Learn English: Say IT With Words In Photos! Part 1

Learn English

Say IT With Words IN Photos….

Part 1

Level:
elementary to intermediate (possibly: upper-intermediate)

Materials You Need:
several note cards, a marker or pen
(optional: a palm-sized video camera, such as a Flip video camera)

Expressing your feelings…

Introduction

How do you express your feelings in English? For example, how do you tell someone that you:

love them?
are sorry for what you said or did?
are sad when you heard about the death of someone they loved (mother, father, child, brother, sister, grandparent, relative, friend…)?

How do you express these feelings or sentiments in your own language?

Say it with Flowers

Have you ever heard of the expression: “Say it With Flowers”?

Florists wanted to sell more flowers… so they encouraged people to express their feelings with flowers. They felt a flower – or better – lots of flowers could say it better than words….!

In different cultures, different flowers have different meanings.
If you would like to see what some of these flowers are
and what they can mean click here to see a website with photos of flowers
and their various meanings.

So if you sent roses what could they mean?
If you sent carnations, what could the person who received them understand?

Do these flowers have the same meaning in your culture?

English Lesson

Say it with Photos and Words….

However, another young woman felt that she could express her feelings or ”say it” better with words and photos…

Vocabulary

Before we look at the photo, let’s look at some of the vocabulary:

quit (verb) = to stop doing something
@ (how do you use this symbol usually?) = at
hell = a place where you suffer a lot
to put up with (phrasal verb) = to endure, to tolerate
temper = quick to become angry
bad breath = when a person’s breath has a bad smell
a broker = a business person who buys or sells something in place of someone else

Some interesting expressions:

“I’ve learned a lot … “ example: “I learned a lot studying English with this teacher.”
“I’m going to miss … ” example: “I’m going to miss all the fun I had during the month of August.”

As you look at this photo, answer these questions:

who is Spencer? guess
what did the girl put up with?

Look at these photos – did she succeed in expressing her feelings?

Review:

Who do you think Spencer is?
What did she do for Spencer?
Why is the woman quitting?
What did she put up with?
What did the woman learn?
When did she learn it?
Who is she going to miss?

Practice

Imagine you are quitting your job or quitting the gym you go to or quitting a team you belong to.
Using the vocabulary, grammar and expressions you learned in today’s lesson -
Write on different note cards your message
explaining to all your friends
why you are quitting
- just like the woman did….

Please put in the comment box below
some examples of what you put on your note cards

I look forward to hearing from you,

Enjoy English,

Eileen

Learn Colloquial English with The 5 Boyfriends

Learn and Enjoy English With The 5 Boyfriends!

Colloquial expressions….

Play-on-words….

Phrasal verbs….

These are always areas students want to know and learn more about….

So, today, I have something light and humorous to share with you.
My sister sent it to me.
I apologize I don’t know who the author or artist is. But I thank them for creating such an enjoyable day in the life of a mature woman with her “5 Boyfriends”!

Play-On-Words

But before you read about this woman’s day, here are some expressions that will help you understand the play-on-words, the colloquial expressions and phrasal verbs.

- “Will” is the shortened form for William, as well as part of the compound noun: will power.

- “John” is a name for a man; it is also an American colloquial, informal, but polite, expression for the toilet.

- “Charlie Horse” refers to the colloquial expression, charley horse, which is a painful and involuntary muscle contraction, (also called spasms or cramps), especially in the thigh or calf. (Do you know what parts of the body those words refer to?)

- “Arthur Ritis” is a play on the sound of the English pronunication for that painful disease that affects the joints, arthritis.

- “to go from joint to joint“: a joint is an American colloquial expression for a bar/pub/nightclub, they are usually smokey places, where there also could be dancing.

Phrasal Verbs

Your turn:
- did you get the play-on-words with the man’s name, Al Zymer? What is this name referring to?

- Look up the following phrasal verbs. What do they mean in their context?
– come along:
– show up:

Give up?
If you have any problems finding the words, click on the word – it is linked to the dictionary – but then you must choose which definition fits the context “he he he”

Enjoy!
Eileen

P.S. Unfortunately, I don’t have the artist’s name to request permission nor to give him or her proper acknowledgement.

5 BOYFRIENDS!!!

Did you know that…

I am seeing 5 boyfriends
every day?

Yeah, what a life!

The first one, well,

as soon as I wake up,
Will Power

helps me get out of bed. Bless him!

Next,

I go to see John

Everyone needs a “john” in their day, don’t you think so?

The third guy is

Charlie Horse

I don’t invite him over,

but he comes along, anyway,
& when he is here, well,

he takes a lot of my time & attention.

When he leaves,

Arthur Ritis
shows up & stays the rest of the day.

He doesn’t like to stay in one place very long, so he takes me from
joint to joint.

After such a busy day,
I’m really tired& glad to go to bed with

Ben Gay.

Oh, yes, I’m also
flirting with

Al Zymer!

Sometimes, I think I’ll call

JACK DANIELS
or
JOHNNY WALKER
to come and keep me company if life gets too stressful.

Now remember:
Life is like a roll of toilet paper…

the closer it gets to the end,
the faster it goes…

so,
- have fun,
- think good thoughts only,
- learn to laugh at yourself,

and count your blessings!!!

Here’s to life!

and

What a life!

(I’m celebrating because my husband
was a contestant in the
“International Husband of the Year Award”)

The Sun In Our Life

The Sun in Our Life

A solar flare photographed by NASA Stero satellite circling the sun

As we head towards summer in the northern hemisphere, many people are thinking of vacations, beaches, the sea. To all of us, summer means sun. We are enjoying the longer daylight hours and we are planning to buy suntan lotion, bathing suits and sandals.

So the sun is a very important part of our summer.

Reading Preparation

What is your favorite season of the year?
How do you feel on a sunny day?
What do you like doing on a sunny day?
Do you prefer to spend your summer holidays in the mountains or the sea? Or do you stay in the city? Or do you prefer to spend your vacation in the countryside?
Why?
Have you bought suntan lotion?

This Lesson’s Vocabulary

Do you know what all the words mean? If not, look them up here in the Word Reference Online Dictionary or a dictionary of your choice.

For example, in the first sentence we meet the pharsal verb: warm up. The Word Reference Dictionary gives several meanings. Which one is correct for this context?

Did you guess “get warm or warmer“? If you did, then you are correct!

What other words in this text are new for you? Write them down, look them up in a dictionary, then write a sentence using that word to help you remember it.

Our Planet’s Source of Life

We look at the sun rising every day. It’s bright, it’s big and it warms us up. Our sun happens to be the brightest object in our universe and naturally we are really curious to know more about it.

Our sun gives us light, heat and energy. It may seem that energy comes from other sources such as gasoline and electricity but the ultimate source of energy for the Earth is nothing else but the sun. If we do not have the sun, life on Earth cannot exist. It would be so cold that no living thing would be able to survive and our planet would be completely frozen.

The Sun – A Way To Learn About the Rest of the Universe

Learning English, EFL ESOL students and corporate languge trainees learn about the sun

A 3D photo of the sun

The sun is a normal star. It is much closer to us than any other star, and by studying the sun, we can therefore learn more about other stars. The better we understand other stars, the more we know about the Milky Way. From there we know more about other galaxies and in the end we learn more about the universe.

The sun also plays the role of a big anchor, which creates gravity that keeps our planet and the other planets of the solar system in a small space. If it weren’t for the sun, our planet would simply fly off loose into the universe.

Solar Activity

Enjoy learning ESL, EFL, ESOL and corporate English language training while studying science in English

A 3D NASA image of the Sun

Our sun is very dynamic and it changes constantly. It has the largest eruptions in the solar system. These eruptions can be so large that they can reach our planet and cause serious damage by disrupting satellites and other communication devices. Our TV may not work, our cell phones will be down, a high speed train may run loose and if an astronaut happens to be on the moon at the time when the sun erupts, he or she would be in great danger.

NASA uses satellites such as the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), to predict these eruptions so that we have a warning of at least 2-3 days to protect our expensive communication devices during a solar eruption. SOHO is just one of the instruments that NASA uses to help scientists understand our sun better along with other satellites and large observatories on Earth.

10 Important Facts About the Sun

1. The sun is a star. This makes it extremely important for life on Earth. The sun provides us with

Enjoying learning English, ESL, EFL, ESOL students and corporate language trainees take a closer look at the sun.

A NASA image of the sun with 3D filters

energy, which brings life on our planet. It defines the seasons, the harvests, and even the sleep patterns of all living creatures on Earth.

2. The sun is the closest star to our planet. Imagine two cars on the road during the night with their headlights on. One car is closer to you and the other one is far away. Which headlights would seem brighter and bigger? That explains why we see the sun so big and bright. It is simply the nearest star to Earth.

3. The Earth orbits around the sun.

4. The sun is much bigger than the Earth. In fact its radius is 109 times bigger than the radius of the Earth. For those of you who are curious, the sun’s Radius is 696,000 km and the Earth’s radius is 6, 376km.

5. The sun’s average surface temperature is 5700 C. Compare that to the Earth’s average temperature, which is 20 C.

6. The sun is 150 million km (93 million miles) away from the Earth.

7. How old is the sun? 4.5 billion years!

8. We know that the Earth’s structure consists of different layers. The sun also has layers but unlike the Earth, the sun is entirely gaseous; there is no solid surface.

9. The sun rotates on its axis approximately once every 26 days. The sun is made of gas, which is why its different parts rotate at different speeds. The fastest rotation is around the equator and the slowest rotation is at the sun’s polar regions (more than 30 days).

10. The sun changes. No matter when or where we look at the sun, we will always see something interesting. Scientists observe these changes by watching the sunspots. They increase and decrease on a regular cycle of about 10.8 years.

Reflection

- Which part of this article did you find the most interesting? Why?

- What is your favorite area of science?

- Have you heard about the coming Solar Storm of 2012-2013? What affect do you think it will have on our planet?

Please write your answers or comments in the box below.

Enjoy English!

Eileen

Photos are from NASA. Text adapted from the article, “Why Do We Study The Sun?”, on NASA’s website.

Learn English By Making Animation Films for FREE!

Learning English can be challenging.

But technology often can give us a helping hand as we learn English.

Can you type on a computer? Then you can make a film…

… an animated film where the characters speak English…

… the English language you gave them…

… the English words and sentences and questions – you have put into their mouths!

And you decide what accents they have, too.

Do you want your actors to speak the Queen’s English? Then give them British accents!

Do you want them to speak with an American or Indian accent – Then select that accent….

And Believe It Or Not… It’s Free!

So what’s the name of this software?

Go ahead…. Click on the name, it will open a window to the 3D animation website: Xtranormal.com

Here below is a film one of my students made….

Go ahead…. Watch it

Now tell me in the box below if you liked it or not…..

Have you made an English film at Xtranormal.com that you want to share with us?

Great!

Write the link in the comment box below so we can see it. However, it must be “G” rated!

I look forward to hearing from you and seeing your Xtranormal.com film!

Enjoy English Now!

Eileen

When You Sit At Your Desk Learning English, Do You Slouch?

Do you have good posture when you sit?

Learning English often requires long hours sitting at your desk or table studying English.

You have vocabulary to memorize, grammar rules to learn by heart, compositions to write, such as letters, emails, faxes, reports, etc.

Does your back sometimes hurt you? Are you beginning to slouch or slump? What is your posture like as you sit and study?

Dr. Wendy Schauer, D.C., R.K.C. has some great advice for people who need to sit all day. Would you like to know what it is?

Yes?

Ok. So now while you practice your English, let’s read a real English language article about how we can help our spines stay healthy. Follow these steps:

Click on this link Slouched Posture .
Read the article by Dr. Wendy Schauer, D.C., R.K.C. once.
Were there any vocabulary words that you didn’t know their meaning? Did you write them down? Were you able to guess their meaning from the context of the article?
Look up these words in a dictionary or here’s an online dictionary: slouch, slump, spine, posture, atrophy, wiggle, cubicle in an office, intermittent, chiropractic Write down the meaning.
Now go back and read Dr. Schauer’s article again.
What are the 3 things that a slouched posture causes? Write the 3 causes in the comment box below.
What are the 5 things you can do to improve your posture? Write the 5 things in the comment box below.
What are you going to do right NOW to improve your posture as you sit at your computer and do this lesson?
Tell how good posture can help you to feel better as you learn English.

Enjoy Learning English,
Eileen

What Did He Say? English Language Learners Ask

Three big challenges for anyone learning English are

understanding the different accents of English speakers,
trying to understand when English is spoken quickly,
trying to understand speech that is connected.

You might hear people speaking English with British, American, Irish, Scottish, Australian, Indian, South African, Nigerian, Kenyan, accents – to name just a few of the accents.

In addition, frequently, people who are learning English as a second language or as a foreign language complain that native speakers of English talk too quickly!

And to add to the English learners confusion is the way the English language connects the sounds of the words in a sentence together. For example, many learners have difficulty understanding “do it” because they hear /dowit/ and they don’t recognize that word….

In this humorous video we discover that native English speakers also have a difficulty understanding accents, as well as fast and connected speech!

Hmmm, at the end of the video do you understand what the jockey tells the news reporter? How many times did you listen to the video before you understood what he said?

Write what you think he says in the box below.

Enjoy the video!

Is He “Shifty”? How Do You Find Him?

This humorous video has some great vocabulary and expressions.

It takes us to an American courtroom. I’m sure you’ve seen one in a film in the cimema or on TV. The video makes reference to a notorious criminal: do you know who Jack the Ripper is?

The judge wants to know if the defendant is guilty or not – what expression does he use to ask the head of the jury?

How does the jury “find” him?

The head of the jury finds the defendant “shifty” – what does “shifty” mean? What does “creepy”? (You can look the word up here: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shifty )

What is the defendent accused of stealing?

Is the defendant guilty?

And the defendant’s lawyer, how does the jury “find” her?

Enjoy the video and this humorous portrayal of life in an American criminal courtroom….

What Do You Say When You Go Through Airport Security?

You are at the airport…. You have a flight to catch…. So you are in a hurry….

But you have to go through airport security first.

The officer is asking you questions. You are worried about catching your flight, so you only half hear him.

Well, what is he or she asking you?

This humerous video will give you some insights into what the airport security officer could be asking you….

But why doesn’t the man want the officer to look inside his suitcase?

If you have any comments, please enter them in the comment box below. Thanks and enjoy the video!

Business Meetings…in English?

You have to attend a business meeting in English…. Many business people learning English dread this experience. They want to participate but how can they communicate correctly, coherently what they want to say? How can they have their suggestions or ideas accepted as a valued contribution?

This humorous videos gives us some insights! Have you ever attended a meeting like this one?

So, how do you express your great ideas in English at your business meetings? Write a comment in the box below and let us know.

Problems Speaking English?

Do you have problems speaking English? Do you get your question tags all confused? Do you have problems with putting the emphasis on the right syllable in the word? What about idiomatic expressions? Or is your problem a small vocabulary?

If so, you are not alone! Look at this video – do you recognize the mistakes? Check with your teacher and write a comment telling me what you think they are….

Learn English

Say IT With Words IN Photos….

Part 1

Expressing your feelings…

Introduction

Say it with Flowers

English Lesson

Say it with Photos and Words….

Vocabulary

Some interesting expressions:

Review:

Practice

Learn and Enjoy English With The 5 Boyfriends!

Colloquial expressions….

Play-On-Words

Phrasal Verbs

5 BOYFRIENDS!!!

The Sun in Our Life

A solar flare photographed by NASA Stero satellite circling the sun

Reading Preparation

This Lesson’s Vocabulary

Our Planet’s Source of Life

The Sun – A Way To Learn About the Rest of the Universe

Solar Activity

10 Important Facts About the Sun

Reflection

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