Intention transforms!

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In the beginning of the year, I always publish a series of motivational posts which set the tone for the new year of studies.

At that time I didn’t have a clue about what was coming. So now with the world facing a pandemic, we, as individuals, are caught up in many challenges.

Transformation is the word. It certainly applies to several instances of our lives, the evolution of our English learning process, included!

Transformation is brought about by the two qualities inherent in consciousness:

attention (energizes)

intention (transforms)

What we place our attention on, expands in our lives, and our intention for the object of our attention, will orchestrate the forces to support our desired result.

In any perceived failure is the seed of success.

In every situation, we have new opportunities to find creative solutions for our problems, redefine our priorities and explore other options.

View your challenges more positively,

and

Focus your attention on new possibilities.

English for emails

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Because of the COVID-19, most teaching is going remote.

Surely some of the teachers are venturing into virtual education for the first time. And that’s me! Hehe…

And most of them are offering to their students videoconfering lectures supplemented by emailed assessments.

So as I’ve started receiving emails from my students, I realized it would be useful to brush up on some phrases and vocabulary that can be used.

Salutations

When you don’t know the name

  • Dear Sir or Madam
  • To whom it may concern
  • Hello

When you know the name

  • Dear Mr, Mrs, Ms …
  • Dear John
  • Hello Pat
  • Hi Mary
  • Hey John
  • Mary

When writing to a group

  • Dear all
  • Hi everyone

Opening sentence

Replying to an email

  • Thanks (very much) for your email.
  • This is to say thanks for your email.

Giving a reason

  • I’m (just) writing to
  • Just a (quick) note to
  • Just a short email to …
  • clarify …
  • confirm …
  • inform you…
  • follow up on …
  • let you know …
  • reply to …
  • request …
  • tell you …
  • thank you …
  • update you …

Attaching files

  • I’m sending you/attaching … (as a pdf file)
  • I’ve attached …
  • Please find attached … (my text/report)
  • I’m sending you the price list/document as an attachment.
  • Here is the … you wanted.
  • Please find below the link to…

When things go wrong

  • I’m afraid you forgot to attach the file/…
  • I’m afraid I can’t open the file/document.
  • Can/Could you send it again in … format, please?

Close

  • Yours sincerely
  • Kind/Best regards
  • Regards
  • Best wishes
  • All the best
  • Best
  • See you (soon)
  • Take care
  • Bye (for now)
  • [just the name or initials]
  • [no close]

A burden to bear?

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The novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has affected around more than two million people across the globe.

Countries around the world are under weeks of lockdown. A draconian measure indicates either the cases are underreported or the treatment facilities are insufficient for the expected number of cases. Nevertheless, financial remedies, relief packages have been announced as a measure to protect especially the low-income groups, and cushion the economy from the looming crisis.

While most adults still have work and other routines to carry on, school is the primary source of structure and socialization for kids. Children have rich social lives, often experienced almost exclusively in school and extracurricular activities. Schools are the primary providers for lots of essential services and for some children, the only thing standing between them and food insecurity.

So, after having briefly situated yourself in this broad context, would you be able to think of all the people who is bearing the burden of the COVID-19 lockdown?

We’ve talked about bear. Now we’re going to learn the phrase bear the burden.

First let’s learn what burden means.

In this context, burden means something difficult or unpleasant that you have to deal with or worry about:

the burden of responsability

My elderly mother worries that she’s a burden to me.

Buying a house often places a large financial burden on young couples.

Now, bear the burden, means to be responsible for something or accept something:

Parents are bearing the burden of having to do their work and their children’s teachers work during lockdown.

Então, vou esclarecer rapidamente em português. Quando queremos falar que algo é difícil de suportar, dizemos: suportar um peso, carregar uma cruz, carregar um fardo, arcar, arcar com as consequências, pagar o preço, etc. Em inglês a expressão to bear the burden expressa esses sentidos.

Também podemos usá-la dessa forma: burden to bear sendo um fardo/cruz para carregar/ de se carregar. 

So,

COVID-19 is a burden that we all have to bear.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/burden

https://blog.influx.com.br/o-que-significa-burden-bear-em-ingles

Herd immunity?

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In these last few weeks, we’ve been talking about the COVID-19 from many different perspectives. We were first introduced to it, by a quick look at the Coronavirus. Then we learned the instructions you can give to other people in order for them to stay safe. Next we had some food for thought, another good message, a nice song and one more wise message about fear.

The following video is going to teach you a few more important words and combinations of words like: herd immunity, containment, social distance, mild symptons and flatten the curve.

Watch these videos carefully in order to state your opinion about it. Remember, the purpose of these videos is solely to give us language to discuss what we’ve all been going through. There are no ideological or political purposes.

With all respiratory diseases, the only thing that stops the disease is herd immunity. About 80% of the people need to have had contact with the virus, and the majority of them won’t even have recognized that they were infected, or they had very, very mild symptoms, especially if they are children. So, it’s very important to keep the schools open and kids mingling to spread the virus to get herd immunity as fast as possible, and then the elderly people, who should be separated, and the nursing homes should be closed during that time, can come back and meet their children and grandchildren after about 4 weeks when the virus has been exterminated.”

Dr. Knut Wittkowki, is the head of the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design at the Rockefeller University in New York City.

The Rockefeller University is a private graduate university in New York City. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. Rockefeller is the oldest biomedical research institute in the United States.