А вы смотрите сериалы в оригинале? Я вот не всегда. Теория большого взрыва в озвучке Кураж-Бомбей, например, добавляет колорита. Доктора Хауса я смотрела в двух вариантах, потому как изначально привыкла к озвучке ЛостФильм (которая не всегда была корректной), и другие голоса мне просто «не заходили», а в оригинале специфический вокабуляр в быстром темпе тоже не очень радовал. Вот Однажды в сказке я всегда смотрю только на английском – и терминов специфических нет, и разные акценты героев/персонажей – сплошное удовольствие в чистом виде.

Хотя я рассматриваю сериалы главным образом как источник новых слов и тренировка восприятия на слух. Но это не вся польза, которую можно извлечь из просмотра, когда изучаешь английский. Вот, например, видео урок по серии Касла.

Кстати, на канале много полезного материала в доходчивом изложении.

А если захотите поговорить – присоединяйтесь к моему еженедельному тренингу (подписывайтесь, чтобы получить доступ в секретную группу) на этой неделе мы как раз говорим о любимых сериалах.

Или заходите на мою страницу в Facebook где я делюсь наблюдениями, что можно сделать чтобы заговорить на английском языке.

I’ve read a piece by Shrinivas Rao from TED talk recently. There he explains why it is important to be wrong sometimes while you are chasing your dream. And I remembered how often I hear ‘I don’t know how to say it right’ during the lesson. Indeed, so many people rather be quiet than allow themselves to make a mistake.

 It might be a good strategy in some cases, I don’t know, but English lesson is definitely not the time and place for that. Of all places here you’re supposed to say something wrong – how will you learn otherwise? – as well as try and speak as much as you can.

The main problem here, as I see it, is excessive concentration on what you want to say. And there are several ways to deal with it.

- Try to hold something in your hands while you’re speaking. Like a pen or a cup of tea. Back to days when I taught students at my office, I always offered them tea or coffee before the lesson. That created more informal atmosphere and helped them feel more relaxed about speaking. Moreover, they could gain extra time for thinking while they took a sip from the cup.

- If possible, turn on background music. Really, do you listen to the radio or your play list while you do chores, work on a project, or drive a car? A melody to your taste helps to ‘stay tuned’ on the task you’re dealing with right now, taking away everything that is not important at the moment.

- There is one more way, possibly rather dramatic, but it works great for me. When I face an important conversation, I invite my interlocutor for a walk. Amazing, but walking keeps me both relaxed and focused at the same time. I feel less tensed about how to say things that I want to say, and I find it easy to come up with different arguments to support my point of view.

And what are your ways to stop worrying and start talking?

Our life is full of questions and answers.

And that is not a metaphor. Think of your day: at work, in a supermarket or a café you make questions and requests, you are given answers in return. That is the foundation of communications. No wonder, every English course starts with ‘what is your name?’ and ‘how are you today?’.

Mind you, with every next unit these courses tend to move away from ‘small talks’, as their point is to provide all the grammar and vocabulary range for a certain language level. But let’s face it: we don’t use all the variety of words and constructions every day. And what’s the reason in knowing how to make a reported speech sentence in passive voice, when you’re not sure what to say in return on ‘Oh, I’m so tired today, and you?’

I’m not saying that you don’t need passives or complex tenses. I only want to turn your attention to the fact that you should feel comfortable with speaking simple things, before moving to academic ones. Don’t hunt for high level grammar of sophisticated vocabulary. Find sites and communities to discuss everyday things. Attend speaking clubs at local language courses. Arrange English speaking hour with your friend or partner.

My teacher used to tell me: ‘If you want to learn reading, read. If you want to practice grammar, do exercises. But if you want to be able to talk, find someone to talk to’. I followed her advice and it works, you know.

That’s why I started my speaking training, to practice every day conversations. Feel free to join

Feel like watching a sitcom this weekend? 

There is one a bit funny, a bit naïve, a bit educational. About a multilingual class studying English. What I especially like about it is playing with words and meanings. There are a lot of pictures about how English is weird with its ‘running nose’ and ‘smelling feet’ – this TV-series is full of such staff. Add many idioms to be used in everyday conversations and mispronounced words that cause droll situations and you can take watching an episode as having an English lesson.

https://youtu.be/59ZABmeWeRs

As some of you already know, I’ve been learning French for a while. Well, it’s more learning words actually, as main Duolingo exercises are about translating. So, no wonder that I can understand a warning sign on my microwave and simple comic pictures in the Internet. 

About a month ago I decided to do some language exchange. I remember myself craving to find ‘a real foreigner’ to speak English with back to my university days. Internet made everything soooo much easier! There is no need to go abroad to talk to native speakers, you don’t even need to pay for it – because there are people who are eager to speak their native language with you as long as you speak your mother tongue with them. 

There are several websites that offer exchange, but I took advantage of FaceBook and found something to my liking close at hand. There’s a great community for those who teach and learn languages #WeDoLanguages that I have been reading for some time. You know, it’s motivating to find out about people speaking five, eight or more languages. So once, when reading my news feed, I stumbled on #swapsunday there and thought ‘why not?’ I wrote a comment about what languages I speak and which one I want to train. I had several comments and there was one suitable with dates and times, so we arranged a meeting. 

Can you imagine what was happening during my first talk with a French guy? His Russian was on the same level as my French. That day we exchanged embarrassing smiles rather than language. When drinking tea to calm myself down after this ‘talking’, I wondered why it went so wrong. And that it clicked. As a language user, I missed one thing that is always in my mind when teaching. That’s planning. 

As a teacher, I always have a plan for the lesson. Plan A, plan B and plan C when come to think of it. Because there are lots of things that may go differently during the session. But for this meeting I prepared nothing, I was going to be a participant not a teacher after all. My mistake. You see, one never goes to meetings without preparation. He or she tries to predict (or just knows) what is going to happen there. So one is ready with his words or arguments. And there I was, completely unaware what to expect after ‘nice-to-meet-yous’ and ‘how-are-yous’. Awkward, really. But we agreed to talk to each other again in a week. And this time I did my home work:

1. decided what I want to talk about 

2. decided on my story and questions I want to ask 

3. made some notes and wrote out the words I might need

4. prepared phrases ‘how do you say that’ and ‘could you speak louder/more slowly’ (I desperately needed them during our first talk)

5. tried to imagine our conversation and questions I might be asked, and practiced answering

As a result, our second meeting was far more successful than the first one. Of course, we smiled, gestured and muttered ‘I don’t know this word in your language’ every now and then. But we talked. After our third meeting I felt I really could say a few words and ask simple questions. I started building my confidence. That’s a wonderful feeling when you have an idea of what you want to say and suddenly you realize you know how to say it! May be you’d say it better in your mother tongue, may be it takes two or three times to repeat it in order to be understood. But you’ve done it!

This experience reminded me that teacher or not, planning and preparation matter. Easy to keep in mind, takes some time to complete. But becomes essential when you are there in the ‘real world’. And that is what I want to offer you – a weekly speaking practice. There are a lot of topics to discuss. And you’ll have your time to prepare, speak out your opinion and listen to others’ in a closed FB group.

Subscribe here http://eepurl.com/cFvLR9 to join and let’s talk!

Последние пару месяцев я находилась в «творческом поиске»: я люблю свою работу, но мне хотелось сделать что-то новое. Интернет услужливо мне подкинул несколько статей о том, что могут делать преподаватели английского, работающие онлайн. Первой мыслью было: и почему я не узнала об этом раньше? Потом недели метаний – чем же заняться в первую очередь, когда вокруг столько интересных возможностей. И я, кажется, определилась. Хочу объединить опыт от проведения практических занятий и подготовки к экзаменам и сосредоточиться на оттачивании разговорных навыков. 


Кому интересно, отмечайте мою страницу https://www.facebook.com/speakyourmindwithxeniya как понравившуюся и давайте общаться. Обещаю делиться опытом, полезными ссылками и материалами. Приглашаю принять участие в еженедельном разговорном тренинге.

Знаете, что я люблю в разговорных клубах? Эти занятия тренируют как раз то, для чего мы, как правило, идем на курсы – умение говорить. Грамматика и знание слов отступают на второй план: есть тема для обсуждения, нужно выразить свое мнение. Тебя поняли – значит, миссия выполнена. Да, желательно при этом говорить правильно и использовать новые слова. Но это не цель данного занятия.

А знаете, что мне не нравится? Время. Лимит времени обуславливает необходимость «вот прям щаз» ответить на вопрос, пока его задают, пока кто-то другой не успел. А ты на самом-то деле еще даже с мыслями не собрался, не определился, что ж ты думаешь по этому поводу. Хотя, если правда то, что я прочитала как-то в статье по психологии, женщинам свойственно «думать вслух» и, начиная отвечать на вопрос, они часто не знают, что будут говорить дальше, то у части аудитории есть преимущество. И все же, даже чтобы начать говорить, нужен – опять немного психологии – определенный уровень ощущения комфорта, а кому удобно с раз-два говорить на иностранном языке? Вот и получается, что пока собрался с мыслями, пока уговорил себя что-то сказать, уже и время занятия закончилось. Дискуссия удалась. Без твоего участия. Знакомо?

Некоторое время назад я задалась вопросом, можно ли придумать такой вид взаимодействия, где у каждого из участников обсуждения будет возможность обдумать, подобрать аргументы, выразить свое мнение и высказаться относительно мнения других. Кажется, я нашла решение. Кому интересно, не пропустите мой пост в четверг вечером. Я начинаю новый проект.