Today, Nick gives you some top tips on how to answer Part 1 of the speaking test.

IELTS with Nick - World Knowledge 

SPECIAL EPISODE - How to answer IELTS SPEAKING PART 1

        李白(701- 762), 是中国唐朝时期著名的诗人，他小时候对学习很不感兴趣，经常跑到外边玩儿。一天，李白在河边发现一位老婆婆竟然在磨一根铁棒子。李白觉得很好奇，就走过去问老婆婆在干什么，原来老婆婆的孙女要学绣花，她要给孙女做一根绣花针。
        李白听完以后，像大部分孩子一样哈哈大笑，因为他认为把铁棒子磨成绣花针太浪费时间了，等老婆婆磨好了，她孙女可能也变成老婆婆了。可是，老婆婆自信地告诉他：“只要功夫深，铁杆磨成针。”
        听完老婆婆的回答，李白突然明白了一个道理：无论做什么事情，只要坚持就可能成功。从此，李白就开始努力学习、积累知识，最终成为一名伟大的诗人。

        看完这个谚语故事，你知道努力和坚持对成功有多么重要了吧？

功夫 [gōng fu] workmanship; skill
铁杵磨成针[tiě chǔ mó chénɡ zhēn]
an iron pestle can be ground down to a needle — perseverance will prevail
老婆婆[lǎo po pó] granny(used by children in addressing an old woman)
绣花[xiù huā]embroider; do embroidery


Li Bai (701- 762) was a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty of China. When he was young, Li Bai was not interested in learning at all, and he often went out playing. One day, Li Bai saw an old woman grinding an iron pestle by the river. He felt so curious that he went over and asked the old woman what she was doing . It turned out that she was making a needle for her granddaughter to learn embroidery. 
Having heard this, Li Bai laughed as most kids would do, because he thought it was a waste of time to grind an iron pestle into a needle and that by the day the needle was made, her granddaughter would have turned into an old woman herself. However, the old woman told him with confidence: "As long as you work hard enough, an iron pestle can be ground down to a needle." 
Suddenly Li Bai realized that perseverance would help one succeed in everything. From then on, Li Bai began to study hard and accumulate knowledge. He finally became a great poet! 
After reading this story, you must have learned how important hard work and perseverance are to success.

HSK6 Vocab Based - Short Story Podcast

04. 中国谚语--只要功夫深, 铁杵磨成针 Chinese proverb - As Long as You Work Hard Enough, an Iron Pestle Can Be Ground Down to a Needle 

Today we're taking a quick look at the word "upset".

DAILY Business English VOCABULARY builder

This may be a little upsetting

In this episode we are going to learn how to talk about【My holiday】. 
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As a beginner, there're some vocabularies that you didn't learn before, and native speaker's speed seems too fast to understand. But don't worry, let's do it step by step. 
1st time: listen and catch the words you know alreay, have a guess about the content.
2nd time: look at the text to check if you guessed it right. 
3rd time: listen one more time, repeat after it.
4th time: practise until you can speak as the normal speed without looking at the text. 
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春节我去北京玩儿了。
chūn jié wǒ qù běi jīng wánr le 。
I went to travel in Beijing in the Spring Festival.
我是和家人去的。
wǒ shì hé jiā rén qù de 。
I went with my family.
我们是坐飞机去的。
wǒ men shì zuò fēi jī qù de 。
We went there by plane.
我们去了长城、故宫、天安门。
wǒ men qù le cháng chéng 、 gù gōng 、 tiān ān mén 。
We went to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tian 'anmen.
我们吃了烤鸭，太好吃了。
wǒ men chī le kǎo yā ， tài hǎo chī le 。
We ate roast duck. It was so delicious.
我认识了几个新朋友。
wǒ rèn shí le jǐ gè xīn péng yǒu 。
I made some new friends.
北京的冬天有点儿冷。
běi jīng de dōng tiān yǒu diǎnr lěng 。
Beijing is a bit cold in winter.
我想秋天再去一次。
wǒ xiǎng qiū tiān zài qù yí cì 。
I'd like to go again in the fall.

Yuli's Chinese Channel

我去北京了 I went to Beijing（for beginner）

校則とは学校の中での規則のことです。日本では厳しすぎる校則が問題になっています。東京都の教育委員会は去年の4月、都立高校などにいくつかの校則について生徒や親などと一緒に必要かどうかを考えるように言いました。例えば、下着の色や髪の毛の色についての校則などです。その結果、全部の学校が今年4月から、5つの校則を廃止することを決めました。

多くの：おおくの　a lot of
都立高校：とりつこうこうpublic high school in Tokyo
校則：こうそく school rule
規則：きそく rule
厳しすぎる：きびしすぎる too strict
問題：もんだい problem
教育委員会：きょういくいいんかい　board of education
下着：したぎ　underwear
髪（かみ）の毛（け）の色（いろ）：hair color
その結果：そのけっか　as a result
全部の：ぜんぶの  all of the~
廃止する：はいしする abolish　get rid of〜

Nihongo Short Story by Noriko

多くの都立高校が4月から厳しい校則をなくす

Hi everyone, in this episode I talk about which video streaming platform I would prefer Netflix or You Tube. What do you prefer? let me know in the comments :)

What's Your Opinion?

What's Your Opinion? Netflix or You Tube

Letter R
Listen and repeat then sing along.
rice, rose, rabbit, robot

Follow me for more phonics.


Phonics The Alphabet 

Letter R

私のアルバイトの経験をお話しました！

Natural Nihongo Chat

アルバイトをしたことがありますか？

In this episode we will talk about 【Procrastination】, you will learn how to say 【excuse,concentrate on,flow】 ect.
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It is recommended that you study in the following ways:
1st time: listen without looking at the text.
2nd time: look at the text and write down the new words, then look up the dictionary. 
3rd time: listen again without looking at the text.
4th time: shadow reading without looking at the text.
https://www.purpleculture.net/chinese-english-dictionary/
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大家好，我是Yuli。欢迎收听我的播客。
今天想和大家聊一聊【拖延症】的话题。
大家知道什么是拖延症吗？这里有一些拖延症的表现，一起来看看是不是你吧。
第一，非常爱睡懒觉，早上起床需要设很多个闹钟。特别是周末的时候，可能按掉最后一个闹钟以后干脆放弃早起的念头，继续睡到大中午。
第二，每天告诉自己要早睡，但是睡前一直玩手机。每次都告诉自己，再玩半个小时就去睡了。半个小时过去了，又告诉自己，再玩十分钟吧。第二天很困很累，告诉自己今天晚上一定要早点睡。但是同样的事情又发生了，每天都是这样。
第三，下定决心要运动，但是计划拖了一天又一天也没有开始。或者是运动了几天就坚持不了，看到美食就忍不住大吃大喝。每次吃完就告诉自己，明天我要开始运动了。到了第二天，又有各种借口不运动了。
第四，本来计划好了要做一件事情，但是很容易被其他的小事情分散注意力。做没一会儿就想起来要去泡杯咖啡，或者玩会儿手机。总觉得待会再做问题不大，但是一眨眼半天的时间就没了。
看完这些拖延症的表现，我发现自己中枪了（被说中了）。这说的不就是我吗？不过我也有不拖延的时候，一般是我有很明确的目标要做一件事情的时候。这个时候我可以很投入，经常觉得时间过得很快，到了吃饭的时候也不愿意停下来。心理学上把这种状态叫做“心流”，英语叫做Flow。还有一个好方法是，把大的目标分成很多个小目标，这样才更容易开始改变。例如我想早点睡觉，那我可以每天早睡10分钟，慢慢地改变。
你觉得你有拖延症吗？你的解决方法是什么？留言告诉我吧。我们下期见。
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表现	biǎo xiàn	performance,behavior
睡懒觉	shuì lǎn jiào	sleep in
干脆	gān cuì	directly,altogether
念头	niàn tou	thought
借口	jiè kǒu	excuse
分散注意力	fēn sàn zhù yì lì	divert attention from 
眨眼	zhǎ yǎn	blink
中枪	zhòng qiāng	be shot (here means you are exactly like what they are saying)
投入	tóu rù	concentrate on
心流	xīn liú	flow