Procrastination Nation

I can’t stop being impressed by our teenage group from Kherson and Mariupol. They’re making a huge progress in learning English 🤗. Thanks to Alana Underwood, our friend and a VSPP member, we can improve our speaking 🗣️and we always discuss important topics of everyday life.

During the last meeting we found more about Vision Boards, what are they purpose and how to make one for yourself. Such boards represent a collage of images and words which usually related to a person’s wishes and goals, intended to serve as inspiration or motivation. They also might help you change something in your life. After some discussions we moved to a practical task - we tried to create a group vision board all together, answering some questions about family and friends, school, graduation etc. Some of the examples are - spend more time with family (especially if some members are far away from home); have an opportunity to travel; study offline and meet classmates in person. Hope all the wishes of our students will come true one day 🙏💫🥰. 

ZOOM Fatigue

How often do you feel tired after having ZOOM meetings? What is “ZOOM Fatigue” and why does it occur during video calls? These and other questions were discussed at our English Speaking Session.

We started off with sharing our opinions about Zoom calls - of course there were some participants who thought that such video calls are pretty handy especially if people work from home, but the others supposed that online meetings might be a nightmare. After that we read the article with 10 facts about video calls, learned some idioms related to tiredness and discussed them comparing to our own routine.

Give or Get

Which is better to get or to give? The young people who joined our Speaking Class chose the second option. They also shared what acts of kindness they’ve done recently and about ones they plan to do. It was such a great experience listening to their stories. There was a guy who paid a fare for one lady who didn’t have money. Another girl baked cookies for her neighbors. Some other students do their best to donate something to the army or just help people from their neighborhood. Alana Underwood, a VSPP volunteer, shared her thoughts 💭 about this conversation and made a conclusion that both acts are really important and essential in our daily lives.

Advent Calendars: what they are and where they came from

December is the time when people are getting ready for holidays 🎄🎁. And to make this period fun and exciting there are lots of different ways to do it. Some people choose Advent Calendars. But what they are? And when they became popular 🤔?

The Advent Calendar was first used by German Lutherans in the 19th century. Many advent calendars take the form of a large rectangular card with “Doors”, one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Day.

Nowadays you can find such “countdown” calendars for kids and adults, from chocolate ones to huge beauty boxes. But there’s one important thing - put yourself together and try not to open all “doors” until the last day 😉.

We couldn’t help discussing this amazing topic with our youth from Kherson and Mariupol and our friend, a VSPP Alana Underwood. At the meeting we decided that we would open a “door” of the English Learning Advent Calendar every day up to December 24 🎄.

If you want to do practice your English - join our FREE meetings and learn 🇺🇸🇬🇧while having fun.

How to be grateful no matter what!

This coming Thursday, people in the USA 🇺🇸 and some other places are going to celebrate Thanksgiving Day 🦃🍁🍰 so we couldn’t avoid talking about the importance of this holiday. Alana Underwood, an American VSPP, shared some traditions of her family and told how beneficial it was to be thankful for everything and everyone. How giving thanks helps people feel better ❤️‍🩹 and even more, it might change someone’s life. She also shared some great prompts for a gratitude journal 📝 in the chat. After that we focused on a practical side - we looked through some tips how to move from journaling to behavior and after that we played a “Gratitude game”.