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."