In a Bad Mood
Hello again folks,
I hope you're all well and having a good day. London is oppressively muggy today, and I wish I could go and jump into a swimming pool this afternoon - but alas, I have to teach a lesson on prepositions instead. Therefore, I'm in a bad mood today. This is bad news for James, I'm afraid, because I'm going to point some grammatical mistakes in his last blog.
I should start by saying that, in general, I'm very impressed by James' improvement. His blogs are noticeably more accurate now, and they're always informative and fun to read. His grammar isn't perfect, but on the other hand, perfect grammar is almost impossible to achieve (for native speakers as well as language students).
But today I'm feeling cruel, so I'm going to pick out a few of his sentences, look at them closely, and suggest corrections. Firstly, James wrote this:
'So, Nakasi is a style of live band accompaniment, and customers sing a song to a live electric piano accompaniment. It’s just like that teacher Alex are going to.'
The first sentence here is fine, but there are a couple of problems with the second one. Firstly, the word that isn't quite right here, or not alone anyway. We could say, 'it's just like what...', but this sounds a little awkward to me. It's better, I think, to say, 'it's just like the event that...', or something like this. Also, teacher Alex is only one person, so we need to change are to is. Hence, the correct version might look like this:
'So, Nakasi is style of a live band accompaniment, and customers sing a song to an live electric piano accompaniment. It's just like the event that teacher Alex is going to.'
There's another 'that' problem in the following sentence:
'They are a form of recreation that people (customers) can sing their favorite songs and enjoy their performance by themselves with the audience.'
Again, the word that doesn't quite fit in this sentence. I suggest replacing it with in which, to make a sentence like this:
'They are a form of recreation in which people (customers) can sing their favorite songs and enjoy their performance by themselves with the audience.'
We could also replace that with where in the above sentence, but I think in which suits the slightly formal tone of the sentence better.
Thirdly, have a look at this phrase:
'No matter your singing is good or bad,...'
Here James is using a special structure, and he's got it almost exactly right, but he's missed out one word. Can you see which word is missing? Yes, of course you can ¨C the missing word is if. In its correct form, the phrase would read like this:
'No matter if your singing is good or bad,...'
This means that it doesn't matter if your singing is good or bad; the result will be the same. We could also use whether here, but if is more commonly used.
Finally, please look again at this sentence:
‘In other words, Karaoke means that the orchestra which plays music in the empty box of speaker.’
This is actually the only sentence in James’ last blog which I simply can’t understand. Sorry James, but could you try and rewrite this?
In my last blog I mentioned the sweet and heart-rending song 'Ace of Spades' by Motorhead. James replied that he had never heard this song, and suggested that maybe I should record myself singing it and post the recording on here. Well, James, I'm cruel but I'm not that cruel. I don’t think our readers deserve such terrible punishment (although maybe Hyoshil’s son does).
James asked about a sentence from my last blog:
‘The first thing we had to do was take all our valuables out of our pockets and put them into lockers.'
Actually, I omitted the word ‘to’ from this sentence. We sometimes do this in informal writing. If I replace the word ‘to’, the sentence looks like this:
‘The first thing we had to do was to take all our valuables out of our pockets and put them into lockers.'
Does this make it any clearer? We could paraphrase that sentence like this:
‘First we had to take all our valuables out of our pockets and put them in our lockers.’
Finally, Ana Paula has another question about the rather uncouth term ‘ballocksed’. Ana Paula, in the context you found it in, this word means something like ‘doomed’ or ‘in very serious trouble’.
See you in a couple of days!
Alex
Vocabulary
We use the adjective oppressive to describe something which feels like it’s pressing down on us. It’s always used in a negative sense.
Muggy is an adjective to describe the weather. It means hot and humid. Therefore, oppressively muggy means that the weather is so hot and so humid that it’s really hard to bear.
Alas is an old-fashioned and formal word meaning ‘oh no’ or ‘what a shame’.
The adjective heart-rending means something like ‘sad enough to make your heart break’.
Comments
Hello Alex! Once more thank you for clarifing the uncouth term "ballocksed", and don´t be in a bad mood, please!!! Just try to be patient with the weather, I know, I know it´s hard, but it´ll change, and I hope that change for a less oppressevily muggy weather, ok? Hmm... Are you going to the Karaoke today? I don´t hope so, because in your mood singing this heart-rending Motorhead song wouldn´t be a great idea. It´d be better to sing something that cheers you up and it makes you forget the oppressively muggy weather, hum... Let´s see... Ah! What about one of your favourite cowboy songs? So you could sing it and you´d feel more relaxed. Well, if this can confort you, here in Mogi the weather isn´t great too. The temperature is around 15°C, which is good, however, on the other hand the weather is terrible humid and due this the cold sensation is bigger. Hmmm... It could be great if I could send to you some fresh breeze, and you could send to me some warm breeze, but please whitout humidity, I have enough of it here. Ohhh... Unfortunately the internet isn´t able to do this... Best wishes, Ana Paula.
Hi!! In my country (may be in England too)there is a said which says "the world is a handkerchief" because sometimes we find some friend by chance in the other side of the planet...internet must be a handkerchief too, because I have met my teacher, Alex, writing a blog in the BBC site. I'm one of her students in the Oxford House College, and I can assure two things: yes, today the weather in London was strange, cloudy but hot ..and second...alex did not go to the swimmingpool because he had to teach us some prepositions, in particular the diferences between along, among, over and above...The lesson, anyway, was really useful (so thanks a lot!!) From now in on I promise I will read your blog too. See you tomorrow!!
Hello teacher Alex. What is a pity! Due to James' blogs , I am reading again and again in every blogs expression . And I honestly say that I have totally understood and enjoyed with all articals. Maybe people who live in the same region have something in common in many stories and tradition,in contrast people live in European country . I have a crack at copying the effective methode that I read articles and have a friend as a native speaker - I would like to speak and think all the time in English. Vocabularies, gramma ,both of them make me taking much time to paraphrase into complete sentences in aspect of using vocabulary , correcting gramma. According to read column or pose comment , I love James 's writing style so that many readers can expan his background knowledge besides posing routine column . It is rather hilarious whether student bloggers show their ability in different stories or styles. But teacher Alex should recommend and edit many sentences into the right way. I suppose that an effective method should pracice as much as you can .Keep your finger cross !!!! << PS blogs are not tedious if we share funny stories >>
Hi,Alex,Can i ask you an uncouth question that i ran into the other day? So promise me don't freak out.This is a sentence quoted by me from a comedy "Snatch" stars Brad Pitt as a Gypsy.In the beginning of the film, a businessman dealing with diamond in NY said to his men,"You know fish,chips, cup of tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary-f******-poppins,London".what does he mean by saying that?
Hi,Alex It's been soaking wet and raining all morning.By the way,do you know there are three courses of a big night out in Korea.First of all when people get together they go to a restaurant to have a meal with Soju(korean traditional alcohol)or DongDongju(made of rice).After the meal they move into a singing room.It has some singing list books for people.you chose and input the numbers into a machine and then you can sing from children songs to pop music. The end of the song you will get marked how good at singing you are. Lastly people go clubbing and end up the night drunken and exhausted. when my husband's two sisters and a brother visited Korea for our wedding we took them to a singing room.To break the ice one of my big brother(physically big he used to be a wrestler)started to sing a song and shook his body in a really funny way.My husband's family looked shocked and confused.They didn't know what to do.My cruel older brother encouraged them to have a go and put the number for RADIO GA GA into the machine.As the music started they looked reluctant but somehow they started the song and the middle of the song they raised their voice loudly and danced around(steady on).Surprisingly,they wanted to sing a song "WE'LL ROCK YOU" by Queen one more. When they was singing along the song my family was a bit scared and their jaws dropped because They were out of tune and roared until the song finished. They seemed dotty.I still have the record tape but no one want to listen to it.P.S I've just got a fax from Friday. it says that you're a fine fugure of a man.hyoshil
"an live electric piano accompaniment" is right or "a live electric piano accompaniment" is? In my opinion, maybe the second one is right. Have a nice day. ^_^
Hi Alex. Here is too much cold. We should change the name to Global Colding. Alex, when you are cruel and in a bad mood, your teaching is better. I reenforce the Jame's idea. I wish badly such punishment. Please let us listen your performance!
Hello Alex, I have read your stories recently. And I found they are intriguing and useful. You are an excellent teacher! Because of you, I am eager to read all of your previous blog. Besides, I read the other teacher's blog also, I think I am addicted to this website. It is raining now in HK, but I am very happy indeed.
Hi Alex, The weather in Moscow is 32 degrees.So, you aren‘t the only person in a bad mood about this reason. In the city center you have several wonderful green parks where people relaxing, sleeping and reading the books. You are lucky! I like a big and green park but we do not have a lot of abilities in the city center, unfortunately. I have read a report about the weather next week. + 36 degrees....O, Gosh!
Hi, Alex. May I offer you a good way to get rid of bad mood ? You just need a table-tennis bat, ball and the wall of your flat. Play with the wall for a half an hour and relax. Have a nice day.
Hi Alex, I think your blog is excellent, it is the best blog that I have ever read. What make me sad is, if I understand the message correctly, you will soon leave this blog... so sad, would you tell me where will you write after that? I will follow you! The weather in Hong Kong is very good today, although a bit hot - 33 degrees, we have blue sky and white could, which hardly appear in recent years.
Thanks for all your contributions. This blog has now closed and can no longer accept new comments.
