Resources
Practice Your English at the Chay Chat Club
The U.S. Embassy in Tashkent holds a weekly English conversation club called the Chay Chat Club. The group gathers each Friday afternoon for a discussion led by a native English speaker. Topics vary, but tend to focus on American culture, policies and society or on issues of global importance.
Past topics have included Visas, Study in the U.S., Healthy Lifestyles, Sports, the Fourth of July, American Presidential Elections, the UN and NATO, Environmental Concerns, Urban Challenges, and Trafficking in Persons. The Embassy also provides current English-language articles that relate to each week’s topic, so that participants can read more about the issue and practice their English even after the event is over.
Once a month, usually on the last Friday of the month, the Chay Chat Club meets earlier in the afternoon in order to watch an American movie. Recent movies have included Sleepless in Seattle, Runaway Jury, August Rush.
Not only do Chay Chat participants get to watch the movie, but they also get to learn more about the subject or issue that the movie highlights. Before they show each movie, members of the Embassy staff always hold a small contest. They ask the audience questions that relate to the topic of the movie, and the audience member that answers each question correctly wins an English language book.
The Chay Chat Club is held every Friday at the American Embassy at 1600. If you would like to attend, you should call the Embassy at 120-5450 or email your full name and passport number to Tashkent-IRC@state.gov at least 2 days in advance to sign up. Movies are usually shown on the last Friday of the month at 1500. The procedure for reserving a spot for the movie is the same.