Job Discussion Forums

johnslat · Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 12:04 am Post subject: A so-so site

Dear leeroy,
Here's a web site that you might like, but it's ONLY so-so.

http://www.travlang.com/wordofday/27.html

Regards,
John

leeroy · Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Posts: 777 Location: London UK

Thank you very much John

I am very tired now, I have many students to teach tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Smile

J-Pop · Joined: 07 Oct 2003 Posts: 215 Location: USA

Dr.J · Joined: 09 May 2003 Posts: 304 Location: usually Japan

Students tend to cling to words that sound like their language. And when those words also mean "I don't know, um, maybe" then they've hit the jackpot.

Japanese students love so-so. It drives me nuts. Also, Japanese has imported the word 'gorgeous' to mean great/luxurious, so I constantly hear things like 'This pen is very gorgeous.'

Well why don't you marry it then?

Capergirl · Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 2:16 am Post subject:

My pet peeve is: "How are you? I'm fine, thank you, and you?" (said robotically) Rolling Eyes

I tell my students that native speakers do not talk like that (unless they actually are robots). I also explain that "how are you?" is often used as a rhetorical question. Usually after I tell them this, they are quite relieved as they were beginning to think that all Canadians are rude because we "don't wait for the answer". Laughing

My newest students are from Russia and I am currently working on eliminating the "very, very, very, very" from their sentences. Mad

MartinK · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 344

dreadnought · Joined: 10 Oct 2003 Posts: 82 Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

What I love about students who study English at university is the arcane and bizarre English they are led to believe is 'sophisticated'. When I worked at a university in Serbia, the structures of the day were It's high time + past simple and very + noun (to emphasise). Students used them all the time in speech and writing. 'It's high time we had a break', 'it's high time we checked the answers' 'Serbia is the very place to have a holiday (?!)', 'This is the very time we should be studying harder.'

And idioms. University teachers love teaching students idioms and getting them to use them in their essays. It took me a long time to get my students out of the habit. However, as one of my students so eloquently wrote:

'Writing was never my cup of coffee, it used to leave me tall and dry, but now I quite like it.'

And you can't really argue with that, now can you?

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

Dreadnought--

I still cringe when I think back to an idiom lesson in one of the Headways books--house and home idioms.

There I was, making a total ass out of myself, trying to get responses to the following prompts:

"Jan, what could you do until the cows come home?

Petra, what could you do until the cows come home?

Marketa, what could you do until the cows come home?"

!Ay, caramba! I try to avoid idioms in my own speech!!! What was I thinking?!?!? That was a section from the book that should have been skipped...

d

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

I must say (Ed Grimley) that diligent is one of the most annoying overly used words I`ve ever heard. A student who reads for 5 minutes is "diligent". Question

I don`t think I even the heard the word until I was in my 20`s.

Sandgropers · Joined: 05 Jun 2003 Posts: 39

Our great crusade while in China is to try to stop the students from shouting UHH in our faces when they don't understand something said to them and to replace it with PARDON. A bit of an uphill battle, but have had the odd win. Very Happy

Cheers

Steiner · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 573 Location: Hunan China

Everyone please note that Gordon went to a Canadian school.

My students love:
1. romantic. I could say "My wife and I were stranded in the rain all night. We were wet and freezing the next morning when we finally caught a bus," and my students would tell me that that's very romantic.

2. ...and so on. As in "My favorite foods are bananas, ice cream, rice, and so on."

3. special food. Just about everything anyone eats seems to be a "special food." I still don't know what that means.

4. gonna, wanna. In written essays! I think some of their teachers taught them this and they took off with it. Annoys me to no end.

All in all, my students' English is so-so.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

This semester my struggle has been to prvent the usage of "Teacher" as a vocative. My students have been doing this for six years so it is probably a hopeless endeavour. It is also a direct carry-over from Arabic "Ustadh.........."

When they say "Teacher, can I............" I reply with,"Boy, the answer is no."

Maybe after another 6 years they will be doing what I want which is "Mr X can I.......?

or "Sir, can I.........?

Then maybe I will get them to switch from "Can I...." to "May I ....?"

schwa · Joined: 12 Oct 2003 Posts: 164 Location: yap

"Nice to meet you,' coming from someone you see in class week-in week-out. No amount of correction/explanation seems to make a difference.