Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and coach and I created this podcast for English students who want to improve their oral comprehension. As always, you can find the transcription of this episode and the vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast.

Today, it will be a shorter and more personal episode, as I want to fill you in on all the things I have been working on and planning. And pay attention to new vocabulary and also phrasal verbs I will be using! 

Let’s get right into it.

Summer is usually a time when I have fewer conversations. It is because some of my students want a break from the computer and I totally get that so that is why I can carve out more time for creative work. Even though this year, not that many students wanted a break, which makes me very happy because I get to spend the summer months with them, my schedule is just a smidge emptier than usual.

I love my coaching, my conversations, my daily feedback for my students, and all of that, but I also love being creative, coming up with new ideas and concepts. So I pushed myself to really start following through on my ideas and stop underestimating myself. Because every time I started working on something, eventually I talked myself out of it. It means that I talked to myself so that I would change my mind. I told myself things like – no one is going to care. It is not good enough. It will take you so much time that it is not worth it. But then I told my brain to shut up and just started working and coming up with plans.

The first thing I would like to mention is that I am organizing a summer picnic in Prague. I am not organizing it alone, I am doing it with one of my best friends Eliška. It is an English Picnic, and what that means is that there will be food, yes, but also some conversation activities, and the main topic of the day will be English. I even put together a vocabulary handbook that everyone can download during or after the picnic, and I think it is going to be a lot of fun.  I am super excited about it. It is going to be on the 15th of August in Prague- Letná and I would be happy to meet you there. So if it’s something that speaks to you, I will put a link in the description of this episode where you can sign up. Why do I want you to sign up? Because we want to know how many people will come, as there will be some conversational activities and also we are planning to hand out a small present for everyone coming and we need to know the amount. So yeah, you are all cordially invited!

Then I am planning some courses. The first one is a self-study tenses course because I can see how many people get stuck on English tenses and understanding where to use each one. It is called Mastering English Tenses. 

And, just to be clear, I love explaining it to my students but I didn’t want to take up the time of our conversation lessons to explain the grammar in a way that I like to do it when I can do it in a more efficient and enjoyable way. Hence, I decided to create a course where you will find 8 lessons that walk you through all the English tenses with ease and fun. I created an e-book with the explanations, reading practice, links to online tasks, recorded videos and made interactive escape games where you can practice those tenses in a game. On top of that, if you are super motivated, you can practice those tenses in an active way through responding to questions and getting feedback from me.

To be completely honest, this course has been sitting on the shelf for a while. This project, in particular, was the one where I wasn’t really happy with it, but I have been working on it for months on end, taking feedback from my students who have been testing it, and I think that I am ready to put it out. I put a lot of effort, time and love into it, so if tenses are something you struggle with, definitely wait for some updates. I’m planning to roll it out around September and all the updates will always be on my Instagram. I am soo excited.

Another course I am planning will be a conversational course for students at a minimum level of B1 and higher. It will be called “Beyond The Small Talk” and it will be focused on expanding vocabulary and grammar skills in conversation while talking about topics close to my heart – and hopefully to the hearts of the participants. We will talk about nature, movement, sport, films from the 2000s, our favorite music that touched our souls, and deeper questions that we don’t have the opportunity to explore in our daily lives. Of course, the main goal is the acquisition of advanced English skills, but I also want to create a safe space where everyone is on the same page.

I already have people interested, so I don’t know how much I am going to talk about it publicly because the capacity will be very limited, as I want to give everyone as much as possible and have enough time for each participant. But if you are interested, you can shoot me a message on Instagram or write me an email, and I will write your name down and then you will be the first one to know when the course is open. The links are in the description. 

Last thing that I am working on as I am writing this episode is an e-book called Phrasal Verbs Unlocked. And I am extremely thrilled about it. Why? Because I have never found anything like that. It is an e-book with more than 260 phrasal verbs that you need to know at a B2 level, not only for conversation but also if you are planning to master the Cambridge B2 level exam. If you know these phrasal verbs, you are good to go. But it is not a boring list, those are everywhere. The phrasal verbs are divided into colorful mind maps with definitions, example sentences, and pictures, so it is easier to remember. I will probably also make an interactive version of the whole e-book with Czech translations that you get as a bonus and also a guide and recommendations on how to approach this vocabulary in an effective way. It is the ultimate guide to phrasal verbs. I am extremely proud of it, and I have been spending my evenings and weekends working on it. Keep your eyes peeled, I will talk about it when it is ready to go!

And those are the projects I am currently working on besides my normal work with students. In the last weeks, I have realized that even though my job is not difficult or stressful, it really is not, and I am super grateful for that, you really need to love it to be able to do it. Because it is not about me having conversations during the workday and preparing conversation activities and that’s that. It is so much more. I am devoting the majority of my time to it and I would never be able to force myself to work on an e-book at 9 pm after the whole day of conversations if I didn’t love it. So it has brought me another level of appreciation for what I do, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I wouldn’t change it for anything. 

Thank you for listening! If you liked this episode, please leave a five-star rating and share it with your friends. Don’t forget, you can find the transcript and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast. See you next time. Bye bye