Psst! How about a quiz?
Since tomorrow’s speaking club is on the topic of work, I’ve put together a fun challenge for you: decode the work-related idiomatic expressions hidden in these emojis! You can drop your guesses in the comments, but remember to hide them behindspoiler tags. Have fun!
1. 🌨⬇️
2. 🤥🪨
3. 🏃♀️🕳💀
4. 👨💻🤞🦴
5. 🔙✏️👩🏫
6. 🚪🏋️
7. 🙅♀️💇♀️📤
To join the speaking club, check out this post with all the info
P.S. the keys are in the comment section
Since tomorrow’s speaking club is on the topic of work, I’ve put together a fun challenge for you: decode the work-related idiomatic expressions hidden in these emojis! You can drop your guesses in the comments, but remember to hide them behind
1. 🌨⬇️
2. 🤥🪨
3. 🏃♀️🕳💀
4. 👨💻🤞🦴
5. 🔙✏️👩🏫
6. 🚪🏋️
7. 🙅♀️💇♀️📤
To join the speaking club, check out this post with all the info
P.S. the keys are in the comment section
One of my last shadowing attempts (not perfect, but I'm still proud of it!)😑
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The current leg of my accent journey
For the past couple of months, what I’ve been doing accent-wise is shadowing. A LOT of shadowing of different speakers — Emma Watson, Emilia Clarke, Kiera Knightley, and so many more. With Kiera Knightley, I am still recovering from her monologues — how she manages to articulate anything at that speed of hers is beyond me. I mean, I spent hours upon hours shadowing her 40-second long monologue, only to get a result that was suboptimal at best. I’m not giving up though:)
Even though some tasks are more challenging than others and I haven’t been the most consistent student lately (guilty as charged), I still derive a lot of pleasure from classes, home assignments, and from seeing progress, of course! It takes time, but when I started noticing that I actually do use some intonation patterns from shadowing in my own speech, I was delighted!
If you’d like to hone your British accent, I’ve got you covered — in January, @ritkaaauuu, my accent coach, is launching her advanced course on intonation. It’s designed for those whose sounds are already on point, but they want to make their intonation more native-like.
I don’t really do ads, but Rita is someone who I can definitely vouch for — her own accent and expertise are top-notch, which is why I can wholeheartedly recommend her classes to you.
If you decide to join her upcoming course, you can use my promo code — Nastyak for a 10,000-rouble discount.
For the past couple of months, what I’ve been doing accent-wise is shadowing. A LOT of shadowing of different speakers — Emma Watson, Emilia Clarke, Kiera Knightley, and so many more. With Kiera Knightley, I am still recovering from her monologues — how she manages to articulate anything at that speed of hers is beyond me. I mean, I spent hours upon hours shadowing her 40-second long monologue, only to get a result that was suboptimal at best. I’m not giving up though:)
Even though some tasks are more challenging than others and I haven’t been the most consistent student lately (guilty as charged), I still derive a lot of pleasure from classes, home assignments, and from seeing progress, of course! It takes time, but when I started noticing that I actually do use some intonation patterns from shadowing in my own speech, I was delighted!
If you’d like to hone your British accent, I’ve got you covered — in January, @ritkaaauuu, my accent coach, is launching her advanced course on intonation. It’s designed for those whose sounds are already on point, but they want to make their intonation more native-like.
I don’t really do ads, but Rita is someone who I can definitely vouch for — her own accent and expertise are top-notch, which is why I can wholeheartedly recommend her classes to you.
If you decide to join her upcoming course, you can use my promo code — Nastyak for a 10,000-rouble discount.
Telegram
Chaikovskaya • british accent
Today is a big day! You know why? Because it's the first time I've got to the last module of Expert Proficiency! I can sense your lack of enthusiasm, but I am, for one, really excited because, somehow, all my students took their exams before finishing the book. This student, actually, did the same, but her perfectionistic inclinations got the better of her, hence the decision to cover the whole book after getting a well-deserved certificate.
Anyways, we’ve just had our first class and it was a blast! Can you guess the topic? It’s hidden in the attached quotes.
P.S. There’s one and the same word hidden in all of them.
Anyways, we’ve just had our first class and it was a blast! Can you guess the topic? It’s hidden in the attached quotes.
P.S. There’s one and the same word hidden in all of them.
Don’t know about you, but I’m not teaching all that many Christmas-themed classes this week. But I would still like to add just a little bit of holiday cheer to this weekend, so I’m thinking of holding a speaking club session.
And this is where I need your help: I don’t know which day to choose:
Saturday (27.12) 11:00-12:30
Sunday (28.12) 11:00-12:30
If you’d like to take part, please let me know which option would be convenient for you. You can do this in the comments below or in a private message @nkniiazeva
P.S. As usual, the session will be free for my students, and will cost 1200 roubles for everyone else⛄️
And this is where I need your help: I don’t know which day to choose:
Saturday (27.12) 11:00-12:30
Sunday (28.12) 11:00-12:30
If you’d like to take part, please let me know which option would be convenient for you. You can do this in the comments below or in a private message @nkniiazeva
P.S. As usual, the session will be free for my students, and will cost 1200 roubles for everyone else
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A quick update on the Christmas speaking club: there’ll be two sessions, one this Saturday and the other one this Sunday (both at 11:00 Moscow time).
If you'd like to sign up, drop me @nkniiazeva a line. And if you've already expressed interest, I'll be in touch with the details shortly🤩
Looking forward to seeing you!
P.S. the picture was taken at the pub quiz I attended over the weekend. The whole thing was a lot of fun, but our team name turned out a self-fulfilling prophecy — we sleighed right past the victory onto the fourth place🤩
If you'd like to sign up, drop me @nkniiazeva a line. And if you've already expressed interest, I'll be in touch with the details shortly
Looking forward to seeing you!
P.S. the picture was taken at the pub quiz I attended over the weekend. The whole thing was a lot of fun, but our team name turned out a self-fulfilling prophecy — we sleighed right past the victory onto the fourth place
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Me: kicking myself for not being active on social media
Also me: having posted something 287 times this year😱
The instructions on how to get a postcard like this will be in the comments❄️
Also me: having posted something 287 times this year
The instructions on how to get a postcard like this will be in the comments
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How Christmassy are you feeling?🤩
This morning I was at a solid 3 out of 10, but here’s how I worked it up to 6:
1. Put on my favourite red sweater (self-explanatory)
2. Held a speaking club and eavesdropped on people talking all things Christmas
3. Got the kindest feedback possible (I mean it!!!) so my heart had no chance not to grow two sizes:)
I’ll be holding another session tomorrow at 11:00 Moscow time, so if you’d like to get yourself in the festive spirit, drop me a line @nkniiazeva🤩
P.S. as usual, the session is free for my students, and 1200 roubles for everyone else.
P.P.S. I’ve learnt how to get a smile out of people, but not how to take good photos😭
This morning I was at a solid 3 out of 10, but here’s how I worked it up to 6:
1. Put on my favourite red sweater (self-explanatory)
2. Held a speaking club and eavesdropped on people talking all things Christmas
3. Got the kindest feedback possible (I mean it!!!) so my heart had no chance not to grow two sizes:)
I’ll be holding another session tomorrow at 11:00 Moscow time, so if you’d like to get yourself in the festive spirit, drop me a line @nkniiazeva
P.S. as usual, the session is free for my students, and 1200 roubles for everyone else.
P.P.S. I’ve learnt how to get a smile out of people, but not how to take good photos😭
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Taking stock of the year (spoiler alert: no 'successful success' in there )
Flicking through TG channels, I came across posts in a ‘Yes, but’ format, where people reflect on the passing year, interspersing personal successes with setbacks.
So, here’s my ‘yes, but’ year:
Started hosting speaking club sessions for B2-C2 students
Speaking clubs are one of my absolute favourite formats, so I’d long wanted to create one myself. And I did! I picked interesting topics, explored a whole raft of authentic materials in search of useful conversational language, and created thought-provoking questions. This year I held nine sessions on different topics — from space exploration to Christmas. And judging by the feedback I got, it was not in vain — the sessions were quite a success.
You can read some feedback here
But I still don’t know where I want to take the speaking club: keep having stand-alone sessions? Or combine them into a course with proper recycling? And do I want to grow it at all? If I do, how should I market it? No idea.
Found reasons to get myself out of the house
As a massive homebody, I’m perfectly fine staying in, but this year I made an extra effort to be social. I attended art exhibitions, speaking and book clubs (both offline and online), pub quizzes, and so many other events, which allowed me to meet the most wonderful people! I also kept exploring Moscow for its hidden and not-so-hidden gems.
But, social or not, I almost completely gave up on sport. Last year I took so much pride in sticking to my workout routine religiously — regardless of my workload, I had four sessions a week. This year, if I had two workouts a week, it was a good week. And let me just say that not every week was a good one, sport-wise.
Let a small slice of the Russian ELT community know I exist
It may sound weird, but that was one of my goals — to grow my TG channel and become more visible on the teaching scene. Having taken part in a bunch of conferences, live streams, and podcasts, I certainly took steps to achieve that. I was also lucky enough to have friends and acquaintances who generously promoted my little channel on their blogs. I’m eternally grateful!
But, much to my chagrin, my enthusiasm didn’t last. I was more or less active in this respect only at the beginning of the year — I spent the second half of it in survival mode, doing the barest of minimums.
Taught individual students and groups
A couple of my students passed their exams with great results, which you can check out here and here. This autumn I also started teaching three wonderful C1/C2 exam groups at my favourite English school. I picked new course books for this — Ready for C1 and C2 — and so far it’s been quite an enjoyable journey!
But I didn’t manage to launch pair classes — people expressed interest, but something always went wrong: sometimes the levels didn’t match, other times the intensity of the course was too much, and so on. Instead, I started working with four students individually, which I don’t mind at all right now — love my students!
Kept learning English
This year, apart from doing a general English course, I’ve been honing my British accent, and I’m proud to say I can hear some improvement. I’m still not where I want to be accent-wise, but I’ve made peace with the fact that for me, English is a lifelong project at this point. If things take months or years, so be it.
But, even though I’ve been studying quite a lot, for the past couple of months I haven’t been the most diligent student, to say the least — putting off homework and missing deadlines.
Flicking through TG channels, I came across posts in a ‘Yes, but’ format, where people reflect on the passing year, interspersing personal successes with setbacks.
So, here’s my ‘yes, but’ year:
Started hosting speaking club sessions for B2-C2 students
Speaking clubs are one of my absolute favourite formats, so I’d long wanted to create one myself. And I did! I picked interesting topics, explored a whole raft of authentic materials in search of useful conversational language, and created thought-provoking questions. This year I held nine sessions on different topics — from space exploration to Christmas. And judging by the feedback I got, it was not in vain — the sessions were quite a success.
You can read some feedback here
But I still don’t know where I want to take the speaking club: keep having stand-alone sessions? Or combine them into a course with proper recycling? And do I want to grow it at all? If I do, how should I market it? No idea.
Found reasons to get myself out of the house
As a massive homebody, I’m perfectly fine staying in, but this year I made an extra effort to be social. I attended art exhibitions, speaking and book clubs (both offline and online), pub quizzes, and so many other events, which allowed me to meet the most wonderful people! I also kept exploring Moscow for its hidden and not-so-hidden gems.
But, social or not, I almost completely gave up on sport. Last year I took so much pride in sticking to my workout routine religiously — regardless of my workload, I had four sessions a week. This year, if I had two workouts a week, it was a good week. And let me just say that not every week was a good one, sport-wise.
Let a small slice of the Russian ELT community know I exist
It may sound weird, but that was one of my goals — to grow my TG channel and become more visible on the teaching scene. Having taken part in a bunch of conferences, live streams, and podcasts, I certainly took steps to achieve that. I was also lucky enough to have friends and acquaintances who generously promoted my little channel on their blogs. I’m eternally grateful!
But, much to my chagrin, my enthusiasm didn’t last. I was more or less active in this respect only at the beginning of the year — I spent the second half of it in survival mode, doing the barest of minimums.
Taught individual students and groups
A couple of my students passed their exams with great results, which you can check out here and here. This autumn I also started teaching three wonderful C1/C2 exam groups at my favourite English school. I picked new course books for this — Ready for C1 and C2 — and so far it’s been quite an enjoyable journey!
But I didn’t manage to launch pair classes — people expressed interest, but something always went wrong: sometimes the levels didn’t match, other times the intensity of the course was too much, and so on. Instead, I started working with four students individually, which I don’t mind at all right now — love my students!
Kept learning English
This year, apart from doing a general English course, I’ve been honing my British accent, and I’m proud to say I can hear some improvement. I’m still not where I want to be accent-wise, but I’ve made peace with the fact that for me, English is a lifelong project at this point. If things take months or years, so be it.
But, even though I’ve been studying quite a lot, for the past couple of months I haven’t been the most diligent student, to say the least — putting off homework and missing deadlines.