{"id":257,"date":"2024-01-15T14:38:34","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T05:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/?p=257"},"modified":"2024-02-25T17:10:32","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T08:10:32","slug":"english-tea-time-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/15\/english-tea-time-3\/","title":{"rendered":"English Tea Time #3 &#8211; Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hello there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this regular newsletter, I sit down with a cup of 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 English fluency! <a href=\"#subscribe-blog\">Subscribe<\/a> to get this newsletter in your email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Site News<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the last newsletter, I&#8217;ve made two new lesson worksheets and one YouTube video:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>True Story &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/courses\/true_stories\/indian_village_plants_111_trees_for_every_girl_born\">Indian village plants 111 trees for every girl born<\/a> (with YouTube video)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>News &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/news\/2024_01_11_tourist_trap_the_price_of_food_in_niseko\">Tourist trap? The price of food in Niseko<\/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>I&#8217;m feeling particularly (= especially) upbeat (= happy) at the moment. I think about YouTube a lot and am really happy to see my recent videos on &#8220;Fluent English Reading&#8221; getting more views than the ones I was making before. This means that there is a real interest in this kind of lesson, and it&#8217;s something I enjoy teaching. I&#8217;m looking forward to doing more with the &#8220;fluency&#8221; theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the subject of YouTube, my wife has started her own channel. It&#8217;s been fun talking about YouTube with her. You can check out her channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@RsEnglishStudio\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>on the subject of <\/strong>= &#8220;Speaking of&#8221;. This is a common phrase to use when you want to change the topic. You can do it smoothly by picking something from a conversation and using it to talk about something else.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">British Culture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>With the Israel-Gaza war continuing, it&#8217;s heartening to see British people marching in the streets of London, trying to bring peace to the Middle-East. Last weekend, 300,000 people gathered in the capital to protest the war. Public demonstrations like this are common in the UK. The biggest ever was the &#8220;Stop the War&#8221; protest in 2003. Around one million people took part in that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, I&#8217;ve never seen or even heard of a large protest during my time in Japan. The people here really like to keep to themselves. Case in point (= to prove my point), last weekend, only 1,600 people gathered in Tokyo to protest Israel&#8217;s actions in Gaza. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">British English<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are some common English phrases used to mean &#8220;make peace&#8221;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Bury the hatchet<\/strong> (= put aside the bad feelings and disagreements)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Extend an olive branch<\/strong> (= make an offer to end fighting)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mend fences<\/strong> (= repair a relationship)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Kiss and make up<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Clear the air<\/strong><\/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>Here are two fluency slides (from Instagram) based on the story of the Indian village that plants 111 trees for every girl born. Notice how we use contrastive stress to highlight two big differences. See also how we use rising intonation in a list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"260\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4-2.png?resize=1024%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4-2.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4-2.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4-2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4-2.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/4-2.png?w=1080&amp;ssl=1 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"259\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/5-1.png?resize=1024%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/5-1.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/5-1.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/5-1.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/5-1.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/5-1.png?w=1080&amp;ssl=1 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/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>I think it&#8217;s important to remember that 80% of daily English communication is done with just 1,000 ~ 3,000 words. You probably already know that many, so if you want to speak English more fluently, practice using them in a <strong>natural way<\/strong> instead of learning more and more words that you&#8217;ll hardly ever use. With that in mind, stay tuned for an upcoming video I&#8217;m making in a new series &#8211; English Fluency Drills. \ud83d\udc4d<\/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>Hello there! In this regular newsletter, I sit down with a cup of 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 English fluency! Subscribe to get this newsletter in your email. Site [&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":[14,20],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter","tag-newsletter","tag-peace"],"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\/257","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=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions\/306"}],"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=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}