Welcome back, and you’re watching the Olympic Winter Games Review… and they are getting ready now… about to start the race… This will be a very exciting skiing event. Everyone is talking about it. Almost ready now… 

“Aaron… Aaron… Can you hear me? Or are you too busy watching TV?” says an angry voice. 

Aaron is a handsome black cat. Right now, he’s lying on the couch watching TV. His hands are on his belly and his head is on a pillow. 

His mother is standing over him. She looks upset and angry. She is wearing wet rubber gloves. 

“When will you stop?” says Aaron’s mother while looking for the TV remote. “You have been watching this show all day!”

She finds it under a pillow. She turns off the TV.

“Hey!” cries Aaron. “I was watching that! They were just about to start!” 

“I should tell your father. He won’t approve of this.”

Aaron sits up and grabs the remote from his mother’s hands. “Go tell him! I don’t think he will hear you. He’s in his bedroom watching TV too!” 

Aaron turns the TV back on and lies back down. 

Aaron’s mother breathes deeply and gives up. She goes back into the kitchen and continues washing the dishes. 

Being a Cloud

Aaron the Black Cat

En este episodio vamos a conocer un poco de los atractivos del Ecuador. Un hermoso país sudamericano que tiene mucho potencial turístico y natural 🌎
Estamos divididos en 4 regiones: la Costa 🏖, la Sierra 🗻, la Amazonía 🏞, y las Islas Galápagos 🏝, hogar de la tortuga gigante 🐢. 
¡Ven y comparte conmigo un poco del Ecuador! 

Hablemos de varias cosas

Galápagos, Ecuador y su biodiversidad

Con estas conversaciones para aprender español descubrirás un montón de expresiones y vocabulario de la vida diaria que podrás utilizar cuando hables con alguien en español sobre los propósitos de año nuevo y quieras sonar como un nativo. Este es el segundo episodio de una nueva serie de vídeos llamada "Diálogos Cotidianos" que está orientada principalmente a estudiantes de español con un nivel intermedio o avanzado. Como siempre, este vídeo también está dividido en tres partes principales: primero escucharás la conversación a una velocidad lenta y podrás leer el texto en la pantalla, luego en la segunda parte recibirás una corta explicación sobre las expresiones y el vocabulario más avanzado que se usó en la conversación y finalmente en la última parte escucharás nuevamente el diálogo pero a una velocidad normal, para que así pongas a prueba lo que has aprendido. Este ejercicio te ayudará a desarrollar tu comprensión auditiva y llevará tu español a un nuevo nivel para que suenes como un nativo de la lengua española.

Español Simple

Conversaciones para aprender español, Diálogos Cotidianos #4

In our second episode, we discuss the communication between different cultures. One way of distinguishing them is based on how specific the context is. But what do "high" and "low" really mean?

The Age of Humans

Episode 2: High and Low Context Cultures

One Minute Speaking Challenge: Work/Workload

Of course you'll have plenty to share when it comes to 'work' topic and that's exactly the purpose of one these daily one minute challenges! 

To help you 'dive' into your knowledge bank so you have less excuses and all the time in the word to succeed!

Few idioms regarding the 'work' topic that you can use in your story':

1.Swamped/snowed under: Overwhelmed with work; having too much to do.
2. Up to my neck/eyes in work: Extremely busy; deeply involved in a large amount of work.
3. Drowning in work: Similar to “swamped,” but suggests a feeling of being overwhelmed to the point of despair.
4. Have a lot on my plate: Having many tasks and responsibilities to handle.
5. Wearing many hats: Having multiple roles or responsibilities.

Dive into the recording and practice listening & receive additional questions to help you expand your story even more!

To your success
Anatoly

One minute speaking challenge - Challenge yourself to speak English daily!

One Minute Speaking Challenge: Work/Workload

JOYCE: Should we take a taxi or a bus to the mall?
BILL: Let’s take a bus. It’s impossible to get a taxi during 
rush hour.
JOYCE: Isn’t that a bus stop over there?
BILL: Yes ... Oh! There’s a bus now. We’ll have to run to 
catch it.
JOYCE: Oh, no! We just missed it.
BILL: No problem. There’ll be another one in 10 minutes.


LANGUAGE NOTES
• Should we … or …? Is a way of asking “Which is better?” “Should” is used to ask 
for an opinion. Note that we do not say “Will” here.
• Take a taxi or a bus? The word “or” signals a choice here. Notice the rising 
intonation on taxi (the first choice) and falling intonation on bus (the second choice).
• Let’s (Let us) means “I think we should do this.”
• Rush hour is the time of day when most people are going to or from work. In most 
American cities, rush hour is from about 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. and from about 4:30 to 
6:30 p.m. Notice that “rush hour” is a compound noun, with the main stress on the 
first word.
• Isn’t that This is a negative question. The speaker expects an affirmative answer. It 
is used to check information.
• Bus stop is a compound noun, with the main stress on the first word.
• Oh! is an exclamation used to express alarm or surprise.
• Oh, no! is an expression used to express disappointment.
• We just missed it here means “We arrived a moment too late to get the bus.” 
Notice the emphasis on “just” to show the very recent past.
• No problem here means “It doesn’t matter.

English Conversation practice (30-day challenge)

Day 19: Transportation 

Реальная история, которая случилась в поезде на прошлой неделе. Это новость шокировала общественность и разделила людей на 2 лагеря - тех кот поддерживает проводницу и тех кто считают, что она поступила неправильно. А как бы вы поступили на месте проводницы?
Real story that happened last week in Russia, in train. Devided people in 2 camps. Those who support own of the cat and those who support train worker. And whome do you support? And what will you do?

А поговорить?!

Реальная история, которая произошла на прошлой неделе.  Real News that shocked russian society last week

Oi gente, aqui é Aneleh, sua tutora de português favorita. No podcast de hoje falaremos sobre a diferença entre olhar, ver e assistir. Se você é iniciante e está se sentindo perdido, pode pular direto para a parte em que explico tudo isso em inglês em dois minutos e trinta segundos.
E se quiser acompanhar o script do podcast é só clicar nesse link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EJzY7_3bRooPt2_TJB3ztwiqHXj25ROHkUHZfdFQqIc/edit?usp=sharing
Vamos lá?
Hi everyone, this is Aneleh, your favorite Portuguese tutor. In today's podcast we'll talk about the difference between olhar, ver and assistir. If you're a beginner and you're feeling lost, you can skip straight to the part where I explain all of this in English in two minutes and thirty seconds.
And if you want to see the podcast's script, just click on this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EJzY7_3bRooPt2_TJB3ztwiqHXj25ROHkUHZfdFQqIc/edit?usp=sharing
Let's go?

Portuguese Drops 

Olhar x ver x assistir 

American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald once said the "worst thing in the world is to try to sleep and not to."

Many of us will have experienced this at some point — lying in bed for what feels like hours, trying to fall asleep. But what if there was a way to fall asleep in just five minutes?

Of course, some people take longer to fall asleep than others do. But experts say there are different things we can do to help us fall asleep quicker.

Here are some of them:

Morning light is important
It might sound strange, but according to sleep scientist Russell Foster, getting a good night's sleep starts in the morning. Speaking with The Telegraph, he said it's important to get as much natural light as early as possible.

This can help move our body clock to an earlier time, so that we already feel tired when we get into bed later on.

Don't nap after 4 p.m.
If you've had a long day at work, you may be tempted to have a nap in the afternoon. And while short naps can help us feel less tired during the day, Foster says we shouldn't nap for longer than 20 minutes or less than six hours before going to bed, or we might have difficulty falling asleep later.

Practice mindfulness
"Most people don't have a sleep problem, they have an anxiety problem," Foster says, and he recommends practicing mindfulness as a way to relax before bed.

This means being present with our thoughts, instead of thinking about things that have happened or could happen. You could try reading or doing some breathing exercises as a way to relax, and avoid using your phone.

He adds that important conversations should be saved for when it's light outside, as they could keep your mind active and stop you from falling asleep quickly.