A pinch and a punch,
For the first of the month! (An old English saying for the first day of each month, usually accompanied by a real pinch and a real punch!)
Hi there Anastasia, a belated happy birthday to you,
Welcome and greetings to everyone else reading this blog, how are you all?
Let me start by saying that I have neither a globe nor an atlas handy so your coordinates baffled me to say the least! (I admit that I was tempted to google the answer but I resisted).Your question about my aptitude for geography caused me to think back to my school days and I attempted to remember geography classes. To my shame, I don’t even recollect one class which probably indicates too many years have passed between now and my school days!
Anastasia, let's talk names now as you mentioned that my double -barrel surname gives us something in common. While I’m not entirely sure what our common ground is (and I’m pretty excited to find out about it ), I’m going to take a shot in the dark……do you share the second half of my surname? I know it’s quite a common name in the country I think you are from (your first name gives clues to your nationality I think). I’ll put all my cards on the table here and say that you are from the caviar- eating, vodka -drinking, borscht and blini -making country of…. Russia. Regarding the exact whereabouts I can only make the feeble guess of Moscow due to the fact you mentioned feelings of claustrophobia and agoraphobia so I’m guessing you are from a big city. I’ll be waiting for news of your exact location with bated breath in your next posting.
I guess I should give you a brief introduction to my good self; I’m Trudi Faulkner-Petrova, British and married to Rossen who is half Bulgarian-half Russian thus the ‘Petrova’ bit in my name. My potted history is that I’m from Droitwich Spa which is just outside of Birmingham in the UK. In 1997, I came to China for a year’s work for a British university and guess what… I’m still here in Beijing. Doing a different job now though and many things have changed about me and Beijing itself since I first arrived but that’s another story! I live with my husband and 17 month old daughter, Teah, here in Beijing and the rest of my family (Mum, Dad, little brother, grandparents) all live back in my hometown in the UK.
What needs to be said now is that I was really impressed with your written English; you must have really put some hard work into learning the language. I loved some of your expressions and sentence structures, perhaps you will be the one teaching me a thing or two!!You must tell me and all the other people reading the blogs what your techniques and strategies for language learning are and share some methods that really worked for you. It will be interesting to hear about your English language learning experiences and what goals you have for improving your English. You said you wanted to sound more natural in your writing and speaking, so vocabulary choice and turn of phrase are the key points for you to achieve this. I often ask students if they really enjoy studying English or just do it because they have to and I get mixed responses, hand on your heart what are your feelings about language learning? Do you feel like a different person when you are using English compared with when you are speaking your native language?
On the topic of learning foreign languages, the language I have been trying to pick up for many years is Mandarin Chinese. I’ve got to admit that teachers are often the laziest students so it’s taken me quite a few years to become an average mandarin speaker. It took me two weeks just to remember the Chinese words for ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’, honestly, the language sounded so alien to me that I just couldn’t get the words to stick in my brain!
Well, I guess I’ll sign off now by saying that I’m very glad to have made your online acquaintance and I think it’s going to be a very interesting and fruitful February for us. By the way, Chinese New Year is approaching and the year of the golden pig will end. Do you know what the next Chinese New Year animal is? What animal are you according to the Chinese horoscope? More on this topic next posting...
Until then, have a great weekend
All the best
Trudi
PS. I’ve eaten 2 chocolate bars and a packet of peanuts whilst writing this blog, if I continue like this February will be fat for me, not fruitful!!
Vocabulary
baffled (v) puzzled
aptitude (n.) ability or skill
common ground similarities
to take a shot in the dark a complete guess
to put all one’s cards on the table be honest and open
feeble (adj) weak
claustrophobia (n.) fear of being in enclosed spaces
agoraphobia (n.) fear of being in open spaces
with bated breath waiting excitedly
potted history short simplified version
turn of phrase expressions
hand on your heart honestly
pick up learn
alien (adj) strange, unusual
fruitful (adj) productive, successful
horoscope (n.) astrology, zodiac
Comments
Hello Trudi, I have always had the doubt about choosing vocabulary. In some situations you need to use one type of English for professional purpose and in another, you need to be informal. I liked the way you highlighted that. See you later. Bye
Hi Trudi, warly welcome you. I am a Chinese Mandarin native speaker. You are so right that English teachers are lazy to learn native language as they are teaching in the non-Enhglish speaching country, even they have stayed for more than 5 years, that because they can get along well even they don't speak native language. I read a report talking about this phenomenon, it said that the people of non-English speaking country have no intention to ask the foreinger(westerner English teacher, especially) to learn the native langauage, the locals treat them good all the way. On the countrary, the people of English speaking countries always request the foreigner to speak English fluently. Another thing about " 56°50′ North 53°11′ East". Nowadays, the free application of Google Earth is quite popular, download and install it, then you can see your place or anywhere in the world very clearly by satellite map, thus, input the coordinats of the place, one will find the place by satellite map, many data in it, zoom in or out would be under your control, a globe or an atlas is unnecessary. See you, James
Heavy snow hits china.Are you alrigh there? I learned a lot from your article, hand on my heart.(Do I use the idiom correct?) By the way, Chinese new year is coming.I am waiting for a family reunion with bated breath. Can't wait to see how much money I get in my red envelopes. Anyway,I am glad to read your blog!
Hi Trudi, Nice to meet you here in BBC Blog ,Please accept my warm welcome from north west of Iran ,Ardebil . It 's realy interesting that you live in China , we hadn't any student from china , before . I know that you will have lots of interesting story about living in China . I think the new chinese year will be Rat , but i 'm not sure about it .Kiss your girl and take a pinch of her face . Have a nice weekend and bye
Hi, I am surprised that not only the students but also the teachers are spread all over the world, so you are in China! I understand you about Chinese. In spanish when you want to say that you dont know nothing about some subject, you say that "for me is as if someone speaks in Chinese". Do you have a similar expression?
Hello Trudi, This is abida, the new blogger. I've posted my blog earlier for Anatasia but not got puplished. Then I thought to write you first. The expressions you have used are too much easy to comprehend but no doubt difficult for me to stick to my mind. As I'm very much desirous to learn English as soon as possible and for this try to read on different topics everyday and listen to BBC as well regulary. No doubt the choice of vocabulary and turning of phrase in learning new language sometimes create confusion when you have not too much exposuue of that word. On the other hand learning a language requires a conducive ambience as there must be native speaker to interact with. But unfortunately, I have no one to practice English language. Thanks to BBC and all kind and hard working teachers who have been putting their ultimate effort to make us learn. I hope my constant visits to BBC help me polishing my English language. Thanks
Hi Trudi, It is really nice to know that you are the teacher for us in the next two months. You must be a student centered teacher. Why I am telling this is you asked Anastasia about her techniques and strategies for language learning. Without imposing your idea of learning the language you expect the student to spell out his views. It’s a great beginning to learn the language. Surely I enjoy learning English through this blogs from global English teachers. I am sure I will face in any situation in my life with more confidence if I acquire good English. Particularly in the modern world it is more necessary to learn English language if you want to be a successful man in all aspects. For me, along with Tamil, my mother tongue English language gives me strength in my life. I did not realize this in my school days. But i realized the importance of learning English language when i was grown up. I have been struggling to learn this great language.
Hello,Trudi I like your name so much because it's much easy for me to remember it compare to other western names.I am not good at getting foreiner's names to stick in my brain without tremendous effort .According to the Chinese horoscope I am a mouse.I've heard Chinese has have bad weather for many days. I hope it will not affect your daily lives.Take care ann i am looking forward to seeing you again Hyoshilxx
Hello Trudi. I like your name too. It's like a name I knew in the past but have sadly long since lost touch. Great blog postings: very helpful for learning.
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