Work Hard. Dream Big

What is success? Is it wealth? Is it happiness or fame? Most people agree that it cannot be defined in one sentence, but instead it contains many things. Yesterday members of English Speaking Club joined Window on America Center for Future Leaders meeting from different places (the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Cambodia and Ukraine) to improve their English. The topic we discussed was about “Success and how to achieve goals”. Thus we answered the questions, read some quotes and explained their meaning. After that we looked through some success habits such as organization, relaxation, positive attitude, personal care, taking action, sharing to think over our lives. It was a nice meeting because people talked a lot and that was amazing 🤩.

Welcome Back

First meetings of English Club for kids and teens were held today at Window on America Center for future Leaders. We’re so excited to see kids who came to learn English and who made our day today. They are all so smart, friendly and funny. These meeting were dedicated to introducing ourselves and getting to know each other better. We watched some YouTube videos about greetings around the world, then we learned some more phrases to say hello 👋. Activities such as “Change your seat if…”, “Pass the ball” and “What’s in your name?” made these English practices fun 🤩.

English in Summertime

Summer is in full swing and lots of people are still enjoying their holidays so Window on America Center for future Leaders dedicated its meeting to "Beach Holidays". We were happy to meet people from different areas (Ukraine, Romania, Cambodia) who joined online and shared their thoughts about summer and discussed some questions. As usual we learned some beach vocabulary namely: coast, seashore, riverbank, harbour, tide, current, jetski etc. We also looked through some great idioms such as “to bring sand to the beach”, “to bury your head in the sand”, “to make waves“, “to swim with sharks“ and then participants tried to come up with different situations where they could use these phrases. Also we are really thankful to our native speakers from the USA, Great Britain and Canada for helping us improve our speaking skills. See y’all on Monday.

Let's meet summer

The last meeting of English Club this season was held at the Kherson Oblast Library for Children. Kids came to improve their English and revise the topics they’ve learned during the school year. With  the little ones we played "Jeopardy" and "Logical reasoning" games. And teens used their gadgets to work on the Kahoot Learning Platform". We also talked about summer and our favorite things about it. 

Also there was a Game Session meeting for the members of English Speaking Club. We met some visitors online (who currently lives in different cities) and in person. For that meeting we chose a speaking game called "This or That" where the participants had to choose one option they prefer and then explain why in 30 seconds ⏱. There were 2 options like dogs /cats; youtube /netflix ; phonecall / textmessage; music /podcast; apple / android; swimming /sunbathing etc. And at the end we played another fun game - "Spelling Bee".

Let's Talk English

Online meetings of English Speaking Club are always held on Mondays and Thursdays at 4pm. It's a great opportunity to improve English with native speakers, volunteers from the United States, Great Britain and Canada. 

This week Window on America Center for Future Leaders had two English Practices. On Monday, May 25th, we talked about "People around the world". And the first question we discussed was if we ever judge people on their looks and if we notice such things as tattoos, body piersing, makeup etc. After the discussion we learned some useful phrases like "to deal with someone", "to put up with", "get along with", "to butter someone up", "to sweet talk someone", "to comfort someone", "to keep to oneself", "to put someone down". 

Thursday meeting we dedicated to memories. Our visitors were given some introduction questions related to the topic and after that we played a game called “Positive , Negative and Crazy ” where the participants chose an option and the rest group gave them a theme to jog their memories. It was fun when people started to remenisce their past and tried to remember different parts of their life and share them with others.

Join our meetings and learn English with pleasure. 

On the Move

On Thursday, May 20, Window on America Center for Future Leaders was happy to meet its active members of English Speaking Club. And we continued to talk about Road Trips and Vehicles. At the beginning of our online meeting we did an activity “Road Trip Planning” where participants told about their perfect road trip using the following information such as kind of vehicle they would drive 🚗, people they would invite 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦, things they would pack 🔦🧳 and places they would see 🏝🗽. Then we looked through some useful transport idioms and learned some essential vocabulary to use when you’re traveling. Volunteers from Great Britain, the USA and Canada helped us improve our speaking which was great 😊. We’re looking forward to the next English Practice on Monday. So join us and find out interesting facts about English language.

Travel Around

Yesterday’s meeting which Window on America Center for Future Leaders had online was dedicated to traveling 🧳🚘✈️🗺. Active members discussed some questions and learned some useful phrasal verbs. 

Here are some of them 👇

- set off / hit the road;

- get around;

- deal with something;

- put up with something;

- see somebody off etc. 

To practice these phrases visitors were asked some questions and told about their last holidays. Also we played a game called "Name5" which was great because we all had to think about 5 different things (related to the topic) in a really short period of time. Our friends, volunteers from the USA, Great Britain and Canada helped us improve our English. Thus practice makes perfect every time 😉. Remember that and keep up learning.

Amazing Places

Our world is full of amazing places and it’s important to notice them! Yesterday, members of our English Speaking Club gathered online to talk about some of those places! The topic was sightseeing holidays and to start off, we learned some vocabulary such as famous places to visit; sightseeing activities and idioms. Then we practiced using them by doing a picture description activity. After that we all had a great opportunity to improve our speaking with a game called small talks, in which our visitors were given only 2 minutes to keep a conversation going. The participants from different cities in Ukraine and countries made this meeting fun and a blast! See you next time!

Movie Night

Last Thursday, Window on America Center for Future Leaders had another session of English Speaking Club where we all talked about Movies 🎬, Cinema and Food 🍿🍕🥤we usually eat there, Oscar Award and Film Genres. Our guests from different cities (Kherson, Odessa, Dnipro) and even countries (Cambodia, Kazakhstan) did some fun activities such as "Conversation Cards", Guess the movie by its famous quote" and "Create your own film plot using random story cards". 

It was a great 😊 practice because we all had an opportunity to improve our English with native speakers from the USA and Canada who are currently living in Ukraine.

Keep Learning English

Nowadays learning languages is an essential part in our life. Lots of people are learning at least one foreign language. Window on America Center for future Leaders decided to dedicate the last meeting of English Speaking Club to studying them. As usual we started with warning up questions and then we looked through some practical tips and discussed if they were really helpful. Among them are: 

* Have a reason that motivates you;

* Have a partner;

* Talk to yourself;

* Keep it relevant; 

* Have fun with it;

* Listen to people and watch them speaking;

* Immerse yourself etc. 

Thanks our native speakers we can improve our English and have fun with it.

English Speaking Practice

Last Monday and Thursday Window on America Center for Future Leaders gathered its members online from different countries to speak English and have fun 🤩. We were glad to meet people from Kazakhstan, Canada, Cambodia, The USA, Great Britain, Thailand and Ukraine. It was a memorable experience to get to know so many interesting people and improve our English! The game “5 words” helped us to speak a lot and ask each other different questions. In this game, our visitors had to describe their perfect day using only 5 words and after that the rest group had to ask questions regarding each word. It was a great way to get to know each other better. If you would like to improve your English and hear different accents join our online meetings every Monday and Thursday!

"Nina and Eve's Adventures"

Another great meeting Window on America Center for Future Leaders Kherson had today with Irina Skybenko, an author of books for teens, who presented her new book “Nina and Eve at Schonbrunn Palace”. The young readers of the Kherson Library for Children joined this meeting via zoom and not only had a wonderful opportunity to get to know the characters better but also improved their English because Irina’s books are in English. We did some pre-reading activities and even made a short virtual tour around the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna. Overall it was a really interesting and exciting meeting. So we are looking forward to the next session.

Discover America

Young readers of the Kherson Oblast Library for Children visited Window on America Center for Future Leaders yesterday to increase their knowledge about the USA. We played a board game “50-star game land: Discover America” which was designed by librarians. To find out more interesting facts about the United States children answered different questions on 5 categories such as nature, history, inventions, culture and disneyland. Besides questions visitors also looked at the US map and found different states on it. At the end of the game we also had 3 winners who got small presents - notepads and pens with WOA logo on them. Hope this game helped our readers to find out something new about the USA.  

Color of spring

We are always happy to see visitors at the Kherson oblast Library for Children named after Dniprova Chayka and last sunday Window on America Center for Future Leaders had 3 meetings of English Club for kids, teens and adults. Anna Reznik chose the spring topic for each group. Thus we all revised the spring vocabulary playing the game called assosiation and watching a video “What happens in spring?”. Then the little visitors did another activity called “Iceberg” where they jumped from “iceberg” to “iceberg” and called the words and phrases.

 Teens were working in groups and made up some short spring stories. 

And there was a boardgame “Name 3” which we played with adults and improved our speaking.

The Art of Photography

Photography has become really popular in the art world so Window on America Center for Future Leaders Kherson decided to discuss this topic yesterday during the English Speaking Club's meeting. We looked through some types of photography and discussed our favorite ones. 

We are really thankful to Connelly Molnar, our American friend for sharing his amazing pictures (he is very good at it 👌) and the opportunity to see beautiful places across the United States. 

We’ll definitely continue talking about this topic so don’t miss a chance to join our next meeting and share your thoughts.

What's in your name?

What’s in your name? That was the topic we discussed yesterday at Window on America for Future Leaders Kherson with visitors who joined online. We answered the questions related to the topic and then compared the names in different countries as well and explained why we like ours. We also learned some useful expressions started with “It’s...” (it's doesn't matter; it doesn't make any sense; it's doesn't prove a thing; it's none of your business; it's a lie; it's all the same to me; it's beside the point; it's new to me; it's out of a place; it's up to you; it's waste of time) and made up life situations using those phrases. And for a speaking game activity we chose “D-Icebreakers: feelings“. 

We are always happy to see new people on our practices so if you would like to become part of it - please do it. 

See you on Monday

Read Along

To spend Sunday with the whole family is very easy especially with the Kherson Oblast Library for Children. This day Window on America Center for Future Leaders  held 3 meeetings of English Club for kids, teens and adults. “Read Along” was the topic we discussed today with different questions about books 📚 and reading. All groups of visitors learned some vocabulary and did some activities to remember it. Also with the smallest visitors we read a story from "English ladder" sets.

With the teenagers we did "Madlibs" and then made up our own story. 

And with adults, after discussing some questions we also reviewed the grammar and how to talk about likes 👍and dislikes 👎.

English in Use

English is one of the most spoken languages all over the place so that’s very important to enrich vocabulary every day. Last Monday Window on America Center for Future Leaders Kherson gathered its members via zoom where we improved our speaking skills. To start off Anna Reznik prepared a boardgame “What do you know about…

? and we all tried to write down as many facts as we knew about bananas, English, Tokyo, jazz and the USA. After that we all had an opportunity to learn some of the really useful idioms and fixed expressions such as "hang on", "What's Up?", "go ahead", "never mind", "it's up to you", "get rid of it", "keep an eye on something", "get nowhere", "on the tip of my tongue" etc. And of course all the participants got they homework - to make up sentences using these phrases.

Can’t wait to have our next English Practice which is on Thursday. And as always it starts at 4pm.

Love Your Pet Day

On February 20th, pet lovers everywhere observe National Love Your Pet Day, so Window on America for Future Leaders Kherson held an online meeting of Speaking Club dedicated to animals and pets. Anna Reznik prepared some discussion questions and after that we learned some useful phrases and idioms. A lot of our visitors have more that one pet so they shared some funny stories about their domestic animals.

Whoever your pet companion is, we are sure you enjoy spending time with them. So don’t forget to show your appreciation to your pets 😊.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today, February 14th when lots of people are celebrating the Valentine's Day, Window on America for Future Leaders Kherson had two meetings of English Club for kids and teens. We were so happy to meet children at the library after a long break. And of course we talked  about “St. Valentine’s Day” holiday, learned some words and phrases related to it and played games such as "Bingo" and "Pictionary". 

Teenagers discussed some questions and worked with the presentation to know more facts about this holiday. We all had an opportunity to practice our English with each other and looking forward to our next offline meeting.

"On the Move"

To be “on the move” is one of the most important things in our life. And yesterday Window on America Center for Future Leaders held an online meeting of English Speaking Club where we talked a lot about "Active Lifestyle" and the importance of healthy living. First of all we reviewed the vocabulary of body movements and described the people on random pictures. Then we looked through some grammar rules of using adverbs of manner. At the end all visitors made up a story adding sentences one by one with the words they had learned before. Join us next Monday at 4pm and improve your English.

Let's Talk about... the future

Another great session of English Speaking Club was yesterday where we continued discussing the future. But at the beginning our visitors made choices between two different items like tea or coffee, sun or snow, early mornings or late mornings etc. and explained their choices. After that we all got to know new phrases for taking about the future. Here’s the list of them :

- it will happen any minute now;

- it’s just around the corner;

- near future;

- in our lifetime;

- it’s a sign of things to come;

- I’m counting days until...;

- sooner or later; 

- I’ll get around to it;

- I’ll do it right away; 

- Time will tell. 

And then we did a fun activity “What happens next” trying to guess the end of the stories. Join us to practice your #english because there you can hear the language from the native speakers.