[Easy English Blog] Speech contest

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silver colored microphone

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A few weeks ago, I was asked to judge a speech contest. I judge the contest every year. The participants are elementary and junior high school students. I am always impressed with their English skills. It seems like they improve year by year.

When I started judging the contest 12 years ago, I struggled to understand some of the participants. Now, I understand everyone. Their pronunciation, rhythm and intonation are all very good.

Good English skills are important, but communication skills are also important when giving a speech. What do you want to tell the audience? How are you going to communicate that? How are you going to show emotion? Some students use gestures. A few meaningful gestures are fine, but too many is not good. When using gestures, it is important to think “Why am I using this gesture?” “What will this gesture communicate?” “Does this gesture add anything to my story?”

Some students used gestures very well. They didn’t use too many, and only used meaningful gestures. Some of them were great communicators. I left feeling very impressed.

Jump to conclusions

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Do you know the English expression “to jump to conclusions“? Read the conversation below. Can you guess the meaning?

Sally: Ben has been telling everyone that Kevin has quit his job.

Lisa: Ben is always jumping to conclusions. Kevin is just taking a few weeks’ vacation. He’ll be back next month.

Does it mean:

a) gossip

b) make a judgement before considering the facts

c) make a judgement after considering the facts

d) finish talking about something

The answer is below! ↓

grayscale photo of curtain glass wall building

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Answer: b) make a judgement before considering the facts

[Easy English Blog] Summer

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aerial view of seashore near large grey rocks

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It is nearly summer in New Zealand, so in this post, Patricia talks about summer.

If you think of summer – what comes into your mind? I think everyone thinks about vacations when they think about summer. I know I do. Of course when I was a student, summer was also the time when I could work at two or three jobs to save enough money for the next year – so I guess I have those memories too. Hard work and long days but feeling happy because I was saving money.

The meaning of summer also depends on what part of the world you live in – for many of us, summer also means Christmas and New Year.

Maybe the strongest memories we have, are about celebrations and festivals. So you might think about cherry blossom viewing or Chinese New Year or Easter, when you think about the seasons.

How about spring? Or winter? Or autumn?  What do these seasons mean to you?

By Patricia @ I Talk You Talk Press

[Short Story] Some Mistakes are Lucky

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man standing beside train

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Samuel ran towards the train station. He was hot and tired and felt very bad. I don’t want to miss my train. I want to go home and change my clothes and have a beer.

He looked at his watch. Two minutes before the train leaves. Can I make it in time?

He ran into the train station and looked at the departures board. Platform 7. He ran towards the stairs with the sign ‘Platforms 6 and 7’. At the top of the stairs he ran to the left. There was a train with open doors. He ran onto the train and found a seat.

He closed his eyes and thought about his day. Samuel had come into the city for a job interview. The interview had been very bad. He couldn’t answer the questions. He made mistakes. He knew he would not get the job.

I knew all the answers, but I was so nervous. It is six months since my uncle’s restaurant closed. I have almost no money. I must find a job soon.

 Samuel was very worried, but he was also very tired. He fell asleep.

“Ticket please!” The train conductor was shaking him. Samuel found his ticket and gave it to the train conductor. “This is a ticket for Trenton. This train is going to Bywater.”

“Oh, I got on the wrong train. I must get off at the next station.”

“This is an express train. It doesn’t stop until it gets to Bywater. When we get to Bywater, you must go to the ticket office and pay for this train trip. Then you must buy another ticket back to the city.”

The train conductor went away. What can I do? thought Samuel. I don’t have enough money to pay for the extra tickets.

 “Are you in trouble?” said a voice behind Samuel. Samuel turned around. A woman in the row behind him was talking to him.

“Are you in trouble?” the woman asked again.

Samuel was very shy and didn’t talk to people very much, but he was very tired and he felt very bad.

“I went to the city for a job interview today. When I got back to the station I caught the wrong train. Now I have no money to pay for the tickets. I don’t know what to do!”

The woman smiled. She was an older woman. Her clothes were very smart. Her face was kind. Samuel thought she looked like his grandmother. “It is easy to catch the wrong train. Was the job interview good?”

“No. It was very bad. I wanted the job very much. I was too nervous. I couldn’t talk well. I made mistakes.”

“You have to talk well for some jobs. It is very important if you want a job in a shop or at a TV station,” she said. “What kind of job do you want?”

“I am a chef. I trained for many years. My uncle had a restaurant. I worked in my uncle’s restaurant. My uncle said the restaurant would be mine when he retired. But he died and there was no money. The restaurant closed.”

“Where was the restaurant?” asked the woman.

“It was in Trenton. It was a fish restaurant.”

“Was it Seaways?”

“Yes.”

“I knew that restaurant. I knew your uncle. He was very good with food, but maybe he did not know about money.”

The woman asked Samuel many questions about fish and cooking. Samuel could answer all the questions because it was not a job interview, and the woman looked like his grandmother.

Then the woman said, “Do you want to live in the city?”

“No,” said Samuel. “I like small places better, but I must get a job.”

“I will pay for your train ticket,” said the woman.

“No!” said Samuel. “You cannot pay for my mistake!”

“Yes, I can. My husband opened two restaurants in Bywater. He was a very good chef, but a very bad talker. He died. Now I have no chef. I need a chef. I think you will be my new chef. Tonight you will stay at my house in Bywater. Tomorrow we will go to the restaurants. Your mistake is lucky for me.”

My mistake is lucky for me! thought Samuel.

[Easy English Blog]Birds

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flock of birds above a mountain

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Every morning, around sunrise, I hear the birds start to sing in our garden.

Many different kinds of birds come to our garden. Of course we see sparrows, thrushes and blackbirds. You can see these birds in many countries.

But we also have different bird visitors. These birds visit our garden when there are good things for them to eat.  Outside our front door is a tree that has small black berries at some times of the year. Riroriro like these berries. Riroriro are very, very small birds, and they are hard to see, but I can hear them singing.

Other bigger birds come to the garden as well. We have kowhai trees in our garden and when the kowhai trees have flowers, we have many tuis flying about. I can hear them now. They are very cheeky, noisy birds.

Bigger birds come to our garden in summer. They are kereru. These birds always make me laugh. They do not fly well and they fly close to the ground. They are often fat. We can hear the sound of their wings but they do not sing.  They like the fruit of the kawakawa trees, but sometimes they eat so much, they fall off the trees and have to sit on the ground! They are not very smart birds but I like them!

By Patricia @ I Talk You Talk Press

By the skin of (one’s) teeth

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Do you know the English expression “by the skin of (one’s) teeth“? Read the conversation below. Can you guess the meaning?

Russell: How did you get on in your English exam?

Toshi: I passed by the skin of my teeth. I was lucky!

Does it mean:

a) by a narrow margin

b) by a wide margin

c) have skin on one’s teeth

d) do something well when you have toothache

The answer is below!↓

nature summer yellow animal

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Answer: a) by a narrow margin

[Short Story] The Elephant

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wildlife photography of elephant during golden hour

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It was Friday afternoon and Mrs Watkins was tired. It was a hot day and her feet hurt. I like teaching children, she thought. But maybe I am too old for this. I don’t have so much energy.

The children in Mrs Watkin’s class were six years old. There were thirty children in the class. Mostly they were very good students. But that Friday, Mrs Watkins had problems. On Fridays the children had an art class.

There was no green paint in the store cupboard. Mrs Watkins did not know why. Maybe another teacher borrowed it. All the children asked for green paint. They wanted to paint pictures of trees and frogs and crocodiles.

Melanie spilt paint over Andrew’s painting. Andrew shouted and Melanie cried.

Micky painted his friend Pete’s face red. The two boys thought it was very funny. Mrs Watkins did not think it was funny because it took her a long time to clean Pete’s face.

After a while, Mrs Watkins decided to end the art class. “We are stopping now,” she said. “We will clean the classroom and then we will have quiet reading time.”

The children sat down with their reading books. Peace at last, thought Mrs Watkins.

Then Sandra started crying and shouting. “I feel sick! I have a pain.”

“I’ll take you to the school nurse,” said Mrs Watkins. “Everyone be quiet and read while I am gone.”

Mrs Watkins took Sandra to the school nurse and hurried back to her classroom. She could hear the children shouting. She was very angry. She opened the door. All the children were standing at the windows laughing and shouting.

“Sit down!” she said loudly. “Sit down now. I told you to read quietly.”

“But Mrs Watkins! Mrs Watkins!” The children were very excited.

“No! I am not going to listen to you. Sit down now!”

The children went back to their seats. Then Micky raised his hand. “What do you want Micky?” asked Mrs Watkins.

“There’s an elephant in the playground.”

“Don’t be so silly” said Mrs Watkins. “There is not an elephant in the playground.”

“Yes there is! There is!” shouted the children.

“Stop this now!” Mrs Watkins went across to the windows. I’ll close the curtains, she thought. That will calm the children down.

She stopped and stared. There was a very large elephant eating leaves from a tree in the playground.

Am I going mad? she thought. No, I’m not. The children can see it too.

Mrs Watkins felt bad. “Children. Come to the windows,” she said. “We can look at the elephant.”

As the children and Mrs Watkins watched the elephant, a large truck came into the playground. It was painted red and yellow. On the side of the truck, was written ‘Marvelo’s Circus.’

Men jumped out of the truck and ran towards the elephant. Very soon the elephant was walking towards the truck.

Mrs Watkins turned to the children. “Well that was exciting, wasn’t it? Now go back to your seats, please.”

She stopped. “Where is Micky?”

She found Micky in the store cupboard. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“I am looking for grey paint. Next art class we will all want to paint a picture of the elephant.”

Not sleep a wink

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Do you know the English expression “to not sleep a wink“? Read the conversation below. Can you guess the meaning?

Tina: Are you OK John? You look tired.

John: My neighbours had a party last night. It was so noisy I didn’t sleep a wink.

Does it mean:

a) not close your eyes

b) not wink at people

c) go to bed

d) not sleep at all

The answer is below!↓

man person cute young

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Answer: d) not sleep at all