The red herring fallacy, one of the many logical fallacies you might encounter in essays, speeches, opinion pieces, and even casual conversations, is an attempt to reroute a discussion from its original topic and focus on something unrelated. 

Dusty's LETS TALK!

Red Herring Fallacy, Explained

A crime is reported to the police, usually by the victim.
The police investigate it. The victim and witnesses tell the police what they know.
The police look for evidence and take photos where the crime took place.
If possible, they catch the person responsible for the crime and arrest him/her.
If they think they have proof this person committed the crime, they will charge them.
This person will then go to court.

English Mini Lessons

The justice system

Our thoughts and emotions impact our behaviors every day in both positive and negative ways. As teachers, we must have the self-awareness to identify these emotions and be able to communicate them to our students in a positive way. Reflection in lesson planning makes us more compassionate teachers and creates a positive learning environment.

Teaching Compassion

Self-Awareness and Reflection in Lesson Planning

Try these tips during awkward silences or when you don't know what else to talk about.

1.   Don't reject your own ideas thinking that they are not worth sharing. When you filter most of your stories and experiences you have fewer topics to talk about. 
 
2.   Don't list your points, instead elaborate on each point using examples or personal experiences. This also gives the opportunity to the listener to add to the topic or share their own experiences making it a two-way conversation.
 
3.   Speak at the right pace. If you speak too fast, you end the conversation very quickly. It’s usually because the listener doesn’t understand you and therefore can’t keep the conversation going.  
 
4.   Learn to ask smart questions to keep the conversation going. Ask open-ended questions such as, “what do you think about …?” with follow-up questions “why do you think …?”. This helps you build up on the information that you received.
 
5.   Practise thinking critically so you always have something to say. When you practice critical thinking and ask yourself counter-questions, you are able to spontaneously think of ideas and form arguments using your background knowledge. You can easily connect the dots and be eloquent while talking to people.
 
6.   Learn a few speech frameworks such as Past - Present - Future, Problem – Solution - Benefit, or other storytelling formats such as ‘the mountain’. When you have a structure, you don’t lose your chain of thoughts and you don’t run into dead ends. Your listeners are also able to understand you better and remember what you said.
 
7.   If you are using a second language to communicate such as English, then simplify your complex thoughts in your native language first and then translate them to English. Lots of times when translation is tough, we give up and change the topic. But this practice helps you make the translation process easy. 
 
If you want to learn more, please book a session with me. 


Sensei Ann

Tips for not running out of things to say

Suena más natural con esta expresión... vas a quedar con la boca abierta 😲😱

Expresiones idiomáticas en español 

QuEdArSe CoN La BoCa AbIeRtA

Beginner book Dutch A1-A2

Chapter 4 Page 2 - Stamppot 

学习中文要注意什么事项？有没有快速学习的方法？

中文小课堂

怎么学习中文

CHISTES MEXICANOS

MACHO MEXICANO.

En el episodio de hoy vamos a aprender cómo podemos describir a personas usando animales y por qué.