How determination to succeed and a new baby led to changing people's lives.

Stories from UK to China

My travels into the teaching world

关于狗的介绍，以及如何照顾一条狗，了解养宠物的基本常识。
An introduction to dogs, and how to take care of a dog, learn the basics of keeping pets.

Yasmine's Chinese Reading - intermediate

照顾一条狗 Take care of a dog - part 1

Οδηγίες // find out more on insta @ellinotopia 

it's all Greek to me!

Directions

Covered with pins and adornments, Vivianne Robinson is hard to miss in the streets of Paris.

The Olympics superfan has attended seven Summer Games over 40 years. But this trip to Paris came at a cost of $10,000.

Robinson, 66 and from Los Angeles, maxed out her credit cards and worked two jobs to afford the trip and the 38 event tickets she bought. And she has to work two more years to make up the money she spent.

"It was hard to save up and it's a big budget, but it's a thousand times worth it," she says.

Robinson's fascination with the Olympics started when her mother worked as a translator for athletes during the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Her mother would come home after work with pins from athletes that she gave to her daughter.

Her hobby of collecting pins led her to Atlanta 1996, where she made rice necklaces for athletes in exchange for their pins.

"I got all the pins and I got to meet all the athletes. And in those days, it wasn't high security like now," she said. "Now you can't even get near the athletes' village."

From there: Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, London 2012 and Rio 2016. She got a visa for Beijing 2008, but couldn't afford the trip. It was similar for Tokyo: she bought tickets, but got refunded as COVID-19 soared and the Games were held without spectators.

Robinson's outfits started simply but have become more complex over time. She spent a year working on her Paris outfit, which has hundreds of adornments. People often stop her in the street, asking for a photo.

As soon as these Olympics end, she will start working on the next Summer Games — which will be in her hometown in Los Angeles.

"I'm going to do it forever," she said. "I'm going to save all my money and just concentrate on Olympics."

Practice Listening, Reading & Comprehension

'Worth It': Olympics Superfan Spent $10,000 to Get to Paris

More popular phrases you can use to sound like a native speaker!

Learn English with Pip

Idioms about sport: part 2

挨拶（あいさつ）
英語: "greeting"
スペイン語: "saludo"
ドイツ語: "Begrüßung"
タイ語: "การทักทาย"

質問（しつもん）
英語: "question"
スペイン語: "pregunta"
ドイツ語: "Frage"
タイ語: "คำถาม"

誘（さそ）う
英語: "to invite"
スペイン語: "invitar"
ドイツ語: "einladen"
タイ語: "ชวน/เชิญ"

みなさんの国（くに）でどんなあいさつをしますか？
日本で「ひさしぶり！げんきだった？」や「おお！」「やっほー！」などと言ったりします。
私はタイ語を勉強しています。タイ人はよく「もうごはん食べた？」とききます。日本人がその質問（しつもん）をされたら、「いっしょにごはんをたべませんか？」とさそわれているとおもいます。あいさつのちがいはおもしろいですね。


Jurisensei1217forbeginners

あいさつ

In today's episode I would like to discuss "Mother's day and why it is so important to people".

Let's have a chat (Discussions In English) 

Episode 10: Happy Mother's Day. What do people do on Mother's day?

La Semana Santa en España es una fiesta muy popular y tradicional. La Pascua se celebra en todo el territorio, pero hay lugares que tienen unas celebraciones un poco más peculiares. 
En el episodio de hoy te hablo de alguna de estas celebraciones y dónde tienen lugar. 

¿Preparado para saltar de celebración en celebración?

Como siempre espero que disfrutes el episodio y aprendas algo nuevo. Si disfrutas el podcast no te olvides de dejar una valoración en la plataforma desde la que estés escuchando, ya que eso ayuda a reconocer el tiempo y esfuerzo que pongo en crear estos episodios.

Artículos de los que he cogido información: 
https://www.skyscanner.es/noticias/las-10-tradiciones-para-disfrutar-de-la-semana-santa-en-espana
https://www.clubrural.com/blog/las-10-tradiciones-de-semana-santa-mas-curiosas/ 


Blanca to go 

133 -Celebraciones (curiosas) durante Semana Santa en España

IELTS Preparation. Band 8-9 Answers. Part 3 - Childhood Memory

1. Is it important to have pleasant childhood memories? Why?
2. Do you think that people are permanently affected by negative childhood memories? Why do you think so?
3. What do you think it means to ‘live in the past’?

Which questions did you find the most difficult? What's the reason?