Where did the word 'OK' come from?

Millions of people all over the world use the word OK. In fact, some people say the word is used more often than any other word in the world. OK means all right or acceptable. It expresses agreement or approval. You might ask your brother, "Is it okay if I borrow your car?” Or if someone asks you to do something, you might say, “Okay, I will.” Still, language experts do not agree about where the word came from.

Some people say it came from the Native American Indian tribe known as the Choctaw. The Choctaw word okeh means the same as the American word okay. Experts say early explorers in the American West spoke the Choctaw language in the nineteenth century. The language spread across the country.

But many people dispute this. Language expert Allen Walker Read wrote about the word OK in reports published in the nineteen sixties. He said the word began being used in the eighteen thirties. It was a short way of writing a different spelling of the words “all correct.” Some foreign-born people wrote “all correct” as “o-l-l k-o-r-r-e-c-t,” and used the letters O.K. 

Other people say a railroad worker named Obadiah Kelly invented the word long ago. They said he put the first letters of his names -- O and K -- on each object people gave him to send on the train.

Still others say a political organization invented the word. The organization supported Martin Van Buren for president in eighteen forty. They called their group, the O.K. Club. The letters were taken from the name of the town where Martin Van Buren was born — Old Kinderhook, New York.

Not everyone agrees with this explanation, either. But experts do agree that the word is purely American. And it has spread to almost every country on Earth.

How much learning English its important for you?

There are 309–400 million native speakers and more than billion people in the world who speaks English as a second language, still number of English learners are increasing day by day. Yes! no one deny that English is a global language. Everyone has their own reason of learning English though aim is one, to achieve fluency.

Yet there are many native speakers and learners who are just "in love" with this language and I am also one of them. Whether you are a teacher, doctor, scientist, player, salesman, shopkeeper, bookseller etc…no one is spare from magic of this language. That much books and resources are available in this language is not available in any other language. That's why English learners are eager to learn this language as soon as possible. But you know, practice and patience are two keys of learning. Reasons are many but need is one, "To be Fluent".

How much English is important in your life and what is your aim behind learning this language?

The Effortless English Club - new approach to English learning

There is a big problem in education today. All over the world, schools are killing the love of learning. Everywhere it’s the same: schools use boring textbooks, tests, grades, competition, complicated grammar rules, desks, and boring lectures to make students suffer.

Students study English speaking for years, yet still cannot speak confidently.  Everywhere, students are bored, stressed and tired. Everywhere, students are frustrated.
Naturally, we are born to learn. Naturally, we love learning. We are curious. But schools kill this natural joy of learning… they make learning boring, stressful and ineffective.

The Effortles English Club gather people from all over the world who want to speak English easily and automatically. In Effortless English Club we learn in completely different way than most schools. Our goal is to bring happiness back to learning.  It is time to make learning fun, passionate, friendly, social, powerful, successful and cooperative again!

Join Effortless English Club and together we can change education. We will show the world a better way to learn. We help our members speak English confidently. With success, some of them (and you) will travel and study abroad.  Some will get better jobs because of their English speaking ability.  Some will start successful businesses.  Some will teach their children a better way to learn.  Some will become teachers who truly care about their students success. Some will make new international friends.

I hope you will join us and become part of our Effortless English Club.
To start free e-mail course and find out more about Effortless English Club simply click the link below:

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Learn English words from the News

Toorism boost for Peru.

The Peruvian government is cutting the price of flights and hotel rooms to help the struggling tourism industry. Recent floods cut off access to Machu Picchu, Peru's top tourist attraction. The inaccessibility of Machu Picchu is costing the Peruvian tourism industry at least a million dollars a day. Some 68,000 people a month normally visit the Inca fortress.

Last month around 4,000 tourists were stranded for up to five days in a town beneath the ruins, after flash floods and mud slides damaged the railway. Since then thousands of foreign tourists have cancelled their holidays to Peru. Apart from making a four-day trek along the Inca trail, a privately-owned railway line was the only the route to or from the site.

Now domestic tourists are being offered half-price flights and hotel rooms to visit Cusco, the city nearest the world-famous Inca site. They won't be able to visit Machu Picchu but will have access to a host of other archaeological sites of Inca origin. The Peruvian government is considering making a similar offer to international visitors as the Cusco region accounts for some 90% of its tourism revenue.

Peru's tourism minister, Martin Perez, predicted Machu Picchu, which survived the rains unscathed, will be reopened at the beginning of April.

Dan Collyns, BBC News, Lima

inaccessibility - very difficult or impossible to travel to or to reach

Inca - the ancient civilisation and tribe from the Andean mountain region of South America

stranded - unable to leave a place because of a problem such as not having any transport or money or here, because of very bad weather

flash floods - sudden and severe flooding (caused by water filling or covering an area in a way that causes problems)

a host of - a lot of

archaeological sites - places that are important or significant because we can study them and learn about people, places and cultures of the past

accounts for some - is responsible for almost

revenue - income or money that an organisation (here the Peruvian government) receives regularly

predicted - said that an event (the reopening again of Machu Picchu) will happen in the future

unscathed - was not affected or damaged

How To Learn English

Here are some tips which may help you to master the English Language!

Speak without Fear

The biggest problem most people face in learning a new language is their own fear. They worry that they won’t say things correctly or that they will look stupid so they don’t talk at all. Don’t do this. The fastest way to learn anything is to do it – again and again until you get it right. Like anything, learning English requires practice. Don’t let a little fear stop you from getting what you want.

Use all of your Resources

Even if you study English at a language school it doesn’t mean you can’t learn outside of class. Using as many different sources, methods and tools as possible, will allow you to learn faster. There are many different ways you can improve your English, so don’t limit yourself to only one or two. The internet is a fantastic resource for virtually anything, but for the language learner it's perfect.

Surround Yourself with English

The absolute best way to learn English is to surround yourself with it. Take notes in English, put English books around your room, listen to English language radio broadcasts, watch English news, movies and television. Speak English with your friends whenever you can. The more English material that you have around you, the faster you will learn and the more likely it is that you will begin “thinking in English.” .

Listen to Native Speakers as Much as Possible

There are some good English teachers that have had to learn English as a second language before they could teach it. However, there are several reasons why many of the best schools prefer to hire native English speakers. One of the reasons is that native speakers have a natural flow to their speech that students of English should try to imitate. The closer ESL / EFL students can get to this rhythm or flow, the more convincing and comfortable they will become.

Watch English Films and Television

This is not only a fun way to learn but it is also very effective. By watching English films (especially those with English subtitles) you can expand your vocabulary and hear the flow of speech from the actors. If you listen to the news you can also hear different accents.

Listen to English Music

Music can be a very effective method of learning English. In fact, it is often used as a way of improving comprehension. The best way to learn though, is to get the lyrics (words) to the songs you are listening to and try to read them as the artist sings. There are several good internet sites where one can find the words for most songs. This way you can practice your listening and reading at the same time. And if you like to sing, fine.

Record Yourself

Nobody likes to hear their own voice on tape but it is good to compare your tapes from time to time. You may be so impressed with the progress you are making that you may not mind the sound of your voice as much.

Listen to English

By this, we mean, speak on the phone or listen to radio broadcasts, audiobooks or CDs in English. This is different than watching the television or films because you can’t see the person that is speaking to you. Many learners of English say that speaking on the phone is one of the most difficult things that they do and the only way to improve is to practice.

Finally

Have fun!

Want to pick up English faster?

If you are facing difficulties learning the English language while you read or speak with your peers, ask your parents to read the text aloud to you. It will not only help you learn the language but also enable in speaking correctly.
According to George Georgiou, University of Alberta (U-A) professor in educational psychology, it is instrumental for English-speaking children if they are to acquire the language skills, particularly comprehension, essential to their future reading ability.
Georgiou and his colleagues recently published a study in learning and instruction examining the cognitive and non-cognitive factors that may predict future reading ability in English and Greek. “We have found that in English, you need a rich home literacy environment. It’s absolutely necessary,” said Georgiou.
Since the study was published, Georgiou has expanded his research to Finland and China, with the same outcomes. He said that in the home literacy environment, what parents do at home in terms of literacy, and motivation predict children’s various initial literacy skills, such as letter knowledge and vocabulary, differently across languages. These skills, in turn, ultimately predict future reading ability.
Orthography is the part of the study of language dealing with letters and spelling. Georgiou pointed out that English is an orthographically inconsistent language; in other words, letters can have more than one sound each.
Because of this, he said, children learning English “need someone to show them the letters, teach them the letter sounds, play with letter magnets on the fridge. But that’s not the case in other languages.”

English e-learning company Eleutian raises $10m

Eleutian Technology, a provider of online English education to students in Asia, has secured $10m in growth equity financing from Cheyenne Capital Fund.

With its Wyoming-based faculty of certified US educators, Eleutian provides English-language instruction using internet-based videoconferencing to K-12 public and private school students and business executives in South Korea, Japan and China.

Eleutian has succeeded in forging successful partnerships with regional Ministries of Education in Korea and with Yoon’s English Academy - one of South Korea’s leading private providers of English language training and test preparation services.

The company achieved revenue growth of 100 per cent in 2008. Its growth continued in 2009 with year-over-year revenue increases of 69 per cent.

Cheyenne Capital’s Robert Grady, who joins Eleutian’s board, said, “The market for English-language training is currently more than $100bn annually and will continue to grow as English becomes the global language of commerce.”

Cheyenne Capital is based in Denver, Colorado.

Copyright © 2010 AltAssets

As you can see e-learning is  still growing industry and can be very successful in effective English teaching.

Qoutations - interesting way to learn English

Today I would like you suggest an interesting way of learning English. You can find qoutations from great authors and learn from them. At the same time you will learn English and get great insights of wisdom.

Remember that you will be much more successful in your English learning if you learn from materials you have interest in. Below I put some interesting quotations so you can learn and be inspired at the same time.

“Reasonable men adapt themselves to circumstances, whilst unreasonable men persist in attempting to adapt circumstances to themselves. That is why all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.” - George Bernard Shaw

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” Albert Einstein

We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes." John F Kennedy

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 BC - 43 BC, Politician, Orator and Philosopher

Don't concentrate on mistakes in English

Nowadays English enjoys widespread use throughout the world. It is the native tongue of over 375 million persons in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and is used as as an international means of communication in politics and commerce. It is the official language of many other countries.

The language itself is powerful and easy to learn, but it's written form is so difficult to master that significant numbers of adults in English-speaking countries cannot read and write. Researchers have found that fewer than seven percent (7%) of the words in the English orthography are spelled the way they sound.

Starting with the name of the language, which, based on its pronunciation, /Ing/-/lish/, should be spelled "Inglish." Therefore many people who start to learn English have problems with English spelling. They often want to "lern English" or "learn Inglish". They try hard to succeed in "English lerning". It is very easy to misspell single letter, hence many beginners want to learn "english grammer" or even "englihs grammer".

If you try master English language do not be disheartened by all of these difficulties. To be a good English speaker you don't need to concentrate on spelling or grammar. To learn English most effectively, you must focus first on English conversation. Because if you can speak English easily it doesn't matter if you make some minor mistakes. You will eliminate them later.

Therefore the key to success in English is to find the right method to  start learning process.

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Improving English speaking by “Narrow Listening”

“Narrow listening” means listening to many things about the same topic. This method is more powerful than trying to listen to many different kinds of things. Students who listen to similar things learn faster and speak better than students who listen to different kinds of things.
For example, you can choose one speaker or author and find many things by him. Listen to all of his podcasts, audio books, and speeches. This is powerful because all speakers have favorite vocabulary and grammar. They naturally repeat these many times. By listening to many things by the same person, you automatically get a lot of vocabulary repetition. You learn faster and deeper!
Another example is to choose one topic to focus on. For example, you could read an easy book, listen to the same audio book, listen to a podcast about the book, and watch the movie.
Pick one book, for example “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. Read the book then listen to the audio book. Then watch (and listen to) the movie. Then you can listen to interviews with actors in the movie. You will learn a lot of vocabulary in a short time, and your English speaking will improve very quickly.

Check the link for more useful tips about effective English learning:
Click here to visit Effortless English LLC.

Listening is the key to English fluency

To get English fluency, you must have a lot of understandable repetitive listening. That is the only way. To be a fantastic English speaker, you must learn English with your ears, not with your eyes. In other words, you must listen. Your ears are the key to excellent speaking.

What kind of listening is best? Well, it must be understandable and must be repetitive. Both of those words are important-- Understandable and Repetitive. If you don't understand, you learn nothing. You will not improve. That's why listening to English TV does not help you. You don't understand most of it. It is too difficult. It is too fast.

Its obvious right? If you do not understand, you will not improve. So, the best listening material is EASY. That’s right, you should listen mostly to easy English. Most students listen to English that is much too difficult. They don’t understand enough, and so they learn slowly. Listen to easier English, and your speaking will improve faster!

Understanding is Only Half The Formula. Understanding is not enough. You must also have a lot of repetition. If you hear a new word only once, you will soon forget it. If you hear it 5 times, you will still probably forget it! You must hear new words and new grammar many times before you will understand them instantly. How many times is necessary? Most people must hear a new word 30 times to remember it forever. To know a word and instantly understand it, you probably need to hear it 50-100 times!

So, the two most important points are: listen to easier English and listen to each thing many times.
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Learn English while watching movies

Movies are great for learning English but you must use them correctly. Don’t watch all of an English movie. You will not understand it, and therefore you will not learn anything. Only watch one scene or segment per week (maybe 2-3 minutes).

Follow this method:

a) First, watch the scene with subtitles in your language. This will help you understand the general meaning.

b) Second, watch the scene with English subtitles. Pause. Use a dictionary to find new words you don’t understand. Write the new sentences in a notebook.

c) Listen to the scene a few times, with English subtitles. Do not pause.

d) Listen to the scene a few times, without subtitles.

e) Repeat a) - d) everyday for one week.

On the second week, go to the next scene/segment and repeat again. It will take you a long time to finish a movie. That’s OK, because you will improve your English listening and speaking VERY FAST. This method is powerful - use it!
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Join free e-mail course and learn how to improve your English

Do you feel embarrassed when you speak English? Is your pronunciation bad? Do you make a lot of grammar mistakes when you speak?

Is it difficult for you to understand native speakers? Do you feel frustrated because you still can’t understand English speakers easily?

You have studied English for years. You read English well, but when its time to speak– you feel nervous, foolish, embarrassed, and shy when speaking English.

You can change this very quickly by learning English with Effortless English.

Start free e-mail course today and find out how:

*Learn Vocabulary Quickly And Remember It Forever

*Speak English Fast By Thinking In English

*Learn Grammar Like A Child, Not By Studying Grammar Rules

*Learn 3-5 Times Faster Using New Learning Techniques

*And More….

 

The email course is free. Register by clicking below:

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