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.

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 …?

How Does the Sell in May and Go Away Principle Work in American English Learning?

There is a saying in the US financial markets world.  It goes like this.  Sell in May and go away! 

Now, with the end of the school/ academic year approaching one could use the same principle in foreign language learning.  Unless it is the subject of your elementary, middle or high school or under-graduate, graduate or post-graduate studies, of course.  Then you may want to drop everything else and concentrate on your language studies.

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?

How to Cram for Midterms Learning American English

Let’s start with this.  Cramming or learning a lot in a very short time to pass a test or an exam is for some students a way of learning not just a catch up technique.  The word cram itself usually has a negative connotation.  It’s associated with not doing homework on time and consequently being forced to work extra hard at the last minute just to stay in the game.  It’s not necessarily so. 

Some people simply have good short memory and no intention to retain the information needed for this particular test or exam.  They simply do not want to waste the long memory and intuitively choose the most efficient and the most energy effective learning method not to fail but to pass and to get a “good enough” grade. 

Studying American English for TOEFL- Natural Born Learners or Motivation

Either you are natural(ly) good with languages or you need to work really, really hard to make any progress it doesn’t really matter.  Either way you can achieve your goal.  The real question here is how you will approach the English language learning process, how much time you will spend preparing yourself and most importantly if you have the motivation or if you have the internal drive to achieve your goal. 

Why are you learning English?  Do you really, and I mean YOU, not somebody else like your parents or other significant others, do you really want to learn English?  Do you know why and how much you will benefit from knowing the English language? 

Tolerance Traditions in the USA – DADT Policy in the US Military

One of the great American traditions is tolerance.  According to the Encarta Dictionary of English (North America) the word has 6 (six) meanings.  The one I mean here is "the acceptance of views other than ours and recognizing other people’s right to have different beliefs or practices without attempting to suppress them".

Throughout the country’s history, which, by the way, is quite short in global terms, the perception of tolerance has also changed.  Being a country that started as a result of a revolution the American set of mind is naturally “born to be free”, “born to be wild”.

One of the most recent example is the DADT policy.  A link to President Obama’s speech on the issue at the Human Rights Campaign (HRS) on Saturday, October 1^st, 2011 is not enclosed here but is listed below.

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.

Columbus Day Sales

What originated as a holiday commemorating the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus has turned into a “get a deal” weekend.

Most holidays in the USA are floating holidays.  They are observed on a specific weekday as opposed to a fixed date.  Even though officially Columbus Day falls on October 12^th, it is celebrated on the
second Monday of the month, regardless of the date.  Many other US holidays are set up in a similar manner.

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.

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 …