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 🇺🇦.

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 👐. 

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 😊.

Time for Culture

The last English Speaking Club meeting was dedicated to Cultural features and we started with a question trying to find out what it it members love more movies 🍿 or plays in the theatre 🎭 . There were some who voted for both and some who chose movie option. Unfortunately Theatre becomes less popular among young generation but there are still so many good things about it. As we always do during our meetings - we discussed themed questions, revised the vocabulary and pretended to be film starts reading some monologues from famous movies.

Are you a cinema or theatre person?

Are you a saver or a spender?

Are you a saver or a spender? 🤑 That’s a very tricky question was asked our participants of English Speaking Club 🗣️. Most people said they were 50/50 and of course the expanses depend on different situations. As you understood the topic our last meeting was dedicated to money 💰 and purchasing 🛍️. We learned some phrases and expressions to talk about money and how to do the shopping in English; we discussed questions and had fun 🤩.

Do you want to learn English and improve your speaking while having fun? Join us 🤗

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 🙏

Thank You Day

    One of my favorite activities which I’m grateful for 🤗 that is Speaking Practice we have twice a week. I want to thank all of the participants who join and improve English with us, volunteers who help us with speaking, the Peace Corps who supports and find great people who collaborate with us.

    January 11th there’s an International Thank You Day so today’s meeting was dedicated to things we are all  thankful for. After that we learned some expressions we could use instead of saying typical one “Thank You” and we also reflected on the importance to be grateful. Gratitude promotes optimism and helps us to develop a more positive outlook. It lets us pause for a moment to reflect on something we have in our life right now instead of always striving for more … the next goal, the new dress, the new toy, the new car, or the house renovation …

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.

City/ Countryside Lifestyle

Another great class we just had with nice people who are always ready to talk and discuss different topics. Despite I’ve prepared a “City/ Countryside Lifestyle” topic we covered many other questions where we had a real English conversations.

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.

Walt Disney World

I had a nice class with schoolchildren of @dieslovo.ks which we dedicated to the events in the past. Because mostly kids love Disney characters we decided that they could help make the lesson more entertaining.

We looked through some Past Simple rules and consolidated them having different activities. I’m so glad we have zoom meetings cause we all can be united even if we’re far away from each other. 

I believe that one day we’ll meet each other at the @library_kherson_ua and @dieslovo.ks 

Speaking Practices

One of my favorite things to do on Monday is to conduct English Speaking Practice. Thanks to our friend from Canada who always helps improve our pronunciation and understand some idioms and phrases. Thanks @pearsonofficial for great resources in learning the language.

And of course a huge thanks to our participants who have been taking part in our conversations for a long time.

Be part of our team and learn English while having fun.

You’re never too old to have child’s memory

Yesterday’s meeting of the English Practice we dedicated to Theme Parks. There’s no person who hasn’t been to an amusement park at least once in their life. So we all had some memories (whether they’re good or bad ones) of visiting such places. Of course at the beginning we learned some vocabulary and then talked about our favorite rides and attractions.

It was great to enrich our vocabulary on this topic and improve our speaking skills

Speaking Practices

Some people see the nineties as the good old days but what do you think about life in the 90’s? Yesterday’s meeting of the English Practice we dedicated to living in that decade. It was great to remember how we used to live comparing to nowadays.

We had lots of fun reminiscing our childhood. Of course there were some negative things but who doesn’t have them now? Anyway, we should enjoy every moment of our life wherever we are and whenever we live.

Social Medias

Which of these popular abbreviations do you know? Yesterday’s meeting of English Practice we dedicated to Social Medias and learned some slang which is common in everyday life when you’re online. We discussed questions, shared our favorite apps and told why we use them. BTW a game “What’s on your phone?” we played at the beginning helped us to find out something new about each other.

We’re happy to celebrate its Independence Day having our English practice

Ukraine is not only an independent country, but it’s our home with beautiful nature, great people and rich culture. We’re happy to celebrate its Independence Day having our English practice.

We talked a lot about our country, looked through some stereotypes that foreigners might have about Ukrainians and learned some Ukrainian proverbs and sayings, comparing them with English idioms and made sentences to consolidate them. Overall it was a nice practice with friendly people

How are you?

How many times you’ve heard “How are you?” And what’s your usual answer? Fine, ok, good. But what about other expressions to describe your mood? With these great people we talked about mood and the things which affect it, had a little discussion and of course learned idioms and other phrases to sound more honest and advanced.

If you’re interested in these phrases, visit our Telegram group: https://t.me/+TS58W2NYNenDOTg0 to get more of English

English unites people

I guess everyone’s already heard that the president of our country submitted a law on the use of English in Ukraine. It’s going to be a language of international communication. Do you think that news will change people’s attitudes towards learning English? 

Anyway, at least they should know what they can do to improve it. Thus during our English Speaking Practice we had a little discussion and then reviewed some great resources which helps to improve the language: YouTube and Telegram channels, Websites and Social media, different online platforms and other more.

And you’re always welcome to join our online meetings and improve your speaking skills

In search of American holidays

This week the USA is celebrating its birthday. And we’d like to thank every American citizen who supports Ukraine and our people. That’s July 4th is one of the most popular American holidays which people enjoy not only in the US but in the rest of the world. Our Speaking Session we dedicated to this magnificent country and dove into its life a bit.

We discussed some opinions about American culture and then learned some American Idioms which are still very common in English. We did some exercises to practice using them on the interactive platform CoolEnglish that made this learning more effective.