ESL Help! Desk

What Is an American Idol?

 Uncategorized  No Responses »
Apr 272012
 

This TV program is big. People of all ages watch it. I’ve watched it.  But do we really have such a thing as an American idol? Do we want to? 

What is an idol, anyway?

An idol is something that is a representation of a god, and it is also worshiped.  People bow to idols, as if bowing to honor a god.

Then there is the word “idol” as in Hollywood.  Many stars of stage and screen are called “idols”. People look up to them as representing something virtuous.

Do we look up to the American idol singing stars this way?  Do you? Personally, I think the word is a bit too strong for what the musicians and artists are representing.   What do you think?

 Posted by at 10:50 pm

Baseball Rules: A Perfect Game

 American Culture, Sports, Vocabulary  No Responses »
Dec 072011
 

Baseball seems simple but on the surface it is very complicated. Many of the baseball rules are very subtle. But there are some basics:

Nine innings.

Each team comes up to bat once, beginning with the visiting team.

Each team is at bat until there are three outs.

The team that is ahead after nine complete innings is the winner.

If the score is equal after nine innings, the game goes into extra innings.

In extra innings, a complete inning is played. If there is a team that is ahead at the end of the extra inning, that team is declared the winner of the game. Otherwise, another inning is played until there is a winner at the end of that complete inning.

The fewest number of “at bats” in any one game would, therefore, be 27: Nine innings, 3 batters per inning.

When a pitcher is pitching against a team and there are 27 up and 27 down, he has pitched a  “perfect game“.

The scorecard for Lee Richmond’s Perfect Game

Another special type of game is called a “no no“. This refers to a game in which there are no hits and no runs.  If there are no hits and no runs, then why isn’t it a perfect game?  In a “no no”, a batter can be walked*, in which case he will reach first base and ruin an otherwise perfect game.

In American Major League baseball history, by the current definition of “a perfect game”, there have been 20 official perfect games.  There have been several unofficial ones.

It is thrilling to watch a perfect game – and my baseball timing has been incredible on several occasions:  I saw Dave Cone’s perfect game in 1999.  I also saw John Lester’s no hitter (a “no no”) in 2008, which was also thrilling.

Click here to see video highlights of David Cone’s perfect game.

 

*In another blog post, we will discuss the ways in which a batter is declared to be out.

 Posted by at 3:53 pm

me and him: American Idol

 American Culture, Grammar, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 282011
 

Heard on American Idol:  “”It’s been a year since me and Lauren Alaina have tried out now,” McCreery said. “Me and her have been together since day one and we’re gonna stay together.”

Even some of our favorite singers, such as the quote above from Scotty McCreery, Season 11 American Idol winner, are saying this.  But is it correct? Scotty’s a wonderful singer, but is his grammar correct?

The correct grammar would be “It’s been a year since Lauren Alaina and I have tried out now.  She and I have been together since day one and we’re going to stay together.”

In a list of people that includes the speaker, grammatical etiquette has the speaker always mentioned last.  This means we say(subject pronouns) she and I, he and I, and (object pronouns) to him and to me, to her and to me, and so on.

Now go enjoy Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina!

 Posted by at 1:57 am

Ancestry

 American Culture, Vocabulary  No Responses »
Nov 212011
 

When people move and emigrate to a new land, they often lose track of their ancestry.  Records are lost, memories are lost.  When the older generation dies, there is often nobody left to tell the story of their ancestry to the younger generation.

In the United States, websites abound that specialize in doing ancestral searches.   One of the biggest websites is ancestry.com.  Americans can’t get enough of searching for their ancestors. They want to do their family tree. They want to know who their long-lost relatives are. Sometimes they’ll have a family reunion and meet, for the first time, long-l0st relatives.

Who are my ancestors? Where did my ancestors come from? Do I have living relatives who I don’t know exist?

These are some of the questions that Americans ask themselves.

Americans whose ancestors arrived in the United States between 1892 and 1924  use sites such as Ellisisland.org to help them identify their ancestors and to learn about their backgrounds. Ellis Island opened on January 1, 1892 as a port of migration for millions, and closed as a port of mass migration in 1924, when the government began to heavily restrict immigration into the United States.

What do you know about your ancestors?  Are you interested in doing an ancestral search?  Are you interested in learning more about your family tree?

How, and why, have memories gotten lost?

***

For an additional reading comprehension activity about Ellis Island, click on this link.

 Posted by at 3:54 am

Wild Turkeys on My Roof

 American Culture, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 162011
 

Native Americans.


Thanksgiving is coming, but do these turkeys care?

And who said that turkeys can’t fly?

In our neighborhood, in our city, wild turkeys roam the streets in flocks of eight to twelve turkeys. They walk slowly, and stop at each home and peck the ground to see if they can find food.

They abound in the autumn, but we see them also in the summer and even in the spring. They live in the woods nearby, and come out during the day.

When they open their wings to fly up or to fly back down, they are powerful flyers.

In our neighborhood, turkeys are a protected species and are native to North America.  People who are driving  their cars slow down to watch, or to let them pass.

wild turkey on my gate

Happy Thanksgiving!!Happy Thanksgiving!

 Posted by at 8:01 pm  Tagged with: ,

him and me?

 Grammar  No Responses »
Nov 152011
 

We’ve all heard it: We’ve all heard people say “Him and me went…”.

We’ve heard people say “Her and me went…” and we’ve heard people say “Me and him went…”.

But are these correct English? Is this something you want to learn and repeat?

The truth is that it is painful to hear English spoken this way.

We’re going to break these apart into several lessons.

  • The pronouns “him” and “her” are object pronouns. They are the pronouns to use when the speaker (or writer) is referring to the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition.

The problem is when people – commonly – use these pronouns when they are referring to the subject(s) of a sentence.

  • The subject pronouns are I, you, her, him, it, we, they. So it would be proper to say “He and I went to a baseball game. ” It would be proper to say “She and I went to a baseball game.”

It would be proper to say “Mark invited him and me to the baseball game” and it would be proper to say “Mark invited her and me to the baseball game.”  (Using the plural object pronoun, it would be proper, in these cases, to say “Mark invited us to the baseball game.”)

TRY IT #1: So let’s say English grammar isn’t your cup of tea and you don’t really understand object pronouns. So let’s take the sentence “Mark invited her and me to the baseball game” and let’s play around with it. Let’s begin, “Mark sent an email to…….” and fill in the blank.

Your choices are (choose two):

1) him and me
2) he and I
3) her and me
4) she and I

A substitution like we just did above will help you to understand when to use an object pronoun.

The correct choices are 1)  him and me, and 3) her and me.
Rationalle:  We need an OBJECT PRONOUN to complete the preposition “to”.

TRY IT #2: Let’s begin, “……  sent an invitation to Mark.” and fill in the blank.

Your choices are (choose two):

1) She and I
2) Him and me
3) Her and me
4) He and I

The correct choices are 1)  She and I, and 4) He and I.
Rationalle:  We need  SUBJECT PRONOUNS  to indicate who is doing the action.

Next week you and I will discuss “me and her” or “me and him”.

***

 

 Posted by at 3:33 am

English Is My Worst Subject

 Writing  No Responses »
Oct 242011
 

“English is my worst subject.”  True or False?

Whenever I tell people I’m an English teacher, they say “Uh oh… English was my worst subject in school.” Now what did they mean by this? These are people who are native speakers of English! So how could English have been their worst subject in school?

I put this, “Why was English your worst subject?”, into the search bar. One person said he didn’t like English because he was always asked to write his opinion of things and then told that he was wrong.

Have you ever had this experience?

In writing, we must present our ideas in a clear and orderly fashion. We must take ideas and support them with facts or real-life experience.  Sometimes when students write essays, we teachers are not telling our students that their opinions are wrong, but that they have not properly supported and developed their ideas.  At the same time,  much attention in writing classes is paid to the question: Is this a fact or an opinion? Some people confuse a fact with an opinion, but this can be remedied with proper training.

So if you are an ESL student or a native English speaker, in fact no matter what language you write in, your writing should reflect a logical flow of ideas that the readers can follow.   Learning to write clearly in this manner can be a really beautiful experience that can open up a whole new world to the writer.

 Posted by at 5:50 pm

Interview with Rafael Nadal (in my dreams)

 Grammar, Sports  No Responses »
Jun 022011
 

This is my “in my dreams” interview with Rafael Nadal, one of the world’s greatest tennis players, from Mallorca, Spain.

**

Rafa, first I want to say that I love watching you play.  You are my favorite tennis player.

Thank you very much.

I have always loved watching the Spanish tennis players, including the great Manuel Orantes.

That’s the true.

That’s the truth.

Yes, that’s the true.

That’s the truth. It should be a noun, truth.  The truth. “True” is an adjective, as in “That’s true.”

Thank you very much.  That’s true.

Rafa, I saw you play at the US Open in 2010. It was thrilling to watch you play.

I played my best match at a very very important moment.  Always I try very hard.

I always try very hard.

Yes, you do.

I mean – the word order: First “I” then “always”, as in “I always try very hard” and “You always try very hard.”

Thank you very much.

Rafa, what is the key to success in your sport? What is the key to your greatness?

Important thing is be healthy, be in the right position mentally.  I’m always improving.  If you lose something in one part, you have to improve something in another part.

Yes, the important thing is to be healthy, and to be in the right position mentally.

Rafa, you are an inspiration to people all over the world. People love you not only for your successes on the tennis court but also for who you are as a person.  Good luck tomorrow in the French Open.  I will be rooting for you. 

It will be a very difficult match for me.  Thank you for all of your support.

Vamos Rafa!

 

**

 Posted by at 3:42 pm

Presidents’ Day or President’s Day?

 American Culture, American Government, Grammar  No Responses »
Feb 102011
 

Is the name of the holiday President’s Day or Presidents’ Day? Or is it Presidents’ Day?

One of the most misunderstood aspects of proper English grammar is the use of the apostrophe for plural possessives.

Let’s explore this in regards to the holiday that honors America’s Presidents – and that we celebrate each year on the 3rd Monday of February.

First, many people celebrated Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday, February 14, although it was never a Federal holiday.

George Washington’s Birthday, which is officially on February 22nd, became a Federal holiday. However, the Federal holiday “Washington’s Birthday” takes place a little earlier, on the 3rd Monday in February.

Soon a decision was made to combine the birthday celebrations for our Presidents, so an unofficial holiday developed.

Since the holiday is not official, there is no official name for the day.  Sometimes it is written as the plural possessive Presidents’ Day and sometimes it is written as a plural noun, Presidents Day. Most of the time, however, it is written as the plural possessive Presidents’ Day – the Day belonging to the Presidents. I personally prefer this latter name.

To create the plural possessive, we do the following:

First, we add ~s to the noun (President –>Presidents). This makes it plural.

Then we add the apostrophe to that:  Presidents –> Presidents’

Then we add the noun “Day”.

On the unofficial holiday of Presidents’ Day, we remember the Father of Our Country, George Washington, and our 14th President, Abraham Lincoln, who established the unity of the United State of America, and the right of all men to be free.


 Posted by at 5:56 am

Let’s Talk about Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

 American Culture, American Government, Uncategorized  2 Responses »
Jan 162011
 

First of all, the holiday is “Martin Luther King Day” but the person we honor isn’t Martin Luther King but his son, Martin Luther King, Jr.

What does the “Jr.” after somebody’s name mean? What does it stand for? The “Jr.” stands for the word “Junior”, which is the appellation used when a son takes on his father’s name.

So who was Martin Luther King, Jr. (Junior)?

I grew up when racial segregation was still legal in many parts of the United States.  Though it wasn’t a part of the culture in the state where I grew up, it was a big part of the culture in many other states, particularly in the southern states.

In the 1960′s I started hearing about integration, referring to racial integration. We learned that in many states there were many public places where blacks could not enter, or if they could enter they had to sit separately from whites.  We learned that there were schools and colleges where blacks could not attend.  We learned of laws in many states where a black person and a white person could not marry.  We learned that many blacks were not allowed to vote in municipal, statewide or federal elections.

When we look around us now, in the United States, we see a very different country.  And much of that is due to the efforts and inspiration of one man, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not a politician; he was not an elected official. But he was a strong person, and he had strong ideals, and he was able to influence politicians and to gain the confidence of blacks and whites of all ages who believed in racial equality and equal opportunity for people of all races and who were willing to stand up for those ideals in a peaceful manner. He was able to bring people together and elevate a nation.

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we celebrate those ideals and the power of one person to change a nation for the better.

 Posted by at 1:47 am
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