«Friday Point» Club: A Way To Improve Your English Skills
Probably each of us would like to speak English fluently, because it immediately opens up a million opportunities for our further actions, whether it is studying abroad, an international exam or friends from anywhere in the world. Everyone tries different ways to improve their English skills: someone watches movies, someone reads special literature, someone listens to music, but some go to special speaking clubs.
I would like to tell you about one of them. “Friday point” club is a free of charge club in Moscow, which opens its doors to absolutely everyone as for students who want to improve their language level, as for adults who may need it for work.
The club has two locations: the Russian State Library for Youth and the library of the ZIL cultural center. Every Friday at 7 o’clock in the evening, anyone can come to the club and spend time not just for fun, but usefully.
At first, everyone watches a video on a specific topic, and then the moderator explains new words that were in the video and divide everyone into small groups to discuss the topic that was raised in the video. Everyone of course has a different level of English, but everyone is trying as best as he or she can. After 40-50 minutes, the moderator asks to change groups, which helps to meet new people and discuss new ideas. Sometimes a topic can be extraordinary and complicated, for example, about artificial intelligence. Nobody gets lost in groups and continues to chat, choosing a new topic for discussion. Typically, the topics of the video are relevant and associated with ordinary life, about education or economics, for example. Of course, half of the people who come to this club are students from completely different universities, and we found our colleagues there, of course.
Natalia Alexandrova, a fourth year student, Philology major
I learned information on the official website of the library after my neighbor from the dormitory recommended the courses to me. I thought it would be great as I wanted to pass IELTS; it would help me somehow to practice and talk to people. The place where it is hold is really nice, because there are a lot of different people from all spheres with particular background. There were more people with technical specialization and it was great talking to them.
I don’t like that the level of knowing English is so different that sometimes it takes a plenty of time to some people to start expressing their ideas, though I was speaking a lot and it helped me with preparation for my exam.
I do not know, I hope. Anyway, it was perfect time. I made some new friends that I am still meeting apart club. Topics were also various and it helps broaden your horizons and be a well-adjusted person who is up-to-date with all new inventions and events.
Kalmykov Ivan, a first year student, Computer Science major
A friend of mine told me about it.
I like the audience, people are really smart. Also, I like the idea of discussing video, so every meeting has its own agenda.
I met a lot of interesting people and learnt many new words. This is because we work on vocabulary after each video.
Definitely, it was extremely helpful.
There are many ways of improving your speaking skills. I like to practice IELTS. They have so many controversial issues. Test takers should think in English throughout the response. That is exactly what makes me think in English in casual life – many hours of speaking practice.
So go ahead and spend your Friday with benefit! More information here: https://vk.com/friday.point
Text by
Julia Morozova