Teacher Stan's musings

Wasted days

在汉语中，词序和虚词是表达语法意义的重要手段。很多时候变换词序就能改变句子原本的意思。于佑任先生是一位著名的书法家，他的墨宝千金难买。曾经有一段时间于先生住在乡下，居住环境不是很好，总是有人在他的房子附近小便，于是，他写了一句话禁止路人小便。他的秘书拿到这句话，心里冒出了一个主意……

Learning Chinese culture with Miss Zhang

汉字小故事-词序-《不可随处小便》

La historia de hoy te ayudará a practicar el vocabulario sobre pasatiempos y el verbo gustar. 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NkPXN1IxIhtqwk5QWlLTL2LccRkPiMIA/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109667282563484602902&rtpof=true&sd=true

Inspirando a principiantes: Audios para nivel A2

Amistad y Pasatiempos (con transcripción)

En la cultura española existen varios personajes que, aunque no son reales, son reconocidos por todos. Y en este episodio te los presento para que tú también te familiarices con ellos.

Cuando escuches el episodio, cuéntame en los comentarios o visitando mi instagram,
 ¿qué te han parecido estos personajes? 
¿Cuál es tu favorito? 
Dime también si en tu país tenéis este tipo de personajes.


Blanca to go 

39 – Personajes ficticios que todos los españoles conocen

Le ballon rond rassemble des millions de personnes à travers le monde, c'est aussi le sport le plus populaire en France. Mais comme beaucoup de français(es) je m'intéresse à beaucoup de disciplines, c'est toujours plus facile de commenter depuis son canapé. Et toi, quel le sport national dans ton pays ? 

Cher Journal

Episode 12 - Le Sport National

It’s decided: decisive people no more accurate than self-doubters。

Research finds only difference between so-called action-oriented and state-oriented people is confidence

By Nicola Davis

It’s a trait best seen in the eager pub quizzer – a tendency to leap to an answer without a shadow of a doubt.

Now researchers have suggested that while people who have little difficulty making decisions are more confident in their choices, they are no more accurate than those who feel more torn.

Writing in the journal Plos One, researchers revealed how they conducted experiments to explore potential differences between people who tend to be decisive, known as action-oriented people, and those who struggle to commit to a choice, known as state-oriented people.

“What we found is that confidence was the only thing that was different,” said Dr Wojciech Zajkowski, the first author of the research, who is now based at the Riken social decision science laboratory in Japan.


Le Franglish

It’s decided: decisive people no more accurate than self-doubters

This story uses words from '2000 Most Common Words in English'. 

It’s five in the evening and the sun is slowly going down. The sky is a warm yellow colour. 

John is a bundle of pasta. He is held together by a paper band. He is sitting on his roof with his 
acoustic guitar on his lap. In front of him is a pen and notepad. 

Ah yes, thinks John. I’ll use an A chord here. That will make the melody so beautiful. 

The bundle of pasta is writing a love song for his dear wife Karren. She is a bowl of Pho. 

John plays his composition and imagines his wife crying because his song is so touching. He sings about the day he met Karren, about how they fell in love, about how they complete each other. 

Suddenly, John stops playing. He takes his notepad, crosses out some words and scribbles some notes. He has a great idea.
 
The day you found me
I was flying blind
Now I see the light
I’m willing to fight
For you

John is happy with his new lyrics. He takes his guitar again and plays his love song from the 
beginning. Then, he hears a beautiful sound. But it’s not coming from his guitar. It’s coming from inside the house. It’s his amazing, lovely wife calling his name. 

Being a Cloud

John the Bowl of Pasta

Tune in to the latest episode of the Express to Impress podcast to hear the best of 2020!

We'll review successes in 2020, and you'll hear clips from the most popular episodes. If you missed them the first time or want to reinforce your learning, you won't want to miss it.

You'll hear clips from the most popular episodes:
-How to Answer "Can you tell Me About Yourself?"
-Introducing the Shadowing Technique for English Learning
-How to Answer "Why Should We Hire You?"
-How to Learn A New Language

Episode originally published January 8, 2021.

Original theme music by Lucas Knutter 

Read the transcript at https://www.express-to-impress.com/best-of-2020/

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

Continue learning with Express to Impress on Pinterest at https://www.pinterest.com/ExpresstoImpress/

Express to Impress

Best of 2020: Express to Impress Podcast

The cutting of huge figures or ‘geoglyphs’ into the earth of English hillsides has taken place for more than 3,000 years. There are 56 hill figures scattered around England, with the vast majority on the chalk down lands of the country’s southern counties. The figures include giants, horses, crosses and regimental badges. Although the majority of these geoglyphs date within the last 300 years or so, there are one or two that are much older.

The most famous of these figures is perhaps also the most mysterious — the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire. The White Horse has recently been re-dated and shown to be even older than its previously assigned ancient pre-Roman Iron Age* date. More controversial is the date of the enigmatic Long Man of Wilmington in Sussex. While many historians are convinced the figure is prehistoric, others believe that it was the work of an artistic monk from a nearby priory and was created between the 11th and 15th centuries.
The method of cutting these huge figures was simply to remove the overlying grass to reveal the gleaming white chalk below. However, the grass would soon grow over the geoglyph again unless it was regularly cleaned or scoured by a fairly large team of people. One reason that the vast majority of hill figures have disappeared is that when the traditions associated with the figures faded, people no longer bothered or remembered to clear away the grass to expose the chalk outline. Furthermore, over hundreds of years the outlines would sometimes change due to people not always cutting in exactly the same place, thus creating a different shape to the original geoglyph. The fact that any ancient hill figures survive at all in England today is testament to the strength and continuity of local customs and beliefs which, in one case at least, must stretch back over millennia.