I'm just having a dig at the way some people learn English: textbook-style, needless vocab lists (from another thread)... If someone learning English can afford to be that fussy without consulting grammar books, then she's capable enough to go to the trouble of reading a few novels: comparing the principal usages of American and British authors.
British/American comparison stylebook/grammar
"We use both of them all the time." ok but the most used is simple past, isn't it?
"I'm not sure where you all are getting the idea that we prefer "did" constructions over "have" constructions, 'cause that's just not the case." ok, ok, don't get angry!
"We use both of them all the time." ok but the most used is simple past, isn't it?
No. I'm just as likely to come home and ask "Have you fed the dogs already?" as I am to ask "Did you feed the dogs yet?" In fact, I'm probably more likely to use "have".
No. I'm just as likely to come home and ask "Have you fed the dogs already?" as I am to ask "Did you feed the dogs yet?" In fact, I'm probably more likely to use "have".
Personally, I think that the "present perfect or past simple" thing is just a little bit of nonsense cooked up by Am/Br comparers who happened to run out of differences to point out and so made up one themselves!
They're so different it's mind blowing! It's as though the Americans speak Korean and the British speak Hindi. But Oprah is so good that she's able to interpret her British guests for her American and international audiences.
I know! Gosh, whenever Rick Johnson or Damian post anything, I have to get out the dictionary to decipher it! It's just terrible!
<<I know! Gosh, whenever Rick Johnson or Damian post anything, I have to get out the dictionary to decipher it! It's just terrible! >>
<sarcasm alert> And I have absolutely no idea what Uriel posted here. Doesn't look anything like English to me. </sarcasm alert>
<sarcasm alert> And I have absolutely no idea what Uriel posted here. Doesn't look anything like English to me. </sarcasm alert>
***I know! Gosh, whenever Rick Johnson or Damian post anything, I have to get out the dictionary to decipher it! It's just terrible!***
Hee hee! .. mission accomplished.....easier than writing in some kind of Enigma code. Just be grateful I havenae yet learned to write in Gaelic....that would kittle ye truelins! :-)
Hee hee! .. mission accomplished.....easier than writing in some kind of Enigma code. Just be grateful I havenae yet learned to write in Gaelic....that would kittle ye truelins! :-)
Hi Alicia--I have always assumed that is what the Roadshow programs were saying (they are, after all, trying to sell a service). My Cantonese is very limited--I can understand more than I can speak, but even that is not at all impressive! My Putonghua has slipped to the point that it's embarassing (haven't used it in 12 years), but it does help me to figure out the Guangdonghua that is very similar (or if I can see it in writing AND know the traditional character, not very likely!).
The problem I've always had as an English teacher is that people really are not all that interested in helping me with my Guangdonghua or Putonghua because they are more interested in my helping them with English. And with 2 young boys, I just don't have the free time to run off to the Y to take lessons! (we live in Clearwater Bay, so it's quite a commute to "downtown.")
Our school also has F6 and F7, but I've never taken the time to look through prep papers or exams. All I know is that I've been told time and again that students generally don't learn English or Chinese very well in the HK schools.
BTW, what level do you teach? Do you use phonics?
M
The problem I've always had as an English teacher is that people really are not all that interested in helping me with my Guangdonghua or Putonghua because they are more interested in my helping them with English. And with 2 young boys, I just don't have the free time to run off to the Y to take lessons! (we live in Clearwater Bay, so it's quite a commute to "downtown.")
Our school also has F6 and F7, but I've never taken the time to look through prep papers or exams. All I know is that I've been told time and again that students generally don't learn English or Chinese very well in the HK schools.
BTW, what level do you teach? Do you use phonics?
M
>Am/Br comparers who happened to run out of differences to point out
Not likely to happen, with another hundred or so new examples every day.
Not likely to happen, with another hundred or so new examples every day.
Hello, mom2twoboys
There's something fundamentally wrong with the way languages are taught in HK local schools. I can't exactly lay a finger on it, but I think it's something to do with an over-emphasis on theory and not practice. (Same goes for Chinese.) Personally, I think the exam papers are a meaningless travesty but they're what parents want, apparently.
Clearwater Bay? Haha, I live near there (Tseung Kwan O) and study right by there. I'm not an English teacher, but a first-year Biochem undergrad at HKUST who previously attended an ESF school.
My mother tongue is Putonghua and I, too, use my knowledge of Putonghua to assist in my understanding of Cantonese.
There's something fundamentally wrong with the way languages are taught in HK local schools. I can't exactly lay a finger on it, but I think it's something to do with an over-emphasis on theory and not practice. (Same goes for Chinese.) Personally, I think the exam papers are a meaningless travesty but they're what parents want, apparently.
Clearwater Bay? Haha, I live near there (Tseung Kwan O) and study right by there. I'm not an English teacher, but a first-year Biochem undergrad at HKUST who previously attended an ESF school.
My mother tongue is Putonghua and I, too, use my knowledge of Putonghua to assist in my understanding of Cantonese.
Yeah--you're about 10 minutes away. Cool.
I have heard of the problems with Chinese as well as English here. I know my students know much less about Chinese than my mainland Chinese students when I taught there 12 years ago.
BTW, my students are those who didn't score enough passes on F5 to go to F6 but still want to study in school. As you can guess, if they didn't score enough passes to move on, their English levels generally aren't high to begin with (though we have some who had C's and B's in English--just not in math and science or whatever). Really interesting situation. I enjoy it a lot.
M
I have heard of the problems with Chinese as well as English here. I know my students know much less about Chinese than my mainland Chinese students when I taught there 12 years ago.
BTW, my students are those who didn't score enough passes on F5 to go to F6 but still want to study in school. As you can guess, if they didn't score enough passes to move on, their English levels generally aren't high to begin with (though we have some who had C's and B's in English--just not in math and science or whatever). Really interesting situation. I enjoy it a lot.
M