5 Easy and Fun Ideas to Help You Improve Your English

Happy New Year!

Do you have English goals for 2019?   (Goals = objectives, intentions)

Here are 5 easy and fun ideas to help you improve your English. Choose one, two, or all five. The most important thing is to make them part of your routine- part of your day, every day. Good luck!

1) Music in English: Listen, write, sing!

Lyrics = words of a song

We recommend these activities:

Choose an English song. Then…

• Find the song on the internet. Search on www.YouTube.com

• Listen to the song without stopping.

• Listen to the song again. Pause (stop) when you want. Repeat.

• If you understand all or most of the words, write them as you listen.

• Then search YouTube or the internet for “song name + lyrics”

• Read the lyrics as you listen to the song. Repeat.

• Sing along with the song! Imitate (copy) the accent.

• After you know the song very well, search “song name + karaoke” Now it’s your turn! Sing with the music!

For example: “Hey Jude” by The Beatles

Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQER0A0ej0M

Lyrics: http://www.songlyrics.com/the-beatles/hey-jude-lyrics/

Song and Lyrics on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhXU8c8qwXs

Karaoke: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hey+jude+karaoke

2) Live more of your life in English!

Break the habit of translating into your language.

We recommend these activities:

• Talk to yourself in English when nobody is listening!  In the shower, when cooking, when walking your dog, anywhere!

You may feel strange at first, but remember: nobody is listening. (You can sing in the shower in English, too!)

• Change the language on your cell phone to English.

• Read one news story in English every day. See if these are a good level for you:

https://www.newsinlevels.com/

http://www.thetimesinplainenglish.com/

• Write about your experiences every day in an English diary. Don’t worry about your grammar and spelling, just write!

3) New words: make them YOURS!

Frequent = common; happens often

Frequency = the number of times that something happens during a period of time (High frequency English words are common.)

Flash card = a small card. One side has the new word; the other side has a picture, definition, or the word in your language.

We recommend these activities:

When you see or hear a new word:

• Try to understand the word first, then check the dictionary.

• Check the English frequency. Memorize common English words. In this online dictionary https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/learn/red-words.html, frequent English words are red and have 1, 2 or 3 stars to indicate frequency.

• Write it in a personal vocabulary list. Keep the list in a small notebook or your cell phone. Write the correct pronunciation after the word. (Use the “pronunciation” button at www.macmillandictionary.com to hear the word.)

• Practice A LOT.

  Listen to and imitate the pronunciation. Repeat many times.

Write it 5 times.

Use it in a sentence.

Make flash cards. Carry them with you! Practice your new words when you take the subway or bus, wait on line at the supermarket - whenever you have a few minutes.

4) Writing: practice gratitude in English!

We recommend this activity:

• Every night, write 5 sentences in English: “I am thankful for _________.”

You can be thankful for something that is important, small, funny, or serious – you choose.

5 things that we at Let’s Go Speak English are thankful for:

1.    We are thankful for our awesome students.

2.    We are thankful for hot coffee.

3.    We are thankful for the beautiful parks in New York City.

4.    We are thankful for the opportunity to help English learners in our great city.

5.    We are thankful that you are visiting this blog!

5) Practice English in the real world!

We recommend this activity:

• Study with a private tutor who will help you learn and practice English while enjoying New York City. Contact us!

Let’s Go Bake Robin’s Favorite Pumpkin Bread!

Do you enjoy baking? We do! Let’s talk about baking together!

Last week we gave you some interesting reading and exercises to practice your English and learn about pumpkins. You can see it below!

We also promised to share Robin’s favorite pumpkin bread recipe. You can make it with cooked pumpkin, butternut squash or acorn squash. It makes 2 big loaves, or 4-5 small ones. These make great gifts! Bring a loaf to a friend’s house for Halloween, Thanksgiving or the December holidays. Or just enjoy it yourself! Here we go....

We have written important vocabulary words in CAPITAL LETTERS. Let’s match these words first - a little extra English practice:

VOCABULARY

___1. converting

___2. fluid

___3. ingredients

___4. to mash

___5. room temperature

___6. to steam

___7.  to measure

DEFINITIONS

a. the foods that are put in a particular dish

b. to cook food by heating it over boiling water

c. not chilled or heated, just at the temperature of the room

d. to take an exact quantity of something

e. changing from one measurement to a different one

f. liquid

g.  to crush food into a puree

ANSWERS: 1.e    2.f    3.a     4.g    5.c   6.b    7.d

Let’s Bake!

The first important thing to notice is that in the United States, cooking MEASUREMENTS are written in FLUID ounces, pints, cups, teaspoons and tablespoons. We do not use the metric system. So it’s very important to read the recipe carefully!

Changing metric measurements to the U.S. measures is called CONVERTING. If you need help converting your own recipes to U.S. measurements, here’s a useful link to do that:

https://www.infoplease.com/science-health/weights-measures/us-metric-cooking-conversions

It’s always a good idea to measure and organize all your INGREDIENTS before you start baking. This is called “mise en place”.  Yes, that’s French!  Thank you to our French friends!  It means, “put in place.”  You need to put everything in place first.  Now you know that you have everything you need. (Sometimes I need to run out to buy something that I’m missing!  Luckily, in New York City, some supermarkets are open 24 hours every day.)

The ingredients should all be at ROOM TEMPERATURE. So take the butter, eggs and juice out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before you plan to start baking.  MEASURE your ingredients carefully.  STEAM your pumpkin or squash, MASH it, and then let it cool a little. You don’t want to add eggs to hot pumpkin – the eggs might start cooking!

For extra help with baking actions, you can go to this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RKYwD7wuFw

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!!!!

Robin’s Favorite Pumpkin Bread

This is a moist, sweet bread that keeps well and may also be frozen.  Delicious!

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup butter

2 ½ cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 cups cooked, mashed pumpkin or squash (2 cups mashed = about 2½-3 pounds before you take off the skin)

1/4 cup orange juice, apple cider, or water (juices are recommended!)

3 1/3 cups sifted flour (Sift the flour FIRST, then measure 3 1/3 cups.)

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice (optional)

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2/3 cup raisins (optional)

2/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

(If desired, sprinkle another ½ cup chopped walnuts on top before baking.)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350° F (Fahrenheit).

2. Cut off the skin, throw away the inside seeds and pulp. Cut the pumpkin or squash into chunks. Steam until very soft. Mash them.

3. In a separate bowl, sift the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg.  Add to the sifted flour.  Mix well with a whisk.

4. Cream shortening and sugar for 2 minutes with an electric mixer.

5. Beat eggs into the butter/sugar for 2 minutes.  

6. Stir pumpkin and juice (or water) together, then blend into the wet ingredients.   

7. Blend in the flour mixture for 1 minute.

8. Stir in nuts and raisins, if desired.

9. Spoon batter into 2 greased, lightly floured loaf pans (8 ½ inches x 4 ½ inches). Or use 3-5 smaller pans. Fill each pan half to two-thirds full.  (You can see the photo of our different size pans and breads below.)

10. Bake in preheated 350° oven until they are lightly brown and slightly firm to the touch. A toothpick or cake tester should go in and out clean without any batter on it.

Baking times:

Tiny loaf: 25 minutes

Small loaf (5 in x 3 in): 38 minutes

Medium loaf (7 in x 3 ¾ in): 42 minutes

Large loaf pan (8 ½ inches x 4 ½ inches): about 50-60 minutes

Enjoy! And Happy Halloween!

OUTDOOR CONCERTS IN NEW YORK CITY PARKS – LET’S GO!

The weather may still feel like spring, but outdoor events are starting!  If you enjoy music, you can listen for free - or play yourself! Two special events in June: 1) FREE concerts by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, 2) 51 "Sing for Hope" pianos are available to the public on NYC streets.

1) The New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks take place in all five NYC boroughs from June 12-17. For the exact schedule, visit their website:

https://nyphil.org/parks

All performances begin at 8:00 p.m. except the Free Indoor Concert in Staten Island, which begins at 3:00 p.m. There will be fireworks after the performances in the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn.

2) "Sing for Hope" will put 51 artistically-decorated pianos on the streets of New York City! Go play one yourself or listen to someone playing! The first piano will be available on June 4 at 12:00 noon at 28 Liberty Plaza.  For a complete schedule of the piano locations, visit this website: 

https://www.singforhope.org/pianos/2018-artists-map/

You can enter your zip code at the site to find a piano near you!

And to learn more about this event, visit this website:

https://www.6sqft.com/51-stunning-sing-for-hope-pianos-will-hit-the-streets-of-nyc-this-summer/

Let’s learn and practice some vocabulary to talk about these events!

(You can download a copy of these exercises - go down to the black button at the bottom: DOWNLOAD PDF.)

 

INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED English learners: Go down to Exercise 2 below for a more difficult activity.

 

BEGINNER English learners:  Exercise 1.  Choose ONE correct word to fill-in-the-blank. (Answers are at the bottom of the page.)

1. Every _______  (winter / January / June), people can go to FREE concerts in New York City parks.

2. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra plays ________ (baseball / classical music / soccer).

3. The FREE concerts are outside! Bring a _________ (blanket / car / computer) to sit on.

4. You need to pay _________  ($10 / $20 / nothing) because the concerts are free.

5. If you want to eat during the concert, bring _________ (picnic foods / a restaurant / nothing).

6. If you want to drink a ________ (hamburger / beverage / hotdog), bring some water, juice or soda.

7. After the concert, they have a noisy and pretty display of ________ (paintings / fireworks / books).  Beautiful!

INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED English learners:  Exercise 2.  Write in the missing words.  Choose from the list below.  (Answers are at the bottom of the page.) 

beverages   fireworks   no matter  opportunity  performs   picnicking   popular   recommend   sets   rain or shine

The New York Philharmonic Orchestra ____________(8)  free concerts in NYC parks every June.  This provides a very special _____________(9)  to sit outside and hear classical music by a world-class orchestra.

We ____________(10)  that you go early to get a good place to sit.  The concerts are very _______________(11), so they are usually very crowded.  They do place speakers around the area so you can hear reasonably well ______________(12)  where you sit.

Do you enjoy eating outside while sitting on the ground?  This is called _____________(13).  Bring food and _____________(14) to the concerts and have a picnic with your friends.  The music will wash over you as the sun ________(15).  And by the way, the concerts usually take place ______________________(16), so bring an umbrella if rain is expected!

Immediately after the 90-minute concerts, in all boroughs except Staten Island, there is a display of ______________(17) as a grand finale! 

Have a wonderful time at the concerts! Go play or listen to some of the 51 pianos!  Free music in NYC - let's go!

And check back here soon to practice your English and learn about more summer events in NYC!

ANSWERS: 1. June  2. classical music  3. blanket  4. nothing  5. picnic foods  6. beverage  7. fireworks  8. performs  9. opportunity  10. recommend  11. popular  12. no matter  13. picnicking  14. beverages  15. sets  16. rain or shine  17. Fireworks

NY Philharmonic on the Great Lawn in Central Park!

Sing for Hope Piano near Lincoln Center and West 62nd Street

Thanksgiving in New York City!

Thanksgiving is a national holiday in the United States. Have you ever been here for it? The City That Never Sleeps does slow down for Thanksgiving. We relax with our families and cook.  And cook. And cook. And cook. And then eat and eat and eat. And reheat and eat some more. A great holiday!

The first Thanksgiving celebrated the first successful harvest of the Pilgrims in 1621.  They thanked the Native Americans for helping them survive the long, hard winter. Watch a fun video about the history of this holiday called, "Bet you didn't know: Thanksgiving" at this link:

So right now, we New Yorkers are planning our menus, cleaning out our refrigerators and getting excited to see our family.  Robin is baking Thanksgiving sugar cookies!  Do you like baking?  Let's talk about it and share recipes.  See one of Robin's favorite sugar cookie recipes below.

And for listening and reading practice about baking, go to this website for a great activity: http://www.esl-lab.com/bakingcookies/bakingcookiesrd1.htm

Check back next week for more Thanksgiving ideas and some photos of the Macy's Day parade balloons!

Robin's Rolled Sugar Cookies

Use a mixer at medium speed to cream together:  1 cup butter (salted or unsalted) and 2/3 cup sugar (about 2 minutes).

Beat in 1 large egg.

Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon salt (do not add salt if you used salted butter), and 2 1/2 cups sifted flour (sift the flour BEFORE measuring).

Mix all ingredients for 2 minutes until well-mixed.

Form 2 flat balls of cookie dough. Wrap them in waxed paper or saran wrap and put in a plastic bag.  Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (350°F).

Roll dough out on a lightly floured table to 1/4 inch thick.

Cut into shapes with cookie cutters and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Top with colored sprinkles.  Bake 8-10 minutes until just lightly colored. Remove from cookie sheets. Cool on wire racks. Makes: 24-30 delicious cookies! Enjoy!

Robin's Thanksgiving Cookies!