Work, work, and more work.
Hi James, and everyone else,
This is just a quick message to say hello, and sorry I’ve been so quiet for the last couple of days. This weekend is what we call a ‘bank holiday weekend’ in Britain, which means that on Monday the banks, and quite a lot of other shops, are closed (although the shopping never stops on Oxford Street, of course).
Many of my friends have taken the opportunity to get out of London for a couple of days. Not me, though – I have to move out of my house next week, so I’ve been spending the weekend packing up my belongings and lugging boxes around. Unfortunately, I’m going to be homeless for a while, as I haven’t found a place to rent yet. Accommodation in London is horribly expensive, and I’m just a poor teacher (please imagine sad violin music in the background as you read this), so it’s difficult to find a decent place to live. Fortunately, I have a very generous friend called Lottie, who has offered to let me stay in her spare room until I find a place of my own, so at least I won’t be sleeping on the streets!
Of course, I’m glad to see that you’re working hard too, James I’d like to have a look at your four example sentences in detail:
1) (The present perfect simple): I have been a good student since I was little. (We don’t know when it happened.)
This is a very good sentence – well done. However, you commented that ‘we don’t know when it happened’. I’d like to ask a question – are you a good student now? Yes, of course you are! So this sentence describes something which started in the past but isn’t finished yet. It also uses ‘since’. In this situation we normally use the present perfect continuous. However, we normally don’t use the present perfect continuous with the verb ‘to be’ – we use the present perfect simple, exactly as you did.
2) (The present perfect simple): I have tripped many countries (we don’t know when it happened.)
Again, you’ve chosen exactly the right grammar here. However, there is a vocabulary problem here. If we’re talking about travel and journeys, we can use the word ‘trip’ as a noun, but not as a verb. ‘To travel’ would be a good verb to use here, so we need to change ‘I have tripped’ to ‘I have travelled’. Also, we need the preposition ‘to’ after the verb, so the sentence should be like this:
‘I have travelled to many countries.’
Let’s look at the next one:
3) (The present perfect continuous): I have been knowing Junior Bush since he was a president of American, but he has not been knowing me. (It is still happening)
Remember what I said last time, about ‘state verbs’? These are verbs which we normally don’t use in the continuous form. ‘To know’ is a state verb, so in this case we wouldn’t choose the present perfect continuous, we’d choose the present perfect simple instead, like this:
‘I have known Bush since he became president of America…’
Note that we also need to use the verb ‘to become’ here, because ‘becoming the president of America’ is finished.
And finally, on to the last one.
4) (The present perfect continuous): I have been eating 3 meals a day. (It is still happening)
This is another good sentence. When we use the present perfect continuous, we very often use ‘for’ or ‘since’ in the same sentence, to show the period of time we’re talking about. So, a very natural sentence would be something like this:
‘I have been eating 3 meals a day since I was a child’.
However, we don’t always follow this rule, and I can certainly imagine situations in which your sentence would sound natural and appropriate.
I’m going to give you some formal homework today, James – but don’t worry, it’s only a very small amount of homework (and other readers are welcome to have a crack at it too). On Sunday you wrote this sentence, James:
‘I have to practice to expand many sentences.’
After the verb ‘to practice’ we use the –ing form, so the correct sentence is this:
‘I have to practice expanding many sentences.’
Also, you wrote,
‘As my dictionary, a celebrity is someone who…’
In this case, you need to use the phrase, ‘according to’, like this:
‘According to my dictionary, a celebrity is someone who…’
This means, ‘my dictionary says that…’. We can also use ‘according to’ with a person’s name – for example,
‘According to James, the 28th of September is Teachers’ Day.’
This means, ‘James says that the 28th of September is Teachers’ Day’.
Your homework is to write two more example sentences for me, on different subjects. One sentence should include the verb ‘to practice’ with the –ing form, and the other sentence should include ‘according to…’.
By the way, I’m very curious about Teachers’ Day. What happens on Teachers’ Day? Is it celebrated in any special way? We don’t have anything like that in Britain, I’m sad to say.
Well, I’d better say goodbye and go and pack some more boxes. Enjoy your homework, and I’m looking forward to hearing more from you soon.
All the best,
Alex
A little more vocabulary:
Your belongings are your possessions; the things that you own.
‘To lug’ is an informal British word meaning ‘to carry’.
If something is appropriate, it is good in this particular situation. It means almost the same as ‘suitable’, which I discussed in my blog the other day.
Finally, another British slang phrase: ‘to have a crack at something’ means ‘to try to do something’.
Comments
Dear, Alex,I'm sorry that you have to move out and you haven't found a proper place to live yet.But thank you for your sense of humour. When I was reading the blog I saw a poor thin man who was packing up his boxes and I heard(in my imagination)a thin musician playing the violin and crying over the miserable teacher.It was so funny that I burst out laughing. You ask James about Teachers' Day. We also have that holiday in Poland but we celebrate it on the 14th of October and it is a day off for schools. In your last blog you mentioned mocking Americans and I recalled a song 'Englishman in New York ' by Sting.Do you know it? It's one of my favourites.I have a question to you.What does the word 'maketh' stand for? 'Manners maketh man' Sting sings.What is the derivation of the word. I can't find any 'maketh'in my dictionaries.Thank you.I wish you all the best.
Dear Alex and all bloggers! Probably James isn't right because according to UNESCO the Interntaional Teachers Day is the 5-th of October; I said "probably" in spite that in some countries there are differences: for example in Poland the National Teacher Day is the 14-th of October. This day was established to commemorate the day when one of polish kings introduced special committee for national education. Now this day is free for pupils and teachers as well. But the day before in schools there are many events, and terachers receive a lot of flowers and greetings from pupils. Because I'm a little bit older then school children, I must admit that in my memories this days connect only with very boring official ceremonies... (it was the time of the last communist years in my country) Best wishes!
HI Alex! It was a sad news which I could read about finding a house. It will be worser to tide over than toothache. And we don`t have much help for the situation except the hope that it might be only a bad dream, which won`t last long. I wish you heartily that you can wake up happy soon again. Look and read James`s blog. I don`t need reading J.K.J. to have some fun. PS. Teacher`s Day in my country is 28.3., when we celebrate their profesion.
Hi, Alex! How's it going? Poor British teachers don't celebrated teachers' day! Unlike Taiwanese people, in my country, we celebrate that day on 11th September. Latin American Teacher's Day was established in Sarmiento's honor, an Argentinian educator and statesman, in 1943. Argentinian teachers don't have to work that date, so they have the day off. What do you think about to celebrate teachers' day in Britain in your birthday on your honor?? :) haha I wish you all the very best!!
Hi,Alex Poor you but you're extremely lucky to have a friend to put you up in her house.I can imagine how busy and stressful you are.I presume that you have run around like a headless chicken to pack your staff.Gook luck for the moving.To move on your homework,here are my answers.1)I dislike packing and lugging boxes whenever I move out or in a house.2)According to Alex,he will be down-and-out if his friend,Lottie withdraws her offer.hyoshil
Hello, James! I hope you´ll find a lovely place to live and for reasonable price. As for me moving out is very frustrating experience and a week ago I also had to practice packing things, that drove me crazy, when I gather all belongings together they made quite a huge pile,and while lovely process of moving out I discovered that books have one disadvantage, they are heavy and require a lot of place especially if you have a few. So I promised to myself that I would not enter the bookshop at least for some time however I had already managed to break my word and next time I have two more books to pack up.
Hello Alex, Oh my goodness! You´re now a poor homeless teacher. I can´t believe that! Oh Alex, I really simpathise with you (the violins are playing Lara´s theme from Dr Zhivago, which I think, it has the perfect drama touch for this moment). However, you´re a lucky guy, because you have a friend who didn´t let you down and she came in your help! That´s really good.I hope that you find a nice place for living soon. Hmm... I had crack at today´s homework: 1-The imaginary conversation practice making you feel more confident when you go to speak English in a real situation. 2-According to the doctors, we should eat at least four portions of fruits during the day. I know, those sentences aren´t good enough, but actually, today I´m suffering of a lack of inspiration. :-) Best wishes, Ana Paula.
Hi,Alex.It turned out to be you have been undertaking A hard task----removing and looking for housing,which reminds me of the killing expensive rent.Perhaps it is common for one to live in big cities.My advice is to take it easy,and you will find a decent place.According to the wise men:Only fools rush in.Luckily,you have got a temporary room to settle down.In my case,i was almost a vagabond without a generous friend.Whatsoever,I am no nomad now,for i am with my family.So Good Luck.
Hello Alex Like you, I'm moving out today from my flat in town. But unlike you "lucky me" it's for different reasons. I have the privilege of having my home shared between two housings, a flat in town where I live from September to April and a duplex in a resort (15 kilometres away from the flat, less than 100 metres away from the beach and very near of the Natural Park of Cabo de Gata in Almeria)from May to August. So from now on until September I feel that I'm on holiday despite the fack that I have to go to work. I wish you good luck in your searching of a new housing. My homework: According to the date it's time for me to move out of my flat and went to live to my duplex. It's going to be a bit hard to practice my English when I move out because on my duplex I don't have Internet. Despite that I'm going to follow your blog anyway.
Hi Alex! I was surfing on the internet a few days ago and I visited a very interesting website which captures my attention immediately. According to this site, children at school are given plenty of opportunity to learn, but perhaps not enough opportunities to practise thinking. It seems true to me. Do not you think so? In Slovakia the Teacher’s Day is a non-official holiday which is celebrated on March 28, birthday of Comenius. John Amos Comeneus was a Czech teacher, scientist, educator and writer. He became known as the teacher of nations. Students usually bring their teachers flowers, chocolate or buy them some other small presents on Teacher's Day. The students change their position with teachers - the teachers become the student, while one of the students gives a lesson, so the teachers have to answer all the students’ questions. Obviously, students do not take tests on this day. Best wishes,
I would be very pleased to have a crack at your homework Mr. Alex. 1- Practice: The BBC site advises foreign learners of English to practice hearing native speakers so as to improve their listening skills. 2- According to many people on this planet, appropriate measures should be taken in order to reduce CO2 emissions. Other wise, one day we will have to pack up or belongings and go to a new planet. Many thanks.
Where is that relaxed Alex, laughing, kidding – we miss him!!! I would suggest to add a joyful note to the sad, violin one – it would work as it happened hundreds years ago in a distant country, ruled by a good king... Do you know that fairy tale on Palace made by music? Yes, that miracle happened indeed: ‘... a beautiful old palace had been made in a single day, not having been built at all, but having been raised up by the sound of music. In those early days, it was said, there was music far more wonderful than any now known ...’ And the rule was quite simple - the two different notes played together are more beautiful than one ... But coming back to our every day life I’m in a similar situation as you, in a way. We used to live in a ‘normal’, municipal building but one day we’ve woken up in a private one with rents chasing our salaries. So soon we’ll face all that ordeal you are going through now. That’s life! Anyway, I cross my fingers for your new flat. Lots and lots of hughs for Lottie (you are really lucky to have such a wonderful friend). Take care,
Hello Alex, first of all I would like to tell you, how much I enjoy your entries. As I am a language teacher too (German), I can judge your potential as a teacher and I think you are doing a very good job here. I am totally sympathetic with you when you write "I am just a poor teacher". In my country teachers are absolutely underpaid too and also our respect is very little among the pupils and the parents nowadays.As for teacher's day, we also have it - for the great satisfaction of our pupils:)They always bring us some flowers and then we are supposed to be very grateful and consequently we have to give them a gift too - it means we shouldn't teach them anything on that day - we play something and so on. I hope that you will find a decent flat soon! All the best wishes Kriszta
Hello Alex :=) I'm sorry to hear that you are going to be homeless for a while. I'm sure you'll find a place to rent, a decent place, I mean. But I'm thinking that if Lottie is a nice girl and if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't hurry. You should weigh the pros and cons. Remember you are a very handsome man. And one more thing; is it possible to write how to pronounce some words, especially the hardly known ones like 'duh' or 'Gooch'? Regards.
Hello Mr Alex, What a coincedence. While you are packing to move out, I'm preparing to shift to my new house before the end of this month. I really heard a sad music while I was reading your blog. It reminds me my past life of being a teacher. When I recalled the past, I could even see a sad scene along with a sad music. Here is one of Myanmar proverbs that represents the life of a teacher. "The gardener does not possess the flowers in his garden". I cannot survive as a teacher anymore although I miss that life a lot. I take my hat off to you and all teachers.
Hello Alex and Anna from Poland :=) I'd like to answer Anna's question about the saying 'Manners maketh man'. You've probably found it in PWN-OXFORD Dictionary, but it is just a mistake: 'Manners make the man' is the correct. It's disappointing but there much more mistakes in that, on the other hand very good, dictionary.
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