I want English over Winter Break!

We only have a few weeks left in the semester before our three-week Winter break. How will you survive without daily study of English?!

Don't fret, my dearies. Today we are going to practice something in the same way you can create your own langauge lesson using the wonderful worldwide web. We're putting our minds to work, right? Just like our chapter has been framing its content.

Today's focus: a recent funny, successful American film. (I hope we have film buffs in class.) First, let's watch the trailer together in case some of us aren't aware of or haven't seen the film yet.

Now, let's hear from director and stars regarding their creative process in making the film by both listening to and reading along to their interview and a wonderful news site I love: NPR (National Public Radio) -- 89.9 FM here in Los Angeles.

Don't leave this blog! Hold down the control button CTRL on your keyboard and click the link above so that the link opens in a 2nd tab instead of navigating away from this page.

At the npr site, we see an article about the film, an option to listen to an 8-minute interview, and an option to see the transcript. First, click play to listen then pause the player. Hold CTRL and click "Transcript" to open that page. Get the transcript in front of you, then play the recording. Listen and read along at your own pace. Pause when you want and look-up any vocabulary you like at http://www.learnersdictionary.com/. Or just listen through without stopping.

This is a wonderful way to practice your listening skills. This site has so many interviews and transcripts to go along with them. You should be listening to the shows on the radio, as well. Hear something interesting? You can come find it here and listen and read more closely to something that interested you.

Need more of a challenge?

Try listening to this more recent interview broadcast this week via the local NPR branch KCRW, which can t be found at their separate affiliate website: http://www.kcrw.com/ or linked to one of their particular programs from its Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/KCRWTheBusiness.

Here, the two co-writers discuss how they began and continued through the writing process. Though they weren't strangers to comedy of comedy, performing or movies, they were somewhat strangers to writing a movie. See how much of the 20-minute interview (which begins right before minute 8) you can follow. No transcript available this time! Hold CTRL and click "more recent interview" above and click "listen" on that website, which opens in a new tab, and in the player that opens in a new window, skip to just before minute 8.

How did you do? How much new vocabulary did you pick up or write down to study? Did you try repeating some of the things you heard? Especially HOW some of the things were said? Pacing...intonation...reductions. Do you think you may try this same kind of activity with a film you are more familiar with? What about these news sites? Would you look around NPR or KCRW's site a bit more to find more interesting interviews or news broadcasts to read and listen to? You could certainly be kept busy for three weeks. ;)

If only I'd stop eating hamburgers everynight...

...then maybe I'd feel more confident about being able to get away from someone who's chasing me. Until then, I remain fearful over whether or not I could escape a hypothetical pursuer. I don't recall how we started talking about it, but I do remember that we laughed about most of our shared inability to successfully run away from someone who may be chasing us, and say...jump a fence, perhaps, without slowing down.

Well, while I work on shedding a few pounds so that I can at minimum be able to jump over a puddle without soaking my shoes, let's all admire what some of us may consider the pinnacle of such an athletic art: parkour (from "parcours"; abbreviated PK). Performed by none other than the French.

The Wildest Dream

Just in time for Halloween....

We've had recurring dreams, known we're dreaming while still asleep, returned to places previously dreamt of and sometimes remember and sometimes don't. What is that one symbol or thing that comes up in your dreams repeatedly? Have you ever thought of what it could mean? Name it here and post your predicted meaning. Then look it up in an online dream dictionary. Do find the same meaning across different websites. How does it compare to your predicted meaning?

What were they thinking?!

So, what is on their minds?

After watching this video, think about the people in bathing suits who participated in this project. What do you think was on their minds during and after the project?

Talk with your group as if you were a participant. Start by telling what he or she did, what they were thinking during the event and now what they think after the event. Did they enjoy it, did they regret it, was it fun, was it weird, did they think, "What have I gotten myself into?!" or "I'll never do that again!"?

So, what is in his mind?

This man has an interesting personality. He wrote a book titled, “Tidying up Art”, and organized the project in the park we watched above. After watching this video below, how would you describe the man in the suit -- how he thinks or why he would do something like this?

Could you be more polite, please?

We are able to use four different modals to politely request others to do something for us. Could you do this? Can you do that? Will you do this? Would you do that? These are not the only uses of these four modals, but they all do share this possible meaning and use. Remember that we also said that can and will may seem more direct while could and would sound more polite at times.

However, watch this video of clips from some of England's popular old television comedies. Notice when the audience laughs. The speakers are using polite speech as we learned, but the requests they are making in these situations aren't very polite, no matter how proper of language they use. Maybe you laugh, maybe you don't. But please, would you just watch?   ;P

Manzanar Visit

Four hours north of Pasadena lies a historical site of American history. There in the desert is the location of a World War II internment camp where the U.S. government wrongfully locked away American citizens of Japanese decent after Japan bombed the Hawaiian military base at Peral Harbor. Citizens loyal to the U.S. and the country's interests during this time of war were gathered and spent years locked in these camps watched by armed guards. Their lives were forever changed. Families may have been split apart. Businesses, property, homes, belongings all lost and stolen when they left them behind. Their stories are amazing.

 

You can read one young girl's story in the book, Farewell to Manzanar. Look for it at your local library or even buy it for a few dollar off of http://www.amazon.com/. There are many more autobiographies available. And people still living in the Pasadena area could even tell you about friends or family that lost so much during this time.

 

A memorial at the internment camp in Manzanar at the side of the highway.

Is that American or British?

I get a lot of questions in class like, "Is that only in American English or British, too." And sometimes I just don't know! I'm an American English speaker who does not have enough exposure to British English other than through the modern media and literature. It's a limited knowledge.

But, nonetheless, we know enough to be able to make fun of one another's accents. Here is a very comical video of a trailer (preview) for a fake movie that Saturday Nigh Live did. In the beginning we can understand what the characters are saying. But as soon as the villian threatens the lead man and holds up a picture of his daughter, they start speaking gibberish. They're not saying any intelligible words but nonetheless it sounds British! I got a good laugh out of it. See what you think.

Slang from Family Terms

We learned that the general term for brothers and/or sisters, free of gender, is sibling(s). Mother, father, parents. Daughter, son, children.

Now, there are plenty of these terms that have been adopted as slang in English, too. Here are some off the top of my head. And the meaning are not limited to what I suggest here, but I give you an idea:

• Sista (sister) can mean a good female friend.
• "Sista, please! You know that man isn't any good for you!"
• Bro (short for brother) can be used similarly as slang "dude" or "man" perhaps.
• "Bro, bro, bro, listen to this..."
• Brah is even more particular slang from bother/bro that is more related to Hawaiian or surfer lingo.
• "Amazing wave, Brah" (perhaps! I don't surf! Nor am I Hawaiian or ever been to Hawaii!)
• Calling a male Sonny is a way to talk down to a guy.
• "Get back here, Sonny!"
• Calling a female Girlie is a way to talk down to a girl.
• "Now wait a minute, Girlie!"
• Cuz is short for cousin.
• I always say to my cousins, "Whadup, cuz?"
• A guy may refer to his girlfriend as Mama (short for mother, even if they don't have kids together.)
• And I think we all know Baby is term of endearment or an affectionate term for your honey... meaning loved one... meaning girlfriend, boyfriend. Also short for Baby is Babe. Some parents may call their children this even when they're older.
• "Baby, I love you."
• It's somewhat of a jestful trend to call really close friends a "brother from another mother" or "sister from another mister" ("brotha from anotha mutha", "sista from anotha mista"). Your friend is so close to you, you are like siblings...except you don't have the same parents or blood.
• "This is my brother from another mother! We've been friends since we were kids."
• Oh! So saying someone is your blood is saying they are your relative, too.
• "You have to help him! He's your blood! And blood is thicker than water!" (Serve family [blood] above all other relationships [water])

And excuse me if this may seem crude to some of you, but a Sugar Mama is a girlfriend who pays for everything for the guy, while a Sugar Daddy is a guy who pays for everything for the girl. And the money is the main reason they are together, not because they really love each other usually. So the other person is "in it for the money" you can say.

I can't think of any more right now. Anybody have any other terms you've heard?

Talking About the Future

I don't want us to forget our long, perhaps boring discussion this past week about ways to talk about the future: prediction, spontaneous decision, intention, certainty and plans. We practiced matching three different grammar forms to these five different ideas. Simple Future: WILL + Verb. BE going to: BE going to + VERB. And Present Progressive: BE +VERBing. Simple future is used to make predictions and express spontaneous decisions. 'Be going to' is used also for predictions (less formal), to express intention and to express certainty. And present progressive is used to talk about future plans. (We didn't discuss the ideas of intentions versus plans in detail, but we said the main difference to consider for now is plans are on your calendar and intentions are just in your mind. You are probably making preparation for your plans or have made some prior commitment. Intentions usually don't require the same level of preparation or expression, perhaps. It may be hard to differentiate because the words can be used to describe one another.)

So in a movie I was watching, Barton Fink, he writes an introduction of a story that begins (paraphrased),

A hotel in downtown. We can hear the noise of the workers. It is too early for us to hear traffic; later, perhaps, we will.

I thought this was a great example for us to consider why the simple future was used. There is a great word in the sentence, besides the verb, that serves as a clue. What word do you think helps us decide how the future is being talked about by the writer/speaker? So, is this prediction, spontaneous decision, intention, certainty, plans?

Food Truck Festival This Weekend

I'm surprised I have not spoken more frequently about food in this blog. I think this is my first mention of food some how. So, I will be in Santa Clarita (Magic Mountain area) this weekend to go eat with my cousin at every single food truck that will be there!

Lately in Los Angeles, gourmet food trucks have become very popular. Each new truck that serves popular, trendy food even has a Twitter account where they announce their upcoming locations so that their followers can know the location and chase them down to grab a bite to eat.

I have read a lot about all the different food trucks: the Korean taco truck that mixes meats and fruits and interesting flavors. The fry truck that has so many different toppings for a plate of french fries that it is actually a meal. The grilled cheese truck that makes a classic American sandwich--that most all of us grew up on here in the States--a million different ways. The cupcake truck. Barbeque truck. Dumpling truck. Shaved Ice truck. I think there's a gelato (Italian icecream) truck. And so many more. Discover all their individual Twitter announcements and find out what kind of food trucks there are at this convenient website: http://findlafoodtrucks.com/.

But if you think you can make it up to Santa Clarita this weekend, visit this website: http://www.santaclaritafoodfest.com/#/ABOUT_THE_EVENT. And hopefully I'll see you there!

Hello, My Name Is...

Spring semester started today. It was probably the most friendly and enthusiastic first day I've had to date! You Level 2 students are so upbeat and eager to learn this semester! I hope you enjoyed the activities we did getting to know one another. After class I thought about a movie clip from a great film, The Princess Bride, where one of the characters has a famous line throughout the movie: "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." If you haven't seen the film, I recommend you rent it from your local video store or Netflix or your local library (for free!). For now, let's make one last introduction. I give you Inigo Montoya (click on that name to link to YouTube to watch the clip). (Warning: there is a somewhat violent sword fight and some cursing (bad words) said towards the end.)

Are you SURE of what you heard?

After we briefly covered the pronunciation of the word "sure", I heard a song on the radio where the singer said the word "surely" in a way that I described in class was a dialect of English. My typical pronunciation of "sure" sounds like "shir", while one student's pronunciation fit a different dialect that sounds more like "shoe-r". Well, listen to the below song to hear the singer pronounce"surely" like "shoe-rly". Then watch this other movie clip that makes a joke where "surely" is confused with the woman's name "Shirley" when a man says, "Surely, you can't be serious?" and the listener responds, "I am serious. And please don't call me Shirley." As if the man orignally asked, "Shirley, you can't be serious?" It's a classic slapstick comedy film, Airplane, which is actually a parody of a 60's film Airport. Check them both out.

Going Green....Really, Really Green

So Eugenia discovered what exactly some employed people are looking for when they go dumpster diving in the city: food. Environmentally or green-minded people organize and go in search of freshly discarded food from restaurants that they feel is perfectly edible and terribly wasteful to have been thrown out. So what do they do? They get it for themselves and eat it. I have seen one report where a dumpster diver said he had not bought groceries in the past year or so, because he was getting plenty of nutritional, fresh produce for himself by dumpster diving. This is one means of changing our ways to help reduce waste in our cities and thus protect the environment. I'm not advocating nor discouraging it. I'm simply passing along the information to you all.

So there does happen to be a group that you can join that organizes meetups, should you share their environmental concern. Check out the group here: www.meetup.com/freegan/. If we had more time in the semester, maybe I would organize a fieldtrip for us! (If that's not quite your interest, I do recommend you do browse the site http://www.meetup.com/ anyway to see if there are some other kind of groups you may like to join and thus get to practice your English when you get together with native speakers who share your common interests.)

Check out this clip from a comedy show that parodies or pokes fun at the idea of going dumpster diving.

We did discuss other ways to reduce our carbon footprint, or our long-term effects on the environment. Here is an interesting article (<-- Click there) about a writer who tried reducing hers by making some changes. Also note that she defines the word "freegan", which is what the meet-up group mentioned above calls themselves. She makes some very interesting comments as to why she DID NOT go dumpster diving. Visit the site and download the audio interview and listen while you also read the transcript at the same time. I love this news website for this reason that you can do both with so many articles.

Watch the trailer for the documentary we mentioned in class, No Impact Man, about a man and his wife and child who made extreme changes to leave no carbon footprint for five months of their lives in New York City.



Pasadena's DIGITAL Library!

I hope you all take time to browse through the city library this next week rather than rush in, get your card and some random book then rush out! But perhaps that is all your schedule allows for over the next week. Well, perhaps you are also a lover of technology and enjoy doing things online or on your computer. Then, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the Pasadena City's Digital Library (<- click to visit).

You can link to this website from their homepage (<- click to visit) (where you can also get news, hours, other resources, and search their collection of books, place holds, etc.). The digital library is an online place where you can download copies of books and audiobooks and keep them temporarily on your home computer. You get to rent digital copies of material just as you would hardcopies from a branch. Explore! And if you find something, use your card to rent it then share your digital library experience with the class!

Using Your Multiple Intelligences

In Level 4 today, we talked a bit about what the idea of multiple intelligences is. We also thought of some different skills and categorized them before examining the same discussion had by our characters in our book from Unit 1 pages 6-7. So have you thought more about your own personal strengths? Did you think in class, “Why are we talking so much about this idea anyway”? Well, we did so for good reason. Our homework was to write a short paragraph describing our current study habits of English and what strategies we may add to them the help us improve. If we understand our multiple intelligences, we can better adopt relevant strategies that pertain to our learning strengths. So why not go on a little journey of self-discovery?

Visit this website (ßclick the highlighted word) and take the survey. Once completed, print your results and examine them closely. Do any of their suggested learning strategies appeal to you? If you like some of them, we will be re-writing our paragraphs to incorporate these strategies that are based on our highest ranked category of intelligence. Perhaps this year will be your most successful year of learning now that you’ve incorporated strategies most related to your strengths!