The older that a person gets, the more he/she probably realizes that life is short and valuable. Don't wait till your teeth fall out until you smile and enjoy your life! If you're struggling with learning English, it's not the end of the world. There are so many people on the same boat as you. So, smile often and laugh much!

This weekend is a special one for my husband's family as his younger brother will be getting married on beautiful Whidbey Island, Washington. Weddings, graduation, new baby and other celebrations can be fun and exciting but it can also be intimidating especially if it's a formal one. Are you familiar with the names of these tableware and the order of how to use these utensils? 

In a formal setting, we always use the utensils starting from the outside. This means we use in order of soup spoon, salad fork, dinner fork, and dinner knife. When we're finished with dinner, we move to the dessert fork and spoon placed on top of your plates.

This is similar to your wine and water glasses. We begin with the white wine, move to the red wine and then the water glass.

The cup and saucer is usually not brought to your table until it's time for dessert. That's my favorite part! No matter how full I am, I always look forward to the dessert. As my husband says all the time, "There's always room for dessert." 

**Place settings can vary across cultures

Question marks (?) and exclamation points(!) are punctuations. We always need to use either a period, question mark or exclamation point to mark the end of a sentence. However, an exclamation point is very different from a question mark.

EXCLAMATION POINTS (!)
We use exclamation points to show a strong feeling. This could be feelings of anger, happiness, surprise, or fear. Imagine these sentences being said loudly as that's what an exclamation point does to a sentence.

He's so handsome!
Hi!
Be careful!
I forgot to lock my car!
So good to see you again!
I found a gray hair!

QUESTION MARKS (?)
Question marks are used in sentences asking a question. These are known as interrogative sentences. Usually sentences beginning with why, what, when, how, are, can, how, is, would, or were will end in a question mark.

Are you going to the meeting this afternoon? 
When does your plane land?
Is he old enough to drive?
Who is your favorite singer?

Other times we can use it if we want to verify information someone has said.
I forgot to lock my car! You forgot to lock your car?
I found a gray hair! You found a gray hair?

ONE IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER! DON'T USE TOO MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS IN A SENTENCE OR YOUR WRITING WILL SOUND STRANGE. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THIS EPISODE OF SEINFELD WHERE ELAINE USES TOO MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS?

The other day when I was taking the elevator down to my car, there was a middle-aged man who was extremely talkative. He walked into the elevator and immediately said, "How's everyone doing today?" The other three people standing with me in the elevator were all trying to avoid conversation with him by either looking on their phones or not making any eye contact with him. Being talkative seemed so natural to him. I thought to myself, this man must be an extrovert!!

Do you know what an extrovert means and what the difference is between and extrovert and introvert? Look at the picture below, who are you most like?

How to remember the difference? Just remember, introvert is internal and extrovert is external (outside environment).

Knowing the difference between an introvert and extrovert may be important in interviews. Some companies might want to know if your personality fits into the workplace. So a question on introvert/ extrovert might come up.

It's also very important in teaching, as understanding students better can make learning for them a lot more motivating and welcoming. If you're a student, understanding your own personality will help you organize your time better and push yourself to new boundaries. If you're an employee or manager, being familiar with different types of personalities can help you improve relationships.



Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Take a short quizto see which one you are!

I don't know if any of you hate chopping onions as much as I do. Every time I do, my eyes start watering immediately and I look like I've been crying for days. The worst thing is, I love onions so much that I can't avoid them!

I decided that I must figure out some ways to make it less tormenting for myself so I started researching tips on how to chop onions without crying. Below are some of the most common methods. I think I must start trying some of these.

Today's post is not just all about food, but I actually wanted to talk about what the verb CHOP means. To chop something means to cut something into small pieces or to cut off. We can chop anything that's solid, for example, chop carrots, chop wood, chop onions, chop my hair. The past tense of CHOP is CHOPPED.

Another important thing to remember is that we don't always have to use the verb CHOP when we cut something physically, but we can also use it to mean cancel, remove, or terminate. For example, "The business program will be chopped next quarter" or "Please chop off the last paragraph of your essay."

Are there any other methods that you've heard about to prevent crying when chopping onions? Please share with me! I really need any advice I could get!

In the past few weeks I've noticed a lot of Facebook pages and English teaching schools using my work with my logo removed. Some institutions even put their own logo on my materials and copied my lessons word for word from my blog, using themselves as the author. A lot of my work has now been shared around the web with a logo belonging to someone else. They've received great comments and followers from doing nothing! This is very frustrating as I work very hard to give learners access to unique and free materials that I create myself. I encourage and am very happy for everyone to share and use my work to help each other learn, but please do not remove my logo or alter my images.This is a serious offense.

I would say about 99% of the time, I create my own work and lessons. Once in a while I may share a funny comic or video but they will always have a credit and source if it's not from me. If you happen to see my work being used elsewhere without a logo on please let me know!

Just remember, whether you're a teacher, student, employee, artist, business owner or anything else in the world, please be mindful of what you do and respect the work that people have put time in creating. Always work ethically!

On a more positive not, the weekday is over! May you all have a safe and happy weekend!