The Art of Delegation

Despite those power issues in Ukraine 🇺🇦 we’re trying to catch up our meetings during English Practices. We started off with one of the summer speaking activities, which are always engaging and fun. Then we talked about chore delegation and our attitude to it, how often we want other people do something for us and what things we do ourselves. Of course we learned the grammar construction “Have/ Get something done” and “Have someone do something” and practiced using them in our speech, doing different activities.

What about you: do you prefer doing something by yourself or find people who can do that for you? 😉

British Culture and Stereotypes: Facts or Caps

What do you know about British people? Do you believe that they carry their umbrellas ☂️ and drink tea 🫖 all the time?

On the last English Practice we explored British Culture and looked through some stereotypes that lots of people have. It was really interesting to find out that Brits love queuing for anything and everything. They also have a certain code of conduct when it comes to queuing and you can never jump the line.

Another stereotype which was new for me is that the British have a “stiff upper lip” and they traditionally do not express their emotions or talk about how they feel openly.

We also could compare those facts to our culture and shared our thoughts in English. Thanks to @peacecorpsukraine we have a native speaker from the USA 🇺🇸 who helps improve our English.

If you’re interested in exploring Great Britain 🇬🇧 or just want to boost the language we invite you to join our online meetings on Thursdays at 4pm 🇺🇦.

Let's unite for the future

Europe Day which is held on May 9, celebrates peace 🕊️ and unity 🤝. The English Speaking Practice couldn’t miss the chance to talk about life values and principles. We started off with a discussion of the EU motto “United in Diversity” and shared our thoughts why it’s important to be united and how we can interact with other people. After that we looked through the 6 priorities of the European Commission 2019-2024 and compared them with different countries and our own lives.

We are so grateful that lots of countries support Ukraine and its people during this hard time. And we do believe that soon Ukraine will be a part of that Union 💫.

Світовий тур бібліотеками

І знову віртуально подорожували 🧳 бібліотеками світу з учнями 4 класу ЗЗНЗ 54 м. Херсона. «Відвідали» топ-8 книгозбірень по всьому світу, дізналися цікаві факти про них та перевіряли свої знання, граючи у вікторину «True/ False». Звісно ж увагу діток привернула й @library_kherson_ua . Адже неповторний дизайн кожного відділу захоплює та змушує зупинитися, щоб розгледіти все. Тому для дітей теж була представлена гра на уважність Scavenger Hunt, де учні займалися пошуком різних предметів. Ну і якже без практики англійської 😁. Наприкінці заходу усі присутні ставили питання та давали відповіді щодо існування певних предметів у нашій книгозбірні 👐. 

My world of technologies

Are you addicted to your phone or any other gadgets 🤔? That’s a really tricky question, because lots of people use their phones 📱/ tablets or computers 💻 for studying or working. I even don’t tell anything about entertainment, like playing games or watching movies. I decided to talk about different technologies with the 7th grade students from Kherson school and hear what they think about them. We started off with an ice-breaker “This or That” and voted for one of the options like “phone calls vs text message”, “Instagram vs TikTok”, “Smartphone vs computer” etc. After that we read a short text about a 15 year-old guy, who told about his experience of using his phone. We looked through some useful phrases and students compared their experiences according to the text. As a result we got the same idea that most of the students were addicted to their phones as well. At the end of the meeting I presented a short animated video “Like and follow” which teaches us how important sometimes to turn off our phones and enjoy the life, spending time with family or friends. 

Бібліотеки без кордонів

Бібліотека📚- це місце спокійного затишку з улюбленою книгою. Це «магічне» місце, у якому розкриваються усі твої таланти та збуваються мрії. Це просто приміщення з примірниками, де ти можеш знайти будь-яку книгу на твій улюблений смак. Такі відповіді ми отримали під час заходу «Бібліотеки без кордонів» з учнями 3 класу ЗЗНЗ №54, м.Херсон.

Під час нашої зустрічі ми віртуально мали змогу «подорожувати» найкращими бібліотеками світу та дізналися багато цікавих фактів про ці унікальні книгозбірні. Наприклад, у Норвегії можна повернути книгу у будь-яку публічну бібліотеку, не обовʼязково в ту, в якій ти її взяв. Або що публічних бібліотек набагато більше у США, ніж закладів швидкого харчування McDonalds.

І звісно ж що ми не оминули увагою нашу улюблену Херсонську обласну бібліотеку для дітей імені Дніпрової Чайки. Деякі учні побували там сьогодні вперше за допомогою VR туру, який представлений на сайті бібліотеки. Також ми пограли у захоплюючу гру “Scavenger Hunt”, де усі присутні знаходили певні предмети у відділах книгозбірні.

Дуже сподіваємося, що наша наступна зустріч вже відбудеться у стінах закладу оновленої будівлі 🙏

Stand-Up and other jokes

Prank, Dad Joke and Pun? What is the difference between these words? And yes, they are related to types of jokes.

Thus, on our English Practice we talked a lot about different jokes and we remembered some of the funniest things happened to us. Varieties of fun activities helped us learn more about American and British humor: we watched Stand Up videos, Prank Videos, looked at the Pun Jokes and retold these jokes.
Overall that meeting was full of laughs and positive moments 😊.

Life Lessons

How to be positive and successful in everyday life? Does it happen by chance or you have to work hard?

Last English Practice we talked about how to succeed in everyday life, how to be optimistic and of course how not to give up after some failures. Our friend and volunteer from Canada taught us some useful phrases and idioms which are very common. We all could improve our English practicing the vocabulary.

Happy Birthday, dear library

 

February 1 is a really special day for our @library_kherson_ua because it’s the library’s birthday 🎉. And this year we’re celebrating its 100-anniversary. During this day we’d had different events for the visitors. Members of English Speaking Practice joined online and had a fun and engaging meeting. With the help of our American friends, former Peace Corps volunteers and VSPP we improved our English and revised some expressions and phrasal verbs playing “Namits” game.

Thank you dear friends and my beloved library for having such great events 🫶

Wish you all the best. We’ll definitely come back to Kherson and make you more beautiful for our guests 🙏

What’s your choice: city or countryside?

Living in a big city or a small town - which is the best option for you? As for me I prefer cities with lots of interesting places to visit and entertainment for all family. However there are some advantages of living in small towns such as lack of traffic jams, quiet streets and moderate lifestyle. Yesterday with the members of English Practice we compared lifestyles, found pros and cons and imagined how our lives would be different if we lived in different places.

Time heals

Last Sunday lots of countries changed the time so did Ukraine 🇺🇦. Thus our Speaking Practice we dedicated to TIME.

We had a nice class with lots of speaking and discussions. Some of the phrases such as “Time heals”, “Me-Time”, “Go through the Hard Time” we found very essential especially during this war period so we shared our thoughts on how to stay calm and positive.

Spyfall: game session

Are you good at asking questions especially if they are in English? If not, the game “Spyfall” is really good for practicing them. During today’s Speaking Club we improved listening and revised some rules for asking different questions. Despite there were just a few people we had lots of fun trying to find out who the “spy” was  among us. Playing games is one of my favorite activities while learning the language.

Come and join us every Thursday 

What’s the point of reading books?

Why do people read? And what’s the point of reading? Today’s English practice we decided to dedicate to “reading” and how it helps in learning English. 

We started off with the YouTube video about reading and then discussed questions. And then we read the advanced story “Couple Won Lottery” and learned some vocabulary which we looked through the text. 

English as a lifestyle

Stop learning English - start living it. Every day I try to improve my English spending at least 20 min per day besides classes. It can be reading news, scrolling social media, listening to favorite songs or podcasts and watching videos. Sometimes it lasts much longer.

I realize that knowing English is really essential today especially if you want to communicate with people from different countries.

During the Speaking Practice we discuss different topics and today’s one was related to “Disasters” cause people of Kherson Region are experiencing flooding in their lives these days. Unfortunately that’s not good news to talk about but to tell people abroad what’s happening right now we can and we should. Especially if it’s our hometown

First Times

Do you remember your first time…when you travel to another country? When you try new cuisine or exotic food? When you came to university? When you started your working day? Last English Practice we talked about our “First Times” reminiscing about our past.

We had lots of fun while sharing memorable moments of our life. The most important part was that all participants could speak English without fear of making mistakes.

International Party Holiday

So yesterday’s meeting of English Practice we dedicated to celebrations and parties.

We got started with brainstorming and named kinds of parties such as farewell, tea, housewarming, surprise, hen/stag etc. and also discussed pros and cons of hosting each of them. Then we did another fun speaking activity “Explain Why…” where our participants were given different situations and they came up with ideas why it might happen.

If you want to know more about English please join our meeting

April fool’s day

How to stay positive during these days, especially if you’re away from home or your family? My friends who join the English Practice, share their “recipes” of being happy against the odds. Some of them dedicate themselves to their favorite activities and hobbies. The others spend much time with families and friends. And the most important thing is to serve and help people in need. So we had a fun Speaking practice yesterday watching some videos, discussing questions, making up funny jokes and learning new vocabulary in English. 

I can definitely say that this group of people makes my day and helps being cheerful even if something doesn’t work for me. 

Thank you 🙏😊 friends for joining our meetings.

After one week of absence, we’re back to our English Speaking meetings again

 After one week of absence, we’re back to our English Speaking meetings again.

We talked a lot about movies and learned some vocabulary related to the topic. Our participants told how they choose which movie to watch, share different experiences going to the cinema and made a list of their favorite ones. We didn’t have time to do all the activities I’ve got for them so we’ll probably continue discussing this topic on Monday.

If you like binge watching or just want to improve your English, join us