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Learning New Words
I will use new words in sentences.
These are: determines, worse, afford, tears, tough, ridiculous, possible, sharp, terrific, surround.
1) It determines your future.
2) My health is worse every day.
3) I like to afford me junk food.
4) I hate to see tears on your cheek.
5) You were very tough when she was asking(?) for help.
6) It was very ridiculous when you started to sing.
7) It's possible for you to be a great father.
8) I hope you took something sharp.
9) You had a terrific party without alcohol.
10) I always try to surround myself with good people.Hi Evgeniy,
The way you used your vocabulary words in the sentences here is pretty good, but I think if you really want to challenge yourself, you might try stringing together three or more of these sentences together into a short story or anecdote. This will provide better practice for you and allow teachers like me to understand and critique your work more deeply.
Thanks for the opportunity!
Phelan0 votedNovember 18, 20181Should Countries Spend a Lot of Money on Art?
Many countries spend a lot of money on art. Some people think investment in art is necessary, but others say that money is better spent in improving health and education. What do you think?
I agree with people who think that investment in art it is necessary. I support this initiative. I think that art can change our minds and improve our lives. Art may give for us a new meaning and new ideas that can help us understand this life. Art aims to approach to reality offer different perceptions of reality. To interact with art in a constructive way, Firstly that person people first need to have some understanding that art can provide meaning to their lives if they are open to and interested in new possibilities.
But I may understand another people who say that art it is not so necessary. Because Not all of us can and want to find meaning intro in art. For example, some people find meaning in love. I mean “love” like something all-consuming. Love to for the family, love of work, love of consumption. So I think that they might consider that spending money on the basic necessities it is very crucial.
My conclusion is that spending money on art in any country is for the best. I know that it is not so often supported by the government, but I think that art can give us a little bit more emancipation than any another part our life.
So, thanks a lot if you read this. Please give me your feedback if you may, and feel free to write back to me if you have other thoughts on this topic. I would be glad to talk about it further : )Hello Elizaveta,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. I completely agree with your opinion that spending money on art is important -- I do believe governments should support their local artists because they can create powerful, compelling, and comforting local identities and conversations. Artists can bring out the best in people, and they can raise certain issues that one might not be willing to discuss in other contexts. Without art, there is much less creativity, reflection, introspection, and, ultimately, humanity. I would be interested to hear about what kind of art you particularly enjoy!
Thanks,
Phelan
English Tutor0 votedNovember 18, 20181Anthropology of Tribe
I was reading an anthropologist's blog about new books when a monograph by researchers from the Netherlands caught my interest. This research suggested that if an organization carefully considers its own unique experiences before making any changes, then those changes will face less opposition. To complete this research, Danielle Braun and Jitske Kramer used data that was accumulated over the course of decades. The authors are not ethnologists or 'cabinet anthropologists'. The authors said that their book The Corporate Tribe is the result of employing research methods based on cultural anthropology and management style analysis
Since the late XXth century, anthropology has been used to describe modern life. Anthropological theories are used as bases for marketing, design, medicine, and entertainment. For example, the popular TV-shows Survivor and Undercover Boss are based on anthropological theories, the latter of which shows the head of a company going undercover in his own company as a lower-level employee. The book Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t was written by Simon Sinek, and it demonstrates some of the ways in which leaders in the business world use anthropological research. The Irish Independent honored the call to be an anthropologist by saying that it is an occupation of the future.Hi Ann,
Your work here was interesting to read, and I learned a new word - "ethnology," also known as "cabinet anthropology." After reading a bit more, ethnology seems to be called this because it can involve just sifting through secondary research instead of going out into the field and doing primary research.
If you would like more help with summarizing studies or researching complex ideas in English, I would be more than happy to assist!
Thanks,
Phelan0 votedNovember 10, 20180Shortly about myself
Hello) I am Sasha. I am looking for people here to improve my English level.
I'm a dancer by profession. I have a happy family, cat and dog Mailin. We live in Ukraine and I hope We will move in Canada to permanent residence, because we want it)A Little about Me
Hello, I am Sasha. I'm looking for people who can help me improve my English level.
I'm a dancer by profession. I have a happy family, cat, and dog named Mailin. We live in Ukraine now, but I hope we will move our permanent residence to Canada, because that's what we want!Hi, Sasha!
Nice to e-meet you. I live relatively close to Canada in the United States -- Cleveland, Ohio, is just across Lake Eerie from Canada. If you are looking for an English teacher to help prepare you and your family for living in a primarily English-speaking country, I'd be happy to help. If you would like to learn English for everyday communication and conversation, or if you would like assistance with legal documents and other paperwork required for moving your permanent residence, please feel free to schedule some lessons with me!
Best of luck with the move,
Phelan0 votedNovember 10, 20180Some Sentences with Phrasal Verbs and New Words
1) He caught a cold last week and still cannot stop sneezing and coughing. He said that medicines were unhelpful, so now he's taking hot milk with some honey and butter.
Sounds slightly more natural this way - English speakers love to use the present participle for ongoing actions that are currently happening.
2) It feels like we're going nowhere in a hurry. What if we openly discuss this outrageous misconduct? I guess the personnel knows all this and gossips about it all.
No comma needed after "I guess." I would normally use "staff" instead of "personnel." If I take your meaning correctly here, I might recommend "I guess the personnel knows everything and gossips already."
3) I would like to have at my disposal some money to start up business. However, I don't want to cross out everything that I've done in my life before.That's why I'm trying to build it on the base of my previous occupation.
I'd recommend something like "I'd like to have some money at my disposal to start a business. However, I don't want to have to start my career over again - that's why I'm trying to build on the base of knowledge that I learned in my previous occupation." Although, it's unclear here whether you're worried about money, knowledge, or connections in your previous occupation.
4) It came about all of a sudden, so nobody was ready to for it. We were helpless when faced with fire, but, fortunately, a fire team came very quickly and worked very professionally.
No comma need after "helpless."
5) If I were you, I would just kick him out and forget about him. Let's get together and discuss how you can manage all this.
6) Never mind. You'll take a rest, and everything will go much better.
7) You can wing your speech, just make some notes to so you stick to the topic.
8) They almost struck me with their proficiency in choir vocals.
I would recommend "almost impressed" instead of "almost struck," unless you mean to sound sarcastic.
9) She's always cheerful in spite of her age and disease. Chatting with her, you understand how well her generation was brought up and educated.
This one struck me as a good complex sentence.Pleasure editing your work,
Phelan0 votedNovember 9, 20181Hola, Isabela!
This is a great question -- if you liked The Name of the Wind (which I really enjoyed too!), I would recommend the following:
- Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - my mother actually read this series to me when I was learning to read, and, by the fourth book, I was reading it by myself!
- Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer - this is a good Young Adult sci-fi series if you're looking for something a little more irreverent and humorous. One thing: it is futuristic as opposed to the kind of medieval world you'll find in The Name of the Wind.
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein - this is a little more advanced. It has a a fun wry humor to it. It may help to have seen the movies in Spanish and then read the book in English so you have some idea already of the major plot points (same for Lord of the Rings).
- Raymond E. Feist - he has a few series of fantasy novels. One of my favorites was Talon of the Silver Hawk. The writing style is a bit more advanced and serious, but still very enjoyable especially in its intricate universe-building.
Hope you enjoy some of these selections. I'm happy to answer more questions about any of them, or if you are looking for something else, I do know several other fantasy series that you may enjoy. It's fun to talk about!
Saludos!
Phelan0 votedNovember 9, 20180I need a car...
Some of you will think that I'm a really odd person, but the following story is real.
On Monday I went to my office to work my normal hours, 8 am to 5 pm... This specific day the water service wasn't working, so we decided to leave early because we couldn't even go to the bathroom.
At 1 pm we started to get our things, and we left the office. I walked to the bus station to wait for a bus. but there were so many people that the buses were all full. In Venezuela public transport is the worst thing you can imagine. The gasoline and the auto parts are very expensive and the government can't keep up the number of buses needed to get everyone to their offices or houses. So, I decided to walk home. It was a terrible idea because the weather was a little rainy, but I did it anyways.
The distance from my work to my house is almost 10 km -- can you imagine that? Well, I started to walk, and, when I had made it almost 1 km, it started raining. I got wet, very wet.
I was walking along for almost an hour and a half. I walked very quickly because my city is not the safest. Finally, I got home, and my mom saw me -- she was really surprised and asked me, "What the hell? What happened with you?" I said, "There was no public transport, and I came on foot, so.. "
She started to laugh and said "my son, you need a car," and continued laughing. She was mocking me because, in Venezuela, it is impossible to buy a car easily. Even if you find it, you need to have US Dollars, and those are quite expensive for us.
But she's right -- I need a car!Hi Anders,
That was a pretty funny story! I'm sorry that happened, and I hope you haven't had to walk home in the rain any other times.
Thanks for sharing,
Phelan0 votedNovember 3, 2018030- Day Challenge - Lolita
Today I'm going to write about a book that I adore. Lolita was written by Nabokov, a Russian writer who was also fluent in English and French.
Lolita is a masterpiece whose protagonist has transcended the literary world to become a well-known archetype. I should start by warning you that if you have only watched the movie, then we might not be talking about the same thing -- the book and the movie are quite different in their depictions that writer and director made of the main characters. For starters, in the book, Lolita is 12 years old -- a preadolescent -- meanwhile but in the movie, she is a teenager. This point is important because in the book Humbert's chracter clearly shows he a pedophile when describing his attraction to little girls who are 12 or younger. In fact, when Lolita was sent to a summer camp, he was in despair thinking that when Lolita came back she was going to be almost 13 years old, a tragedy for him.
Another thing that caught my attention was that Nabokov asked the editors not to use a picture of a girl or anything sexual on the cover, because he knew that the book could be controversial and easily misunderstood. Meanwhile, Hollywood and the current covers of the book have misled the audience by using this hyper-sexualized pictures of Lolita, "the man-eater," and thereby diminishing the pedophilic inclinations of Humbert to the point of making of him the victim of this 12-year-old girl.Hi Barbara,
I had two reactions: wow, Hollywood is gross, and I'm not surprised that they did that. I mean, think about all the Disney movies -- the female protagonists are all supposed to be like 12 too. I'm a little curious about what this novel's redeeming qualities are if the main plot sounds so dark.
Anyways, have a nice weekend!
Phelan0 votedNovember 3, 20182
