Idioms- The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games Trailor

Take off (0:13)- leave a place or location, usually quickly without specific intent or plans.
Take off can mean a lot of different things.
A few examples are:
Take off your hat- Remove your hat
The plane will take off soon- the plane will leave soon
Her career will take off- she will have a successful career

English Online

The Twenty-first Century classroom is no longer in front of a dusty blackboard, but behind a crisp, clean, high definition computer screen.

The advantages are innumerous. 

Globalization is occurring in all aspects of life, and communication is the key to success.  The international language is English, and the race to learn it is on.  However with busy lives, hectic schedules, and rising gas prices, language schools may not be the answer. 

A wealth of information is now at our fingertips, the internet a portal to vast resources, and instant connections.

Skype has fast become the most popular VoIP software around the world, with over 100 million users, and is an excellent teaching tool.  VoIP stands for voice over internet protocol, and simply means communication through the spoken word using the internet.  Other VoIP software programs include Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, and TeamSpeak.   

Along with being able to talk to people for free, the option of seeing them using video is also offered.  There is a text box, which can be used to type in information while simultaneously speaking or teaching.  The benefit of this over teaching in person is that weaknesses can be identified and addressed instantly by the teacher.  In the case where a student is having difficulty in a certain area, such as properly using the present simple tense, the teacher can send links to online resources that they can go over together during the lesson, and can also be referred to later by the student on his/her own.  Other free resources online include dialogues, idiom exercises, TOEFL preparation, and even current event articles, with practice exercises following.  Breaking News ESL is an excellent resource, with recent news stories written for speakers of English as a second language.  Topics of interest hold the student’s (and teacher’s) interest, new vocabulary is learned, and sentence structure improved.  Conversation flows easily, providing the learner with the opportunity of having a real life discussion with a native speaker, and pronunciation issues can also be addressed by the teacher as needed.  Utilizing the text box for this, words can be written down (often while the student is speaking without him or her knowing so as not to interrupt the dialogue) and then sent to the student.  For example, if a student is having difficulty pronouncing the word “thorough” the teacher can type the word in the text box, along with a phonetic spelling (not necessarily using the phonetic alphabet as not everyone is familiar with this) “thur- o” and then go over the word with the student, practicing it together.  The student then has the word saved in his text box for future reference, and can practice the word for the following week. 

Writing can be worked on as well, as files can be sent via the text box, and corrections can be made and explained during the lesson, providing the student with conversation and structural instruction simultaneously.  And as the teacher identifies repetitive mistakes or problem patterns in the writing, links to work on these areas can be sent to the student providing him/her with innumerous resources instantly.  No more time is wasted hunting through bookshelves, or making photocopies. 

International conference calls are now commonplace in the boardroom, and most often made in English as the global economy expands, and foreign markets merge.  Skype becomes more than just a convenient, effective teaching tool for the executive, but a common source of communication at work and school. 

Most companies have their own VoIP system they use for conference calls, however Skype also provides this feature, and it’s free for all Skype users, making group lessons online possible as well. 

Talk and Write is a free software program provided by Skype for business and education.  Providing a mutually shared white board and meeting room, it enables users to communicate instantaneously, as they can write in the same space at the same time, point out certain areas on the screen, highlight texts, and erase annotations. 

Payments for lessons can be made using Paypal, bank transfers, or other methods as agreed upon by the student and teacher.  Teachers should be experienced professionals, and native speakers.  A fifteen minute free trial lesson is often offered to make sure students are comfortable with their new teacher.  If lessons are being offered at a very low cost, the buyer should be wary.  However, people living in large cities like Tokyo and Hong Kong may be surprised at how much less the cost for an online lesson is, when doing comparative shopping with local language schools, which can run up to twice the amount of an online lesson.

Convenient, effective, and efficient, online lessons with the right teacher can be an enjoyable and lucrative experience for anyone wanting to get a head start in the global race of international communication. 

Rebecca Wolbach Silva
http://www.blogger.com/goog_449582381

Idioms

Cowboy (1:54) - a person taking a lot of financial risks (day trading, for example).

"That's when I draw the line." (1:55) -that is the limit and that's the point at which I won't tolerate anymore (of this behavior).

Idioms

"Everybody's drinkin' the same Kool-Aid"

-Everybody’s completely buying into (believing in/participating in) an idea or system, whether good or bad.

Pronunciation- TH

Silva English Online: You tube English lessons

Silva English Online: You tube English lessons: Mike and Molly- Victoria's Birthday This video is hilarious but they do speak very fast in this clip. Look up the vocabulary words and rea...

You tube English lessons

Mike and Molly- Victoria's Birthday
This video is hilarious but they do speak very fast in this clip.  Look up the vocabulary words and read the questions before watching the video.  You will subconsciously make more of a concerted effort to listen, and your listening skills will improve faster!

Vocabulary:    Folks, bouncer, pop-up camper, long-term, Winnebago, hot dog truck, extension curb, half-eaten bun, curb, load

Questions:

1.       Why is Victoria upset?

2.       How old is Victoria?

3.       When she says, “the same man a bunch of nights in a row” what does Molly say another name for that is?

4.       Molly asks if the bouncer in the pop-up camper was a long term thing.  What is Victoria’s response?

5.       What does Victoria say happens when you show up for a second date with a guy who lives in a Winnebago, pop-up camper, or hot dog truck?

6.       She says they don’t leave a note, but what two things do they leave behind?

7.       Molly tells Victoria she shouldn’t pin her happiness on what?

8.       Victoria tells Molly that’s easy for her to say because she has a what?

9.       Victoria tells Molly that at least she has someone to be ____________ in?

Idioms

IDIOMS- Mike and Molly - Carl is Jealous

This clip is full of idioms
Here are some explanations for various idioms and phrases taken from this hilarious clip.
You almost flattened a small dog-
-Mike fell on top of a dog and almost crushed it.

Tatoo it on your eatin' hand
-Mike is always eating, so Carl tells him if he tattoos something on the hand he uses to eat, he’ll have a constant reminder of it.

Play the fat card
-have things said about him for being fat, or make excuses for himself because he’s fat

Play the hand I’m dealt
-when playing cards, everyone is dealt a “hand” of cards. Carl is saying that he has been given what he has been given, and he is in good shape, as opposed to Mike.

Old married couple
-a couple, husband and wife, who have been married to each other for a long time

Bickering
-constant arguing, and a term often used in reference to a couple.

guys bustin' each other’s stones
-two guys saying critical things to each other, but in a good humored way

..”so you can take one of your little ´bat naps´”
-A nap is a short period of sleep and in this case Carl throws in the term “bat” because they are talking about being Batman and Robin.

Twist my words
-change something I’ve said

Cop-hatin' gang bangers
-criminals who don’t like policemen

“Do you want your little school teacher to take the grade A double yoke to the back of the head?”
-Do you want Molly to get hit in the back of the head with an egg?  (this was asked after Mike makes the comment that they’ve never been shot at, only around Halloween with eggs.)

I hear what you’re saying.
-I understand what you’re saying.

"The Enjoyment of Summer Changed"- The Diary of Three Sisters

Translated by Masaharu Yamauchi, edited by Rebecca Silva
“Summer vacation is just around the corner.”

I’m getting excited about the first summer vacation since moving to the Kanagawa prefecture in April. Although the summer vacation in Kanagawa is supposed to be longer than in Iwate, I feel it might be shorter, because I have many things I want to do during the summer vacation－watch horror movies, watch fire works with my friends, and so on.  

During an ordinary summer vacation, I spend time lying around at home or playing with my friends after coming back home from the club activities that the school provided. Since there was a small department store near my home, what I did there was the same－play on the same corner and talk with my friends in the food court－it was like a routine job.

But I had one thing that made me happy. There was a shop that sold dumplings filled with sweat bean paste in winter and sold shaved ice in summer- it was smothered in a lot of ‘Calpis-Lemon’ syrup, which was very delicious. If I could go to Ofunato City during summer vacation, I would go there to eat it definitely.

Our Hometown is Far Away ― The Diary of Three Sisters

translated by, Masaharu Yamauchi, from the Asahi Newspapar, Japan                      

山内　雅晴

edited by, Rebecca Silva

‘The fear of aftershocks comes to mind’  

Five months have passed since the big earthquake happened. I still remember clearly the experience of the earthquake, and I think I won’t ever completely forget.

What bothered me most after the earthquake was the problem with water and electricity.

Since we couldn’t flush the toilets, we poured water that the army brought in a big tank into buckets and used them after two or three people went to the toilet.

 Five days later, I could take a bath. In an emergency, I thought I wouldn’t die if I didn’t take a bath for a while. But I had a hard time because my hair became so greasy. The bath that we three sisters took wasn’t hot, it was almost cold water, that made us shiver, but I felt nothing less than happiness.

Also, I have coming to my mind the fear of aftershocks. It was soon after that powerful aftershocks followed a large number of times a day, not just a few times.

But I gradually came to understand that big aftershocks followed －we needed to decide whether to evacuate or not－according to how strong the aftershocks were. ‘Wobbly’ isn’t a big deal. But the aftershock that starts with small vertical vibrations followed by a roaring from underground becomes powerful.

Recently my concern grows very big every time I hear the news predicting a big earthquake and powerful aftershocks. Since simply worrying doesn’t take you anywhere, I think we have to decide where we evacuate to and how we will contact other family members in preparation for future earthquakes.  

（Nanako）

◇

The life of these three students who suffered from the big earthquake and the nuclear power plant disaster, and transferred to the Kanagawa prefecture have seemed to settle down gradually.　But they have lived a life that they could have never imagined living over the last year.

This is a commentary about how they feel on a daily basis in the Kanagawa prefecture that is far from their hometown. We have three sisters who moved to Fujisawa city in the Kanagawa prefecture from Ofunato city where the big tsunami hit.

(From top to bottom) Mariko Hayashizaki(17), Nanako(16), Sayako(13). March 11^th, they suffered in Ofunato city, Iwate prefecture. Although all family members- 5 including the parents - were safe, their house was partially destroyed by the tsunami. For three weeks, they moved around from shelters to their grandmother’s house,  and so on. At the end of March, they transferred to Fujisawa city.

Punch Line

The idiom, Punch Line, is used in a recent CNN Video about U.S. Governor Chris Christie's weight.

Let's Face It

Let's Face It- The idiom is used in CNN video interview with EU President Jose Manuel Barroso

Idioms- Soft Spot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d3iSA_7SDY

Newsworthy Idioms