Reading

AN ONLINE READING CLUB Dear all, I have been considering the idea of starting a literature+grammar club for quite a while now. I see it as 90-minute weekly sessions (most probably held online on Friday/Wednesday night or Saturday morning, but that is negotiable). The preliminary reading will surely be required. The price is available upon request. To feel at ease during the meetings, level B1+ is needed. Both timeless classics and contemporary authors are on the agenda. Is anybody interested? Get in touch with me ☺️.

Good evening! A student of mine has written a short story. The task was as follows: Write a short story. Choose any subject but use in your story the following words at least once (underline the word from the list when using it for the first time): Fluffy, Ignorant, Board, Cord, Traffic. Title your story using a word from the list. Include description of feelings and emotions. Include direct and indirect speech. Make an unexpected ending. Write 200-250 words. Time: 1 hour 15 minutes. At the lesson, it was decided to rewrite the last paragraph so that it would be obvious Persey was not the elderly lady's pet. The minor changes we incorporated are also in the other picture. Enjoy! 😍 P.S. it's Percy and Patrick in the photos. They had a fine day. Patrick took a nap during two and a half lessons of English. And Percy did not feel like being photographed today as he was too busy massaging my neck. 😀 So, I attached his yesterday's pic.

SPRING ENROLMENT on an English course of your choice is in full swing! Are you applying for a dream job? Do you long to read English classics in the original? Is the person of your life from abroad? Will you have to pass a dreadful examination soon? All is achievable if you speak this fascinating tongue of the world 🌎. Another huge advantage is that learning foreign languages prevents Alzheimer’s, a form of dementia, the serious disease, especially affecting elderly people, that stops the brain from functioning normally and causes loss of memory, loss of ability to speak clearly, etc. Having taken a course, one may wonder what the best way to express their gratitude to a tutor for all the hard work done is. Oh, that's plain and simple. Just share the contacts with some potential clients. The more, the better ☺️.

"Even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there." Is there a young adult book you're fond of? What if it's both a book 📖 and a film 📽️? For me it is "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky. Set in the early 1990s, the novel follows Charlie, an introverted and observant teenager, through his freshman year of high school in a Pittsburgh suburb. The novel details Charlie's unconventional style of thinking as he navigates between the worlds of adolescence and adulthood, and attempts to deal with poignant questions spurred by his interactions with both his friends and family. It took the author five years to develop and publish The Perks, creating the characters and other aspects of the story from his own memories. The book dispassionately addresses a range of themes permeating adolescence. Should you need a PDF, do not hesitate to let me know.

I guess you've noticed that I have a new column on reading. All the post are available here - m.dzen.ru/...ink What would you prefer to read about next: a classic or a book by a contemporary author? Let me know! There is a wide range of choices open to you. Wishing you a wonderful Sunday!

"The first Wednesday in every month was a Perfectly Awful Day — a day to be awaited with dread, endured with courage and forgotten with haste." My today's post is dedicated to one of the most tender stories of American literature called Daddy-Long-Legs, a 1912 epistolary novel by Jean Webster. It follows the protagonist, Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, as she leaves an orphanage and is sent to college by a benefactor who used to be interested only in boys' future. Having read one of the essays the girl has written for school about her life as an orphan child, he is impressed so much that he agrees to pay her tuition and gives her a generous monthly allowance on the condition that she writes him a monthly letter. Judy once catches a glimpse of the mysterious trustee's shadow from the back and knows he is a tall long-legged man. Because of this, she jokingly calls him Daddy-Long-Legs. So, in her mental image, "John Smith" is an old, tall, (and bald) man. This John Doe is an admirable character. Even though he never visits nor replies to Judy’s letters, it is still apparent that he cares for her very much. One of the most difficult tasks for a writer is to find a way to make the characters believable and true, to give them their own voice. Jean Webster definitely succeeded in achieving this. The story is composed almost entirely of Jerusha's letters to Daddy-Long-Legs, which means that we get to see things from her point of view. When you're reading the book, it seems it's told directly to you. Judy strongly believes that the most necessary quality for any person to have is imagination. It makes people able to put themselves in other people's places. It makes them kind, sympathetic and understanding. It ought to be cultivated in children. The message of the book is that everyone, no matter what their origins are, can find success and happiness in life. I have the utmost confidence that you will enjoy this direct and touching story as much as I did. The hilarious illustrations by Jean Webster herself accompanying the text will become a precious addition. They are in the faux naive style, perfectly capturing the playful spirit of the central character.