Difference in meaning?

[metal56]

To say "If the wind blows then the house falls down", the present of the above...

I'm imagining a tatooed thickset thug every bit as tough as he looks, and more than capable of ripping your head off, metal

LOL! How do you think I got the name Metal? Check out my roughset nature and numerous tatoos.

[fluffyhamster]

quote]I never really saw you as a Mayfair or Belgravia type. You should come and check out the house that, Iban, our resident "druggie" lives in. Bring a couple of shoe boxes and a few old newspapers if you come to stay.

The indignities that Dave's suffers. We've had "A lavatory is a bathroom". Now we are being asked to entertain the notion that a few Armadeira banana boxes and a copy of Rustler is a "house"!

[revel]

Hey all.

CONTEXTMAN is on a poetic vacation. Following are two wonderful sentences offered by a local public school teacher to her students to practice evident grammatical points:

"Translate to English (the sentences are given in Spanish on the worksheet)

Ice is as hard as steel and that dress was more expensive that the other one.

In Islamic countries, people are forbidden to drink or smoke, but they are allowed to put bombs on trains."

Who thinks up these examples, anyway? Worse yet, why am I expected to make sense of them?

peace,
revel.

[metal56]

In Islamic countries, people are forbidden to drink or smoke, but they are allowed to put bombs on trains."

Who thinks up these examples, anyway? Worse yet, why am I expected to make sense of them?

peace,
revel.

The latter seems like a real-world sentence one might commonly hear in these days of hyper-zenophobia. So, it might seem sensible to help your students confront such items, as they will probably meet one of that type in the near future.

[fluffyhamster]

In Islamic countries, people are forbidden to drink or smoke, but they are allowed to put bombs on trains."

Who thinks up these examples, anyway? Worse yet, why am I expected to make sense of them?

peace,
revel.

The latter seems like a real-world sentence one might commonly hear in these days of hyper-zenophobia. So, it might seem sensible to help your students confront such items, as they will probably meet one of that type in the near future.

Sorry if I appear zebraphobic or zuluphobic or xeroxphobic or whatever the word is, but what exactly is the bit I've highlighted in bold above referring to? (silly student of English emoticon).

[fluffyhamster]

Apologies if my joke seemed inappropriate. I appreciate that these are serious issues and terrible events that we're now talking about here.

In the sentence that revel came across, it's stupid right away because it is is saying that Spain is a Muslim country, if we are to assume 'put bombs on trains' is referring to the Madrid bombings, as I'm sure we are meant to (I'm not making any political statement here, just looking at how the linguistic choices that "writer" made are affecting the meaning we might draw from the sentence). Then, of course, there is the little matter of more or less calling all Muslim people terrorists. It's better not to write when one is feeling too angry, I think.

Anyway, it certainly isn't the sort of sentence that schoolchildren should be "grappling" with in any language.

[fluffyhamster]

How about this slight modification?

Out in Shropshire, England, somewhere's:

L: (College boy farm-hand) He got hit by a such a storm last night.

R: (A yokel) If't storm blew up so fierce yesterday, then house'll be down by tomorrow. You mark my words, lad.



(if't = if the)

Yeah, but these straw-sucking yokely types are often wrong about a lot of things though, aren't they - or are you compiling a corpus composed exclusively of Shropspeak to help your students get to grips with conditionals, metal? Do these country bumpkin elders have some insight, some wisdom, that'll be of use, hmm?

Oh, and how about an "official" answer to the original question (from the original poster, no directing us to veritable PhDs of pdf files etc if you can help it, metal! ).

[metal56]

Sorry if I appear zebraphobic or zuluphobic or xeroxphobic or whatever the word is, but what exactly is the bit I've highlighted in bold above referring to? (silly student of English emoticon).

Follow the bolded text:

Who thinks up these examples

such ítems

one of that type

[metal56]

Do these country bumpkin elders have some insight, some wisdom, that'll be of use, hmm?

It seems as if many teachers deny students the ability to use insightful language. Do teachers do that in order to keep neatness in conditional use or in what they, personally, see as logical?

Back in the morning.

[revel]

Hey all!

CONTEXTMAN has just nudged me with his boney elbow and reminded me that that sentence about bombing trains was indeed presented to students soon after the train bombing in Madrid last March. That teacher was evidently moved by the event, as most of us in Spain were and still are. However, I do not argue with the appropriateness of the grammar of the sentence, but rather, as fluffy points out, the way in which it presents a GROSS generalization that young minds should not be asked to accept at face value. If one believes in "back-door" learning, the student is struggling with translating this thought into English while another part of his/her brain is processing the information that beliefs that prohibit drinking and smoking allow train bombing or kamakazi airplane piloting. Not appropriate, in my view, even in the times we are living, or maybe even because of the times we are living.

Just to illustrate how extreme these sort of things can be, here's an anecdote. When I began teaching in a Catholic private school this term, the elections in the USA were a hot current events topic. My 5th grade students naturally asked me who I was going to vote for, Bush or Kerry. I rapidly replied "Ni Bush, ni Kerry, no voto." and continued with the explanation of how to make singular nouns plural. The next day my boss received several phone calls from angry parents, insisting that the English teacher should restrict himself to English in the class, should not be talking about politics. Since my political views are rather strong and at times a bit odd, I avoid sharing them at all costs, even with adult learners. I certainly would not try to make them understandable to a group of ten-year-olds. My sin was having used the "B" word in class. I won't go into how such beliefs on the part of the parents have robbed their children of the many cultural aspects of English I could have made clear (I have since refused to explain anything that isn't directly related to the grammar point at hand), but will simply point out that, you never know, just by saying the "B" word in class I was suddenly interpreted as a political fanatic. Thus, the drinking/smoking/bombing sentence appears to me inappropriate for class use.

The other sentence about ice/steel/etc is just silly.

peace,
revel.

[metal56]

In the sentence that revel came across, it's stupid right away because it is is saying that Spain is a Muslim country, if we are to assume 'put bombs on trains' is referring to the Madrid bombings, as I'm sure we are meant to (I'm not making any political statement here, just looking at how the linguistic choices that "writer" made are affecting the meaning we might draw from the sentence).

How about:

In Islamic countries, people are forbidden to drink or smoke, but they are allowed to put bombs on trains in any other person's country they may so choose."

[fluffyhamster]

In the sentence that revel came across, it's stupid right away because it is is saying that Spain is a Muslim country, if we are to assume 'put bombs on trains' is referring to the Madrid bombings, as I'm sure we are meant to (I'm not making any political statement here, just looking at how the linguistic choices that "writer" made are affecting the meaning we might draw from the sentence).

How about:

In Islamic countries, people are forbidden to drink or smoke, but they are allowed to put bombs on trains in any other person's country they may so choose."

Yes, that makes it much more acceptable.

I've realized that I should've written 'seems to be saying' rather than just 'is saying' there, but I'm sure you could work out what I meant. Seems that Spanish teacher of English isn't the only one who can't write very well.

[vogebn]

What is the difference between a deep relationship and a serious relationship? I couldn't find their exact definitions anywhere. Thanks.