#6 Travelogue Uzbekistan: Lucky numbers
I’m not sure how widespread this phenomenon is in Uzbekistan but I’ve seen numbers being used as names for all kinds of shops, product names and, most of all, pharmacies. I can’t say exactly why but I want to share my speculations with you:
A) A love for numbers: Numbers are nothing bad, schools are also numbered in this country. People don’t seem to think that numbers are cold or boring.
B) Attraction: Numbers, although not unique, are easy to remember. They can also be written big and catch people’s eyes.
C) Superstition: Some numbers are lucky, like 7. But what about the other numbers?
D) Convention: Some time ago someone started this and now it is imitated. Lacking creativity, shop owners use numbers just because others are doing it.
E) A mixture of all the above
👇Please vote!👇
----------Vocab----------
📍widespread = found in many places📍speculation = guess📍catch sb’s eyes = make sb notice sth
👉@afandi_english👈 #travel #uzbekistan
I’m not sure how widespread this phenomenon is in Uzbekistan but I’ve seen numbers being used as names for all kinds of shops, product names and, most of all, pharmacies. I can’t say exactly why but I want to share my speculations with you:
A) A love for numbers: Numbers are nothing bad, schools are also numbered in this country. People don’t seem to think that numbers are cold or boring.
B) Attraction: Numbers, although not unique, are easy to remember. They can also be written big and catch people’s eyes.
C) Superstition: Some numbers are lucky, like 7. But what about the other numbers?
D) Convention: Some time ago someone started this and now it is imitated. Lacking creativity, shop owners use numbers just because others are doing it.
E) A mixture of all the above
👇Please vote!👇
----------Vocab----------
📍widespread = found in many places📍speculation = guess📍catch sb’s eyes = make sb notice sth
👉@afandi_english👈 #travel #uzbekistan
Why those numbers?
Anonymous Poll
33%
A - A love for numbers
37%
B - Attraction
24%
C - Superstition
27%
D - Convention
54%
E - A mixture of all the above
#20 Spot Afandi and his donkey: Afandi and the black gold
❓ 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
❓ 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
#11 It’s a strange world: Vertical farming
❓How to feed a growing urban population in times of climate change and natural disasters?
❗️One possible answer may be “vertical farming” – high tech farming in which plants can grow in trays stacked on top of one another. Crops can grow there with artificial light and usually without soil but water mixed with nutrients. The actual “farm” may not look like a farm at all but more like a factory as much of the work is automated. There are more and more vertical farms in developed countries.
⛓https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming
▶️ Here’s a YouTube video about vertical farming in Japan: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGtdoGXhjxQ
👉@afandi_english👈 #strange_world #technology
❓How to feed a growing urban population in times of climate change and natural disasters?
❗️One possible answer may be “vertical farming” – high tech farming in which plants can grow in trays stacked on top of one another. Crops can grow there with artificial light and usually without soil but water mixed with nutrients. The actual “farm” may not look like a farm at all but more like a factory as much of the work is automated. There are more and more vertical farms in developed countries.
⛓https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming
▶️ Here’s a YouTube video about vertical farming in Japan: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGtdoGXhjxQ
👉@afandi_english👈 #strange_world #technology
#7 Go out and teach! Games
❗️Some teachers use them a lot, others think games are only for kids. Here are some points for you to keep in mind:
🔎 Not knowing games is an excuse! There’s a huge variety of games to choose from. It’s easy to find ideas, just google “games for English class” or “ESL games”. Try what sounds interesting to you and don’t be afraid of changing the rules.
🔎 Save your games to the end of the class. That way you can reward the class for some less exciting activities. If you play games in the beginning or middle of the class you may find it difficult to calm the students down again.
🔎 Games don’t have to be childish. Choose language games, not games just for entertainment. Make sure your games help the students practice their language skills, ideally relating to the lesson content.
❗️The traditional idea of ‘no pain, no gain’ isn’t always right. Your students can have fun while learning. As a good teacher you use games, but always with a purpose!
👉@afandi_english👈
❗️Some teachers use them a lot, others think games are only for kids. Here are some points for you to keep in mind:
🔎 Not knowing games is an excuse! There’s a huge variety of games to choose from. It’s easy to find ideas, just google “games for English class” or “ESL games”. Try what sounds interesting to you and don’t be afraid of changing the rules.
🔎 Save your games to the end of the class. That way you can reward the class for some less exciting activities. If you play games in the beginning or middle of the class you may find it difficult to calm the students down again.
🔎 Games don’t have to be childish. Choose language games, not games just for entertainment. Make sure your games help the students practice their language skills, ideally relating to the lesson content.
❗️The traditional idea of ‘no pain, no gain’ isn’t always right. Your students can have fun while learning. As a good teacher you use games, but always with a purpose!
👉@afandi_english👈
#4 Afandi Quiz: What’s the word?
Today’s quiz is about frying eggs on a spade.
▶️ Being a soldier isn’t always easy. Not only may getting killed be part of your job, you also have a hard time staying in the field and not having the comforts of your home. And then this – you manage to get a hold of a few eggs but now what? You don’t have a kitchen, no cooker, no frying pan, no nothing really. You hungrily think for a long second and – tadaa – you come up with a solution. You make a small fire, wipe off some spades you have among your equipment and fry the eggs on them. Job done!
Now what do we call this creative activity of finding ways to do something without the right equipment or materials?
👉@afandi_english👈 #word_quiz
Today’s quiz is about frying eggs on a spade.
▶️ Being a soldier isn’t always easy. Not only may getting killed be part of your job, you also have a hard time staying in the field and not having the comforts of your home. And then this – you manage to get a hold of a few eggs but now what? You don’t have a kitchen, no cooker, no frying pan, no nothing really. You hungrily think for a long second and – tadaa – you come up with a solution. You make a small fire, wipe off some spades you have among your equipment and fry the eggs on them. Job done!
Now what do we call this creative activity of finding ways to do something without the right equipment or materials?
👉@afandi_english👈 #word_quiz
By using spades instead of a frying pan, the soldiers are … .
Final Results
48%
improvising
30%
stimulating
18%
marinating
5%
instigating
Afandi English
By using spades instead of a frying pan, the soldiers are … .
Not bad but there’s only a relative majority for the right answer!
👍 The correct answer is indeed improvising. When you lack the right stuff but manage to do your thing anyway it means you improvise. Russian speakers had an advantage here.
👎 Stimulating was wrong for two reasons – 1) it means making someone or something excited / active / grow, etc. and 2) it’s a transitive verb that needs an object. You cannot say you’re stimulating without saying who or what you are stimulating.
👎 Marinating is a cooking term and means put meat or fish into a marinade (mixture of spices and oil). Oops!
👎 Instigating is also transitive (needs an object) and has a negative meaning of causing bad actions, e.g. “instigate terror”.
👍 The correct answer is indeed improvising. When you lack the right stuff but manage to do your thing anyway it means you improvise. Russian speakers had an advantage here.
👎 Stimulating was wrong for two reasons – 1) it means making someone or something excited / active / grow, etc. and 2) it’s a transitive verb that needs an object. You cannot say you’re stimulating without saying who or what you are stimulating.
👎 Marinating is a cooking term and means put meat or fish into a marinade (mixture of spices and oil). Oops!
👎 Instigating is also transitive (needs an object) and has a negative meaning of causing bad actions, e.g. “instigate terror”.
#40 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation
▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• abroad
• August
• automatic
• born
• bought
• brought
• course
• daughter
• law
• pause
• raw
• saw
• sauce
❓What sound do these words have in common?
❗️They all contain the long vowel [ɔ:], as in “boring” or "tall". Pay attention to this sound:
• abroad – correct: abr-ɔ:-d
• August – correct: ɔ:-gust
• automatic – correct: ɔ:-tomatic
• born – wrong: burn, correct: b-ɔ:-rn
• bought – wrong: boat, correct: b-ɔ:-t
• brought – correct: br-ɔ:-t
• course – wrong: curse, correct: c-ɔ:-rse
• daughter – correct: d-ɔ:-ghter
• law – wrong: low, correct: l-ɔ:
• pause – correct: p-ɔ:-se
• raw – wrong: row, correct: r-ɔ:
• saw – wrong: sow, correct: s-ɔ:
• sauce – correct: s-ɔ:-s
👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #pronunciation
▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• abroad
• August
• automatic
• born
• bought
• brought
• course
• daughter
• law
• pause
• raw
• saw
• sauce
❓What sound do these words have in common?
❗️They all contain the long vowel [ɔ:], as in “boring” or "tall". Pay attention to this sound:
• abroad – correct: abr-ɔ:-d
• August – correct: ɔ:-gust
• automatic – correct: ɔ:-tomatic
• born – wrong: burn, correct: b-ɔ:-rn
• bought – wrong: boat, correct: b-ɔ:-t
• brought – correct: br-ɔ:-t
• course – wrong: curse, correct: c-ɔ:-rse
• daughter – correct: d-ɔ:-ghter
• law – wrong: low, correct: l-ɔ:
• pause – correct: p-ɔ:-se
• raw – wrong: row, correct: r-ɔ:
• saw – wrong: sow, correct: s-ɔ:
• sauce – correct: s-ɔ:-s
👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #pronunciation
#6 Education Video: Success at school vs in life
❗️There seems to be a big problem in education – schools and real life are too different from one another. Life doesn’t always reward the good students, and bad students often get away without punishment. Why is that and what can we do about it? Watch this video to find out!
▶️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Egxm5QuW9o
👉@afandi_english👈
❗️There seems to be a big problem in education – schools and real life are too different from one another. Life doesn’t always reward the good students, and bad students often get away without punishment. Why is that and what can we do about it? Watch this video to find out!
▶️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Egxm5QuW9o
👉@afandi_english👈
YouTube
Success at School vs Success in Life
Many people who do brilliantly at school turn out not to do so well at life. Why?
Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of…
Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of…
#7 Travelogue Uzbekistan: Super Bus Stops
A bus stop is a place where buses stop, right? Well don’t be fooled, Uzbek super bus stops can do a lot more. The Uzbek word “bekat” has evolved from its original “bus stop” meaning to become something more synonymous with “shop” – and it’s true, bus stops are rarely served by buses and are usually small roadside shops where people can stop their cars and buy the one thing they truly love: fizzy drinks.
Why this evolution? Maybe it’s the collapse of Soviet-style bus system in provincial towns. Public transport is run by Damas and taxi drivers and there’s no need for bus stops anymore. So they turned into shops and the business model is so popular that new so-called bus stops are being built even where there never used to be any.
-------Vocab-------
📍fooled = cheated📍evolve / evolution = develop / development📍synonymous with = meaning the same as📍fizzy drinks = drinks with gas, like Pepsi📍collapse = failure
👉@afandi_english👈 #travel #uzbekistan
A bus stop is a place where buses stop, right? Well don’t be fooled, Uzbek super bus stops can do a lot more. The Uzbek word “bekat” has evolved from its original “bus stop” meaning to become something more synonymous with “shop” – and it’s true, bus stops are rarely served by buses and are usually small roadside shops where people can stop their cars and buy the one thing they truly love: fizzy drinks.
Why this evolution? Maybe it’s the collapse of Soviet-style bus system in provincial towns. Public transport is run by Damas and taxi drivers and there’s no need for bus stops anymore. So they turned into shops and the business model is so popular that new so-called bus stops are being built even where there never used to be any.
-------Vocab-------
📍fooled = cheated📍evolve / evolution = develop / development📍synonymous with = meaning the same as📍fizzy drinks = drinks with gas, like Pepsi📍collapse = failure
👉@afandi_english👈 #travel #uzbekistan
#21 Spot Afandi and his donkey: Afandi arrives in Fergana
❓ 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
❓ 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
#14 Tongue twister: A bit of spice
❗️Challenge yourself and practice your pronunciation with this tongue twister today:
▶️ There is a minimum of cinnamon in the aluminium pan.
Translation:
Aluminium tovada minimal miqdorda dolchin bor.
❗️Pay attention to:
🔘 Pronunciation – Make sure you pronounce [ɪ] in minimum, cinnamon and aluminium. There is no sharp [i] sound here. Check #37 Our Favourite Mistakes (from 17 September).
🔘 Linking – Same or similar consonants and end-consonants with start-vowels are linked with one another:
There is ͜ a minimum ͜ of cinnamon ͜ in the ͜ aluminium pan.
👉@afandi_english👈 #tongue_twisters
❗️Challenge yourself and practice your pronunciation with this tongue twister today:
▶️ There is a minimum of cinnamon in the aluminium pan.
Translation:
Aluminium tovada minimal miqdorda dolchin bor.
❗️Pay attention to:
🔘 Pronunciation – Make sure you pronounce [ɪ] in minimum, cinnamon and aluminium. There is no sharp [i] sound here. Check #37 Our Favourite Mistakes (from 17 September).
🔘 Linking – Same or similar consonants and end-consonants with start-vowels are linked with one another:
There is ͜ a minimum ͜ of cinnamon ͜ in the ͜ aluminium pan.
👉@afandi_english👈 #tongue_twisters
#14 University Vocab: Academic Writing
❓Most students would agree that this is the hardest part of their studies. What’s there to know about academic writing?
🔎 A piece of academic writing is often called a paper. There are term papers, also called final papers, that focus on content of a particular course and research papers that require independent research.
🔎 Essays are usually shorter and less scientific. In certain types of essays you may also be asked to state your opinions, which is quite different from research.
🔎 At the end of your studies you most likely have to write a thesis paper, or simply a thesis. Depending on the degree this can be a bachelor thesis or a master thesis. For PhD level we usually speak of dissertation.
🔎 Published papers are called articles, and they are published in academic journals.
👉@afandi_english👈 #uni_vocab
❓Most students would agree that this is the hardest part of their studies. What’s there to know about academic writing?
🔎 A piece of academic writing is often called a paper. There are term papers, also called final papers, that focus on content of a particular course and research papers that require independent research.
🔎 Essays are usually shorter and less scientific. In certain types of essays you may also be asked to state your opinions, which is quite different from research.
🔎 At the end of your studies you most likely have to write a thesis paper, or simply a thesis. Depending on the degree this can be a bachelor thesis or a master thesis. For PhD level we usually speak of dissertation.
🔎 Published papers are called articles, and they are published in academic journals.
👉@afandi_english👈 #uni_vocab