Democratic Convention 2012 Pre-Election Speeches by President Obama President Clinton and Others

And now, without further due, I present …

 

Democratic Convention 2012 Pre-Election Speeches by President Obama, President Clinton and others (short videos):

 

How to Tell a Good KIS Story in American English after Your Summer Vacation?

How do you tell a good KIS story in American English after your summer vacation?

Just the way you feel about it.  Keep It Simple.  That’s the KIS rule in speech or writing – either way.  Telling a story in American English isn’t any different than doing it in any other language.  Just follow your instincts, your, so to speak, gut’s feeling.  Go with the flow.

EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. What Game Are They Playing? Football or Soccer?

Of course they are playing …  How about …?  Well, they are kicking the ball around with their feet trying to score a goal, that’s for sure.  If so, it’s definitely a foot-ball sport.  How come this game is called soccer in the US, then? 

How Was Your Summer Vacation? Asking Questions in American English?

How was your summer vacation?
Did you have fun (pictures)?   What did you do?   Did you go anywhere?   Have you met anyone interesting?   Did you … fall in love …?

Polish Death Camps Term in Obama Speech

Presumed innocent until proven guilty.  That’s what I think about the term Polish Concentration Camps used by President Obama in his speech commemorating and awarding a Polish WWII (World War Two) freedom fighter. 

This unfortunate phrase has a history almost as long as the Nazi camps in Poland.

In Poland?

What Learning to Speak American English and Muscle Memory Have in Common?

There are a number of ways to your desired American English language proficiency level.  First of all you should know and set up your highest priorities.  Depending on your goals you should take different routes to achieve them.

Do you know the phrase: practice makes perfect?

Long Weekends in the USA and Poland and the 5W Rule

Party time, dude!

Who doesn’t like to have fun, man?  Who does not like long weekends?  Whether you live in the United States of America or in Poland or in any other country in the whole wide World, for this matter, it doesn’t matter – “I just wanna have fun”.  Who ain’t?

Final Exams or the Finals and the Basic Financial Statements

The school/ academic year is almost over.  Only a few months are left till the end of the semester.  If you are like the proverbial most of us, you are not happy with your grades or you start getting “butterflies” in your stomach as soon as you start thinking about the next round of exams.

Now, so far into the school year, is there anything you can do to improve your grades in English?

TOEFL Tests Practical American English

How is TOEFL different from the European British English tests? 

In essence: the TOEFL tests your practical knowledge of American English the way it is used today in everyday situations in the US or as Americans would say it - “in America”.

Ms. Hillary Clinton’s Speech in Perfect American English at FEDR on Human Rights in the US and the World

Ladies and Gentlemen!

As the saying goes - it doesn’t get any better than this.

Ms. Hillary Clinton’s speeches are always a real treat and music for my ears.  They are always very well thought through, organized and timed.  Thanks to the US Secretary of States’ experience in dealing with foreigners in general and English as a Foreign Language or EFL speakers in particular, the First Lady of the US Foreign Affairs is especially sensitive to the issues of international and multicultural communications.

The Word Eve in American English

Do you know what the word eve means?  Have you speculated about it?  Did you check into it?

We all know about Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.  Some of us know that Halloween is the eve of All Saints’ Day.  But what does the word stand for exactly?  Does it carry the meaning “the day before” as it may imply?   Or maybe it denotes something else?

The Other Side of Tolerance in the USA - the N-Word

Slavery is one of the most controversial issues in the history of the United States.  It is still so emotionally charged that the word Niger or Nigger, which in its Latin origin simply means black, is not permitted to be used in mass media.

Hypocritically, however, it is used commonly and with pride among the black population or, as the politically correct term calls it, African Americans.

Spring Forward! Daylight Savings Time in the USA and Visualization in Learning American English as EFL

Twice a year we change the clock by one hour. The new, or the “Summer Time”, is called the Daylight Savings Time. The clock changes on the second Sunday of March and returns to Standard Time on the first Sunday in November. Why do we switch between ST and DST?

In 2011 Daylight Savings Time in the United States began on Sunday, March 13, 2011, and ended at 2:00 am on Sunday, November 6th, 2011. Clocks go ahead one hour in the spring and go back one hour in the fall.

TOEFL – American English Language Test

When you apply to a college in the USA, you need a proof that your American English is good enough.  You will be required to take TOEFL and submit the score.

TOEFL stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language.  This is practically the only exam you need to take to prove your efficiency in American English.  It is recognized world-wide.

American English versus School-ish

Schools are great!  I truly believe it.  There are also intrinsic school limitations specific to formal mass education.

It also applies to teaching and learning foreign languages.  The way I see it, the two most important confines are the lack of practical approach to contemporary issues and too much emphasis on grammar at the expense of vocabulary.  In other words schools teach the theory of the language instead of teaching the language itself.  Instead of having students speak the language, schools, as a rule, talk about it while the “learners” remain passive and unable to develop speech or simply use the language or just get to learn it for everyday practical conversations or "for real".

American English – First Changes from British English

Since the first British reached America in 1497, they came in contact with people who did not speak English.

The first successful English settlers arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 where they were greeted and treated by Virginia Indians who spoke Algonquian.  On the way to the New Continent, the travelers had stopped at Puerto Rico, where they dealt with Caribbean Spanish, which had already developed from its European mother tongue just the way American English would, with time branch off from British English.

Why Is American English Spelling So Complicated Complex Weird?

Simply speaking - because it has been influenced by so many different languages.

You probably know that another word used for English is Anglo-Saxon.  Did you know, though, that the “Anglos” and the “Saxons” were two out of three German(ic) tribes or people, which (or that or who) moved to Britain from current day Germany and Denmark?

 

The legend has it, and according to historians it’s not just a fairy-tale, that at first they were invited by the King to help the native Britons, who spoke Brittonic languages (modern Welsh), fight off the neighbors after the Romans had left.

American English Spelling vs. Pronunciation

Spelling versus (vs.) pronunciation or writing and reading.

Every language has rules, which, from the perspective of a foreign language student, make it easier to learn.  The principle followed here is association.  You know one thing, you see something else like it, you think it works in exactly the same or a similar way.  There is even an old English proverb for that. 
 “Like father like son”.  This truth is so universal that you can probably find an equivalent saying in most if not all languages.

American English or British English?

I came across this discussion on the headline subject.

Do Poles Prefer American English or British English

What does science have to say about it?  A lot!  A lot have been said, already, too.  Many Ph. D.’s have been done.  Much more research and many more doctoral dissertations will be done on the topic.  That’s for sure.

Why I Love American English?

Why I Love American English?  It’s simple - It Is Simple!  When you compare American English to British English, it’s just much more simple.  Yes, yes, yes: more simple not simpler – for all you English purists.

It’s not just the language, it’s the whole American set of mind and way of thinking that I got to love and admire.  For its pragmatism and down-to-earth approach to just about everything and anything including lavishness.  Yes, yes, yes – again!  Even wasting money, the American way, is done in an efficient, economical way.  But that’s a different story …