English Lessons with Anastasiya

When learning a new language like English, vocabulary is one of the most important aspects to focus on. This is because building a strong vocabulary is essential for effective communication in any language.

The expression "can't afford" means that a person does not have enough money or resources to purchase or do something that they want or need. It implies that the cost or expense of something is too high for the person to be able to pay for it or make it happen.

The phrase "waste of money" refers to an expenditure that is considered unnecessary, frivolous, or not worthwhile. It implies that the money spent on the particular item or activity could have been better used elsewhere, and that the expenditure did not bring any significant benefits or satisfaction.

The phrase "struggling to get by" is used to describe a situation in which a person or a family is having difficulty meeting their basic needs, such as food, shelter, and other necessities of life. It suggests that the person or family is living in poverty or financial hardship, and that they are barely able to make ends meet.

The phrases "can't afford," "waste of money," and "struggling to get by" are related in that they all involve financial situations, but we should use them according to the situation we are in.

I was really looking forward to March 8 to teach a lesson about Helena Rubinstein fro C1 levels. She was born in the Polish ghetto, emigrated to Australia, sold loose cosmetics, and 10 years later you could buy Helena Rubinstein creams, and mascara perfumes, in any city in the world. I used a fragment of Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker article in the lesson, so I thought I'd share the story here. And for anyone interested, how about some True or False exercises? I will leave them at the end for anyone to try.

The article is about the colour of money. It describes the biography of Helena Rubinstein life, who at the end of her life became the richest women in the world.
She bought paintings by modern artists and she loved precious stones - her stone collection was alphabetically arranged in a filing cabinet.

She was in her 90s when burglars broke into her apartment on Park Avenue in New York. They introduced themselves as a flower delivery service and then tied up the butler and Madame Helena herself. However, she did not lose her presence of mind, hid the keys to the safe under her massive backside. Read the article to learn the full story.

True or False?
1. Helena Rubinstein was born and raised in a Polish Jewish ghetto.
2. She was 21 when she moved to Melbourne Australia and set up her business.
3. She nearly lost her business during the Great Depression.
4. She hardly spoke any Jewish, but her English and French were excellent.
5. She owned an impressive collection of art and jewelry.
6. She was in her late 70-s when she started dating a man 50 years younger than her.
7. Once her Park Avenue apartment was robbed but the thieves managed to get just 60$ of profit.
8. By the time of her death in 1965 she was one of the richest women in the world.

The Color of Money Sometimes beauty is just business.

Expressing your feelings

to be under the weather - If someone is or feels under the weather, they feel ill:
I'm feeling a bit under the weather - I think I'm getting a cold.

to be at ease - relaxed
He felt completely at ease.

to feel uneasy - slightly worried or uncomfortable about a particular situation:
I feel a little uneasy about asking her to do me such a big favour.

Do you think you can say "to be at nerves?"

Is it possible to learn English on your own?
Do you agree with the points mentioned?

You have to understand that anyone can learn any foreign language as long as they do all the roles and tasks required to learn English themselves. You have to understand that anyone can learn any foreign language as long as they do all the roles and tasks required to learn English themselves. Here I collected the main roles of a teacher that you will have to combine in yourself to learn a language on your own
1. The teacher's own speech
Here I would include not only the pronunciation but also the manner of speech.
When we learn, we look at the teacher as a role model, and subconsciously we absorb how he or she builds dialogues with us, and how he or she behaves.
That's how we learned our native language when we were children. We just watched and copied those around us. Plus, many students already speak a different native language, which most of the time contains different sentence structures. So listening to native speakers can passively teach you the structure that is being used.
Teachers might use metaphors, comparisons and examples for you to understand.
And, of course, it's important how much the instructor helps you navigate through all the variety of information that's out there right now. A good teacher will always recommend you some TV series/website/social network page/Youtube channel.
2. The ability to motivate
Most people who quit learning English did so because of a lack of motivation. That is, they started, then quit, and so many times in a circle.
There was no regularity, no system, no desire, and no result.
That's the teacher's job - to keep you motivated. It is important to maintain, and not to create from 0, this is important!
3. Teacher is a psychologist
We all have our own things in life except learning a language. We have tasks to do, and challenges to face. And as a teacher, it’s very important to help a student learn the language, despite all the external factors. So we are taught the ways to engage the student and help them to focus on the lesson rather than their current problems.
Besides, many students have a fear of speaking and making mistakes. Teacher helps you to overcome your fear and actually understand that mistakes are part of the process, which is direct psychology.
4. To be up to date
The teacher’s job is not only to educate others but themselves as well in order to bring new values and new concepts to the classroom. It’s our job to find new channels for students to watch, new trends that are becoming common in different countries, and discuss the news, which is complicated to do on y

Reading for beginners: Personal recommendation 😊🙂

Recently, I came across this series of books specifically adapted for children for whom English is usually a native language. Let's look inside one of the books of this series: The Bruce-Partington Plans

"On one hand, it uses easy language and easy structure sentences.
This story begins in the third week of a cold November. A heavy fog had settled over London. From Monday to Thursday we could not see the houses across the road from our rooms in Baker Street."

It looks simple enough to understand, maybe even too simple. However, once you go forward, you find vocabulary that is assigned to C1 level, as here:

"He groaned in disgust and continued pacing.
‘Criminals in London are dull people,’ Holmes said in a whining voice."

Words such as groaned, disgust, and pacing are all part of advanced vocabulary and they are commonly used in every fiction book.

* groaned = made a complaining noise
* disgust = strong feeling of dislike
*pacing = moving around fast

And the list goes on and on...

That is why I am highly recommending starting your reading journey with children's books such as this one.

How can reading improve your language skills? Part 3

3. Reading can improve your grammar and sentence structure

I always find Reading is a better way to understand the complicated grammatical rules that we hated in high school! But, do not take novels as the ultimate guide to grammar lessons. They are ONLY a set of example sentences in books to help you understand the rules of English Grammar. As long as you are reading, you become exposed to correct grammar structures and sentence patterns. As you read more and more, you begin to internalize these structures, making them more familiar and easier to use in your own writing and speech.

Additionally, while reading you reinforce correct grammar in your mind. As you encounter the same grammatical patterns repeatedly in different contexts, you can reinforce these patterns and strengthen your understanding and use of them.

And of course, reading provides context that helps you understand how grammar works in real-life situations. You can see how different grammar structures are used in different contexts and how they contribute to the overall meaning of the text.

My main suggestion to all students learning English is to make reading a part of your regular language learning routine and you will see drastic improvement over time.

How can reading improve your language skills? Part 2

2. Reading can improve and expand your vocabulary
There isn’t a better way to boost your vocabulary than reading!
A new book can always give you at least five new words! But try to avoid using a dictionary. The technique here is to try and understand the meaning of the words through the situations.
You may need to refer to the dictionary sometimes. However, try to avoid checking the meaning of the new words in every sentence. Get the help of the dictionary only if the context is unclear.

Another advantage of books is learning synonyms (a set of two or more words which has the same meaning).
For instance in the sentence: They live in a big house near Alberta, how many other words can you think instead of “big”?
You can say: huge, large or gigantic. These are called SYNONYMS!

Reading can also help us understand the meaning of the same words in different contexts.
Look at these two sentences:

They live in a big house near Alberta.
It’s your big day.

Do you know the word ” big” in both sentences refers to different meanings?
In the first sentence, it refers to the size of the house, whereas in the second sentence it refers to the “importance” of that particular day!

How can reading improve your language skills? Part 1
When I wanted to improve my English language skills I was told by many people that reading is the best way to improve language skills. But nobody really explained how exactly it helped. I figured out after reading many books that, reading can improve THREE fundamental aspects of communication.

1. Reading helps to improve your communication skills by describing things better.
This is the best part of books. You will learn to describe things.
For instance say, you want to describe a castle or palace you last visited, to a friend.

How would you say it?

Probably you will say “The castle was big and beautiful”!
It’s grammatically correct but don’t you think it’s short and vague?

Do you think you were able to describe exactly what you saw there, and your friend got the exact picture of the castle?

Let’s have look at how a book would explain! This is from one of the best children’s classics, The Secret Garden.

“The entrance door was a huge one made of massive, curiously shaped panels of oak studded with big iron nails and bound with great iron bars. It opened into an enormous hall, which was so dimly lighted that the faces in the portraits on the walls and the figures”

– Louisa May Alcott- The Secret Garden!

What do you think your friend would have visualized if you described it this way?
Some of you might be thinking, There Is No Way anybody would explain it this way!!
Well, I get it.
These are a bit too detailed in speaking context. However, regular reading of these will help you to develop clarity in your thoughts and next time when you see a castle you will be able to recall at least some of the words!

Give it a try and see for yourself!

Life happens when you least expect it to, and it often might kill your motivation to learning new languages.
It's easy to feel guilty, blaming yourself for not sticking to the routine or schedule. But instead, don't fight it. Let your brain do what it thinks is right for you in this particular situation.

If you want to know more about how to stay consistent in your language learning routine, keep scrolling.

1. Let it go.
It might be tempting to cling to your current routine even during difficult situations. Instead feel free to let it go and take a break as long as it takes for your body to adjust.

2. Take care of yourself
Prioritize self-care when its needed. If you don't take care of your body and brain, it won't take care of you. It's impossible to concentrate anyway when your brain is too stressed.

3. Easy back into it.
Once you feel ready to get back into language learning again, ease into it!. It might be hard to start again, but a little goes a long way. Start with small things, even 15 minutes a day will lead to great improvements.

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When you're feeling doubt yourself about something, you are feeling dubious. But when you're cynical, that means that your doubt is addressed to another person since you believe they are selfish and so can not be trusted

Dubious: thought not to be completely true or not able to be trusted / feeling doubt or not feeling certain
Cynical: believing that people are only interested in themselves and are not sincere

Even though these two words might look similar and might be used as synonyms, their use differs.

Bias is the action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment.

Meaning that bias is based on personal experience and opinion.

On the other hand, prejudice is an unfair and unreasonable opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge.

Meaning, that prejudice is formed not based on personal experience, but simply formed by unreasonable feeling without enough knowledge.

To give an example, you can be prejudiced towards a new person due to person's lack of manners. So you might treat them unfair. But when you get to know the person better, or you get enough knowledge about their personality, you start changing your opinion.

Bias on the other hand, is a more scientific term, used commonly in research since scientists might have a strong positive opinion about one topic and
strong negative opinion about opposing topic. In order to have fair judgement scientists are obliged to present facts, rather than personal opinion of both sides.