October 2006Farewell Lewis - from BBC Learning EnglishPhew! It has been a fantastic two months on the blogging site. Lewis, a big thank you from BBC Learning English for the huge effort you have put in and the support you gave to our two student bloggers.
I am constantly surprised and amazed at the blog and comment entries and have looked forward to reading them all each day. I hope, Lewis, that you will continue to drop in on our blogs and join in the conversation.
At BBC Learning English we wish you and Tomono all the best for the future.
Paul posted on Monday, 02 October 2006 | comment on this postWelcome Tricia - from BBC Learning EnglishIt's October and the start of a new blogging month. This month I'd like to warmly welcome our new teacher blogger Tricia Thorlby. I won't give away anything about Tricia, you'll just need to wait to read her first blog today and to ask her questions to find out more.
Tricia, hello and good luck with the blogging.
Paul
BBC Learning English posted on Monday, 02 October 2006 | comment on this postHello from Kuala LumperHi, my name is Tricia and I'm writing this from my home in Malaysia. This is my first time blogging and I feel both excited and a little bit scared!
I'll start by introducing myself; I'm British but have lived in Malaysia for about 25 years. As you can probably guess, there is a reason for making my home here and that is because my husband, Mustapha is Malaysian. As I'm sure that they will appear in my blog, I should also mention my children, Hannah and Danial. They are both teenagers, so I'll try not to embarrass them too much!
I'm a teacher trainer and work for the British Council in Kuala Lumpur. As a lot of my work involves training teachers and supervising training courses, I get to travel a lot in this region and sometimes further. I've just got back from two weeks in Cairo which was fascinating.
But it's always great to come home and I realise that the older I get the more important it is to me. Of course I still have a home in England but that's my parents' home which is also important to me but in a different way and for different reasons.
I'm really looking forward to hearing from you. Perhaps you can start by telling me about your home and your feelings about it?
Tricia posted on Monday, 02 October 2006 | comment on this postHi ChittisaHi Chittisa!
Gosh, what a great way to start a day; reading your blog and the comments on both my blog and yours. I’m amazed that you and I are living in neighbouring countries too! I’ve been to Thailand many times and have always loved each visit.
Chittisa there is so much to congratulate you on; first there is your enthusiasm for learning English and also your insight into your learning process. I think the more aware you are of your learning, the more successful you will be. Congratulations on your TOEIC score too. You write with great energy and zest and I can feel your personality shining through. I think I understood everything but am not sure about your job. Have you found a temporary job and are you continuing to search for a permanent job? There are a couple of times when I wasn’t sure what you meant for example;
In my point of view, this is a good way to apply for a job, but anyway it is not the best.
Did you mean?
From my point of view, this is a good way to apply for a job but not necessarily the best.
..but the job which I am responsible for at the moment is not a civil engineer but I believe that I will be able to develop my knowledge and make a different contribution for the company
Did you mean?
..although my current job is not as a Civil Engineer, I believe that I will be able to contribute to the company and develop my knowledge
I’m really interested in finding the best way to help you develop your written English. Is this kind of reformulation helpful to you? Would you like me to try another strategy? Let me know what helps.
I think that getting your first job is a milestone in life. When I look back over my life, I guess that was when I first felt an adult. Why did I become a teacher? I’m not really sure is the honest answer. I studied English and Theatre Studies at University and I loved drama. I didn’t have the guts to try to make a career in professional theatre which is very tough and so thought becoming a Drama teacher was a way of sharing my enthusiasm. In fact I only worked as a Drama teacher for 2 years and then became an English teacher-but that’s another story!
Chittisa, you are at a really interesting time in your life and I’m sure will have a great number of stories to tell us. I am really interested in your experience as my daughter Hannah is currently an undergraduate, in her second year at university and so will be in a similar position soon. There is quite a lot of discussion in the Malaysian press about the number of unemployed graduates and some commentators have linked this partially to a lack of English language proficiency. The implication is that it’s easier to find a job if you can communicate in English effectively. In other words a good command of English gives you an advantage!
Tricia
Some interesting lexis and grammatical patterns from the blog;
• ..the more aware you are, the more successful you will be
• ..you write with energy and zest
• an insight into something
• a milestone in life
• to have the guts to do something
• reformulation
• The Malaysian press
posted on Tuesday, 03 October 2006 | comment on this postFriendsToday I'm going to start by answering some questions. The first is about my earlier description of my parents' home in England as 'home' too. My primary home is in KL with my husband and children but I also think of my parents' house in England as home simply because they are there. There is a saying,
'home is where the heart is".This is a cliche, in other words a saying that is overused but nevertheless it's true! A couple of years ago my parents sold our childhood home in London and moved to a new retirement house on the South Coast of England. Although I understood why my parents made this move, I was secretly quite upset as I thought that I was losing my home. The move of course happened while I was here in Malaysia. On my first visit, I realised that I shouldn't have worried as the change in environment didn't matter as my idea of home was really just linked to being with my parents.
It's interesting that Chiittisa you write about your concerns that now you are working you will lose the opportunities to spend so much time with your best friends. Yes, you won't have the same amount of time to spend with friends but I don't think that the relationships become less important. All my life I have been supported and helped by my friends. I've made many, many friends through my work Chittisa, so that's something to look forward to. However one of the hardest things about working in ELT and staying in Malaysia has been the constant movement of friends. ELT teachers tend to have very portable careers and after 2 years of teaching in one place often move to another country. Nowadays of course it's much easier to keep in contact through email but I'm often lazy about this.
So that leads me back to your question Chittisa, about time and how to manage it when you're working. I think I'd like some advice on that too!
How to improve your writing? Well I think that you need to write more, so blogging is a great activity. We all need to proof read our work too. Reading also helps as I think we unconsciously acquire patterns of language and style in that way. I'm interested in your views on how helpful correction can be?
A final question to answer which relates to my last post and this is about language. Sev asked;
"...and I’m sure will have a great number of stories to tell us" - Where is the subject for the phrase "will have a great number ..."???
The subject is actually Chittisa which you can find in the previous clause. What has happened is that I have omitted the word "you". This is a common feature of writing. I have assumed that in this situation that the reader can remember the subject.
Today I have highlighted some phrases that are helpful to use when talking about language too.
Some interesting lexis and grammatical patterns from today:
Home is where the heart is
a cliche
on the South coast
the change in environment
ELT= English Language teaching
so that leads me back to your question
to unconsciously acquire
a portable career
in the previous clause
to omit something
a common feature of something posted on Wednesday, 04 October 2006 | comment on this postPulling stringsHi everyone
It's early morning in KL and unfortunately the inside of my house smells of paint as we're redecorating and outside there is a smell of burning as the haze is back. The haze is poor air quality apparently caused by forest fires in Indonesia. I'll obviously have to go to work to escape the smells!
Chittisa your experiences of job hunting are really colourful. One way of describing how your mother's friend helped you is to say;
She pulled some strings to get me an interview.
I'm really eager to hear the rest of your story but maybe a little confused by your timeline. It's not always clear if you are writing about past experiences in a kind of 'flashback effect' or if you are describing in 'real time'? I've used two expressions that are often used to describe films because you are giving us your readers some great pictures of your life which I can imagine as a film. That is one of the great features of your writing Chiitisa it is really vividwith strong images.
My favourite paragraph starts;
Time passed me by so fast, hard to believe that I have been looking for a job for 3 weeks. In this week, I acted like people who were going to die. I laid down on the bed until half day has gone, repreated speaking the same word, Bored...Bored...Bored. I even thought what if I would not get a job within this year. I don't want to go slower than other friends. I was sitting in front of the internet whole day, did nothing worthwhile.Finally, the third week weaved his hand and left me with the unemployed status.
Here's my version of this:
Time passed so fast that it was hard to believe that I'd been looking for a job for three weeks. This was the week when I started to act like a condemmed person, lying on my bed all day repeating the same phrase; I'm bored, bored, bored. I began to imagine that I wouldn't get a job for a whole year. But I didn't want to lag behind my friends. I was sitting in front of the computer the whole day, doing nothing worthwhile. Finally the third week, waved goodbye, still leaving me unemployed.
I think it's a great idea to post some of the questions that you've received. In my company we are not allowed to ask hypothetical questions at interview. What do you think?
Tricia
Lexis and phrases from today;
to pull strings for someone
the haze
poor air quality
flashback effect
real time
vivid
strong images
a condemmed person
to lag behind someone
hypothetical questions posted on Friday, 06 October 2006 | comment on this postThe weekendWhat do you like to do on the weekend? I feel that I usually have ambitious plans before the weekend and find that as the weekend speeds on my plans become more realistic. Take today, the plan was to get up early, go for a walk, go the farmer's market, all before 9am. In reality, I did neither of those things as the weather was poor. I did go to the supermarket which seemed to be a massive task, so tiring and difficult that I needed a nap when I got back!
Serena commented on one of my earlier blogs about the difficulty of managing everything, particularly as a working mum with young children. I remember feeling like that especially when my children were younger and more dependent. Serena you could say that are struggling to juggle your responsibilitiesor to juggle competing demands. I guess that your weekend is very full too. Sometimes I think that my laziness now is a result of the tiredness of those years. Now I take all opportunities to relax and rest, quite seriously. Perhaps I'm overcompensating!
Chittisa how have your weekends changed since you started job hunting? Are they the same or different?
Hope you all have a great weekend!
Tricia
Lexis and patterns from the blog:
to juggle responsibilities/ to juggle competing demands
a nap
a massive task
Take today...
In reality..
to be dependent
to overcompensate
posted on Saturday, 07 October 2006 | comment on this postTo be a trainee or a trainer?Hi everyone
Back to work and an unusual day for me as I've been receiving training rather than giving training. I realise that I'm not a very good trainee to have in a class, as my attention span is limited and I easily get bored! As the training goes on, I find myself constantly thinking about what I would do as the trainer, how I would organise things differently. Maybe this is how a hairdresser feels when they get a haircut or a doctor when they have some treatment. What do you think?
The good thing is that the experience makes me reflect on my own work and how students probably feel in my classroom. This then gets me thinking of changes I could or should make to some of my own training. So the moral of this story is that I need to keep on learning and receiving training myself, something I theoretically know but don't always put into practice enough!
Thinking about your job search Chittisa, do you expect to receive training in your first job? Is this a topic that has been discussed in your interviews? What kind of training would you like?
Lexis and patterns from today's blog;
to receive training
to give training
my attention span is limited
to reflect on something
the moral of this story is...
theoretically
posted on Monday, 09 October 2006 | comment on this postFish and pondsHi
Great to hear from you again Chittisa and to read the next episode of your job hunt. Wow, you have really had to deal with some classic dilemmas. You described the choice that you had to make between the two job offers really well. You have a great sense of pace and a good use of images in your writing which I enjoyed. One way to describe your problem:
To be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond.
You seem to have chosen the latter. I think you hope to have more challenge in your job maybe as well as better pay and conditions. When describing your decision you say:
Anyway, I believe that whatever I choose, I would regret in the future. The only thing I should concern is to do my best in the present
Did you mean?
Anyway,I believe that whatever I choose, I might regret in the future. The important thing is to do my best in the present.
I also loved your ending:
For anyone who are looking for a job, I wish you are good luck and come to share your experiences here
I understand what you mean but you could try:
I wish anyone who is looking for a job, goodluck and hope that you'll share your experiences with us here
Chittisa you are such a lively writer that I wonder if you enjoy writing in Thai, and if you have ever published anything in Thai?
Tricia
Lexis and patterns from today:
to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond
a classic dilemma
a great sense of pace
to choose the latter
a lively writer posted on Wednesday, 11 October 2006 | comment on this postThe weather and my moodsHi
I've woken up this morning to a beautiful blue sky and bright sunshine, the first day without smog for over a week. I don't know if it's my British origins (we are obsessed by the weather probably as it changes so much in the UK) but I'm very sensitive to changes in the weather and my mood can easily be affected. On a day like today, I'm full of optimism and feel generally happier.
One of the reasons that I came to Malaysia all those years ago was that I wanted to live in a tropical country. I actually love this weather and although I occassionally miss seasons like Spring and Autumn (my favourite), I never miss winter, my most hated season. I'd rather feel hot than cold anyday!
It's actually very convenient to live in a tropical country, as we need only one type of clothing and an umbrella. I enjoy the freedom from boots, coats, raincoats, scarves, jumpers etc.
How do you feel about the weather? Does it affect your mood?
Chittisa, were you affected by the changeable weather in UK? How did you cope? /b>
Tricia
Lexis and patterns from today's blog;
the smog
to be obsessed by something
to be sensitive to changes in something
to be full of optimism
the freedom from something
changeable weather
How did you cope? posted on Thursday, 12 October 2006 | comment on this postAll in blackHi Everyone
Chittisa's description of British people dressed in black and walking in the rain was so true and so funny. I have to admit that I'm dressed in black today and looking around my office, quite a few of my colleagues are too! Personally I choose black often as I hope that it makes me look slimmer! A terrible thing to admit but true! However I don't wear black all the time and also like vivid colours like cerise ( a kind of bright pink) and bright blue. These look good in a strong, tropical light but look garish when I wear them in the UK.
Chittisa you are absolutely right to say that tropical rainstorms can be very destructive and frightening. KL floods easily after such a downpour and it can be very disruptive. Apart from floods the other danger is from lightning and also from trees and branches falling. But if you are in a safe place and not affected badly, such a storm can be really spectacular to watch. Unlike the UK where rain just goes on and on for days, tropical rain is over quickly.
Thanks for all your recent comments and support, I'm so pleased to read your feedback and I'm really excited when some of you are using language from blogs. It's great to see you trying things out. So here are some replies to your questions;
Diema mentioned that she had heard that there were 12 words for fog in English. It sounds like the often quoted, but possibly not true idea that the Innuit people have 24 words for snow in their language. I'm afraid that the only words that I can think of that are in current use are;
smog (made up from smoke and fog)
haze
mist
Mauricio asked about ways of ending messages that could bring you closer to the receiver of the message. I'm not sure if you mean salutations like this:
Best Wishes (OK for someone you don't know and in a fairly formal situation)
Kind Regards ( OK for someone you don't know and in a fairly informal situation)
Fondest regards (OK for someone you know but not intimately)
With love*
Thinking of you*
Lots of love*
Love and kisses*
* These are a bit intimate
Chittisa, finally why Peter for cockroaches? I'm going to start using it as I think it's great.
Tricia
Lexis and patterns from the blog;
It makes me look slimmer
vivid colours
cerise
to look garish
to be disruptive
can be really spectacular to watch
to be in current use
a salutation
intimate
posted on Friday, 13 October 2006 | comment on this postLooking after the penniesHi Chittisa
I was feeling a bit fed up yesterday and went on an unplanned shopping spree with Hannah my daughter. We went clothes shopping which I love and my mood lifted. However later I did feel guilty about the money I spent!
So you can see that I'm not very good at managing money and have been all my adult life. Don't know why I became like this but it certainly started from the time I was a student! I have a strong sense of living for today and want instant gratification, I'm certainly an example of someone who as Chittisa puts it, "buys before thinking" I can't plan for the future very well and that includes saving money! If I somehow end up with money left in my account at the end of the month, then I immediately think about spending it rather than saving it! So I'm in as much need of advice as Chittisa. Thankfully my husband is better at managing money than me but as you can imagine the topic of saving money is a sensitive one and it can easily lead to conflict in partnerships.
I admire your wisdom and maturity in trying to tackle this issue at the beginning of your working life Chittisa and feel guilty that at this age I'm still such a hopeless role model!
My topic today is part of a saying about money;
If you look after the pennies the pounds will take care of themselves
Do you have a similiar saying or proverb in your language?
Here are a couple of suggestions from your writing Chittisa:
I still memorize that I spent 2-3 hours in TESCO, just to get some yogurt and biscuits.
Try;
I still remember...
When I stayed there, I always realized that I had lived on mom's money
Try;
When I was living there, I was always conscious that I was living on my mother's money
I would sum up all prices I had to pay in my head.
Try;
I would add up all the prices in my head
Tricia
Lexis and patterns from today:
to feel a bit fed up
a shopping spree
my mood lifted
to be (not very good) at managing something
a strong sense of living for today
to want instant gratification
the topic of something is a sensitive one
to tackle an issue
to be a (hopeless) role model posted on Monday, 16 October 2006 | comment on this postJob satisfactionHi everyone
Chittisa your blog yesterday definately showed that you are enjoying your new job and the opportunities it's providing for your development. When talking about the task you were doing it was clear to me that you were engrossed in it. I'm also impressed that you are beginning to read and research around the new areas. You don't seemed to be too stressed about time either. You said;
I have done it by forgetting about time
Try;
I forgot all about time while doing it
I loved the following sentence;
Anyway, while I was taking a break to breathe and staying with myself for a while, I got a blip of wonder what I have been doing
Try;
Anyway while I was taking a bit of a breather on my own, I got a jolt of wonder at the thought of what I had been doing.
It's great when we find our work stimulating and feel that we are learning and developing. There is nothing worse than boredom at work, don't you think?
One of the reasons that I really enjoy my job is that it is dynamic and people- centred and that releases my creativity.
Chittisa, I'm curious about your description of Monday as a yellow day. I've never heard that before.
Many thanks for all your feedback and advice on managing money, wearing black etc. It's great to read your responses, so please keep them coming!
Some feedback to a couple of comments;
Massa, I did mean to use the word garish which is a negative word meaning unpleasantly bright. However your suggestion of girlish would also make sense in that context.
Pablo, I liked your Spanish saying about money and I understand what you mean. I can't think of a direct quivalent in English except that when things are uncertain, we do say;
It's a lottery
Tricia
Lexis and patterns from the blog:
to be engrossed in something
to find something stimulating
to be dynamic
to release creativity
to get a jolt of something
It's a lottery posted on Tuesday, 17 October 2006 | comment on this postSearching for cashHi
A sure sign that Malaysia is getting ready for major festivals is that this morning I had to go to five ATM machines on my way to work before I found one that had any money to dispense!
On Saturday 21st Hindus will be celebrating Deepavali and on the 24th, Muslims the end of the fasting month. This means that we have a number of public holidays in sequence and that a lot of the population will be on the move to visit family throughout the country.
Malaysia is rightly proud of its diversity and when major festivals line up together in this way there is a strong sense of the whole country celebrating. We all enjoy the opportunity to try different food and the specialities of the season and of course the opportunity to have time with our families.
Incidentally it's a great time to be in KL as the city is deserted and the roads just blissfully free of traffic jams.
I'll be telling you more how I'm celebrating in later blogs.
Tricia
Lexis and patterns from the blog;
A sure sign that something is going to happen
To dispense money
To be on the move
To be (rightly) proud of something
Diversity
The city is deserted
To be (blissfully) free of something posted on Wednesday, 18 October 2006 | comment on this postBody clocksHi
Chittisa it seems that you are really in the process of change both physically and mentally and it's freaking you out! Perhaps you're hungry because you are tired and your body needs more energy? I don't have any expertise in this area but I'm watching my kids growing up and am constantly amazed by this process of metamorphosis.
In the newspapers recently there have been articles about some research that shows the Circadian clock ( a kind of biological clock) in teenagers and young adults is set to a pattern of sleeping late at night and waking late in the morning. One article that I read explained that as we move into our twenties, this clock changes and slowly we adapt to sleeping earlier at night and waking earlier in the morning. So it seems Chittisa that you are right on track!
As to advice on how to cope with tiredness and sleepiness, well exercise is meant to help but I'm not really a good role model in this respect! I think you do need to make sure that your life is richer than as you say, just work, food and sleep.
Once again Chittisa I want to compliment you on the vitality of your writing! You immediately get your reader's attention! A suggestion from your last blog:
Where is a girl who sleep late, watch TV. over night? LoL I even thought I got insomnia disease in that time.Sleeping used to be my problem.But they are all the past, never happen again.
Where is the girl who slept late, and watched TV all night long? I even thought that I was suffering from insomnia as I couldn't sleep. But that's all in the past now, never to happen again!
Tricia
Lexis and patterns from today's blog:
to freak someone out
to have expertise in an area
a process of metamorphosis
The Circadian clock
to be set to a pattern of doing something
to be right on track
the vitality of something posted on Thursday, 19 October 2006 | comment on this postCookies and cookiesHi everyone
Today, I've been getting ready for our trip to my husband's family home about a 3 hour drive ffrom KL. Generally we have been collecting food, particularly cookies which we ordered a couple of month's ago. Our house is now full of jars of beautifully hand- made (by a cousin, not me) cookies. The cookies themselves are a mixture of traditional and contemporary recipes. Every year new and old recipes appear. We've got a lot as they are served to guests who come to the house during the festive season and a lot of people generally come to visit my parents in law as they are the most senior members of their family around. By senior I actually mean old!
I got out our traditional clothes this morning and packed these too. About the only time of the year that I actually wear traditional costume is around now and oh, sometimes to family weddings. Although I admire the costumes, I don't actually feel that comfortable wearing them. I feel as if I'm dressing up! My husband and children on the other hand look natural and wonderful in traditional outfits.
More about this later and possibly if I can manage it and I don't feel too silly, a picture!
Tricia
Lexis and patterns from the blog
beautifully hand-made something
a mixture of traditional and contemporary recipes
By something, I actually mean something
the costumes
to dress up posted on Saturday, 21 October 2006 | comment on this postSpring cleaningHi there
So this is it, we are about to set off to my parents in law's home about a 3.5 hour drive south of Kuala Lumpur. Given that we will only be away for a few days we seem to have created a lot of luggage- two cars full in fact! My husband is already moaning about the luggage but this is a normal part of our relationship. Mustapha always thinks we have too much luggage and I always think we haven't got enough. To be truthful I do have a yearning for what I call the Elizabeth Taylor school of luggage that is lots of bags and trunks like a film star!
Hard to explain what we are taking but food is a big part, but also presents for family members and a lot of cleaning products. This is because the first thing we are going to do as soon as we arrive is a mammoth spring cleaning of the family house. This will be an epic battle on grime and mess pitched by the whole family apart from the old and sick and the very young. We usually start this in the late afternoon as it's cooler and it's usually done by very late night. Actually it's quite fun as everyone pitches in and although the effort is intense, it's very satisfying. We are also supported by some excellent food, this year cooked by my sister in law.
You can tell that I have lived here so long, as I can actually describe the family rituals so well! What are your family rituals before festivals?
Tricia
Lexis and patterns from today's blog;
to have a yearning for something
Hard to explain but...
a mammoth spring clean
an epic battle on grime and mess
to pitch in
the family rituals posted on Monday, 23 October 2006 | comment on this postA compliment or not?Hi everyone
Back to earth and reality again after a break from the city. I shook hands with lots of relatives, stuffed myself with food and dressed myself up in finery. Now back to the laundry and cooking ordinary food. I'm taking a short break so no work just yet, thank goodness. The funniest thing that happened to me during my break was meeting an extended family member who remarked on my resemblance to King George. Now where did that come from? Maybe he's a stamp collector or maybe a history buff but king George? To be honest, I can't be insulted, as it's so funny!
However I was insulted when my niece remarked on my weight gain as soon as we met. Over the years I've tried to be patient when people have wanted to comment directly on my appearance, by saying to myself that it is just a different cultural attitude. However this time as my niece is still young I decided to be honest and told her that such direct comments in English were considered very rude. She seemed shocked by this and quickly apologised. Did I do the right thing?
Chittisa, I'm glad that you also enjoyed a public holiday and some family time. I know that you are struggling with the job committments and you have received some excellent advice from around the world. As I've said before I think you have a great spirit and a real sense of enquiry and openess that I'm sure will lead you through these new situations. You seem to be worried about losing this spirit as a result of your new experiences. I doubt it, Chittisa, don't worry so much!
Here are some suggestions from your blog;
Some of my friends said I put myself in busy too much.
Try
Some of my friends say I try to do too much
In this situation you could even use the idiom;
I bite off more than I can chew
I was wondering if that light would be gone in the future. I admit that sometime I was so tired and lost my conciousness for a while
Did you mean?
I was wondering if that light would diminish or even go out in the future? I admit that sometimes I am so tired that I lose my sense of self for a while.
Here we are all dressed up!
 Tricia
Lexis and phrases from today's blog;
Back to earth...
to stuff myself with food
to dress myself up in finery
an extended family member
resemblence to somebody
a history buff
to comment on someone's appearance
to bite off more than you can chew posted on Friday, 27 October 2006 | comment on this postA night awayHi there
I'm now getting ready to make a very quick trip to Hanoi on Monday. This is a business trip so I'll only be there for one night! This will be my second trip to Hanoi and I really enjoyed my first. I estimate that if I'm lucky with my flight, i.e if it leaves on time, I'll have a few hours to be a tourist. So this morning I've been surfing to get an idea of what I could do. I enjoy this kind of browsing but inevitably get side tracked, into organising fantasy holidays! My husband is alos making a business trip in about a week's time to New Zealand, so I have also been trying to find out about the place he's going to. New Zealand is definately high up on my list of dream destinations.
I want to take time to answer some questions raised by readers. Mauricio asked about the use of finery. It is only used to describe the whole outfit, dress, jewellery, accessories. I can't think of any other use. Yes, a train was derailed recently but luckily noone was inside it as it happened at the end of the track, where trains are serviced which is quite close to where I live.
A while ago Vive from china also asked about the difference between a salutation and a greeting. They have the same meaning but are used differently. Salutation is very formal and used mainly to describe the format of a letter (as in my blog). A greeting on the other hand is a neutral word and used in many siotuations.
Finally for today Ruth noticed that many of my blogs opened with the use of the present perfect simple e.g I've been/done. Ruth this is because my focus is on recent achievement, something that I've just completed. You will notice the same use in newspapers.
I'm out of teacher mode now but do want to say thank you for all your comments and to keep them coming please!
Tricia
Patterns and lexis from today
I estimate that if I'm lucky with something
to (inevitably) get sidetracked
to be high up on a list of something
A train was derailed
at the end of the track
a neutral word
to be out of (teacher) mode posted on Saturday, 28 October 2006 | comment on this postHello Alex, goodbye ChittisaHi there
I'm writing today from a hotel in Hanoi. Sadly on this very brief trip all I'll see is my office, which is next to the hotel, my room and the drive to and from the airport. That's business travel for you, not nearly as glamorous or exciting as it may seem!
I'm very pleased to meet you Alex and sad to say goodbye to Chittisa. Chittisa, please keep writing in English as I think you have a real flair for it and I wish you good luck with your career.
To Alex, your writing is very impressive, clear and accurate. I'm looking forward to finding out more about your life and culture. You started in a very Anglo-centric way by discussing the weather. I wonder if you do that in Russian too?
A couple of suggestions from your writing to consider;
we are all looking forward waiting for snow will lay down the ground and (should I put additional 'will' here?) make the environment white and clear
Try;
We are waiting for the snow to fall and settle on the ground which will make the environment white and clear.
Also Alex there is a word for wet snow which doesn't settle which is sleet,
meaning a kind of cross between snow and rain. When the snow becomes muddy and wet, we use the word slush as in;
the snow turned to slush as it got warmer.
I'm feeling very warm right now as the air conditioning doesn't seem very effective in this room, so it's very strange to be discussing snow! It brings back very vivid (that word again Alex) memories of freezing walks to and from school. I used to wear a coat and scarf and gloves but my knees were always cold as I only wore knee socks and a skirt as this was the school uniform
Tricia
Lexis and patterns from today's blog;
not nearly as (glamorous or exciting) as it may seem
to have a real flair for something
an Anglo-centric way
to settle on something
sleet
slush
to bring back vivid memories of something
posted on Tuesday, 31 October 2006 | comment on this post | |
