New meetings of Speak Out Club

That was a great start of new online meetings where we all gathered to improve our English with the Virtual Service Pilot Participant from Philadelphia. Varley Paul shared an amazing presentation, video and pictures of her city and Pennsylvania State, after which the visitors had some conversation.

We’re impressed that most people who joined this session were from Kherson and they are currently staying in Kherson too. What brave people.

A big thanks to @peacecorpsukraine for support and participation in this event.We want to inform you that we’re going to have such meetings every Tuesday at 15.45 time.

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. 

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 🤩.

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.

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.

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

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.

Every Day English

An online meeting of English Speaking Club was yesterday and we practiced our English with each other. We played a game “Name 5” and revised our vocabulary in different topics such as "Jobs", "Movies and TV Shows", "Sports" and "Containers". We discussed questions and shared our favorite items. It was amazing 🤩 to meet active members from different places and can’t wait to see all of them next time. Join us every Monday and Thursday and learn English with pleasure.

Time will Tell

Yesterday there was an online meeting of English Speaking club which was dedicated to our childhood memories. We answered some questions in order to find out more about each other and shared the most vivid moments of that time. We also looked at some "Time expressions"  such as “Time’s up”, “Time after time”, “Take your time”, “At one time”, “At the best of times”, “In no time”. The most confusing for them were “In time” and “On time” #expressions . But after practicing and using them in different sentences it all went perfect 🤗