Young Learners, Level 4: Tell me a story

12th October 2021

10 Must-Read Novels & Short Story Collections By Asian American Authors | restitchstance — Image from restitchstance.

Top Cats – I’ve shown you a lot of adjectives. Learn them, practice them, use them.

Look at these pictures. Tell me a story. Use adjectives to tell me what you see and what you think.

Here is our list of adjectives, and remember, colours are also adjectives.

amazing, angry / beautiful, big, boring /clean, clever, cute / dangerous /easy, electric, exciting / fantastic, fast, funny / greedy, great, Greek / happy, hard-working, healthy, high, huge / important, intelligent / Japanese / kind / lazy / messy / nervous / old, outgoing /popular / quick / rude / sad, selfish, shy, sleepy, small / talkative, tiny, tired / ugly, unusual / valuable / wealthy / xenophobic / year-long, young / Zambian

We have a young lady and a man.

Let’s go to work ! What can you see in the first two pictures ?

Tell me about the lady. Who is the man ? How does he feel and why ? What does the lady do ? How does she look ?

Then the lady … ?

Finally the lady … ?

OK, Top Cats, give me your answers.

Points for using adjectives, correct grammar, and pronunciation.

Fact Check: Who's this man disrespecting the Indian national flag? - Fact Check News — Image from India Today

EXAMPLE:

A young lady with long straight dark hair is at school. She is very tired and sleepy. She has a lot of boring homework.

Her daddy is very angry. He wants the lady to be intelligent not lazy.

The lady is nervous because she is so shy. She reads many big books. She is unhappy. However, she is hard-working.

Sometimes the books are exciting and she thinks it is important to learn.

She has a high score and her family are very happy.

The beautiful clever young lady has a great job. She is wealthy and has many valuable things. However, she is not selfish. She buys her family amazing presents.

NOW … Your turn

Tell me a story

Top 10 Reasons to Volunteer Abroad in Zambia | GoAbroad.com

Zambian-boy-studies-using-a-solar-lantern_Patrick-Bentley-Solar-Aid | Lighting Global

Despite Hunger, Poverty, Zambian Boys Enjoy Fun of Sports - en.chinagate.cn

Hakainde Hichilema: the Zambian “cattle boy” who became president

Tips: Tell me what the boy looks like. Tell me how he feels. Tell me what he does. Finally, what happens to the boy when he grows up ?

How about this story ?

447 Baby Dolphins Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock

Notes and links

The ‘Young Lady’ story was originally used in an IELTS blog: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/01/06/ielts-4-5-speaking-class/

Please Note: All photos are taken from Google Images and are used for educational purposes. No copyright infringement or offense is intended. If I have used your photo or image, and you wish me to remove it, just ask. This site is not monetized, I run it on my own dollar. Thank you.

Young Learners 4: Let’s build some sentences. Part 2

6th October 2021

Let’s start to use some verbs. We’ll start with:

I have // you have // he has // she has // we have

I have a sister. She is funny and talkative.

two girl molding a snowman during daytime — Royalty-free image from Google

Now … Your Turn.

I have a brother. He is …

amazing, angry / beautiful, big /clean, clever, cute / dangerous /easy, electric / fantastic, funny / greedy, great, Greek / happy, healthy, huge / important, intelligent / Japanese / kind / lazy / messy / nervous / old, outgoing /popular / quick / rude / sad, selfish, shy, small / talkative, tiny / ugly, unusual / valuable / wealthy / xenophobic / year-long, young / Zambian

Tell me about your mother, father or cousin.

Let’s move on

I have + adjective + noun. Pronouns + is + adjectives

EXAMPLE: I have a Japanese friend. She is clever and shy.

The sentence has 3 adjectives. Tell me about your friend:

I have a … friend. He or She is … and …

Tell me about these people:

This man is Greek. I have a Greek friend. He is …

This lady is English. I have an ….

This man is Japanese. I have a …

Now, let’s talk about pets.

I have a cute puppy. He is small, quick and happy.

Tell me about your pet.

Tell me about these animals:

Bye bye from the friendly bear.

Young Learners 4: Let’s build some sentences. Part 1

5th October 2021

26,846 BEST Asian Construction Woman IMAGES, STOCK PHOTOS & VECTORS | Adobe Stock — Photo found on Google Images

Some activities to help young students and beginners build longer sentences, and to identify the word types such as verbs, nouns and adjectives.

Are you ready ?

Iron Man, are you ready ?

8 Actors Considered for Iron Man Before Robert Downey Jr. - E! Online — Yes, Thay Paul, I’m ready !

Wonder Woman, are you ready ?

Born Ready || Diana (wonder woman) - YouTube

Muddy Waters, are you ready ?

Muddy Waters – I'm Ready (1994, CD) - Discogs

Let’s go ! First – what is this ?

A lot of students will just shout out, ‘Kangaroo,’ but we need to answer in a sentence – ‘It’s a kangaroo.’

However, let’s use some adjectives. Look and tell me what you see.

The Kangaroo is brown and grey // big // strong // beautiful or ugly // happy or angry //

It’s a big brown and grey kangaroo.

Now … Your Turn. What is this ?

For younger classes, just ask for ‘It’s a / an …’ For higher levels, aim for adjectives.

African elephant calf is born in Mexico during pandemic, they call it 'Zoom' | Web24 News

Remember, elephant begins with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) so we have to use ‘an‘ – It’s an elephant.

With adjectives ‘It’s an amazing elephant’, or ‘It’s a cute elephant.’

Moving on … who knows an adjective beginning with … ‘a’ ? With ‘b’ ?

3 Times as a Man When Thinking Small Is Good - Michael Holland

Let’s have a collection of adjectives:

Make sentences using 2 or 3 of the adjectives.

Indian princess by VeraVoyna.deviantart.com on @DeviantArt | Indian princess, Indian disney princess, Disney princess movies

5 ways to live like Crazy Rich Asians in Singapore | Travel - Hindustan Times

Check out the pretty selfies from T-ara's Qri | T-ara World — Singer from Korean band T-ara

Bye to favour as Zambia brace for COSAFA Cup Draw - 2021 COSAFA Cup — Football team from Zambia

Next time, using verbs. See you soon.

Venice Film Festival: Jimmy Page Attends Led Zeppelin Doc Premiere | Billboard — Bye bye from Mr Jimmy Page

Zoom Rules Revisited

11th September 2021

A polite note for your consideration

The employer is responsible for providing a safe working environment for staff.

In the physical workspace, the teacher should not be physically or verbally harmed in any way.

Kicking, hitting, being jumped on etc are unacceptable, and the offender needs to be punished.

In the online workspace, the teacher should not be expected to work with an unreasonable amount of background noise.

TAs and senior staff need to be more proactive in both recognising and addressing these problems.

The situation is clearly very stressful for all involved.

Let’s work together and make classes a fun, happy and, most importantly, appropriate place for learning.

Suggestions:

Any student in a noisy environment should have their mic muted.

Any student who interrupts the class on a regular basis will be placed in the Waiting Room. Repetition of the offense will result in the student being barred from the class.

Postscript

I have happy to report that my centre has taken action, and changes were implemented within a few hours of this posting. My Manager is pretty amazing that way – your help and input can not be overstated. Thank you.

Young Learners, Level 3: Doing your chores

27th August 2021

Everybody Up Unit 6 review

Child Communication Development Stages & Collaboration In 21st Century — Do you help mummy ?

Describe these pictures using adjectives, and in a full sentence

EXAMPLE – what is it ?

16/14/12 Inch) Horse-Design Backpack Girls School Bag Magical Colourful Kids Student Bags Travel Rucksack Gifts | Wish

It’s a colourful backpack with a beautiful friendly unicorn.

Now, your turn:

Easy Tamagoyaki Minions :) | Bento box recipes, Lunch box recipes, Bento box lunch

Robots serve up food and fun in Budapest cafe - Science & Tech - The Jakarta Post

4 Write three heavy objects (things) then three light objects.

EXAMPLE: An elephant is heavy, a mouse is light

5 How can your help your mum and dad in your house ? Three ways to help out.

6 What does the young girl do before work ?

Before work the girl _________________________

Image result for black girl cleaning her room"

7 Now what is this boy doing after school ?

After work the boy ____________

Image result for Indian boy does homework"

Young Learners, Level 5: Comparisons

24th August 2021

Everybody Up Unit 4 pp 32 – 33

Why Successful People Don't Compare Themselves to Others - Mindscaling

We have two very cute dogs however, they do not look the same. Let’s take two basic adjectives (big & small) and use them as comparisons.

big —– bigger

small —– smaller

The black and white dog is smaller than the black dog.

The black dog is bigger than the black and white dog.

To make your sentence more interesting, add more information:

The cute black and white dog is much smaller than the dangerous angry black dog.

The grammar rules:

For small words, just add ‘er’

small —- smaller // tall —- taller

big add ‘g’ + ‘er’ bigger

If the adjective ends with a ‘y’

ugly – replace y with ‘i’ then add ‘er’ —- uglier

angry —- angrier

For big words, use ‘more’

delicious —- more delicious // dangerous —- more dangerous // energetic —- more energetic

NOW … YOUR TURN

1 Tell me about the men (small, short, tall) then use the comparative.

2 Tell me about these two people.

Image result for old and young asian person"

3 Who is stronger ?

Image result for strong and weak person"

4 Compare these clothes. Try to give me three adjectives (pretty, thick, warm, plain, colourful).

5 Compare these guitar players (energetic, exciting, amazing, boring).

The most boring guitar player ever - YouTube

6 Tell me about these two people

T-ara T-ara Is My Life -Thông tin về T-ara T-ara hay Tiara (phát âm: /tiˈɑːrə/; tiếng Hàn: 티아라; tiếng Nhật: ティアラ; cách điệu: T-ARA, T ARA hoặc TΛRΛ) là một nhóm nhạc nữthần tượng của Hàn Quốc ra mắt vào ngày 29 tháng 7 năm 2009 bởi Core ...

Easy – yes, a piece of cake !

Answers:

1 One man is short, one man is tall. The man with glasses is taller. The man on the left is much shorter.

2 The man is older than the lady, the lady is younger than the man.

3 The man with the black T-shirt is much stronger. The man on the right is much weaker than the other man.

4 The black coat is thicker, warmer and cheaper than the second coat. The second coat is more colourful but uglier than the first coat.

5 The guitar player (guitarist) jumping is more energetic and more exciting than the other man. The second guitarist is more boring.

6 The beautiful cute young Asian lady is more friendly than the old American man. The old man with glasses and a beard is angrier and uglier than the smiling lady.

IELTS: Animal Magic – Expressions N – Z

12th August 2021

In the morning, my students are like bears with sore heads

Newts of the Yuba | South Yuba River Citizens League — I’m a newt, and I’ll have you know I’m totally sober

NEWT: As pissed as a newt – Informal British English meaning to be drunk.

SIDEBAR: This is is very unusual saying, but around 200 years ago, young teenage sailors were known as ‘newts’. It didn’t take much alcohol for these boys to become very drunk, hence the expression.

OWL: To be a night owl – someone who stays up late, maybe all night.

PANDA: To have panda eyes – night owls and insomniacs often have black rings around their eyes, like a panda. I first heard this in Malaysia.

QUAIL: To quail at something – to be afraid or nervous about something.

RED HERRING: A false clue in a mystery or detective story

NOW LET’S TAKE THESE EXPRESSIONS OUT FOR A SPIN

When did you last sleep ? You ____________________________________
The police followed a clue but it was just a _____________________
My neighbour is a real _____________________ playing music all night.
I have toothache but I __________ at going to the dentist.
Did you hear him sing karaoke ? He was ___________________________ !

Are you ready for some more ?

SWAN: Swan song – a final appearance.

TIGER: A tiger mum – a mother who pushes her children to study and study and study.

UNICORN: Life isn’t all rainbows and unicorns – sometimes life is hard and we have to deal with problems (tell me about it).

VULTURE: The vultures are circling – vultures wait for animals to die, then they swoop down and eat the dead body, so this expression means something very bad is about to happen.

WHALE: Having a whale of a time – having a wonderful time, really enjoying yourself.

X: Give me a break ! However, check out this little beauty:

This is an X ray tetra, a non-aggressive fish found in the Amazon

YAK: To yak or yakking – to talk non-stop, usually about nothing important.

Yakety Yak - song by The Coasters | Spotify

YAKITY YAK" LYRICS by THE COASTERS: Take out those papers...

ZEBRA: Zebra crossing – black and white marking on the road. In the UK, cars usually stop to allow people to walk safely. In Viet Nam … hhmmmm not so much (i.e. never).

The most famous zebra crossing in the world. From The Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ LP

Speaking of The Beatles, allow me to quote from ‘A Hard Day’s Night’

The party was amazing, we all had _________________________
The show was her last ever, it was her ________________________
Will you stop _______ ! I can’t think !
Walk to the ________________________ because this road is dangerous.
She has a _____________________ who makes her study English every day.
The business is losing too much money. The _________________________
I have to pay my rent, my student loan, my electric bill. This is no fun ________________________________________________________

IELTS: Animal Crackers – animal expressions to impress examiners

10th August 2021

This Is Bat Country GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

Just because you’re having online classes, with different teachers, (lucky you) doesn’t mean you should stop expanding your knowledge of weird and wacky English expressions, and let me tell you, you won’t find many of these in those cotton-pickin’ textbooks.

English speakers use animals as:

metaphor (my neighbour is a pig)

simile (she drinks like a fish)

idiom (look what the cat dragged in)

adjective form (he is rather bovine – like a cow, she moves with a feline grace – like a cat)

Today, I’m going to introduce you to expressions featuring animals, some of which may not be suitable for polite company …hey, you want to learn REAL English … that’s how we speak !

Now, without further ado …

ANTS: Ants in your pants – when someone can’t keep still, is always moving about which can be very irritating.

BATS: Bat-shit crazy – NOT used in formal, standard English. This is more common in US English to describe someone who is acting very strangely.

CATS: To let the cat out of the bag – to tell a secret, to tell something you were not supposed to disclose.

DOGS: Gone to the dogs – someone or something that was once respectable but is now dirty, useless etc.

ELEPHANT: Couldn’t hit an elephant – implies that someone is very bad at something for example, if they had a rifle they wouldn’t be able to hit a very large target.

SIDEBAR: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance,” are the famous last words of John Sedgwick, an officer in the Union army in the US Civil War. He meant that the enemy was so far away, they couldn’t possible hit a massive target let alone a single man. Sedgwick was, ironically, shot and killed by the enemy. Read more here:

https://www.phrases.org.uk/famous-last-words/john-sedgwick.html

FISH: Like shooting fish in a barrel – refers to something that is so easy, no effort at all is required to be successful.

An Elephant in My Pajamas: The Misplaced Modifier – Ivy Global Blog — Groucho Barks ?

At this point, time to stop and reflect, practice what you’ve learnt. What expression fits ?

He used to be a respectable professional, but his wife left him he began drinking and now he’s _______________________________
The bloody woman next to me on the plane just wouldn’t sit still. She had ___________________________________
I’m never teaching that class again ! The kids are all __________
This job is so easy, it’s _________________________________
Oh ! I knew they had a secret. Now the _____________________
Don’t worry about Peter, he’s so bad, he _______________________

The quest for best animal joke ever! | Earth Rangers: Where kids go to save animals! — Hahahah ants in my pants, I love that one !

Ready for some more ? OK, let’s kick it !

GOLDFISH: Living in a goldfish bowl – a life with no privacy, everyone can see what you do, all the time.

HORSE: A dark horse – someone that has hidden talents or abilities

INSECT: Go away, you little insect – not polite, used when someone is making you feel very uncomfortable, or is harassing you.

JACKASS: You jackass ! – again, very informal signifying a silly or stupid person.

LION: Taking the lion’s share – taking the biggest amount of something.

MONKEY: Too much monkey business – too much madness or uncontrollable behaviour

Practice makes perfect so … kick it !

You spent $100 on that Relox watch, made in China ! _____
Being famous is awful, everyone taking photos all the time, it’s like _____________________________________
I can’t work for this company anymore, I don’t trust them, ________________________________________
As the CEO, he took ___________________________ of the bonus.
I don’t want to buy those cheap fake sunglasses, go away you _________
Wow, Julie wrote this ? It’s so good, she’s a real _________________ always so quiet in class.

OK, enough for one blog, I’ll continue N – Z if there’s any interest, I’ll continue N- Z even if there isn’t any interest. Now I gotta prepare for two online classes and a speaking placement test, drink tea (I am English, don’t forget) and hope my internet doesn’t act like a jackass and pack up on me.

Everyone, stay safe and well.

Thank you for visiting this site

Young Learners: Amazing Adjectives

9th August 2021

Movie and TV Cast Screencaps: Maggie Cheung as Flying Snow / Hero (2002) / 32 Screencaps — The amazing Asian actress Maggie Cheung in the famous film ‘Hero’.

The brilliant breathtaking Blues musician Robert Johnson

Adjective Game 1

Let’s start with ‘A’, the first letter. Who knows these adjectives ?

Am__________ (This word means very good, wonderful)

What other adjectives can you think of beginning with ‘a’ ?

Be___________ // (This word means very pretty)

What other adjectives can you think of beginning with ‘b’ ?

Cu__ // Dan______ // ele_____ // fan_______ (very good) // gr_______

// he________ // int_________ // Ja____ (from an Asian country) // ki___ //

la__ // me____ (not clean. Also the name of a talented footballer) //

ner___ // outg______ (opposite of shy) // pop_____ // qui__ // ru__

// sel____ // tal________ // unu_____ // valu____ (costs a lot of money)

Here Are 10 Of The Most Expensive Paintings In The World Right Now

// wea______ (if you can buy the Mona Lisa, you must be extremely wea_____) // Xenop_______ (do not like people from other countries) // ye__ – _____ (lasts for 12 months) // Zamb___ (person from Zambia)

Suitable answers: amazing / beautiful / cute / dangerous / electric / fantastic / greedy, great, Greek / healthy / intelligent / Japanese / kind / lazy / messy / nervous / outgoing /popular / quick / rude / selfish / talkative / unusual / valuable / wealthy / xenophobic / year-long / Zambian

Adjective Game 2

Sentence building using adjectives is very easy. Even using basic adjectives can improve your English. Colours, sizes and where someone is from are all easy adjectives. Look at this example:

The flag is very large and is white with a red circle in the middle. The flag is Japanese.

Look at these flags. Choose one and describe it to the class. Points for the students who guess which flag. Extra points if they know the country.

Adjective Game 3

Describe these people:

Park Soyeon - T-Ara - Posts | Facebook — Park Soyeon from Korea

Young Learners: Sentence building and Zoom warm up games.

2nd August 2021

A selection of short exercises to develop sentence building and encourage use of adjectives. Games aimed at students aged 7 – 12

Warm up game 1

Who can name a country or city beginning with ‘A’ … ? ‘B’ … ?

Warm up game 2

What country do you associate with:

sushi 2. hot curry 3. the White House 4. kangaroos 5. pizza ?

Warm up game 3

What animal is the biggest ?

How many eyes do most spiders have ?

What is more dangerous, a crocodile or an alligator ?

What does a camel have in its hump ?

What is the only bird that can fly backwards ?

What do pandas eat ? What do you call a baby kangaroo ?

Answers: A blue whale (up to 98 feet) // 8 eyes // crocodiles // camels store fat NOT water // hummingbird // bamboo // joey

Warm up game 4

Adjectives – words to describe a person or a thing

Example: The Kangaroo is small // cute // funny

Name an adjective beginning with ‘A’ … // ‘B’ … // etc

Students should be instructed to write down new words and then try to use them

Sentence building 1

What is your favourite film (or TV show, book) and why ?

EXAMPLE: I really love Star Wars because it is amazing and has many exciting space fights. The actor is incredible and the Princess is so beautiful. The film is sometimes funny and sometimes scary.

Sentence building 2

Tell me about your family ?

What do they look like ?

What are they like ?

EXAMPLE: I love my mummy very much because she helps me with my homework. She is small and has long black hair. She is friendly and happy. She likes to play badminton because it is healthy and fun.

Sentence building 3

Write interesting stories about these photos. Use adjectives and long sentences