5 very powerful words you should know about

By Ranjana S.

Let's discuss these words at length:

1. Dilettante
2. Martinet
3. Sycophant
4. Virago
5. Iconoclast

I implore all of you to quote as many sentences you may like.....:)

You have your coffers filled with money. You lead a luxurious life but dabble in an activity that satiates your creative urge. You aren't an amateur but, at the same time you haven't accomplished mastery at the art. Often, though not necessarily, a person of independent income engage in superficially in the pursuit of one of the fine arts- writing, painting, sculpting, composing etc. You do this largely for your amusement and not to achieve any professional competency; nor do you expect monetary gains. Your artistic efforts are simply a means of passing time.

• You are a dilettante.

You want others to toe the line. You exact from others blind conformity to the rules laid down by you.The slightest deviation from your orders is never condoned by you, propelling you to castigate the rebellers.

• You are a martinet.

You will ingratiate to the people in power, catering to their vanity and fanning their ego. You will be servile and ready to lick their boots to climb the rungs of success. You don't mind your self respect going for a toss. You toady to the rich and influential people so that your ulterior motive of growth, without any efforts, can see the light of the day; not shying away from currying favors.

• You are a sycophant.

You are a loud mouthed, shrewish, dangerous and turbulent woman. You hurl abuses at the drop of the hat. You can shout like a stevedore and yell like a fishwife which you normally do. You do not possess those gentle and tender qualities stereotypically associated with feminity. You are strong-minded, aggressive and unyielding.

• You are a virago.

You are dead against established beliefs, revered traditions, much acclaimed customs-such, you feel, are a road block for any reformation and progress. You believe they are based on superstitions and irritationality. You don't confirm to religion, family, marriage, ethics. You gasp with desperation at unthinking people who eulogize such beliefs.

• You are an iconoclast.

Can you tell me what Hypallage or Transferred Epithet means?....Let's discuss

By Ranjana S.
 

 

In this figure of speech an epithet or qualifying adjective is sometimes transferred from a person to a thing or from one word to another, to which it does not strictly belong. When we say: restless night- The night wasn't restless , but the person was awake through it was.

Happy morning- Morning have no feelings, but the people who are awake through them do.

When we say: we spent a happy day we do not mean that the day was happy, but we were happy. We have used an adjective for day which really referred to us. This is called a transferred epithet.

Other examples are:-

1. It is a sad world.
2. The faithful minister was placed in the condemned cell.
3. We had a pleasant time at the river.
4. "The ploughman homeward plods his weary way."
5. He received a mortal wound.

 

 

Which are the emphatic pronouns? & How do we use 'each other’?

By Ranjana S.

Emphatic pronouns:

Liza and Rogers are decorating their Christmas tree themselves.

An emphatic pronoun is a word like 'myself', 'yourself'.

Here the emphatic pronoun means 'without any help'.

• Liza and Rogers are decorating their Christmas tree without help from anyone else.

• Look at the following examples:

• The manager himself welcomed us to the hotel.( The manager welcomed us, not someone else.)

•  Although she is very rich, the Queen herself never carries any money.

• The house itself is small, but the garden is enormous.

• Of course the children have been to the zoo. You yourself took them there last year.

Here the emphatic pronoun comes after the noun or pronoun it relates to.

 

Each other:

Look at this example:

Anne and Jason help each other with their homework.

This means Jason helps Anne, and Anne helps Jason.

Maria and Pedro aren't really friends. They don't like each other much.

I'm still in touch with Jessica. We write to each other.

One another has the same meaning:

We send each other /one another New Year cards every year.

We can also use the possessive form each other's.

Tim and Frida wrote each other's phone numbers.

This means Tim wrote down Frida's number, and Frida wrote Tim's number.

When do we use yet, still and already?

Let's discuss...

Yet means that we are expecting something.( It's the time to book our holidays.)

Still means 'going on longer than expected'.(It's late to be thinking about a holiday.)

Already means 'sooner than expected'. (It's early to have had a holiday.)

Yet

• Yet usually goes at the end of a negative statement or a question.

• Boris has got a present, but she hasn't opened it yet.

• Wait for a minute. I'm not ready yet.

• Have they sent you your cheque yet?

• No, not yet. I should get it next week.

Still and Already

• In a positive statement, still and already usually go in mid position.

• Anna isn't home yet. She's still at work.

• We wrote to the organization a month ago, and we're still waiting for a reply.

• I've only been writing for an hour, and my hand is  already tired.

• There's no need to inform him. He already knows.

• We can also use 'still' in negative statement. It goes before haven't, can't, etc.

• It's nearly lunch time, and you still haven't opened your mail.

• The boy is twenty, and he still can't swim.

Compare these sentences. The meanings are similar.

• Priti hasn't booked a holiday yet.

• Priti still hasn't booked a holiday.

• Still is stronger than yet. It often expresses surprise that the situation has gone for so long.

• In a question still and already usually go after the subject.

• Are you still waiting after all this time?

• Has Betty already been on holiday?

  

Can you tell me what do we mean by Metonymy and Synecdoche?.....I'm waiting...:)

By Ranjana S.

Metonymy:

The word "Metonymy" means "substitution of name." The figure consists in substituting the name of one of the attributes of a thing for the name of thing itself.

Thus we may use:

Throne for monarch or monarchy; the bench for the judge; the pen for writing; the sword for the soldier; the press for newspapers, etc.

• The crown has lost much of its ancient power.
• You are a oar.
• The pen is mightier than the sword.
• Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice.
• The kettle( the water in it)is boiling.
• Please address the chair(chairman).
• He has read Milton( the works of Milton).

Synecdoche:

This figure is very like metonymy. It's name means "the understanding of one thing by another." It usually consists in changing one noun for another of similar meaning.

• Every wrestler is not a Rustum ( greatest wrestler).
• All hands to the pumps (crew).
• A young man of twenty summers(years).
• A fleet of forty sails(ships).
• "There is a mixture of the tiger and the ape in the character of a Frenchman."- Voltaire.
• He is a poor creature( man).
• The father(I.e, fatherly affection) yearns in the true prince's breast.
• He is the Newton(the greatest scientist) of the time.

Fluency Using "Shadow Practice"& “Timed Pair Practice"

We learned how to improve our pronunciation, how to increase our vocabulary.

Now it's time to work on speaking more fluently. There are two techniques I use with my students. One is called "shadow practice", the other is "timed pair practice".

Technique Number One: Fluency Using "Shadow Practice"

However, be sure to NOT use your voice. You should be listening the whole time, so that you can hear exactly how words and sentences are being said. While you are training your ear, you are also training your muscles! It's important, especially at first, to NOT worry about the meaning of what you hear. At first, you should concentrate on moving your mouth as quickly and as smoothly as a native speaker. You should FEEL the rhythm of the language, FEEL the movements flowing naturally. Remember, the word "fluent" comes from the word "flow". You want English to FLOW from your mouth.

The main goal of this technique is to make the muscles of your mouth and face move faster. What you do is listen to any English you can, preferably fast and spoken by a native speaker. You can watch TV, listen to a song, use a DVD, VCD or cassette, whatever you have available. As you listen to somebody speaking English, you move your mouth, lips and tongue as if you were speaking. You become, in a sense, the speakers "shadow", following his or her speech pattern, rhythm, and intonation.

Now, it's important to be patient with this technique. You will not improve in just a day or two. You need to do it at least a few times a week. Your improvement, for the most part will be "subconscious", which means that you won't be aware of how much you are learning, but in a short time, the change will be dramatic! Please trust me when I tell you that this is one of the best techniques you could ever use.

  

Technique Number Two: Speak English Fluently with "Timed Pair Practice"

I use this second technique almost every week with my students. As they practice together with their classmates, I can watch them speaking faster and faster, gaining more and more confidence.

Here is a simple example of how to help each other speak faster.

Ask the following ten questions to your friend. He or she must answer with a full sentence. For example, if you ask, "Are you Chinese?” your friend should say "Yes, I am", not only "Yes". Don't let your friend see the questions as you read them. He or she should be listening to English, which means you must practice speaking clearly! 

Use your watch to see how long it takes to answer all ten. It should take less than three minutes to ask and answer all ten questions. Ready? GO!

This technique requires the help of a friend.

1) Do you like to eat pizza?
2) Can you play a musical instrument? 
3) Will you eat dinner in a restaurant this evening? 
4) Have you ever been to Himalayas? 
5) Are you interested in tennis? 
6) What foods do you like to eat most? 
7) Where would you like to visit in China? 
8) Who is your favorite singer? 
9) When is your birthday? 
10) What kind of music do you like?

After you finish, your partner can ask you the same questions, however, he or she should change the order. 

When you've mastered these ten questions, you can move on to more complex questions. You can get questions from any textbook, or you can make up your own questions based on a reading text. With more difficult questions, you will need more time, so be patient with yourself. Don't worry if you take more than a minute or two. The main thing is to improve your time as you practice. 

Happy learning!!

Reference: Teacher Joe

To miss or not to miss…

Teaching India’s multilingual children

Teacher: ‘So what do you do in your free time?’

Student: ‘I like listening music!’

If you live in India then you would have heard this response quite often. Said with confidence and panache and without batting an eyelid.

And why not? Agreed that there’s a little ‘to’ missing in the response. So what? You know what the speaker means. You also figured out that English is not the speaker’s mother tongue. But then there is this case of the missing ‘to’ and whatever the rationale, it is after all a grammatically incorrect sentence. But how important is this missing ‘to’? Will it, for example, hamper the speaker’s ability to perform on a job? Should it make them feel inadequate or lesser than any fluent English speaker?

India’s multi-ethnicity is a talent for the tourism industry but a drawback if you are an English teacher facing a class of students hailing from diverse parts of the country. With 22 national languages and over 1600 unofficial mother tongues the only thing that unites Indian students in a language class is their desire to become “fully fluent in English”. Given that English is the second official language after Hindi and is used and preferred in all official forms of communication, this desire is understandable. A good command over English is also seen as a ticket to a better job, elevated social standing and a general feeling of being a cut above the rest.

But it poses unthinkable hurdles for the language teacher. Each student comes with their own set of mother tongue grammar rules and a silent translator in the head. For example, a person whose mother tongue is Hindi generally likes to end his sentences with ‘is there’. Like ‘A cycle is there’ or ‘Too much pollution is there’. This word order is common in Hindi where most sentences end with ‘hai’ and the speaker tends to directly transpose this into English. Try explaining the use of articles to someone who translates ‘train aa rahi hai’ into ‘train is coming’ that you have to put a ‘The’ before train!

In addition, a majority of Indian languages have sounds very different from English that make it very difficult for a native speaker (of the local language) to adapt and copy the sounds of the English language. For instance, a Bengali will find it very hard to say /v/, /w/ and the vowel sound /Ʌ/ (as in cup) because these don’t exist in his tongue. Therefore, missing and modified sounds in Indian English is as common as missing prepositions and articles.

While it is the right thing to strive for perfect grammar in our students I believe the approach should be more practical than pedagogical.

First and foremost we need to set the expectations right. I believe students need to accept that English is a foreign language and we don’t really need to achieve a hundred percent accuracy in it. However, this can be challenging given the competitiveness of our culture.

The goal should be choosing ‘effectiveness’ over accuracy. So long as you are able to communicate effectively and make the listener understand what you say, you are in business. For example in the US, it is acceptable for blacks, Hispanics and Asians to talk in their own dialect while conversing with people of different cultures. The listener accepts any errors and concentrates on the gist of the meaning rather than the missing words or sounds.

Furthermore, it is important to learn chunks of language useful in a situation rather than get into the nitty gritty of grammar. In teaching jargon these are called ‘useful or process language’ and they build the bank of words that a speaker needs for different situations and contexts. So while the student enhances his vocabulary, the teacher is able to concentrate on the flow of communication rather than chase the missing parts of speech. Of course, the missing parts should not hamper communication. Then, you are in the right track.

If we ignore the case of the missing ‘to’s long enough, they might be forgotten one day. Who knows? Meanwhile, do you like listening music?

Thanks to  Kalpita Sarkar, Teacher of English & Children’s Fiction Writer, for sharing her views ...

Can you come up with Idioms derived from the Names of Articles of Dress?

By Ranjana S.

Boots:
Have one's heart in one's boots (be very gloomy and depressed):

• She has her heart in her boots after she separated from her beloved.

Get too big for one's boots (become very self-important or conceited):

• After being promoted to the prestigious position, she is getting too big for her boots.

Socks:
Pull one's socks up (make an effort to improve one's performance):

• I would suggest you to pull your socks up; otherwise it would be difficult for you to pass the examination.

Cap:
A feather in one's cap: (something one can be proud of):

• By winning the championship she added a feather in her cap.

Coat:
Cut one's coat according to one's cloth :( spend money within the limits of what one can afford):

• He wanted to buy a bigger house than this one, but he had to cut his coat according to his cloth.

Collar:
Hot under the collar (angry, embarrassed) :

• I know you were getting hot under the collar as they were criticizing your article.

Hat:
Take one's hat off to someone (acknowledge admiration for someone for doing something):

• I take my hat off to that lady for bringing up four children single handed after her husband's sudden death.

Keep something under one's hat (keep something secret):

• I think they are keeping something under their hats nowadays.

Shirt:
Keep one's shirt on (not lose one's temper)

• Keep your shirt on!! They were just joking.

Shoe:
Shake in one's shoes :( be very frightened)

• Mr.Jones was shaking in his shoes as three robbers all of a sudden surrounded him.

Skirt:
Skirt round something (avoid referring to or treating a topic or issue directly):

• Jenny skirted round the problem of selling his house without directly asking our suggestions and help.

Sleeve:
Roll up one's sleeves (prepare to work or fight):

• He has now rolled up his sleeves to start this difficult work of cleaning the big tank.

Have something up one's sleeve (have some secret for use when needed)

• Do you have any idea up your sleeve if we don't get money in time to start our project?