- \n
- True Story – The youngest person to sail solo around the world<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- News – 285-year-old lemon fetches more at auction than antique chest<\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Videos:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Fluent English Reading – The Racehorse that Paints!<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- English News Words – Music Awards<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wasn’t able to do a Livestream this week, but I uploaded 5 short videos and 2 posts. You can find them on my Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nick’s News<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Since I work at home, I don’t get out very much. This weekend, however, I popped into<\/em> Nagoya to see my old friend, Steve<\/a>. I hadn’t seen him in years so it was good to catch up<\/em>. It was also my first time at Mister Donuts in god knows how long! <\/em>I was surprised and a bit confused that the trays, tongs and doughnuts were all inside cabinets, and I had to put my money in the till<\/em> myself. The only thing the staff had to do was make my coffee. It looked like a very easy job! I was a bit embarrassed when I sat down because Steve had only got one doughnut, but I had ordered four! \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- popped into = went into<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- catch up = hear the latest news<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- god knows how long = I have no idea how long<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- till = cash register<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n ![\"Just](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2.png?resize=1024%2C1024&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/1-1.png?resize=1080%2C1080&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
British Culture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When I lived in the UK, there were only three kinds of doughnuts – ring, custard and jam. My mum would buy them at the supermarket and they were delicious. I must have been about 20 years old when I saw my first doughnut shop. It was a Dunkin’ Donuts next to Charing Cross station in London. I was feeling a bit peckish<\/em> (hungry) so I thought I’d pop in and get a quick doughnut before my train left. I was overwhelmed<\/em> (overcome, moved) by the variety of different doughnuts and didn’t know what to order. I felt pressured to choose, and when the assistant asked me what I wanted, I said, “One doughnut, please!” She was not amused (didn’t think it was funny), but I wasn’t joking! I asked her if they had any ring, custard or jam doughnuts, and she said, “This isn’t a supermarket!” \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n\n\n
British English<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Notice that in British English, we usually spell it “doughnut”. In the U.S, “donut” is probably more common, partly because of shops like Dunkin’ Donuts using that spelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are some common English phrases used to talk about doughnuts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Fancy a doughnut?<\/strong><\/strong> (= Would you like a doughnut?)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- I’m nuts for doughnuts<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> (= I really want some doughnuts!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- A dozen doughnuts<\/strong> (= 12 doughnuts, easy to share and sometimes cheaper) <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Do doughnuts<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> (= drive a car in tight circles, creating skidmarks)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Making English fun!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I’ve said before that English is more fun is you study something that you’re interested in. Since we’re talking about doughnuts today, I asked ChatGPT for a list of the top 10 most popular doughnuts in the U.K. You must<\/em> be interested in this, right?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Jam Doughnuts<\/strong>: Soft, sweet bread filled with strawberry or raspberry jam.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Custard Doughnuts<\/strong>: Doughnuts filled with a sweet, creamy filling.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Sugar Ring Doughnuts<\/strong>: Doughnuts in a ring shape, covered in sugar.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Chocolate Doughnuts<\/strong>: Doughnuts made with chocolate or covered in chocolate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Glazed Ring Doughnuts<\/strong>: Ring-shaped doughnuts with a sweet, shiny coating.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Apple Cinnamon Doughnuts<\/strong>: Doughnuts with apple filling and cinnamon flavor.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Lemon Curd Doughnuts<\/strong>: Doughnuts filled with a sour lemon cream.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Salted Caramel Doughnuts<\/strong>: Sweet doughnuts with a salty caramel flavor.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Boston Cream Doughnuts<\/strong>: Doughnuts filled with vanilla cream and topped with chocolate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Vegan Doughnuts<\/strong>: Doughnuts made without any animal products, suitable for vegans.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So which of those doughnuts would you most like to try? Comment below!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Motivation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
This week, I celebrate getting 8,000 subscribers on YouTube. It’s amazing, really, that so many people are interested in my videos. I must admit, I do get a feeling of satisfaction when the numbers go up. It motivates me to keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think chasing targets is a great way to stay motivated. You could aim to finish 2, 5, 10, 50 pages of a textbook by a certain date. You could try to memorize 1,000 words! Just start with a few, and write down how many you learn each day. Watch the numbers grow! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can do the same with time. I recommend tracking how many minutes you study for and add them up over a week. Set a target of 1,860 minutes! It looks like a big number, but is actually only 1 hour a day for 31 days. And when you get to 1,860 minutes, push for 2,000! \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you for joining me for tea! If you’re enjoying my blog and would like to get new posts in your email, please subscribe<\/a>. If you have friends who might like these posts, please share this link<\/a> with them. I really appreciate it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the best,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hello there! Today, we’re going to talk about doughnuts! But first… Site News Since the last newsletter, I’ve made two new lesson worksheets and two YouTube videos: Worksheets: Videos: I wasn’t able to do a Livestream this week, but I uploaded 5 short videos and 2 posts. You can find them on my Instagram. Nick’s […]<\/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":[28,14],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter","tag-doughnuts","tag-newsletter"],"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\/278","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=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/303"}],"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=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Custard Doughnuts<\/strong>: Doughnuts filled with a sweet, creamy filling.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- I’m nuts for doughnuts<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> (= I really want some doughnuts!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Fancy a doughnut?<\/strong><\/strong> (= Would you like a doughnut?)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- English News Words – Music Awards<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- News – 285-year-old lemon fetches more at auction than antique chest<\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n