English Conversation Course

      I think that nowadays people are troubled by dissatisfaction more than ever. I would like you to watch a video about this problem and a solution on how to deal with it. Questions:    Have you ever felt dissatisfied with yourself? How did you deal with it?  Have you heard of gratitude term before watching the video? What do you think about this solution?  Have you tried gratitude journal mentioned in the video? Would you consider trying it?

      If you are a big fan of cinematography you probably wonder about Oscars this year. How will it look ? What changes have been made? I will write about all we know at this moment in this article.  How it looked like in the past     Firstly, let me remind you how The Academy Award ceremony looked like before COVID-19 pandemic. But first things first. Prior to the ceremony, which usually took place in February, an official list of nominations was announced in mid-January. In order to get a nomination from Academy a movie had to follow some crucial rules which were: A film must be released in the previous calendar year, from midnight at the start of January 1 to midnight at the end of December 31 A film had to be played for seven consecutive days in at least one cinema in Los Angeles County, California (except for the Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature, and awards in short film categories).  Once the nominees are ann...

At the end of the 19th century, everything was already ready for the invention of the plane. Here's a theory about wing lift, here's a compact internal combustion engine. But no one succeeded - the vehicles in flight were uncontrollable and fell. As a result, a fully-fledged flying plane was assembled by two self-taught persons from the American outback - Wilber and Orville Wright didn't even finish school. Maybe they were rich oddballs? No, they only owned a bicycle shop and a workshop. The US government awarded a $50000 grant to Samuel Langley to develop the plane, but he never took off. And the Wright brothers built their Flyer I for just a thousand dollars. Well, maybe it's the answer. When you have few resources, you need to discard all unnecessary and focus on the most important. And the most important thing was to solve the problem of controlling the aircraft in flight. 1896. The brothers sit in their Ohio bike shop and read newspapers about flight enthus...

 The average European consumes nearly 80 kg of meat every year. Meat is a big part of our culture, but is it really as beneficial as we used to think? 1. How often do you eat meat? Do you need to have meat in every meal? 2. Did your feelings about meat change after after watching this video? 3. Do you think that the regulations for livestock production should be more restricted?

Nowadays, there are a lot of people around who are often confident in their knowledge and abilities no matter what. This can be annoying or even very inconvenient, for example, in the professional field. But what is the root of this problem? Is someone personally responsible for such delusions, or is it an integral part of their nature? Well, if you are even a little interested, I suggest you watch this video.   Did you know about the Dunning-Kruger effect before and the level of its influence?  Have you experienced it by yourself or maybe you were in the opposite situation?  What do you think about mentioned ways to avoid this effect? Do you want to add something? 

  The year  2020 was full of extraordinary events.   Outbreak of COVID-19 changed our lives- thousands of dead, economic recession and massive lockdown defined the whole year.   If  a massive pandemic  wasn’t  enough, our  world literally caught on fire, with hectares of American and Australian forests being burned to ashes.   Moreover, society  faced big political  movements, including  Black Lives Matter or fight for  women's  rights. With so many breakthrough events happening at once it was so hard to keep track of all events that many people didn’t hear about one of the most extraordinary news of our decade-  in  April of 2020  the Pentagon  has officially released videos of "unidentified aerial phenomena", the same conforming existence of aliens. This brings us to more recent event- in November mysterious silver monolith was discovered in the Utah desert just to disappear few days later. ...

Will  evil   prevail? Black musician seeks a way to overcome racism, so he decides to join KKK meetings to understand the source of racism. In order to fulfill the plan he has arranged a meeting with the grand wizard of KKK group known for extreme violence. Had he succeed? Find out by watching the TED talk! Questions: 1.      Would you find a courage in yourself to do what the main hero of the film did? 2.      Did he change your view of source of racism? 3.      “How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?”. Have you found yourself in a situation, in which you asked yourself or other person/people similar question?

Quality of life Have you ever thought about how good is your life in Poland? Maybe you would be better off in another country? There exists scientific research that can help you determine objectively how your well-being would be influenced if you have lived outside Poland. You can use the outcomes of the research to get to know if your life would be better elsewhere without personally being there or experience it in anyway.   The most common quality of life indicator is Human Development Index (HDI). It was invented by an economist from Pakistan - country where quality of life is known to be especially meager. It takes into account these factors: life expectancy - meaning how many years statistical human being will be alive in particular country. education index – average years spend while getting education. More is better. income index – calculated income level using data from Gross national income at purchasing power parity per capita. It is similar to GDP per capita, but...

           Have you ever consider about our natural satellite? Yes, the moon has a huge impact on Earth. For example the moon’s gravitational pull on Earth is the main cause of the rise and fall of ocean tides. In effect, removing the Moon would spell extreme climate change. Firstly there would be huge differences between temperatures, what is more the ice ages would hit the world every thousand years.  Thank you for your time.        Questions:  1. How do you like a form of animated presentation in this short video? Do you find it more attractive to watch?  2. Do you know any other reasons why moon is that important for Earth?  3. What do you think about nuke weapon? Is it should be that available like it is?

     Many important factors influence the process of shaping young people mindsets. Of course, the process of learning the tolerance, acceptance, and the reasons why people differs should start at home, but schools and universities may be equally important. They give possibilities to expand our knowledge and find ways to be international even without leaving the country. As Global Attitude Protocol states one of the character traits that will define a person with a global mindset is the knowledge of foreign languages, which we learn mainly in schools. But is it really possible to shape a global mindset? Is it a quality that some are born with and just deepen it during the lifetime, or can we really acquire it? To reflect on it, it is worth considering what the global mind really is. A global mindset is defined as the ability to recognize, read, and adapt to cultural signals, both overt and subtle, so that your effectiveness is not compromised when you are dealing with peo...

  Which bag should I use? Almost every time we go shopping, we are forced to take a bag with us. The question is, what bag should we use: the plastic one that you can use only once, or twice and throw it away, or a paper one because it's a bit more ecological? Please, watch the video below and answer a few questions. Questions: Which bag do you choose when you do groceries or any other shopping, and why? Do you remember to take bags you already have at home with you when you go shopping? What do you think would be the best option for our planet? Can we produce bags, which can be reused multiple times, but without a high carbon footprint emission?

  Stanford Prison Experiment AN OVERVIEW OF THE EXPERIMENT The experiment started when the police started picking up many students on Sunday morning. All suspects were charged with burglary, daylight robbery, or other small offences. They were suddenly pushed inside the car, driven to the police station, handcuffed, and locked up. But no one really knew what was at the end. Were they really guilty? https://www.prisonexp.org/polish/setting-up True guilt They were only guilty of answering an advert to take part in a prison experiment. Participants could take one of two roles: a prisoner, or a prison guard. To do this, creators prepared a special environment in an old university building that looked and felt exactly like a real prison. They wanted to research people's behaviour in this extreme environment.  One interesting thing is that 70 students declared their desires to take part in this experiment. Researchers didn't want participants with any criminal past, so they checked ...