That could  be the first and most important thing to many of us when we come to a new city, a new country. Find a good coffee shop and get a damn fine cup of coffee. Let’s learn how to do that in Russian.

Ваш преподаватель и кофеиновый трудоголик, 
Елена

1-minute Survival Russian for Travelling (A1-A2)

Как заказывать кофе в кофейне_How to order coffee in a coffee shop

Here you will find daily routine verbs used in past tense

ROMANIAN

Ziua mea de ieri

The character "头 - Tóu " is a pictophonetic character.
 Let's have a look at the traditional writing to make it easier to understand. 

 頭= 豆+页

 It consists of two parts: the radical "页" (pronounced xié) and the phonetic "豆 - Dòu ".

In this type of pictophonetic characters, the radical provides the meaning category of the character, while the diaphragm indicates the pronunciation . 

The original meaning of "页- xié" is head, Therefore "头 - Tóu" primarily means "head." It can also refer to a person's mind or intellect, and it can be used to describe the top or leading position of something, such as in a group or series.

Now let's go for the Usage

1.Noun:
General: "头 - Tóu" refers directly to the head of a person or an animal.
例如（For example）: 他的头很大。-Tā de tóu hěn dà 。 (His head is very big.)

 老头儿 - Lǎo tóur : Used informally to refer to an elderly man, where "头儿 - tóur" adds a sense of familiarity or endearment.
例如：公园里有几个老头儿在下象棋。- Gōng yuán lǐ yǒu jǐ gè lǎo tóu er zài xià xiàng qí 。
 (There are a few old men playing chess in the park.)

插头 - Chā tóu: Refers to the plug that connects devices to a power source, emphasizing the endpoint of the connection.
例如：请拔掉插头以断开电源。- Qǐng bá diào chā tóu yǐ duàn kāi diàn yuán 。
(Please unplug the plug to disconnect the power.)

2.Measure Word:

 "头" is also used as a measure word for livestock and some other animals.
例如：三头牛。- Sān tóu niú 。 (Three cows.)

3.Leadership or Priority: 
It can indicate the foremost or leading element.
例如：队伍的头。- Duì wu de tóu 。 (The head of the line.)

4. Idiomatic Expressions: 

例如：头痛 - Tóu tòng  (headache), 开头 -Kāi tóu (beginning), 破头 - Pò tóu (literally 'crack one's head', meaning to go to a lot of trouble), 抢破头 - Qiǎng pò tóu  (desperately competing, literally 'fighting until one's head breaks').

Chinese Item:
"虎头虎脑" (hǔ tóu hǔ nǎo) is an idiomatic expression in Chinese that describes someone, usually a child, who appears strong, energetic, and lively. 



每日一字

👉 This episode of Stairway to English is a very special conversation edition! This is Part 1. Part 2 will be available very soon! 

👉 Marisa and I talk about her life, her background with language learning, where her family is from, and growing up as an English language learner. Marisa speaks with a Texan accent. I hope you enjoy the episode!

👉 Vocabulary
Commute - Travel some distance between one's home and place of work on a regular basis

Stay put - To stay in one place

Public Relations - A type of employment where you work with companies to help them in the news or stay out of the news

Birth certificate - A certificate received at birth to show where you were born

Immigrant - A person who moves to and lives in a different country

Pull out - Take something out

Drop off - Leave someone or something somewhere

Hand me over - Give someone something or someone

Siblings - Brothers and/or sisters

Pick up - Collect a person or a thing from a place

Accelerates - Move quickly

Y’all - You all. This is used mainly in the southern part of the USA.

Carried on a long distance relationship - Dated while living far apart from one another

No brainer - An easy decision

Ma’am - A polite way to address women

Sir - A polite way to address men

Mannerisms - The way you act and handle yourself

👉 Have questions about the episode? Comment below or send me a message!

👉 If you would like to take a lesson with me, send me a message here on italki! Right now, I can't accept new students because my italki schedule is full, but I will be able to very soon! Get on my waiting list now so you will be first in line for lesson openings!

Stairway to English: Short easy to understand episodes to improve your English grammar and fluency

Part 1: Conversation Edition: Language Learning, Families, and Immigration with Marisa Vallbona

Jennifer goes on an investigation to find out the truth. Did Junior really steal his award-winning design or has Jennifer lost her mind?

This story uses words from '3000 most common words in English'. 


When Jennifer got home that day, she called her grandma. They caught up on the essentials: the move to the new city, the teachers at her school and if she liked her new bedroom. But then Jennifer got down to business.

She explained how this guy called Junior won a gardening award for most innovative design, being the youngest winner in the ceremony’s history. Jennifer’s grandma was supportive of this boy, the way grandparents are always supportive of any accomplishment, big or small. But Jennifer insisted that he was treated like an otherworldly superstar and that it didn’t seem right. 

Jennifer finally just said it. “I think Junior violated the competition rules by copying someone’s design, but I can’t prove it.”

“Oh, my dear, that’s cute, you’ve always loved coming up with adorable little theories. Do you 
remember your friend, Samantha? You two were always playing detectives. Sometimes I see her—”

“—Yes, grandma, but could you help? Take a photo of your neighbour’s garden, please. I think Junior copied her design.”

“Oh, sure thing, dear, I’ll take it after our call and send it straight away. So, tell me more about your new friends…”

Jennifer ended the call by ranting about the truth and how when people manipulate reality, they distort our ability to be authentic individuals. Her grandma kept repeating that’s sweet, dear.

Moments after the call ended, Jennifer received the photo. She compared it to Junior’s. They were identical.

Being a Cloud

Jennifer the Tomato

En este podcast escuchamos a Eric. Con el hablamos 
del problema de tirar mucha comida. 
Es un podcast para español avanzado, aunque manteniendo
expresiones de alguien que está aprendiendo español. 

B2-C1
NIVEL INTERMEDIO AVANZADO


-vocabulario a tratar sobre la comida:

-tirar las sobras
-abundancia-escasez de comida
-fecha de caducidad
-comida en mal estado/echarse a perder
-tamaño de las porciones
-llevarte las sobras en un Restaurante. 
-verbo CUNDIR ¿ qué significa?



Los podcasts de Alex

Tirar la comida

Hoy conoceremos qué es eso de la reserva cognitiva, cómo esto se relaciona con la vejez y cómo usted, yo o cualquiera puede trabajar en pro de preservar la salud cerebral y cuidar su reserva cognitiva.

Español con todo 

Reserva Cognitiva – Qué es y cómo cuidarla

In this episode we will talk about 【Fate and choice】, you will learn how to say 【mental internal friction,blame fate or other people】 ect.
--------------------------------------------------
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, later look up the dictionary. 
3rd time: listen again without looking at the text.
4th time: repeat after it without looking at the text.
大家好，我是Yuli。欢迎收听我的播客。
今天想和大家聊一聊【命运和选择】的话题。
这两天，一个名为《回村三天，二舅治好了我的精神内耗》的视频在网上火了起来。两天的时间，1900多万的播放量、12万条评论、300多万的点赞和投币、100多万的收藏和转发。视频讲述了生活在农村的二舅平凡又有力量的一生，感动了很多人。二舅小学和初中都是全校第一，因为发烧后医生的错误治疗导致一辈子残疾。但是二舅并没有怨天尤人，他辛勤地做木工活赚钱，不仅领养了一个小女孩，还照顾着八十多岁的老母亲。除此之外，他还免费帮村里的邻居修各种电器。如果不是因为那次意外，二舅的人生会是完全不一样的结局。但是二舅从来没有这样想过，他的人生拿到了一副烂牌，但是他把这副烂牌打得很精彩。
作者说自己是个四肢健全、上过大学的人，又生在一个充满机遇的时代，他理应度过一个比二舅更为饱满的人生，而不应该因为一些暂时的小困难而陷入精神内耗。我想这也是很多人看了这个视频后很触动的原因，我们在二舅身上看到了勇气和对生活的热爱。
如果你是二舅，你会做什么样的选择呢？留言告诉我吧。我们下期见。
--------------------------------------------------
精神内耗	/	jīng shén nèi hào	/	mental internal friction
播放量	/	bō fàng liàng	/	view counts
评论	/	píng lùn	/	comment
点赞	/	diǎn zàn	/	give a like
投币	/	tóu bì	/	give the coin
收藏	/	shōu cáng	/	add to favorites
转发	/	zhuǎn fā	/	repost/retweet
残疾	/	cán jí	/	disabled
怨天尤人	/	yuàn tiān yóu rén	/	blame fate or other people
领养	/	lǐng yǎng	/	adopt
一副烂牌	/	yí fù làn pái	/	be/get dealt a bad hand
四肢健全	/	sì zhī jiàn quán	/	able-bodied
饱满	/	bǎo mǎn	/	full,meaningful
触动	/	chù dòng	/	touch (people's feeling)


Yuli's Chinese Channel

命运和选择 Fate and choice（Advanced level）

In this Chillchat episode, Karen and Baiwei chatted about different music genres, their favorite singers and musical instruments. Correction! The song Baiwei mentioned from Shovels And Rope is called Boxcar, Not Birmingham.