First, I want to point out that the last post was in the voice of Charles Klugenhofski, my alter ego (other self), the bank robber from Iyfangotstand, whom I created. His comments and views are not necessarily my own. He can say and do things that I can not. Please understand that he is not really an evil man, just a not very nice man. So using him to see, notice, and point certain things out, gives me more freedom, because he can talk about things in ways that I would not. I do find him mildly amusing, and we will probably hear from him again. Enough about him.
I was talking to a couple of friends over lunch. They don't come to my conversation groups even though they both want to learn and improve their English. The reason is that they feel they need a lot more "structure" in how they learn English. Informal conversation is too much for them to handle, and becomes more confusing than helpful. Now, I would not want to change the informality of our conversation groups, but I am wondering if we need to add more structure. Not just for the very basic learners, but for all levels. I am going to be thinking about this, and I would like those of you coming to the groups to think about it as well. Would more structure help you? Do you have specific things you want to learn about the English language, or that give you a lot of trouble? As always, I appreciate all comments and questions. You can always email me at: callmejack3@sbcglobal.net. And for any police reading this, Charles Klugenhofski does not live here.
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Who is so smart? I'm thinking of that. I feel I need to know more everyday conversation. It may not has the same meaning with "structure?" Last time, I went to car repair store(this word may be wrong. This will prove what I need) to pick up my car. When I faced the employee of the car repair store, I was thinking how can I express myself. Should I use present tens or perfect tense? Should I use the active voice or passive voice? I thought I must say something because he was looking at me strangely. At last, "Where is my car?" I said. Is that very impolite? I don't know untill now. I looked up it in my book when I arrieved home, "Is my car ready?" Oh, my God! Why is it so easy but I don't know how to say in English? Sometimes we realy don't know how to say in English accurately and politely even there are no vocabulary. So could you only spend half a hour to teach us this kinds of dialogue? We may have diffrent topic, for instance, at the bank, at the airport, at hospital, at store, renting room...We can read these book ourselves, but I guess if we have chance to practise that at your class , we may remeber them better. Actually you have tought us some dialogue like that, I still remember "Do you have time?" But I really like your informal conversition, so let's go on doing that.
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody else agree with me? I don't know. You have to ask them.
My father will come here to see my sister and me. How do you say TAN QIN(pingyin)in English?
Translating from pingyin is not really that easy for a non-chinese. We think differently. Going just by the words, if Tan is the 2nd tone, that would mean to talk or discuss. If Qin is the 1st tone, that would mean blood relative or relation. The meaning of the 2 words together, however, could be more than I understand them to. You will have to try to help me understand. Thank you for the comment, and the everyday examples for practical English use. I have to try to not be so lazy.
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