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Kung Fu Skills Not Essential

So you love English, love social media, are open to relocating, perhaps to China, specially if you also have a keen interest in Kung Fu, yes? Then we have seen the perfect job opportunity for you!

You know that English has truly become the global language of choice when you see a situations vacant advertisement posted online by an ancient Chinese Buddhist temple seeking a Brand Builder who is fluent in English!
Such is the fame of the 1,500 year old Shoalin temple, where the monks are known for their skills in martial arts such as Kung Fu, that the temple has become an shrine to martial arts lovers from across the globe.
Even though the temple is located in an isolated position, deep inside the mountains of Henan province, visitors are drawn to the site in order to experience for themselves the special form of Kung Fu practiced by the monks. Whilst most of the monks themselves do not speak English, in order to market and secure the temples brand globally, English has been chosen as the preferred language for the position advertised.
It just goes to show that the reach of English as an international language is still growing strong and is reaching even the most unexpected places.
The Guardian newspaper has more on this story. Have a read, it will certainly make you laugh yet they are totally serious. Could you, or someone you know, fit the bill?
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Reduce reduce reduce!

What am I talking about? – Reductions!

What are reductions? – These are shortened, combined, or ‘reduced’ forms of English words. For example gonna (going to), wanna (want to) and hafta (have to). There aren’t ‘real’ words in English and are not used in writing however they are frequently used in spoken and informal English, especially in movies and music, so it’s a good idea to know about reductions in order to understand these and to sound more natural when you are speaking with native English speakers.

So let’s have a look at some:

gonna – going to
gotta – got to
hafta – have to
hasta – has to
wanna – want to
whaddaya – what do you
howdya – how do you

Have a look to see if you can hear these the next time you listen to some English pop music. 

My favourite is ‘dunno’, which means ‘I don’t know’!

 

Contact Rachel today > http://www.italki.com/teacher/1394345

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Hold the front page!

I think that this little exercise is one of the most fun activities that you can do that will vastly improve your English when you are over the basic level. This is to imagine that you are a journalist for the day.
 
Watch an old Agatha Christie crime story, such as Hercule Poirot, or any crime series really for this little project, then write a front page article for the newspaper after watching either a clip or a full episode. Don’t just try to do a simple report that just states the facts, try to use your imagination, report perhaps what a certain character had witnessed, or even imagine you also had the opportunity to interview either Hercule himself, one of his sidekicks, or any of the many suspects in the case.

This little exercise will help you to use all your tenses, to describe past activities and the backgrounds of the people involved, where they have been and who or what they say they saw at the time. Also, practice how to describe the current activities of an on-going investigation as well as the planned future activities of the investigation.
 
Then perhaps think about the task of interviewing the individual characters from the investigation. Try to ask direct questions relating to the episode and the character’s role in the events in order to expand upon the original crime report. You could try creating your own video news report and practice your pronunciation too, to check how you sound when you speak English, and get your teacher or another native speaker to check your work. So the written English exercise turns into a spoken English exercise as well.
 

I think crime drama adds a bit of spice which helps to fire up the imagination. Why not try this on a wet and rainy Sunday afternoon?

Contact Rachel today > http://www.italki.com/teacher/1394345

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Tips on making “small talk”

For the majority of my students, making “small talk,” or short conversation with strangers or co-workers, is the most difficult part about using their daily conversational English. Here are some tips that I have found useful when making small talk:

1) Talk about the weather.
This one seems to be common in most cultures. Some examples are,

  • “The weather today is beautiful, isn’t it?”
  • “I can’t believe how (hard it is raining/sunny it is/much snow is) outside!”
  • “What are they calling for* tomorrow?/They are calling for* (rain/snow/sunshine/clouds) tomorrow.”

*A main point you should remember is to use the phrase “calling for.” This is another way to say “to forecast,” or “to predict.” In American English, it is much more common to use “calling for” than “forecast” (“forecast” seems too professional or proper in some cases). Try using this next time you talk about the weather.

2) Talk about the latest news
Here are some ways to bring up a topic:

  • “Did you hear about….”
  • “I can’t believe the news about….”
  • “What do you think about….”(used often for discussing opinion)
  • “Did you see….” (used often for news stories on TV)

3) Talk about something you have in common.
If you are talking to your co-worker, this is a great chance to talk about things you have in common. Some examples are:

  • “What do you think about the new (item in the office)”
  • “I love your shoes! Where did you get them?”
  • “Did you watch the game last night? What did you think?” (for talking about sports)
  • “Have you eaten at any good restaurants lately?”

The list could go on and on! I’ll update it again soon, but for now, try to use these phrases next time you’re making small talk! You might even be surprised that you’re talking too much at work!

I’d be happy to answer any questions, and leave your own tips if you have them!

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Eurovision’s Favourite Language – And the 12 Points Go To English!

Yes, it’s that time of year again, and yet again many of the acts in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest will be singing in English instead of their own native languages. English, it appears, is taking over Europe.

It wasn’t too long ago when French was the dominant European language, it was the official language of the European Union and the second language learnt by most UK school children, and of course it was the host language of Eurovision, although scores and commentary were always translated into English at Eurovision as well. However, nowadays Eurovision is hosted in English, with a simultaneous translation into French. How times have changed!

If you think back to previous winning entries of Eurovision, can you remember any acts who didn’t sing in English? Only those acts who can sing in English tend to make a big impact on the European music scene, take ABBA for instance who became a global phenomenon after winning Eurovision in 1974. Although, to be fair ABBA did actually perform their winning entry Waterloo in Swedish during the competition, but they are the only previous non-British winners I can think of at the moment!

Nowadays, Eurovision is renowned for its politics, more so than its musical acts, with multiple groups of countries voting in favour of each other for reasons other than the best performance on the night. English has now become the language of choice for acts wishing to not only win Eurovision, but to also use the contest as a platform to burst onto the international music scene.

Language experts tell us that in the future, native English speakers will be in the minority as the global uptake of English as a second language means that there will be around 2 billion people, a third of the entire population of our planet, speaking English as well as their own native language. This majority of ESL speakers will soon start to influence and eventually control the evolution of our language and this, it is believed, will leave native English speakers at a distinct disadvantage. So, in the future, is it possible that instead of reaching for your Oxford English Dictionary you may have to instead rely on your newly acquired Beijing English Dictionary, in order to ensure that words and phrases are spelt correctly? Could majority English eventually evolve into a dominant language and leave us natives behind, much like Eurovision and the EU have done to the French language?

Only time will tell!

Contact Rachel today > http://www.italki.com/teacher/1394345

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Having a ‘whoop’ of a time thinking about ‘whoops a daisy’!

Have you seen the movie ‘Notting Hill’? Have you seen the scene where Hugh Grant keeps saying ‘whoops a daisy!’?

 

‘Whoops a daisy!’ is an expression of surprise or dismay, as shown by Hugh Grant when he fails to climb over the garden wall. The modern-day equivalent is thought to probably be ‘Doh!’ The term has been shortened to “whoops” and some people think it may be related to the expression “to whoop,” as in giving “whoops of joy.”
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With regards to the historical background of “whoop” as a verb, it relates to a falconer who whoops his hawks and dates back to the early 1400s.  If you cried ‘whoop’ during a hunt this would indicate to your fellow hunters that your quarry, your target animal, or game, was dead.
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Whoop also appears in slang, for example ‘to whoop it up’  which means to have a jolly good time, or to ‘live it up’. “Making whoopee” arose in the US around 1927. Plus, something not so pleasant, for us Brits the term “whoopsie” is apparently a child’s word for excrement. So for anyone who mixes American and British English you must be careful to be clear between making whoopie, and making whoopsie! Things could go really wrong!
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Finally, yes people really do say this! Well… I do, and so does Hugh Grant!
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Easter Bunny

Each spring, people throughout the world celebrate Easter. Many spend it painting or hunting for eggs and eating chocolate bunnies. Often, children will even flock to their local malls to meet and take pictures with the biggest bunny of all, the Easter Bunny. But how did a giant bunny even become one of the most recognizable symbols of Easter? Here are the top five reasons why we celebrate Easter with a bunny!

For centuries, rabbits and hares have represented not only Easter but spring in general. Rabbits have long been known for being a symbol of fertility and new life. This is because rabbits are very fertile animals and can give birth multiple times in a year. The gestation period for rabbits is between 28 and 30 days and a doe can become pregnant again even just hours after giving birth.

In Anglo-Saxon pagan tradition, there was a goddess called Eostre known as the goddess of spring. Her main symbols were the egg and the rabbit. There was a legend that the goddess found an injured bird during winter and in order to save its life, she transformed it into a hare. Although it was no longer a bird, the hare was able to lay eggs.

Actually, the first Easter Bunnies probably were not rabbits at all, but instead hares. It is unclear why this change from hare to rabbit occurred, but one noticeable difference between hares and rabbits is that hares are generally larger. They tend to have longer legs and ears just like the modern day Easter Bunny.

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Since the Goddess Eostre was so important at springtime, there was a month-long festival dedicated to her. The festival started on the vernal equinox in March and lasted throughout the majority of April. When Christianity spread to Anglo-Saxons, many of the traditions during the festival of Eostre were adapted into the ceremonies in honor of the Resurrection of Christ because they both occurred in the same month and encouraged many pagans to convert. As a result, the English name of the Easter holiday is derived from Eostre.

Now, rabbits (or hares) come into this story because they’re the symbol of Eostre, but also because the rabbit has a strong connection to the moon in pagan tradition. The hare was believed to be a symbol of the moon, and the cycles of the moon are actually what determine what day we celebrate Easter each year. Easter is celebrated on the next Sunday after the Paschal moon which is the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

In other Easter folklore, the fabled white bunny we’ve come to know originated in Germany in the 1500s, where it was originally a white hare. It was believed that if a young child was especially good, the Easter Bunny would leave a nest full of colorful eggs. At the beginning, the children would use their caps or bonnets as nests for the eggs, but these were later replaced by the now familiar baskets.

In the eighteenth century, German immigrants to Pennsylvania brought the Easter Bunny tradition to the United States where it became quite popular. Germany is also where the first edible Easter Bunnies originated in the 1800s. They were first made of pastry and sugar.

The way you celebrate Easter each year may be somewhat different depending on where you live. Many places celebrate with the Easter Bunny but a few others have different animals delivering their Easter treats. For example, in Switzerland, cuckoos deliver colorful eggs to children, and in Westphalia, Germany, they believe in the Easter fox.

However, the most popular way to celebrate still seems to be with stuffed animal bunnies, rabbit-shaped chocolate and marshmallow candies and, of course, large anthropomorphic rabbits. One has even made it to the White House, presiding over the annual Easter Egg Roll with the Presidential family.

LINDA’S PROFILE

How do you celebrate Easter in YOUR country?

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Surround Yourself with English

I have been teaching online since 2010 and I have probably said ‘surround yourself with English’ over 1,000 times!  I guess it is my catchphrase

You MUST surround yourself with everyday English as much as possible.  The first time that you hear or read a word/idiom/phrase that you don’t know, write it down and look it up or better yet, ask someone (sometimes the dictionary can confuse you with idioms or phrasal verbs).  When you take the time to do a little research, the word/idiom/phrase is more likely to stick in your mind.  Then the next time you come across it, it will become reinforced and more of a part of your active vocabulary.   The more you hear or see something the more likely you are to remember it, right?  And that, my friends,  is why you need to listen and read English whenever you can!

The next step is to be able to actively use the word/idiom/phrase in your daily interactions.  This is where difficulties can arise.  Anyone can LEARN a word/idiom/phrase by using a book or the internet, but it is much more difficult to get that word/idiom/phrase into your active vocabulary and be able to easily use it yourself.  This is where PRACTICE comes in.  PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE! (another catchphrase of mine).  Once you learn the word, you need to use it!

Speaking with a native speaker is an excellent way to practice, but that may not be possible for everyone.  I am always posting on facebook, twitter, pinterest and tumblr to help students surround themselves with English as much as possible.  I hope that you will take advantage of it and spend a little time everyday to improve your English.

#EngVocab

catchphrase (noun) a word or expression that is used repeatedly and conveniently to represent or characterize a person, group, idea, or point of view

come across (phrasal verb) to find or encounter, especially by chance

 

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