English Assignment 3 (again)
Max here.
No English assignment for today. Sorry, put away your pencils and notebooks.
Truth is that last week's assignment has proved so difficult that I want to take this week to continue teaching it to my student.
To recap, I put together a (fictional) story and asked people to give their opinions on it. The original story is:
* I didn’t have a good day today. I went to a party last night, and drank a lot. I stayed out until late. I woke up later than usual, and ran to work in my pajamas. I arrived at work late, and my boss told me off for being in my pajamas. I was so tired that I fell asleep at my desk, and didn’t write the report that I was supposed to.
Here are some of the answers. Each uses the past participle correctly:
1.) You shouldn’t have had so much to drink. You should have limited yourself.
2.) You should have gone to bed earlier.
3.) Since you woke up late and in a frazzle, you should have called in to let them know you weren’t coming or to tell them you were late.
4.) You should have prepared better for your report.
5.) You should have drank some coffee to wake yourself up.
You should have called your workplace and told them you were sick. You should also try not to make a habit of being hungover and going to work.
My student has been having problems with the pronounciation of "should have" and "shouldn't have". There are so many variations: "should've, should have, shoulda" and "shouldn't have, should not have, shouldn'a" and put that together with the complicated grammar... let's just say I think we need a little more time.
This is why I haven't put any new learning material up today.
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Finally, I'd like to say a little about this whole series. This is the fourth video in my efforts to teach English online. I have to say that my one student (Aika) is doing quite well. She doesn't make the same mistakes that she used to, which is basically why I started doing this in the first place.
Her English still isn't perfect, but now whenever she makes a grammatical error I make a note of it and think to myself "i should make a video of that to try and explain it."
In actual fact I never get a chance to show her the videos that I make, but make sure that she goes through everyone's answers. It's a little painstaking sometimes but it definitely helps.
My one disappointment is that not many learners seem to be responding. Any thoughts? I realise that my explanations are a little... long. Maybe I should be just getting into the material immediately without going through the long boring preamble. Anyway, I'm open to suggestions.
That's all for today!
September 3rd, 2008 - 17:19
The Starfish Story
adapted from The Star Thrower
by Loren Eiseley (1907 – 1977)
Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.
One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.
As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.
He came closer still and called out “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”
The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”
“I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” asked the somewhat startled wise man.
To this, the young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”
Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, “But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!”
At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, “It made a difference for that one.”