#2 Featured article: Coronavirus in Central Asia

📍 It’s always interesting to read about one’s own country and culture from a different perspective. Today’s article is about the Central Asian countries’ handling of the corona crisis in these days. As always, Turkmenistan is a rather interesting place!

⛓https://www.economist.com/asia/2020/07/23/central-asian-governments-admit-they-have-a-problem-with-covid-19?utm_campaign=coronavirus-special-edition&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=2020-07-25&utm_content=article-link-1

👉@afandi_english👈 #article #economist

#10 Spot Afandi and his donkey: Afandi waiting for a train to nowhere

❓ Can you spot Afandi and his donkey in this picture?

❗️If you can, follow the instructions in #1 (see pinned message) and win 5,000 Paynet-soums!

👉@afandi_english👈 #spot_afandi

#27 Our favourite mistakes: Grammar

▶️ Please translate the following sentence:
Hech kim Afandini tanimaydi.

❌ Perhaps you think it is:
Nobody doesn’t know Afandi.

✅ Well, it should be:
Nobody knows Afandi.


❓Why?

❗️ Nobody and doesn’t are both negative words. Used together they make a double negative – in English this is usually wrong.

❗️ Sometimes double negatives are used, especially in spoken English and slang. You may hear sentences like Nobody tells me nothing! or I ain’t got no money!


👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #grammar

#7 It’s a strange world: An underground town

❓ A long time ago people used to live in caves. But today?

❗️Coober Pedy is an underground town in the Australian desert. People decided to live underground to escape from the scorching heat above and live in so-called “dugouts”, rooms that they dig out. Take a look and see what it’s like to live there:

⛓https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coober_Pedy

▶️ Here’s a YouTube video about the town (with proper Australian accent): www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1XSKu3pK8A0


👉@afandi_english👈 #strange_world #geography

#2 Education Video: Alternative Math

❗️Today’s video is a humorous short film criticising the American education system. Modern education often means discussing, expressing one’s opinions, building confidence, accepting students’ views, respecting parents, and so on. But as you can see in the video there can also be too much of all that!

▶️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh3Yz3PiXZw


👉@afandi_english👈

#1 Tour the world: London, UK

🆕 Travelling isn’t easy, especially in 2020. To help you explore the world from your cozy home, Afandi English is bringing you the unique opportunity to take virtual tours on Zoom with local guides. For one hour at the scheduled time your guide will take you around interesting places, explain things and answer your questions.

❓ How does it work?

❗️Click on the link below or enter the meeting ID and passcode in your Zoom app.

▶️ https://us04web.zoom.us/j/74668237955?pwd=TFR5T0lDb0RNcGhyVXQxRldDbkNmQT09
Meeting ID: 746 6823 7955
Passcode: 2CMRVL

❗️For a tour of London, UK by our tour guide Ricky join us tonight at 9:00pm Tashkent time.


👉@afandi_english👈

#10 World Englishes: Irish English

❗️ As an island with a population of 6.6 million, Ireland isn’t a very crowded place. Nonetheless, the Irish accent has fans around the world, as does Irish beer!

🔘 Pronunciation: Unlike British English, every ‘r’ is pronounced; some vowels are changed – aɪ as in “Ireland” becomes a short ɔɪ, aʊ as in “brown cow” becomes eʊ, əʊ as in “goat” becomes a long o:, ʌ as in “Dublin” becomes ʊ.

🔘 Grammar: Like in Uzbek, no plural is used after numbers in measurements, e.g. 5 minute, not 5 minutes; they also often add tags to the end of sentences, e.g. It’s raining, so it is.

🔘 Vocabulary: What’s the story? or just Story? means What’s going on?; What’s the crack? means Any news?; a common expression of surprise in Catholic Ireland is Jesus Christ, Mary and Joseph!

▶️ Check out what it sounds like:
⛓ A tutorial
⛓ In real life

👉@afandi_english👈 #world_englishes

#28 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• ancient
• April
• basic
• behaviour
• cake
• Cambridge
• Danish
• favourite
• maybe
• radio
• tasty

❓What sound do these words have in common?

❗️They all have the double vowel eɪ, like “hey”, in them. For clarity in Cyrillic:
• ancient – wrong: эншинт, correct: эйншинт
• April – wrong: эприл, correct: эйприл
• basic – wrong: бэсик, correct: бейсик
• behaviour – wrong: бихэвиер, correct: бихейвиер
• cake – wrong: кэк, correct: кейк
• Cambridge – wrong: кэмбридж, correct: кеймбридж
• Danish – wrong: дэниш, correct: дейниш
• favourite – wrong: фэверит, correct: фейверит
• maybe – wrong: мэби, correct: мейби
• radio – wrong: рэдио, correct: рейдио
• tasty – wrong: тэсти, correct: тейсти


👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #pronunciation

#11 Spot Afandi and his donkey: Afandi visiting Muhammadyusuf

❓ Can you spot Afandi and his donkey in this picture?

❗️If you can, follow the instructions in #1 (see pinned message) and win 5,000 Paynet-soums!

👉@afandi_english👈 #spot_afandi

#3 Go out and teach! Language environment

❗️Everybody agrees that in a language class it’s best to use the language that the students are learning. Yet we hear a lot of mother tongue in foreign language classes. Here are some common excuses:

🔎 “If I speak only in English my students don’t understand me!” – Don’t think they have to understand a 100%. To practice their communication skills it is unnecessary. It’s more important to think in English.

🔎 “But my students’ level is too low!” – You can still speak as much English as possible. Use mother tongue words in English sentences. And beginners can understand easy commands like Please sit down! or Next one! without translation but with body language.

🔎 “It takes too much time!” – In language learning the process is important, not the number of pages or exercises.

❗️It is possible that your students actually learn more English from classroom communication than all the materials you’re giving them.

👉@afandi_english👈

#10 Tongue twister: Bad brakes

❗️Challenge yourself and practice your pronunciation with this tongue twister today.

▶️ A black bloke's back brake-block broke.

Translation:
Bir qora yigitning orqa tormoz bloki buzildi.

❗️Pay attention to:

🔘 Pronunciation – The two sounds r and l are somewhat similar, not only for Japanese people. Try to say it fast but clearly.


👉@afandi_english👈 #tongue_twisters

#10 University Vocab: Undergrad Years

❗️ Most universities in the world now offer 4-year Bachelor programmes. What’s the vocab?

🔎 There are basically two ways, one American and one British. The American one is more specific, four words, one for each year, while the British one is plain and suits any country’s education system.

🔎 In America, students in the first year of college or undergrad studies are called freshman, no matter if they are male or female. Students of the second year are called sophomore, in their third year they are called junior and in their final year senior. There are also super senior students – those who don’t graduate on time and stay for a fifth year.

🔎 In Britain and elsewhere first-year students are simply called first-year students, or in Britain itself sometimes freshers, in the second year we can call them second-year students, then third-year students and in the fourth year final-year students.

👉@afandi_english👈 #uni_vocab

#29 Our favourite mistakes: Vocabulary

▶️ Please translate the following sentence:
Afandining qizi birinchi kursda lekin to’rtinchi kursdagilardan ko’ra bilimli.

❌ Perhaps you think it is:
Afandi’s daughter is in the first course but she is more knowledgeable than the fourth-course students.

✅ Well, it should be:
Afandi’s daughter is in the first year but she is more knowledgeable than the final-year students.

❓Why?

❗️ The word kurs in Uzbek is borrowed from Russian. Yes, it is an international word but doesn’t mean the same in English. A course in English is a series of classes in the same subject. You can have a history course at university or you can go to an English course at a study centre. Perhaps you have many courses this semester, and therefore you have a lot of coursework (see #9 University vocab).


👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #vocabulary

#9 YouTube Channel Recommendation: BBC Travel Show

⛓ Link: www.youtube.com/user/room4252

📊 English Level: Upper

🔤 Subtitles: Only automatic subtitles

💬 Topics: Travel

💡 Content: The videos are all about special locations in various countries and give you pictures of the world, the kind of which students often lack when dealing with texts about international news, cultures and places in general. BBC Travel Show can really make you feel that you live on a very colourful and amazing planet, and that will motivate you to explore and learn more.


👉@afandi_english👈 #youtube

#10 Learn how to learn: Speaking

❓English learners often say: ”I want to improve my speaking!” Sounds familiar, yes?

Talk to yourself if you have no one else. Why not. If you do have a partner then here’s how:

1️⃣ Speaking is communicating, it’s a two-way road. Stop yourself from wanting to speak more than other people. Long monologues kill every conversation.

2️⃣ Choose meaningful topics or make boring topics meaningful. Don’t think What would other people say? but express your own opinion and hear what others have to say.

3️⃣ Engage in conversation. Don’t just answer questions but have something to say and ask back. Practice turn-taking and your conversation becomes as natural as in your own language.

4️⃣ Adapt to your partner. It may not be the right time to show off high-level vocabulary or idioms.

5️⃣ Don’t be selfish. If you only care about yourself and grab speaking time you can’t learn to communicate. Your best friend will always be your mirror.

👉@afandi_english👈 #learn2learn

#12 Spot Afandi and his donkey: Afandi at Samo Textile

❓ Can you spot Afandi and his donkey in this picture?

❗️If you can, follow the instructions in #1 (see pinned message) and win 5,000 Paynet-soums!

👉@afandi_english👈 #spot_afandi