Here are the three books mentioned in this episode:
Enlightenment Now - Steven Pinker
Superabundance - Marian Tupy, Gale Cooley
Factfulness - Hans Rowling

In this episode, Karen and Baiwei chatted about their struggles with reading news and finding a balance between being overly worried and prepared in advance. 


Chillchat (Learn Chinese and Chill)

杞人忧天还是未雨绸缪？Are You Being Overly Anxious Or Proactive?

Episode: How to Improve Your English Speaking Skills

Excellent at English with Kate K

🎙️ Podcast Title: “Level Up Your English”

In this episode you are going to find out how  to refuse and not to spoil good relationships with your significant ones.



Business english: excuses and polite inquiries: part 1

conditional sentences(1st and 2nd)


Hello, guys! This is Kate. Hope you are doing just fine. And today we’re going back to conditional sentences. This is part two and if you haven’t listened to the first podcast, it’s highly recommended to go back and take a look at them.

Alright, today’s podcast is about the 1st and 2nd conditionals. 
First of all let’s revise the first conditional. As you remember, we use it to talk about the future. Here are some examples for you to refresh your memory:

-If you study hard, you’ll enter the university.
-She will be happy if she earns outrageous sums of money.

I hope you remembered this one guys, because we’re going straight to the second conditional.

Why do we need it? To talk about present events which are almost impossible.

Here are a couple of examples:

If I could go anywhere, I would go to South Korea.
If I had more money, I would travel a lot.
I would drop out of my university if my parents didn’t pay for it.


Let’s take a look at the structure:

If+Past Simple, S+would+V1.
And vice versa
S+would+V1 | If+Past Simple(if the sentence is reversed, we don’t use a comma!)



I hope it was useful, it was nice to share this info with you. Feel free to book lessons with me. Thank you and see you later!



Conditional sentences(1st and 2nd)


This topic is going to be divided into 4 chapters. We are going to discuss all of these topics thoroughly, going into deep understanding of all of them. So, if you are interested-subscribe to this channel to stay informed.

Alright, let’s start from the basics. Why do we need conditionals? It’s super simple. We use them to talk about some conditions. Here are a couple of examples: We will go to the cinema, if you buy these tickets. Or vice versa ‘We won’t go to the cinema, if you don’t buy these tickets. 
There are 4 types of conditionals and today’s podcast is devoted to “zero and first conditional”.
Okay, guys. Zero conditional. We use it to talk about some facts, rules or laws.
“Snow melts, when it is hot”, “if you violate the law, you are punished”
How do we make it? Super simple. Our sentence consists of 2 parts: clause and main part, both of them are written in present simple. The clause part always contains if or when.
 Let’s take a look again.
“If you don’t work, you don’t get money”
I am about to leave you a couple of exercises in the quiz to practice.

Alright, the first conditional is about FUTURE. Yes, guys, and this is when a lot of students make mistakes. Let’s take a look at the examples.
“If you pass your exams, you will enter the university”
“If I don’t have enough delights, I will go to the supermarket to purchase them”

How do we make it?
In the main part we have Future Simple, in the clause one we, again, have present simple. 
The main mistake is when you use Future Simple instead of Present Simple. Try to remember that here, after ‘if or when” we don’t use the future. (Sometimes we do, but we’ll talk about it later)

“If I don’t exercises, I’ll never achieve a strong body”
“You will never find a good job, if you don’t look for it,”

And of course, I’ve prepared a good exercise for you to practice.

I hope it was useful, it was nice to share this info with you. Feel free to book lessons with me. Thank you and see you later!




Conditional sentences(zero and 1st)

Hello, everyone! This is Kate.

Welcome to my podcast. Today we are going to study one very interesting and important grammar, which is gonna help you to sound like a native speaker.

Ready?-Let’s go!


Okay, imagine that you need to go to the hairdressers. Your hair is long and obviously it’s time to do something with it. How would you tell this to your companion?  

“I’m gonna cut my hair?”, but you are not doing it yourself, so, there is a better option.

If you are getting some services, there is a construction which simplifies everything.

To have something done.

Listen to my examples:

I have my hair cut every month.
I’m having my hair cut right now.
I’ve decided. I will have my hair cut!

The verb have is used like any other verb and it follows all the rules.

Present simple: I have my windows cleaned every week. Someone cleans them for me.
Present Perfect: I have just had my dinner cooked. Someone cooked it for me.
Past Continuous: I was having my homework checked yesterday.


You see, it’s super easy and handy!


Practise yourself, here are some sentences in the description below:

I didn't cook my dinner myself. Someone prepared it for me.
I usually don't clean the windows by myself.
I have never cut my hair myself
I will not fix my car. My dad will do it for me.
I won’t check my blood pressure myself.

Have something done: WHAT IS IT?

Hi, guys!

Today we are gonna have a short lesson about crimes!

We are going to study new words and grammar. And as homework you will have some exercises.
Let’s go.

Crime is a very interesting topic, and a bad guy who takes your money or kills someone we can call a criminal, a felon or a culprit. This guy usually commits a crime.

Okay, so a criminal, a felon or a culprit commits a crime.

What other crimes should we know?

Bribery. Bribery is a crime when one person gives money to get an illegal service. For example, a person gives a doctor 1000$ to make fake papers. When you make fake papers, we call it forgery. 

Okay, bribery, to give a bribe.

Next word is blackmail. If he wanted to give a bribe, but his doctor refused, he can blackmail him. It means that he writes: “If you don’t do what I want, I will ruin your life”. He threatens this person.

Blackmail, to blackmail, blackmailer.


If this person doesn’t listen to this guy, he starts stalking him. He becomes a stalker. He follows him every minute. He wants to get what he’s asking for.

Finally the police arrest him. He is a criminal and he’s behind bars. 

People start talking about him:

“-It is said that he is a criminal
-yes, he is said to be a blackmailer and stalker. He also gave a bribe!”

If you look at these sentences you can see a very good grammar structure.

Let's take a closer look.

For example, we say  “She is a teacher.” We can also say “it is said that she is a teacher” or “sh is said to be a teacher” 

It is said she is beautiful
She is said to be beautiful.


Practise these sentences at home and ask me for correct answers in messages.

He is smart. 
He is a felon. He gives a bribe.
She is a stalker. She stalks him every day.
Criminals commit crimes. 
Bob is a felon. He blackmails people.
Susue is a criminal. She blackmails people and gives bribes.

That’s it guys. If yo9u liked this podcast, and this lesson you can book a trial lesson with me!


CRIMES!


Hello guys. This is Kate Zh. In this episode I am gonna tell you about a strategy to remember new words forever.

I know this is a big problem for everyone when they are learning a new language. Now I am learning a new language which is Korean. To be honest I forgot how hard it is to study words in a language which you don’t know completely. I was completely astounded because I just couldn’t remember new words.

Here is a strategy I use to memorize these Korean words.

Step number 1: look at new words, translate them(if you are a beginner) or find the definition(if you are an old hand.

Step number 2: read the context with new words again. You should always see the context. This is why we easily remember the words from songs and movies.

Step number 3: read other sentences with these words. There are good websites which provide you with a lot of context.

Step number 4: ask your friend to read you the sentence and you have to add the new words.

Step number 5: Write your sentences using new words and talk to your friend or record your speech, again, yes, using new words.

That’s the strategy, guys, I hope it was useful. Come to my lessons if you want to make some progress in your English.

Here are some words from this podcast today:

Astounded
An old hand
Provide with

Please learn them, to be closer to your goal!
