In the past few weeks, I've been working hard on a series of "Little Guides" for you to learn some common vocabularies associated with places or topics that we come across frequently. It's much easier to learn words when we can see them ....and use them. These are meant to present just some frequently used vocabularies but not everything (that's why I've named it A "little" guide. If you have just a few extra minutes every day, why not review these and increase your word power.

The first in this series is the HAIR SALON because it's a place we all go to quite often. The hair salon is a place you go to get your hair washed, cut, styled, or dyed. You might go just to get a wash and sometimes you might want a hairstyle change and get a new color or a new haircut.

I get pretty lazy about going to the hair salon and most of the time, I'm not risky enough to make drastic changes to my hair unless I really trust the hair stylist. I prefer anything that is easy to style and maintain because I hate wasting my time worrying about it when I could be making more Little Guides! If you don't know already, a hair stylist is the professional person who cuts or styles your hair.

Next time "A Little Guide" will be featuring useful names of home appliances.

Have you ever seen someone do something that makes you wish you could too? Maybe someone who speaks three or four languages, someone who is great at public speaking, or someone who can manage multiple projects at the same time? Ever since I started building a website, I've admired people who could code. It's been a skill I've been wishing I had because that would allow me to build a website the way I want it! But for a long time, I failed to act on my wish. I'd make excuses that convinced myself I didn't have the time to focus on doing this or learn something new at the moment. Every week I would write a list of things I needed to accomplish and every week "learn coding" was always moved to the next week. It was always simply a "wish".  Last week I finally decided to join Codecademy so that I could learn some basic online lessons on web development. So far it has been extremely helpful, educational, and I don't know why I put it off for so long!

The point is, we all wish to achieve or do something in our lives, whether it's big or small. Do you want to pass an exam? get a better job? lose some extra weight? buy a bigger house? develop a new skill? or achieve inner peace? Instead of always wishing and wishing for something to happen one day, you must start somewhere! Just go ahead and make a start! Stop saying "I wish" and start saying "I will."

The language and word choices we use in our daily lives can have a big impact on the decisions and choices we make. By saying "I wish" it almost seems impossible or something too big to achieve. But  "I will" is to believe you can get there and you will do something about it!

Why not set your mind to it and make your wish become a reality, even if it means facing your fears. If you fall, you can get back up again! Turn your “I wishes” to “I wills".

Complete your own sentence: " I will _____________________________.

Summer is almost here which is making me think about nice iced coffees, fun cocktails, and cold-pressed juices. Although these are probably drinks you can enjoy all season round, I prefer to have drinks that are hot during the cooler weathers: hot tea, hot coffee, hot chocolate. In thinking about drinks I'm craving this summer, let's talk about a common phrasal verb related to drinking: drink up!

I talk about phrasal verbs a lot on my blog because it's very important when learning English. We can learn the individual meaning of words, such as "drink" but when we put it with another word such as, "up," it will carry a different meaning. Phrasal verbs are short phrases usually consisting of two words made of a verb and an adverb or preposition.

You may know the word "drink" is to take liquid into your mouth and swallow. Drink water, drink juice, drink wine. The phrasal verb to "drink up" means to drink all of something completely.

There are usually three ways we can use this. To drink up or drink something up or drink up something.

In the present simple we use drink up or drinking up in the -ing form. The past simple of this phrasal verb is drank up (The milk was going bad so I drank it all up).

EAT UP is another phrasal word that's very similar. Instead of drinking something completely, we eat something completely.
"Eat up! This is your last meal of the day!"
"Eat your vegetables up!"

If you'd like to look at some other common phrasal verbs in English, the English Club has a great table here.