Beckie Loewenstein

Turkish business professionals often seek English lessons to advance their careers.  Many would like to speak in English at meetings with international clients.  Some would like to work for a multinational company.  Recently, many of my lessons focus on how to interview for a job.  I recommend my students bring their resume for real life practice. As a teacher, I usually play the role of interviewer.  However, I like to encourage my students to interview me, too!  Be the interviewer to think about the questions you would ask a candidate.  Then, prepare for these questions.  Most importantly, enjoy the questions and have fun! Interviews mostly focus on the why and how of the job change: How did you perform in previous experience? Why would you like the new job? How would you contribute to the new position? My student E. would like to work as a manager in a multinational company.  In preparation for the interview we practice resp...

My student A. asked about the meaning of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the wind" song.  Honestly, I could not give a good answer so I decided to listen more carefully to Bob Dylan.  I learned the song captures the 1960s civil rights movement. I planned this lesson as part of my own thinking about folk singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's role in civil rights for African Americans.   Listen to Bob Dylan's song "The Death of Emmett Till", available on NPR .  Compare and contrast the song to Margalit Fox's NYTimes article about Willie Louis, a witness of the court case.  How does the song capture the chagrin of the trial's acquittal of the murders? Listen to the song and fill in the blanks with the proper tense of the following verbs: --> bear beat commit confess drag fill find give kill live live remember remind repeat roll speak step stop throw torture The Death Of Emmett...

Robots of the future may leave many jobs behind, including teaching.  Would you like to learn a language from a robot?  This lesson focuses on reading and listening about how technology rapidly changes work and personal life.  The target level is upper intermediate to advanced. Read the article The Robot Economy by David Von Drehle, Time Magazine, to answer the question: What jobs will robots and technology leave behind? Here are some of the answers: accountants travel agents X-ray technicians truck drivers (maybe) welders teachers journalists My students say they have already witnessed the disappearance of many jobs in their neighborhoods.  In Istanbul many tailors, butchers, and textile makers have gone out of business due to changes making them obsolete in the global economy.  Technology would just continue this trend. Find out the meaning of these idiomatic expressions from the context of the article: canary in the coal mine chip away at...

My seven-year-old student M. and I listen to Nellie McKay's "The Dog Song" to practice the present continuous.  What is she doing now?  She is walking the dog!  What sounds do dogs make?  Pant.  Woof!  Then we act out walking an imaginary dog.  Fun! Listen to more Nellie McKay songs here

Today I asked my student Z. to write down two activities he would like to do for a month: Read a book in English for 15 minutes a day. Lift weights for 15 minutes a day. Then we listened to the TED talk Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days about how small, sustainable changes for 30 days makes habits stick. I make a goal to learn one Turkish word or phrase a day. "That sounds too easy!" says Z. Well, I can always learn more words. I blog about learning Turkish to hold myself accountable. I already wrote about how -den mahrum bırakmak means to deprive and how to schedule a meeting in Turkish . Here is my new Turkish phrase of the day: Sıfır means zero. -den başlamak means to start from something. I started from scratch. Sıfırdan başladım. Next weekend Z. and I plan to lift weights and bench press as we practice English. Standing up and lifting weights will relieve my lower back from too much sitting in all of these lessons. Exercise will also be a g...

Censorship deprives people of knowledge of what is happening. New mothers and fathers are often sleep-deprived . People drink coffee to overcome sleep deprivation . Chopping down the forest will deprive the people of fresh air and clean water. Destruction of natural habitat will deprive the animals of their homes. Prisons deprive people of their liberty. -den almak means to take something away. -den mahrum kalmak means to lack something. -den mahrum b ırakmak means to be deprived of something. They took away my freedom. Özgürlüğümü elimden aldılar. I was deprived of liberty. Özgürlükten mahrum kaldım. I was deprived of meat. Etten mahrum bırakıldım. I was deprived of sleep. Uyku dan mahrum kaldı m.

My student brings out a bowl of purple grapes as we start our early morning lesson at his terrace.  Birds fly between the vines draping the stone wall. These juicy, plump grapes look like bull's eyes, or öküzgözü in Turkish.  These grapes grow in central Anatolia and produce the red wine öküzgözü şarap . The taste hits the target: " bulls-eye !" My student teaches me the Turkish equivalent " onikiden vursun! " or "you hit 12!" In Istanbul I often learn about the local political news through my students. The grapes inspire me to teach the idiom hear on the grapevine . Did a friend, neighbor, or colleague tell you what is happening? Most of my Turkish students tell me they do not depend on the local media to report the facts. Instead they turn to gossip, rumors, and conspiracy theories to guess how and why political decisions happen. Gossip fires up almost any conversation. As a teacher I realize that it rarely matters if my students report the facts ...

FEAR OF FLYING trailer from conorfinnegan on Vimeo . Narrate the film with dialogue for each animal. What do the animals say each other?  Use the background music to inform the choice of words and tone of voice. Discuss the bird's fear of flying and plan for the winter.  What happens next? Secondly, watch the full film here: Fear of flying - conorfinnegan .  How do the seasons change from autumn to winter? What do the animals say to each other? How does the bird survive? What are the animals' names? What does the squirrel do? How does the bird overcome the fear?

Istanbul Monsters - Teaser from Baris Gursel on Vimeo . Narrate the film in a monster voice. Describe what the monsters are doing using the present continuous.

On The Water from yi zhao on Vimeo . Tell a story using the present continuous. What are people doing in the animation?

Going To Cappadocia (Turkey) from Kyoto Studio on Vimeo . Describe the journey to Cappadocia and travels in Turkey. Compare and contrast Izmir, Cappadocia, Istanbul. How is the landscape? What are the camera angles? What are the close-up details? What lights up? What animals are there? How many people go on the trip? How do they travel? What do you like and dislike about the film? How well does the film represent these places? How could the film be better?

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This weekend I taught a lesson at Kuzguncuk, a quaint neighborhood north of conservative Üsküdar's port on Istanbul's Asian side. The sunny day with clouds and boats sailing by begs me to take our lesson outdoors. I invite my new student out for a 'walk and talk' lesson. He hesitates. Don't we need to sit down and write on a solid surface? After an awkward moment on the front porch, he goes along with the idea as he needs to run out to the pharmacy anyway. Walking in the fresh air and early morning sunlight jogs both of our minds. I feel free from the distractions of his family life. Eventually, we need to write down new grammar structures so we sit at a bench facing the Bosphorus. Watching the fishermen anchor inspires our first speaking task. Give today's news report of what's happening on the Bosphorus, I request. Aklıma hiç bir şey gelmiyor.  Nothing comes to mind, he says. I ask questions and smile a lot to encourage him. Here's our report: ...

They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople) from They Might Be Giants on Vimeo . This song uses 'nobody,' an indefinite pronoun: That's nobody's business but the Turks. Practice the indefinite pronouns with this British Council quiz: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/pronouns/indefinite-pronouns

This is Not Real from Gergely Wootsch on Vimeo . Tell the story of the boy's dream.

I teach the TED talk "Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world" to consider the potential of gamers to solve problems. New vocabulary includes on the verge , virtuoso , and epic . What are some positive and negative effects of video games? My student A. completely disagrees with Jane's argument and gives personal stories of the negative effects of games on personal development. For example, his children and their friends go outside for fresh air not to kick a football or run around for hide and seek, but to sit on the green grass while playing video games. Growing up in Turkey, A. did not have any games or toys. He made his own ball out of fabric and read Milliyet children's books. Today he does not play online games as he considers these a complete waste of time. Although he likes the ease of communication with the iphone, he also feels this convenience opens him up to constant interruptions and loss of productivity. At the end of the day, all of this techn...

Listening to comedy in a second language challenges upper intermediate students to practice idioms, slang, and swear words. Practice expressing frustration, sarcasm, and anger in English. Just remember to emphasize the importance of the time and place, only use these on social occasions with close friends. Today I taught uncensored English in Dan Soder's stand-up comedy "Hipster Spotting."  Before listening, give the student a clear listening task.  Ask the main two questions on the first listen, and the the more specific questions on the second listen: 1. What does a hipster do? Do they like music? Do they wear skinny leg jeans? Do they wear scarves in the summer? Do they eat BBQ meat? Do they eat gluten? Do they eat kale? Do they like cats? 2. How do hipsters change neighborhoods? How would Dan's favorite barbecue restaurant change? What would be the food? Who would be the waiters? Comedy Central Dan Soder says he respects hipsters becaus...

The first chapter "The Hague - The War Crimes Trial" of Joe Saco's book Journalism includes criminal law court vocabulary.  I read the chapter with my student A. to find new vocabulary to practice. atrocity atrocious gavel dock prosecutor indict try deter accused Heavy fines and daily coast guard boats __________ ships from dumping in the Bosphorus. The courts publicly __________ ship captains for illegal dumping. The court __________ a captain for dumping. During the trial the captain sits in the __________. The captain is the __________. His lawyer is the __________. The lawyer who argues the captain is gulity is the __________. The judge bangs a __________. Environmental crimes are __________because they pollute the water, harming life and human health.

I make flyers advertising my private English lessons with my contact information and a cartoon self-portrait. Turkish students like to see what their teacher looks like, but I do not feel comfortable with a photo. A cartoon feels like a compromise. Mostly, I search for bulletin boards and display spaces inside cafes around Beyoglu and Nisantasi. Unlike most other cafes, Starbucks usually has a display space -- either a bulletin board with push pins or a metallic board requiring tape -- above the counter with the sugar, cinnamon, and napkins. Sometimes I return to the same Starbucks weeks later only to discover my old flyer's still up with missing tabs. I feel encouraged knowing that cafe employees do not remove the flyer immediately and that people are interested in my lessons. My students recommend that I post my flyers at the Macrocenter in Nisantasi. I find out through trial and error that the grocery store located in City's mall lacks any displace space. It turns out ther...

Along the walk to Kabatas, I notice rainbow colors painted on the Findikli stairs. Colorful bursts brighten up the neighborhood and put a bounce in my step. I continue on to the Kabatas bus station, where tanned street sellers in striped shirts grill frozen Norwegian mackerel on carts. The bus stop benches smell a bit like traffic exhaust and fish. When a bus to Sariyer arrives, I grab a window seat, and start listening to the Turkish Tea Time podcast. Soon I doze off, occasionally opening my eyes to traffic moving at a snail's pace. Rush hour traffic chokes up the narrow road through Besiktas, Ortakoy, and Bebek along the Bosphorus coast; it takes ninety minutes to travel 14.8 kilometers to Yenikoy. I send the SMS "şimdi şimdi geldim!" to my Turkish friend, and wait at the Yenikoy Shell Station.  She guides me to the house and introduces me to her family. İyi seneler! Lshana tova! I feel happy to be invited to the family's celebration. I resolv...