During our course „English Without Books (Kurz zážitkové angličtiny)“ the students carry out several group and pair projects outside of class. My objective is to give them opportunities to learn with and from each other and, of course, promote self-study time.

In one of our recent group sessions we talked about the image of women in magazine ads and discussed how difficult it can be to create a successful ad for any product or service.

At the end of the session I asked the students to get in pairs and prepare an ad for a product or service of their choice and present it in the following session..

I must say each of the three student pairs did a fantastic job, playing with the English language in a very clever way. Which is the point of ads, right, to play with the language.

The first pair introduced a new NGO for women who suffer from domestic violence, the second pair came up with a local speed dating agency and the third one introduced a new product called Peg-pong.

They prepared a wonderful Power point presentation with some interesting vocabulary. If you don´t understand some of the words, here they are:

• When you „clench“ – you hold something together very firmly
• „stench“ – a very bad smell
• „trendy“ – fashionable
• „handy“ – useful

Let us know if you enjoyed the ad!

Nina

léto se kvapem blíží a já opět chystám odlehčený letní kurz pro dámy „Summer English For Women„. Ten loňský se opravdu vydařil, a tak se už nemůžu dočkat toho letošního!

Na co se můžete  těšit?

Na 9 letních podvečerů nabitých anglickou konverzací se mnou a rodilými mluvčími, kde si zopakujete nějakou tu gramatiku, rozšíříte slovní zásobu a hlavně – budete neustále mluvit!

• Film sessions
• Reading sessions
• Discussion sessions
• + 3 zážitkové lekce  s rodilými mluvčími

Hlavní témata: léto a letní příběhy/lásky/cestování, ženy v různých kulturách

Výuka bude probíhat z menší části v mé soukromé učebně na Rybářské, ostatní lekce budou v přírode či v kavárně/hospůdce. Součástí kurzu je i výlet mimo Brno – and that´s A SURPRISE!

Termín:  12.6. – 14.8. 2012

Den a hodina:  úterý od 17.30h – cca 20.00h (kromě 3.7. – dovolená)

Počet studentů ve skupině:  5-6

Úroveň mluvené angličtiny: intermediate + upper-intermediate

Cena: 3999,- (lze zaplatit ve 2 splátkách)

Přihlášky a případné dotazy posílejte co nejdříve na email nina@englishbrno.cz.

Budu se těšit, že se i letos sejde skvělá skupina a všichni si to užijeme!

See you there?

Nina

“Wanna have some fun? With us it is done!”

Our new girlfriends from America are coming to Brno for extended weekend and we want to prepare a nice time for them. One of the girls asked us about spelling the word „Brno“ and this is our idea about it: B = beer, R = relax, N = natural, O = open and friendly people. We are convinced that Brno can offer all of that and even much more.

All of the tourists who decided to visit Brno praise its brilliant position. It is situated midway between capitals of Czech Republic and Austria: Prague and Vienna. If you have more time for staying in our country, Brno is a good basepoint for trips to both capitals.

Brno cathedral

You can get to Brno by plane, there is an international airport, but sometimes it is better to fly to Vienna or Prague and then use a bus. For example the company Student Agency provides comfortable service and it’s possible to go right from the airport to the historic centre of Brno, bus station Grand Hotel.

If you don’t need to care about the money, the best and nearest choice of accommodation is Grand Hotel****, located opposite the bus station. It is close everywhere from here. If you don’t need high-quality accommodation but still want comfort, some of the pensions are in the centre too, e.g. Pension na Dvořákové. Even in Brno the rule is true – what is further away from the centre is cheaper. Sometimes (mainly in the summer) it is possible to take advantage of accommodation in Dormitory of Masaryk University or University of Technology.

The best and cheapest way how to travel in Brno is to use a tram („Šalina“ is common name for it in Brno). There are two zones in Brno and you can choose the ticket you need. The choice depends on your age, health and destination of your trip – ticket for 15, 60 and 90 minutes. If your visit is longer, you can buy a cheaper ticket, which is valid for 1 or 5 days, 2 weeks, 1 month and so on. All of this information you can find here.

Certainly you will be hungry after arrival and during your stay. Brno and mainly the town centre offers plenty of opportunities where you can have something good to eat. We highly recommend you to try some of the national Bohemian and Moravian dishes in Restaurant Špalíček in Zelný trh or return in time by visiting the medieval pub Sředověká Krčma on Česká street. For good beer and roasted ribs you can visit well-known pubs Stopkova plzeňská pivnice or Pegas.

Moravian cuisine

 If you are not sure about your order, why don´t you try one of our delicious national dishes: svíčková na smetaně (beef, dumplings, sauce), knedlo, vepřo, zelo (pork, dumplings, cabbage), plněné ovocné knedlíky (fruit filled dumplings) and traditional Czech dessert jablečný štrůdl (apple strudel). Czech cuisine is quite heavy, but if you wash it down with good Czech beer, such as Starobrno or Pilsner, or you try Becherovka or Moravian speciality Slivovice (Plum brandy) as a digestif, we promise you that after 2 hours you can easily move on to a night club and get ready for the party.

If you enjoy listening to chamber music, we recommend Bar U Palečka with its beautiful cellar atmosphere, or you can listen to jazz concert or just talk to other native speakers and English speaking Czechs and foreigners at ongoing English meetings.

After midnight you can continue to one of the nearby night clubs, where you can dance all night long. According to your music taste you can choose among Metro, Two Faces, Remix, Fléda, and others). In the morning you might appreciate a taxi service (e.g. Impuls Taxi) one of many taxi services based a maximum 10 minutes from these night clubs. However all the clubs mentioned above are located in the city centre, maximum 15-minute walk from each other.

On the second day, after long sleep, you can spend your brunch on the banks of Brno reservoir, which is about 30 minutes far from the centre. Beautiful forested nature, sun, smooth water and maybe sightseeing boat trip calm your mind, assure you of incredibly beautiful nature and friendly character of most of Brno citizens. At the same time this puts you in the mood for seeing amazing historical sights that cannot be missed.

Brno reservoir

In the heat of the afternoon sun you can cool yourself in the Capuchin Church, where you can learn about history of Brno. In the late afternoon on your way to the dominant Petrov Cathedral and Špilberk Castle you can visit Zelný trh square where traditional fruit, vegetable and flower market is placed. After that you just enjoy your walk through beautifully illuminated Brno. If you don’t feel like going to a night club again and you prefer to stay in a calmer place, we advice you to visit one of the coffee houses and confectioner’s in the nearby shopping centre Vaňkovka.

You can spend your last morning in Brno at a terrace of Café Zeman, which is situated in the centre, and after breakfast take a walk through main streets and squares (Česká street, Freedom square, Masaryk street, Malinovského square..) and buy some small souvenirs as a remembrance of your visit. You will find the best traditional Czech souvenirs of the folk art in the shop called Luta on Česká street.

Certainly you will agree that Brno is an amazing city with endless possibilities. Come and experience it by yourself!;) You are always welcome with open arms!

Students of „Kurz zážitkové angličtiny“ – Kristýna, Marta, Lenka, Radka, Renata and Monika

This is a guest post written by my students. The task was to write a blog post about our city of Brno with recommendations for a group of young ladies who´d like to spend a weekend in Brno. They later presented it in one of our lessons and you can see part of the presentation in this video:

“Wanna have some fun? With us it is done!”

Our new girlfriends from America are coming to Brno for extended weekend and we want to prepare a nice time for them. One of the girls asked us about spelling the word „Brno“ and this is our idea about it: B = beer, R = relax, N = natural, O = open and friendly people. We are convinced that Brno can offer all of that and even much more.

All of the tourists who decided to visit Brno praise its brilliant position. It is situated midway between capitals of Czech Republic and Austria: Prague and Vienna. If you have more time for staying in our country, Brno is a good basepoint for trips to both capitals.

Brno cathedral

You can get to Brno by plane, there is an international airport, but sometimes it is better to fly to Vienna or Prague and then use a bus. For example the company Student Agency provides comfortable service and it’s possible to go right from the airport to the historic centre of Brno, bus station Grand Hotel.

If you don’t need to care about the money, the best and nearest choice of accommodation is Grand Hotel****, located opposite the bus station. It is close everywhere from here. If you don’t need high-quality accommodation but still want comfort, some of the pensions are in the centre too, e.g. Pension na Dvořákové. Even in Brno the rule is true – what is further away from the centre is cheaper. Sometimes (mainly in the summer) it is possible to take advantage of accommodation in Dormitory of Masaryk University or University of Technology.

The best and cheapest way how to travel in Brno is to use a tram („Šalina“ is common name for it in Brno). There are two zones in Brno and you can choose the ticket you need. The choice depends on your age, health and destination of your trip – ticket for 15, 60 and 90 minutes. If your visit is longer, you can buy a cheaper ticket, which is valid for 1 or 5 days, 2 weeks, 1 month and so on. All of this information you can find here.

Certainly you will be hungry after arrival and during your stay. Brno and mainly the town centre offers plenty of opportunities where you can have something good to eat. We highly recommend you to try some of the national Bohemian and Moravian dishes in Restaurant Špalíček in Zelný trh or return in time by visiting the medieval pub Sředověká Krčma on Česká street. For good beer and roasted ribs you can visit well-known pubs Stopkova plzeňská pivnice or Pegas.

Moravian cuisine

 If you are not sure about your order, why don´t you try one of our delicious national dishes: svíčková na smetaně (beef, dumplings, sauce), knedlo, vepřo, zelo (pork, dumplings, cabbage), plněné ovocné knedlíky (fruit filled dumplings) and traditional Czech dessert jablečný štrůdl (apple strudel). Czech cuisine is quite heavy, but if you wash it down with good Czech beer, such as Starobrno or Pilsner, or you try Becherovka or Moravian speciality Slivovice (Plum brandy) as a digestif, we promise you that after 2 hours you can easily move on to a night club and get ready for the party.

If you enjoy listening to chamber music, we recommend Bar U Palečka with its beautiful cellar atmosphere, or you can listen to jazz concert or just talk to other native speakers and English speaking Czechs and foreigners at ongoing English meetings.

After midnight you can continue to one of the nearby night clubs, where you can dance all night long. According to your music taste you can choose among Metro, Two Faces, Remix, Fléda, and others). In the morning you might appreciate a taxi service (e.g. Impuls Taxi) one of many taxi services based a maximum 10 minutes from these night clubs. However all the clubs mentioned above are located in the city centre, maximum 15-minute walk from each other.

On the second day, after long sleep, you can spend your brunch on the banks of Brno reservoir, which is about 30 minutes far from the centre. Beautiful forested nature, sun, smooth water and maybe sightseeing boat trip calm your mind, assure you of incredibly beautiful nature and friendly character of most of Brno citizens. At the same time this puts you in the mood for seeing amazing historical sights that cannot be missed.

Brno reservoir

In the heat of the afternoon sun you can cool yourself in the Capuchin Church, where you can learn about history of Brno. In the late afternoon on your way to the dominant Petrov Cathedral and Špilberk Castle you can visit Zelný trh square where traditional fruit, vegetable and flower market is placed. After that you just enjoy your walk through beautifully illuminated Brno. If you don’t feel like going to a night club again and you prefer to stay in a calmer place, we advice you to visit one of the coffee houses and confectioner’s in the nearby shopping centre Vaňkovka.

You can spend your last morning in Brno at a terrace of Café Zeman, which is situated in the centre, and after breakfast take a walk through main streets and squares (Česká street, Freedom square, Masaryk street, Malinovského square..) and buy some small souvenirs as a remembrance of your visit. You will find the best traditional Czech souvenirs of the folk art in the shop called Luta on Česká street.

Certainly you will agree that Brno is an amazing city with endless possibilities. Come and experience it by yourself!;) You are always welcome with open arms!

Students of „Kurz zážitkové angličtiny“ – Kristýna, Marta, Lenka, Radka, Renata and Monika

I will help you if I have time.

The first type of conditional sentences is the most common and most often used in spoken English. With this structure you are talking about a REAL condition, something POSSIBLE to happen.

In the Introduction to conditionals you could learn about the difference between WILL and WOULD. For the 1st conditional you need the word WILL – but in the right place!

I will help you if I have time.

You will learn this if you listen carefully.

- this looks quite simple, right? But many people make a mistake here and put the word WILL after „If“ – which is NOT CORRECT:

I will help you if I will have time – the second WILL shouldn´t be there.

if + present tense (even though you are talking about the future)

At the end of the video I start a sentence „If I cook dinner tonight….“ and the Youtube members added some nice ideas how to finish it. Here are some of them:

… I will light the candles and open a good bottle of red wine

… I will be so happy

… I´ll be free

And how about you, how would you finish the sentence?

I _____help you if I have time

x

I _____ help you if I had time

This is my very first video, which I made and uploaded on Youtube exactly 1,5 years ago. Exciting times, starting my Youtube channel, incredible how time flies… Anyways, since I was experimenting with video-making in those days, I did not create an accompanying blog post to go with it. So to set things right and help you learn this with text as well, here you go:

Will x Would

Will and Would – the two most important words in Conditional sentences. If you know these two, half of the work is done. Here is how to understand them:

Question: „Could you, please, help me, Nina?“

Answer 1: „Yes, I will help you. I have time.“

Answer 2: „I would help you but I don´t have time“ (= I would help you if I had time – see Second conditional video)

- Answer 2 means: „I will not help you“

-> use WOULD when you imagine a situation

REVISION:

I will help you = FUTURE (real)

I would help you = FUTURE (imagination)

-> use WOULD when you imagine a situation

More examples:

• I will stay a bit longer. I´ve got a lot of time.  x  I would stay a bit longer but I can´t, I really have to go now.
• I will show Jim this email. I am going for lunch with him today.  x   I would show Jim this email but I can´t, he has cancelled our lunch today.

TIP:

Use „would“ to sound more friendly when you want to say no.

Say: „I would (like to) help you but I don´t have time“

- it´s better than „No, I will not help you, I don´t have time“ although they describe the same situation.

My course „Kurz zážitkové angličtiny„, which translates as English Without Books, is a mixture of task-based activities with native speakers such as this one, individual guidance of each student through their study process and study group sessions where we discuss effective ways to study English, and revise the work the students have been doing during their self-study time at home.

The Cooking lesson is one of my personal favourites since I don´t have to do anything and I get served delicious meals at the end :). And it´s always such a pleasant evening when we set the table, serve the meal (every time a different one!) and talk about the experience, about cooking and life, and we listen to some old LP´s of mine. This time it was Cat Stevens (hence the background music in the video).

Prior to the lesson, students went through a 5-worksheet unit on Cooking (EOT materials), conversed about the topic with 2 or more conversation partners, watched and spoke cooking videos at English Central and learned words visually from the photo vocabs + games at English Attack. Matt, the instructor, also discussed the meal with the students one week beforehand, during our conference call via Skype, to make sure everyone is okay with the ingredients.

Ingredients for Shish Kebab meal:

MEAT:
3 red onions
3 cms of ginger
rosemary
3 chillies
2 tea spoons of fennel seeds
2 tea spoons of coriander seeds
Garam masala (arabic spice)
salt
pepper
0,5 of lime (lemon)
1,5 kilo of meat (beef or lamb)

BREAD:
0,5 kilo of flour
2 table spoons of white yogurt
water
salt
cumin in powder

HUMMUS:
a 400g can of chickpeas
sesame Tahina
salt
pepper
half a lime
olive oil

SALAD:
250 grams of cherry tomatoes
250 grams of ice berg salad or mixed salad
half a lime
olive oil
olives, Arabic milk cheese

The recipe (put together by the students)

BREAD:

1. put 0,5 kilo of flour into a bowl, add 1,5 tea spoons of salt, add a little bit of cumin in powder
2. mix it together
3. add 2 table spoons of white yogurt
4. mix it
5. slowly add water (cca 0,2 dcl, better according to your intuition)
6. mix it
7. when the dough is prepared, make a ‘ball’ from it, cover it by aluminium and leave it resting
8. in the time you put the meat into the oven, take the dough and by the twisting motion pluck part of the dough and make small ball in the size of an egg, do it also with the rest of the dough
9. take a little bit of flour and make the small ball of dough flat
10. using a rolling pin flatten the ball of dough, get it as thin as you can while trying to maintain a round shape
11. heat up a skillet
12. don’t use oil
13. put the flat dough on the really warm pan, when you see bubbles, turn it around
14. wait until you see bubbles then turn it around again
15. then when you see bubbles take dishtowel and press the edges really strongly
16. turn it around and again press the edges strongly with dishtowel
17. *use dishtowel while turning it around

KEBAB:

1. peal the onions and chop them into small pieces
2. cut the chillies in half lengthwise and clean them inside, make sure that you remove also the membrane
3. put onions, ginger, chillies and rosemary into a blender and blend it all together
4. grind spices together (2 tea spoons of coriander seeds and 2 tea spoons of fennel seeds)
5. put the ground spices into a bowl, add blended ingredients from the point 3, add salt and squeeze a half of lime into it, add spice mix called Garam masala and pepper
6. mix it together
7. add meat
8. mix it
9. add one beaten egg
10. mix it properly
11. preheat the oven on 200°C
12. take as much meat as your hand can hold and stick it on a skewer
13. put it on the aluminium and prepare another skewer
14. when you have as many skewers prepared as you can put into your oven, put covered skewers into the oven and leave it there for 15-20 mins
15. after this time uncover it and leave it there for another 10-15 min
16. pull it out and you can serve it

HUMMUS

1. take a can of chickpeas (with 400 grams of chickpeas inside not counting the liquids)
2. open it and pour a little bit of the ‘water’ from the can into a bowl
3. then pull out the chickpeas and add it to the bowl (pour away the rest of liquid content)
4. add a pinch of salt
5. squeeze a half of lime into it
6. add pepper
7. take the can of sesame tahina and mix it properly in the can because the sesame is usually only at the bottom of the can
8. add 2 table spoons of this sesame cream into the bowl
9. blend it together using a hand blender
10. add 1 spoon of olive oil  and blend it again
11. Hummus is ready! Put it to the fridge

SALAD

1. take 250 grams of small cherry tomatoes, cut them in half and put them into a bowl
2. add 250 grams of salad (ice berg or iceberg mixed with carrots etc.)
3. squeeze half of lime into it
4. mix it
5. add generous amount of olive oil
6. add olives and Arabic milk cheese

In case you want to see other recipes Matt has in his repertoire, watch one of the previous Cooking lessons or his Jamie-Oliver style video where he teaches you how to prepare two kinds o Thai curry.

Bon apetit!

One of the topics I intend to talk about in my videoblogs is learning English via Internet. If you are watching this video you are doing it already, by the way :)

Although I believe nothing can replace a good teacher who guides you, consults with you, inspires you and motivates you, there are many ways you can improve your English on your own. You can be either passive, meaning you read and listen, or active – you speak and write.

Most students complain they don´t get enough speaking practice outside of class. I always motivate them to attend free English meetings in their town or find conversation partners online, or both. The more outgoing and talkative people happily follow my advice and gain a lot from socializing with others, be it in a café or on Skype.

However not everyone is like that. So what to do if you are one of those shy people, afraid to speak because you don´t have the confidence yet? Where and how do you develop that feeling of  „I can do it, I can finally go out there and speak to people in the real world“? I believe I have an answer for you!

And the answer is: EnglishCentral.com – a fantastic website which I found about one and a half years ago through my online colleague, Mrs Brenda de Jong, an English teacher in Amsterdam. I immediately fell in love with it and so did my students.

This website plays a very important role in my students´ fast improvement of their speaking and listening skills during my group courses here in Brno, Czech Republic and my online courses which I conduct via Skype.

So what can this website do for you?

When you register for free you can watch thousands of short subtitled video clips on any topic you can think of: cooking, shopping, eating in restaurants, travelling, business meetings and so many more… You will find your favourite movies scenes, interviews with celebrities, tv ads, documentaries, lectures, famous speeches, you name it. When I first found this website I thought I was in heaven – they´re all subtitled!

And now comes the best part! After watching a video, you can record yourself, speaking the exact same lines. The speech recognition system gives you feedback on how well you pronounced the words, the sentences, and you can instantly compare them with the original speaker. After you watch a video you get a score, a grade, like at school, and the video is saved in the „Completed videos“ file where you can easily find it for revision. So whether you´d like to practise a business presentation, learn how to explain a pizza recipe or have fun and try to impersonate Jack Sparrow, here is your chance.

After you´re done recording a video you can continue working with vocabulary from that video. Which, in my opinion, is the greatest asset of EnglishCentral – it makes you practise vocabulary in context, not as individual words or phrases.

The system also recognizes your weak points in pronunciation and suggests which sounds to focus on. And it offers a lot of instructional videos on pronunciation.

For me, as an English teacher, the website is a truly invaluable tool. Whether I am a private teacher or a school, I can set up a free account, I can invite all my students to join my online classes, I can divide them into different groups, I can suggest videos and vocabulary to them, I can set up different curricula for them, and different goals… I can even follow their improvement by seeing their score. And a new feature at EnglishCentral, I can listen to their recordings! I mean, how cool is that?

Here is what my students say about using English Central:

„English Central is a perfect website where you can learn a lot. Primarily it is for learning English but I learn there much more. There are interesting videos about amazing people, fashion, cooking and whatever you want to watch. After watching a video you can record yourself, learn new vocabulary or test yourself. The videos can be watched with or without English subtitles and you can choose from three levels – easy, medium and hard.“ (Kristýna Stehnová, Czech Republic)

„You don´t have to be afraid about mistakes, which you have done during recording. Because nobody else can hear you, perfect for shy and introvert students. And if you are doing it carefully and compare your speech and try to improve your mistakes, it really works. Also, you can build up your vocabulary and find some useful phrases in videos. And when you feel better, you can go out and practise your English in real life.“ (Tereza Seifertová, Czech Republic)

„I have to confess that listening is my biggest problem with English. When I have to speak, it depends on me,I mean, I have to decide what words I want to use for saying the things that I have to say; but when I have to understand the things that other people are saying to me, it depends on the speed of them, and I have no control. I know that movies would be a great instrument for improve my listening comprehension, but a movie is too long for me, so the shorter videos are ideal for that purpose. The great thing with English Central is the vast variety of videos, the ability to slow down the speed, to register your voice and verify your pronounciation. There is also a good tool to learn new words using the videos that you have been watching; and all those things make EC one of the most useful instrument for my improvement in English.“ (Lorenzo Scontrino, Italy)

„I really love practising my English on English Central, I always spend so much time there by listening and speaking the videos which I am interested in! Since I’ve been practising my pronunciation there I became more fluent and I found out how to pronounce specific sounds, which I wasn’t confident in.“ (Kristýna Kocourková, Czech Republic)

„I use EnglishCentral.com for practising English at least three days of the week. It is an essential part of our course „Kurz zážitkové angličtiny„. I like watching a video and after that practising English by speaking. Immediately I can hear and see my mistakes. You can choose video with the topic which you love or you are interested in. Learning is easier with the funny videos! It´s useful to practise some vocabulary or pronunciation there. For example if you learn vocabulary, you can use quiz with the unknown words.“ (Renata Poláchová, Czech Republic)

„I´ve been using English Central only just for several weeks, yet I consider this source very useful for people who study English. I like the possibility to choose my level and even change it when I feel I chose too easy or too hard one. What I mostly appreciate and what I think makes EC unique is the possibility of recording myself while speaking and learn from my mistakes. Also studying of the vocab is made in a nice, useful way (by giving more examples of the words in other vids).“ (Lenka Hrozková, Czech Republic)

„I think that the English Central page is the best page for me because I am still afraid of speaking with other people…. I love doing videos on this page. I think that is the best way how to improve speaking skills – mainly English pronunciation. It makes me happy if I can do the video with a lot of points. I appreciate that I can see which word makes me problem with pronunciation and the possibility to hear my recorded sentences. I think that there are so many kinds of videos that everybody can choose what she/he wants to do. I love the group of videos called – See Britain through my eyes. They are about different people – foreigners, who live and work in UK. These people are telling a story about their life, their experiences and success. It is very interesting for me.“ (Iveta Pernicová, Czech Republic)

„English Central is the best way to learn English. I´ve never seen anything like this. If your pronunciation is not very good, they´ll reveal your weaknesses and they´ll teach you how to pronounce correctly. If you don´t understand the words, they´ll explain it to you in the short sentences and through helpful videos. Then there is an opportunity to take a quiz, so every word will be engraved in your memory. If it´s too difficult for you, you can choose lower level. And the best of all is, that you can see your progress, what stimulates you to further work on your English.“ (Monika Kubánová, Slovakia)

And how about you, do you like English Central?

Nina

A: Guess who I met last night as I was waiting for the bus?

B: No idea, who did you meet?

In my opinion the learners of English don´t use  Past Continuous correctly, or they don´t use it enough. Let´s have a look at these examples, there is a big difference between these two sentences:

1. When I came home he WAS COOKING dinner – he had already started cooking before I came home: 1. he was cooking, 2. I came, 3. he continued cooking

2. When I came home he COOKED dinner – he started AFTER I came home: 1. I came, 2. he cooked

Conclusion:

When you use Past Simple you say that one event happened after the other: „In the morning I WOKE up, I GOT out of bed, I WENT to brush my teeth and I PREPARED breakfast.“

When you use Past Continuous you are giving us information about the background events in the process: „In the morning I WOKE up and the birds WERE SINGING, the sun WAS SHINING, the children WERE PLAYING outside.“

PAST SIMPLE – plays the main role when:

- you are telling a story about the past, you are naming one event after the other – in PAST SIMPLE, and when you want to give some extra information about things happening in the background you use PAST CONTINUOUS

PAST CONTINUOUS – plays the main role when:

- you are describing a longer action:

A: „What were you doing all afternoon?“ B: „I was reading a fantastic book.“

A: „What were you doing last night?“ B: „I was cramming for my grammar test.“

- you are describing several longer actions happening at the same time:

„The birds were singing, the children were playing and the sun was shinging…“

„I was cooking dinner and my boyfriend was watching our daughter.“

- you are describing repeated actions (and usually being annoyed by them):

„She was always doing that, I didn´t like that.“

„They were constantly turning up late, it was horrible, I could never count on them.“

- you are describing a temporary situation:

„We were living with friends because our flat wasn´t ready.“

„He was teaching at Charles University in the 80´s.“

You can watch more of my grammar videos on my Youtube channel.

Nina

Reading and watching „No One Here Gets Out Alive“ – Jim´s biography, which is „credited with revitalizing the popularity of the Doors and Morrison“ (Wikipedia), became a part of my teenage years. When one of my best friends, Barbara Kučová, translated James Henke´s (former Rolling Stone´s editor) book called „Jim Morrison´s Scrapbook“ into Czech, a collector´s edition with lots of handwritten memorabilia, rare photos and never-published stories, I couldn´t resist the temptation to get a copy.

The Doors are a wonderful band to listen to for your English studies, that is if you like rock and roll music. Listen to these three songs, read the lyrics and you´ll see what I mean. I truly hope you enjoy them. Otherwise I wouldn´t bother posting this, right? Here´s to learning English with music!

Suggested steps to work with the songs:

1. Watch the video clip, relax and enjoy it.

2. Watch the video clip again, paying attention only to the words.

3. Play it again and read the lyrics while listening. Why not sing along now?

Hello, I love you
Won’t you tell me your name?
Hello, I love you
Let me jump in your game (2x)

She’s walking down the street
Blind to every eye she meets
Do you think you’ll be the guy
To make the queen of the angels sigh?

Hello, I love you… (refrain)

She holds her head so high
Like a statue in the sky
Her arms are wicked, and her legs are long
When she moves my brain screams out this song

Sidewalk crouches at her feet
Like a dog that begs for something sweet
Do you hope to make her see, you fool?
Do you hope to pluck this dusky jewel?

Love me two times, baby
Love me twice today
Love me two times, girl
I’m goin’ away
Love me two times, girl
One for tomorrow
One just for today
Love me two times
I’m goin’ away

Love me one time
I could not speak
Love me one time
Yeah, my knees got weak
But love me two times, girl
Last me all through the week

Love me two times
I’m goin’ away
Love me two times
I’m goin’ away

People are strange when you’re a stranger
Faces look ugly when you’re alone
Women seem wicked when you’re unwanted
Streets are uneven when you’re down

When you’re strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you’re strange
No one remembers your name
When you’re strange
When you’re strange
When you’re strange

Hi! This IS Nina, the silly girl from EnglishBrno.

I hope you like my hairdo today, for Valentine´s Day… Of course, I want to wish you a Happy Valentine´s Day, to all those who celebrate it. And those who don´t celebrate it, or even hate it, I still wanna send all my love to you.

I so appreciate your support of my work, your Likes, your Comments, your Shares, your discussions – on Facebook and my Youtube channel and my blog at englishbrno.cz/blog… ok, enough of advertising…

I actually have a special message for all my single ladies out there (some of you know who you are): Ladies, if you are looking for the love of your life, just STOP. You know what? They will be waiting for you when you start doing something you love. It happened to me so it must be true, right? So do the things you love! Do them often. Wear your passion and the right person is going to show up. I promise.

And I cross my fingers for you so that you find the strength within you to do that. To quit your job, become a freelancer like myself, or just find your passion and follow your heart, right?

I also want to invite you to a special event tonight at 7pm CET (Czech time) or 6pm GMT at Wiziq with my friends Sylvia and Jason. We´re going to have a special Valentine´s Day English lesson and you will find the link to this event – just click on it and launch the class at 7pm CET here below.

Free Valentine´s Day Lesson

And in the meantime why don´t you post some cool love videos for all of us to share and have a love party here at EnglishBrno? I´m going to be here almost all day so let´s have fun and let´s give some support to those who feel alone today. Don´t forget that the most important love that you have is the love for yourself.

This was Nina, thanks for watching and I´ll see you around. Sending all my love to you!

Here are the lyrics of the song „Love is in the air“.