the theme of Food: food shopping, cooking, restaurants, etc. I hope to add new episodes with other themes.

How do I use this hypertext?

To listen to the recorded conversations, click on the picture of an ear. It's OK if you don't understand every word. Try to figure out the meaning of a word from context or how a grammatical structure works in a sentence. But if you do want to read a definition or a grammar explanation, you can easily find those by clicking the Vocabulary button at the left or the Notes links in the text. If you plan to use the vocabulary list a lot, tile the two browser windows on your screen. A full grammar of English is available by clicking the Complete Grammar button.

You can return to episodes you have read by using the Story History link at the left. If you want an overview of all the characters, choose the Characters link.

Where do I go from here?

If you want to begin right away, then choose the Enter the Story link just below. For more ideas on effective language learning, check out the Study Tips button at the left. Have fun!

Enter the Story