{"id":230,"date":"2024-01-04T12:10:49","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T03:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/?p=230"},"modified":"2024-02-25T17:12:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T08:12:21","slug":"english-tea-time-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/04\/english-tea-time-1\/","title":{"rendered":"English Tea Time #1 &#8211; Storms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to the very first issue of English Tea Time! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this regular newsletter, I sit down with a nice cup of milk tea and tell you about my recent worksheets, video lessons and social media posts. I also share study tips, cultural insights, and try to motivate you to keep working on your British English!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Site News<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The biggest news is that I <a href=\"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/02\/starting-a-blog\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1\">started this blog<\/a>, but I&#8217;ve also made two worksheets, both with videos on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/nicksenglish\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/nicksenglish\">YouTube<\/a> and posts on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nicksenglish\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nicksenglish\/\">Instagram<\/a>. Please take a look!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>True Story &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/courses\/true_stories\/the_spanish_town_that_celebrates_new_years_eve_in_august\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/courses\/true_stories\/the_spanish_town_that_celebrates_new_years_eve_in_august\">The Spanish town that celebrates New Year&#8217;s Eve in August<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>True Story &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/courses\/true_stories\/europes_largest_lost_and_found_warehouse\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/courses\/true_stories\/europes_largest_lost_and_found_warehouse\">Europe&#8217;s largest &#8216;lost and found&#8217; warehouse<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Nick&#8217;s News<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Here in Japan, disaster struck on New Year&#8217;s Day when a huge earthquake rattled (shook) central Japan. I live in Gifu, which is about 300km from the epicenter (center of the earthquake) on the Noto Peninsula. My wooden house shook for two minutes, which was the longest quake I&#8217;ve ever experienced. I hid under my desk. What would you do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">British Culture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Surprisingly, the UK does get earthquakes, but almost all of them are too small to be felt. We do get plenty of bad weather, though. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/av\/uk-67868616\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/av\/uk-67868616\">Storm Henk<\/a> has been battering (hitting repeatedly) Britain recently. The wind is so strong that my mum is worried that her bedroom windows will smash!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">British English<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of the weather, here are two very British weather phrases:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>&#8220;It&#8217;s chucking it down&#8221;<\/strong> which means &#8216;pouring down&#8217; or &#8216;raining heavily&#8217;.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<strong>A bit nippy, isn&#8217;t it?<\/strong>&#8221; which means &#8216;it&#8217;s a bit cold&#8217;. We sometimes use this sarcastically (jokingly) when it&#8217;s actually really, really cold!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Study Tip<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>From the story about Europe&#8217;s largest lost property office, I&#8217;ve picked out the phrase, &#8220;Rolex watches and bags of cash.&#8221; Notice how we stress the important words, <strong>Rolex<\/strong> <strong>watches<\/strong>, <strong>bags<\/strong> and <strong>cash<\/strong>, and reduce the words <em>and<\/em> and <em>of<\/em>. Also, practice linking them for better speaking fluency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4.png?resize=1080%2C1080&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4.png?w=1080&amp;ssl=1 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Motivation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Since it&#8217;s a new year, it&#8217;s customary to set a New Year&#8217;s resolution (promise), something you will do this year for self-improvement. Perhaps you want to improve your English, or maybe you want to lose weight or quit smoking. Whatever you choose, I recommend you set yourself small, achievable goals. As you complete each mini-goal, you&#8217;ll find yourself getting closer to the bigger one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, my New Year&#8217;s resolution is to do the splits(!), you know, sitting on the floor with one leg forwards and one leg backwards. That&#8217;s very difficult for a nearly 50 year old man! But I will accomplish it by going just a little lower each week. There&#8217;s no rush. Baby steps. And hey, if I can do the splits, I know you can achieve <em>your<\/em> goal! \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you for joining me for tea! If you&#8217;re enjoying my blog, please share <a href=\"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\">the link<\/a> with your friends. I really appreciate it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All the best,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to the very first issue of English Tea Time! In this regular newsletter, I sit down with a nice cup of milk tea and tell you about my recent worksheets, video lessons and social media posts. I also share study tips, cultural insights, and try to motivate you to keep [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[15,14,16],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter","tag-earthquake","tag-newsletter","tag-weather"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Nicks-English-Tea.png?fit=960%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":308,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}