Fun English learning site for students and teachers

Work Together As A Team

2/17/2015

As a teacher, simply "teaching" a student does not make them learn better or faster but working as a team to learn from each other is very important. Learning about their goals, struggles and having them teach me about their culture can make a big difference. It can change how I teach and how they learn. It's team work!

One of the things I love about blogging is that everyone interested in learning English can share my work to help other people learn as well. Same as I do with other educational blogs, I share their work, they share my work, and we can pass on great information to learners everywhere. Everyone can achieve more this way!

With that said, I am so glad that we can all work together to learn English!

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Photobomb

2/11/2015

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Have you ever been in a picture where someone is doing something weird or funny in the background? If you answered yes, then you've been photobombed!

The word "photobomb" is a pretty new term that was first added to dictionaries in recent years. In fact, in 2014, it was the Word Of The Year by Collins English Dictionary.

Photobomb is the act of being in a photograph without the person knowing, usually in the background. It will "bomb" or ruin the photo (because there is an unexpected person in there).

A person or thing who ruins the picture or "photobombs" is known as a "photobomber" (more than one person is known as "photobombers"). This person drops in the background of a picture to be funny or to ruin a picture on purpose.

How can we use this word?
"Even dogs can photobomb pictures!"
"I'm so upset, all my pictures from last night were photobombed by tourists!"
"Please stop photobombing our pictures. It's not funny!"
"I thought you were a photobomber standing behind us"

Need more examples to remember the vocabulary? Take a look at some funny top 25 photobomb pictures here.

Related Lessons:
Taken A Selfie?
Popular Internet Slang
Everyday Slang

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Breathtaking

1/31/2015

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A few years ago, I went to visit a famous waterfall in the state of Washington. It was so amazing to see nature so beautiful in its unchanged state. The sound, the colors were so captivating that it took my breath away. I stood there for a long time just staring in amazement.

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Something or someone that is "breathtaking" gives you this exact feeling. It is captivating, amazing, beautiful, extraordinary. That's why a phrase that many love to hear, especially women, is "You're breathtaking!"

Have you seen something or someone that is "breathtaking?"

Related Lessons:
Compound Words
Everytime or Every Time?
What Does Multitasking Mean?

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Medicine

1/20/2015

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If you're someone who lives in an English-speaking country or works in a field where English is important, such as tourism, banking, sales, or retail, then knowing some basic terms related to medicine will be very helpful to you.

As much as I dislike talking about the topic of sickness and medicine, it's very important because we're human and we all get sick. Sooner or later, these words will be needed.

Here I have created a visual guide to some terms related to some basic drugs and also the different forms that medicine could come in.

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There are many terms here for different kinds of medicine. It's also always fine to say, "medicine for cough, medicine for fever etc" but the terms above are just more specific for your knowledge and understanding.

I also want to mention the terms "over-the-counter" and "prescription." I have worked with international students for some time and this is commonly confused and misunderstood. In many countries around the world, it's possible to buy antibiotics and almost all kinds of drugs without going to a doctor or getting consent from a healthcare professional. This is not the case in other countries such as in the U.S. There are certain drugs that can only be purchased if you have a "prescription" given from a doctor's office. You will take this prescription to a pharmacy, they will approve it and provide you with the medicine. Other drugs such as certain pain relievers or antacids can be purchased without a "prescription" which means you can go directly to a drugstore and buy them without a doctor's consent. This is known as "over-the-counter" (because you can buy them at the counter).

Related Lessons:
Describing Symptoms
Encouraging Someone Who Is Sick
Location Prepositions

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Abbreviations

12/16/2014

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Let me point out a couple of things. First, although A.S.A.P. is considered an abbreviation here, it is also commonly known as an acronym too. Some people just say ASAP instead of reading each letter out individually.

The acronym R.S.V.P. is commonly used on party invitations such as a wedding when the bride and groom wants you to respond back on whether or not you'll be attending. It basically means, please respond.

Are there any other abbreviations or acronyms that may be useful to know?

Abbreviations are everywhere. We use and see them more than we know. So what are they?

Abbreviations are shortened forms of a word or phrase by taking the first letter of each word and pronounced one word at a time (some call this Initialism). For example, we use "A.M." and "P.M" a lot when talking about time. These are known as abbreviations. Both of them actually stand for Latin words Ante Meridian (A.M) and Post Meridian (P.M), meaning before and after midday.

A lot of people ask what the difference is between an abbreviation and an acronym. An acronym is a form of abbreviation that can actually be read as a word, such as IKEA, NASA, NATO, AIDS. However, you can't read A.M. or P.M as a word, therefore these are not acronyms.

Below are some common abbreviations that would be quite helpful to understand.

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Get Ahead By Getting Started

12/5/2014

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How many times have you wanted to achieve something or accomplish a goal but make excuses not to do it today? You may give yourself so many reasons why it's not a good time to do it: other things are more important, you're too tired, it's too difficult to do, you don't have the extra time or money. We've all had those moments of procrastination (noun: habit of putting off or delaying something).

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A famous saying by Mark Twain is, "The Secret to getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one."

I truly believe in this as we oftentimes get too overwhelmed or frustrated with how much work it takes to get ahead, but if we break things down into smaller things to focus on, we can achieve it step by step.

For the longest time, I've said that I wanted to learn Photoshop but kept making excuses not to do it: my computer is too slow to install the program, I don't have the time to learn it, I can do the same thing in other programs that are easier to understand. I made a lot of excuses! But once I got started step by step, I realized it opened up so many new opportunities for me.

If I hadn't started, I would never be where I am today, which allowed me to realize my potential for many other things. So don't make excuses. Get started with your dream or goal today!

What is something you've wanted to accomplish for a long time? Share it here and you'll be obligated to start on it!

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