English Conversation Course

http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSMEVI98.PDF A simple model can adequately show the mind of a child: a sponge put under water. It takes in, registers many, if not all, factors surrounding it, no matter what these are. In result children are often exposed to sources of various kinds, so how easy is it for them to learn and later re-enact certain negative behaviours? Looking at data made available by the Television Violence Monitoring Programme 61% of examined American TV programmes feature some violence and 75% of these scenes are not followed by punishment. In a world that has become more and more accustomed to the existence of violence what does this mean for children in terms of their development and possible harmful effect on their morals in the future? In today’s world we no longer have the choice of being aware or not of world and local news: additionally, the truth is that most tragic and terrifying stories attract the most publicity. Off course, if we l...

People have been using gestures in their cars for years, but in the new BMW 7 Series, they can actually accomplish something besides aggravating other drivers. Before you get excited thinking about how you might gesture when, say, a driver cuts you off, this “gesture control” functionality is limited. Instead of turning a knob or touching a screen, the driver is able to gesture with a hand or finger, tracing in the air a circle the right for raising the entertainment system’s volume. Tracing a circle to the left lowers the volume. Other hand gestures, captured by a visual sensor in the 7 Series cabin, can be edited to control a limited number of additional functions, such as accepting or declining a phone call. However, one of the key elements of the marketing campaign behind the new 7 Series was to highlight the introduction of Gesture Control. Aiming at helping you to remain focused behind the wheel, the new feature will be coming in handy when you want to perform variou...

Today I’d like to talk to you about drugs. I want to do it in a different manner than you are probably used to though - I’m not going to tell you that drugs are bad and you shouldn’t be doing them, instead I will try to tell you the most important things to keep in mind while tripping – things I believe everyone should know in modern society, because even if you are not interested in using them yourself, you can be fairly certain that there are lots of people around you in every single club doing them each night, and this knowledge might just save someone – including your close friends – from having a so-called “bad trip”. Or worse. Let me make one thing straight before we begin - by no means I want to encourage anyone to do drugs. I am not going to discourage you either though, because I do believe that we are all old and mature enough to make such decisions ourselves and we should focus on facts instead – it is more important today than it ever was that we broaden our knowledge r...

Imagine living in Bronx, New York. The year is 1973. There are countless, violent gangs, blood spill everywhere and the situation is getting so bad the police are afraid to intervene. There is a man known as Afrika Bambaataa – he is the leader of one of the most fearsome and brutal gangs, an organization called the Black Spades. He’s one of the most influential people responsible for the music as we know it today. He is also the one who managed to unite black communities and found a way to stop mindless violence, giving people the possibility to express themselves freely and showing them how to turn their emotions into art. How is that possible? It all began on August 11, 1973 at a block party he rocked with his buddy, a DJ known as Kool Herc. (source: bbc.com) They wanted to try something fresh and new. Instead of playing full tracks, DJ Kool Herc was playing just the instrumental “breaks” – he did that by using the same record on both turntables at the same time, and loopin...

Most of you probably play video games, or at the very least know what they are so I decided to talk about indie games. I rarely play big budget productions like Fallout, Battlefront or Mass Effect, but I tend to really enjoy smaller projects like Botanicula, Limbo, Don't Starve or Machinarium - usually, because of their beautiful aesthetics. Botanicula - Trailer SOURCE Indie games, as the name would suggest are games released by the game development studio without outside funding (although crowd funded games still are considered independent), at least in theory but what in my opinion really lies in the heart of indie games is lack of corporate structure and more artistic freedom than in big games developed by huge studios. Some indie games do get help from publishers but still maintain full control of the creative process. While for many people it may seem that creating those games is easy - the reality is far from that. Developers usually have to spend a lot of time o...

SOURCE Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a stage play written by Jack Thorne, taking place in the world created by J.K Rowling and based on a new, original story co-written by Rowling, Thorne and John Tiffany will be starting its run at the Palace Theatre in London this July. While the project was rumored to be under construction since 2013 and confirmed last year, it only recently managed to cause some controversy on the internet. On 20th of December 2015 the initial cast for Harry, Ron and Hermione was announced and Hermione Granger is played by Noma Dumezweni. While all the actors are not exactly similar to what we came to expect from those characters, the controversy is concentrated around Hermione. You see, Miss Dumezweni is black. And while that doesn't seem like much of a problem, to some people it is. There are two main reasons why people seem to be agitated over this situation. Some of them believe that a previously established character shouldn't go ...

http://www.newsweek.pl/g/i.aspx/680/0/newsweek/635409612419049926.jpg Mastery How many times have you caught yourself saying “ Nah, it’s not for me” or “ I can’t do this” or “ crap, this sport is not my cup of tea” or “ How the hell am I supposed to quit smoking?”? Well, probably a number of times through your entire life. Giving up is so common nowadays that it became easily accepted and people do it on an everyday basis. So when you ask your friend if he or she will go out for a pint, or go with you to see a gig in a downtown, suddenly they have a handful of explanations out of the blue. - “ You know bro, I got this bloody important exam tomorrow”, - “ Sorry mate, my sister is having birthday I really can’t, you know?” -     “ I’m buying this super-duper ultra hd turbo time machine dude” We often fall into a trap of making excuses for ourselves, to explain our laziness, lack of energy, or… an ambition to be perfect. The 21st century is the era of q...