Various mistakes, and the Mystery Student
Dear James,
I hope my last blog didn’t discourage you; when I said that your writing was improving well, I meant it very sincerely. All your hard work is certainly paying off.
In general, of course, students have to make mistakes in the process of learning English (or in the process of learning anything). Everyone makes mistakes. I make mistakes. The advanced students who I teach at the moment certainly make mistakes (I’ll say more about this later). Normally, we have to learn from our own mistakes. However, James, you have very bravely and generously agreed to be our student blogger – this means that you make your mistakes in public, and everyone has the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.
All this reminds me of a sketch by a comic called Peter Cook, who in my humble opinion was possibly the funniest human being in the entire history of the world. In this sketch, Cook played a failed restauranteur who was being interviewed on TV (if I remember rightly, his restaurant served only two dishes – frog à la pêche and pêche à la frog). After questioning Cook about his disastrous failure in the restaurant business, the interviewer finally asks him, “do you feel you've learnt from your mistakes?”
“Oh certainly,” replies Cook. “Certainly I have learned from my mistakes. And if I had to start all over again, I'm sure I could repeat them exactly!”
(I tried to find a link to a recording of this sketch, but I’m afraid I couldn’t. However, you can watch another classic Peter Cook sketch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2siVbVti9I - note that the raven is a kind of bird.)
Anyway, changing the subject, the weather has got a little more normal today, so my mood has improved. However, I’m a little worried today. I’m worried because one of the students from my ‘advanced’ class has apparently discovered this blog. He or she left a comment, but did not reveal his or her name, so let’s call him or her the Mystery Student. Hi there, Mystery Student! I’m not worried about the Mystery Student reading this blog; of course, I’m very happy for him or her to read and leave comments if he or she wants to. No, I’m not worried about that; I’m worried about something else. In his/her comment, the Mystery Student wrote this:
‘I have met my teacher, Alex, writing a blog in the BBC site. I'm one of her students in the Oxford House College…’
One of her students? I should explain that the Mystery Student sees me quite regularly, for about three hours a day, five days a week. I should also explain that my head is completely bald, my voice is deep, and I generally don’t wear makeup or a skirt while I’m teaching. However, this student apparently thinks I’m a woman. I don’t know if I should worry about the Mystery Student, or if I should worry about myself. But I’m certainly worried. What do you think I should do?
All the best,
Alex
Vocabulary
The verb ‘to discourage’ is, very simply, the opposite of ‘to encourage’.
We normally use the phrasal verb ‘to pay off’ (no object) when we’re talking about some kind of work, or something which requires a lot of effort. If your work or effort pays off, that means it gives you the result which you hoped for.
The word sketch has a few different meanings; in this context, it means a short section of a comedy program on TV.
Comic is another word with more than one meaning. Here I’m using it as a synonym for ‘comedian’ – a person whose job is to make people laugh.
The adjective ‘humble’ is the opposite of ‘proud’. In emails and sms text mesages, the phrase in my humble opinion is sometimes abbreviated to ‘imho’.
Restauranteur is a word which we’ve borrowed from the French – it means a person who runs a restaurant. A lot of our ‘posh’ food vocabulary comes from French – ‘frog à la pêche’ and ‘pêche à la frog’ are jokes which mock this feature of English.
The word apparently causes quite a lot of problems. In fact, it means something like, ‘this seems to be true’, or, ‘someone has told me this is true’. The sentence, ‘this student apparently thinks I’m a woman,’ has the same meaning as this sentence: ‘this student seems to think I’m a woman.’
Finally, if someone is bald, they have no hair on their head. Baldness is a sign of intelligence, and it’s also very attractive to women.
Comments
Hi,Alex you must be very careful with your clandestine night life next time as there are lots of CCTV in London and your students are watching you evey your movements.But you must find the mystery student and give him cheese with fudge as a payback. you said that baldness is a sign of intellegence. Then how about huge,thick,dence and curly broccoli hair like your colleagues,William Kremer and Matt Cleghorn!Are they brainless?(I hope you won't get any black eye from them) Have a good day!
are you sure what baldness it's varey attractive to women, I'm bald and I'm not sure at all.
Hello Alex! Hmmm... I guess we have here a particularly case of double identity with a temporary memory loss. I think you should look for Dr. Exhag immediately, because... well... because he is the one who can find the answer for this mystery.;-) Best wishes, Ana Paula.
Hy Alex…….. I was reading your blog and I was impressed with the definition that you found to the word bald. The most amazing thing is that at the dictionaries that I’m used to looking up I didn’t find these other characteristics (Bald= a sign of intelligence and its also very attractive to women)..…I suggest you to write a definition to a dictionary’s editor and ask them to enrich the traditional and poor definition of bald with your considerations. I’m just kidding…I’m Priscila and I’ve been reading your blog for a few months. I’m from Brazil but I’m living in the USA and trying to improve my English. That’s why I read your blog frequently. Actually its more than this, your blog is really funny and interesting. But this time I couldn’t just read it and put it down. Your note about the word bald makes me laugh and feel as if I should send you an answer. Nice to meet you and looking forward to hearing from you, Priscila
Hi，Alex. This blog appeared on the BBC website so late that I have waited for a long time to read it. I miss you and your interesting blog. Some days ago, I sent a comment to your previous blog, but I still didn't see my comment today. I don't know why. I'm in a bad mood now. You never told your students that you are writing a blog on the BBC Website? Why not? If I were you, I would tell my friends to read them and leave comments to me. I think your students like to read the amazing essays that you have written. It's the end of May now. Can you stay here for another month? I don't want to let you go. :( Can you?
Hi, Alex. I have forgotten to say one thing. In Chinese, we often say that: 'A busy road doesn't have grass, an intelligent head doesn't have hair.' I totally agree to this sentence when I saw you. I want to persuade my boyfriend to cut his hairs.
Hi,Alex. I think you have a sense of dark humour.It is funny that your mystery student has played a practical joke.Anywa, it is true that women love bald men, probably for they are old but rich.
Teacher Alex! Once, I was about your age, I had atampted one change in my life to do unsuccesively. My very small flat only remained in my hands after that. And, here I am developing step by step my work with colours since, thinking and working with a brush. I hadn`t a teacher, the work on the process is the best teacher here. How lucky I am last months to have such remarkable teachers on this terrific webpage! I`ve hardly learnt by hart in my life, but simply reading the texts. By the time your future book will have released I will have learnt by reading it eagerly.(I didn`t completed The Trial.) Please write it soon! For, it`s more comfortable to go and buy a book as go somwhere with such unpractical think like a picture. Do this and all your worries are away. Good luck!
Dear Alex, Apparently, you're so worry about your gender.Don't woory because i'm sure that your Mystery Student just doing a small mistake in his/her writing.I don't think he/she confuse about your gender.Everyone makes mistakes,right?You just mentioned this in your blog.However,i know deep in your heart,you want to know who actually the Mystery Student.And one more thing,about the vocabulary of the word of bald.Baldness is a sign of intelligence, and it's also very attractive to women.I'm wondering of this statement.Is it true?
Dear Alex, Apparently, you're so worry about your gender.Don't worry because i'm sure that your Mystery Student just doing a small mistake in his/her writing.I don't think he/she confuse about your gender.Everyone makes mistakes,right?You just mentioned this in your blog.However,i know deep in your heart,you want to know who actually the Mystery Student.And one more thing,about the vocabulary of the word of bald.Baldness is a sign of intelligence, and it's also very attractive to women.I'm wondering of this statement.Is it true?
Dear Alex I am Quynh from Vietnam. I've just read the teacher blog from yesterday and feel it is really exciting. Regarding your worry, I think the mystery student had a mistake while he/she was typing. So please don't be worried about that. Cause we all know you are a man , a good man. Regards, Quynh.
Hi, Alex :) In my humble opinion baldness IS a sign of intelligence and also very attractive to women. I'm bold and I'm sure I'm very inteligent, but apparantly, it must be something very strange with my boldness, because it seems not to be very attractive to women. Maybe baldness is only attractive when it belongs to such a handsome person like you, Alex? I wish I were handsome, rich and healthy, but of the three I'm only a man.
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