My Life after CELTA

A bit of summer in the air After finishing breakfast and the much-needed coffee, I decided to visit my friends at the craftsman store. It's been a while since I last saw them, so it was high time I did something about it. I bought paint for the wooden fence and the iron thing that holds it. Then I popped into two more stores to buy some toilet requisites and food for Abby. After returning home, I prepared lunch: cooked potato with fish fingers and cucumber salad. It was delicious. As for my English studies: I went through two units in the "Színes kérdések és válaszok" book. I guess it was written by two Hungarian linguists and proofread by a British guy. Its main focus is vocabulary, and it tries to introduce new words, expressions, phrasal verbs, and idioms through many interesting contemporary topics. It was the B2 level book I started with, but I haven't regretted it for a moment. There aren't many unknown words in it, so it is a perfect example to see the diff...

A damp day This is not the summer we've been waiting for. After a long and tiring autumn and winter - Ági completed her habilitation, and I completed the CELTA course - we thought June would be a warm, sunny, and pleasant month. We couldn't have been more wrong. The highest temperature today was +23°C, and the sky was not free of clouds, rain poured down, so the occasional sunshine couldn't lift the spirit as it made the air suffocatingly humid. What a brilliant introduction?! Anyway, after devouring my breakfast and gulping down the much-needed coffee, I jumped in the car and took it to give it a good wash. The hood was full of bird excrement, and I didn't want it to damage the varnish. It was in vain because the after the afternoon rain, another pile of shite appeared on it. As for my English: I grabbed the B2 book that is full of useful texts and started to pore over it. Since the first unit was rather captivating, I decided to go through this and the C1 book as well...

Yksi, kaksi, kolme, neljä, viisi, kuusi, seitsemän, kahdeksan, yhdeksän, kymmenen We broke the routine today by me taking Abby for her morning walk. I had a delicious breakfast and a nice cup of coffee when we returned. I needed it. Then I buckled down to study. I checked the meaning of the Hungarian word "meggátol" in English and checked all the possible meanings in English. The following two lists contain all I found online. Known verbs: PREVENT INHIBIT INCAPACITATE IMPEDE HINDER BAR OBSTRUCT THWART RESTRAIN BLOCK Never-before-heard ones: PRECLUDE HAMPER I asked ChatGPT to help me with phrasal verbs and expressions that express the concept of hindering, obstructing, or preventing, and this is what it provided me with: Phrasal verbs: HOLD BACK SET BACK GET IN THE WAY CUT OFF HOLD UP Expressions: PUT A DAMPER ON THROW A WRENCH IN THE WORKS TIE SOMEONE'S HAND STAND IN THE WAY ROADBLOCK After lunch, I gave Ági a foot massage which made me so sleepy that I had to nod off. It...

Rainy summer When I woke up, the sky was already grey, which was slightly depressing, if I'm being honest. Not even the usual breakfast - cinnamon pancake - could cheer me up, so the coffee was essential to keep my cool. (How and why do I know this expression?!) I came to when the coffee started to take effect. Still, I had to immediately realise that I had a dentist's appointment at 10 a.m. A quick shaving helped me get going and maintain my composure, so with a panic-free head, I went to see my favourite dentist. He really is a good doc. The dental procedure was not painful at all. I got the usual anaesthetic jab because the root canal was rather sensitive, but after that, it was a smooth flight. It took the doc ten minutes to finish the job, so I had plenty of time on my hand till lunch, which made me go to do some shopping. However, the chlorine that the doc used to disinfect the root canal created a freshly-cleaned toilet feeling in my mouth, and I felt like an old cleanin...

Back on track After a fairly good night's sleep - both of us had to powder our noses at 4 a.m. - we woke up with a start at 7 a.m., and things sped up afterwards. Completing the morning routines meant I could buckle down and study at last. I did till 11:30 a:m., then I prepared lunch - rice with tomato, cucumber, and parsley - had a coffee and took Abby for her afternoon walk. When we returned from the walk, I sat down to study again. I started to complete my homework, which was even more difficult than the previous one. I have to watch a video about Russell Brand and Jon Snow having a debate about the UK Drug Policy and:  how the interlocutors address one another (formally, informally, respectfully, disrespectfully, etc. how the power dynamics work within the conversation (at what point is Jon Snow in control, at what point does Russell Brand take control?) and what the result is from a linguistic perspective, how strong the arguments are that each of them raise: the expressions t...