понедельник, 28 января 2013 г.

Education Idioms


Here are some commonly used idioms about education and learning. 

Idioms

  • Bookworm - a person who is always studying.
  • Copycat - a person who copies the words or actions of another.
  • to live and learn - to learn as you grow older and gain experience.
  • teacher's pet - the teacher's favourite student.
  • to pass with flying colours - to pass with a very high grade.
  • to go back to basics - to return to the beginning.
  • to cover a lot of ground - to go through a lot of information in class.
  • to pull an all nighter - to study throughout the night.

пятница, 28 декабря 2012 г.

At the end of the day


Hi! I decided to write this post to summarize that I have done at the end of this year. So, let's start)
You know, I have been learning English for 2 years in total, I just was an elementary student when I decided to learn the language. Actually I did it in order to get ready for my exam in the university.  English is considered to be a very difficult and especially boring, but classes with Tatiana proved it the opposite way. Learning English with her is a lot of fun and  really enjoyable, she makes it really interesting, so it paves the way for learning it with all the passion. 
But sometimes I felt down in the dumps and I didn’t want to learn English, sometimes I even didn’t believe that I could speak one day, because It was very hard for me from the start.  Nevertheless I have coped with it, I just was working my fingers to the bone. And I really need to say that it helped, during some time I started to notice that I was making progress, that my knowledge had been building up and building up until I realized that I can speak naturally and fluently. Honestly I don’t remember that moment, I started being good at it happened kind of suddenly.  There is only one thing to regret, I shouldn’t have missed our classes, because if I hadn’t done it I would have gotten results earlier then I did.
 So, I’d like to recommend you to do your best. You might want to either see English movies and sit comes with subtitles or listen podcasts and write out some interesting phrases or idioms, in brief keep your ear to the ground.
I wish good luck all the people who learn English and I would like them to believe in themselves. English is not so difficult as it seems.

среда, 26 декабря 2012 г.

Hi! Today I would like to share some idioms with sheep with you , all of them very interesting and quite useful, I recommend you to remember some of them, so read on and enjoy)

Black sheep of the family
 the worst or the most unpopular or disliked member of a family

Exp: My cousin is the black sheep of the family and nobody likes to talk about him. 


Separate the sheep from the goats-
to divide people into two groups

Exp: had to separate the sheep from the goats when we began to make selections for the school choir. 

Wolf in sheep's clothing
dangerous person pretending to be harmless.

ExpCarla thought the handsome stranger was gentle and kind, but Susan suspected he was a wolf in sheep's clothing. 
Exp 2Mimi: Why shouldn't I go out with David? He's the nicest man I've ever met. 
Alan: He's a wolf in sheep's clothing, Mimi. Can't you tell?

Make sheep's eyes at somebody   (old-fashioned)
to look at someone in a way that shows that you love them or are attracted to them 

ExpKen's been making sheep's eyes at his ex-girlfriend all night.

Cast sheep's eyes at:
If you cast sheep's eyes at someone you look lovingly or with longingly at them(it also slang meaning to loook someone disturbingly)

ExpOld woman was casting sheep's eye at her son after so many years.


To count sheep: 
to imagine sheep jumping over a fence.


ExpIt was one of the painful nights after her mother's leaving; little girl wasn't able to sleep despite her aunt's advice to count sheep.



To get a sheepskin:
getting a degree or diploma.


ExpHer mother said:''when you get a sheepskin you can do whatever you want, but you are a student and you must do what I say''


To leave wolves in charge of the sheep:
it has same meaning such proverbs as ''he that is afraid of leaves must not go in wood,who makes himself a sheep will be eaten by the wolves''.that means we shouln't complain when we make mistakes deliberately.

Expyou should't leave wolves in charge of sheep now, because you gave the all money that boy on your own.I think you knew he would steal it.

Scabby sheep:
it has the same meaning with the idiom 'black sheep'. that is, the unpopular member of a group.

Exp: who is the scabby sheep of the family?

Sheepish
1. abashed or embarrassed, espesially through looking foolish or being in the wrong
2. resembling a sheep in timidity or lack of initiative


вторник, 27 ноября 2012 г.

English as a second life



Today I'd like to tell a thing, which I wanted to tell a while ago, but owing to lack of time, I haven’t done it yet. So, the subject is my English tutor. She does her best in order to teach us language, so we should be grateful and do a little bit more then we do usually.

Firstly I want to tell you how I came up with the idea to publicize this post.  Yesterday in the Tatiana’s blog I saw warm article about one of her student and idea suddenly came in to my mind: “I really should write an article about her teaching because it filled with kindness, care and love and I do want to show it from student’s side”.

When we decided to learn English, as far as I remember, it was the end of 2010 year, we were looking for a tutor who could help us to pass our exam in university, and we have found Tania (thanks to Denis school, it’s a long story). I can hardly believe that we started out first lesson from recalling the alphabet and we were so far from English, it obviously was elementary level. After we had learned a lot of grammar structures, words, and some linkers, we started speaking and writing, it took half a year totally, and at that time we could say that we reached pre-intermediate. What’s more, those were lovely days when I suddenly realized that I could speak, not a lot but nevertheless I could. At that moment I was so inspired, I wanted learn English everyday, I did homework with enthusiasm, I wrote out some words which I wanted to remember, as well as a lot of other things.

But unfortunately, we had a 3-month break because of summer that resulted in forgetting almost everything that we had learned. Then fall of 2011 had started and we met again with a vestige of knowledge in our heads.
But Tania again awoke our interest in English, which was triggered by creative lessons, kindness, and love that she used despite mood, weather, and time. We were engaged in lessons sort of academic year, whereas we were overloaded with our university lectures, seminars and projects, so we cancelled a lot of classes and couldn't do our homework properly, despite this we learned many useful things and increased our level again.  
The summer of 2012 we had decided prepare for IELTS and stopped canceling classes and worked with diligence. There were changes for Tatiana either, she had quitted from her job and started working on her's own. Since that moment she have made even more interesting, inspiring and creative lessons, just as more people are glad to be her students. She is pretty dedicated teacher, she creates lesson for students, taking into account their possibilities and needs.

To sum up I would go so far as to say that for me it is very complicated to me write such a long post, because while I was writing I kept loosing my central idea sometime, apparently I was making mistakes and as a result it might look sort of messy.
Nevertheless throughout this post I want to thank Tatiana for believing and loving her students. And I wish her a lot of smiles and more grateful people; she really deserves it because she makes the world better.