Lesson #18
1. 5 FUN WAYS to Learn and Improve Your English!
I met once a woman who spoke French much more better than me - with my University degree! When asked 'Why?' she answered simply: "I learned it through the pillow" - and do not laugh, my dear - it's a French idiom that means to learn the language with a bed-partner! or - as they say in Paris - 'par l'oreiller'!
2. Now we continue to learn 2 neologisms-abbreviations:
a) Snafu
Snafu is one of those perfect words that sounds exactly like what it means: “a badly confused or ridiculously muddled situation.” But what if we told you that snafu is actually an abbreviation?
The World War II-era abbreviation stands for “situation normal: all f*cked (or fouled) up.” Next time you find yourself thinking:
b) YOLO (you only live once! - and you are YOLOing all through the night! - or buying the shoes you were eying yesterday desperately - in short - you are doing unthinkable things!) is a nonsense abbreviation, just think, in a few decades YOLO might be just as much a part of common English as snafu.
3. When I was a student we were doing exercises on writing 'from nothing' - the only requirement was to insert new or given purposely by our prof words and expressions. Everybody had a personal style of his/mostly'her' in our case -- as to me, I preferred to do it mostly succinctly, in a philosophical way. As to my friend - she preferred retell us funny stories about lovers in the wardrobes; some others pretended to tell news on TV... It's up to you what style of the essay to choose! But you have to remember one-on-one item: the best memory is the emotional memory! So only if your language is not boring - it really helps you to develop your creativity in foreign language.
Today(/tonight I propose you to write the thing using this set of random words.:
together; quite; sometimes; therefore; else; outside; besides; beyond; indeed; inside; ago; instead; likely; especially; according; below; without; through; throughout.
In total, 19 of them! OK, my little tip - I'd write a landscape description - because then I was learning my French, and we were reading Maupassant essays about his boat travelling on the river Seine, and it was then I fell in love with landscapes descriptions in every possible language; can you imagine: they were always and without any regret omitted by me ever before!
Maupassant could become a great artist - if he wasn't already a great writer!
4. Ellen - about your New Year Resolutions
We'll continue our learning of the spoken language with humor stand-ups. I think, you won't argue the idea - only when you understand humor you really do! know the language!
5. About reading! As it was said before - we have to read a lot - just because you never meet such a quantity of vulgar and rude words in books as there is there in movies! With reading and through reading you will attain the exquisite quality of your speech and you'll never be ashamed of your language skills in any possible society! What is the message for you? I only wanted to remind you that:
- you have to read at least 2 pages a day - with dictionary - then learn the words! Now -you know the main Netty Tools, but the best is your hand and pencil and a sheet of paper... And an eraser!
- or - you can read instead an article a day - choose the site where you can find an interesting info - that won't make you feel drowsy and giddy, I mean... Learning has to be INTERESTING - never boring!
- nevertheless, if you still prefer books to revues - download 5 eBooks in English - it will be enough for your conscious reading as it was mentioned above - and for the whole year! And HERE is the pretty good SOURCE where to do it completely for free! Enjoy, my FRIENDS! (note: nobody said donations are prohibited!..)
Project Gutenberg offers over 58,000 free eBooks. Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find the world's great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for enjoyment and education.
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OK, what other sources could I propose to read? You may try TechCrunch, or Lifehacker, or - maybe - BusinesInsider?.. It's up to you ! Just make your choice! And - Forward!
6. The main reason for us to come to this little gathering is development of fluency in speech. And I'd like to give you some very simple and rather useful hints:
- you have to be trying to use simple verbs - because the complex and long verbs sound unnatural and lengthy;
- better to use the words that came to mind at once (which you remembered right away!) - than always saying some mumbling-bubbling incoherent sounds trying to dig out of your memory the appropriate word!
- avoid entering into complex details - they will make you stuck in it - I mean you will come to your standstill!
And now I'll tell you a zest of the lesson: we here mean to reach not only fluency as swiftness of your speech - we mean to learn how to avoid the translation phase in your head - and come from idea to speech only through English thinking! Because for fluency essential thing is to exclude your mother tong thinking - then your mother tong into English translation - these 2 completely unnecessary processes are greatly! infringing your speaking possibilities!
And here you are - some little exercises aiming your learning how to begin to think only in English!
- being like Snow White - trying to speak with animals - birds - things - but only in English! Relax - you aren't crazy - it's just a game!
- commenting TV-shows - podcasts - soccer matches... say your opinion as your elders usually do watching the programs they like!
- game "Don't give me a name!' - imagine you have come to a Mall to buy a saucepan - and you've quite forgotten the word! Describe in other words what do you want to do, what is it like, what would you be doing with it if you've bought it, what kind of thing has it to be etc...
- and the last one - it's not a game, but a little essay - about your emotional state - say it aloud - with all your emotional expression - and express it: your joy - your distress - your longing - your excitement - your happiness, at last! With facial expressions and gestures, intonation, voice modulations etc...
An we are happy as only children can happy be!.. - do you remember the song of little ducklings?!
