Kurt Nagata-Wozniack
Kurt has developed far-reaching poliglocy, speaking excellent English, Spanish, Polish, German as well as some Italian and Japanese. He has been learning various languages from a very early age, and now wants to share his tricks for doing this efficiently. Hearing him speak English it is nigh impossible to tell his ancestry, as his way of speaking often shifts depending on the conversation partner, varying from vaguely mid-Atlantic registers, through heavy Dublinese to Californian American. He has lived in St. Louis, Missouri, Edinburgh, Beijing, Vienna, Madrid and Carmarthen in Wales and is now based in Poland. He is a linguist, an artist and full-immersion theatre worker. He studied Arts in Warsaw and Beijing and got his Cambridge University English language teaching qualifications at 18.
ENGLISH, FUN AND GAMES
GREAT BRITAIN IN 10 PICTURES
Materials:
Britain in 10 Pictures Burns Night
Britain in 10 Pictures Burns Night
Britain in 10 Pictures Edinburgh
Britain in 10 Pictures Edinburgh
Britain in 10 Pictures Food in the UK
Britain in 10 Pictures Food in the UK
Britain in 10 Pictures Glasgow
Britain in 10 Pictures Glasgow
Britain in 10 Pictures London
Britain in 10 Pictures London
Britain in 10 Pictures North England
Britain in 10 Pictures North England
Britain in 10 Pictures Shetland Islands
Britain in 10 Pictures Shetland Islands
Britain in 10 Pictures South England
Britain in 10 Pictures South England
HOW TO SOUND LIKE a NATIVE: ACCENT CHAMELEON
Event type: Interactive talk
Facilitator: Kurt Nagata-Wozniack
Minimum age: 13+
Level: Pre-intermediate / Intermediate / Upper-intermediate
Time: 60 min.
* On-demand contents, level and timing can be tailored to groups? needs.
Accent Chameleon is the worst workshop of the Spy-Level English series. In this session we will take a look at vocabulary in a few different languages — all the ones Kurt speaks, in fact! We will consider the problem of word memorisation, investigating various ways of committing the pronunciation of a word to memory. We will learn about phonemes, or, in other words, sounds that appear in a language, and we will discover and analyse why Polish people are said to be among the most talented nations in the world when it comes to language learning. By the end of the workshop, you should have all more control over the way you speak and sound in order to protect your privacy at airports, bus stations, bars, etc. – no-one needs to know where you are from, unless you want them to!
GOOGLE, MY LOVE
Event type: Interactive talk
Facilitator: Kurt Nagata-Wozniack
Minimum age: 13+
Level: Pre-intermediate / Intermediate / Upper-intermediate
Time: 60 min.
* On-demand contents, level and timing can be tailored to groups? needs.
In Google, My Love, yet another workshop in the SPY-LEVEL ENGLISH series, we will explore useful tools available on modern smartphone devices. We will cover speech recognition, speech to text systems and the way using this technology can help your pronunciation. We will take a look at text to speech, too, and the way it can give you an idea of how to pronounce a word. Most importantly though, we will look at Google Translate and various ways to use it efficiently to support language learning. Translating from speech, simultaneous translations for live conversations, translation from photos and screenshots, as well as handwriting. In addition, we will take a look at how Google Translate can be used to bolster our writing skills and give us more self-confidence when communicating in a foreign language.
HOW TO SOUND IRISH
Event type: Interactive talk
Facilitator: Kurt Nagata-Wozniack
Minimum age: 13+
Level: Pre-intermediate / Intermediate / Upper-intermediate
Time: 60 min.
* On-demand contents, level and timing can be tailored to groups? needs.
In How to Sound Irish,a session which is part of the Spy-Level English series, Kurt will give a short introduction to different accents in English and will focus on how to sound Irish. There was a time when the Irish well not welcome in England and their accent was not cool. They even went to elocution classes. Times have changed, and many people just love the Irish and the way they speak. It will be a chance to listen to examples of Irish speakers and practice shadowing an Irish accent. A series of repetition drills will be followed by acting out short role plays, with the Irish accent of course. Should be grand, ?dis should.