Help for Learners of English

Learners of English Are Welcome Here!

Month: July 2009

Is English Knowledge or Is It a Tool?

July 15, 2009 / / 2 Comments

Here’s an interesting question that one of our readers posed. The question elicits thought.  We’d be interested in your comments and thoughts.

in china the english teacher always teach englisn grammar , instead of english story.so students all bore of english lesson. but i think englisn is not a knowledge , it is a tool ,we can ues it to make our life, to do our business,to trip globe. is this right? please send your opinion to me by email. my email adress is XXX@XXX.com  thank you.

We responded this way:

Hello!

Thanks for writing to us!

I have enjoyed reading your comment. Is English “knowledge”?  Knowing a language or acquiring the ability to communicate in a given language  is definitely a valuable skill and asset.   It’s an intangible asset, something that others cannot take away from you.  Sure, people who are away from their native countries for a long time lose the ability to speak and think quickly in their first language, and they aren’t able to keep up with the growing body of vocabulary. But once you have a language, it’s yours to keep.  At the same time, what is the purpose of this knowledge?  It’s purpose is to enable communication. To this extent, it is a tool, and an important one for human relationships.

Many “language” teachers take language apart and just focus on the rules or on the structure of language, i.e. on grammar. They never put the pieces back together again and create a language. You want your teacher to focus on language as a means of communication.  You want to be able to read and understand books and stories, to listen and talk and more.  Knowing the rules of grammar and don’t know how to communicate, it is not of any practical use. You’re right; if you are not reading stories and communicating with others, it’s boring. It’s like having the pieces of a car in your garage all taken apart. The car won’t get you anywhere.

And as a means of communication, it is valid in so many situations, as you indicated, for pleasure, for business, to be able to read great literature or the newspapers of other cultures. Sometimes a husband and a wife have a
different first language and so they need to be able to learn each other’s language, too.

I hope that you’ll find lots of ways to make English enjoyable, just as Chinese is a language that is both useful to you and allows for pleasure, entertainment, and the acquisition of knowledge.

Thanks for your interesting questions. We’re sorry you’re bored by your teacher’s style of teaching; hopefully you can enjoy all the benefits of knowing English –  to enjoy reading interesting English books and articles, to understand the lyrics to music, to do business in English, and even enjoy the thrill of traveling around the globe and interacting with English speakers in English (just like you’re communicating with us through this website)!

All the best,

The ESL Help! Desk

Gifts of Plenty

July 15, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Our podcast “American Thanksgiving” included the following sentence:  “People will express gratitude for the gifts of plenty that they are privileged to have.”. One reader asked this question:

please what is the meaning of “gifts of plenty”?

Alfonso

We answered him this way:

Hello.

Thank you for your inquiry.

“Gifts of plenty” is an expression that implies an abundance of things that we need in order to live as human beings.

It is related to the expression, the “horn of plenty”, whose definition on Wikipedia is:

” * Cornucopia, a symbolic, hollow horn filled with the inexhaustible gifts of celebratory fruits”.

If you do a search on “Google” for “cornucopia”, you will see the photo of a cornucopia, the horn of plenty, which you will surely recognize.

So “gifts of plenty” is a reference to this.

The gifts of plenty are technically a reference to food, but in a greater sense can include anything that we have been blessed with: a home, a roof over our heads, clothing, etc.

Yours,

The ESL Help! Desk

We are happy to answer your questions about any English expressions.

How Would You End a Letter Sent to the IRS?

July 14, 2009 / / 0 Comments

We received this question from a reader:

How would you end a letter sent to the IRS. It is staight to the point but yet thaks them for their time and attention to this matter.

Platiro in Colorado

Our response was the following:

Dear Platiro In Colorado,

Thank you for your question.

I would say that you are on the right track; just follow your instincts in this case.

In one sentence, you would thank the reader for his time and attention to this matter. On another line, you would follow that up with an appropriate salutation, and on another line conclude with your name.

I hope that helps.

When to Use “All the best” in the Closing of a Letter

July 14, 2009 / / 36 Comments

Sometimes a question that seems simple on the surface hides many other issues going on beneath the surface.  Here is another question that we have received from a reader:

Dear Help Desk,

Does a closing of an e-mail to a friend with “All the best” always mean a farewell?

With kind regards,

(name withheld)

We responded:

(name withheld),

Thank you for your question.

It is becoming a common way of ending an email between friends, and even people who do not know each other. Where it is not appropriate to end with “love”, “All the best” is appropriate because it is a congenial salutation.

Have you received this ending lately? If so, on what type of email?

The ESL Help! Desk

Next, we received the following question in return:

Dear Help Desk,

Thank you very much for the prompt response. The matter is that I have a friend. We had been known each other personally (not intimately) for half-a-year before becoming distant correspondents during the next six months. However I cannot assume we both know much about each other. I recently sent an email with “All the best” ending and have not received a timely reply. I was just thinking if this could be considered by him as my will to end our virtual relationship.

My kind regards,

(name withheld)

To which we responded:

(name withheld),

Hmmm…I don’t think that the time lag between your hearing from this pen pal and the present time can be attributed to your ending an email with “all the best”. However, how long has it generally been between emails?
Could your pen pal be on a vacation or traveling due to work? Or perhaps there has been, God forbid, a family tragedy? Sometimes people’s email goes down, as well.

If your relationship had been intimate, then I would say that “All the best” is not appropriate; it will establish distance. However, as you describe it, such was not the case. Could it be that this pen pal did desire a more intimate relationship? Of course you would want to be careful about that in any case, given the problem of these internet relationships.

Before you switched to “All the best”, how did you and he typically end your emails? I would suggest that you either 1) wait and see if and when you receive a response; or 2) send another short note and just say that you are  hoping everything is well with him, and sign it, “Your friend, (name withheld).”

But if you are going to use choice “b”, then wait a bit, as some people are weary of others being “pushy”.

Wishing you all the best!

the ESL Help! Desk

Your Questions: Present Continuous Tense

July 12, 2009 / / 1 Comment

We received the following question from one of our readers:

We use the present continuous tense in a complex sentence when the subordinate clause begins with when and the whole sentence refers to the future.

Would it be incorrect to say: Before I watch TV, I’m doing my homework.

There are two answers:

1)  If you are referring to the present, to what typically happens, then the answer is “NO”, it would not be correct. In this case, you would say “Before I watch TV (every night), I do my homework.”

2) If you are referring to the future, such as tomorrow or tonight, then the answer is “YES AND NO”. The possibilities are:

a) “Before I watch TV (tonight), I’m doing my homework.” or –

b) “Before I watch TV (tonight), I’m going to do my homework.”  Notice that in this case we use the present continuous form ” ~ going (to)” + the base form of your main verb.

I hope this answers your questions.

Thank you,

The ESL Help! Desk

Michael Jackson

July 7, 2009 / / 11 Comments

Music is considered to be the universal language.  However, each country and ethnic group seems to have its own music.  What types of music do you think are universally loved? What types of music cross the boundaries of language and nationhood?

Michael Jackson died at the age of 50.  He was known and recognized all over the world. Did people listen to Michael Jackson where you live? What is the effect of American music on the music of the country where you live?

We at the ESL Help! Desk mourn the passing of this great figure in American entertainment and pop music.

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