Late May Materials

Hello Students,

This is a photo my sister Elaine took of my wife Jessica & I while we were on the southern shores of Ireland in the Ring of Kerry on Derrynane Beach — one of the most beautiful places in the world I’ve ever seen.

I hope you are having a great weekend so far. On Monday I leave to travel around the Mediterranean with my wife to celebrate 2 years of marriage. I will be gone from May 27th until June 7th, then we will resume classes. Global English has assured me they are contacting all of my students in order to reschedule the classes, but if you have any questions you can always email me at adam.fitzgerald@glt-talent.com or adamfitzsmith@gmail.com

In the meantime while I am gone, I figured some of you might appreciate materials to study. I have included different stories, videos, grammar help and some music below to keep you busy while I’m away. Hopefully you find these materials helpful and interesting. Have a good few weeks!

Here is an interesting article from NPR about having purpose in life leading to better health.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/25/726695968/whats-your-purpose-finding-a-sense-of-meaning-in-life-is-linked-to-health

I am curious of your opinions on this article from NPR about the upcoming European elections
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/25/725369288/european-elections-will-be-a-test-for-nationalist-parties-hoping-to-remake-the-e

Here is a depressing and horrifying story about American politics and how Trump wishes to further cut funding for public education in America. My nightmare, and the worst possible decision for a better future.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trump-seeks-to-slash-85-billion-from-education-department-budget/2019/03/11/69ab930e-441f-11e9-8aab-95b8d80a1e4f_story.html?fbclid=IwAR0ezBaMzmfvgcjjC5aXXrXIMp7f_q2PRj1cUZcnzJv3hDxN0djs0uNldWs&noredirect=on&utm_term=.0d5b92d39f26

Some of you expressed interest in an article I sent recently on new theories about time. For anyone interested in science, I found this recent article on physics very interesting.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/physicists-suspect-reality-illusion?fbclid=IwAR3M1guSKbJoIHjWcxU3Zlp43fD80RZiQ_-DTuYobuwDh8oCPgfgqZcjd_I

Here is a very fascinating recent article from the New York Post detailing how the Pentagon (the head of pretty much everything in The US) has been reseraching UFOS (Unidentified Flying Objects — potentially aliens) for years.
https://nypost.com/2019/05/22/the-pentagon-finally-admits-it-investigates-ufos/amp/?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR3chO-YwT5oBQbwAErJtUK8xStc6RNhPT83bOsPpVY4CdwNI4jXJJ7zj0o

In relation to health, I recently watch this short video clip of a professional surfer and lifestyle coach Laird Hamilton on Joe Rogan’s podcast — he is a very interesting guy who is very healthy (and looks great for being 55) — in this clip he talks of the importance of breathing and further explains how we breath and how it affects our health.
https://youtu.be/VBVn47DAFQA

Here is a very recent TED Talk about the importance of mindset
https://youtu.be/X_9cyPIvdyo

One of my students recently asked me for grammar help regarding the conditional tense — which is a very complex aspect of English grammar. There are actually several tenses, which can take some time to get used to. I wanted to share this resource because it does a good job explaining the different conditional tenses and their uses.
https://www.ef.co.uk/english-resources/english-grammar/conditional/

For music this week I wanted to share a new song from some of my band Shady Groves’ closest friends in Detroit — a band called Remnose — we have played many shows with them in Michigan and they’re truly a wonderful, talented band that deserves more attention. Recently I started working with them more in relation to my record label / collective Underflow Records.
https://soundcloud.com/remnose/cures-diseases-single

The lyrics don’t seem to be typed out yet but they are truly brilliant, so if you have any questions regarding the words of the song, I am always happy to help fill you in. I can also ask the singer of the band, Marlon, to send me his lyrics, because they are worth putting online.

I will leave you with a quote from maybe the wisest man who has ever lived — Lao Tzu (Lao Tzu, Plato and Marcus Aurelius are some of the most brilliant and wise minds to have ever existed, in my opinion)

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Enjoy your next few weeks, I return June 7th so we will continue classes that next week. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

All my best,

Adam Fitzgerald