Notes about the UAE

The plan was to visit a new country on a shoestring. The plan backfired. Initially we searched for cheap tickets to Uzbekistan. We failed to find any. We bumped into relatively inexpensive tickets to Dubai instead. 

My first Arabic country. Not exactly. I was born in Lybia, so that was my first Arabic country. I grew up listening to my folks' stories about their life in Tobruk and Benghazi, watching coloured but mute videos on the home silver screen with the ancient cinematic apparatus and looking through over 40-year-old family polaroid photos. 

About 9 years ago or so we flew to Malta, the closest I've been to my birth country so far. I also visited Israel, Cyprus, Istanbul and Athens. They had similar climate: close, but no cigar.

So the UAE welcomed us in the late November 2024 with 28 degrees above zero. Sunny cloudless weather accompanied is almost every single day. My husband doesn't tolerate sun. (Can he be he sun intolerant? Can it actually be a medically proven case?) He gets burnt quickly and has to hide from the sun beams under the palms, in the shadows of skyscrapers and in the freezing AC - equipped rooms. So, as you might have guessed during this trip the beach rest happened in a rather limited dosage.

I believe every city has its aura, special ambience and vibe. The first word that pops in my head regarding Dubai is "expensive".  Food, accomodation, transport fare, tours, excursions - everything seems to be expensive. I would say the prices in the UAE are quite similar to Norway. If we look at thic city metaphorically, then I would have two strong associations with it.

First, it reminds me of Cinderella. Like a poor dirty girl with a kind heart who met her prince via magic, then lost and later found her crystal shoe, got married and lived happily ever after. This magic in Dubai turned out to be oil. Since it has been found the city has dropped the ball on fishing, fabric production and camel rides, instead the city has grown tremendously, citizens started driving luxury cars and Dubai has become an international harbor in so many ways. 

The second story that I associate the city with is the Babel Tower story. At the moment Dubai is literally overpopulated with people from all over the globe. I believe, we encountred here all ethnicities possible as well as a diverse kaleidoscope of languages and cultures. 

In the desert, far away from the civilized world the way we know it, Arabs built the world of future. The arcades of highways, interconnection of metro, tram and busses powered by hydrogen, glass skypescrapers and condominiums, surrounded by artificial lakes and canals, facing the real Persian Gulf. The combination of style, technology, finances, architectural novelties, technological advances, low crime rate, zero alcohol tolerance, perfect living conditions for the locals, high life standard, attractive job proposals for expats and migrants, tropical dry climate, sun all year round, premium quality accommodation and entertainment - all this makes the UAE an important player in the global market. 

Actually speaking, I can picture myself living here. Well, I can picture myself living almost anywhere, to be frank. However, I realized I don't want to. There is a bit of unhealthy attitude to women. Men decide everything in the UAE. (Or so they say). The Arabic world is happy to have experts and skilled employees and is ready to pay them quite a sum, but I felt they do not regard you as their equal, at least not to the full extent. It boils down mainly to religion and partly it might be gender related. 

Have you been to the UAE? Are my thoughts close to yours or you beg to differ?

Discoveries while traveling to Kaliningrad

This March my family decided to visit Kaliningrad, the most western region of Russia, including but not limited to UNESCO heritage Curonian Spit, the Dancing Forest, the Baltic Sea, Zelenogradsk, Svetlogorsk and the city itself aka as Koenigsberg.

I wanted to share three flora-fauna discoveries I made during this trip.

Firstly, while attending the Museum of the World Ocean, I encountered two unusual beings and one skeleton.

This used to be a cachalot!

Since my blog should have an educational value, I can't help writing about the famous idiomatic expression: skeleton in the closet or skeleton in the cupboard. Have you heard that the phrase appeared thanks to British doctors who would have frequently kept dead bodies in their labs, as it had been forbidden to carry out post mortem till 1832. Hence the idiom.

In the museum's aquarium I saw the prototype or the allusion or the Easter egg, if you like, to the popular Russian kid's animation movie known as Luntik. Presumably, the main character is based on axolotl. Oh my, it is even smiling in the similar way and definitely looks like an extraterrestrial being rather an earthling, don't you think?

One more amazing creature I bumped into is known as Naso Elegans in Latin = red-lipped surgeonfish. It looks as if it is wearing make-up, rather elegant, I would say.

Secondly, I saw an unusual phenomenon on most trees.

Frankly, my first thought was they were birds' nests. But they are surprisingly not. Apparently, these green mini bushes are mistletoe. Basically, it is a parasite, which lives on trees and draws from them water and nutrients. As winters in Kaliningrad are mild and above zero, these plants do not freeze to death and thus get a chance to leech off the trees.

Thirdly, in old times poor people who lived at the Baltic Sea coastline got fed up with consuming fish and wanted to have more substantial food. As a result, they actually started catching crows and eating them! They caught the birds and bit them to avoid their messy deaths and that's why they were called crowbiters. 

The last photo is from: https://pikabu.ru/story/posledniy_kusatel_voron_kurshskoy_kosyi_kaliningradskaya_oblast_4375677

Luckily, we haven't encountered any crow meat in Kaliningrad restaurants menus and this practice remained in the past. 

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for further updates!

 

In March 2023 I ended up having a trip to the USA as one of the winners of ELEX program. During my travel I had posted a few stories about my experience there in Instagram. I had also written a few thoughts in my VK account. However, somehow my blog got ignored. I decided to correct this and set the record straight.

ELEX program 2023 - OVERVIEW

Back in November 2022 I was simply surfing the web and thinking about my next step in the professional development, when I accidentally encountered an invitation to participate in the 2-week exchange programs for teachers and entrepreneurs who would visit Washington DC and Portland, Oregon. The idea to break the daily routine of a working mum sounded absolutely unbelievable but at the same time so appealing that I decided to give it a shot. I compiled all the necessary documents, completed the application and wrote an essay. 

Then silence fell. I even asked a Tarot specialist if I would actually win in this competition (she said that I would, btw). 

In January I was invited for an interview. In a fortnight I was informed about the victory. As soon as I got the letter, the events started rolling out so quickly. I got a vacation from my teaching job. I arranged logistics for my kids with my mom and husband. I had to travel to Armenia twice for anti-COVID vaccination and after that for the second shot and the visa. And in the blink of an eye, I was already sitting on the jet among the group of 22 wonderful teachers and was flying through Istanbul to the country which I had seen for 20 years.

My first trip to the USA happened when I won a student exchange contest in my alma mater college. It was a small local program between two sister cities: Pskov and Roanoke which was sponsored by local group of enthusiasts who provided a studying spot in Ferrum College, VA for international students and paid both for our tuition and our accommodation on campus. I studied there for one semester in 2002, made friends, understood a lot about myself and had a great adventure. More than 20 years passed. I grew up, got married, changed the city, got kids and already paid back a few mortgages, started two successful businesses. I changed. Meanwhile the USA changed as well.

ELEX program was rather intense as we studied in the mornings, had tours or school visits in the afternoon and a bit of free time in the evenings. 

Then we flew to Portland where we also had meetings, tours and attended the conference sessions depending on the sphere of our interests.

Then we returned to Washington and had a few reflection sessions about our trip and experience as well as about our future plans as soon as we come back home.

 TO BE CONTINUED…

Happiness Brief Lesson Plan Ideas

 Today I had a lesson with my CPE group about Happiness.

These photos come from the book we have been using Objective Profiency. The lead-in questions went like this: What makes you happy?

So I asked my students to come up with a list of minimum 10 things that make them happy. Meanwhile I was able to draft a list of my own. Hopefully, I will find time to jazz it up later on.

• looking at the sunset
• looking at the fire
• hearing the laugh of my kids
• swimming
• playing with my kids
• stroking a cat
• seeing smiles on my students' faces
• feeling loved and hugged
• reading or watching a good story
• spending time with my family
• listening to uplifitng/soothing music
• dancing
• travelling
• seeing beautiful nature sites
• breathing in the sea air
• listening to the way the sea hugs the shore
• feeling the sea caressing my feet

Some more fruitful ideas can be found in this video:

Maybe after having watched this piece your students would like to add more ideas to their lists. This video can cause some discussion in the classroom as well. For example, does the idea of happiness change with age? Does your perception of happiness get modified or evolve throughout your life? This discussion might become a springboard to further philosophical debate.

There are a bunch of quotes related to happiness that might be logical to include and share your thoughts on the matter.

These quotes are from the same book we used:

You might even want your students to contemplate on happiness either orally or via writing an essay.

Some people would argue that the state of euphoria tends to always fleet away, others would sincerely believe that happiness is not that transient at all and may last for quite a long period of time. Which opinion do you agree with and why?

Naturally the lesson is not the place where you would find an ultimate fit-all size solution to happiness, but hopefully it may lead you in the direction to your personal route?

Today I would like to talk about a very common every day phrases we use even without thinking, colourful, often metaphorical and truly insightful expressions which are rather concise but at the same time full of wisdom. For example, I often say - You can't make an omelette without breaking the eggs or A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step. As you might have guessed I want to share a few thoughts about proverbs, which are really wise, laconic, fixed sayings that basically teach or guide us through our life as well as remind us about the values and moral choices. 

Honesty is the best policy, right?

But first things first. Let's begin with the definion. This one comes from Longman Online Dictionary:

     prov‧erb /ˈprɒvɜːb $ ˈprɑːvɜːrb/ ●●○ noun [countable]    

a short well-known statement that gives advice or expresses something that is generally true. ‘A penny saved is a penny earned’ is an example of a proverb. 

This idea of being an invisible guide sounds very familiar. So I believe that the first proverbs were parents' phrases for their kids, somewhat masked preaching or hidden schooling. Learn to walk before you run or Always put your best foot forward. But kids rebel. So parents had to find a way out - teach them without actually teaching. Where is a will, there is a way. They came up with proverbs which took some reponsibility from parents's shoulders and were perceived as fixed expressions that came from the ancestors. In this regard proverbs function like fairy-tales (I will write my thoughts about them later). They absorb the wise idea and are viewed as a general piece of advice but not parents' moralization. Kids remember them, repeat, pass on to the next generation and so they thrive. When in Rome, do as Romans do.

Every culture has various sayings almost about any life situtations that often come true and are based on the common knowledge or mentality of the specific area and its people. Every now and then you'll find similar concepts within various ethnic groups that might only prove that when, for instance, we observe nature we may find certain consistent patterns that tend to repeat and thus get accumulated into the language wiring. 

Some proverbs appear travel from language to language and can be found in different cultures, for example: Strike the iron while it's hot or Better late than never or Rome wasn't built in a day.

Naturally, proverbs come in handy when teaching English. As a lead-in to activate students schemata

 or to initiate the discussion,

 as a phonetc exercise to practice certain sounds

as a summary of the story you've just read or listened to, 

as a topic of debate and what not.

                                                                            VERSUS

Some proverbs turned into memes and a different ending has been created. Check this one out:

There is often a story behind the proverb - you can investigate it together with your students, if applicable, which eventually might turn into a project. So this post is just a tip of the iceberg - as there plenty more ways how you can include proverbs into your teaching. 

To read more about proverbs, you may start with Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb

If you happen to have your favourite proverb - you are more than welcome to share in the comment section below! The more we share, the more we have.

Images curtesy of:

1) https://www.redbubble.com/i/art-board-print/beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder-by-sevella-joy/25667310.7Q6GI

2) https://therooseveltreview.org/24986/op-ed/can-we-judge-a-book-by-its-cover/

3) https://www.e-motivation.net/birds-of-the-same-feather-flock-together/

4) https://www.amazon.in/Its-Crying-Over-Spilt-Milk/dp/9814765422

5) https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/555561304026388688/

6) https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/money-is-the-root-of-all-evil-a-motivational-vector-24050964

7) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9369660-the-early-bird-catches-the-worm-but-the-second-mouse-gets-the-cheese

Inspired by Banksy

Teachers tend to burn out. Frequently. Personally, I am not aware of the statistics and its accuracy. I simply look at my colleagues and myself. When you work 100 hours a month or even more, when you get emotinally drained, when you forget to charge up your batteries, the fatigue and boredom can easily block your creative and efficient mode.

So what do I do in order to keep myself energized? Today I will share one approach that enables me get inspired. Once a month I set off to have a small adventure either just for me or dragging a friend along. Last month it was a cultural event - I attended an exhibition: "Find Banksy". 

I had zero expectations and very vague knowledge about the artist or may be a team of artists. To my surprise, during a small tour I managed to grab enough material and interest to carry out a lesson or even its part with my Advanced and Proficiency students. Although lower level would benefit from my class alike.

You can use Banksy's works to stimulate discussion or activate students' schemata if needed talking about street art, vandalism and the cultural phenomenon known as 'graffiti'.

I found out that Banksy tries to react to the current social issues via his art: from ecological issues to immigration, from consumerism to Brexit, from pandemic lockdown restrictions to digitalising of the world. 

The following picture touched me a lot. Regarding it I asked my students:

- What is the boy doing?

- Why does he have this toy?

- What happened to his other toys?

- Why did the artist create this picture?

- Can you think of a name for it?

In our pop culture superheroes are expected to save us all. In reality during Coronovirus outbreak real superheroes lived and worked among us. And the ainting is called: "Game Changer. Tribute to the Health Workers from the NHS".

Banksy locates his works on the walls of houses, above the busstop, in the subway. Once he even put a stone with his carving in the Biritish Museum, where visitors had been observing it for four days until it caught attention and people spotted a fake. Not sure that was 100% legal, but quite witty, right?

I am not sure what future awaits humanity. I hope that even in the most turbulent times we will remember that love and beauty are the key to our survival.

What I especially enjoyed is that the artist combines art and language. For those who study the language his thought-provoking ideas are an absolute must-read.

How would you have finished this phrase above a rat - Banksy's iconic and recognisable signature?

I hope I helped you to get at least a bit inspired as well. Stay tuned for more ideas!

How to reduce stress when learning the language?

Loads of students every now and then face certain psychological issues, fears or barriers when acquiring a new language. Personally, I believe that the environment and teaching methods do not have to be stressful at all. Pleasant and friendly atmosphere combined with authentic relatable material can be the answer to that. Remember, that language acquisition is a process, and thus be gentle to yourself. We all develop and grow at our own speed. Everything will have turned to the best as long as you keep moving. You have to simply keep going at your own pace.

At the first lesson when I have an interview with my potential student, I frequently ask them about their hobbies, what they do for fun, how they relax. It is a working tool to include English into your hobby. It can be listening to English songs or watching films or TV shows, watching videos about your favourite athlete or interviews with celebrities, attending virtual lectures or webinars of professors or gurus who appeal to you. There are infinite opportunities here. From reading blogs, watching vlogs or listening to podcasts to whatever you are into. This way your headway would be more significant and noticeable even to you. It is a scientific fact we tend to excel at what we enjoy doing.

Another universal piece of advice that might lower the level of cortisol in your system when learning English is reading jokes or puns, known mostly as memes. Our brain relaxes when we are genuinely having fun. Of course, our enses of humour vary, but I'm sure you'll find something that will make you smile. This way we can kill two birds with one stone – doing something immature ( so our brain feels relaxed) and combine it with learning new words or phrases in English – win-win, right?

These few pictures in the text I found linguistically useful and hopefully funny. I am sure you can do way better than me - there are so many hilarrious memes that are created daily in the web - use them to your advantage and keep smiling - it prolongs your life and changes its quality for the best!

Photos are curtey of https://ru.pinterest.com/mohammedshafrandj/english-memes/