Who's the spy?

Who’s the spy 🕵️‍♀️?

Yesterday’s English Practice we dedicated to board games which are always fun and exciting. For this session we chose a game “Spyfall” - one of the favorite games among our visitors. We asked lots of questions to find out who the spy was whereas the spy had to guess the place. 

Let’s check your intuition: which place do think we chose for the game:

* a) supermarket 🛍

* b) passenger train 🚆 

* c) movie studio 🎬

Write your answers in comments below 👇 

Love is...

Valentine’s Day or Day of Love ❤️ is celebrated annually on February, 14 when people all around the world express their affection with greetings and gifts. English Speaking Club for adults conducted an online meeting yesterday where we of course 😉 talked about love. We started off with a warm up activity “Talk for 1 min about something you love”. English Practice 🇬🇧🗣, Reading 📚, Food 🥘, Job 💻 were on the list of favorites of our members. After that we watched a short video clip and tried to think about its message. Then we came up with some ideas where people usually meet friends or partners nowadays and what stages they go through. We also looked through some phrasal verbs such as ask out, go out, open up, move in, settle down, lead on and break up. At the end we did a fun activity “Mad Libs” which was exciting.

This week speaking club sessions were on Monday and Thursday with lots of activities, topics discussions and fun. On Monday we talked about money 💰 and what we are good at - saving or spending 🧐. We also learned some useful phrasal verbs and idioms.

                                  

                                       

On Thursday we discussed some everyday problems that happen all the time in our life + plus we learned how to give advice in English. 

Some great websites such as #bamboozle , #wordwall and #youtube make English practice exciting and interesting.

Language: Do you speak slang?

Is it easy for you to learn foreign language? What difficulties do you usually have? 👇

Last meeting of English Speaking Club for adults was about languages and studying experiences. That was great to hear people’s funny stories when they use English and other languages. Then we looked through some slang words, which are more common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people. After that we tried to use them in different speaking activities. 

Overall the practice was snatched (any ideas what it means 😉).

"Let's Talk"

Winter’s back in our region full of snow and cold days and we decided to talk about this kind of weather and learn some phrases during the English Speaking Practice. Of course some of vocabulary was very familiar and our participants could speak  easily on this topic. But there were few phrases which our club’s members heard for the first time. It’s a big pleasure for us when after the class people learn something new and are always thankful. 

English 123

Today’s children’s visit to the Kherson Library for Children was wonderful and exciting because we met kids from Private School who “traveled” around the library and got acquainted with different departments. They practiced their English, played games and watched short animated films at Window on America Center for Future Leaders. They tried themselves as actors at the Art Department while performing a fairytale “The Mittens”. They made a “Snowman” by themselves at the Periodical Room and of course they danced with “Just Dance” which was lots of fun. It’s a big pleasure for us to see happy faces of kids so we’d love to see them again.

Christmas Movies

 

Who said that holidays are over 🥳? Last Sunday was the first meeting of Smart English Club for kids and teens which we dedicated to watching movies in English 🇬🇧. Kids came to the Library for Children and improved their listening and speaking skills while they were watching movies. For children aged 6-8 we chose a funny cartoon “Frosty the Snowman” where we learned some phrases and tried to use them in sentences. With teens we watched a famous Christmas movie “Home Alone” which was a way funny and interesting. We tried to make our participants feel comfortable so we set up some beanbag chairs and treated them with popcorn 🍿.

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 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.

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.

"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.

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.

"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.