Sveta Teaches English

A teacher’s life is full of all sorts of funny stories, this is one of the main reasons why this job is so great. Here is one of mine.

Being a huge Beatles fan, I often use the band in my examples when explaining certain grammar structures. I remember doing exactly that during a lesson I was giving in Costa Rica, when suddenly one of my students said: “Oh, the Beatles! I have never listened to them before”.

My heart skipped a bit. I couldn’t possibly believe it! 😧

- Are you telling me that you have NEVER in your life heard a single song by the Fab Four? 😰
- No, never. 🤷🏽‍♀️

You can probably guess what happened next, can’t you? The grammar could wait a moment - the whole world could wait; I HAD TO stop the lesson, and for the following two minutes the classroom was filled with the beautiful voice of the one and only Sir Paul McCartney ❤️

When I was leaving Costa Rica, I gave Katherine Jacobo a little goodbye present - a mug with the cover of Yellow Submarine on it. I hope she still has it - and listens to the Beatles, of course!

There comes a time when language learning suddenly isn’t as much fun as it used to be. You feel tired, and above all, frustrated. How come you still seem to be making so many mistakes - after all of this time and effort spent on studying? Are you ever going to speak fluently? If these questions sound a little too familiar, then this is what I’ve got to tell you: welcome to the infamous Language Learning Plateau.

This phenomenon usually occurs around reaching an intermediate level of language proficiency. Your progress slows down sufficiently, and getting to the next level turns out to be much more challenging than it used to be. Why is that?

Well, think of it. When you’re only starting to learn a language, making quick progress is only natural - pretty much anything will look like a great achievement when you have very little to measure it against. The more you learn, the harder it gets to see some tangible results. So what should you do?

First and foremost, stop beating yourself up. The fact that it’s getting harder to move forward as quickly as before essentially demonstrates how much you have already learnt! So give yourself a pat on the back and keep on learning hard!

Do you think you have reached the Language Learning Plateau? How do you try to fight your frustration? Let me know in the comments below!

Even very advanced English learners may sometimes find themselves struggling for the right words when trying to describe relatively simple things. For example, the cities we live in. Whether you are getting ready for your IELTS exam or just want to make your speech more expressive, these words are worth adding to your vocabulary:

𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗥𝗘𝗔:
𝗔𝗳𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗻𝘁 - prosperous, rich
𝗨𝗽-𝗮𝗻𝗱-𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 - likely to become very popular
𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘆 - very fashionable
𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 - accessible by various means of transportation
𝗜𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 - difficult to get to
𝗙𝗶𝗹𝘁𝗵𝘆 - very dirty
𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱 - very quiet, boring
𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 - dangerous, unsafe
𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆 - full of activity and excitement
𝗕𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 - busy, full of energetic activity
H𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰 - famous or important in history
𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 - where people live
𝗣𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗾𝘂𝗲 - visually attractive, presenting a nice view
𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘆 - visited by a lot of tourists
𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗱 - lacking material and cultural benefits

𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗕𝗨𝗜𝗟𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦:
𝗥𝘂𝗻-𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 - in very bad condition
𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 - extremely attractive
𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 - very impressive, great
𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝘂𝘀 - very ugly
𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 (building) - a skyscraper
𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆 - modern

And how would you describe your city? Tell me in the comments below! 👇🏻

Back to writing an amazing resume!

We’re about to look at the most essential section - WORK EXPERIENCE.

Here are some tips on how to make it as effective as possible:

Just like your Personal Statement, this section must be TAILORED SPECIFICALLY TO THE JOB AD. Every work description you include in your CV must match some requirements of the vacancy you’re applying for. Make yourself seem like an obvious fit for the position❗️

- Use ACTION VERBS. No, you weren’t “responsible for developing and designing,” you “developed and designed”! This way it sounds much more reassuring and looks much neater - and it saves so much space❗️

- Be specific about what you achieved. The fact is, your job title is pretty much all the recruiter needs to understand WHAT you did. So your main goal here is to show HOW WELL you did it! Try to apply the following formula: PROBLEM - ACTION - RESULT. This way you’ll show how exactly you saved the day on each occasion.

- BE CONSISTENT. Include only relevant work experience. If possible, rephrase the titles of your previous positions to seem more in line with the desired field of work. For example, instead of “shop assistant” write “customer service representative”. Have little professional experience? Write about any volunteer work you have done, or put your education section first. But above all, don’t make it seem like you’ve done a bunch of random things here and there, your CV has to look logical and coherent! Even employment gaps aren’t as bad as a resume that looks like a crazy mix of unrelated occupations 😉

March 8 is recognized as International Women’s Day in a great number of countries around the world, but nowhere is it more important than in Russia. The reason for that can be found in the history of the holiday, which is strongly linked to the women’s movements during the Russian Revolution (1917).

Since then, this day has been largely intended to highlight the fight for women’s rights. Many women worldwide commemorate March 8 by going on strikes and organizing manifestations.

At the same time, for many this holiday is aimed at celebrating womanhood in all senses, and serves as another good reason to tell all important women in our lives how much they mean to us.

However you choose to interpret and celebrate this day, I hope you spend it with a big smile on your face!

Happy Women’s Day, dear ladies!

Over the recent years we have witnessed how life has increasingly moved online, especially since the coronavirus pandemic broke out. Nevertheless, lots of people are still reluctant to the idea of online language learning. They’re worried that online classes may feel too formal and distant, and doubt their effectiveness. How justified are these fears?

In my personal experience, not very. Yeah, sure, it might be more pleasant to be in the same room as the person you are interacting with, but does “more pleasant” doesn’t necessarily mean “more effective”. On the other hand, the advantages of having your classes online are hard to deny. These are just a few:

- It’s a great time-saver. You don’t have to worry about how long it’s going to take you to get to / from your class. And you’ll probably hardly ever be late!
- You can study anywhere you want. No need to reschedule / cancel your lessons in case you decide to go on an impromptu vacation or your company sends you on a business trip.
- All lessons can be recorded. You spaced out there for a minute and skipped a piece of an explanation? Were too tired to pay attention? No worries, there’ll be a video you can watch and catch up!
- All notes from the lesson can be saved. This saves you the trouble of copying from the board and lets you keep the notes in digital format, which is admittedly more convenient.

Still not sure that online classes are your thing? Well, just give it a go! You might be pleasantly surprised.

In order to progress in language learning it is essential to study every day, which isn’t easy to do. It’s hard enough to squeeze a couple of classes a week into your busy schedule, let alone finding some time every day!
And yet, if you really want to learn a language, you should be able to do that, and here is how.

Combine language learning with your everyday activities. Remember how you scroll your Instagram feed at breakfast every morning? Or read the news? Subscribe to a bunch of accounts in your target language and make it a habit to get your news from news sources in your target language. Doing your everyday exercise? Cooking? Taking the metro to work? Brushing your teeth? All of these things can be done while listening to the radio / YouTube channel / audiobook in the language you’re learning!

This tactic is truly effective, but, of course, it doesn’t mean you should never sit down and open your grammar book. You should do both, and if you really commit yourself, it won’t be long before you see the first results!

I finished my previous post dedicated to writing a CV by listing relevant sections every resume should have. The second one on my list was PERSONAL STATEMENT.

This short paragraph at the top of your resume, also called a CV SUMMARY, highlights your area of expertise, main skills and achievements in just 2 or 3 phrases. This way the recruiter will know most of what they need to know about you in the first couple of seconds - and if they like what they see, they’ll read on, but only if you make them like it❗️

So, how do you make your Profile Statement stand out❓

- TAILOR IT TO REQUIREMENTS OF EACH JOB APPLICATION
Even if you are applying for similar jobs, each job ad still has a list of some particular skills/experiences necessary for this particular position, and it’s up to you to show the recruiter that you’ve got them!

- HIGHLIGHT ONLY RELEVANT EXPERIENCE AND ACHIEVEMENTS
The accomplishment you are most proud of is not always going to be the most relevant for the job you’re trying to get. On the contrary, some of the things you might have trouble remembering may have involved exactly the competences the employer is looking for! Leave all of the wonderful, but irrelevant work experiences OUT of your personal statement and replace them with whatever the recruiter actually wants to see!

- KEEP IT SHORT
Remember, you don’t have more than several seconds to catch the recruiter’s eye, so don’t go over 3 or 5 SHORT sentences!

An example of an effective Personal Statement would go something like this:

☑️ Enthusiastic language instructor with 10 years of experience. Taught 500+ students. Delivered lessons, supervised speech clubs, edited 2 school brochures. Skilled in designing educational materials.

Did you find this information useful? Please put a “+” in the comment section if you did! 💁🏽‍♀️

Being a teacher can open lots of different doors for you, and for me it was the door to the beautiful Central American country of Costa Rica, where I spent 3 exciting years teaching English.

One of the groups I will always carry fondly in my heart is in the picture above. These guys were among my first students in Costa Rica. I remember very vividly the time when I gave them a task to prepare a presentation about the most impactful events in their lives. I was expecting to get some cheerful stories on high school graduations, weddings and other joyful occasions. Little did I know that the following lesson would leave me bawling!

My dear sweet students REALLY took the assignment to heart. One after another they told me the most intimate, profound and heartfelt stories, one more touching than the other. By the end of the lesson I was fighting back tears as best I could. Needless to say, ever since that day I felt like we’d gone beyond the usual teacher-student relationship - they had made me their confidant, and I was truly honored.

On the day of their graduation these beautiful people once again moved me to tears by giving me one of the most meaningful gifts I’ve ever got. And you guys can be sure - I definitely remember you, and always will ❤️