Polar Bear Style

Recently I have come across a funny test on British Council web-site What kind of teacher are you? Your answers will bring out the best in you! This best will be estimated by the system and you ill get your animal result. I’m not joking! In the end, all teachers are animals to some extentJ Now I know that I am not too bad. After all a Polar Bear is an intelligent animal. I am not good at zoology, but I do hope it is true!

After the results are presented, you will also be advised on what kind of tasks and exercises you will enjoy using at your classes.

English is Worthwhile

Now it’s official: studying English is worthwhile, challenging, fun and demanding. These are the results of the most recent poll: 28%, 21%, 17%, 14% respectively.

The respondents were asked to express their opinions regarding the process studying foreign languages. Apparently nobody finds it dull, boring, stressful, or a waste of time. For 3% of poll voters believe that learning a new language is nothing but routine. 7% of blog readers are fascinated by English and the same number of students feel rewarded. Being rewarded is a great feeling. Actually any reward is great motivation. So, those 7% are lucky ones!

What Everyone Needs to Know about English

The most fascinating history piece ever! If History of English had been taught in the same way at Uni, I would have adored those classes!

Homework is Evil

That is my favourite incorrect answer ever! 18% of respondents agree with me upon it 

Practice makes perfect. And what can help remember all those weird grammar forms if not drilling as such.
Can you imagine a class consisting of endless grammar exercises? I can! And I can even tell you what the purpose of such classes is. Imagine you have been studying present simple for a while. It’s time you moved on to learning the continuous forms. However, you still make one and the same mistake: “he go”. According to the programme of your course, you are already finishing with the continuous, but in fact you come to every class and do one and the same thing. You continually repeat “he goes” in different tasks.
Surely, such a class is far from ideal. On the other hand, the question is what is better – to forget about this first-person-singular thing and move on to Present Continuous, or to stick to Simple until it is “automated” in your mind.

Writing: Pleasure and Cultural Experience

Writing is boring. At least this is something I keep hearing from my students every now and again. Well, to some extent it is boring. It requires some manual effort. Despite this, what not to like about expressing your thoughts, ideas and emotions in a way that gives you time to think them through and be explicit and eloquent?!
Writing is speaking in a silent manner. Everybody likes to speak. So, I assume everybody should like to write, too. However, not many of us do. I am going to allow myself a guess… Do we write boring letters to boring people about boring stuff? OK then, everything becomes clear.
If we are lucky to find a person with whom it is easy and interesting to communicate, written communication will also bring joy. And when we find them plenty…

Almost a year ago I came across an article about odd hobbies. Frankly speaking, the hobbies considered were not that odd. Moreover one of them got me really interested. The word “postcrossing” didn’t ring any bell but the description was fascinating. Basically random people were exchanging postcards from all over the world according to some simple rules to make the avalanche of cards an organized phenomenon.

Russian Proved Important…

…for special cases only

 More than half of poll voters (51%) have chosen this answer to express their attitude to using the native language during English classes. Generally speaking, students are happy with make-believe English-speaking world for an hour and a half and occasional returns to reality don’t seem to spoil the atmosphere. However, 29% of those who cast their votes believe that English is the only language that can be used in classes. Strict guys! And I do see their point. Having studied in London for more than a year, I have never had an opportunity to hear my (or anybody else’s) native language since our teacher did not speak any languages but English. The classes were amazing, even though every now and again there appeared clumsy linguistic situations when one of us could get the meaning of the word wrong, or misunderstood a situation. That’s why I understand those who assume that grammar has to be explained in the native language (7%) and those who believe words have to be translated into the native language (3%). However, what I do not understand is the desire to speak Russian whenever we want (7%). We speak it all the time except 80 minutes twice a week. So, what’s the point?.. Actually, I could arrange private Russian-speaking classes for a fair price! :)