Category: B1

B1, B2, story

A boat resident in Rio de Janeiro

WeSpeak Idiomas

The following is a conversation I had with the owner and “resident” of a sailboat. I met him when I booked an Airbnb experience, which was a private boat tour around isolated beaches in Paraty, Rio de Janeiro. The tour also included a kayaking and snorkeling experience as well.

– Your sailboat is so cool, how long have you been sailing?

– I wasn’t always a sailor, I learned to sail on Youtube, watching tutorials. I’m still learning, I’m by no means an experienced sailor, I don’t have anything to teach haha.

His frankness was so refreshing! There he was talking to a client (whom you would normally try to impress in order to get a good Airbnb review) and explaining how he hadn’t been a sailor for long and how he learned the few sailing skills he had from Youtube. As a client, I was a little scared that he might not know what to do in a storm in the middle of nowhere. As a teacher, I was in awe, my admiration for his self-learning skills motivated me do this mini interview.

– Wow! That’s impressive! So where do you live?

– Here

– Here in Paraty?

– Here on this boat.

And to prove it he gave me a tour of his home.

– I’ve never met someone who lives on a boat before, how interesting! Is there a tax associated to living on a boat?

– You pay to dock, but you don’t ever have to dock.

– (You have my attention now! I’ve always admired people who know how to beat the system.) What do you eat?

– I fish for food.

– Sounds like you won’t be running out of food anytime soon! What did you use to do before you decided to become a sailor and live on this boat?

– I haven’t been a sailor for long… I used to be a jockey, my dad wanted me to ride horses but that wasn’t my true calling. I worked from 11 to 42 years old and I don’t miss it, I never had days off, I would always work on holidays.

– Who gave you the idea of offering Airbnb experiences?

– I got the idea from the guys who are doing the same thing. At first I didn’t think of it as a business, though, my goal was just to live the cheapest way possible, rent-free, tax-free, not spending a lot on money on food.

– Do you get many clients?

– Enough haha. If I work for 6 or 7 days in a row, I block my calendar and take a break. The truth is I don’t want more clients because I don’t want to work more. My girlfriend wants to work a lot but I don’t.

– What do you mean, does she want this business to grow?

– She does, she’s always suggesting marketing ideas and ways to get bigger and better but I’ve told her “You make your plans but don’t include me in them”, hahaha.

– You mentioned earlier you had a son, does he have a regular life?

– Yes, he does, at least for now. He lives in Sao Paulo with his mom, too bad he doesn’t love the sun like I do.

– Do you ever feel lonely?

– Not really, I have a girlfriend, she lives in Sao Paulo but even when she comes to visit me, she knows I need my space. She takes the kayak, goes snorkeling somewhere while I stay on the boat. We are cool living like that.

– How have you been spending your free time lately?

– I’ve been very busy fixing my boat. I had to fix the engine, install stuff, things like that…

– (Interesting to know the engine wasn’t working well not too long ago!) How do you spend your free time?

– I like doing nothing, you know? I like to take my time to spend on myself, contemplating nature, sleeping… When my friends come and ask me to do stuff with them, more often than not my answer is “I can’t, I’m busy”, they go “but you’re doing nothing”, I say “I need this time to do nothing!”.

It seems that our friend cracked the code to happiness! He lives a happy, stress-free life without the hustle and bustle of the city. What about saving for the future? building a credit history? He aims to live on his boat for good, the doesn’t need to make monthly mortgage payments for 20 years until he owns a place to reside, what about a car? he can get to places by boat or take taxis, which are affordable in Paraty, what about health insurance? healthcare is free in Brazil, this is true, I have first-hand experience as I’ve used healthcare as a tourist in Brazil, cost: 0 reais! (If you want to know more about my experience, look for my blog post I didn’t have health insurance and this happened to me in Brazil.)

This lifestyle is not for everyone but I applaud people who take the plunge and decide to live the best life possible for them. I know people who have all of the above, a big house, a nice car, a well-paid job, good health insurance, etc who aren’t half as happy as this man is.

Wondering what the tour was like? It’s one of the best boat tours I’ve ever taken in my life.

Remember my fears? Well, there WAS a storm! My guide didn’t seem to be too worried about it, though. Fortunately, he knew what to do (thank you YouTube!), we got on the boat and sailed back to safety.

So what did I learn from this experience?

  • That it’s never too late to follow your true calling.
  • That there are ways of beating the system.
  • That you can learn anything from Youtube!
  • That there are people in the world who don’t care about money, and they tend to be the most interesting people to chat with!
  • That kayaking looks easy and feels easy until the next day when you wake up with sore muscles.
  • That Airbnb experiences are cheaper and better than tours booked through agencies.

If you go to Rio de Janeiro, don’t skip Paraty! The boat tours are just one of the many activities you can do there. I’m already looking forward to going back!

Paraty-featured image
A2, B1, grammar

Practice making English questions about “Paraty”

WeSpeak Idiomas

Paraty is one of my favorite cities in Brazil. It’s an old, colonial city that makes you feel you are traveling back in time.

Today we’ll do both, practice making questions in English at the same time we learn a little about this picturesque town.

Read the questions and answers below and notice the verb tense and kind of question. Is it a yes/no question? a wh-question? is it in the present, past tense? is it in the active or passive voice?

How long were you in Paraty? (simple past with “be”)

I spent a whole week there.

Where did you stay? (simple past)

I stayed in a Posada run by Doña Martha, an Argentinean lady who fell in love with the city and decided to move there and start a business. Her breakfasts are delicious!

Having breakfast at the posada

Had you been to Paraty before? (past perfect)

No, I hand’t. It was my first time in that city.

Why are all the houses painted white? (simple present with “be”)

Because there was a law that said all the houses had to be painted white.

What happened to the people who didn’t follow the law? (simple past, subject question, that’s why there are no auxiliary verbs like “do” or “does”)

They were fined.

Is this law enforced in the present? (simple present, passive voice)

The historic center was named UNESCO heritage, which means home owners can’t change the structure or color of the construction.

What are those symbols? (simple present with “be”)

They are masonry symbols.

Why do the houses have many doors? (simple present)

For easy access.

Can the doors be changed into windows? (simple present with modals, passive voice)

Yes, they can. Some people wanted to convert the doors into windows, so the government allowed them to make the change provided that they show the new window used to be a door. As you can see in the picture below (on the right), those two yellow lines that go down to the floor signal that that window used to be a door.

Who lives here? (simple present, subject question, that’s why there are no auxiliary verbs like “do” or “does”)

Prince John does.

Whose house is that? (simple present, question using a possessive pronoun)

Prince John’s.

What’s this church called? (simple present, passive voice)

It’s called Santa Rita, it’s the oldest church in Paraty. You can find a museum of the catholic church inside.

What activities can I do in Paraty? (simple present with modal verb)

You can go Kayaking, take a walking tour downtown, go on a boat tour, go shopping (there are very nice clothes, especially for women), go to bars, restaurants, go on a cachaça tour and much more!

Why are there so many pink boats? (simple present with “be”)

According to my tour guide, the first gay elected mayor in Paraty painted his boat pink, then everybody started doing it.

What’s Paraty’s signature drink? (simple present with “be”)

Paraty’s signature drink is called Gabriela, which unlike the regular cachaça, contains clove and cinnamon. Gabriela is what is used to prepare Jorge Amado, a Brazilian caipirinha with passion fruit and lime juice, my favorite!

(question I asked my tour guide) How long have you been doing the cachaça tour? (present perfect continuous)

“I’ve been doing it for a year, it’s a new project. I noticed nobody was doing it and thought, would people be interested in a cachaça tour led by a local”? This town is known for producing the best cachaça in Brazil, so a cachaça tour made a lot of sense.

When did Paraty become known? (simple past)

Paraty became known when the locals started growing sugar cane in the region. Later on, after the discovery of the world’s richest gold mines in 1696 in the mountains of Minas Gerais, Paraty became an export port for gold to Rio de Janeiro and from there on to Portugal.

B1, story

My older friends

WeSpeak Idiomas

People often hang out with people their same age, that makes sense since people your generation tend to have similar interests, but since I can remember I’ve always had friends who are older than me.

When I was in my 20’s I befriended a lovely lady, who was first friends with my parents. Sol was in her 50’s and somehow we hit it off and became friends. One day I was using the title “usted” (in English “you”), which we use in Spanish to address people who are older than you to show respect and the next day I was using “tu” (also “you”), which we use with friends and people our age. She used to sell make-up and I became her client, then somewhere along the way we started texting and we even went shopping for clothes together once when we lived in Lima. She moved to New Jersey and we lost touch for a few years but reconnected recently and I’m so happy we did.

This year I befriended two adorable guys who are at least 30 years older than me. Bertran and Gaytan were my neighbors in Playa del Carmen, where I was staying for a couple of months earlier this year. I would see them on the rooftop sunbathing or having what I thought were healthy smoothies (I found out later they were smoothies with rum haha). Once we got talking at the pool and I found them to be very sweet and easy-going and after I realized that we had a lot in common—like our desire to travel the world, living like nomads and not making plans for the following day—it only felt right to have them home for dinner. I’m not a great cook but did my best to cook ají de gallina (a Peruvian typical dish) for them. They brought wine and had a nice chat, we got to know them better and they also offered to cook dinner for us! Our relationship is not like the kind of small-talk interaction you have with a regular neighbor you bump into at the supermarket, it’s rather a let’s-get-together-in-Portugal-to-celebrate-our-anniversary kind of friendship. My two lovely brand-new friends and I got along so well that they invited my husband and I to meet in a different country, Portugal, where they were going to be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. It’s a pity we won’t be able to go but I’m sure we’ll find the way to meet again.

Well today I just wanted to share that with you. Have you tried befriending people older than you? If not, you might me missing out!

In this blog you’ll find both, stories and learning materials. You have just read a story and can check out similar ones below.

B1, B2, writing

How to write a good body paragraph

WeSpeak Idiomas

When we write essays we need:

  1. An introductory paragraph
  2. One or two body paragraphs
  3. A concluding paragraph

Body paragraphs are like the meat in a sandwich. The introductory paragraph is the top bun of a sandwich, it provides direction for the paragraph. The body paragraphs support statements, provide details and mirror the meat and ingredients within the sandwich. A concluding paragraph summarizes or ties up the content within the paragraph in the same way the bottom bun holds the sandwich together.

Main idea

Each body paragraph should focus on a single main idea or controlling idea. Each main idea is a subtopic of your thesis, which means they should be mentioned in your introductory paragraph.

Components of a body paragraph

Transitions

How do we make a smooth transition? Well, one of my favorite ways of making transitions is by highlighting a point that I previously made in my writing. Doing this helps the reader make connections between already known knowledge to new information.

Example:

Even though the advantages of being a digital nomad outnumber the disadvantages, there are also a number of disadvantages you might want to consider before decided to travel the world while working remotely.

In this example, I am telling the reader that the information that follows is about the disadvantages of being a digital nomad. I use the connector even though in the sentence “Even though the advantages of being a digital nomad outnumber the disadvantages,…” to make a smooth transition between my previous paragraph (about the pros) and the new paragraph (about the cons of being a digital nomad).

Topic sentences

Your topic sentence identifies the main point of each paragraph. A topic sentence is usually a declarative sentence. Ask yourself this question before you write it: What point am I trying to make in this paragraph? For instance, Am I going to talk about the advantages or disadvantages of something? I am going to compare or contrast information? Your answer is your topic sentence.

Remember this: Sometimes we assume that the topic sentence is the first sentence in a paragraph, but that’s not necessarily the case, our topic sentence may come after a transitional sentence. Just remember that each topic sentence is always connected to your main thesis, so if you can successfully identify the thesis statement (which is in the introductory paragraph), you won’t have any problems finding the topic sentence.

Watch this video where our WeSpeak students identify the topic sentence in two different paragraphs.

Evidence

How can you back up your claim? Easy, with evidence. That is facts, testimonials, statistics, quotations, or real-life examples to prove your point to your reader.

Even though the advantages of being a digital nomad outnumber the disadvantages, there are also a number of disadvantages you might want to consider before decided to traveling the world while working remotely. Sometimes moving from one city to another constantly can prevent you from building friendships. In 2019 I spent four months island hopping in Thailand and never stayed longer than 20 days on a single island. I found it incredibly hard to connect with people and make friends and that’s coming from a highly sociable individual! It was impossible to make plans far ahead because by the time my potential new friend and I agreed on what to do, I was already making plans to move to my next destination.

In the previous paragraph I mentioned a real-life example to prove my point to my reader. You might be associating evidence with statistics, since they usually show more objectivity. However, it is also be objective to write about your life. In my paragraph I explained how even with my effective social skills, it was impossible to build friendships due to the fact that I was always on the move. The fact that I am a social butterfly makes this information believable.

I hope this blog post was useful to help you improve your writing by identifying and using the different components of a body paragraph.

Final tip: Always remember make smooth transitions, the list of transitional phrases below can help you achieve this!

TRANSITIONAL PHRASESDownload
B1, B2, grammar

Comparisons with as…as

WeSpeak Idiomas

If you’re a basic English learner, you must already know how to make comparisons using -er or more, sentences like “Brazil is bigger than Peru” or “Accommodation in Mexico city is more expensive than in Playa del Carmen”. That’s a basic way of expressing comparisons. In this video, however, I’ll teach you a different way, using as…as.

Step 1: Watch the video

Step 2: Do the exercises

B1, vocabulary

Science verbs

WeSpeak Idiomas

How many science verbs do you know in English? Learn new science vocabulary by following two simple steps.

Step 1: Watch the video

While you watch listen and repeat after me. I recommend taking notes of each new word to practice spelling. In this video you will learn 19 science verbs in English.

Step 2: Do the exercises

Now is time to test your knowledge. Do this 10-question quiz and see how much you’ve learned. How many did you get right?

Try going back to this quiz in a week or so to see how many words you remember. When I was an English student I would go back to the content I’d learned in the past and test myself again and that’s how I memorized vocabulary. It worked for me, try it and see if it works for you too!

B1, vocabulary

Money

WeSpeak Idiomas

For some reason we are always talking about money. On a daily basis we say sentences like How much is this?, I’m short of money, I need to save up to go on a trip, My friend asked if he could borrow some money. Money is part of our daily lives so knowing words and expressions around this topic will come in handy.

How much money vocabulary do you know? Learn 10 new words/expressions related to money management and then test your knowledge!

Now go ahead and do the interactive exercises on Quizlet to test your knowledge. Never used Quizlet before? It’s extremely simple. Just follow these steps:

  1. go to the flashcards section and review vocabulary, click on the listen icon to practice pronunciation
  2. go to the learn section and test your knowledge!
INTERACTIVE EXERCISES
B1, B2, Podcast

Wild Vs. Savage

WeSpeak Idiomas

Welcome to the second series of our WeSpeak English podcast! Since this time I will share my students’ participation in class, I’ve decided to call this series “A sneak peek into an online class”.

In the next 10 episodes I’ll be sharing segments of my classes so we can learn and analyze grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.

In this first episode we will analyze word choice.

Details of the class: A2 level (upper basic) My student is a Spanish speaker from Perú.

Episode 1: Wild vs. savage

B1, B2, Podcast

Episode 4: Condiments around the world – Condimentos alrededor del mundo

WeSpeak Idiomas

Hi English/Spanish Learners! Ayleen here, your teacher from wespeakidiomas.com

In today’s episode Chris and I talk about condiments around the world. Not only will this episode help you improve your listening skills, but it will also help you learn a few new words since we’ll be using different words to describe condiments and sauces in English and Spanish.

Episode 4: Condiments around the world – Condimentos alrededor del mundo

We discussed different types of sauces:

  • Brown sauce
  • Apple sauce
  • Cranberry sauce
  • Mint sauce
  • Soy sauce
  • Chilli sauce
  • Sweet and sour sauce

In this podcast Chris used different adjectives to describes sauces:

Word in English Definition in English Spanish translation
thick almost solid, and therefore flowing very slowly, or not flowing at all espeso
mild not very strong or hot-tasting suave
smooth a liquid mixture that is smooth has no big pieces in it OPP lumpy sin grumos
spicy food that is spicy has a pleasantly strong taste, and gives you a pleasant burning feeling in your mouth SYN hot picante

 

I used a couple of words that might be new for you:

Word in Spanish Definition in Spanish English translation
empalagoso demasiado dulce (no en un buen sentido) overly sweet
paladar gusto con que se percibe el sabor de los alimentos palate
arándano rojo arbusto de la familia de las ericáceas que mide entre 10 y 40 cm de altura, con hojas alternas, aovadas y aserradas, flores solitarias de color blanco verdoso o rosado y frutos en bayas negruzcas o azuladas cranberry
arándano azul blueberry
icónico representativo de la cultura iconic

These are the condiments in Thailand I mentioned in the podcast.

The one on the left corner is known as chilli flakes. Next to it, you can see the white sugar. At the front, fish sauce and chili and vinegar and chili.

condiments

Oh! and of course, the peanuts!

padthai peanuts

Then I asked Chris a question he didn’t understand:

  • ¿A qué crees que se deba eso? ó ¿cuál crees que sea el motivo por el que…? The translation to English is very simple, Why do you think…?

Now you know different words in English and Spanish to describe your favorite sauce!

By the way, what’s your favorite sauce?

B1, B2, Podcast

Episode 3: Back to Thailand – De regreso en Tailandia

WeSpeak Idiomas

Hi English/Spanish Learners! Ayleen here, your teacher from wespeakidiomas.com

Today I want to share my happiness with you. I’m back in Thailand! Yayy!

In this episode Chris and I talk about what we missed the most from this beautiful country. Tune in to practice your listening skills and learn some new vocabulary related to foods and the grammar point of the day-using “although” and “even though”.

Episode 3: Back to Thailand – De regreso en Tailandia

You can learn more about the new vocabulary used in this conversation below:

  • Consecutivos, seguidos: in a row
  • Row: fila
  • Readily available: a tu disposición
  • Watermelon: sandía
  • Mango: mango
  • Guava: guava o guayaba
  • Papaya: papaya
  • Dragon fruit: pitaya
  • Lime: limón o lima

*La traducción depende de tu proveniencia. Si eres de Perú, se va a traducir como limón, lime significa limón. Si eres de Argentina, se va a traducir como lima, lima significa lima. Recuerden la descripción de la fruta, lime hace referencia a la fruta verde, pequeña y más agria. Si esa fruta verde pequeña y agria en tu país se llama lima, entonces lime significa lima. Si a un peruano le dices la palabra lima, va a imaginar una fruta totalmente diferente. Nosotros le llamamos limón, uno de los ingredientes para preparar ceviche es jugo de limón.

  • Aunque: although, even though
  • Servilletas de papel: paper napkins
  • Rubbish: (AmE) Garbage, basura
  • Turquesa: turquoise
  • Dañar: hurt
  • Pebbles: piedritas