I just came across this interesting article, check it out!
"I Me Mine: The Beatles and Their Pronouns"
Zimmer, Ben. "I Me Mine: The Beatles and Their Pronouns." New York Times 29 08 2011: 1. Web. 29 Aug 2011. <http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/i-me-mine-the-beatles-and-their-pronouns/?smid=tw-nytimesmusic&seid=auto>.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Wondering about English
Until I began to teach, I actually never thought of grammar rules or categories... English just came naturally to me. I learnt to use the language since I was very little. I used to play using English, even if my friends didn't know how to... It is a bit weird, I know, but there was something indescribable about using a strange language with a different melody when creating different scenarios and characters...
I've always been enchanted by language and melody. My mom used to read poetry to me every night before bedtime... with her reading I learnt there were people who created fantastic stories as I tried to do in my own games. I started to believe that language was much more than just a communication. Learning English gave me the opportunity to reinforce my belief. I could watch Disney and Warner Bother movies and get their jokes… actually laugh at them. Although Bugs Bunny is quite funny in Spanish, his character is much more fun in English. Understanding different cultures (like Bugs Bunny's or Mickey's) through English was almost as natural as learning the language, and I realized that my own culture, my own way of expression was something to be treasured. Perhaps that's why I studied literature and I just had an epiphany through this blog, who would have guessed? (hahaha)
Of course, the first English book that captured me was The Catcher in the Rye. I was at that age... that terrible age. But it was Shakespeare who won my heart. I read Hamlet in high school, and at first it was hard, but somehow I fell deeply in love with his iambic pentameter (yet another epiphany... I'm a geek). However, it was until my university years that I understood that each language has a defined structure that gives a unique melody to each story, character, theme or conflict. For this reason I began my long journey with Poetry... If I think about it, I mean really make myself remember why I decided to teach what I teach, to study what I did and keep doing so, I can affirm that it was learning about different cultures what pushed me towards literary studies. I couldn't have done that if I hadn't learnt English.
It's a bit weird to write about these sort of things and not have my mind wondering about... and perhaps those who read my "stream of consciousness" will think that I have made no sense at all, but I do wish that just one of you accompanies me in this sort of wondering...
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Common Grammar Mistakes
"Bugaboo is from the archaic term bogy boo -- a term for a hobgoblin or anything that haunts, bothers, bugs, harasses, irks, annoys, or frightens, like the bogeyman. "The Bugaboo Review" is a lighthearted examination of usage, grammar, and spelling mistakes, the bugaboos of the English language." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sue-sommer/common-grammar-mistakes_b_935609.html#s338488&title=laylie
Sommer, Sue. “Common Grammar Mistakes (PHOTOS).” The Huffington Post 25 Aug 2011. Web. 25 Aug 2011. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sue-sommer/common-grammar-mistakes_b_935609.html#s338488&title=laylie
Sommer, Sue. “Common Grammar Mistakes (PHOTOS).” The Huffington Post 25 Aug 2011. Web. 25 Aug 2011. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sue-sommer/common-grammar-mistakes_b_935609.html#s338488&title=laylie
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
The Most Useful Things I Learned in School
At University I studied Spanish Philology (linguistics and literature). Later, I got a graduate degree in Education focusing on technology and innovation. You would guess that my English, Spanish and Computer Science classes at San Carlos school would have been the most useful for my life after school. After all, in Spanish and English I learned about grammatical categories, literary movements, grammar and poetry. Father Sebastian taught me (to my own despair) how to graph sentences. Ms. De Bedout taught me how to read Shakespeare out loud. Marilyn taught me how to write complete sentences and paragraphs. And a few other teachers taught me how to create documents using Wordstar and WordPerfect (both disappeared now) or create simple programs in Logo.
However useful those teachings were for my later studies, they were not the most useful. There are two things that have made a huge difference in my life, and none of them relate to content knowledge or specific academic areas. They are two skills that took years of practice: English and touch typing.
Even today, I snobbishly tend to assume that everyone knows English and I am often surprised when people are unable to understand things I send them in English. But that's me. And my attitude is certainly snobbish and discriminating. (I am working on it). Nevertheless, English has opened many doors to me, especially doors of knowledge and learning. I continually read books and articles in English, watch videos and learn from materials I find online. And most of them are in English. I cannot imagine my life if I were not able to understand the language of Scott Fitzgerald and Paul Auster. I could not have studied at one of the top world universities, traveled at leisure or had many of the friends with whom I often share. I would not even be able to play the games I like the most. English provided me a competitive advantage that sadly few people have. Do not underestimate your knowledge of English! It will open many doors and opportunities.
Touch typing was one of the classes I most hated in high school. We sat in front of typing machines and practiced writing with all ten fingers. Yes, type writers, not computers. I am that old! I never took it seriously until I started writing my thesis at University. I forced myself to touch type and got to writing around fifty words per minute by the end of the ordeal. After that, typing quickly has been the other great advantage in my professional life. I can take very good notes in meetings, take dictation and produce documents faster than others. And most importantly, my hands are able to move almost as fast as my thinking. I feel bad for people I see typing with two fingers. How can you put together complex ideas if your hands go far slower than your mind?
The two most important skills I learned in school were not academic and did not even directly relate to my career: they were English and typing. Don't miss out on taking advantage of the opportunities offered at GLM to learn both. Yes, both.
However useful those teachings were for my later studies, they were not the most useful. There are two things that have made a huge difference in my life, and none of them relate to content knowledge or specific academic areas. They are two skills that took years of practice: English and touch typing.
Even today, I snobbishly tend to assume that everyone knows English and I am often surprised when people are unable to understand things I send them in English. But that's me. And my attitude is certainly snobbish and discriminating. (I am working on it). Nevertheless, English has opened many doors to me, especially doors of knowledge and learning. I continually read books and articles in English, watch videos and learn from materials I find online. And most of them are in English. I cannot imagine my life if I were not able to understand the language of Scott Fitzgerald and Paul Auster. I could not have studied at one of the top world universities, traveled at leisure or had many of the friends with whom I often share. I would not even be able to play the games I like the most. English provided me a competitive advantage that sadly few people have. Do not underestimate your knowledge of English! It will open many doors and opportunities.
Touch typing was one of the classes I most hated in high school. We sat in front of typing machines and practiced writing with all ten fingers. Yes, type writers, not computers. I am that old! I never took it seriously until I started writing my thesis at University. I forced myself to touch type and got to writing around fifty words per minute by the end of the ordeal. After that, typing quickly has been the other great advantage in my professional life. I can take very good notes in meetings, take dictation and produce documents faster than others. And most importantly, my hands are able to move almost as fast as my thinking. I feel bad for people I see typing with two fingers. How can you put together complex ideas if your hands go far slower than your mind?
The two most important skills I learned in school were not academic and did not even directly relate to my career: they were English and typing. Don't miss out on taking advantage of the opportunities offered at GLM to learn both. Yes, both.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
ENGRISH
Are we teaching our students to speak "Engrish"?
Check this out: http://www.engrish.com/
Although this is a funny, hilarious page, it is also scary in many ways. Unlike the Western cultures, ours is certainly closer to the North American, and certainly closer to it in terms of the common roots that our languages have. This should mean that teaching English is easier for us than it is for those living on the other side of the globe. Nonetheless, this proximity in distance does not guarantee that teaching the language becomes an easy task.
Probably not as terrible as some of the signs wrongly translated by the Chinese, we do find that our students (and many other English speakers as well) directly translate their thoughts and words, one by one, from Spanish to English. It is then one of our tasks to prevent this from happening. To avoid the funny making-up of words and expressions, and to somehow make our students grasp the whole range of syntactic and grammatical functions that may allow them to think in English, not in Engrish.
It would be interesting to begin this academic year by having our students reflect on this, and by coming up with a list of such words and expressions that make us all laugh but that should also make us stop and think and possibly change.
Have a great week, and an amazing first week of classes!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Facing the Digital World
It seems like a good moment to reflect upon technologies, how to use them in class, and to what extent are we willing to move from our comfort zone and face the digital world. I guess we should just try and adjust the traditional to the new, and find ourselves a spot in between where we can still do what do the most: teach and learn.
I hope this site becomes valuable and interesting in time, and that we can all build it together!
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