Rio Olympics

My Brazilian friends have just sent me greetings from Rio de Janeiro where they just arrived to attend the Paralympic Games! Thank you guys and enjoy the games!!

I watched the Opening Ceremony of both of the Olympic Games in Rio. Both of them were amazing. The first big Olympics Opening Ceremony was fantastic and very original. I specially liked the part about Brazilian history.

The TV host explained that Brazil is the only country where we can not find ghettos. (You know ghettos like Chinese town, Korean town or districts where live many people from certain ethnic groups) The immigrants who arrived to Brazil, they assimilated into the community during first or second generations. It is their tradition. I liked it very much. It might explain the mix of nations, the mixed culture, music, Samba, their joy of life, friendliness and tolerance.

The large and powerful country with a beautiful nature, Amazon rainforest where live more than 200 tribes of indigenous people who speak in 188 different indigenous languages, where there still live many uncontacted tribes, the beautiful seas, ocean, beaches...The nice, happy, friendly people, their diversity and unity... Beautiful Copacabana beach, I fell in love with Brazil, who didn't?!

Amazing, my friends just texted me from Rio that they are going to watch Goalball competition. They said that Goalball is a sport which was created for blind people. It sounds interesting, I did not know about that. So I hope to watch some competitions on TV. Usually TV stations do not pay much attention to the Paralympic Games.

As my friend said Paralympic Games need as much attention as other Olympic Games. We all should support these people who had gone through difficult situations in their lives but did not give up and moved on even became Olympic athletes.

About phrasal verbs

I have noticed that I used only two phrasal verbs in my previous posts. The most difficult thing in English is pronunciation for me. The second difficult thing to learn in English are phrasal verbs. They are so many. And they have too many similar and different meanings. It confuses me. Lol!

I am used to download movies in English with subtitles. I am always writing down the words that I don't know their meanings. And I had learned a lot of new words in this way. 

But I always left out phrasal verbs. But recently I started learning phrasal verbs. When I was watching "The Americans" I wrote down some phrasal verbs. And I tried to learn meaning of the verbs. Sometimes I try to practice these new words with my son who is fluent in English. 

Two days ago I learned phrasal verb "Hook up with somebody." The meaning was: "To meet somebody and spend time with them." (Oxford dictionary older edition) 

Coincidentally, my son wanted to go out with his friends that evening. So I wanted to practice this verb with him and I asked him "Do you want to hook up with your friends tonight?" He looked at me surprisingly and asked me "What?" I repeated my question and started explaining what the meaning of this phrasal verb is. He had laughed a lot and explained me that the slang meaning of the phrasal verb is: "To have sex with someone." 😊 

Hahahaha, and he told me that I had better not use this word. Hehehe! 

So, let's s hook up with somebody!! It means: to meet somebody and spend time with them or start working with somebody or have a sex with somebody. All of them sound good!

My Russian is a bit rusty

I was taught  Russian for 7 years in the middle and high school in Mongolia. Mongolians used to be very close to Russian culture: Russian TV channels, literature, goods, Russian schools and teachers. And they still are... Almost everyone spoke Russian. 

The important thing is they helped to build Mongolian economy, infrastructure, education and health sector from nothing. After Mongolian People's Revolution of 1921 Soviet Union built the first school and hospital in Mongolia. 

Before the revolution in Mongolian land there were a few Buddhist temples and practically nothing else. The country we have now, was started being built after the revolution of 1921.

But now some Mongolian people, politicians even historians and linguists became very nationalistic. Some people are trying discredit the leader of the revolution and great importance of the revolution. For example, Mongolian new language law from last year it was a step back. More about this law in future posts... 

It seems some people become obsessed by Genghis Khan. OK, Genghis Khan was a big part of our history but not our future. We should raise kind, tolerant and globally thinking new generation. 

So get back to my Russian. Russian language me made it a bit easier to learn Slovak. Because both of them are Slavic languages. They have in common gendered nouns. But they are in most aspects completely different languages. 

I haven't spoken Russian for a long time. Sporadically I used it in Moscow when I travel to Mongolia. 

Recently I watched American TV series called " The Americans." There are lots of conversation in Russian. I enjoyed the Russian conversations very much. I still understand it. So it is a good thing, isn't it?

A little about me

Hello,

I didn't introduce myself in my previous post. I don't anticipate that people would read my blog. Maybe when I publish more posts I will invite some friends to read my posts. Otherwise for people who don't know me, my blog would seem so primitive and maybe childish because of my limited English. 

But what would you expect from a person who is studying English for just 2 years! When I got the idea to create a blog in English I wrote my first post at night in a bed in 15 minutes on my iPad and I posted it the following evening. 

So my name is Bayarmaa. I am from Mongolia but I have been living my whole adult life in Slovakia and the Czech Republic because I came to Slovakia to study at a university and I stayed here after graduating .

If anyone who is studying English or who wants to practise their English or maybe a native speaker who just wants to chat please leave me a comment, I would be pleased! 

So today is 1st September, hooray to school!