CREATIVE WRITING

Some hobbies are rather common and widespread (e.g. sport, photography, dancing), others are quite unusual. Whatever your hobby may be, your insights and experience are invaluable, because you are more knowledgeable in this field than the uninitiated. The following writing tasks are meant to encourage students to share their expertise in the area that they excel in or would like to discover for themselves.

1. Wacky Hobbies

Do some research and find out more about these unusual hobbies that people are into.

For example:

•storm chasing;

•UFO spotting;

•ghost hunting;

•geocaching;

•cryptozoology;

•carving egg shells etc.

Choose one and explain why you might consider taking

it up.

2. Internet Presence

Suppose you were to set up a website or a group on some social network site devoted to your hobby. How would you design it? What information would you include? How would you make it stand out and attract visitors? Describe this site in as much detail as possible.

Alternatively, make a large-scale project, involving all group members. You have to design a site that would introduce all of you through your hobbies. What would be your hobby-related profile on such a site? Mind that hobbies are divided into four large classes: doing things, making things, collecting things, and learning things. Make sure all of these categories are represented on your site.

3. Interview a Hobbyist

Choose some unusual hobby (see task #1 above) and interview a person who pursues it. You may start with the questions suggested below and develop your own questionnaire:

•How did you get into this hobby?

•How timeand money-consuming is it?

•How does your family feel about your hobby?

•Are you a member of a community of like-minded people who share the same interests?

•How do you promote this hobby?

•Have you got your own website and, if so, what has the response to it been?

4.“How-to” Article

Maybe you’re a beginner in some hobby; maybe you’re quite an expert. Either way, you have something that you’re good at. Anyone who has been involved in a hobby for more than a few months has a great deal to share. Perhaps you have some particular knack that others would benefit from learning.

Write a “how-to” article, giving detailed instructions and sharing your know-how. Subjects may range from baking an apple pie to filmmaking.

5. Wordsmiths

Writing itself is among very popular hobbies. If you feel the itch to put pen to paper, writing might be the perfect outlet for your creative passion. While professional writers struggle to cope with the stress of impending deadlines and writer’s block, people who write as a hobby are free to simply enjoy their work, be it writing poetry, songs, letters or journaling.

If you are an amateur wordsmith, write an essay explaining what started you off and what you like most about writing. If this is not your cup of tea, write about your favourite words in the English language (about 5 of them) explaining why you find them fascinating/striking/significant. This may have to do with your personal associations or the concepts behind these words. In a way, all those studying a foreign language are collectors of words, so this is a hobby that unites us.

By Yulia Klimenova, MSU

The main objective of the game is to practise the Present Perfect tense.

RULES:

1.A teacher asks questions very quickly.

2.The pupil who says “yes” or “no” is out of the game. The last pupil (or several pupils) in the game is a winner.

1.Have you ever eaten snakes?

2.Have you ever spoken tarrabar language?

3.Have you ever put your mother’s skirt (father’s jeans)?

4.Have you ever cooked dinner, barbecue, breakfast?

5.Have you ever played cards?

6.Have you ever played the guitar, violin, piano?

7.Have you ever drunk champagne (vodka, hot chocolate, whisky)?

8.Have you ever earned any money?

9.Have you been to Siberia (Australia, Tundra, and Antarctica)?

10.Have you ever jumped from the mountains, from parachute, from the 10th floor?

11.Have you ever worn a dress, a skirt?

12.Have you prepared soup with rat’s tail?

13.Have you eaten frogs?

14.Have you ever slept on a ceiling?

15.Have you ever played cricket, rugby, leap-frog, baseball, and billiard?

16.Have you ever flown in the clouds?

17.Have you ever bought sausages in a clothes shop?

18.Has a crocodile lived in your flat?

19.Have you ever danced walse, lezginka, and polka?

20.Have you ever lost your keys?

21.Have you ever seen Easter rabbit?

22.Have you ever made a snowman in summer?

23.Have you ever kissed a spider?

24.Have you ever drawn with foot?

25.Have you ever put a bucket on your head?

26.Have you ever lost your head?

27.Have you ever sung folk songs, English songs?

28.Have you ever ridden a tortoise, camel?

29.Have you ever ridden a snail?

30.Have you ever seen an aborigine, a witch?

31.Have you ever bought a dog, a cat?

32.Have you ever bought a TV-set?

33.Have you ever spoken to a President?

34.Have you ever spoken to a blind man?

35.Have you ever swum in the ocean, in the lake?

36.Have you ever swum in the puddle?

37.Have you ever broken your leg?

38.Have you ever put on clown’s costumes?

39.Have you ever put on wigs?

40.Have you ever ridden an elephant?

41.Have you ever fallen from the trees?

42.Have you ever fallen in love?

43.Have you ever written music, a poem, a story?

44.Have you ever found treasures?

45.Have you ever found money?

46.Have you ever made spaghetti, pizza?

47.Have you ever been in a helicopter?

48.Have you ever found a secret door?

49.Have you ever met Indians?

50.Have you ever lived in a hut?

51.Have you ever lived in a wigwam?

52.Have you ever eaten a horse?

53.Have you ever knitted or sawed clown’s suit?

54.Have you ever washed your TV?

55.Have you ever eaten dust?

56.Have you ever seen a shark?

57.Have you ever visited Disneyland in Paris?

58.Have you ever seen a star?

59.Have you ever been to the Wild West?

60.Have you ever come back in time?

61.Have you ever seen famous writers?

62.Have you ever put a needle on your teacher’s chair?

63.Have you ever hunted in the jungle?

64.Have you ever walked while sleeping?

65.Have you ever flown to the Universe?

By Natalya Gevorkyan,

School No. 1900, Moscow

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