Learning English through Topic: Vietnamese Drinking Culture ( topic for 08/12/2013 Sunday evening club)

Vietnamese Drinking Culture

For drinks in Vietnam, Vietnam has most of the drinks. However, tea and coffee are traditional preference. Especially, drinking tea can be considered as both a normal habit and the art of drinking in Vietnam. Here are some other drinks.

·         "Chè” - Vietnamese Sweetened Porridge: Chè is a Vietnamese term that refers to any traditional Vietnamese thick, sweet dessert soup or sweetened porridge. Sweetened porridge is a kind of sugary flavored beverage which is protein-rich.

·         Nuoc mia, or sugar-cane juice: Sugar-cane juice is a type of drink commonly found in Vietnam as a refreshing drink during the hot Vietnamese climate.

·         Vietnamese wine: Rice alcohol. Alcohol has been called spirit because it symbolizes for men willingness in the old time. Besides tea, plain rice alcohol is also offered respectfully on the ancestor altar in rituals or ceremonies to show deep gratitude such as wedding parties, ground - breaking, Tet holiday... Vietnamese also drink alcohol to celebrate joy to reduce sadness or wish for blessings.

Imagine:tin.lukhach24h.com

·         Bia hoi ( Beer): Cheap, cold, draft beer, sitting on a plastic stool on the side of the road.  That pretty much sums up the bia hoi experience.  Bia Hoi is a draft beer, made with no preservatives.  It is delivered in kegs to bars (generally referred to as Bia Hoi) around Hanoi. The bars are simple, with plastic chairs, and no frills.

Imagine:vietnamtravelblog.org

Source: internet

Vocabulary:

cola / coke:         coca cola

squash:                nước ép

lime cordial:        rượu chanh

iced tea:               trà đá

milkshake:          sữa khuấy bọt

still water:           nước không ga

sparkling water:  nước xô-đa

mineral water    nước khoáng

Questions:

1. .       Can you name other drinks in Vietnam?
2. .       What drinks do you like the most? Why?
3. .       What are features of Vietnamsese drinking culture?
4. .       It is said that Vietnamese people drink so much. Do you think so? Why?
5. .       What drinks do you think the foreign tourists like the most in Vietnam? Why?
6. .       How can we promote Vietnamese drinking culture?

*Bonus:

Whether you’re at a wedding or eating snails, the Vietnamese are fond of a beer. Here’s some vocab that might come in handy if you find yourself drinking beer in Vietnam.

How to toast:

một, hai, ba, dô!

= 1, 2, 3, cheers!

Incase you can’t or don’t want to drink:

[Anh/Chị/Em/...] không uống bia được.

= I can’t drink beer.

Somebody may well clink glasses (cạn ly) with you and say:

một trăm phần trăm

= 100% (they want you to down the glass)

You may be able to get away with:

năm mười phần trăm (= năm mười)

= 50% (they want you to drink half of your glass)

Eating goes hand in hand with food and snacks vary from peanuts to seafood. You’ll be encouraged to eat, or you can invite others’ to eat with:

ăn đi!

= eat!, please eat

Or if you spend too much time eating, you may be told to: uống đi!

(Source: http://morevietnamese.com/drinking-beer-in-vietnam/)

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Learning English through Topic: The characteristics of Vietnamese people ( topic for 24/11 Sunday evening club)

The characteristics of Vietnamese people 

Imagine copyright belongs to en.vietnam.travel.vn

"According to the American Institute for Social Research, the Vietnamese people have 10 major characteristics.

First, they are hard working but easy to satisfy.
Second, they are smart and creative to cope with short-termed difficulties, but lack long-termed and active reasoning abilities.
Third, they are dexterous but hardly pay attention to the final perfection of their products.
Fourth, they are both practical and idealistic, but don’t develop either of these tendencies into theories.
Fifth, they love knowledge and have quick understanding, but hardly learn from the beginning to the end of things, so their knowledge isn’t systemic or fundamental. In addition, Vietnamese people don’t study just for the sake of knowledge (when small, they study because of their families; growing up, they study for the sake of prestige or good jobs).
Sixth, they are open-hearted and hospital, but their hospitality doesn’t last.
Seventh, they are thrifty, but many times squander money for meaningless reasons (to save face or to show off).
Eighth, they have solidarity and help each other chiefly in difficult situations and poverty; in better conditions, this characteristic rarely exists.
They love peace, and can endure things, but they are often not frank for sundry reasons, so sacrifice important goals for the sake of small ones.
And last, they like to gather, but lack connectivity to create strength (one person can complete a task excellently; 2 people do it poorly, and 3 people make a mess of it)"

Vocabulary:

1. Dexterous (adj):

2. Fundamental (adj):

3. Prestige (n):

4. Squander (v):

5. Solidarity (n):

Questions

1. Do you agree on these characteristics of Vietnamese people? Do you want to add other traits? 

2. Do you think that the characteristics of Vietnamese people have been changing a lot? Why?

3. What are the differences among the people in the north, the central and the south of Vietnam?

4. What are some typical traits of Vietnamese young people nowadays? 

5. A lot of foreign tourists say that Vietnamese people are very friendly, kind-hearted, but many of them never return to Vietnam ? what is your point of this?

Club's address: 31, Giai Phong street, Ha Noi (LESH English Center)

Time: Every Sunday evening (from 6.30pm-8.30pm)

Host: Ms. Fiorella and one foreign teacher 

Phone: 01635.136.522.

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Learning English through Topic: Natural vs Artificial Beauty ( topic for 10/11 Sunday evening club)

TOPIC (10/11/2013)

Natural vs Artificial Beauty

In this modern society, artificial beauty is a very common thing and many people become more beautiful thanks to it. However, many prefer natural beauty because it can last longer. So, individuals have their own idea of beauty. Let's join my English club and share your opinion or you can comment right here!










Vocabulary:

1. Enchanting: Possessing a magical or ethereal beauty. Having the ability to charm or enchant the viewer
2. Captivating: Possessing the ability to hold the attention of others.
3. Grace: An elegant gesture, action, or mannerism.
4. Allure: Possessing a great deal of charm or fascination.
5. Plastic surgery: a medical specialty concerned with the "correction" or restoration of form and function
6. Cosmetic surgery: an optional procedure that is performed on normal parts of the body with the only purpose of improving a person’s appearance and/or removing signs of aging
7. Complication: a secondary disease or condition aggravating an already existing one.

Questions:

1. What is natural beauty and artificial beauty?
2. In your view, which beauty is most preferred natural beauty or artificial beauty?
3. What are advantages and disadvantages of artificial beauty?
4. Which beauty do you prefer?
5. If your boyfriend/girl friend wanted to get plastic surgery or cosmetic surgery, what would you say to her/him?
6. What if your girlfriend/ got plastic or cosmetic surgery in the past?

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Learning English through Topic: How to build social relationships ( topic for 3/11 Sunday evening club)

TOPIC (3/11/2013)

HOW TO BUILD SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS

VOCABULARY: Words used to describe relations and relationships

1.       Acquainted (adjective)

if two people are acquainted, they know each other, usually not very well

2.       arm’s-length (adjective)

used for describing something such as a business deal in which the different sides avoid having a close relationship with each other

3.       brittle (adjective)

a brittle relationship or situation is not very strong and could easily be damaged

4.       broken adjective

a broken relationship has failed

5.       bromantic adjective

typical of or relating to a very close friendship between two men

6.       brotherly adjective

typical of the feelings that a man or boy has for his male friends

7.       chummy adjective:

chummy people are friendly with each other, especially in a way that stops other people from joining the group

8.       clannish adjective

concentrating on people in your own family or group and not wanting other people to join it

9.       dysfunctional adjective

dysfunctional relationships do not work normally and are not happy or successful

10.   estranged adjective

not seeing friends or relatives very often, especially because of having fought with them

For more, visit here: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus-category/british/Words-used-to-describe-relations-and-relationships

http://easyamericanenglish.blogspot.com/search/label/ENGLISH%20CLUB

QUESTIONS

1. How do you understand social relationships? (Give examples)

2. Do you think that social relationships are important today? If yes, why?

3. How can we make social relationships work and stay happy?

4. Is it essential to creat some strong, inimate relationships?

5. Personally, are you a person having a lot of social relationships?
6. What do you think about virtual relationships in the internet?

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Lesson for this Sadturday (12/10/2013) from 21.30-22.30 on Paltalk (Learn English from Sealte to Hanoi room)

Hey guys, It's good to see you again :-)
We're in the middle of autumn. It's getting much cooler than summer, but it's cold at times especially at night. In this season, many people tend to catch the cold more easily because of unexpected weather change. So, how to prevent it?  You can obtain a lot of useful information in the today's lesson!
First, let's watch this video.

The common cold.

English subtile: 

The common cold is a group of symptoms in the upper respiratory tract caused by almost 200 viruses. 

The most common perpetrator is the rhinovirus, which causes around 40% of colds. The cold enters your body through your nose or mouth and is easily spread when touching someone or common objects. 

You are more likely to catch a cold if you are excessively fatigued, have emotional distress or have allergies with nose and throat symptoms. ......(updating)

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Lesson for this Thursday (10/10/2013) from 21.30-22.30 on Paltalk (Learn English from Sealte to Hanoi room)

On this thursday, we're going to read Matt Cutts's speech about Trying something new for 30 days. I do hope it can inspire you if you're stuck in something or find your life getting down. Don't forget to join room in time and if you confuse anything just let me know by commenting here! See you :->

                                                

English Subtile:

A few years ago, I felt like I was stuck in a rut, so I decided to follow in the footsteps of the great American philosopher Morgan Spurlock and try something new for thirty days.

the idea is actually pretty simple, think about something you’re always wanted to add to all of your life and try it for the next thirty days .

It turns out thirty days is just about the right amount of time to have a new habit or subtract the habit like watching the news from your life.

There is a few things that I learned while doing these thirty days challenge, the first was instead of the months flying by forgotten the time was much more memorable.

This was part of a challenge I did it take a picture every day for a month, and I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing that day.

I would also notice that as I started to do more and harder thirty day challenges my self-confidence crew, I went from desk to dealing to the computers to the kind of guy who bikes to work for fun.

Even last year, kind of hiking up mount Kilimanjaro the highest mountain in Africa. 

I would never have been in that adventure before I started my thirty day challenges 

I would also figure out that if you really want something badly enough you can do anything for thirty days, have you ever wanted to write a novel?

Every November tens of thousands people try to write their own fifty thousand-word novel from scratch in thirty days. 

It turns out all you have to do is right sixteen hundred and sixty seven words day for a month so I did it by the way the secret is not to go to sleep until you’ve written your words for the day, you might be sleep-deprived, you’ll finish your novels. Now is my book the next great American novel? 

Reference translation:

Vài năm trước tôi có cảm giác như mình đang sống tụt dốc vì vậy tôi quyết định theo bước bước chân của nhà triết học vĩ đại người Mỹ Morgan Spurlock và cố gắng thử cái gì đó mới trong 30 ngày xem sao.

Ý tưởng thực ra rất đơn giản. Hãy nghĩ về những điều mà bạn đã mong muốn được thực hiện suốt cả cuộc đời và thử làm nó trong vòng 30 ngày tới. Hóa ra 30 ngày là khoảng thời gian vừa đủ để them vào hay loại bỏ thói quen trong cuộc sống của bạn như là xem tin tức chẳng hạn.

Có một số điều mà tôi đã học được trong khi thực hiện 30 ngày thử thách này. Đầu tiên là, thay vì có những tháng trôi qua dần bị lãng quên, thì thời gian trở nên đáng nhớ hơn.

Đây là một phần  trong thử thách chụp mỗi ngày một bức ảnh trong một tháng. Và tôi nhớ chính xác nơi tôi đã ở và những việc tôi đã làm vào ngày hôm đó.

Và tôi cũng nhận thấy rằng. khi tôi bắt đầu thực hiện những thử thách 30 ngày nhiều hơn và chăm chỉ hơn, thì sự tự tin của tôi tăng lên. Tôi chuyển từ một nhân viên say mê máy tính suốt ngày dính chặt vào bàn làm việc thành một người đàn ông đạp xe đi làm – chỉ cho vui mà thôi.

Thậm chí vào năm ngoái, tôi đã leo lên đỉnh Kilimanjaro, ngọn núi cao nhất châu Phi.

Tôi chưa từng thích phiêu lưu đến vậy trước khi tôi bắt đầu thử thách 30 ngày đó.

Và tôi cũng đã tìm ra rằng nếu bạn có đủ khao khát để làm một việc gì đó, bạn có thể làm mọi việc trong 30 ngày.

Bạn đã bao giờ muốn viết một tiểu thuyết chưa?

Cứ mỗi tháng 11, mười ngàn người cố gắng để viết những tiểu thuyết dài 500,000 từ của họ từ con số không trong vòng 30 ngày.

Việc đó có nghĩa, tất cả những gì bạn phải làm là viết 1,667 từ mỗi ngày trong vòng một tháng. Và tôi đã làm điều đó. Nhân tiện, bí quyết ở đây là không đi ngủ cho tới khi bạn đã viết được số từ yêu cầu cho một ngày. Bạn có thể bị thiếu ngủ, nhưng bạn sẽ hoàn thành tác phẩm của mình. Vậy tác phẩm của tôi có phải là một tiểu thuyết vĩ đại tiếp theo của nước Mỹ?

Không. Tôi viết nó trong một tháng. Nó rất kinh khủng. Nhưng trong suốt phần đời còn lại của mình, nếu tôi có gặp John Hodgman trong một buổi tiệc của TED, tôi không phải giới thiệu rằng, “Tôi là một chuyên gia máy tính.”

Không, không, và nếu tôi muốn có thể nói, “Tôi là một tiểu thuyết gia.”. Và đây là điều cuối cùng tôi muốn đề cập. Tôi học được rằng khi tôi đạt được những thay đổi nhỏ và dễ duy trì,những việc tôi có thể tiếp tục làm thì chúng sẽ dễ trở thành thói quen của tôi hơn.

Chẳng có vấn đề gì với những thử thách lớn lao hay điên cuồng. Trên thực tế, chúng chứa cả tấn điều thú vị. Nhưng chúng thường khó duy trì hơn. Khi tôi kiêng đường trong 30 ngày, ngày thứ 31 sẽ như thế này đây. (Tiếng cười) Và đây là câu hỏi dành cho các bạn: Bạn còn chờ đợi gì nữa? 

Tôi đảm bảo với bạn rằng 30 ngày tới đang sắp sửa qua đi dù bạn có muốn hay không, vậy tại sao không nghĩ về việc gì đó, bạn đã luôn muốn được thử và bắt đầu thực hiện nó trong 30 ngày tới. Cảm ơn các bạn.

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Lesson for this Sadturday (14/9/2013) from 21.30-22.30 on Paltalk (Learn English from Sealte to Hanoi room)

Lesson for this Sadturday (14/9/2013) from 21.30-22.30 on Paltalk (Learn English from Sealte to Hanoi room)

Ways to say Thank You

I. Theory (21.30-22.00):

In this lesson we will look at two actions which many of us do, although maybe not as often as we should. 

Today we will talk about saying “thank you”. The action of saying “thank you” is seen as the most polite way of showing how grateful you are for receiving something or as a way of acknowledging an act of kindness. We say “thank you” to show our appreciation. 

By saying “thank you”, you show your gratitude. You express your appreciation. You acknowledge the kindness. 

You return the generosity verbally. You offer your sincerest thanks. You are grateful. 

There are many ways to say “thank you”:

“Thank you.” “Thank you very much.” “Thanks a lot.” “Thank you so much.” “Thanks a bundle.” “You are too kind.” “Thanks ever such a lot.” “Cheers!”“Ta very much!”Sometimes we may express surprise and joy, as well as showing our thanks: “Wow! How kind… Thank you!” “That’s good of you… cheers!” “I don’t know what to say… thanks a lot!” “I’m overwhelmed… thank you so much!” “What can I say? You are the best!Thank you very much!” “This present is so nice! Oh you shouldn’t have!”Oh dear, I appear to be in the wrong lesson… mmm, how embarrassing…I suppose I had better go. 

Saying thank you is the best way to show your gratitude to another person.It’s a polite thing to do. 

To acknowledge someone’s kindnessis a nice thing to do.

And don’t forget kindness creates more kindness ;-)

---> This is just a half of the theory part if you want to read more leave your comments below. I'll send you the whole lesson:->

II. Practice (30'): Talk a few words about yourself.

Fiorella.

Hit the button Like and Share on Facebook if you find my lesson useful!

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Lesson for this Thursday (12/9/2013) from 21.30-22.30 on Paltalk (Learn English from Sealte to Hanoi room)

Lesson for this Thursday (12/9/2013) from 21.30-22.30 on Paltalk ( Learn English from Sealte to Hanoi room)

Ways to say Hello

I. Theory (21.30-22.00):

In today’s lesson, we’re going to talk all about saying hello

When we first meet someone whether it is a person we know or someone we are meeting for the first time

We will normally use a simple sentence as a way of greeting them.

A greeting is a friendly way of opening a conversation, or as a way of letting the other person know that we have seen them.

There are many ways to say hello:

Hi ,Hello, Hi, there, Hello there. Hey, how are you doing? Howdy friend (USA). What’s up?How’s it going?Wow, it’s good to see you! We sometime use a double greeting For example Hi there, hey how are you doing? Hello, how have you been? It’s good to see you, how’s life beentreating you? If you are meeting someone for the first time you can say Good to meet you It’s nice to meet you I’m pleased to meet you It’s a pleasure to meet you

These sentences are often used after the other person has been introduced to you 

If you are meeting someone you have not seen or heard from for a long time, then you can show real surprise and shock 

Oh my God, it’s you!. Aahh, where have you been? My goodness, long time no speak (see) Wow, it’s so good to see you again. Is it really you? When did we last meet? Wow, as I live and breathe, it’s my best friend from school 

If you are in a hurry there may only be a short time in which to make your greeting.

Hi, sorry I can’t stop Oh hi there, look I’m a bit pushed for time, here’s my phone number, give me call sometime.Hello there, look I’m on my way to work maybe catch up with you again soon .Hey’ I would love to stop and chat but I really have to dash

This type of greeting is common these days Because we are all in such a big hurry to get some place fast 

We sometime use the word ‘hello’ as a way of showing surprise or as a way of expressing a sudden

interest in something. 

Hello, what’s going on here? Hello, I did not know he had a girlfriend Hello, what’s going on over theHello, something is wrong her took my money! 

---> This is just a half of the theory part if you want to read more leave your comments below. I'll send you the whole lesson:->

II. Practice (30'): Say hello and talk a few words about yourself.

Fiorella.

Hit the button Like and Share on Facebook if you find my lesson useful!

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