The Best Russian Songs

The Best Russian Songs What Are the Most Famous Russian Songs? Chapters“Kalinka”, the Most Famous Military SongRussian Music: “Katioucha”, the One That’ll Make You CryThe “Trololo” Song, Russia’s Comic Side“Podmoskovnie Vetchera” (The Moscow Nights)Dorogoï Dlinnoyou (The Long Road), An Unexpected SuccessRussian Music: “Kombat”“Farewell of Slavianka” by the Red Army Choir“Rumka Vodki na Stole” (Glass of Vodka on the Table)Russian Music: “Alyosha”, a Symbolic Song“Ostrov Nevezeniya”, from the Film The Diamond Arm“Listen more, talk less.” - Russian ProverbWhen Russia hosted the World Cup in 2018, a lot of people were introduced to different aspects of Russian culture, including the music. There are hundreds of thousands of people who know the most famous Russian songs.Did you know that the Russian language uses the Cyrillic alphabet?For the purpose of this article, we’ve transcribed the titled using the Latin alphabet.  The music from Russia is as expansive as the country itself and Russia has an impre ssive orchestral and classical music repertoire including Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, not to mention contemporary music, opera, folk, etc.While we can't go through all of Russia's music, we will have a look at a few songs we reckon that you have to listen to if you want a better understanding of music in Russia.In this article, we're taking a quick tour of the Russian musical landscape and 10 Russian songs that you may not necessarily like, but definitely should listen to! LavaRussian Teacher 5.00 (8) £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors LarisaRussian Teacher 5.00 (2) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors InaRussian Teacher 4.88 (8) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors IrynaRussian Teacher 5.00 (8) £12/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors EvgeniaRussian Teacher £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors AnastassiaRussian Teacher 5.00 (2) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors NikolaRussian Tea cher 5.00 (4) £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors MargaritaRussian Teacher 5.00 (3) £18/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors“Kalinka”, the Most Famous Military SongIf you know much about Russian popular culture, you’ll have probably have heard the song Kalinka at least once in your life. You might have even heard one of the various translations into other languages.There's a lot of militaristic symbolism in Russian music. (Source: WikiImages)Kalina, from Kalinka, is also a common Slavic name.  The song “Kalinka” is essential, it’s a metaphor for women’s natural beauty, something which made the song hugely popular. It was composed by Ivan Petrovich Larionov in 1860 and was performed by many, which eventually gave it its Russian folk music version.There’s also a Cossack version of the song with a really militaristic feeling to it.Russian Music: “Katioucha”, the One That’ll Make You CryKatioucha is another essential Russian song. It was written in Mikhail Isakovsky and Matvey Blanter and tells the story of a young girl writing a prayer for her lover who’s fighting on the front lines. The name “Katioucha” is the diminutive of Catherine in Russian.As a military number, it’s part of the Red Army Choir’s repertoire. It’s a rousing song that has been used to lift the spirits of the Russian people on numerous occasions, especially during the Second World War.For a few years, Valeria Kurnushkina has performed it alongside the Red Army Choir. It’s a very moving song!  During the World Cup, Russian fans sang this song on their way back home following their defeat to Croatia.Take  Russian classes London.The “Trololo” Song, Russia’s Comic SideThis song became a huge internet meme and was performed by Eduard Khil. The song’s real name is “? ????? ???, ???? ? ??????? ??????????? ?????” (I Am Very Glad, as I'm Finally Returning Back Home) and the original version had lyrics.The original lyrics told the story of a n American cowboy that was heading back to the US before being changed either through censorship or down to the artist’s choice.The version without lyrics was nicknamed the “Trololo” song online and has been viewed millions of times on social networks and sites like YouTube and BuzzFeed.The singer, Eduard Khil, became famous outside of Russia almost overnight. He was actually a holder of the Merited Artist of the RSFSR.Find out more about famous Russian people.“Podmoskovnie Vetchera” (The Moscow Nights)This song is as famous in Russia as TV themes are in the UK. In fact, Podmoskovnie Vetchera was composed in 1955 by Mikhail Matusovsky and became the theme tune for Radio Moscow.The song wasn't originally about Moscow at all... (Source: opsa)Did you know that the lyrics were changed at the request of the Minister of Education at the time since the song was about Leningrad rather than Moscow?It was originally performed by Vladimir Troshin, broadcast in China as of 1957, and a French version was created and performed by Francis Lemarque in 1959.The song was used to welcome Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989 to the White House.Discover the best Russian TV shows. LavaRussian Teacher 5.00 (8) £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors LarisaRussian Teacher 5.00 (2) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors InaRussian Teacher 4.88 (8) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors IrynaRussian Teacher 5.00 (8) £12/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors EvgeniaRussian Teacher £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors AnastassiaRussian Teacher 5.00 (2) £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors NikolaRussian Teacher 5.00 (4) £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors MargaritaRussian Teacher 5.00 (3) £18/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutorsDorogoï Dlinnoyou (The Long Road), An Unexpected SuccessThis song is known in the English-speaking world as Those Were the Days. However, it was originally a Russian romantic folk song. It was translat ed into French, Spanish, German, Italian, Persian, and Hungarian and was famously covered by Paul McCartney and Dalida.It was composed in the 1920s under the Soviet Union and became popular in Western Europe in the 1960s, particularly in the UK and France. The Muscovite version, with dancers, is the most popular version.This is one of the most-recorded Russian songs of all time with over 40 different versions having been recorded.Russia is also famous for its ballets. (Source: xusenru)Russian Music: “Kombat”The song “Kombat” was created in 1996 by the composer Igor Matvienko and became famous with his group Lyube. They’re famous for their music without the political waffle present in songs by other artists.The lyrics speak for themselves: “bullets, vodka, cigarettes, shoot or you die!”. Like a lot of other songs in Russian, it focuses on the idea of victory, defeat, and war. The 90s was the decade during which modern Russia was being rebuilt following the collapse of t he Soviet Union. Russian culture is definitely in sync with Russian history.“Farewell of Slavianka” by the Red Army ChoirThis is a patriotic march written by Vasily Agapkin about the First Balkan War (1912-1913). It’s about Slavic women saying goodbye to their husbands and partners as they head off to war.  There are two versions of the song, one from 1912 and another from 1997.For many years, there were famous Russian composers advocating the song’s use as the Russian national anthem. The song is now an unofficial part of the Red Army Choir’s repertoire.The national anthem of Russia is the melody of the Soviet anthem but with new lyrics and replaced “The Patriotic Song” in 2000.“Rumka Vodki na Stole” (Glass of Vodka on the Table)Here’s a song that’s as emblematic as it is cliché.Isn’t vodka an essential part of Russian culture, after all?The song describes it perfectly. It was written and performed by Grigory Leps and was a success in Russia, especially at the end of the Soviet era.There's a whole world to discover when it comes to Russian music. (Source: 3dman_eu)Can a glass of vodka fix everything?No, but it might make a difference (in Russia, at least).  This pessimistic song was inspired by the repressive Soviet era and is based on a common Russian proverb that states that repression can affect people from all walks of life.Russian Music: “Alyosha”, a Symbolic SongSymbolism is never far away in Russian culture and the song “Alyosha” was composed in 1966 by Eduard Kolmanovsky. The song is about the Aloysha monument in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The monument honours the Soviet soldiers who died during the occupation of Bulgaria during the Second World War.Not to be confused with the Ukranian singer Alyosha who performed at Eurovision in 2010.The song is particularly popular in Bulgaria and Russia and the two countries often exchange performances of the song.“Ostrov Nevezeniya”, from the Film The Diamond ArmAndrei Mironov is one of the most famous actors in Russia. The Diamond Arm (1978) was one of the most watched films in Russia and “Ostrov Nevezeniya” (The Island of Misfortune) is a popular song that many groups have covered.Take some Russian language lessons.To learn more about Russian literature and culture, there’s nothing better than watching films or listening to songs.While most of the emblematic Russian songs come from famous ballets like the Nutcracker or Swan Lake, there are also plenty of Russian songs from popular culture, too. Whether they’re about the Russian revolution, the Russian Federation, or even the country’s relationship with the West, they’re all popular.So which one would you like to listen to?Whether you like the violin, flute, percussion, harp, fiddle, cello, accordion, mandolin, balalaika, or choral music, there are plenty of Russian folk songs, instrumental pieces, contemporary music, concertos, and pop tunes from the days of the Russian Empire, the time of the USSR , and new music for a new Russian Federation.You needn't be a professional musician, performer, or studying composition to appreciate traditional music from Russia or a few of the country's most famous bands! Additionally, you can always listen to Russian music on the radio or at concerts. Be it a symphony orchestra led by a famous conductor or composer, chamber music, or something with melodies more similar to Western music, there's something for all tastes in Russia.If you're interested in learning more about the Russian language, you should definitely consider getting in touch with a private tutor to help you achieve your linguistic goals and better understand Russian music and the surrounding culture.

Algebra Homework HelpThe ultimate solution to Algebra Homework Help

Algebra Homework HelpThe ultimate solution to Algebra Homework Help 0SHARESShare If you haven’t been successful in getting an amazing algebra homework help till now, you can hold the helping hand of Tutor Pace. You will get a full-fledged homework help from us; something that  youve  always dreamed of. Incredible algebra homework help We offer a complete homework help online that caters to the needs and requirements of students completely. Students can ask any problems and can bring any doubts from/to our great algebra tutors. Our tutors are dexterous enough to answer any question. In addition to doing homework, students get to learn different algebra shortcuts that help them in their tests and exams. Regular feedback from highly-qualified tutors let the students improve their grades and scores by a huge margin. Students get all algebra homework answers in quickly and smoothly. So, forget about submitting incomplete and low-quality assignments. Enjoy our homework help online Tutor Pace gives you a grand liberty because you can learn 247 anytime at your pace and from your place. It’s exactly when you require, we appear for your assistance. Whether it’s morning or it’s night, we promise to make your career bright! Get Algebra Homework Help Online Now [starbox id=admin]

How to Survive Your First Italian Conversation

How to Survive Your First Italian Conversation Suzy S. Are you nervous about speaking  Italian for the first time? Below, Italian teacher Nadia B. shares some tips on how to survive your first Italian conversation Youve memorized a long list of  Italian vocabulary words, and youve practiced repeating them out loud with your Italian teacher. But, are you confident enough in your skills to  have an Italian conversation with someone other than your Italian instructor? The following tips and tricks will teach you how to navigate through your first Italian conversation. These tidbits will help you communicate with and comprehend your conversation partner, as well as avoid  some of the most common challenges facing Italian language learners in conversation. Lets get started! 1. Ask Your Partner  to Speak Slowly If your Italian conversation partner is a native Italian, you might find that  he or she will  become animated and start to speak rapidly. Dont worry, this is very common among native Italian speakers. If youre having trouble understanding your partner, you can try the following phrase: Parla/parli più lentamente, per favore, which means Please speak more slowly.  In this phrase, parla is informal and parli is formal. 2. Take Note of Hand Gestures Another thing that happens as Italian speakers become more animated is their use of hand gestures. Take note of these hand gestures, as they  can help you gain comprehension. Check out this link to  see the many hand gestures that Italians often use. Familiarize yourself with some of the gestures, and see if you can catch them in use in actual conversation. 3. Phrases to Use When You Dont Understand If asking your partner to speak slowly doesnt work, here are some phrases you can use if theres something you dont understand: Potresti/Potrebbe ripetere la parola/la frase, per favore? (Could you please repeat the word/the last few words?) In this phrase, potresti is informal and potrebble is formal. Cosa vuol dire ____?  (What does ___ mean?) If youre really not able to understand what your conversation partner has said, you can resort to: Non capisco. (I dont understand.) Non ho capito. (I didnt understand [a specific thing].) 4. Substitute Words You Dont Know If youre  following what your partner is saying,  but youre having trouble expressing a particular idea or thought, try to work around it. If you cant think of a particular word, or dont know the word, you can try to describe it using words you do know. For example, if you didnt know the word for bookstore in Italian (la libreria), you could say, E dove si compra un libro. (Its where you buy books.) If youre really stuck, and the person youre conversing with speaks some English, try the following phrase:  Come se dice ____ in italiano? (How do you say ____ in Italian?) 5. Keep it Simple Lastly, remember to keep it simple. Using simple sentence structures and basic vocabulary words can go a long way. Remember these common building blocks of sentences: The verbs to be: essere and stare Subject pronouns: io (I), lui (he), noi (us), etc. Common verbs:  mangiare (to eat),  parlare (to speak),  andare (to go) Helpful  prepositions:  di (of),  da (from),  accanto (beside),  davanti (in front),  indietro (behind),  giù (below) Useful adjectives: interessante (interesting),  bello (beautiful),  amabile (friendly), difficile (hard), facile (easy) 6. Ask Your Partner Questions In addition to using the above structures to create varied conversation, dont forget that another way to increase the richness and depth of your conversation is to ask the person youre conversing with questions about themselves, or ask for more information about what he or she has  said. Use the following question words to gain more information: perché (why) come (how) quando (when) dove (where) che cosa (what) chi (who) Use these tips and consult your  Italian teacher to help prepare for your first Italian conversation. Most of all, enjoy yourself! Its sure to be full of fun  and learning, and its only the beginning of many adventures in Italian to come! Post Author: Nadia B. Nadia B. teaches Italian in New York, NY. She graduated summa cum laude from New York University, with a double degree in Italian Language and Literature and Classical Music Performance.  Learn more about Nadia here! Photo by  Giulia Mulè Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher

LOI English Book Club

LOI English Book Club LOI English is introducing a new kind of course for upper-intermediate to advanced English speakers, the English Book Club. In this class, you will read some of the best novels in the English language, then discuss them in a weekly group class led by a native teacher.We love reading, and know that a lot of our students do to. We think this will be a fun new way for English students to maintain their English with reading and weekly conversation. The teacher will help with vocabulary lists and reading questions given out before each class, and can explain difficult parts of the novel during the weekly class.Classes will be $40 per month, which includes 4 classes of 1 hour 15 minutes each. There will be 5 students in each class. We will need a minimum of 5 students for a class, so make sure to share this with your friends via Facebook and Twitter! Groups will meet live via WebEx, a high-quality online video conferencing platform.To register for a class, click here and fill out the form, or email us.

How should I use the Virtual Writing Tutor in 2020

How should I use the Virtual Writing Tutor in 2020 After nearly eight years of development, the Virtual Writing Tutor is becoming a potent resource for students and teachers. Here are some ways you can start using the VWT to help your learners learn faster and better. New ways to use the VirtualWritingTutor.com Free grammar check The Virtual Writing Tutor started its life as a simple grammar check website in 2012. Now, eight years later, there is a lot more to it, but the grammar checker function is still the most popular feature for most of the approximately two hundred thousand visitors to the VirtualWritingTutor.com per month. Perhaps, the biggest reason for its popularity is that it is a 100% free grammar checker, forever. There are other grammar checkers that you can pay for, but I am working hard so that you and your students always have a free option at hand. My theory is that a free online grammar checker can be a source of lifelong learning, but only if students get enough positive experiences using it for the grammar checker to become a beneficial habit. Asking students to use the VWT once or twice a semester is not enough. Heres my advice. How can I use the grammar checker? Whenever you ask students to write something for homework or in the computer lab, ask them to check it for errors using the the Virtual Writing Tutor. Give them a point for using the VWT to eliminate their errors. Tell them that the development of revision strategies is one of the objectives of the course, and give students writing assignments to do every week. Repetition and perceived benefit are the keys to the development of beneficial habits. Read student testimonials about their experiences using the Virtual Writing Tutor. Students cant always see the errors in their own writing, so a quick grammar check on the VWT is a fast and often effective way to eliminate embarrassing errors. Regular use of the VWT makes common errors more visible. Students revise better after a semester using the VWT, even offline and during writing exams. Thats been my experience. Extensive versus intensive correction Research suggests that the best way to influence student accuracy is to provide focused feedback on errors. That means that if you teach past tenses in the presentation and practice stages of your lesson, you should only give feedback on past tenses during the production stage. This is what we mean by intensive corrective feedback. Still, there are many glaring errors that take a long time to explain but are so frequent that teachers cannot ignore them in a students writing. Correction of these incidental errors is sometimes called extensive corrective feedback. The best way for teachers to provide extensive feedback on their errors is to get students to run their texts through the Virtual Writing Tutors grammar checker. Its quick and easy and builds that habit of revision into a weekly routine. Grammar checkers cant detect all the errors in a students writing for two primary reasons. Its partly because not all the error detection rules have been written yet and partly because the system only checks one sentence at a time. A grammar checker such as the VWT cant use the information in the surrounding context of the paragraph or the world at large to determine if the student has used the correct tense. But if a grammar checker is inherently limited, doesnt that mean that it should be avoided completely? No way. Online grammar checkers may be the only solution to the problem of error fossilization. Is there a solution for error fossilization? Ill get into trouble for writing this with at least one of my colleagues, but fossilization is a problem with the instruction not a problem with the student. Think of it this way. The error “I have 17 years.” originates in the students first language, French. Alternatively, consider the widespread use of the first-person pronoun I incorrectly used in lowercase. Through repeated practice of the error without consistent corrective feedback from a teacher or peers, errors like these can become stable and resistant to feedback. After correcting the student twice or three times, a teacher may feel that correcting the student has become a lost cause and pronounce a gloomy prognosis: fossilization! Frequent, repeated, immediate feedback will destabilize even the most entrenched errors. I have seen it myself. In a classroom full of students, more than half of my low intermediates start the semester saying and writing i have 17 years. Through the inherently communicative and repetitive weekly narrative writing assignments in Actively Engaged at College, all the students will have eliminated that error by week 15with the exception of the one student who didnt use the Virtual Writing Tutor. An online grammar checker is the cure for fossilized errors. A fossilized Allosaurus skull. Allo? Allo? Self-Scoring Pen Pal exchange One way to build the revision habit in students is surreptitiously through a self-scoring pen pal exchange. You can set up the exchange between students in the same class or between students of different classes or colleges. As they write about their day, their family, their routine, neighbourhoods, favorite food, memorable day, and a memorable trip, the system counts their errors, their words, and the target vocabulary from the lesson, generating a score. Students seek to maximize their scores by correcting their errors and replying to their pen pals. In this way, using the Virtual Writing Tutor as a revision strategy aligns with their desire for higher grades. When scores align with objectives, students have a better chance of succeeding. The Virtual Writing Tutors Pen Pal Exchange System Automated Argument Essay Evaluation There is so much you can do to help students learn to write better argument essays using the VWT. Here are my step-by-step suggestions. Download an argument essay writing project idea below. Controversial Debate Topic AssignmentDownload First, ask students to sign up to research one of these controversies: abortion, climate change, animal rights, body image, feminism, immigration, or internet censorship. Get groups to research their topic on https://idebate.org/debatabase Ask each group to work together to create a glossary, card game and online matching exercise using the VWTs Glossary Creator. Get each group member to outline an argument essay using the argument essay outliner. Have students draft an essay and get automated formative essay evaluation from the VWT.Have students submit their final drafts to you for your summative feedback and evaluation. Automated Cover Letter Evaluation Lets face it. Some students are sloppy. You show them a standard format for a letter that could get them the entry-level job to start an exciting new career. And what happens? They get it all wrong. So, what do you do next? You spend 10-20 minutes showing them whats wrong with your trusty red pen. Dont get me wrong. I see value in reading students assignments and dramatizing the presence of a reader by commenting on student writing. It is what weve been trained to do, but performing an autopsy on sloppy work is not a very efficient use of our time. Wouldnt it be better if they could just run their letter through the VWT to get the same feedback in two seconds flat? Faster, explicit feedback with a formative score is better feedback. Thats my hypothesis. I have been working with Laurent Nicolas at Andre Grasset College to bring you just such a system. Give it a try. Glossary Maker If you do little else, plan to use theVirtual Writing Tutor’s Glossary Creator this year. Its new and its wonderful. Students can learn so much from this new glossary maker. It takes approximately one and a half minutes per glossary term for a student to do all of the following: add a termgive the part of speechadd a definition in sentence case using the integrated Google definition searchgenerate a text-to-speech pronunciation modeladd an automatic translation It takes another one and a half minutes per glossary term to add the following: images fromWikimedia Commonsauthentic example sentences from theLextutor Concordancer For a 10-term field-related glossary, it will take about 30 minutes. For a 20-term glossary, it should only take about an hour, the perfect activity for students during a computer lab hour. By the end of the hour, students will have a published glossary, a card game to play next class with their classmates, and an online matching exercise to share with classmates in the same program during the next lab hour the following week. Screenshot of a glossary made with the Virtual Writing Tutor An automatically generated card game from a glossary created with the Virtual Writing Tutor An automatically generated online matching exercise from a glossary created with the Virtual Writing Tutor Screencast Creator Every semester, I ask my intermediate students to create two screencasts per semester. Each time, I tell them to write a script and check it for errors. I tell them to use the VWTs text-to-speech button to help them with their pronunciation. What do they do despite my instructions and cajoling? They wing it. The improvised result is predictable. Students work long and hard to produce a screencast filled with avoidable grammar errors and word choice errors and filled with avoidable pronunciation errors, too. I am thrilled to announce that by the end of February, the Virtual Writing Tutor will have a step-by-step screencast creator to help students produce high-quality field-related screencasts for the blogging project that we do with Actively Engaged Online. Of course, you wont need the textbook to get your students to create screencasts with the free system, but it will help if it is your first time teaching blogging. In any case, soon enough, those days will be behind us. If I get my way, there wont be any more avoidable errors and mispronunciations filling up YouTube. My students field-related screencasts are otherwise quite watchable. They just need a little VWT magic polish to make them really shine. New features There are many new features to the Virtual Writing Tutor that you can try. Dont wait another year. 2020 is the best time to start using the Virtual Writing Tutor with your students if you havent started already. I have so many new features planned. On top of automatically evaluating narrative writing tasks, I intend to build a career FAQ blog post creator with embedded meaningful paraphrasing exercises and a listicle creator. You wont believe how good 2020 is going to be! Contact me if you have any questions. Please follow and like us:

Wisdom Comes not from Age, but from Education and Learning.

Wisdom Comes not from Age, but from Education and Learning. Wisdom comes not from age, but from education and learning. Anton Checkov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in the small seaport of Taganrog, southern Russia. Chekhovs grandfather was a serf (kind of slave in Royal Russia), and later he bought the freedom of his wife and children. In 1879 Chekhov entered Moscow University Medical School. As a student, he published hundreds of short comical stories to support himself and his family. In his stories were shown silly moments in society, marriage problems, clashes between husbands and wives, mistresses and lovers, whims of young women, of whom Chekhov had not much knowledge the author was shy with women even after his marriage. His work has appeared in the daily newspapers of St. Petersburg. He is one of the most famous writers in the world. His works have been translated into more than 100 languages. His plays, notably The Seagull , Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard for over a hundred years, have played in many theaters around the world. During over 26 years of creativity Chekhov delivered out if his imagination about 900 different literary projects (short humorous stories, serious stories, plays), many of which have become classics of world literature. Particular attention is drawn the Steppe , A Boring Story , Duel , The Story of an Unknown Man , Man in a Case ( 1898).

Squad Goals! 8 Tips and Tricks for Learning a Language with Friends

Squad Goals! 8 Tips and Tricks for Learning a Language with Friends Squad Goals! 8 Tips and Tricks for Learning a Language with Friends Being around friends is the best.They support you when youre down.They laugh at your jokes even if they arent funny.Theyll even tell you youre totally justified in being angry that unicorn-themed food just isnt magical enough.But theres one other thing friends can do.They can help you learn a language!Whether any of your current friends are already interested in learning a language, or you want to find new language friends online through conversation exchange, having support (and having fun together!) while learning isnt only helpful, its important.In this post, well talk about how you can benefit from making and having friends who are learning the same language as you or befriending and interacting with native speakers.Here are some tips and tricks to make fluency your number one squad goal! Why Learn a Language with Friends?First of all, learning a language with friends adds motivation. When youre learning a language, it can be easy to quit as soon as things get difficult. Howeve r, if youre learning with friends, theres someone else there to hold you accountable. Whether its in real life or online, and whether your friends are native speakers youre doing a language exchange with or fellow learners of your target language, you dont want to tell them that youll no longer be joining them on the journey to fluency. Its much harder to quit if doing so will let your friends down!Plus, youll have someone to discuss tricky language rules with. Regardless of what language youre learning, chances are youll encounter some rules that are difficult to grasp. When youre learning with a friend, you can talk through these problems. If youre learning with friends who are learning the same language, you two can discuss how you interpret the rule. If youre learning online with a native conversation partner, theyll likely be able to provide additional clarity on the rule.Finally, learning a language with friends gives you someone to practice with. Online language exchange prov ides you with practice in your target language in exchange for giving your partner practice in your native language. In person, on the phone or online, with any type of language friend, you can simply interact in your target language (or switch between languages). Whatever the case may be, having language friends is a helpful way to get valuable practice.Squad Goals! 8 Tips and Tricks for Learning a Language with Friends1. Find new language friends online.First things first, if you dont already have real-life friends who are learning the same target language as you (or immediate access to native speakers of your target language in real life), the internet has your back.There are plenty of language exchange sites where you can partner with a native speaker as you both try to learn the others language. Sites like Languing, LanguageFriends.net  and  Conversation Exchange  will help you find friends who speak the language youre looking to learn.These language learning communities can he lp you find other people who are learning your target language.Find people who share your interests and start getting all the benefits of learning a language with friends!2. Use social media.Social media is an invaluable tool for language learners. When youre looking to learn a language with friends, its nearly perfect.Thats because you can exercise all the main skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.For a more immersive experience, you can change your language settings. Language settings are remarkably easy to change. On Twitter, just click your profile icon, then Settings and privacy. From there, you can change your language. On Facebook, its even easier: language settings are at the bottom right-hand corner of any page.Both sites are also handy because you can use them to find and connect with other groups of language learners, and its always possible that youll even make more friends with native speakers just by hanging around in the right places!If your real-life frie nds agree to it, you can team up to post updates, message each other or even exchange video messages in your target language.You can also connect with a language exchange partner on social media for easy access to all their posts. This is one way you might end up making a wider network of friends who speak your target languageâ€"by connecting with your language exchange partners friends through social media.If you dont want to annoy your current friends/followers by occasionally switching to a language they dont speak, you can still use social media to connect with your language friends. Simply start new social media accounts that you dedicate solely to your target language. This way, you can post freely in your target language without anyone unfollowing you for it.3. Play games.Playing games  is a great way to improve your language skills while having fun.You can play language games with your friends in real life, or find online games to play with your language exchange partner. Ma ny online gaming websites offer chat rooms where you can engage in written conversation while playing. Even if youre not a gamer whos into learning with all the latest video games, you can still take advantage of this technique playing simple, well-known games online. For instance, PlayDrift offers multiplayer dominoes and backgammon with chat rooms.When youre playing games, conversation tends to flow pretty freely, so you might find yourself discussing topics youd never have thought of if your sole focus had been on language practice.4. Use your target language to talk with each other.It may seem obvious, but engaging in general conversation in your target language is one of the easiest ways to upgrade your skills.In person, this can be particularly fun. You can use your target language to communicate with your friends when you dont want other people to know what youre saying. Be careful, though, because you never know who else speaks your target language.With friends online, this could mean instant  messaging each other, connecting with video chat or interacting through voice messaging.Texting is another underused way of interacting in a foreign language. Once youve installed the right keyboard, it should be much easier.For iPhones, you can install quite a few different keyboards, including most major languages. To do so, go to Settings, then General, then Keyboard, then Add New Keyboard. From there, youll see an alphabetical list with a wide variety of different keyboards. Select the one you want. Once youre in messaging, you can simply tap the globe symbol to the left of the space bar to switch keyboards.For Android phones, you can install specific keyboards and enable them by going to Language and input under Settings.Either way, talking in your target language will provide valuable speaking and listening (and maybe even writing and reading) practice.5. Watch movies/TV in your target language together.Whether youre watching in-person with friends or long distance with online friends, watching movies or TV together has a lot to offer.Learning languages through movies  and TV is useful in and of itself. After all, it gives you valuable practice understanding authentic media.However, if you watch with friends, there are even greater benefits. You get all the benefits of watching authentic media, but you also have a helpful topic for conversation practice. Who are your favorite characters? What lines were the best? How did you feel about the movie?If your friend happens to be a native speaker, they can also clarify any subtleties you may have missed or help you understand the cultural nuances.And with Netflix  out there, theres never a shortage of viewing options. Netflix offers a wide variety of foreign language TV and movies that you can find simply by browsing titles.6. Start a book club in your target language.If theres one thing Oprah has taught us, its the value of book clubs.Book clubs are a great way to get more out of your read ing experience by having someone to discuss each book with.However, for language learners, they offer so much more than that. Reading a book provides you with valuable reading practice. Discussing that book piles on conversation practice, too.You can start a book club with your real-life or online friends. Simply agree on a book you want to read and plan a date to discuss it. If you dont have a group formed yet, you can also try online book club platforms like Goodreads Bookclub Groups.If your partner is a native speaker of your target language and wants to learn your language, they might even try reading the book in your native language, while you read it in your target language. Then, you can discuss the book in both languages to ensure you both benefit from the experience.7. Create challenges against each other.Nothing will fuel your fire quite like a little competition.Setting challenges works great with in-person or online friends. Just agree on a goal and see who can complete it first.For instance, you might challenge each other to learn 100 new vocabulary words. Or you might see who can write a short story in their target language the fastest.Whatever your goal, it will push you and your friend forward towards fluency (and make you desperately want to win).8. Use Skype to connect.Skype  is a fabulous thing. You can place online voice or video calls for free. This is a great way to connect with real-life friends when you cant get together or to connect with online language friends.Video calls are particularly helpful for language learners. After all, you can use video calls to detect nuance in language, see what shape someones mouth must make to produce certain unfamiliar sounds, or even watch your partners facial expression to get a clearer idea of the emotion behind a phrase. Plus, sometimes wildly gesticulating is the best way to get a point across regardless of language.Learning a language with friends is some of the most fun youll ever have on the r oad to fluency.So set your squad goals high! And One More ThingYou and your friends will love learning with FluentU. FluentU makes it possible to learn languages  from music videos, commercials, news and inspiring talks.FluentU is great for learning with friends because you can use the social media share buttons to share your favorite videos, and you can go over the same material separately or together.With FluentU, you learn real languagesâ€"the same way that real people speak them. FluentU has a wide variety of videos, like movie trailers, funny commercials and web series, as you can see here:FluentU App Browse ScreenFluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.Didnt catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover over or tap on the subtitles to instantly view definitions.FluentU Interactive TranscriptsYou can learn all t he vocabulary in any video with FluentUs quiz mode. Swipe left or right to see  more examples for the word you’re learning.FluentU Has Quizzes for Every VideoAnd FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.

Tips From an Irvine Tutor Ace Your Finals the First Year of College

Tips From an Irvine Tutor Ace Your Finals the First Year of College 4 Tips From an Irvine Tutor to Ace Your Finals the First Year of College Finals week is just around the corner and it can be a very stressful time for any student, especially if its their very first year in the college environment. College finals are different than those given in high school and students will need to avoid distraction while they focus on one of the most important weeks of the school year. Freshman might be studying as part of a group or they might be preparing solo, they may be writing final papers or studying for multiple choice exams, regardless of the specifics there are some universal tips and tricks that can help college students ace their finals while still maintaining their sanity our private Irvine tutors will help you prepare for your college finals. 1. Peace and quiet While students prepare for finals week they need to have peace and quiet in order to concentrate on the task at hand. They should find a quiet place to study so they are not disrupted but they also need to shut out any unnecessary tasks during this time. This means social gatherings can wait, social media should be avoided, and students should aim to keep the week as stress-free as possible. Once students have completed their final papers and exams, they can go back to their normal schedule but they need to focus on getting good grades right now because college level finals can be worth up to 25% of the overall class grade. 2. Effective study habits College students need to handle their study time efficiently and prioritize whats most important. The first thing students need to do is read their syllabus and any pertinent communication from their professor or teaching assistant to find out what will actually be on the final exam. If the syllabus explicitly states that the final exam will only cover the second half of the semester, then students dont need to be focusing on things they learned the first couple weeks of the term. Its essential for students to make an outline ahead of time so they know everything they need to study and how long its likely to take them to finish. Students who are organized have a much better chance of getting a high grade on any final exam. Our in-home Irvine tutors will help you develop your effective study habits. 3. Time management College-level exams are much harder than those completed during the high school years. Eventually, students learn how long it takes them to study for a particular course but college freshmen wont yet have this luxury. First-year students are encouraged to double the amount of time they studied in high school in order to successfully cover all the material necessary to ace a college-level final. Students who have been struggling in a particular class may want to leave even more time. Students who dont yet know how to structure their time during finals week should call their one-on-one tutor and set up some time so they can get organized and focus on important material (READ: Irvine Tutoring Tips: 4 Finals Week Pitfalls to Avoid). 4. Balance Many college students get used to cramming, meaning they avoid studying until a day or two before the exam and then try to complete everything in one session. This almost always results in a subpar paper or a mind that is overly fatigued and ill prepared to take an important test. Rather, students should strive to find a level of balance were they can focus on material for a couple of hours at a time and still get enough sleep, exercise, and healthy meals even during finals week. That might mean beginning study sessions two or three weeks before finals but its definitely worth it to have a rested brain that can ace any exam. Stressed about finals? TutorNerds is here to help. Call us today to book your experienced Irvine tutor. Click here to learn more about our private Orange County tutoring. Members of the TutorNerds team and our private tutors write every blog post. If you have any questions about our blog, please email us at pr@tutornerds.com.