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“.

Transcript of the interview:

Hi, Glenn! Could you briefly introduce yourself?

Hi Nina! Yes. My name is Glenn Weidner, I am an American, I´m an English teacher in Třebíč – I live in the Czech Republic now – I´ve been living here for almost 5 years and…. that´s about it. It´s as brief as it gets.

What made you come to Třebíč, Czech Republic?

I came here 5 years ago when an American friend of mine, who was living in Moravské Budějovice with his wife, he called me and said: „Glenn, would you like to come to the Czech Republic and start a business with me?“ So at the time, I don´t know what I was thinking, I said: „Why not?“ and a few months later I moved here.

So Třebíč…. Can you tell me a little bit about Třebíč?

Třebíč is a… great town. It´s not small, it´s not big, it has about 40 thousand people and there are a few historical attractions here. Mostly the UNESCO places like the Jewish quarter  and the basilica. But there are also some other things to see here.

Ok. So you first started a business with your friend but gradually you became an English teacher. How did that happen?

I just… One day – this was after my business partner returned to America – I wasn´t really sure what I was doing, where I wanted to go, and I received a phone call from a friend, a Czech friend, and he said: „Hey, Glenn, do you know anybody who would be interested in…. a native speaker who´d be interested in teaching English? And I thought: „I´m learning Czech… Can I do it?“ And he said: „Yeah, yeah, you can do it.“ So I got my business license a few weeks later and I started teaching English at the nuclear power plant in Dukovany.

So how many students do you teach at the moment?

At the moment… I´d have to look at my spreadsheet, I love spreadsheets, but I think I have…. every week I have 23 students that I see.

Ok. So do people from a smaller town need to speak English? What is their motivation?

Mostly people in smaller towns – and I would say even smaller than Třebíč – their motivations are… the main one – because of my students that I see – is for work. Whether they work for a German company, a Czech company, these companies see the future as having to deal with other businesses and the international business language is English.  And then other motivations… lots of my students are mothers for example so this is a hobby for them. It´s something for them to do to get away, do something for themselves and improve themselves. And then, of course, there are things like, you know, students who want to… who´re in school, who need some extra tutoring. Or other people tell me, you know, they use it for travelling. That´s the only time they need English but it´s better for them for travelling.

And what level are they usually on? Are they fluent or beginners?

My students… most of my students have already had several years of English. Whether it was the normal public school system, or they took some language school after they finished their normal public school. So I would say most of my students have had about 8 years of English in some form… but they haven´t spoken so much when they come to me so… Maybe their grammar is pretty good and I think all of the English is somewhere in here, it´s just a matter practising conversation, normal conversation. So this is what I try to focus on.

So you encourage them to speak as much as they can, yeah? By communicating with you and you also organize these free English meet-ups in Třebíč. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Yeah, this is something I´ve been experimenting with and hopefully it will continue on a more regular basis… But once a month I´m putting together meetings here in Třebíč – we can go bowling, sit in a pub, it doesn´t matter. The more the merrier as long as we have space in the pub. So I will post an invitation on Facebook and whoever signs up can come, bring friends. And again the point of the meeting is to speak English. So anything… ask questions. And for me I guess the biggest reward that I´ve seen out of this so far – I´ve seen this a few times – is when I leave the table to go to the toilet, whatever, to pay the bill and I come back and – they still speak English – yes, I love that. It´s great.

My final question for your would be: Could you tell us a little bit about some typical mistakes that Czech students make?

I have my lists, I don´t know if every teacher has a list like mine,  but what I focus on mostly with my students are basic things. So using and how to use the verbs „have“ or „is“ for example. I would say the biggest mistakes with „have“ are things like – they typically are taught „have got“, they aren´t taught „have“ and what they say when they come to me, they´ll say „I haven´t any money“ or „I haven´t something to do“ or „I have…“. You know, it just doesn´t right. So I´m trying to get them to use „have“ and „have got“ correctly. Modal verbs, I think, are very important. There aren´t so many of them so I think I focus on those a lot, especially the verb „must“ where I would prefer that most people would use „have to“. And when they speak „must“ is just really strong and we don´t use it as often as the grammar books might tell you.

Ok, alright. Well, I´m hoping to make a few more videos with you where we can discuss more of these specific problems that Czech students have but for now I´d like to say good-bye. And maybe you could say something in Czech to finish the video.

Nashledanou!

_________________________

If you have any questions for Glenn, please, post them in the Comments!

How to learn vocabulary – basic rules:

• don´t memorize lists of words that are not related, instead make categories – have a system
• every word you write down needs to have an example sentence, otherwise it´s a waste of time
• ideally you should have the words on small cards so that you can take them everywhere with you
• say the word aloud + the example sentence many times
• use the word (say/write) actively as soon as possible
• write down the synonyms and collocations as well
  

When my students want to express that someone is behaving in a mentally strange way in 99% of the cases they use the word CRAZY. And most of the time I probably do, too. So here is what I put together for both you and me – synonyms, phrases and idioms. As usual I have consulted the dictionaries and my native speaker friends who helped with understanding the different uses of the following expressions.

• NUTS, NUTTY, A NUTTER, A NUTCASE

The guy must be completely nuts. He wears shorts in winter.  totally crazy

She´s totally nutty. She wants to buy a castle in Scotland.  eccentric crazy

Pete is a real nutter if he thinks he can get away with it. totally crazy

Trust me, this guy is a total nutcase. totally crazy

• BARMY, BATTY, BONKERS - softer

Ginger, you´re barmy! silly crazy

Next door to us lives a batty old lady who talks to her plants. crazy in an amusing way

That idea is bonkers. slightly crazy (BrE), very crazy/annoying (AmE)

• INSANE, DISTURBED, MENTAL, PSYCHO – primarily describes mentally ill people

You´d be totally insane to see him again! irrational

This crime could only be committed by a mentally disturbed person. mentally ill

That dude´s mental/psycho if he´s gonna jump off that cliff. irrational/very strange

• A MANIAC, A LUNATIC, A WEIRDO, A WACKO – crazy + strange

Slow down, you are driving like a maniac!

Some lunatic was driving on the wrong side of the road.

Jenny´s going out with a real weirdo/wacko

• TO GO CRAZY/MAD/INSANE/BANANAS/APESHIT

When our team scored, the crowd went crazy.

I´d go mad if I was stuck at home all day.

Why did you do that, have you gone insane?

Mum went bananas when I told her I was gonna quit school.

Mike went totally apeshit when his dog got lost.

• TO DRIVE SB CRAZY/MAD/ROUND THE BEND/UP THE WALL

You´re driving me crazy, stop making excuses and tell me the truth!

Please, stop with that banging noise – it´s driving me mad.

His interruptions during my speech drove me round the bend.

My boss drives me up the wall.

• IDIOMS/PHRASES to express that someone is CRAZY:

Is he out of his mind?

I think he needs his head examined.

He´s running around like a headless chicken.

He lost his marbles.

There are many other expressions for „CRAZY“, you can look them up here.

Which one is your favourite? Please, use the comments section. My personal favourites are gaga and a fruitcake.

Nina

(I´d like to thank my dear friends and colleagues: Jason, Nick, Pam, Aaron, Glenn, Ginger, Tom, Sylvia and Brenda for their help!)

„Bob was _______________ when he won the lottery.“

When we want to express our HAPPINESS with an idiom in Czech, we say we are „happy as a flea“ (šťastný jako blecha). However in English no such expression exists. Here is what native speakers of English say in different parts of the world:

Happy as a clam (at high tide/water) – used in the USA and Canada, many Brits apparently don´t know what „a clam“ is; if you don´t either and/or wonder why Americans say this, here is a wonderful epxlanation

Happy as a lark – used mainly in the UK and Ireland; if you don´t know what „a lark“ is, click here

Happy as Larry – originates in Australia (full story here) but it is also used in the UK

Happy as a kid in a candy shop and Happy as a dog with two tails - self-explanatory, popular versions for many, both in the UK and the US

Happy as a pig in shit – often used in the US among good friends where you don´t need to watch your language, colloquial

Happy as shit/fuck – very often used both in the US and the UK among good friends, colloquial and slightly vulgar

Happy as a hippo – my personal favourite. It is a quote from the movie „Along Came Polly“. It is from a fable told by a French character called „Claude“: The story is about a hippopotamus who wanted to be like the other animals but failing to find happiness. At last he decides that he will just be himself, and be „happy as a hippo“. Although originally the expression came from the movie, nowadays people are using it. Watch the scene here.

More elaborate ones include:

Happy as a rooster in a hen house

Happy as a beaver chewing on wood

Happy as a Mexican jumping bean

And how about you? What do you compare your happiness to in your language?

Nina

(I´d like to thank my dear friends and colleagues: Jason, Nick, David, Jamie, Howard, Emma, Tracey, Tom, Sylvia and Brian for their help!)

Věřím v přirozený, organický přístup k osvojování si jazyka

Sama jsem se v cizích jazycích posunula nejdál vždy ve chvíli, kdy jsem měla možnost v daném jazyce komunikovat s lidmi kolem sebe a fungovat v něm. Gramatická pravidla jsou důležitá, ale pokud si je budeme opakovat pouze v učebnicích s učitelem před tabulí, nikdy se jazyk používat nenaučíme, případně to bude trvat neuvěřitelně dlouhou dobu. A přiznejme si to: JE TO NUDA! Jak říká jeden můj kolega, Jason West, autor materiálů English Out There, „Naši mateřštinu jsme se všichni naučili společenským kontaktem… komunikací s těmi kolem nás, metodou pokus omyl, vyjednáváním, od našich nejbližších. Proto je pro nás tak těžké naučit se cizí jazyk ve školních lavicích, akademickým přístupem.“

Anglický víkend

Moje brněnské zážitkové kurzy jsou takovou malou náplastí pro všechny, kteří neměli stejnou šanci jako já žít déle v zahraničí. Setkáváme se kromě virtuálního světa (Skype, email, Facebook) osobně jednou týdně v malé skupince 5-6 studentů a v angličtině vaříme, nakupujeme, zpíváme, pracujeme s videem a to vše s rodilými mluvčími. Studenti mají také několik hodin se mnou, kde se věnujeme hlavně efektivním přístupům ke studiu, internetovým zdrojům, time managementu a získávání konverzačních partnerů mezi rodilými mluvčími,  se kterými i mimo skupinové lekce studenti konverzují. Každého vedu i individuálně.  Pomáhám ujasnit si krátkodobé a dlouhodobé cíle a hodně si povídáme o motivaci, kterou se snažím podporovat právě nabídkou záživných aktivit nebo  neformálními setkáními EnglishBrno Pub Nights. Na ta může přijít kdokoliv, nejen moji studenti, a jsou zdarma.

Dnešní možnosti studenta cizích jazyků jsou fascinující

I proto je moje výuka propojená s různými aktivitami na internetu, např. komunikací ve virtuálním výukovém prostředí vytvořeném speciálně pro tento kurz či procvičováním poslechu a výslovnosti na vynikající stránce EnglishCentral.com. Jedna hodina v měsíci je věnovaná tzv. “study group” – kde procvičujeme těžší gramatické jevy, se kterými se studenti setkávají během samostudia z materiálů English Out There. Studenti pracují mnohem intenzivněji, jsou v neustálém kontaktu s mluvenou angličtinou, do/z hodin chodí nadšení a za těch 15 týdnů dělají neuvěřitelné pokroky – pusťte si nahrávky PŘED a PO.

Kurz zážitkové angličtiny - Cooking lesson

Roli učitele a studenta vnímám jinak

Vnímám svou roli jazykového lektora spíše jako “průvodce”, “motivátora”, “instruktora” a v neposlední řadě také „zprostředkovatele“ kontaktu s rodilými mluvčími. Jsem sice vedoucí studijní skupiny, ale ne jako vševědoucí lektor, bez kterého nedá student ani ránu. Vedu studenty především k samostatnosti. Automaticky berou odpovědnost za svůj pokrok v jazyce na sebe a jsou otrávení klasickou výukou z učebnic. Chápou osvojení si jazyka jako prostředek ke komunikaci se zbytkem světa, bývají tedy otevření jiným kulturám a názorům, komunikativní a veselí, chtějí si umět povídat o životě, rozumět filmům, číst knížky. Ne uměle napsané články v učebnicích, které někteří museli číst v JŠ po řadě v lavici nahlas, jako v 1.třídě.

Pro své studenty natáčím výuková videa, vedu Facebook stránku “EnglishBrno” a jako každý správný nadšenec do oboru píšu blog pro studenty i lektory. Studenty na začátku a na konci kurzu nahrávám. Zájemce o moje služby tak předem ví, do čeho jde.

Tady je prezentační video jak Kurz vypadá:

Další Kurz zážitkové angličtiny bude probíhat od 1.února – 16.května, 2012, vždy ve středu od 17.30h. Přihlášky přijímám do 20.ledna na adrese nina@englishbrno.cz. Mou osobní videopozvánku, náplň kurzu a reference absolventů najdete v sekci „Kurzy v Brně„.

(text částečně vychází z delšího rozhovoru zde)

Anyways, enough of my banter,  this is what I´d like to be able to say on 31 December, 2012:

(PHYSICAL/HEALTH)

I have spent less time sitting down at the desk.
I have cycled as much as I could around Brno and when on holiday.
I have toned my body and kept my Dec 2011 weight.
I have been able to stick to a healthy diet, at least 50% of the food on our table is local.
I have found an aerobic exercise that I love and do once a week.

(INTELLECTUAL)

I have fallen in love with blogging and have spiced up my Facebook page.
I have become better at video editing and now it takes 50% of the time to make a video (compared to 2011)
I have continued educating myself about learner´s motivation, blended learning and acquiring a foreign language
I have improved my English vocabulary and writing skills – I feel comfortable blogging.
I have travelled more, seen more, learned more about other cultures and met people who have helped me grow.

(SPIRITUAL and EMOTIONAL)

I have found balance between work and family.
I have become more thoughtful and tolerant around my closest family members.
I have seen my closest friends more often and have met with more than 5 long-distance friends.
I have read many personal growth books/articles and watched videos on relationships and business.
I have rested more – by reading fiction and watching movies, going to bed before 11pm, getting away regularly, going out – to clubs/concerts at least 1x a month.

(CAREER)

I am happy about the direction my career is heading. All my courses are helping students with vast speaking improvement and I have continued to improve my teaching methods.
I have networked and cooperated with other teachers on different projects throughout the year (mine and theirs, e.g. trip to London, English weekends, exchange projects, guest blogging).
I have built both online and offline communities of motivated learners.
I have promoted natural way of learning English both in and outside of my courses.
I find it easier to attract students, through word of mouth and online presence.
I have successfully made the transfer to working full-time, after my maternity leave.

And how about you?

All the best in 2012,

Nina

So here I go, this is how it went:

PHYSICAL DREAMS

How ironic that these were at the top of the list as my Physical dreams have proved to be my most successful category.  Though I haven´t managed to make sports a natural part of my life, my life-long dream to get more fit came true. I lost over 10kg in 3 months (and I don´t even have time to realize this!!), I also started to eat mostly local produce and bio products, we enjoy trying more regional cuisines and when it comes to my dream about cycling I´m happy to boast that we cycled quite a lot from March till October. My two-year-old loves it and so do I! I see my hometown and other places around Europe from a different angle and I know that when I want, I can have my own „Holland“ anywhere I go, without having to cycle in my beloved Amsterdam.

Biking on a family holiday in Grado, Italy

INTELLECTUAL DREAMS

I consider 2011 a breaking year for my professional life, and my intellectual dreams had a lot to do with it. I can always be better organized and I really need to brush up on my stylistics and English vocabulary, I know I know… But what the heck, I´ve started an amazing course „English Without Books – Kurz zážitkové angličtiny“ where I lead each student both independently and in a group, I´ve taken blogging more seriously, I´ve fallen in love with making videos and have made quite a few and I´ve also finally set up my new website where I moved this blog. I feel a lot of love from students and colleagues, I see my students changing their lives because of the new way I approach my work and I generally feel more respect from myself for the work I do. Nothing can beat that one :)

EMOTIONAL

This is probably the hardest one. I think I could have been a much better parent and partner this year. Especially as I have been going through a very difficult period since September and I am in the process of figuring a few things out. However I am delighted to announce that I have made many new interesting friends both from my own country and from around the world and have even met some of them face to face! I chuckle when I think of my friendships with the two wonderful women, now my role models, Anita Adnan  and Ginger Turner. I can´t wait to meet many others I´ve been developing online friendships with since 2010. These include Céline, Laurence, Jason, Sylvia, Annie Tsai, Marc, Carla, Simona Matějíčková, Katka Pastorková.

With Anita´s girls in Bristol, UK

SPIRITUAL

I think my spiritual dreams haven´t been much fulfilled and I need to work on them much harder next year. We have spent more time in the nature and I did start paying more attention to personal development. But I haven´t managed to prioritize proper meditating and reading more novels although I did flirt with both.

I am now preparing to write „My dreams for 2012″ and I honestly cannot wait to sit down and jot them down. What else can be better than dreaming? „Kids dream big because their needs are small. Adults dream small because their needs are big.“ I don´t wanna be that adult…

Let´s keep dreaming! The power to change is only in YOUR head!

Nina

The best part about this is that the newsletter is interactive as the visitor to this page can comment on any of the posts (see small bubble next to the +1 symbol)

Click here to access this interactive newsletter at Scoop.it.  And don´t forget to check out the Christmas COMPETITION!

Visit my other topic which I have been curating for a while – Learn English through video and audio – and click through to useful websites for your listening skills.

Which other topics would you be interested in?

Nina

I am using a short film about Brno (the second largest city in the Czech Republic) made by a young American man David Price living in Brno in 2006. The film has two parts – hence the two Youtube videos.

This lesson plan will work best for teachers in Brno but I think anyone can use it. What do you think?

Warm-up + gist question: What do you expect David to show us in his film about Brno? Are you expecting a „professional“ film or a „home-made“ type of film? (check and get feedback after watching both parts)

Before watching for the first time, students should have these questions in hand. Go through them and then play the first part:

 1)      Which part of Brno does David live in?

2)      Which two words does he use for „tramvaj“?

3)      Does he like everything on the Freedom Square?

4)      Which two adjectives does he use to describe the furniture in his Brno flat?

5)      What is „a coat rack“ and what is „a drying rack“?

6)      Which famous Brno building is translated as „The Symphony Hall“?

7)      When at the Špilberk Castle, David says: (it is)… a very ________ -looking castle, it dates ______ to the 14th century. It _______ Brno very well, saved the city in ________ battles. As you can see we´ve been _________ blessed with _______ colours.

8)      What do you think the word „moat“ means? He speaks about it when overlooking the main entrance to the castle.

9)      What´s his favourite view when at the top of the Špilberk Castle? He says that it has two ________ and it is one of the ______ of Brno.

10)  Which sights do you expect to see in Part 2? And how about the beautiful nature surrounding Brno?

Check answers with students. You can play the parts where they fill in the words again, for listening practice.

(There are three universities in Brno and one of them is quite famous around Europe, unfortunately David managed to misspell it and mispronounce it. Find out here which one I mean if you aren´t from Brno. Anything else David didn´t get right about Brno?)

Check the warm-up questions at this point. Get feedback about the film and ask students whether they would like to make a film like this in Brno or in a different town. What would they show in the video? How long would it be? Would they just show sights or also some cultural events, people on the street, their friends? (Idea: You can make your own film with your students and upload it to Youtube for others to see! It´s great practice of English, mixed with modern technology, something especially young students love!)

Alternatively, if the students are from Brno, you could discuss all the construction changes which have taken place in the centre since 2006. An interesting discussion could follow on the topic of changes in urban areas. To learn more about Brno, go to Brno Now, a great website in English.

Let me know if you tried the lesson and whether it worked for you. On which level did you use it? Any suggestions for improvement are MOST WELCOME!

Can´t wait to teach this lesson today!