Elementary Uzbek

Vowels letters in Uzbek

Part 1 of 5. 

Inside a dusty workroom, an old craftsman held up a chess piece to the window. He rotated it in the sunlight and inspected its every detail. 

“Perfection,” said the craftsman. 

He added it to the set he had been building. Sixteen grey pieces sat on his worktable, all handmade and almost ready for sale. 

The craftsman felt very satisfied with his designs. He was ready for the final stage of the process. He picked up one of the pawn pieces and said, “What about you, my little friend? What colour would you like to be?” 

He reached for his paint brush, dunked it into glass of water and then into a container of paint. The grey pawn received a heavy coating of shiny white paint.

Fast-forward several years into the future. After repeated use and abuse, that little pawn’s proud white colour had faded. Areas of his original grey were visible. Because of this, whenever players assembled their chess set, they left this little grey-white pawn to the side. 

“Uhm, is that yours or mine?” said the white player. 

“It doesn’t matter. Put it back in the box and choose from the others,” said the black player. 

This little plastic pawn’s name was Gary. 


Being a Cloud

Gary the Chess Piece

中文小课堂

Cerita Pendek Indonesia (A1-A2)

08 Waktu

a moral from Shahname, written by the famous Persian poet and philosopher Ferdowsi. 

سپهری بر این‌سان که بینی روان
the flowing universe you see
  توانا و دانا جز او را مخوان
call only that almighty and all wise 
    تو رازِ جَهان تا توانی مجوی
don't search for the secret of the world
      که او زود پیچد ز جوینده روی
that it will quickly turn its back to the seeker
        به داد و دِهِش دلْ توان‌گر کنید
empower yourselves with justice and generosity 
          بر آزادگی بر سرْ افسر کنید
and make it your crown as a liberal 
             که فرجام هم روزمان بگذرد
that eventually our days will be over
              زمانه پی ما همی‌بشمرد
the universe is counting (the days) for us

Persian Poetry

حکمت شاهنامه (1)

夏は好きです。でも、湿度は嫌いです。
湿度が好きな人、いますか？
I like summer. But I don't like humidity. Who likes humidity?

Plain Japanese Podcast やさしい にほんご ポッドキャスト

#14 湿度 Humidity

After our last episode which introduced the topic of Collocations, in this episode, we are going to learn some Effective STRATEGIES to Incorporate Collocations in the Vocabulary Acquisition process. 

All Things English

Vocabulary Acquisition - How to Effectively Use Collocations

This week, you’ll hear from the very first guest on the Express to Impress podcast. Allyson Plumberg, Founder of Rooted Accents: Solutions for Accent Modification, joins me to discuss accent modification. 

Allyson provides speech therapy services and accent modification coaching to students and professionals worldwide. She has a Master of Science degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Arizona State University.

The episode is the first of two with my conversation with Allison. It’s packed full of useful information for English language learners. 

We kick off the conversation with a definition of an accent and have a quick discussion about the General American English accent and micro accents.

Then, we dive into a discussion about common beliefs about accents. Allison debunks common myths that limit people from being able to speak English effectively.

We also talk about speaking speed, word stress, content versus function words, stressed and unstressed syllables, reductions, contractions, and more! 

Episode originally published February 26, 2021.

Original theme music by Lucas Knutter 

Read the transcript at https://www.express-to-impress.com/american-english-accent/

Join the Express to Impress community on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/express-to-impress/.

See infographics for this episode on Pinterest at https://www.pinterest.com/ExpresstoImpress/_created/.