The tiger's nest

Well it’s now the end of the weekend I had looked forward to so much :-( Back to work tomorrow and it’s another six day week… mustn’t grumble though. This weekend Louie and I made Gingerbread Men (Ed helped too) – it was the first time we’d done any cooking together and Louie seemed pretty into it so I was happy. A chef in the making! Gingerbread Men are a kind of cookie (ginger flavoured) that you make using cookie cutters shaped like people. I ordered them especially from England because I couldn’t find them in any of the kitchenware shops here. Here’s a photo to mark this milestone in Louie’s life :-)



Adriana, I enjoyed reading your post about the Covento da Penha. I was sorry to read about the crowns being stolen… I wonder what happened to them and where they are now? Reading about the Convento reminded me of a Buddhist monastery I visited a few months ago. I was lucky enough to travel to Bhutan for a week where I did some workshops with student teachers as part of my work with the British Council. Bhutan is a small country, nestled in the Himalayas, between India and China. The teacher training college I worked at is in Paro, kind of the second city – although it is tiny - and on the last weekend I was there I visited a monastery that is perched high on a cliff called ‘Taksang’ which means ‘Tiger’s nest’. As you can see from the photo, it really is like a nest as it’s balanced right on the rock. Like the walk that you described up to Convento da Penha, it’s quite a tough trek. It’s not too steep but it takes about an hour and a half. The trees on the way up are strung with prayer flags and, like you said, it feels very peaceful. Prayer flags are part of the Buddhist tradition – prayers are written onto squares of cloth and the belief is that when the wind blows, the prayers are carried off to be answered. Nice, isn’t it?





The monastery is absolutely beautiful. Amazingly, it has been rebuilt, twice I think, after burning down. The last time there was a fire was in the 90s and since then it has been restored so you’d never know it’d happened. It’s pretty incredible when you see where it is – I have no idea how they managed to get all the building materials up there. Anyway, if any of you ever get the chance to go to Bhutan, I HIGHLY recommend it. It’s a beautiful, magical country that is going through some very interesting changes at the moment. For example, the king has declared that the country will adopt democracy from next year to replace the absolute monarchy that is currently in place. I expect we will all be hearing much more about this little kingdom over the next few years.

Anyway, better get to work. Adriana – we really are on the same wavelength as I had planned to write back to our readers today as well! That’s the second time we’ve done that :-) But first I’ll quickly give you the answers to the homework I asked you to do… (thanks for putting it first in your blog, Adri – no way I was going to miss it this time!) Here are Adriana’s answers with my comments…

1- Why do we women have this attraction and fantasy with firemen?; CORRECT – mostly… I think I’d change the ‘with’ to ‘about’ to make it absolutely right (I know, I said there was only one error :-) You need the ‘do’ as a an auxiliary verb to make the question, and then ‘why’ tags on the front of this to show we are asking for the reason, rather than a yes/no answer.

2- Me neither (cannot understand that); Here I think it’d be better to say ‘I can’t understand it either’. Making the sentence negative in this way makes it clearer than using ‘neither’

3- I think I would love Indian food; CORRECT! No need for ‘the’ as food is used here to describe a cuisine and so is uncountable

4- Let’s hear a Bossa Nova’s song in the background; Almost… either you can say ‘a Bossa Nova song’ (no ‘s) or you could say ‘Let’s hear some Bossa Nova music in the background. This is because ‘music’ is uncountable so does go with the article ‘a’ and Bossa Nova is used like an adjective so we don’t need the possessive ‘s’. Also, if you really want to be picky, I’d change the verb ‘hear’ to ‘have’.

5- I promisse to give you the recipe very soon; CORRECT! Yep, the verb ‘promise’ (note the spelling) is followed by the infinitive form, not -ing

6- Let´s drink Amy’s and her baby’s health; Not quite… the error was actually that you need ‘to’ after drink – you drink to someone’s health… at least you do in British English, I’m wondering now whether American English doesn’t use a ‘to’. Anyway, another interesting point here is that you can write it both ways – either ‘s with both ‘Amy’ and ‘baby’ or just one with ‘baby’ and it’s implied that you are also talking about ‘Amy’s’ health. Does that make sense?

Okay, I’ll do the vocabulary definitions at the bottom as normal. Here are some replies to your comments, our dear readers :-)

Xiaoxiao: welcome to the blog! I think you’re right – this website gives lots of fabulous opportunities to find out about other cultures around the world. Glad you have joined us :-)

Paulraj: you’re absolutely right – the breathing part of yoga is probably the most important thing for pregnancy, and you have to be careful not to overdo anything. I’m not sure which place influenced our decision to live in India the most… I think the fact that there are so many different places in India made us want to come and spend more time here. I hadn’t heard about the ‘Revolutionary marriages’ but they sound interesting. Great news that India is in the final for the cricket! Even I will try and watch the match tomorrow. Thanks for all your nice and informative comments.

Koorosh: thanks for you interesting comments! It’s great to hear from an anaesthesiologist. I had been wondering about whether it was a good idea to wait to do the dental surgery or not. Thank you!

Pilar: ah yes, now I understand what you mean. This month I’m also doing two Saturdays but thankfully I don’t have to work Sundays as well. Great to hear you are getting married – congratulations!

Wisarut: hmm… that’s an interesting question. I’m not sure why wedding cakes have all those layers! However, I do know that traditionally the top layer of the cake (the smallest one) is kept and eaten at the christening of the couple’s first baby. We didn’t do that though… To try and answer your question, we use ‘another’ to stress that the next one is in addition to previous ones. For example, ‘have another piece of cake’ means that you’ve already had one. ‘Other’ is used when we want to show there is a difference between two things. For example, ‘Not that pen, the other one’. Does that help? Hope so :-) For more help on phrasal verbs, have a look here.


Silwal: yes, I agree – I oversimplified Hindu weddings a little bit because I didn’t mention the fact that there are lots of different ceremonies, not just one like we have in the UK. Well done on the homework! You also asked me the difference between the following sentences: ‘the place where I work today’ and ‘the place where I am working today’. Well, they are quite similar I think the second one suggests that it is more temporary than the first – you don’t expect to have this job for a long time.

Heinrich: hmm… another interesting (and difficult!) question :-) All of the sentences you have written are correct. I have a feeling that ‘my parents had nothing to do with OUR meeting’ is the older (and probably more correct) version of ‘my parents had nothing to do with US meeting’. Same thing for ‘MY disturbing you’ – it’s more old-fashioned than ‘ME disturbing you’. That’s all I can tell you though, unfortunately… I think the second versions of each above sound more natural these days… sorry I can’t be more helpful.

Ana Paula: I know what you mean about being shy at speaking – with every foreign language that I’ve learned I’ve never like speaking much. I think it’s because I don’t like to make mistakes. The trick is to stop caring about mistakes and start focusing on the message you are trying to communicate and then it becomes easier… Well done on all the homework! You’re very dedicated :-)

Naheed: thanks for your lovely comments and your good wishes for my new nephew. My brother STILL hasn’t sent me any photos of him! Thanks for the information you gave me about the chutneys. I have tried ‘Dhokla’ and I do like it although when it’s very cold it tastes a bit strange. You’ve done well on the homework – good for you!

Filippo: wow! I didn’t know about that ‘pre-marriage’ course that you mentioned. That sounds pretty strict! Well done on all the homework you’ve done. Yes! I love Italian food. My favourite dish at the moment is gnocchi but whenever I try and make it it’s never as light as when you get it in a restaurant :-(

Marianna: thanks for your comments, I was very interested to hear about weddings in Slovakia. You asked about the word ‘sell-out’ – yes, it can be used like a noun, as Stephen has done. You can also use ‘sold out’ for the adjective, for example ‘it was a sold out show’ or ‘the show was completely sold out’. Hope this helps!

Hyoshil: I loved what you wrote about the frogs knowing when it’s going to rain! I always call Louie my little frog, don’t know why… Yes, I had heard about the free dental treatment for pregnant women in England and I think it continues to be free until the baby is a year old. The problem is finding an NHS dentist who is willing to take on new patients! I think dental care might be free in India if you go to a government hospital but we use private ones as they tend to be more reliable. You’ve done well on the homework :-)

Chris: thanks for your lovely comment! I feel much older and fatter now :-( Especially now that I’m pregnant again!

Mauricio: Actually I forgot to say that the cake was made by my mother-in-law! Pretty good, isn’t it? I’ll tell her you were impressed :-) Sorry you had to leave your cousin’s wedding early…
Ah… you asked me about Bollywood which has given me an idea for a post… watch this space! Good work on the homework :-)

Adek: that’s interesting about weddings in Poland… as far as I know, most people have white wedding cakes in the UK, with perhaps another colour for some of the decoration. I think saying ‘a picture of myself’ instead of ‘a picture of me’ sounds a bit weird and old-fashioned… I think people used to use the reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself) in this kind of sentence before but it’s not so common any more. Thanks for your comments!

Myen: luckily the problem with our air-conditioner isn’t the machine itself, but the hole in the wall that was made when the air-conditioner was installed. It just needs to be patched up a little bit. I agree that it’s always much better to get things repaired than throw them away and by new ones. I didn’t take any particular position when I played football when I was little – I was too young! I think we rotated so sometimes I’d be midfield, other times the goalkeeper – it was just playing for fun, really. Nice to hear that your Dad cooks you curry!

Yvonne: glad you’re enjoying the blog and thanks for your comments! I wish you all the best with finding a suitable man now that you’re nearing the perfect age of 30! :-) I’m going to be 30 at the beginning of November… it’s a bit scary! Good job doing the homework. Have a look here for more on phrasal verbs, if you’re interested.

Katerina: Hello and welcome to the blog! Hmm… I think we normally say ‘breathe out smoke through your nose’. ‘Breathe’ as a verb rhymes with ‘please’, not death, like ‘breath’. As for another word for ‘major’ – I’m not sure! You could say ‘my main subject is philosophy’ but I think ‘major’ is the clearest and easiest way to say it. Hope this is useful!

Ernesto: hello! Yes, you were absolutely right about the ‘has been/gone to France’ sentences – well done!

Farrukh Mumtaz: welcome to the blogs! As well as these blogs, have a look around the BBC Learning English website – there are lots of useful activities and exercises for improving your grammar. Good luck!

Alexey: yep! Your answer to the question about ‘gone/has been to France’ was correct – well done!

Manoj: thanks for your nice comments. I think you’re right – the attitude towards marriage is quite different in India than it is elsewhere. Everyone knows that you have to work at it to be happy and keep the relationship positive, wheras in the UK people assume that because they are in love everything will be perfect. Of course this isn’t always true!

David from Peru: that’s a good idea about putting parts of the debates on the website… I’ll have to leave that one up to Paul though :-) I agree that it’s very important to listen to lots of difference accents, given how international English is now.

Ela: ‘Leniwe pierogi’ sound pretty yummy! Well done on the phrasal verbs homework. Thanks for your comment!

Tran: you’re more than welcome! Glad you are finding it useful :-)

Gaetano: oh dear, perhaps I should do a post about an exercise routine for people to do after they eat too much because I’m making everyone feel hungry :-) Mmmmm… cornettos are delicious – you’re making ME feel hungry now!

Okay everyone, hope I haven’t missed anyone out. Here’s the vocabulary. See ya later!

Amy

Definitions from the last blog

An anthropologist: a person who studies cultures and groups of people
To retreat: to return back to where you came from
A culinary masterpiece: a delicious food creation!

Vocabulary from today…

To grumble
Cookie cutters
A milestone
To nestle
To perch
To restore
To be on the same wavelength

And a few for review

Colloquial
Flummoxed
A movement (related to politics)
To put someone off
To convey

Answers here!

Thanks for all your contributions. This blog has now closed and can no longer accept new comments.