Daily English - May 17th

Today I got a very interesting class with a teacher who I do not know.... his.... name...
(sorry)
Anyway, I found interesting points in the class because he focuses on mistakes ESL students make a lot but we(ESL students) do not know those are not correct.
Moreover, he does not focuses on grammatical issues a lot but everyday used English.
Let's get started.

First, No English Native speakers use 'so so' as a reply to greeting such as 'How are you?'
I have been using that for a long time but I realized I have never heard that in any movie or American drama.
He said that it is never used.
So, we can use the others, such as 'Not that bad', 'Nothing big/major/interesting', 'Same as usual/always/ever' or 'Same old same old'.

Second, "I ENVY YOU."
The word 'envy' is a noun and a verb.
However, in the case it is used as a verb it needs a specific object which means that the sentence 'I envy you!' is not enough, that is what he said.
So, we rather use 'I envy your _________(big car).'
Or, 'I'm jealous of you.'. I wish I were you.' 'You're so lucky.' or even 'I hate you.'(while you laughing) hahahahaha.....

In the class, one of my classmates said that she has to got another room for June.
'I have to got another room for June.'
Have you found a problem here? It seems correct. Yes, it is grammatically correct.
The problem is that She is not finding a new room but place to live.
If I say 'I am looking for a room.', it sounds like I am looking for another room in the same house. So, we better say 'I am looking for a new place to live for June.'.

My mistake on this turn. (I make tons of mistakes but....)
'I move to another place and the floor of the apartment is wood.' that's what I said.
I felt slightly awkward when I said so..... and yes it was...
I should say 'My new place has got hardwood/laminate floors.'.
laminate is wood-like or fake wood plastic.
Anyway, that is the expression people use naturally and!!!!
floor is always pluralized.

I got a phone call in the class and I just hung up the phone.
My teacher said 'You're a good student.' 'Every time my students pick up their phone in the class, I feel they are so rude.' <- I am not sure what he exactly said. :)
I said, 'I know how you are feeling.' Again, he corrects me.....
'I know exactly how you feel.' not 'you are feeling.'
In this case, continuous tense is not appropriate, because the feeling is not lasting anymore.
For example, I had a dog and he died and my friends are crying since her dog died 10 minutes ago. In this situation, continuous tense is proper, because the feeling is still on my friend's heart right here, right now.
So, those are the differences between continuous and present simple, the status of the feeling you can share. If it was in one or several spot in the past or it is lasting now.

Last.....
Useful expression
'If I think of any questions, I will ask you.'
not 'If I have a question, I will ask you.'
Thank you!!!!
What a beautiful day it is here in Vancouver!!!!

Are you guys are jealous of me???

Daily English - May 16th

I was talking about pubs for hockey games in RCC.
I tried to say that the Cambie Pub which is a very dinsy but good-atmosphere having pub is the best place to watch a hockey game.

So, I said that
'Any pub can be compete with the Cambie Pub.'

Teacher Sahwa corrected to
'Nothing can compare to the Cambie Pub.'

What is wrong with the first sentence what I said?
I actually do not know exactly. The sentence is grammatically correct and makes sense to me. But.... it must be a Korean sense.

Next,

This is important.
One student in my class made a mistake using the 'conjunction' WHEN and AFTER.
First, what are conjunctions?
Conjunctions are functional words link 1) words and words
                                                        2) sentences which are not complete
                                                        3) complete sentences

The first mistake what she made is that
'I will buy a running pair of shoes when I will get my paycheck.'
When is used as a conjunction in this sentence and it functions to define the meaning of 'time' or 'condition'.
On this case; when is used as a conjunction, the tense in the 'when phrase' should be a 'present tense', because as itself 'when' means the time the subject did or will do something.
The phrase having a conditional conjunction should use the same tense as the 'timing conjunction(?)'.
For example, the correct form of my class mate's mistake was
'I will buy a pair of running shoes when I get my paycheck.'
Other conjunctions like AS, BEFORE, AFTER as timing conjunctions and IF, UNLESS as conditional conjunctions should be used the same way as the example up there.

However, there is a tricky 'correct' sentence.
'I will do my homework after showering.'
The sentence is also correct.
Why???? Conjunction should link two same formats of group words....(clauses or phrases)
The trick is that those two phrases are in the same level which means that even the AFTER phrase looks like a clause, it is basically a phrase.
The answer will be shown tomorrow's posting.
please reply me the reason.
I will be waiting for your reply......
hahahaha see you tomorrow!

Introduction

Really sick and tired to be a lazy man.

Starting today, I am going to upload, at least, one simple posting every weekday.

Let's get started.

I go an institution called 'Robson Conversation School'.

It is just a small private English learning center which has few part-time ESL learners.

Despite of the stereotype of those kinds of institutions, I like the way they teach student.

Literally, I like the way they feedback to students. 

Teachers give feedback when students make mistakes or after finishing the class.

Not only they comment about students' mistakes but also they write on a report and copy it for students.

This is today's report card from RCC.

This report card or the classes will be the basis of my posting in this folder.

Goooooood to be back!!

I was kind of desperate for a while since of many things going around me.
I was going to post something but it has been a hard time for me.
Now, I am willing to do it again with the freshness.
My goal is posting at least twice a week.
Please look after me.



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Agreement between subject and verb

One of the basic rule but many ESL students make mistakes is agreement between subject and verb. All students know that a singular third person subject should be followed by a singular verb.
Now, what is the singular subject? As you know, it is just one person or object, like she, he, a bed or my uncle. The concept is pretty simple and easy to understand.
The point that I want to determine in this posting is that which subject can be singular or plural?
I sometimes confuse what verb type should I use for the subject ‘Some of’ or ‘Every’. I will explain about that.

Clause as the subject in a sentence

The first thing you have to remember is whether the subject you are talking about can be defined as a singular or not. For example, most clauses are considered as a singular.
Ex1) To learn snowboarding by oneself is difficult.
Ex2) Reading books about physics makes me sleepy.
In the case of Ex 1), not many people make a mistake, because even though you do not detect the subject of the sentence which is the whole RED clause, snowboarding can be understood as a singular. In contrast, it can be slightly confusing in the case of Ex2), since non-English native learners could be confused by ‘bookS’. However, if you look at the sentence little more carefully, you can realize that the verb ‘make’ should have ‘s’ because the subject is a clause.

Sorry to say that but it also has an EXCEPTION.
If we sue a what-clause as subject, we use a singular verb if the following main noun is singular, and either a singular or a plural verb if the following main noun is plural. (although the plural verb, in this case, is , usually, used in formal situations)
Moreover, subjects which can represent the group of people, such as family, can use either a singular or a plural formed verb. Those nouns are called ‘collective nouns’. The examples of ‘collective nouns’ are army, association, audience, class, club, college, committee, community, company, crew, crowd, department, electorate, enemy, family, generation, government, group, jury, opposition, orchestra, population, press, public, school, team, university, and the names of specific organizations such as the bank of Korea, the KBS, Samsung, the United Nations. (I cited those ‘collective nouns’ from Advanced Grammar in Use, Martin Hewings, Cambridge). However, if the sentence tells about the behavior of members of the group, the verb has to be the plural form.
Ex) The audience have voted to whom their favorite performer. (not the audience has voted….) In the similar idea, the subject that shows the group of people must use a singular verb in some cases.
Ex) Orchestra has a concert tomorrow at the Sydney Opera house. (the ‘orchestra’ represents not as the individuals in the orchestra but as a musical instrument performance team)

Agreement between subject and verb 2

Can you guess why I insert the picture? The picture is what I took from a skytrain station yesterday. I was looking for a good example to explain about ‘agreement between subject and verb’. And…… it came to me.
Anyway, look at the copy on the advertisement. ‘Every mood has a colour.’
What? Every mood? Not every moods?? ‘Every something’ sounds like a plural. But let us think how we usually use the ‘Every’. ‘Everybody, Everyone, Every time, Everything….. body, one, time and thing are singular. That is why ‘Every mood’ can be a correct form. If you confusing when you use those kinds of words, you better remind how have you been using those words in common.
Then, I will explain how those kinds of words are used using a table.

※ Subjects joined by ‘and’ but could be considered as a single item can use singular formed verb.
Ex) A Big Mac, a large fries and a medium coke is $6.95.
 A big Mac, a large fries and a medium coke are making up a single item(Combo).

※ When a subject is made up of two or more items joined by [(either) ~ or ~] or
[(neither) ~ nor ~], the usage of a verb in those sentence depends on the last item.

; if the last item is singular, verb must be a singular formed.
Ex) Titanic or The avatar is James Cameron’s masterpiece.

; if the last item is plural, a plural verb must be used.
Ex) Either a hamburger or many kinds of fast foods cause the young-age obesity.

; if the last item is singular and previous item is plural, we can use a singular or plural verb.
Ex) Neither many scientists nor the super computer has(have) expected this disaster.

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Thanks god???

 had not realized that ESL(English as a Second Language) learners usually misuse the expression 'thank god' before I am lectured by a teacher in Canada.

The right expression which we used to say 'Thanks god!' is 'Thank god!!!!!!'

Let us do not let people know that we are English Learners saying 'Thanks god' or 'Thank you god'

[출처] Thanks god???|작성자 Jung Min

New Version of jungmin's station

I opened a new blog for Korean learners who have difficulty understanding my posts.
I am planning to make Korean and Chinese translated versions.
Please visit my another blog and keep visiting this blog, too.
The only difference between the new one and this is whether or not there are Korean translated postings.
Thank you for visiting and reading this immature postings.
I am doing and also will do my best improving the quality of every single posting.

you can visit the new version if you click the title of this posting.