International Thank You Day

“God gave you a gift of 84,600 seconds today. Have you used one of them to say thank you?” 

― William Arthur Ward

Today is the politest day of the year, my dear friends! Because January 11 is the International Thank You Day. 

We understand the value of good manners, their necessity in  daily life, but often we thank without thinking about its meaning.  Psychologists believe that gratitude is able to warm with its warmth.

We say every day to each other "thank you", so it is important to remember that the real appreciation is that one that comes from the heart.

By the way how many ways can we say 'thank you'? Click on Celebrating World Gratitude Day across time and language and find out the ways of expressing gratitude

As for me I'm sending my great thanks to all of you, my dear friends, who support me by reading my posts in my blog every day. 

It's interesting: Underground

Today is Underground Day. This type of transport is still the most reliable and popular in the whole world.
The world's first subway was launched in London on January 10, 1863, and almost three decades it serviced locomotives which, among other things, for a long time did not want to give way to their "electric brothers". It was built by "Metropolitan Railway" and  its length was 3.6 km.
The world's largest metro systems are:
New York City Subway, NYC, United States – 421 stations – The famous subway of NYC has the largest number of stations in the world. Opened in 1904, it’s also one of the oldest (the 8th oldest to be exact). The NYC subway has a total length of 373 km (232 mi) – that’s the  4th in the world, and a whooping 1.7 billion riders as to 2013.


Shanghai Metro, Shanghai, China – 263 stations – Shanghai Metro is only the 6th where it comes to number of stations, but it has the longest length in the world – 538 km ! Considering it only opened in 1993, this is truly an achievement!  Shanghai Metro is also one of the busiest systems in the world with over 2.5 billion riders each year.


London Underground (“The Tube”), London, England – 270 stations – The famous London Tube first opened as an “underground railway” in 1863, but the first electric line opened in 1890 making it the world’s very first metro system. It’s also the third longest system with 402 km  and more than 1.2 billion users each year.

In Ukraine this kind of transport appeared in 1960 in Kyiv

And this is the Kharkiv underground next to my University
 
I want to share with you some information about London tube because it's the oldest underground in the world.
Have you ever wanted  to drive a tube train? So why not?

 Now let's read  150 fascinating tube facts about London Underground

Are you ready to check your knowledge? Let's do ti with the help of London Underground Quiz

Merry Christmas, Ukraine!

  Today is Christmas in Ukraine! So merry Christmas to everyone!And on this special day I'd like to wish happiness to everyone and don't forget to believe and love!
  On this special day Ukrainian children usually go from house to house and sing carols, so called kolyadky. It's an old tradition that passes from generation to generation.
  Our ancestors started the New Year on January 14 ("Old New Year"). That's why it is appropriate to sow on this day. Children go from house to house and recite poetry wish (shchedrivka)  as thanks to God.
So the season of kolyadky and shchedrivky has begun:)
By the way my favourite shchedrivka is "Shchedryk". It became popular due to  Ukrainian composer Nick Leontovych.
Let's listen to it:

( the video was taken from YouTube channel Андрій Гуцула)

The song became so popular that in 1936 Peter Vilhovsky, who worked for radio NBC, wrote the English of"Shchedryk."The song was fixed in the musical culture as  «Carols of the Bells» or «Ukrainian Carols». The American professional and amateur choirs sing it as a carol for Christmas.

Let's learn the lyrics and watch an amazing video 

from SHEVIRI

Hark how the bells,

Sweet silver bells,

All seem to say,

Throw cares away.

Christmas is here,

Bringing good cheer,

To young and old,

Meek and the bold.

Oh how they pound,

Raising the sound,

O'er hill and dale,

Telling their tale.

Gaily they ring,

While people sing,

Songs of good cheer,

Christmas is here.

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,

On on they send,

On without end,

Their joyful tone to every home,

Dong ding dong ding, dong bong.

Hit parade of funny English mistakes

Today is the day of hit parades.
The word 'hit parade' has two meanings:

1. a listing of popular songs ranked according to their popularity.

2. any listing of popular or favorite persons or things. 

And we usually use this word when we talk about music. But I want to talk with you about funny English mistakes that we all often make even without paying attention to ( and even native speakers make them:) )

So let's create our own hit parade of funny English mistakes!;)

This list can be endless. And I'm pretty sure that you can find even more mistakes in the Internet. As we can see all these mistakes have different reasons of being made - some of them are made because of bad spelling, some are made because of bad grammar knowledge and, of course, don't forget about the mistakes that we make by chanсe, so called typos. 

But always remember 

And if to be serious pay attention to your language skills and develop them with the help of  special training exercises

Here is the list of common students' mistakes

	Incorrect form	Correct form
1	I went to somewhere	I went_somewhere
2	I phoned to him	I phoned_him
3	I came to home	I came_home
4	I went to holiday	I went on holiday
5	To influence on smth	To influence_smth
6	It depends from smth	It depends on smth
7	Discuss about smth	Discuss_smth
8	In last week	_Last week
9	In Monday	On Monday
10	In 5 o’clock	At 5 o’clock
11	In the weekend	At the weekend
12	Childrens, peoples, mans, womans	Children, people, men, women
13	A lot of advices	A lot of advice
14	I am agree	I_agree
15	I_tired	I am tired
16	It’s mean that	It means that
17	I_afraid / I don’t afraid	I am afraid / I am not afraid
18	I very much like it	I like it very much
19	He said what	He said that
20	I haven’t a car	I don’t have a car / I haven’t got a car
21	If the weather will be fine, we’ll go for a walk	If the weather is fine, we’ll go for a walk
22	I feel myself fine	I feel_fine
23	I forgot my book at work	I left my book at work
24	It’s often rain	It often rains
25	How are you? – I am good	How are you? – I am well / fine
26	How are you doing? – I am doing nothing	How are you doing? – I am well / fine
27	What is the weather like today? – Yes, I like it	What is the weather like today? – The weather is fine today
28	English needs me for my job	I need English for my job
29	These new shoes like me	I like these new shoes
30	I am interesting	I am interested in it
31	I am boring	I am bored
32	I am scary	I am scared
33	I went to the magazine	I went to the shop
34	I very like this book.	I like this book very much

To be continued… J

Many thanks to all people who have shared  all these mistakes with us. And if you know some interesting information on this topic, just share it with us, too.

Remember that mistakes help us to be better! Good luck!;)