Due to the prevalent coronavirus situation, we are moving on to distance learning for the rest of the course. It is a pity that our face-to-face lessons have gone, but this is the safest solution for all - to prevent everyone from spreading the virus as best as we can! Hope you all stay healthy!

The topic this week is how to "work from home"? If you think about the do's and don'ts of working from home...

One news article from The Telegraph - made these suggestions:-
- Have a shower and get dressed as if you are ready for work 
- Choose a work area and suitable chair
- Have two to-do lists (one for home and one for work)
- Avoid distractions
- Call your boss
- Go outside (fresh-air)

If you would like to read the full article - you can find it below. These are just the main points.

Try and write a sentence for each word.

Video: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/eiam/unit-2/session-13
Scroll down to Activity 1: Telling the difference between "rent, hire and let". 

Definitions:

Listen and repeat:

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Answers for last week

1.b
2.c
3.b
4.a
5.c
6.c
7.b
8.c
9.c (9th Jan - Manifestation of Christ)
10.a (June 24th - 28th 2020, but cancelled this year and would have been the 50th year). So a big celebration next year! Normally over 200,000 people attend.

Possible answers for vocabulary word connections
parage - May Day
costumes - Easter
chant - Easter 
willow twigs - Easter
doughnuts - May Day
streamers - May Day
casseroles - Christmas
shrove buns - Shrove Tuesday
summer solstice - Midsummer
graduation cap - May Day
sledge - Shrovetide or pre-lent
funnel cake - May Day
carols - Christmas
mead - May Day
birch branches - Midsummer
procession - Christmas
mulled wine - Christmas
mashed swede - Christmas
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How to work from home and stay productive during the coronavirus outbreak 

As companies urge staff to avoid the office while Covid-19 spreads, here are the dos and don'ts of successful home working

Taken from: The Telegraph, By Maria Lally, 3 March 2020

I went freelance when I had my first child in 2010 and worked from home for the following eight years, until 2018. From the outside, it's a jammy set-up: an extra hour in bed, a 30 second commute, the opportunity to work in slightly grubby jeans without judgement. But there are also significant drawbacks, such as loneliness and a lack of motivation.

So, with that in mind, here are the dos and don’ts of working from home, should the situation be foisted upon you in the days to come...

Have a shower and do your hair
‘Oh come on, of course I will…’ I hear you sigh. But it won't take long before you’ll begin swapping your jeans for your gym leggings, then your tracksuit bottoms. Before you know it, you’ll find yourself wondering what’s so wrong with leaving your comfy pyjama bottoms on all day, so long as you change out of them for the school run?

So, while you don’t need full business attire to work from home, do shower, get dressed and do your hair as though you were going to meet a friend. It will wake up you, prevent last minute panics if your boss wants to video chat, and it also sets the tone for the day ahead.

Choose a work area
Whether it’s your study, your local café or your kitchen table, have ‘an area’. Try not to perch at the kitchen breakfast bar in between piles of post (unless your breakfast bar is immaculate and your kitchen stools have back supports). Forget sitting on your sofa (you’ll end up with a sore lower back in no time – take it from someone who learnt this the hard way) and don’t lie on your bed with a laptop.

While F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote most of his best work lying in bed, you're not F. Scott Fitzgerald. And if you're anything like me, you'll just end up napping. Having a specific area is like getting dressed properly – it switches you from home mode to work mode, and keeps your focused. 

Have two to-do lists
One of the biggest challenges I had working from home was trying to ignore all the chores around me that needed to be done. Writing for a living and procrastinating often go hand in hand, and if I was struggling to write a feature there was always the dishwasher to empty, or a dentist appointment to book. This flitting, butterfly approach to work doesn’t make you particularly productive and your working day begins to bleed into your regular one.  So, I started two-to-do-lists called ‘Work’ and ‘Home’, and I had set times when I could deal with the latter. 

Avoid distractions
So obvious, but so worth a mention. Like chores, there are plenty of things to distract you at home. For me, it’s social media and WhatsApp conversations, so when I sit down to work, I often delete the Instagram app from my phone (before re-installing it later on) and mute a particularly busy WhatsApp chat.

Call your boss / Speak to people
After a while, one of the toughest things about working from home is how you can go a whole day without speaking to anybody, which isn't great for your emotional health. So, pick up the phone occasionally. A quick phone call to your boss (when you know they're not really busy) can often help you decide on a course of action much quicker than back and forth emails. Or call your other half, or your mum at lunchtime. 

If all else fails, put Radio 4 on (or whatever radio station you enjoy). The gentle chatter helps you feel less lonely and makes you feel a bit more connected to the rest of the world.

Get outside
At least once a day and this is non-negotiable. When I worked from home, I usually had a school or nursery run to get me out the house a couple of times a day, but on the days I didn’t go out and was purely deskbound, I’d wonder why all my ideas, motivation and concentration were drying up by 4pm. A quick dog walk, a run, or even a five minute potter in the garden during a working day might seem like slacking, but in reality it’s just the equivalent of doing the office tea run or having a water cooler chat with a colleague: it gives your brain a break and helps inspire productivity.