International Puppeteer's Day

Today is the International Puppeteer's Day! The idea of celebrating this day came to the famous puppeteer  Dzhyvado Zolfahariho (Iran) in 2000.
The well-known Indian puppeteer Kapila Watsiayan said "The world of puppet theater is  innocence, purity and special spontaneity of childhood and wisdom of the philosopher. For me, puppet theater always has a special witchcraft, because it's a unique phenomenon in the art, due to its amazing simplicity it's a  mysterious and imaginative universe, mystery and fantasy. Arising in real time and space, Puppet Theatre returns true nature of our souls ... ".
So who is a puppeteer? It's one who entertains with and operates puppets or marionettes ( according to the Free Dictionary by Farlex)
I've decided to talk with you about puppeteering because I think teaching English to children with puppets is an amazing thing.
As for me I use puppets in my teaching practice very much.

My Mr.Tongue puppet helps me to teach my young learners correct pronunciation.

My students also like sing songs with our finger puppets

(Frog Finger Family song)

And my students and I have created our puppet show: we make our ow puppets from children's favourite movies and invent interesting adventures for our characters.

My students like to make up dialogues with the help of their favourite toys they bring to our English lessons.

Puppets are funny creatures which help children to study. And lessons are getting more interesting and exciting if you bring a little puppet to your class.

Recently Lizzie ( she is my student of the fifth grade) has presented me with a beautiful doll. She made it herself. It's a special Ukrainian doll which is called lyalka-motanka.

This charming present sits on my desk and always cheers me up with its bright colours. 

So my advice for you: become a puppeteer for your students and they will attend your lessons with great pleasure;)

Be happy! International Day of Happiness ;)

  Be happy! It's a good piece of advice, but what does it mean to be happy? Can you say that you are happy or what prevents you from being happy? And can we measure the happiness? So many questions!

 Azerbaijan’s most popular contemporary writer Elchin Safarli says that "happiness hasn't got any size, volume or an expiration date. Happiness can't be of a little quantity or a large quantity. But one thing is certain: happiness really exists . It's in us, it's all around us. Simply we do not always notice it - that is the cause of our inner downturns."

Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
~ Henry David Thoreau

Every person has got his/her own happiness. For me happiness means peace in the whole world, happy faces of my dearest and nearest, when other people understand me. What does it mean to be happy? You are happy when you do what you really like, when the results of your work can be useful for other people. You are happy when you are in harmony with yourself and the people around you. And what about you? 

Happy International Day of Happiness!;)

(the video was taken from WithoutUHere YouTube channel)

Earth Hour-2016

Hey dear friends! 
Don't forget to change the climate change! It's Earth Hour today!
More information is here www.earthhour.org/celebrating-earth-hour
This is our time;)

(the video was taken from Earth Hour YouTube channel)

Traditions: Happy St. Patrick's Day!;)

March 17 is the day when the Irish celebrate St. Patrick's Day. 
St Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland. This holiday has a lot of interesting traditions.
First of all let's have a little history lesson:

(the video was taken from Fiveminded YouTube channel)

There are a lot of things that are associated with St. Patrick's Day.

Let's find out what is it like to be Irish for a day;) 

Many people wear something green on St Patrick ’s Day 

So don't forget to put on a green shirt like this one:

Legend has it that St. Patrick used the three-leaved shamrock to explain the Christian Holy Trinity.

That's why people wear shamrocks on their clothes.

Another interesting thing about this holiday is legend about leprechauns.

Today's leprechauns, usually rosy-cheeked, boozy little men in green attire, come from Irish folklore.The first recorded mention of a leprechaun goes back to the 8th century, coming from the word luchorpán, meaning "little body" to describe water spirits, according to John and Caitlin Matthews in The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures.Another possible origin is the Irish god Lugh, whose Welch variant is known as one of the "Three Golden Shoemakers."There's also the Irish fairy Cluricaune, "a cunning spirit who haunts cellars, drinks, smokes and plays tricks," the Matthewses write.

I'm a little leprechaun
Dressed in green,
The tiniest man
That you have seen.
If you ever catch me, so it's told,
I'll give you my big pot of gold.

As you can see St. Patrick's Day is a wonderful holiday of joy.

I'd like to finish my post with this lovely Irish blessing:

Happy St. Patrick's Day, dear friends! Wish you to find a full pot of luck!;)

Interesting to know: World Consumer Rights Day.

Every day we buy something. The goods we need are various. They can be expensive or cheap. But it doesn't really matter. What  matters is the quality of these goods. So what should we do not to be cheated? First of all we have to know that we are customers and we have rights. 
I've chosen this topic because on March 15 we celebrate World Consumer Rights Day.It coincides with the date of John Kennedy's speech in the US Congress in 1962 .
 John Kennedy identified four fundamental consumer rights. They are:
1) the right to security;
2) the right to quality of goods and services;
3) the right to accurate information;
4) the right to protect one's consumer claims in court.
Later they formed the basis of consumer protection law in many countries.
Now let's summarize the general information about customer's rights and how to protect them.
Customers have rights:

1. to buy products of high quality;
2. to get all information about product they want to buy on the first demand;
3. to be paid money back for spoilt or defective product;
4. to protect their rights from cheaters in the court;
5. to unite one organization of customers.

In case if you have bought low quality goods you can:

• make the price lower;
• remove of the defects in the right time;
• get your money back for defective product.

So every time when you go shopping, be careful and remember your rights;) 

English shortenings & abbreviations

Shortenings and abbreviations are widely used in English. They help to simplify the language and save our time. But at the same time if you don't catch the right meaning, you have got some difficulties with communication. So let's focus on English shortenings and abbreviations today.
An abbreviation (from Latin brevis, meaning short) is a shortened form of a word or phrase. It consists of a group of letters taken from the word or phrase. For example, the word abbreviation can itself be represented by the abbreviation abbr., abbrv. or abbrev (the information was taken from Wikipedia)
 The first abbreviations were taken from Latin:
e.g. - for example (Latin exampli gratia)
a.m.- in the morning (ante meridiem)
p.m.-in the afternoon (post meridiem)
i.e.-that is (id est)
etc - and other things (et cetera)
The first list of abbreviations "Modus Legendi Abbreviature" was created in 1475. It consisted of 38 (!) pages. We can find 'gle - general' there.
In 1641 an abbreviation 'cit -citizen' appeared. In 1660 'miss-mistress' appeared.
In 1837 Charles Dickens used  the abbreviations P.V.P. - Perpetual Vice- President, M.P.C.- Member Pickwick Club, G.C. - General Chairman in his "Posthumous Papers of  the Pickwick Club".
O.K.- okey (Oll Korrect, a jokey misspelling "All Correct") and N.Y.- New York , co-ed -cooperative education, gym - gymnasium, fan -fanatic. 
But the most used abbreviations have appeared  in 1991 due to the World Wide Web. We use a lot of shortenings and abbreviations while chatting on-line or texting. It's so called DIGISPEAK.
 And here is the list of these abbreviations:

Shortening	Meaning
AFAIK	As far as I know
ADR	Address
AFAIC	As far as I’m concerned
AFK	Away from keyboard
A/S/L	Age/sex/location
ATM	At the moment
AWGTHTGTTA	Are we going to have to go through this again
AYT	Are you there
BBL	Be back later
BD	Big deal
BF	Best friend/boyfriend
BFN	Bye for now
BRB	Be right back
BTDT	Been there, done that
BTW	By the way
BZ	Busy
CUL	See you later
CYO	See you on-line
DETI	Don’t even think it
DIKY	Do I know you?
DQMOT	Don’t quote me on this
EBCAK	Error between chair and keyboard.
EBKAC	Error between keyboard and chair.
F2F	Face to face
FOAF	Friend of a friend
FWIW	For what it’s worth
FYI	For your information
GAL	Get a life
GF	Girlfriend
GD&R	Grinning, ducking and running
GMTA	Great minds think alike
HB	Hurry back
HHOK	Ha,ha, only kidding
IANAL I	I am not a lawyer
IAW	In accordance with
IMCO	In my considered opinion
IMHO	In my humble opinion
IMO	In my opinion
IOW	In other words
JK	Just kidding
JAS	Just a second
JOOTT	Just one of those things
KISS	Keep it simple, stupid
KIT	Keep in touch
OK	Okey
LMAO	Laughing my ass off
LOL	Laughing out loud/lots of love/lots of luck
LYLAS	Love you like a sister
MYOB	Mind your own business
MWA	Kiss (the sound of ‘mwa’)
N2M	Not too much
NIH	Not invented here
NM	Never mind
OIC	Oh, I see
OAO	Over and out
OTOH	On the other hand
OTP	On the phone
PAL	Parents are listening
PEBCAK	Problem exists between chair and keyboard.
PEBKAC	Problem exists between keyboard and chair
PIR	Parents in room
PLBCAK	Problem lies between chair and keyboard
PLBKAC	Problem lies between keyboard and chair
PMJI	Pardon my jumping in
PTG&LI	Playing the game and loving it
RL	Real life
ROFL	Rolling on the floor laughing
STFU	Shut the f***up!
SUP	What’s up?
TANSTAAFL	There ain't no such thing as a free lunch
TIA	Thanks in advance
TTFN	Ta,ta for now(=goodbye)
TTT	Thought that too
TTYL	Talk to you later
TU	Thank you
TY	Thank you
WFM	Works for me
YT	You there?
YW	You’re welcome

We also use many shortenings in spoken English. They are:
sis – sister

doc – doctor
telly – television
phone – telephone
plane – airplane
vator – elevator
zine – magazine
specs – spectacles
fridge – refrigeration
flu – influenza
comfy – comfortable
imposs – impossible
mizzy — miserable

I also remember the abbreviation DUFF proposed by a famous young writer Kody Keplinger 

As you can see people have invented a new language and they understand one another pretty good

I hope so:) 

Ok, BFN, CUL;)

PS: If you know another abbreviations, please write them in  comments.It'll be nice to learn something new.

Women's Day. What is it?

On March 8 many countries of the world celebrate Women's Day. In my country ( I am from Ukraine) we celebrate it, too. But I've decided to find out what holiday this is.
International Women's Day (IWD), originally called International Working Women's Day, is celebrated on March 8 every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation, and love towards women's economic, political, and social achievements.(the information was taken from Wikipedia).

Then I've decided to find out what countries celebrate this holiday. And here they are: Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China Cuba, Georgia,Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macedonia , Madagascar, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal , Russia,Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,Uganda,Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia.

In some countries, such as Cameroon, Croatia, Romania, Montenegro,  Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Chile,the day is not a public holiday, but is widely celebrated nonetheless. Is it right to call this holiday 'international' , because many but not all countries of the world celebrate it?

But the UNO has declared March 8 the International Women's Day. And Google has created a special doodle for the Women's Day 2016 ( the video was taken from googledoodles)

Due to this video we definitely see this holiday is international.

The analogue of our March 8 in most countries is Mother's Day, which is celebrated on a very different day.

In Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Turkey, Finland, the USA, Japan Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May. In the UK it's celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent. In India it's celebrated in early October ( Durga Puja festival  in honor of the goddess Durga mother). In Spain and Portugal on December 8th the festival in honor of the Mother of God and all mothers is celebrated. In France and Sweden people congratulate mothers on the last Sunday of May. On the eve of  this day Swedish Red Cross starts selling cute plastic flowers. The money goes to a small paid holiday for mothers with many children. But the most original Mother's Day is celebrated, perhaps, in Serbia. On this day ( two weeks before Christmas) children in the early morning tie their sleeping mother. Waking up, the prisoner shows an extraordinary surprise to find herself bound hand and foot. She has to "pay off" with the gifts which she has hidden under the pillow beforehand.What exciting tradition, isn't it?

On the first Sunday in March  the French celebrate grandmothers holiday . On this day, all the grandmothers and all women older than 55 years are respected very much. For example, they can go to the Disneyland at a discount.

For me the Women's Day is the holiday of spring,  beauty, tenderness, wisdom and attention to a woman, regardless of  her status and age. And of course it's the holiday of flowers.

My favourite plant presented me with its beautiful flowers

Happy Women's Day, my dear friends!;)