Thought for the Day (of the General Strike)

Either you're part of the solution or you're part of the problem.

-- Eldridge Cleaver, American activist

Get the help you need.

Juan and I just had an interesting chat about the whole Bolonia treaty. I don't fully understand the ideas and consequences of the treaty, but it promises to change the way university students in Spain are forced to work.

One of the things Juan always mentions: Students in Spain could use a lot of help developing and refining their study skills. As teachers, we always try to offer continuous feedback and improvement. But don't just listen to us. There are lots of useful resources on the internet that can help you study smarter, not just study better. Here's one I found this morning which is positive, upbeat, and has tons of great information.

http://www.studygs.net/

Remember the quote from "The Matrix:" I can show you the door, Neo, but YOU have to walk through it.

Thought for the day

"Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other."

-Erma Bombeck, American writer.

Just because you can...

doesn't mean you should.

One of the reasons why I created this blog was because I wanted to give students a source of information on how to improve their English. What isn't obvious, however, is that improving your English means having a good relationship with your teacher. To have a good relationship with your teacher, it's important to get off on the right foot (=to start well/badly) with that person. (I've touched on this topic before on the blog: http://tinyurl.com/2upr77v)

Here's how you can get off on the wrong foot with a new teacher, and guarantee that you'll be looking for someone new very quickly.

S. calls me on Wednesday and doesn't leave a message. Normally, I don't call people back if they can't be bothered to leave a message, but, for some reason, I do. When we start speaking, it becomes obvious that he doesn't like speaking, so I try to find out as much information as I can. It isn't much. He wants to speak in English. (Don't we all?) We agree to meet the next day to talk about I can help him.

So the next day, I run out of a class to meet S. on the other side of the city. The conversation lasts about ten minutes, and I don't get much more information out of him. He's in a university course that is very grammar- and vocabulary-intensive, but they don't get a lot of chances to speak. OK, I say, so why do you want to hire a teacher? There are a lot of different ways to practice your English for free.... arrange an intercambio or go to a pub night. (The guy is a university student, after all. I'm assuming he's seen the inside of a pub or two in his life.) Shrug. Not sure. I'm not getting a good feeling about this. We arrange to meet the next day for an hour and a half of class.

It turns out that the hour and a half we were supposed to have at lunchtime becomes thirty minutes before dinner. It was painful. I go to his university residence, because he doesn't want to come to the office, and when I get to the (all-male) residence, I have to wait ten minutes for him to come down to get me.

Then he insists on taking me up to his dormitory room, which was disastrous: Clothes all over the place, notebooks, padel ball racquet - and the smell. Oh, dear readers....that smell. If you could put that essence of "teenage boy" odor in a bottle, you could use it as a repellent for small animals. (There were teaching rooms available in the residence, but he didn't want to take one in case someone needed it. It must be a very demanding university, indeed, if they expect a bunch of twenty-something young men to attend classes at 7:20 PM on a Friday night.) I'm not sure which was more difficult, frankly - trying to teach while only breathing in and out of my mouth, or trying to pin S. down to a regular schedule and get some information out of him.

In the end, I'm guessing that S. probably will not have class this coming Friday, either. Students who don't have a clear idea of what they want to do usually don't keep up with classes, and it seems a waste of time to hire someone just because you want to talk.

Please remember that finding a teacher is a lot like finding a husband or a wife. If you want to have a productive, healthy, long-lasting relationship that helps you grow and get better, first impressions are important.

It's hurricane season...

Ever wonder how hurricanes and tropical storms get their names? There's an excellent description here on the US National Hurrican Center website:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

Don't let Paper 3 of the First Certificate freak you out.

Most of my students don't really like the Use of English paper (Paper 3) of the First Certificate exam. But I'm surprised at how many people really, really loathe it. They find it frustrating because they don't know how to manage the new words they learn, and they can't always remember why one words is more appropriate than another word in a specific context.

Remember this: 50% of the words in the Multiple Choice Cloze are not possible for technical reasons. It could be for several reasons: maybe they've given you an adverb form when you need an adjective; maybe that adjective needs a dependent preposition that isn't in the body of the text; maybe it's a word that we use in relation to people, not ideas. Or maybe it's a false friend. Whatever.

If you're doing practice exercises to help you with this part of the exam, try this:

a) Print out the "Right Word, Wrong Word" worksheet and write the name of the exercise at the top of the first page, along with a brief description of the topic of the text. You can find the worksheet here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/37990867/RightWordWrongWord-1

b) Your first job is to look at the options and if you know that there are one or two words that aren't possible, get rid of them.

c ) Now you're down to the remaining 50% - two - options, but you don't know which one is the right one.
- Get out your English-only dictionary. (A translating dictionary will not always provide the information that you need to do this properly.) Look up the word, then look at the structure of the sentence, and look at the ways in which you can use the word (or phrase).
- What does the dictionary say? Look at the possibilities and use the one that fits with the information the dictionary tells you.
- Once you're done, don't second-guess and don't change your answer if you're not sure. Nine times out of ten, your first reaction will be the correct one.
- If, after all this, you're still not sure....guess. Really. You have a 50% chance of being right and the examiners won't take points away for any wrong answers you have.

d) When you're done, check your answers and DO NOT ERASE ANY WRONG ANSWERS. Instead, write down the explanation next to the wrong answer and make a mental note to practice the word/phrase most often.

Good luck!

And one more before bedtime....

This is my all-time favourite poem, written by Sheenagh Pugh. I first saw it on a poster in the Underground in London in 1989 and it's stayed with me since.

http://www.biancaday.com/sometimes.htm

Good night, everyone!

But what does it MEAN?

If you think you've got it rough, speaking English at work, spare a thought for the United Nations interpreters who have to translate politicians...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11377609

It's another great article from the BBC World Service!

(Not entirely original) Thought of the Day:

"Don't be scared - just be prepared."

Thanks to the Canadian Hurricane Centre for that one!

http://tinyurl.com/pcny7v

Phrasal Verb Thought of the Day

If you don't stand up for something, you'll fall for anything.

What do the phrasal verbs "stand up" and "fall for" mean?

Sticky vocabulary!!

"You know what I mean... it's a... you know... it's kind of a thingy that...."

True story: When I started learning Spanish years ago, I could not remember the difference between techo (ceiling) and suelo (floor). No word of a lie. Now, if you're an English speaker living in Canada, those words are probably not very important to your daily life, but just knowing that you're having problems can make you feel frustrated (and make you wonder if you're suffering some kind of mental problems!)

Have you got vocabulary that won't stay in your brain? Try these four tricks:

a) Use sticky notes. They don't have to be fancy, really colourful or cut into unusual shapes (though it's a nice touch...). If you want, you can recycle old pieces of office paper and adhesive tape. Then, put the note on the article in question (see photo) or somewhere where you're going to see it quite frequently. Repeat the word. Use it in a sentence. Once you know that you know the word - what it means, how to pronounce it, how to describe it - throw the note away or store it in your notebook (to test yourself later.)

b) Write it out..again and again and again and again.... We described this technique back in August, when we were talking about motivation, but it's worth repeating over and over: the more times you use it, the easier it'll be to remember it. This is something they do in English-speaking public schools (at least they do in Canada!) when students have problems remembering how to spell: if you get a word wrong on a spelling test, you have to write the correct spelling twenty-five to fifty times. Why? Because it WORKS!


c) Break longer words into smaller pieces. Think about the base form of a word (REG-ju-lar), then add the suffixes and prefixes on individually. (Don't forget that suffixes and prefixes can change the meaning of a word, but only certain suffixes change the stress in a word: for example, 'REG-ju-lar but reg ju 'LA tion.)

d) Work with the sound, not the spelling. Irregular past simple words like thought, bought and taught are tough for Spanish speakers of English because, to the eyes of Spanish speakers, there's little connection between the spelling and the pronunciation of the word. Some students find it useful to make a list of words with similar sounds, because they know that there's a limited number of combinations of sounds in English. So a student who wants to remember those three irregular verbs might make a list that looks like this: caught, taught, not, slot, ought, bought, daughter, flop, knot, because the /au/ sound is more common than the spelling.

e) Think in pictures. If you're not a big American football fan, the idea of to tackle something probably isn't an idea or a saying you use a lot. But if I give you a picture like this, and ask you how to tackle your vocabulary, you get the sense: to attack, to confront; not to hide or to avoid. Students who like to think in images find that this is a useful method.

How do YOU learn?

Don't panic - that's not an existential question, I promise!

When you become a teacher, one of the most difficult things to learn is that everybody learns a different way. Activities, games and ideas that worked in one class may fail spectacularly in another class. Or maybe you'll find a way to make them more relevant and interesting.

This is especially true if students are aware of their learning styles. Not everyone learns the same way; not every trick and every piece of advice works equally well for everyone! I'm not an expert on the topic, so I won't talk in detail about the theory, but if you'd like to learn more - or even if you'd just like to get an idea of what your strengths are - take a look at the link below. The language is a little advanced, but it's worth the trouble.

http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm

Another FREE TOEFL resource

Here's one for you students who will be doing the TOEFL this year - a free online practice page, courtesy of The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper:

http://toefl.testprep.globecampus.ca/

CRISIS: What is it, exactly?

crisis: c.1425, from Greek krisis "turning point in a disease" (used as such by Hippocrates and Galen), lit. "judgment," from krinein "to separate, decide, judge," from PIE base *krei- "to sieve, discriminate, distinguish" (cf. Gk. krinesthai "to explain;" O.E. hriddel "sieve". Transferred non-medical sense is 1627.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that all Greek and Latin words mean the same in English as they do in Spanish!

It's true that the economic troubles we're currently experiencing can be described as a crisis. Dictionary.com defines a crisis as:

1. a stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, esp. for better or for worse, is determined; turning point.
2. a condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic, political, or international affairs, leading to a decisive change.

Both of those are good descriptions of what's happening in the economy now!

Recession, however, is a much more accurate word. A recession is defined as "a period of an economic contraction, sometimes limited in scope or duration", and when you think about it, this is a better way of describing what's happening because it is very specific to the economy. People understand that "crisis" means something negative, but it could be anything - it doesn't specifically refer to the economy.

If the economy gets much worse, then we need to use a totally different word: depression ("a period during which business, employment, and stock-market values decline severely or remain at a very low level of activity.")

Sources:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/crisis
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/recession
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/depression

Why studying doesn't work.

"I have to study more."

How many times do you hear yourself saying that? How much studying do you actually do during the academic year?

Instead of studying, think about practice. Why? First of all, most people say that they feel that they should study.... but they actually don't do anything at all. Maybe they buy some books or maybe they have lists of vocabulary, but I'll tell you from experience - 90% of students don't even go that far.

Can you imagine what would happen if Alberto Contador wanted to win the Tour de France, but never got on his bicycle? Or if Cristiano Ronaldo wanted to win the World Cup for Portugal, but never put his shoes on? If you say that you want to study, but you don't do anything, all you do is guarantee that you will fail.

Here's an easier idea: Don't study - practice. Use your English every way you can. Listen to music. Write a journal. Watch short videos on YouTube. After all, you're learning English so that you can use it in the real world. The best way to use it in real situations is to practice in controlled situations, and to make it as diverse as possible.

If you think this advice is ridiculous, read this article from The New York Times: http://tinyurl.com/353qvzo.

Remember: You are the boss of your learning. Teachers are there to help you, but they cannot do your work for you.

How high can a dead cat bounce?

Here's one for you advanced-level business students: Today's "Guardian" has an amusing piece about how English business newspapers and television often use animals to provide imagery when they talk about the stock market. Sometimes, it's easy to understand what they mean; sometimes, it's confusing even for English speakers.

http://tinyurl.com/277xmfp

FYI: A dead cat bounce is the idea that anything (a stock market, a dead cat) will bounce (=come back into the air) if it hits the ground hard enough, and from a high place.