I Didn't Feel A Thing

Dear Soyoung,

First, an apology. I made a typing error in yesterday’s blog. I hope it didn’t confuse you (or anyone else). Towards the end of my blog I asked about celebrations in Korea. I asked about Korean New Year and also about Valentine’s Day. I should have typed Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? (not “Do you celebrated Valentine’s Day?”). I’m very sorry about the error.

Next, a big thank-you. Thanks to all the readers who reassured me about injections. You were right. It must be about 10 years (probably more) since I last had any injections. In those days you could actually feel the needle going in. This morning I had to ask the nurse if she was really sure she’d given me the injection: I felt absolutely nothing at all. It’s amazing. I think I might go back and have a few more!

Soyoung, in your blog today you didn’t refer to anything from my blog yesterday. Did you have a problem accessing it? Or was it just too boring to respond to? (Don’t answer the second question!)

Yours today was full of great photographs. You seem to have had a good time when you were here in Britain. You’re right about phrasal verbs – there are so many of them, and they are so important. Of course, it’s a good idea to have some sort of reference book – perhaps a dictionary of phrasal verbs – but they can’t easily be learned from a book or from lists. I wonder whether our readers have any tips for you.

Phrasal verbs are probably best learned by reading a lot, especially modern, idiomatic texts such as magazine articles and popular novels, and by listening to conversation or dialogue in, for example, movies, TV programmes and radio plays. (Are foreign movies and TV programmes dubbed in Korea, or are they subtitled?) It is a good idea to keep a small notebook just for phrasal verbs. When you discover a new one write it in your notebook, with an example sentence. Organise the phrasal verbs alphabetically, in groups. For example, keep all the phrasal verbs you learn with ‘catch’ together under ‘c’ (EXAMPLES: to ‘catch on’, ‘to catch up’).

Well, here it’s been a rather nice day: very cold, but very sunny. I was able to go for a run. I ran for two hours in Bushy Park which is a large royal deer park next to Hampton Court Palace (very near where I live). I got home just before it began to get dark. Lucy came home from school – hungry, as usual – with piles of homework to do. She has a music lesson tonight (she plays the alto and soprano saxophones and four different sizes of recorder) and since there’s nothing to watch on TV I guess we’ll both have an early night.

I’m looking forward to reading your blog tomorrow, as ever.

With best wishes,
STEPHEN


SOME USEFUL WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS
made
Remember to use the verb ‘to make’ with ‘error’ and ‘mistake’ (EXAMPLE: I made a mistake.)
dubbed
Foreign movies and TV programmes which are dubbed have the original foreign language dialogue removed and replaced by dialogue in your language.
subtitled
Foreign movies and TV programmes which are subtitled keep the original dialogue, in the foreign language, but have lines of text in your language, at the bottom of the screen.
piles of
lots of
recorder
a hollow musical instrument you play by blowing down one end and covering a series of holes with your fingers
have an early night
go to bed earlier than usual


MORE PRACTICE WITH TENSES AND VERB FORMS
Remember that when you describe something you did in the past you should usually use the Simple Past Tense (EXAMPLE: I went to Wales with Maggie. The weather wasn’t very good but occasionally the sun came out. She and I had a great time. While we walked along the shore we talked about our futures. She wanted to be a magazine editor. Now she works as a correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, in Beijing.).

Sometimes you will need to mix tenses and verb forms (EXAMPLE: I studied phrasal verbs on the course. There are a huge number of them. We couldn’t get a good score when we were examined on them. A friend, who is from Switzerland, decided to buy a book of phrasal verbs. We were almost exhausted studying phrasal verbs because they are difficult to memorise. But the class was fun. The teacher, Catherine, was very nice and funny. She was energetic, cheerful and charming. She always taught us very well. Her lessons were exciting and her classroom was always full of laughter.)

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