Dear friends, English lovers & haters far and wide, welcome to AFANDI ENGLISH!🌅

We will shortly start supplying you with high-quality content to help you with your English. Let us be the donkeys serving you and making you ever more witty, clever and smart — just like Afandi!😉

You will be getting posts like:
📝 study tips
⏳ quizzes & polls
🚩 pronunciation challenges
🛠 fixing typical mistakes
& lots more to come!

So stay tuned, stay healthy and don't forget to be awesome!

Join us right away
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@afandi_english

#1 Our Favourite Mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• arrived
• called
• changed
• closed
• looked

❓Did you pronounce the [e]? No? Congratulations, good pronunciation, you’re in a 10-20% minority!

❗️When you add -ed to a word the [e] is not usually pronounced.

For clarity some pronunciation in Cyrillic:
• aged – wrong: эйджед, correct: эйджд
• finished – wrong: финишед, correct: финишд
• mixed – wrong: миксед, correct: миксд

❗️But be careful, sometimes we do pronounce the [e], that is when the original word ends with a [t] or [d] sound:
• decided
• included
• wanted

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #pronunciation

#1 World Englishes: Singapore English 🇸🇬

❗️Singapore English is the mother tongue of about 4 million people living in Singapore, a tiny but strong nation in Southeast Asia. Most people there are of Chinese origin but there are also Malays and Indians. Some people speak a local hybrid (=mixed) language called “Singlish” which can be hard to understand for non-locals.

🔘Pronunciation: Singapore English can sound a little choppy (=chopped up, not smooth, stop-and-go) but still melodious. They don’t usually pronounce the [th] sounds but replace them with [t] and [d], for example: “This thing” would sound like “dis ting”.

🔘Vocabulary: Daily life vocabulary contains many local words from Chinese, Malay and Tamil (=a language and ethnic group of India).

▶️ Check out what it sounds like!
⛓ A tutorial

👉@afandi_english👈 #world_englishes

#1 Tongue twister: The skunk and the stump

❗️Tongue twisters are a great way to practice pronunciation and fluent speech. They are not just funny and silly, they actually force you to speak clearly and correctly and you can quickly master them with a little bit of practice.

Practice your fluency and accuracy with this tongue twister today:

▶️ A skunk sat on a stump. The stump thought the skunk stunk, and the skunk thought the stump stunk. What stunk, the skunk or the stump?

—————
skunk = a furry animal native to North America, famous for its body smell

stump = the bottom part of a tree that is left after the tree has been cut

stunk = past form of “stink” – sth stinks = sth smells bad

📍📍📍📍📍📍

@afandi_english #tongue_twisters

#2 Our favourite mistakes: Vocabulary

Please translate the following sentence:
O’n yil oldin uchinchi sinf bo’lganman.

❌ Perhaps you think it is:
Ten years ago I was in third form.

✅ Well, it should be:
Ten years ago I was in third grade.

❗️Unlike in Russian, the word form does not have any special meaning in education. Grade is used to speak of school years.

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #vocabulary

#1 University Vocab: Lectures vs Seminars

🆕 Are you preparing to enter university at home or abroad? Our university vocab guide is here to give you some background knowledge.

❗️We all know what classes are. At university we also have classes but there are different types of classes!

▶️ Lectures are classes for many students, sometimes over 100, often held in big rooms called lecture halls. The teachers are normally professors or senior lecturers and students sit quietly while listening and taking notes.

▶️ Seminars are for fewer students, usually no more than twenty. The students don’t sit in rows but in a U-shape or around a big table. In this way they can discuss, which is the main purpose of a seminar.

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📝 lecture hall = big room in a university where lectures are held
📝 senior lecturer = an experienced university teacher
📝 taking notes = writing down important points
📝 row = a line of seats

👉@afandi_english👈 #uni_vocab

#1 Learn how to learn: 3 steps to manage your time!

❗️We all know that time management is key to successful studying. But how to do it? Here are 3 steps:

1️⃣ Do a research – how do you actually spend your time? For a couple of days, don’t change what you do but make a list of how much time you spend on doing what. Find the activities that kill your time.

2️⃣ Be patient and realistic. Don’t over-plan. Start by testing yourself, what can you do and what can’t you do? Don’t follow books or teachers blindly but get to know yourself!

3️⃣ Have some little rituals! Do the same study activities at the same time and in the same place every day. Regular meal times, sleeping times and even prayer times can help you. One hour after dinner, half an hour before sleeping, the time between two prayers, etc.

Best of luck & Join us for more!
💥💥💥💥💥
@afandi_english #learn2learn

#3 Our favourite mistakes: Grammar

Please translate:
1️⃣ Hech qanday pulim yo’q.
2️⃣ Ertaga meni hech qanday vaqtim yo’q.

❓Well…?

1️⃣
I have no any money. ❌
I haven’t any money.❌
I have no money. (spoken) ☑️
I don’t have any money.☑️
I haven’t got any money.☑️

2️⃣
Tomorrow I haven’t any time.❌
Tomorrow I have no any time.❌
Tomorrow I have no time. (spoken) ☑️
Tomorrow I don’t have time.☑️
Tomorrow I won’t have any time.☑️

❗️Favourite mistakes:
- saying “no any” although this word combination doesn’t exist
- saying “haven’t” or “hasn’t” without the present perfect tense

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #grammar

#2 World Englishes: Scottish English

❗️Just over 5 million people live in Scotland, a country within the United Kingdom. Scottish people sound quite different from other British English speakers. Perhaps you’ve heard the famous Scottish song – “Auld Lang Syne”? People in the UK sing this for New Year’s Eve.

🔘 Pronunciation: The vowels are often changed and there is a trilling [r] like in Russian, but not so hard.

🔘 Grammar: Scottish people may say strange things like “My hair is needing washed” or “Amn’t I invited?”

🔘 Vocabulary: Some “Scotticisms“ (Scottish words in English) are understood by non-Scottish people too, like “aye” meaning “yes” and “wee” meaning “small” or “a little bit”.

▶️ Check out what it sounds like!
⛓ Homeless in Edinburgh

👉@afandi_english👈 #world_englishes

#4 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• apple
• fashion
• imagine
• national
• natural
• valley

❓Did they sound similar or different?

❗️They should all sound similar as they have the same vowel [æ] as in apple.

❗️For clarity some pronunciation in Cyrillic (not very exact but you can get the idea):

• fashion
❌фейшн ✅фэшн

• imagine
❌имейджин ✅имэджин

• national
❌нейшенел ✅нэшенел
BUT nation ✅нейшен

• natural
❌нейчерел ✅нэчерел
BUT nature ✅нейчер

• valley
❌волли ✅вэлли

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #pronunciation

#2 Tongue twister: 30th Birthday

❗️Practice your [th] pronunciation with this tongue twister today:

▶️ Thirty-three thousand thugs think that this Thursday is their thirtieth birthday.


Vocab:
thug = a violent man


You know it's good because it's from
👻@afandi_english👻 #tongue_twisters

#2 University Vocab: Academic Literature

❗️When you study at a university you most likely have to read a lot for your essays and thesis paper.

🔎 Books are reliable sources of information. You find them in the library or, if you’re lucky, as pdf-files on the internet. Copyright is tricky, but you can always turn to Russian websites!

🔎 Articles, also just called papers, are more specialised than books. They are usually included in academic journals. It’s easy to get them on the internet but the quality of articles and also journals is not always good.

🔎 Websites are not academic literature! Anyone can publish anything online.

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📌reliable = trustworthy, always there for you
📌tricky = complicated, difficult

👉@afandi_english👈 #uni_vocab

#1 YouTube Channel Recommendation: Vox

🆕 Yes, books are good. But how much can you read in a couple of minutes? YouTube is both a fountain of knowledge and a dumping ground, we only have to know where to find the good stuff. To help you with that we recommend you some channels on YouTube that are good for learning high-level vocab and expanding your knowledge and outlook at the same time.

⛓ Link: https://www.youtube.com/user/voxdotcom

📊 English Level: Upper

🔤 Subtitles: Available

💬 Topics: Travel, politics, history, music, technology, environment

💡 Content: Vox has different sub-channels; Glad You Asked, Open Sourced, Vox Borders and Vox Atlas are the most exciting ones as they cover international issues while giving lots of background knowledge.


📍@afandi_english 📍– Why go for less?
#youtube

#5 Our favourite mistakes: Vocabulary

▶️ Please translate the following sentence:
Meni kutib turing, besh minutdan keyin boraman.

❓Perhaps you think it is:
Wait me, I will go after five minutes.

❗️Sorry, but it should be:
Wait for me, I’ll come in five minutes.

❓Why?

❗️We wait for somebody, we don’t just wait somebody.

❗️We should use come and not go if we move towards the listener.

❗️If we mean five minutes from now we should say in five minutes. Only if it is five minutes in the past or in the future or any time, then we can use after five minutes, for example: I was there at 8 o’clock sharp but the teacher only came after five minutes. / Whenever I boil an egg I take it out of the water after five minutes.

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #vocabulary

#2 Learn how to learn: Handle your phone!

❗️Think of your phone as your best and worst “frenemy” – your friend and your enemy at the same time. It’s your friend because you can get any information you want but also your enemy because it steals a lot of your time.

1️⃣ Think of your phone as a tool, not as a part of your body. Do some regular activities (not only sleeping!) without your phone, like playing with kids, sports, gardening, cooking, etc.

2️⃣ Switch off notifications from social media. Your Facebook and Telegram should never make any sounds. If anyone needs you right now they can call you or send you an SMS.

3️⃣ Get an offline dictionary, for example Longman’s or Merriam-Webster. It gives you plenty of good examples for usage and you don’t have to be online for it.

Become who you are!
👉@afandi_english👈 #learn2learn

#6 Our favourite mistakes: Grammar

▶️ Please translate:
1️⃣ Agar siz borsangiz, men ham boraman.
2️⃣ Agar Buxoroga borsangiz, ko’p eski binolarni ko’ra olasiz.

❓Well…?

1️⃣
If you will go I will also go.
If you go I will also go. ✅
2️⃣
If you go to Bukhara and you can see many old buildings.
If you go to Bukhara you can see many old buildings. ✅

Favourite mistakes:
📌Don't say “will” in an if-clause – it should only be in the main clause!
📌Don't say “and” between if-clause and main clause – this “and” is meaningless and incorrect!

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #grammar

#3 World Englishes: Caribbean English

❗️About 6 million people in 18 countries and territories of the Caribbean speak English as their mother tongue. Most of them are black people that the British colonisers brought there from Africa. They speak a mixture of British (colonial influence) and Black American English (cultural influence) with localisms (African and native American influences).

🔘 Pronunciation: Quick is better! Double vowels are often reduced, like “face” – not [feıs] but [fe:s]; consonants can be reduced, like “hand” – not [hænd] but [han].

🔘 Grammar: Easy is better! “To be” is often dropped, and plural and tense endings, too.

🔘 Vocabulary: Local is better! Many words are only understood locally. Sometimes we cannot call it English anymore but "creole", a mixed language.

▶️ Check out what Jamaican English and creole sound like!
⛓ A Jamaican farmer
⛓ An explainer

👉@afandi_english👈 #world_englishes

#7 Our favourite mistakes: Pronunciation

▶️ Try pronouncing the following words:
• computer
• concert
• conclusion
• continue
• document
• evolution
• monitor
• Mexico
• Moscow
• Olympic

❓ Did you hear [a] sounds in them?

❗️There aren’t any [a] sounds here. The reason why you may be saying [a] is the Russian unstressed O, as in “хорошо” which sounds more like “хaрaшо”.

Three solutions:
1️⃣ [ə], like the И in “борми”: computer, continue, evolution, monitor (second O), olympic
2️⃣ [ɔ], like the O in “got”: concert, document, monitor (first O), Moscow (first O)
3️⃣ [oʊ] or [əʊ], like the O in “boat”: Mexico, Moscow (second O)

Dear fans of American English, your [a] has to be a long [a:] to make it American, and it only really works with 2️⃣.

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #pronunciation

#3 Tongue twister: Beetles & Bugs

❗️Practice your pronunciation with this tongue twister today. Be careful, at the end of “big” and “bug” there is [g] not [k]!

▶️ A big bug bit a little beetle but the little beetle bit the big bug back.


Vocab:
bug = a small insect
bit = past tense of ‘bite’
beetle = an insect with a hard shell

Go for it!
👉@afandi_english👈 #tongue_twisters