Fun English learning site for students and teachers

FOUR THINGS I WANT TO ACHIEVE

12/30/2015

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great celebration - big or small (and maybe had meaningful conversations with my New Years Card Game!)

The beginning of the year is the perfect time to make plans for the rest of the year. New plans or old plans, it's always good to have some idea of things you want to achieve and accomplish (or continue) this new year.

'Achieve' (uh-cheev) is a verb meaning to do or get something successfully by good effort.

For example,

I achieved (gained successfully) the highest score in my class.
In order to achieve (gain successfully, obtain) a full scholarship to college, Thomas studied day and night.

What are some things you want to achieve this year? Learn to speak French? Learn to surf? Write your book? Publish my your book? Visit the tallest building in the world? or achieve inner happiness?

The English Student Four Things I Want to Achieve This Year

In order to keep reminding yourself of the things you want to achieve in 2016, you must write them down and keep them somewhere you could see all the time because sometimes the ups and downs of life will make it hard for us to remember things we wanted to do. We may also push these things to the side so that we could take care of the kids, help others, work overtime to make our boss happy.

This is why I've created a little piece of art you could write on and place in your bedroom, office, on your refrigerator to remind yourself of four main things you want to achieve this year. Life is short, think about what you want to achieve this year and make a promise to yourself to do it by the end of the year.

Download the free New Year Achievement here

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NEW YEARS CARD GAME

12/27/2015

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It's almost the end of 2015. This year has felt very short to me - maybe because it's been a busy year! There are still a lot of things I want to finish this year, but it might have to wait till 2016.

Do you have anything you want to finish before the end of the year? Or maybe things you want to start in 2016?

If you're going to a New Year's party, print out my new free card game so that you can end 2015 and start 2016 practicing English with your family and friends. The best gift you can give to someone is to help them learn. Blue cards require you to think about what has happened already in 2015. Red cards require you to share about the new year, 2016.

If you're not doing anything for the New Year's, you can still use these card. Think about each question and write down answers to the red cards and stick them in your room for daily reminder in this upcoming year.

There's always an opportunity for learning and reflecting. Start the new year strong by practicing English.

Download the cards HERE

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TIPS TO MANAGE HOLIDAY STRESS

12/19/2015

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The holiday season can be a very stressful time for many people - you have to buy and wrap gifts, prepare holidays meals, write cards, clean the house. There's a lot to do! Although the holiday season is a fun and happy time to spend with family and friends it can also be stressful for some.

The English Student Advice: Suffering from holiday stress

Stressful is an adjective to describe something that causes the feeling of worry or distress.If I am stressed or stressed out, I am very anxious or worried. People are stressed in many situations - before an exam, an interview, a competition, before going to the doctor. There are many things in life that can cause stress!

If you've taken a look at the picture above, you can tell these people are stressed! "Get outta my way" and "stay back" are both not very friendly phrases to use but it shows that sometimes when we're in a panic, we tend to be very rude and inconsiderate. The word "outta" is a contraction of "out of." It's used commonly in informal speech. This phrase means, don't stand in my path, move away! "Stay back" has almost the same meaning - don't come closer, move away!

If you're feeling a bit stressed during this time of year, here's a few tips to help you deal with it:

1. STOP BEING A PERFECTIONIST
Sometimes we demand everything to go smoothly that we reject anything that is less than perfect. This is the meaning of a perfectionist - someone who demands high standard or perfection. It's not always a bad thing to be a perfectionist, but sometimes it can cause a lot of mental and physical stress. So slow down and stop demanding everything to be perfect! You don't have to buy the best gifts or have the most beautiful holiday decorations, these things are not the most important.

2. ASK FOR HELP
It's hard for us to ask for help sometimes as we don't want to bother others, but there may be people who actually want to help and would find it an honor to be asked. So don't be afraid to get some assistance even if it's from your children, sibling, coworker, or spouse. Sharing a task together can be a great way to spend time together.

3. DO SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF
The holiday season may sometimes seem like it's all about others - buying gifts for others, cooking for others, . Take some time to do something you like, for yourself. It doesn't have to be big, maybe sit down and enjoy an afternoon coffee, take a walk, or buy your favorite flowers.

4. HELP OTHERS
What better way to relieve stress than to focus your attention on helping others who need it? Sometimes we are so focused on ourselves and things that are not so important that we forget to appreciate all the things that we already have. By helping others, we can focus our attention on what matters most during this holiday.

5. THINK ABOUT WHATS IMPORTANT
Sometimes we are so concerned about all the little things that we forget what's important. Being able to spend time with loved ones is more important than what kind of wrapping paper to buy. Don't miss out on special opportunities by spending time stressing out on things that are not important!

Related Lessons:
Contractions
Your and You're

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BLOG TAKEOVER AT LA ROUTE DES LANGUES

12/11/2015

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I was recently a guest blogger for La Route des Langues, a language education program based in Paris, France. If you're learning French or read French, head over to their blog and read about my eight ways to maintain your language skill after a language program.

If you don't understand French, my English version can be found below. If you’re trying to learn a language but don’t live in the target language culture, these ideas will surely make daily learning much more fun and less stressful for you.

I love the belief of La Route des Langues that total immersion in a foreign environment is the best way to learn a language. It’s now over 20 years old and located just off Place de Charles de Gaulle in Paris. They send children and adults to countries all around the world, such as Florence, New York, Barcelona, and Ireland to learn a variety of languages. If you live in France, this is an amazing organization to check out! They offer courses for juniors as young as 7 years old to adults (and even parents!). Students stay with schools and host families in these countries to gain maximum exposure to the target language! There’s no better way to learn a new language than to live in it. Maybe a new year resolution for the coming year ;-)

You may visit their website or read the French version of my article at the La Route des Langues website here or click the image below.

Ways to learn English every day by The English Student

Immersion is truly one of the best ways to learn a language, that is why I loved La Route des Langues' program, because mastering a language is more than just memorizing words, copying sentences, or doing quizzes. To be part of effective language learning is to gain native-life exposure and surround yourself in the cultural and social components of a language. You start to see, hear, feel and think like people from your target language. But how can we ‘immerse’ ourselves in the culture once we’re no longer in the target language culture? It would be a waste to lose all our knowledge from an amazing language journey abroad.

The good news is, we’re so lucky to live in a world where amazing resources are around us - in our local communities, on the internet at home, or in the bookstore around the corner. We can easily create our own immersion environment and live the language if we just try a little!

Here are eight simple ways to do this:

(1) Listen to Music
When I was young I loved to sing. English is not my mother tongue language but singing had a big part of my English language development. I recorded cassette tapes of myself singing Christmas carols and nursery rhymes. The more I mimicked words and rhythm, the better my pronunciation became. If you love music, singing is a wonderful way to practice pronunciation, understand sentence structures, learn common phrases, and expand vocabulary. Best of all, songs usually have lots of repetition, this enables you to keep repeating and hearing words and phrases. Can you find some music in the target language that would fit your musical interests?

(2) Watch Movies and T.V. Shows
Watching movies is an easy and enjoyable way to enhance language abilities by exposing yourself to authenticity. Not only can you listen to language usage but it’s also a great way to learn more about social cues, lifestyles, formal/informal situations, common conversational phrases, and jokes! You’ll be learning the language in context. This helps you ‘immerse’ in language culture and develop understanding of real life language usage. If you can’t buy or rent, try watching short snippets on YouTube.

(3) Read Children's Books
Whether you’re an advanced or beginner language student, books for children are very valuable but commonly undervalued resource for learning. The simple sentence structures can make learning less of a struggle. It can also be useful to read children’s books in the target language that you’ve read before as a child. Familiarity in story-line can help draw connections between your own language and the target language. Even comic books are great to learn, allowing you to see what is being said. Colors and interesting characters can make learning much more fun.

(4) Listen to Podcasts
The great thing about technology is that we get so many free resources at our fingertips and all for free. Podcast is one of those. You can listen to podcasts that teach languages or thousands of others under different categories - business, health, fashion, storytelling. Podcasts can help you develop a natural awareness of speech intonation and stress. They can also be helpful in reviewing important grammar points and new vocabularies. A lot of these are short in length, making it easy to maintain concentration. Find out what you’re interested in and use time while you're cooking or getting ready for school to listen to these. Don’t give up right away if it’s too hard, keep browsing until you find something that works for your interest and language level.

(5) Cook From a Recipe
What better way to maintain your language level than to make something delicious out of it? Websites like Pinterest help me discover a magnitude of recipes. Try to find simple recipes of the target language that you could try to make once a week. It’s a fantastic way of learning new adjectives (stir, cut, mash), nouns (gravy, chopping board, stove) and how to follow directions. It can be fun to live like a person from the target language culture!

(6) Eat the Food
If you’re not that great in the kitchen, go to a restaurant! If you’re trying to maintain or improve your Spanish level, try out some Spanish restaurants! Just by looking at the menu, you can ‘refresh’ your language memory and develop awareness of different food terms. Some places might even play music from that culture, so you get two for the price of one!

(7) Use Post-it notes
I love recommending post-it notes to write the names of items around the house and stick them on furniture, appliances, and objects. Every time you open the fridge (milk, mayonnaise), brush your teeth (toothpaste, mirror), cook dinner (salt, pepper), you’ll see these vocabularies. Create a language environment in your own home! Once these words become easier to remember, you can start writing sentences on the post-it notes with these vocabularies. For example, “Clean the mirror,” “Drink milk daily,” “Use less salt.” You start adding on verbs, adjectives, and developing more comprehensive sentence structures.

(8) Subscribe to Blogs and Follow Social Media
There are so many great blogs out there for language learners. Some focus on listening, some on writing, some on pronunciation. The list is endless. Follow blogs you enjoy learning from by subscribing or liking their Facebook or Twitter page so you’re always able feed yourself new information. Even Instagram has users who post word-of-the-day lessons in different languages. It doesn’t cost anything to do this, so why not?

Even if you no longer live in the target language culture, continuing to learn doesn’t need to be a big burden on your life. The most important thing is to have fun with it. In order to self-motivate and be consistent in your learning, it’s important to do things that you’re interested in. If you have more ideas to learn the target language, try them and see what works and continue on that journey. Don’t keep pushing yourself to cook a recipe in your target language if you don’t enjoy cooking. Try something else that fits into your lifestyle, time availability, interest, and language needs. Set goals for yourself, understand what your capacity is and challenge yourself a little day by day

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THE PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

12/9/2015

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I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, I still remember listening to music on my Walkman with a cassette tape and learning computer on a tiny black and white Apple computer. My dad was also the only one in our household with a cell phone. Even though it had a tiny screen, weighed a lot and had an antenna, we thought it was the coolest thing to be able to make phone calls anywhere! All this was in the past. Now we are quite spoiled, don't you think? Sometimes I miss the simplicity of those days - going to music stores to look through CDs, going to the library to borrow an encyclopedia for my homework, or watching a movie from beginning to end without being distracted by my phone.

Life is very different in the present world. Most of us can now type faster than we can write. Some children don't know how to read time from a clock. Computers and smart phones have replaced a lot of need for us to know or remember.

Who knows what it will be like in the future. We may be able to fly or hire robots.

The past, present, and future are used to refer to a period of time:

The English Student learns about the differences between the past, present, and future

The past means something that happened before or already occurred. The present is the current time - right now. The future is occurring after the past - at a later time.

You may hear these words used frequently in many different circumstances:
By a teacher: "Your work in the past have been better"
When watching the news: "The present situation does not look too good"
At interviews: "What's your plan for the future?"

Beware of the pronunciation of 'present' as the word has two meanings depending on how you pronounce it. When speaking about time, the word present is pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable (PREZ). This same pronunciation could also mean a gift.

But if we emphasize on the second syllable (ENT), it is a verb meaning 'to offer, give or introduce.'
"I would like to present Mr. Chase to you all today"
"She presented me with a Employee of the Month award"

So be cautious of these differences.

What do you think will happen in the future?

Related Lessons:
Singular vs. Plural
Fiance vs. Fiancee
The Pros and Cons of Driving

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