day by day

Hi folks!  Sometimes it's hard to start writing, not because you have no idea what to write, but because you're really bored with what you've written so far.  Since this is a student blog, I'd like to change my direction a bit, hoping you don't mind. I've been studying soley on my listening skills for two weeks, especially the British accent. I use Podcast Repuclic, a practical and useful podcast app, and there are many podcast channels that I've been following for a while. One of these is Luke's English Podcast, which is very famous for its entertaining and satisfying content - I think everyone who is learning English knows this podcast. Then this week I found Tom Wilkinson 's podcast 'Thinking in English' and it was just what the doctor ordered. Anyway, I listened to two related episodes from this podcast; 'How to Think Critically in English' and 'Logical Fallacies: Mistakes You Probably Make When Arguing!'. I want to talk a...

We are halfway through our C1 course and I have to write my seventh blog post - but to be honest I feel a pang inside, I don't know why. But I have to write and I have to get out of this gloomy mood. Our topic this week was historical movies -and how important accuracy was in historical movies. Of course, the First and Second World Wars were also among the topics discussed. Although I enjoy reading about wars and recent history, I admit that this topic contributed to my gloomy mood. Now that I am in such a mood, perhaps I should mention the difficulties I face in learning English. First of all, the biggest challenge for me is trying to understand what fast-talking British people are saying. I can't even understand everyday American conversations, let alone British ones. Up until now I have only tried to improve my listening skills through videos on different topics that interest me and 'everyday English' was not among them and now I am lacking of it. Secondly, another...

  This week we only had one lesson on Saturday, because our teacher was in charge of cheering at the Eurasian Marathon on Sunday. (There are interesting people who come up with ideas like running a marathon or inventing yufka (phyllo). Sometimes I can't help but wonder how it's possible that we're all made of the same stuff, yet our outcomes could be so completely different. Anyway, this is not something I should write about on this blog. Or is it? Maybe.) In our class on Saturday, we talked about dating, real-life dating, and dating apps. Considering our class was mostly young (only 5 out of 20 were over 40 or 50), it was a great idea. For those of us over 40, it was, I dunno, a joke. Being in a classroom full of young people is great for keeping up with the today's spirit (zeitgeist), or at least being aware of it, and developing your skills, but it also comes with some side effects, like having to talk about 'dating'. By the way, I'm not complaining abou...