Конец апреля – весна, такая непостоянная и переменчивая. Для участников же Английского Разговорного Клуба последняя суббота месяца на протяжении всего учебного года ассоциируется с новой интересной встречей. «Животные в нашей жизни» – тема многогранная и неисчерпаемая. В рамках государственных экзаменов в аспектах устной и письменной речи так или иначе затрагиваются вопросы, касающиеся братьев наших меньших: какие животные обитают в твоем регионе? Стоит ли держать дикое животное в качестве домашнего питомца? Какое твое отношение к зоопаркам? Как ты думаешь, что нужно сделать, чтобы решить проблему бездомных животных? Как ты думаешь, пойдет ли детям на пользу общение с домашними животными и почему? В спорах и дискуссиях на английском языке мы пытались найти ответы, решения этих и многих других проблем, связанных с взаимоотношениями людей и животных.

As usual our meeting started with a disputable question: What is your attitude to zoos and circuses? We tried to take a look at both sides of the coin. On the one hand, the benefits seem to be obvious: zoo conservation programmes, scientific research, education and entertainment. But on the other hand, such drawbacks as unnatural habitat, inadequate care and cruelty, lack of space and freedom, the danger of animal escaping definitely overweight the advantages.

Do animals have a soul? This question is able to confound even scientists and philosophers. Some people believe animals do have souls while others are convinced that they clearly do not. We discussed the arguments and it made us think if the soul existed or not. In fact, both answers cannot be either proven or disproven from an objective point of view. Again, the members of the Club were made to reflect, argue and prove their opinions in English.

Without doubt, the world of animals influences the language of people. There are numerous idioms, sayings and proverbs which we use in our everyday life:

One more linguistic aspect connected with animals is the choice of collective nouns for groups of animals and birds. We had never imagined that:

Our next task was to guess the animal symbols of some countries.

At the end of the session Fyodor asked us to give the examples of legendary, mythical and magical creatures. Certainly, we started with Unicorn – the symbol of purity, strength and freedom. Dragon, Mermaid, Pegasus, Centaur, Sphinx, Minotaur, Griffin, Phoenix, Chimera, Medusa were added to the list.

One hour and a half just flew by. We had to say good-bye leaving the classroom with so many new words and fresh ideas. Every last Saturday of the month we have a unique chance to communicate in English, enlarge our vocabulary, broaden the mind and just spend time with benefit and pleasure. Join us and use this opportunity!

P.S. to be continued…