Anastasia: Let's start, the first one, the first question for you. What do you think about us Russian people speaking English?


Catherine: Well, I have been doing... we have been doing the speaking marathon now for quite a few months now since October and I am amazed at the level of English that everybody is using. You are doing so well, the pronunciation is very good, the grammar is very good the answers are excellent. I am truly amazed at the level, it is a high standard of English, so you should all be really proud of yourselves.


A: Oh, thank you! And what about the pronunciation? Of course we have some problems that are only Russian problems, sounds for example?


C: The pronunciation in general has been very very good. The important, I suppose, thing to remember with learning language English as a second language or any languages the second languages as long as you can get the message across that you want to portray and I've had absolutely no problem at all, I don't think, with anybody in understanding what the message is and the pronunciation… everybody has the pronunciation, everybody has an accent if it really has a regional accent you can't go to any part of the UK and not meet people with their own regional accent.


A: Well, they say, it's like about 50 different accents...


C: Yeah. A massive amount in Atlantic differences. There's a different one and we all speak very very differently because there are obviously some parts of the country they speak extremely fast, so the everything kind of blurs into one and in other parts of the country it's very very slow and drawn-out but still with a very heavy accent, so it doesn't mean because they're speaking slower you will understand them any better there is still a very heavy accent. So, I mean, literally that the whole of the UK is a jumbled up mess of accents and different pronunciations and nobody minds. It is actually what differentiates everybody from one another.


A: Yes


C: If we all sound the same it would be boring, but we know that if we go to from… I'm from Devon, so everybody speaks Devon. Sure, we have certain little different things that happen that you know we say you know dialect and you go to Cornwall again it's very heavy accent, very heavy regional accent and they speak a lot slower and that doesn't mean that you'll understand the meaning.


A: I see



C: And then the further north you go you've got Manchester you Liverpool everybody has a different way


A: But there is no such an accent that you can like make jokes about "I'm walk" a little bit?


C: Oh, you wouldn't do for risk! You avoid!


A: But there is this received pronunciation


C: Right


A: The Queen speaks. So, it is supposed to be the most sophisticated


C: The most sophisticated, yes, I mean the Queen's way of talking is supposed to be…..


A: And this new generation - the Prince and… well is he the Prince? William and Harry?


C: They're well, it's Prince William and it's Prince Harry but they've also got other titles as well


A: Do they speak this pronunciation? I don't remember now.


C: They do, they speak very much the Queen's English but that's the way they were brought up and a lot of people that have been educated in that type of system or brought up in that type...


A: It's very extensive schools, for example, there is Benedict Cumberbatch. They were brought up in these schools, so they speak very sophisticated,


C: Very precise very exact...


A: I don't know why but we Russian people like this when we hear it we think it's nice we would like to speak like this but I think it's not very possible because they have to be brought up in this.


C: I think the necessary it is to do with the education the area you live in and your social circle so the society that you're with because if you are all with friends who speak in a particular way very posh very high society then you end up you know having to actually if you don't you have to elevate your language to meet them but for the majority of us it is okay


A: Ok. It doesn't matter. But there are some Russian mistakes. Right? Because people are asking now I think as for me as a teacher some problems with verbs. Like "You are", sometimes we forget about the verb because we don't have it in Russian. That what I want to say "You are a teacher" we just say "You a teacher" So sometimes we forget about it. Right?


C: Yeah. Sometimes again in speech it's not the most important they would be very important though if you were writing so formally or in any kind of writing you would need to actually work on that but for example if you were to look at "You are" or now there's a leaning towards "your" so you combining the two together now. When I was at school we were not allowed to do that at all.


A: So you had to write ..


C: We had to write both there was no contracting any verbs or anything else we had to write everything formally. And when you write in a formal way you don't use "your" you don't contract the verbs or anything you have to write the normal formally properly. But now I mean the schools and everything even in the UK are leaning much to more to that system of "I'll" instead of "I will", "you're" instead of "you are" more convenient.


A: It's more convenient in speaking, in everyday life


C: It's more convenient there's a lot of kind of not arguing about it because I suppose it's not the biggest issue but I think for some people they prefer formal English especially if you're in business and we're working and everything else. It's more professional and I don't particularly like the "I'll", "you're", I prefer it separated


A: So, you say it like this?


C: Yeah,


A: Because it saves your time, That's why I'm asking.


C: I mean I suppose it's because of my education is we weren't allowed to if we did we got into trouble


A: So what kind of trouble by the way?


C: Well I was at a very strict school I had very strict kind of education went to Catholics. All of my teachers were actually nuns from all of Europe and the majority of them were from Ireland so they had very thick Irish accents which was hilarious because I was brought up in a family in Devon who spoke broad Devon sure and went to school where my teachers were Irish nuns and the teachers we were not allowed to speak with an accent. We had to speak formal we had that we were raised with this in Queen's English we had to speak in a certain way even though they couldn't


A: Don't do as I do, Do as I say.


C: Exactly, absolutely. So it was absolutely fascinating in now I suppose I look back on it now and I think oh my God how did it even happen with this I mean we were, we had a lot of European teachers in my school we've all came with their package of accents and pronunciations and every awesome I do not understand how we all ended up communicating, and actually myself and a lot of my friends left with no accent whatever so for example most people English people cannot tell from which part of the country I'm from. They haven't got a clue and when I say I'm from Devon, they say ooooh, they don't expect it at all.


A: So, what kind of trouble did you get in?


Well I suppose it wasn't too bad. We're very good on discipline but we would have if we were naughty or if we made mistakes we would have to write in our break times we weren't allowed to go on break we would have to stay by the board and write by the black board. We stand there and just write and write and write or we would have to stay after school and just write lines. So in if for example we have made a mistake in our writing and we'd use the verbs "you're", "I'll" etc. we would have to sit and write lines "I will" over and over and over again and it could be a hundred 200 times and we were only little so it was quite a big deal, yeah. I got into trouble I was a disruptive in class but I had friends who used to talk about some rebels period we have new memories and one of my teachers one of the nuns actually who I apps I loved her so much and I was devastated because I disappointed her apparently I had been disrupting the class because I've been talking too much to my friends so she said to me "Right, because she'd been doing this all week and you've disrupted my classes all week I'm going to disrupt your weekend!" and she made me go to school on Saturday and Sunday in usual school uniform just me and that's what I had to do.


A: So did you learn your lesson?


C: Oh yeah yeah


A: Then you started learning Greek right? It was a very different experience, tell me tell us how you learn Greek?


C: It's hilarious


A: But first we have to tell that you are married to a Cypriot man


C: Yeah, he's Greek, my husband is Greek Cypriot and we'd be married and goes well we've been together for 22 years so this year we've been married 19 years and when I first met him I could not say one single word in Greek I couldn't say hello good but nothing absolutely, fortunately he spoke very good English he's been to private Institute's from when he was little and he'd learnt very good English. So he was fine, we could communicate absolutely no problem but he is actually from a very small quite remote village in Cyprus and when I first went to the village nobody spoke any English and those that did speak English wouldn't say anything to me in English because they were embarrassed that they would make a mistake or something like that. All I wanted was somebody to say something good and so it was quite stressful and very frustrating because I had to rely on my husband to translate everything. The first long period of time I came to Cyprus I was here for three months once my first summer holidays when I was at University in the UK and I'd come to Cyprus for three months to be with Vernie and he was working all day and I could not find a job. So I was stuck in this tiny remote village with his family and the local people and there was a lot of interested me because I was obviously the only foreigner at that time in the village. I've never drunk so much coffee in my entire life and they would everybody would ring my mother-in-law and say "You must bring Catherine for coffee" so I would end up going maybe six or seven houses per day eating cheesecake every moment. Coffee coffee coffee coffee. It can be quite offended if you say no you don't want something, they can go for you okay so they were just putting all this food in front, so I was okay, I have to eat. It was that point when I made a decision I cannot carry on like this I have to be able to start somewhere and very very gradually with a lot of obviously a lot of people around me I had an awful lot of patience so I would ask them what is this and they would say you know the Greek word for cup or mug or fork or knife and plate and it normally started with kitchen utensils because that's what I was surrounded by all the time chairs tables this type of thing and then it progressed very very slowly to other things like how are you where are you going these types of things and then we watched on TV in the after news there was hardly in English programs or it was pretty useless but there were some Brazilian programs just awful so you're learning but they were all speaking in Spanish so I couldn't even understand that so but they had the greek subtitles at the bottom of the screen and I'd already started to recognize some letters from things like road signs and restaurant menus and things like that like small things but you actually begin to recognize some letters well when you are surrounded.


A: Yeah you can't get away from it


C: So that's it so I would start to identify certain words that were coming up on the screen and I would start to understand the gist of what was going on and who was having an affair with you and it was all the worst vocabulary you can possibly imagine, but it took a year and then because I was actually at the University in the UK I was make an effort when I was back in the UK to try and practice my Greek, so I would use things that will flashcards I found flashcards really really helpful flashcards and books with very simple words children's books.


A: Yes


C: The first thing I want obviously because if you don't know anything how does a child learn to speak their own language some rhymes and very very basic very extremely basic children's books and things like that and I would buy them and they always came with packs of stickers and I give myself a coaster noise. So when you came back to Cyprus I knew a lot more it's still to no degree could I communicate in fluently but I would say that summer by summer I improved and after I graduated University so I've been in Cyprus for year on and off because of uni and then when I moved over that between period of finishing University and finding a job meant again I was surrounded in this environment and actually I understood a lot more Greek then I realized in that time and also I understood that I could understand everything anybody was saying everything that is because I could speak only little kind of little bit but there was a period I think about 12 months later when and I'll never forget it my mother-in-law and her neighbor were gossiping and I actually kind of I was like but into their conversation and I gave my opinion but I gave it in Greek. They both looked at me in shock and I was like "what?" They asked: "Do you know what you just said?" I've confused myself completely and apparently it was almost like all the exposure to the language and the practicing simple simple simple things they're practicing listening to vocabulary listening to pronunciation it all kind of came together in one moment and it was from that moment that I thought okay I can do this I never ever felt embarrassed by speaking Greek even when I couldn't say anything I didn't have and I think that's the right attitude to go with.


A: So I want to talk to you about some advice you can give to in your English learners so I think it's the first one: not to be embarrassed.


C: Yeah, not to be embarrassed I mean at the end of the day if you put yourself I mean in general English people are dreadful with languages we in school we're giving the option we learn French we learn some German we can learn Spanish but in generally because we're not very good with languages I'm not quite sure what it is. You can speak English at school, learn French you know then they will speak English yes it really is quite a rude attitude to have just to go to another country and expect everybody to be able to communicate with you but we are not good with languages in the UK obviously it depends on the schools you go to and the amount of exposure you have to certain languages but for me personally no I was at a very good school I can't remember a thing I remember my first trip to France and I was with a big group of friends from different schools different backgrounds we went for a couple of days to France and I was the only person we were very hungry so we went to a restaurant and French people don't want to speak English to us. Because I was the only person that could say like Bonjour and everything everybody was really hungry but because we can order any food because nobody could speak any French the only thing I could remember from my French lessons was pom do free. That's why you need languages that's my heavier food. You see basic language, we literally have done chips three days because nobody else speak


A: Okay, so don't be embarrassed what else?


С: Yeah don't be embarrassed don't worry too much about your pronunciation honestly because like I said the regional we have so many regional accents in the UK everybody has their own take on different method they speak English so don't worry about it. Relax into it and I myself I have been speaking Greek now for 19 years and I can honestly say I make mistakes on a daily basis it gives people quite a lot to laugh about but I really don't care.


A: Still you can communicate


C: Can communicate and it's not about making the language perfect because it isn't perfect it's not about that it's not going with the attitude that you have to say everything in such a way and it has to be perfect and the grammar and so on and so forth the whole idea is that you communicate what you what to say. Don't worry about them don't worry about mistakes and go with a good sense of humor yeah


A: Yeah be able to laugh at yourself we need to make mistakes that's always needed. In real life maybe not even English quality to be able to love yeah. Okay and yes let me check if I have any interesting questions here. What do you think about Russian language by the way when you listen to me speaking?


C: I don't understand a thing you're saying. I've got da


A: Yeah that's it how does it sound. You know I watched an interview with Mila Kunis. It's cleaner on this huge made-up language


C: Most I think if you listen to any language which you are completely unfamiliar with so for example Russian, Chinese, Japanese what are they saying and I think it's relayed back to us as well but I mean I think it's just the given isn't it?


A: It sounds something completely different that's true, it sounds nice


C: It sounds lovely, yeah, and I love the way the French accent is why you love the French language but you don't know it. It sounds very nice


A: Okay, what about Kate Middleton's accent? What do you think? What do British people think about Kate Middleton and all these new girls, they're not from a royal family


C: So it's a gosh the whole royal family is a very strange setup I mean I love all the history of the royal family so I love the Tudors and all those periods from years ago and I've done a lot of reading about it and I love that part of history. It's strange it is almost the younger people of the younger Royals are very much more in tune with normal people meaning they are more done modern but because they've had to be moved. It's not a case of being royal and being quite guarded they're much more open and that I think has changed a lot the Queen has never changed her ways. She's still very guarded it's very kind of you know put back but her grandchildren and her granddaughters are very much more open free-spirited wanting to break with tradition wanting to have a more I suppose almost like in non-royal life you know being able to be with people being able to communicate and people that you know people need to have they're there if you know they're role models or people that they respect they need to be able to connect with them and for a very long time there was not that conversion


A: So we can say, that this new girls not from royal family represent this new generation?


C: They represent the new generation and they represent the changing attitude of the Royals as well and I think it's great because we've got Kate Middleton she went to the same university as Prince William and they met and they fell in love and everything else. She's very highly educated she comes from a fantastic family that have a great background and then now we have Larry with Megan she's an American that she's an American actress she's seems fantastic I think she's great. I think she's gonna be absolutely fantastic for the country well and I love the fact because he is a very open generous person and I like their relationship probably more than Kate and William's


A: We will not tell them. Do you use another accent and some situations for example do you change your accent when you speak to the Queen?


C: I never had the opportunity to speak to Queen.


A: May be here in Cyprus you make it simpler?


C: Yes, I think in some ways, for example in a teaching environment and with various age groops you have to slow everything down and simplify everything. Now for an English native speaker that's quite difficult because when you're used to just speak in a certain way you're speaking to people over from a different country it's you have to make the conscious effort to slow everything down and simplify everything so I work with very little little children and we do story times but even simple stories that we do with young children we simplify that even more. They actually love it they may appreciate of course and I think it depends on the situation and I think you have to take things on an individual basis so if you know that you're speaking to your Russian friend who is very good English speaker you don't have to be so conscious and make the effort to slow things down.


A: And what about any like American accent? Australian?


C: Oh I can't do this.


A: Okay sorry guys. Let me find some questions. Someone is asking is this Royal English? Yes of courseб Can't you see it you can see it from the very appearance.
Where is she from?
She is from Devon.
Please, say something in Greek.
...
Oh nice! I can understand, that you invited everyone to the speaking Marathon which starts in April like in a week – so hurry up guys

Advice is excellent please, tell this to my professors at the University - they want us to speak good Royal English in Russia.

Yeah I think it's the wrong angle. You know they focus on very wrong things. They don't teach to speak they teach to be scared of speaking.
Home task… Home task means something you do around the house right? It's not from school. Homework is from school


C: Homework is from school, yes.


A: And home task?


C: I am not sure.


A: Because I saw it in the dictionary, Yes something about housework just work. But I don't think it's used. They just asked me about it and they had to check it.


C: We use them housework all chores children chores is even a more it's a much more American words for housework so they use chores and in the UK we use housework


A: That's very difficult thing for me to understand by the way American and British ones. How do you use them? You don't use them at all


C: There are some Americanisms, that slip in to the English language more. For example we've always had the word "Awesome" in the English dictionary meaning fantastic great but it's not something that was very common in speech. We wouldn't go around going that's great it's awesome and once what we would just know that's great fantastic brilliant you know. I think with things like… much more you know like we have a lot more American TV programs TV shows and reality TV where everything is awesome and it slipped into a lot of the vocabulary that we use in so now we're sort of using brilliant grades were all going awesome


A: Yeah, I heard this, you know Emily Blunt?


C: Yes


A: She's the Mary Poppins now. She told some American TV show about the difference in saying "You are good" and she says in Britain we say "You are great" so when you say "You are good" it means that someone didn't like what he did. And she said when I came to America people coming to me and telling me "You were good", "You were good", "It was so good" and she said "I was so depressed because I saw that they said they did not like my play or movie" because she was waiting for "You were great".

Good is actually an average mutual word. She was disappointed. Yeah an American people came to say she was good.

A: Okay, lovely story, okay very interesting about the royal family. Thank you thank you. Okay there are no more questions. Tell me if you have any more questions. Okay so everyone is like everything. And I have a question about grammar. We have to talk about it anyway so there are some tenses that you use more often than the others for example sometimes we learn for three or four months we learn Future in the past and this Past Perfect something else so tell me about tenses which are more popular and which are the basic well for the students for the English learners. Which are the basic tenses you have to use to communicate on a basic level.


C: Okay so for example the essential tenses really… When I was at school grammar was very restricted to the past tense the perfect tense and the future tense. There was no grammar has because I'm completely different is it's taken on a life of its own there is so much more involved and in school in the UK I remember probably finishing grammar when I was about 10 years old. It was very basic it was covered very very basically because of the fact that if you learn if you can speak the language fluently you don't have to identify so much with Oh am I saying this in the past tense am I saying this in the future. So, I would say the most important ones to work on are the past tense the perfect tense and the future. I wouldn't worry too much about other things. The other thing that I do notice is there is always a problem for non-native English speakers with prepositions.


A: Yes, positions. There is no logic, only rule


C: Unfortunately, you just have to learn, do lots of practice and again I would say you don't have to make preposition work difficult. Use the simplest types of prepositions - at on under and keep it very simple.


A: Some stories. If you watch a lot of TV shows the example. You can't just pick it up you have to learn yet write something because some of the prepositions they just burn into your brain.


C; Yeah, songs are always good very good lyrics. There is a lot of grammar songs actually which are used for schools which are actually online and one of them which covers the three tenses I was talking about is called "The rock song". It's made to rock-and-roll music in a way but it's very simple it's very useful. And again it simplifies everything.


A: And you can also use their songs from modern singers and dancers, not made for English-learners.


C: You have to be very careful now. The songs because are very crazy.


A: Yeah, very strange lyrics sometimes. I think, well it's for me, I think if you like it you will listen to it a lot and you will learn it by heart. There are some nice very very nice English songs made for English learners. Okay, what do you mean when you say speak fluently by the way. You said if you speak fluently you don't need to focus on grammar so much.


C: Yes, I mean as a native speaker we don't focus on the grammar because it's almost natural it's the same way you speak Russian as a native. You don't consciously think anymore about the language. For example with Greek I know nothing about the correct tenses or the math we don't have a masculine and feminine either in the UK. I don't understand it in Greek, I don't understand the point.


A: And it's their problem now


C: Oh yeah because I'm like "Can you speak English? Ok than"


A: Okay, someone is asking how is it better to watch movies and TV shows with subtitles or not? You told us the story of how you learn from subtitle in Greek.


C: I would try and watch American or English movies without subtitles. It is not necessary to understand the entire movie, just understand the main idea. Even if you start off doing that type of thing for the first time you could possibly read like a review or something or the main plot of your movie that gives you a little bit of an idea beforehand. So that when you actually see the movie you can see how it's coming how it comes together.


A: And you can also watch a movie that made from a book.


C: Absolutely! I love reading so I read a lot of books and I always read the books before I see the movies. Movies are always really good entertainment but they are normally disappointing after reading the book. I mean you can compare you have like your classic English movies which are from like the classic books.


A: Ok. Tell us about most liked movies


C: Oh my goodness


A: Which TV shows what do you always watch like a tradition because we have a tradition. There is a movie in Russia that all Russian people watch before New Year's Eve. It's one particular movie and everyone knows it by heart and everyone loves it. May be one or two movies so what do you always watch?


C: In the UK so every Christmas without an adult. Nobody annoys, everybody watch it: "home alone"


A: But it's an American one


C: That's an American unique "Home alone" for sure one of them. Something to do with "Miracle on 42nd Street" which is again is another American movie.


A: What about Love Actually?


C: Love Actually… and then of course Valentine's Day. And we have a lot of very popular classic but with a modern twist kind of program movie now.


A: There are a lot of Agatha Christie's TV shows


C: Yeah she's very very popular. There are some great ones but the classic on anytime in the UK. Any time of the day if you wanted to sit down and watch TV you were guaranteeing to see a series of "Friends" without a doubt. It says if you can't find anything else on TV to watch you are guaranteed that you will always see an episode of "Friends".


A: Okay I'm smiling and happy because I understand everything every single word you are speaking. Good for you.

Someone is writing that she has been learning English since five years old and she had a good tutor and she got an English teacher education and now she is studying to become a translator but still she has this accent like Russian accent. As I understand can you work on it while you are still in Russia or do you have to come to Britain to get rid of the accent?


C: Oh well I think it's as much exposure to the English language is the best thing but again it's not the most important thing. I think it's nice when people have the individual their individuality their accents and so on. Again it doesn't mean because you're going to be in the UK that you're going to learn the language any easier I mean look at the cities. If you were in London, for example, you are surrounded by a completely international community with hundreds of different languages and hundreds of different accents. So it's not necessarily the most important thing to be in that country to get rid of your accent. I speak Greek but people know that I am English. I've been here for 22 years it's not going to go away anytime soon. It's there it's with you so you kind of have to just embrace it and go a little bit and don't feel embarrassed.


A: But if you want to work on your accent of course you have to find a pronunciation coach. It is a procedure making sounds because it's not about the level it's about how you put your mouth in different positions. Okay, what is your favorite book?


C: Oh goodness. Well, it depends what kind of mood I'm in. I love books written by an author called Philippa Gregory. She writes a lot of books on the history of the Tudors, so all the like very old Royals and everything else. She's a historian and the journalist and she's absolutely incredible and her books are very very good.


A: What is the name again?


C: Philippa Gregory. I would really recommend her books if you were interested in history. There's quite a lot of drama obviously. A lot of what she writes is based on true facts because it's obviously our history. She has written her books in a way that it's not a history lesson it is a novel like historical fiction and they are fantastic. She has lot of different series they're very very popular they're very very good.


A: Okay, so do you read some Russian book and authors?


C: No


A: Russian books? Dostoevsky? Tolstoy? Shame on you! How could you? You should try, of course in translation in original it will be very difficult. How to learn the right word order in a sentence and very difficult constructions like inversion and something else. How can you learn this?


C: Oh dear. Well putting sentences together… I don't know really.


A: I think nobody knows


C: I don't think anybody knows. I think the main problem with any sentence structure is your linking words and your prepositions. I think that is the main thing you know what you want to say you know the vocabulary that you want to want to use but you don't know how to connect it together.


A: Which one goes first


C: I really believe that in order to really improve your use of English language and English grammar it's very important to read English books. I think if you have a good author, good writers it can affect your English in a completely different way. it's a very beautiful language but I don't think anybody can really appreciate it if they don't read. I think it's very important you start at a very easy level and just work your way up. You could even read traditional books like Jane Eyre, for example.


A: Yeah, I think it's very difficult language. Jane Austen she has such long sentence, so you get lost


C: They do have a series which are made for much younger people. So for example I bought those books for my children and they've simplified the the Old English, old-fashioned English's you know. They've simplified it down into proper everyday English but it's fantastic stories and they're very good. I think there's another author. She's a big author in the UK, which is Enid Blyton. Now she writes books for the young people from probably the age of 12 upwards but again her stories… She's a very good writer so the stories are very simple but the language used is very good.


A: I always say this to them you can always start with Harry Poter. So, it's a good idea.


C: Well I I think she's amazing, yeah I mean her imagination is incredible. And also she has a new series which are fantastic.


A: Okay, what is your hobby someone asks you.


C: About my hobbies… Well I don't actually have much time for hobbies anymore I have three children and I'm very busy with them but I do like to paint so I've been working on a project recently for my children's school and I have created a huge tree in four seasons in the literal sense because we don't really have four seasons in Cyprus. So it is a tree in four seasons in the literal sense and that went up last week it's three meters high three meters wide.


A: On your own?


C: Yes, I like to do things like that I have more work to do to add to it but I do I've always like painting and I love the theatre. I love the cinema I love books. I suppose I'm a little bit Artie person.


A: You are creative. The last author you told us about Bly's something


C: Enid Blyton. There are actually books for younger teenagers but she's a very good writer so the quality of writing is very very good and I think when you're learning and you want to improve your vocabulary , the correct formation of sentences and everything it's very good to start with these much simple books.


A: The Hunger Games


C: I read The Hunger Games in three days


A: I listen to the audiobooks, I couldn't stop. I was working I had my private lessons and I had to go from house to house and I had this book and I was going around the house not to stop listening to it. They are fantastic.


C: Yeah, you have got Hunger Games, you've got the Harry Potter's, you've also got the Allegiant series as well. Have you ever heard of that?



A: No


C: They made them into movies as well and they are very good books I don't know who the author is. I think it's three books in the series and it starts off with Allegiant. Very good book


A: I'm not sure how to spell it


C: A-l-l-e-g-i-a-n-t. It is like Divergent


A: Divergence, yeah, I like the actress.


She's it's excellent and there's a lot of those kind of books for young people.


A: I think you can google and find it. Enid Blyton. We will write all this names and titles. How to learn words and make sentences of them?


C: How to learn words so…


A: Difficult question for a teacher


C: I think, for example, you were trying to prepare something. So, for example, at the moment I'm working with a Greek student who is applying for jobs. She has very good English but she is very very shy and she has no confidence whatsoever and when she is trying to put a sentence together her nerves get in the way about and that's when she struggles. So I think a lot of it is about if you know that you're going into a particular situation because obviously if you don't know that you're going to end up speaking English it's very difficult to prepare if you are going into a certain situation where you need to be able to communicate in a certain amount of English then preparation is vital. It is very important if you were going for an interview that you practice questions and answers in English. I mean you would be able to answer then those types of questions based on your own personal background. So preparation… Find the words that you need and then link them together trying create sentences from them. But the first thing that is most important is finding the main vocabulary words that you need to create that sentence and then from that you can create your sentences. So preparation is everything. The more the better and it's all about preparation. Okay if you're going into a situation where you don't know that you're going to be speaking English then you have to explain your words.


A: Okay, normal questions that's all. Did I ask everything? Okay, everyone is saying thank you, and see you on speaking marathon and come again. Thank you very much for everything you are doing. Thank you thank you. Let's say goodbye

Bye bye

See you, see you next time, I think we will do it again. Bye