Enjoy Practicing More Idioms

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Laughing About Grammar

There are many articles that discuss how awkward English grammar can be, for example why one goose becomes several geese but one moose does not become several meese (correct: several moose). And as mentioned in class, it has most often to do with what language English originally borrowed these words from. The words in English often mirror in some way the rules of the original language it came from when forming plurals. I'll find a good article I have on this and we will read it in class.

Until then, I just wanted to make sure we can all laugh about grammar, especially since I started teaching my grammar class today. One of my favorite video clips for this is from The Simpsons where Lisa's grammar robot (a robot that corrects people's speech) encounters the city's local mobsters, who have a particularly UNgrammatical way of speaking. Watch it at youtube by clicking on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsqHBlWIa0Y
...and even though the sound quality is not good, the script is below: 

[Marge throws robot from Lisa's backpack.]
[Robot yells and lands in front of mobsters, Bart, and Milhouse]

Mobster1:  Hey! They's throwin' robots!
Robot:  They ARE throwing robots.
Mobster2:  He's disrespecting us. Shut-uppa yo' face!
Robot: Shut-up YOUR face.
Mobster2: What's a matter, you?
Mobster1: You ain't so big.
Mobster2: Me and him are gonna whack you in the labonza! [labonza = Italian slang for belly or gut]
Robot:  Bad...bad grammar overload. Error. Error!

[The robot explodes.]

Ha ha ha ha ha... :)

What do you love to read?

When I was in college, I really didn't enjoy reading. At that time, reading was a chore for me, something I HAD to do, work I didn't find important or enjoyable. Now reading is not a chore for me but a hobby, something I love to do! And I read all kinds of different things, especially things I don't quite understand or that sometimes are a little beyond my ability, but I still read them and enjoy the challenge.

Some things I have recently read and enjoyed or am currently enjoying are:
The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field. This book describes how the minds of great mathematicians worked; most often they don't think in language but in pictures in order to solve problems and imagine theories.
The Elegant Universe. This book describes the possible physics of the design and function of the entire universe and the possible combination of scientific ideas in that field.
The Stuff of Thought. This book describes how the ways we use language can reveal the way our mind works and what bigger thoughts we are expressing that are behind what we say.
Born to Run. This book tells a true story about a man (the author) who went to some canyons in Mexico to find a tribe of long distance runners and discover their secrets and lifestyle and understand how humans maybe were better designed for long-distance running than we may think.
Discover magazine. This science magazine always has interesting articles. I especially like to read articles that talk about the design of the universe. Here is a link to one of their blogs that features pictures: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/

So, what do you love to read? Which books or magazines? What kinds of stories? What online sites?

What does it mean "to miss" something?

It seems this verb is new for many of you in your current English proficiency: to miss. Most likely, you often hear it used to express the subject wanting to be around someone else but isn't: I miss you every minute of every day. I miss my parents who live so far away. I miss my little baby when I'm at work. But we can miss other things, too.

• You can miss the bus/the train/the plane/your ride // It leaves before you arrive and can get on.
• You can miss the point // You fail to understand the most important idea of something.
• You can miss the mark // You fail to hit, reach, get, find, see, hear, etc the goal or requirement.
• You can miss out on something // You lose an opportunity or are excluded from something.
• You can miss class/an appointment/a meeting // You choose to not go for good or bad reasons.
• You can miss the ball (in sports) // You try to hit (baseball), strike or kick (soccer) or catch (American football) but fail. (In basketball, if you throw to ball to the basket and it doesn't go in: You miss the basket)
• People often advise you "Don't miss this movie/concert/show/play!" // Don't fail to go see it!

 Now some of you comment here and use the verb in a sentence and let's see what you come up with!

Postcards and Apple Farms!

Today in groups we wrote postcards from a vacation place we pretended to visit and drew pictures to serve as are vacation photos! Great work!

Some of us will be going on the field trip to Oak Glen Thursday, October 28th to visit apple country here in Southern California. We will get to shop at the ranch markets (Los Rios Rancho and Parrish Rancho) and eat at a Apple Annie's Restaurant. Apparently, we will NOT be able to go through the orchards and pick our own apples; it seems the orchards are only open to the public on the weekends. But find out more about these destinations at http://losriosrancho.com/ and http://oakglen.net/index.shtml.

Maybe you each can buy a postcard from these places and write to someone you know!


Also, have you ever heard of this website: http://www.postsecret.com/ ? People write a secret of theirs on a postcard and design the card to relate to their secret then mail them into this website anonymously (we don't know who the sender is). It makes for a very interesting website to browse. Some cards are funny, sad, emotional... they are people's real secrets! Snoop around and let me know what you think.

Placement of Adverbs of Frequency

Today we learned to use adverbs of frequency (always, often/usually, sometimes, rarely, never) to describe verbs. Adverbs of frequency are put directly before the main verb: She always goes home after class. If 'be' is the main verb and there is no auxiliary verb, adverbs of frequency are put behind 'be': She is always late to class. If there is an auxiliary verb used with 'be', however, adverbs of frequency are put before 'be': I have never been to another country.

Sometimes violating these word orders makes sentences sound unnatural. For example:
*Always she is late to class.  :-(
*She goes always home after class.  :-(
*We don't sometimes understand.  :-(
*He did never feel so happy.  :-(

But sometimes they don't sound so bad. For example: 
~She always is late to class.  :-/
~She goes home after class always. :-/
~Sometimes we don't understand.  :-/
~Never did he feel so happy.  :-/

So for now, it is safest to follow the rules as we learn the proper placement of adverbs of frequency. But, what do you think about these sentences?

• Children learn never to talk to strangers.
• I think rarely in 2009 were there so many cloudy days in Los Angeles.
• What you lose sometimes is your confidence in your abilities.
• This pie crust dough sometimes is called cookie crust.

Lastly, we added the adverb "frequently" to our list which is closest in meaning to "usually" and "often". What about the adverb "seldom"? Which other adverbs mean closely the same as "seldom"?

Phrases Meaning "Exact" or "Perfect"

In class today, I said the phrase "on the button" to mean "exact" when we were discussing the frequency of train schedules in our book. One schedule didn't have a regular schedule: the next train was in 4.5 hours and the one after that was in 3 hours and so on. So we estimated the frequency and said "about every 4 hours" and I said "It's not on the button, but yes there are trains about every 4 hours."

So, do you know of other English phrases that express the same idea? Have you ever heard:
"You hit the nail on the head."
"You guessed it right on the nose."

Welcome Current and Former Students!

Hello, Everybody!

Here we can have a place to go to supplement what we do in class. I'll provide you links to helpful language pages, community activities, and anything that is of help or interest to us as English learners and residents of Los Angeles. I hope you find the site helpful. Please email with any suggestions you may have.

Two Assignments:

• Remember to find "Blues" music either at youtube.com, at the library or on iTunes and listen to it. Find the lyrics and read what they're singing about.
• Where does the word for this type of website, "blog," come from? What two words were used to form it?