American and British English

July 31th, at 2 p.m. we had English Speaking Club with two Peace Corps Volunteers Jun Blore and Andrew Brož. Jun has just returned from his vacation and he treated everybody with sweets in honor of his return. The theme was “American and British English”. There were 9 people, among them students and teachers. During the meeting we were listening to different speakers of American and British variants of English. Native speakers told us about the special characteristics of American English, emphasized the differences in pronunciation, phonology, phonetics. Special attention was devoted to usage of different vocabulary, some specific American words which were called Americanisms and usage of some grammar constructions. The attendants asked many questions concerning some tricky specific issues and got the answers from Peace Corps Volunteers. This session was useful and interesting for the visitors, because they got deeper understanding of differences of the American and British English.

The State of Alaska

On July 24^th at 2 p.m. we had English Speaking Club with Peace Corps Volunteer Andrew Brož. This time we were speaking about the state of Alaska, its features and peculiarities. There we 7 people among them students. This time we continued the theme of the states Hawaii and Alaska, which were quite separate from the other USA states. Earlier we spoke about the other states and knew, that every of them had own specific features, however distance had a great impact on these above-mentioned states. Andrew told what he knew about Alaska. Everybody listened to him with interest. He told about the landscape and climate of the state, economy, education and culture. Special attention was devoted to the history and the period when Alaska became a part of the USA. We used a projector and the screen and looked through photos of Alaska and watched video about it. This theme was interesting for the attendants of the club, they actively participated in the discussion. This meeting was useful and educational for the visitors, they better understood the features of Alaska as an inseparable part of the USA culture and history.

A Trip to Hawaii

July 17, 2011 at 2 p.m. we had English Speaking Club “Dialogue” with Andrew Brož, Peace Corps Volunteer. The theme of our meeting was “A Trip to Hawaii. The Main Peculiarities of the State”. There were 13 people among them students and teachers. The group talked about the state of Hawaii and its peculiarities such as landscape, climate, history, culture, cuisine. We also discussed the reasons why this state seemed to be a specific one and the features which differentiated it from the other states of the USA. Special attention was devoted to languages, which were used in the state of Hawaii, among them were English, Hawaiian and Pidgin. We used projector with the screen and watched a presentation about Hawaii and some beautiful pictures of the islands, listened to persons who spoke Pidgin and tried to understand them. Andrew Brož was glad to answer the questions from the visitors. This meeting was informative and useful for the attendants. They got a lot of information about the state of Hawaii and could get an idea what the main peculiarities of it were.

American English Online Portal

Dear readers,

Welcome to American English Online portal, where you can find a lot of information about studying and teaching American English, you can also visit English teaching forum and look through the publications and exchange programs. Everybody who is interested in this information, can go to link: http://americanenglish.state.gov/

History of Texas: from the Old to Modern Time

July 10, 2011 at 2 p.m. we had English Speaking Club “Dialogue” with Andrew Brož, Peace Corps Volunteer. Andrew is a new volunteer, who comes to our corner and helps us in our work. Not all of the members of English Speaking Club knew Andrew, that’s why we decided to make an acquaintance with him. Andrew also wanted to tell about his state Texas. So the theme of our meeting was “The History of Texas: From the Old to Modern Time”. There were 13 people among them students and teachers. The group talked about the state of Texas, especially about its development during the centuries, about being it depended from other countries, about the revolution and War for Independence from Mexico. We used the projector and screen and watched a presentation about Texas, listened to some songs (Ballad of the Alamo – battle of the Alamo in San Antonio) which symbolized different periods of the history of the state. Andrew Brož also told what Texas is now, shortly described its landscape, cuisine and differences in language. The visitors liked this theme and actively participated in the discussion, asked a lot of different questions. This meeting was an interesting one for the visitors, they got useful information about the state of Texas, deeply understood the history of this state and got an idea how what modern Texas is.

Celebration of the 4th of July

 

July 3, 2011 at 2 p.m. we had a session of English Speaking Club “Dialogue” with Jun Blore and Andre Brož, Peace Corps Volunteers. It was a session devoted to Independence Day of the USA. There were 17 people among them students, schoolchildren and teachers. A book exhibition “Live for the freedom, America!” and an exhibition of posters “Independence Day” were made to this event. At first we were speaking about the holiday itself, Ukrainian students told what they knew about it and how they understood it. Then Jun and Andrew presented a power point presentation about the meaning of Independence Day, its background, symbols, traditions and show some videos about the holiday. Then we have a Skype connection to one of the friends of Jun, his name is Matt Cobos. He tried to describe the atmosphere of the holiday, told us what Americans usually do on this day and described his planes as well. Matt also told us about the history of this day and emphasized that the American Flag was the most important symbol of this day as well as the national songs such as the national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner", "God Bless America", "This Land Is Your Land", "Stars and Stripes Forever ". We also listened some of them after the Skype session. The attendants were interested in the information they got in the process of communication with Matt Cobos and asked a lot of questions about the Fourth of July. They got answers on all the questions they had. The atmosphere of the meeting was warm and nice. The importance of this meeting is in deeper understanding of such a great holiday of the USA as Independence Day and new opportunities of communication with American society due to Skype technology.