Big Brother

It comes as a surprise to many of us that international students are often unaware of certain books that we, as instructors, assume have an international reach. The latest book to have this effect on me was "Big Brother." Although it is considered intermediate in level, the concepts of course can be the basis for profound intellectual debate. The students were engaged and quite enjoyed the experience. The problem, however, was that on several occasions the learners were unable to express themselves to their own satisfaction, not because they didn't understand the concepts but because of the simple grammatical mistakes that they made. For example: "Your thoughts are really your thoughts or somebody 'The Party' gave them to you." Although its clear what this student was saying the simple grammar mistakes made it hard for him to say it confidently.

Baptism by Fire

Teaching English can be awkward if you are not constantly aware of the cultural, religious, ethnic and other differences that are present in most every class. So it is with great care that we explain idiomatic phrases, proverbs and other sayings that are often decidedly Judeo-Christian in nature. Take the expression "Baptism by Fire". For non-Christians the idea of a baptism can be a very foreign concept. So how do you explain this concept without prosetlyzing?
There are many approaches that one can use. We like to use the tried and tested method of KISS: keep it Simple Student.

Benchmarking

The answer to yesterday's question is b) because the speaker confused the word anymore with already. Sometimes Non Native speakers completely misuse words as illustrated in yesterdays entry. But at other times only a slight difference in meaning is apparent at first glance. Take the word benchmark. A student recently said that his company was benchmarking other firms in their industry in order to develop a better sales campaign. After eliciting more information from him it was clear that he understood the general meaning of the word (e.g., to measure the performance of a given good or service against an accepted standard of excellence); however, he did not quite get the nuance of the word benchmark. The difficulty of course is that most of the time we talk about a benchmark(s) in business, we are referring to standards that were developed by an industry, organization (like ISO) or academia.
Whatever the case, he was not benchmarking other companies. He was, in reality, researching them and doing the expected Due Diligence.

He's Not here Anymore

A friend of mine dropped by a colleague's place of work to say hi. She asked the receptionist if Tom was still in. The receptionist answered: "Tom is not here anymore." My friend July was very confused. She had spoken to Tom on the phone not 2 days before and he had said that he was working at Acme Inc. Indeed, that was one of the main reasons July had decided to stop by Acme Inc. in the first place. Perplexed, she asked the receptionist "when did he leave?" to which the answer was "about 30 minutes ago". July being a clever person instantly realized that:

a) Tom had just been laid off/fired
b) Tom had finished for the day
c) Tom had just quit
d) None of the above

The answer is____
Why:

Come back tomorrow for the answer

Shootings

A few days back an ESL student told me, as a matter of fact: "There are a lot of shootings in Toronto." I was surprised at this comment because right now, the crime rate in the city actually seems to be on the decline. Furthermore, the Greater Vancouver Area is currently the undisputed Gun Capital of Canada. To add to my surprise was the fact that this person is from a country where Gun Crimes are, unfortunately, part of everyday life. Naturally, I was curious about his assertions for the above reasons and began asking why they felt this way. They then said, "I see them all over town!". Once again, I was flabbergasted! I've lived here all my life and, thank goodness, have never witnessed any shootings. How is it possible that this newcomer has in such a short time seen so many?
So, I pressed on. 'Where did you see these shootings, specifically', I asked trying to correlate what they where going to say with some recollection of a recent tragedy. They answered "beside where I am living, they are filming a movie." And suddenly, a wave of relief poured over me. He was actually talking about film productions - which has now been falsely 'cognated', in their country with a single word: shootings.

Globo's Cultural Might

The Power of the media and it's influence on society is unquestionable. It effects everything from the way we communicate with each other to the very way we think and behave. A recent article from the Economist, republished in the Toronto Star, "How a TV network in Brazil has changed the idea of family" http://www.thestar.com/article/602567 brings home the point by presenting evidence that suggests "telenovelas" (soap operas), are partly responsible for several positive changes. One improvement is the lowering of fertility rates which has been linked to lower rates of domestic violence. The article does not mention whether telenovelas have influenced the way Brazilians think, speak and/or understand English. Based on anecdotal evidence, I would argue that the media is indeed influencing English fluency in Brazil. However, unlike some of the positive social trends that are credited to Global's telenovelas, their use of English in Soaps like "America", I would argue is actually a disservice. The characters in these Soaps, when speaking English, for the most part, make no attempt at pronouncing or enunciating English words as "Americans" would. Instead, they often sound like they are talking Brazilian Portuguese in every way (pitch intonation etc.), with one glaring omission. The words are unintelligible as Portuguese and only Brazilian Telenovela enthusiasts would consider them as correct English.
Global please invest more of your vast resources into English Language training whenever your soaps require someone to speak English. You have millions of people watching and listening to every word the characters on your Telenovelas utter.

Fish Eggs Anyone?

A little while back a Business English instructor had introduced the topic of Culture to his class and the importance of it in Business Relations. He put forth the following question: "If a Native English Speaker from Toronto went to your country on business and you were responsible for their stay, including entertainment, what type of itinerary would you create?" After a few minutes of contemplation a Japanese ESL student responded quite succinctly. "First, I would invite him to a restaurant to eat fish eggs, than I would take him to a Geisha and show him a good time."
Naturally some people laughed while others, as is often the case, didn't know what was so funny because like the student who answered the question they found the response quite normal.
The instructor used this opportunity to introduce new vocabulary (caviar) and explain the adult implications of linking good time and Geisha to a Westerner. It is always worth stressing to ESL students that many words have cultural baggage associated with them, so they should be aware when using new vocabulary, of the dreaded "double meaning."

Big Box Mart

The above is an excellent example of a story that is a great combination of irony humour to the tune of a Good 'Ole Nursery Rhyme. The Learning opportunities provided by the "Big Box Mart"for ESL students, are vast.
http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/big_box_mart

Speed up!!!!

In our last post we talked about the tendency some ESL students have of trying to "speed read", to sound more "English." Well the opposite is also true, of course. There are those who consider pronunciation the most important factor in sounding "Native". In these cases, speed is sacrificed for emphasis. Syllables become over-stressed and words become staccato.
Students need to learn how to feel the language, as well as, dissect it. It is this qualitative component that is lacking in many schools.
How do you teach rhythm you ask? After all, language is not a dance, right?

Send us your comments...

Slow down!!!!

Last weeks blog asked the question: "why aren't some pronunciation problems being dealt with more effectively?". The answer lies, in part, to the misconception that talking fast -what I like to refer to as 'speed talking'- is talking well. Speed talking is a coping mechanism that tries to 'trick' the listener into believing that the speed talker is actually saying something intelligible when in fact, it may be pure nonsense.
Recently, a sad example of this phenomenon has been making the rounds over the Internet. I am referring to the now infamous: "Anderson's first English Interview."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG55Ze_Dj20&feature=related


In theory, if you say a word or make a sound fast enough, it may actually appear to imitate another sound or word 'good enough'. So, if you're taught from early on that the "r" and "h" sounds are 'close enough', when uttered quickly, than a fossilized error can develop, unnecessarily. In practice, these errors are very difficult to correct especially when the Non-Native English Speaker believes that the difference is unimportant (after all that's what they've been taught!). So, my next question is: 'why not stop this practice'?
The answer may lie in the simple fact that, in general, students do not have enough access to certified English Language instructors and therefore are often 'taught' English by un/under-qualified teachers, despite there being thousands of great teachers in many Non-English speaking countries all over the world already.
In the case of Brazil with its immense size and large population, an adequate supply of teaching professionals is often lacking, especially outside the large urban centres like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Homework: In what ways can Anderson improve his English? What does he say well?
Next Blog: Describing "things and stuff"

Similar Sounding Words

Having been in beautiful Brazil for a few weeks now, I have had the luxury of listening to many Brazilians speaking English. I have been busy noting down some very interesting similar sounding word cognates that are quite common to many Portuguese speakers. Most of these mistakes are due to pronunciation differences that exist with some of the same letters of the alphabet, in each respective language. One of the least known of these situations, to Native English speakers, is the`roll´ of "R" in Brazilian Portuguese.
In Brazil the "R" acts as an "H" when it is at the beginning of a word or when it is doubled.
So a word like: Arrive.....becomes ahive......or worse a hive.
Repeat becomes.....he peat (his name is Pete?),
React....He act...
You get the idea.

It is virtually endless, the number of words that can be incorrectly said and interpreted because of this and other pronunciation differences between Brazilian Portuguese and English.
Why are these issues not dealt with more effectively? That will be the subject of the next blog.

Homework: Send us a video clip in which today´s subject matter is highlighted
Next Blog: Slow down!!!!