The Worplesdon Post
Hello bloggers!
Hyoshil – thank you for the information about the photo of Buddha which I posted. The statue does have such a peaceful expression, doesn't it? Is Buddha just said to have drifted off onto another plane of being, in that position, with his eyes open?
Thank you to all the other students who posted information about Nirvana. I still know far too little about Buddhism, but did try ‘The Teachings of Buddha’. The copy I read over the New Year was a translation from the Japanese edition, and contained quite a few cultural inferences about the position of women in society which I find hard to swallow. Who knows if they are in the ‘original’ version.
On the other hand, I particularly liked reading the anecdotes which Buddha used to illustrate points to his disciples, as they are easily accessible, concrete stories. I hope I won’t offend people by posting the one which particularly captivated me:
‘Lust is like a dry bone smeared with blood. A dog will gnaw and gnaw at the bone until he collapses, exhausted’.
I think it’s talking about escaping worldly desires… Another one which I liked was this:
‘A general is attacked by bandits while travelling in his carriage. He cannot effectively retaliate until he discovers where the bandits have their hideout’.
I think this one is about understanding cause and effect. What do you all think? Do you have any stories in your religions or traditions which have stuck in your mind?
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JingJing from Beijing – hello there. Yes, your correction is 100% accurate: “I’d like to compare my country with a wonderland”. Congratulations! How long have you been learning English?
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Wang Bang – hello! Zhengzhou is a really interesting city. The training college where I was working is on the outskirts, so I got a slightly distorted view of the city until I went into the centre. Where do you live now?
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Leila – hi there! Nice to hear from you. Please feel free to ask me any English questions you have.
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Adriana – many thanks for your sweet message. I do try to dress smartly for teaching, and to use lots of energy and encouragement, especially if there are lower level learners in the class. I think it gives students a good impression, and encourages them to learn, even if they don’t understand 100% of what's going on! Fortunately, in China I heard very few ‘jama?’ (‘What?!’) in the classroom.
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Ok, so I’m back to England, and am plain old ‘Sarah’ now, no more Ma Su Lan. Which, incidentally, can sound like ‘Horse Meatball Scotland’ or ‘Mother Small Orchid’, depending on how you pronounce it. Good to know…
Best wishes from Worplesdon, and I look forward to hearing from you all soon.
Sarah
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VOCABULARY
Nouns
• inferences = negative or positive things which someone implies when writing or speaking
• bandits = thieves who traditionally travelled on horseback and targeted people travelling by road
Verbs/verbal phrases
• to gnaw = to chew (usually done by a dog with a bone)
• to retaliate = to fight back in response to an attack
• to have a distorted view of something = to see only an inaccurate or incomplete representation of a place or a situation
• to stick in my mind = to be very memorable
Adjectival phrase
• hard to swallow = difficult to accept
Comments
Hello Sarah, how are you doing now? It's raining here and it's a little bit cold. It's so interesting to know how you translated your Chinese name you used into English. Funny! As you know, we Chinese put our family name first. So in this case, if I translate my name, it can sound like 'yellow quiet quiet' or 'yellow peaceful peaceful'. Doesn't sound as good as yours. I've been learning English since high school, more than 10 years now. It's a long time. But my English is not good, that's why i come here and hope to learn more. It's helpful to read your blogs and others' posts. Recently, i read an article, it says: 'You do not keep anything for a special occasion, because every day that you live is a SPECIAL OCCASION.' 'Search for knowledge, read more, sit on your porch and admire the view without paying attention to your needs; Spend more time with your family and friends, eat your favorite foods, visit the places you love; Life is a chain of moments of enjoyment; not only about survival'. Share with you. Wish you happy every day.
Inferences. Good topic. One of the most important things that I like to study english is because sometimes I go to read directly to local newspapers avoiding the point of view of newspapers of my country, going directly to the source. I've made with local events (General Elections) and with foreigner disasters. The final result sometimes is amaizing. Specially in General Elections when everybody have won. See you, Toni.
Fortunately, in China I heard very few ‘jama?’ (‘What?!’) in the classroom. -------- it's maybe unfortunately!because of the shy of chinese. sorry.i'm just a lower level learner.In china ,many people wantn't ask question .it's our habit from baby age. i do like english.i'm 37.had been learning english for ten years add.(sorry,only for test not for interesting),after graduated,i had stopped studying english ten years ago. my knowledge about english had gone.recently,i'm realy interesting learning english.it's my hobby now. i have been reading the NYT and CNN ,sometimes by a translate software.but never writing and speaking.lack of listening also. today,i find the blog, it's a good chance to help me learning english! thanks for your hard works. i'll often come here in future!
Hello Sarah, so glad to hear from you. I am living in Shenzhen,a coasted city in Guagndong province,not very far from Hong Kong. I toured dozens of cities in China, of which I hace great impressions are Suzhou and Yangzhou. Next time when you come to China, I do advice you to visit them. You will learn they are worthy. best wishes!
Hi Sarah,Hope you are doing fine.as I can see you always smiling :)May God always keep you happy like this forever. Geting down to some business.Looking for a piece of advice.I presume my written engish is not so bad as I dont have to improvise.I have time to think and put my ideas across.But,while speaking,many a times,I am not able to put my ideas in order.There are many things in the back of my mind,so I start spending time to decide as to which is the best thing to say and just because of this problem I get stuck.Please help me overcome this problem.
Hello Sarah! How are you doing? Nice to know you´re back to England. Best wishes, Ana Paula.
Sarah, why do I keep coming back to this blog is… that one needs – in my opinion - to retaliate against laziness as far as living a good life. Sure I need to polish my English, I do make mistakes frequently, but part from just a studying point of view, I like to keep in touch with the world so to speak. Thank you Sarah for offering your help to improve my use of English, I would be grateful for any type of advice you may give to me. Perhaps you would be kind enough to point out some of my mistakes? I hope you had a restful weekend, I can imagine how lovely the weather must be in England right now… spring just round the corner. The spring is arriving here in Finland also, one can smell it. Yesterday I managed to wash our outside balconies for the first time since last autumn > the weather was so mild that washing water did not ice up. Our balconies are open ones, we do not, like most people, have our verandas glassed.
Hi Sarah! I plan on buying "Siddartha". Lots of people have read it and they highly recommend it. I think the concept of religiosity is very broad but at the same time very private. I do not think a person is good only because he or she goes to church on Sunday. It is a "mix" of things. The story of Cain and Abele and the Passion of Jesus Christ stick in my mind. I think because I saw a couple films about these two biblical stories when I was a little boy. Catch up with you soon and have an awesome week!!
Hello Sarah, ould you please help me to clarify a question on comma usage Why there is a commo needed before 'which' as in the example sentence below?. In some sentences I do not see that comma or, how it helps to make the statement meaningful and what is wrong if comma is omitted. eg: 'The stableboy replaced the horse's nosebag, which had torn in two places.' I am grateful if you could spare sometime for this. Thanks in advance.
Hi Sarah, How are you doing? Silence for long time. Are you busy after returning from China? I went Chennai last week and tried to see Slum dog Millionaire and post my view about that. Unfortunately I could not get a ticket. I have attended international women’s day functions in two places last week. One was in the interior village with self help group members’ i.e. women formed group on their own and work for their own development, and another one with the nursing college students in Metropolitan city. I could see the difference of the mentality and approach of the women celebrating women’s day on rural and urban. The village women did not know that there is a special day for them to celebrate. But the city girls debated themselves that whether they need a special day to remember. Just I want to share some of my feeling about this after seeing lize blog. In some places women are suppressed and men are dominating. But why women want to prove that they are superior to men. Why they want to show that they are more skillful than men. Every one is equal. One lady police inspector was invited to preside over the women’s day celebration in the village where I went. After the function the school going girls wanted to take photo with the police inspector. They must feel some kind of proud seeing the women police or they might want to be a police like that lady in a future. I was thrilling to see the police patiently waited to take photo with them, such an innocent girls still in the villages. Are you going to debate who are over others still poverty and ignorance exist.
Hello Sarah, I hope you had a great time in China. I really liked reading the anecdotes of Budha and they are true. Islam also emphasises on that the world is mortal so when you are in this world always keep an eye on your deeds and acts and try your best to be good with those around you. Speaking of wise words, the one that springs to me mind is an Arabic one which translates as 'Tie your camel trust in God'. This relates with the Arabs of those times who used to travel on camels and it's still true to this date. We do trust in God but without trying our best and still have faith that everything will be fine then we are not on the right end 'cause God helps those who help themselves. With these words have a nice day, Naheed
Hi Sarah, I would like to question your use of 'inferences'. An inference, as I understand it, is made by the audience (listener or reader) not by the writer or speaker. So a speaker or writer implies, a listener or reader infers. In which case it would be grammatically incorrect to say a piece of writing contained ‘inferences’ as in your blog (‘…and contained quite a few cultural inferences about the position of women in society…). From my understanding of grammar it would be more appropriate to say a piece of writing contains ‘implications’. I know that infer and imply are often misused but has it now become accepted practice to use ‘infer’ and ‘imply’ interchangeably?
Thank you all so much for your interesting comments.
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