Weekend and drawing pictures

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I went to Jason’s hometown to watch my friend’s band play some music. It was lots of fun.

 We started off the class talking with a partner about the weekend. There were some interesting stories. I thought Changbo had an interesting story about getting ripped off on the price of his hotel room because there was a reunion.

There was also lots of talk about movies. I think many people (especially Anni and Rose) are excited for Spiderman 3. I saw the preview (when I was watching The Reaping) and I think it looks like it could be exciting.  I am sure that it will be better than Spiderman 2. Some useful sentences that came up when talking about this were:

When will it be released?
When will they release it?

I haven’t decided yet (who I will watch the movie with).

After chatting about movies and the weekend  little longer we started to work on the job of the day. That was to explain pictures to our partners.

Words that we talked about before starting the task were:

circle, square, rectangle, triangle, (straight) line, wavy line, top, bottom, right, left, corner.

The job was to describe a simple picture to our partner. I was very impressed. I am sure that many people drew better pictures than I would have, even though English is my first language. Actually, the thing that I was most impressed with was the picture that Lina drew from her imagination. It was a rocket, and it only used simple shapes. Fantastic!

We also talked about some common errors in class. The first was:

today morning>>> this morning

The second was:

today night >>> tonight

The third mistake was about giving directions. Many people started their directions with the word “you.” Much more common would be to start directions without this word.

So:

You draw a triangle. >>> Draw a triangle.

You open the window. >>> Open the window.

You put a square above the circle. >>> Put a square above the circle.

(one more command) Have a nice night!

My ideal house has a chicken room

What is a chicken room? I guess we mean a kitchen room. Actually, we don’t need to say kitchen room, but just kitchen.

In Thursday’s class we talked about our actual rooms and our ideal rooms. We talked about our real rooms and drew pictures of our classmate’s rooms. I was impressed at all the good drawings that I saw, very nice work.

There were not so many errors from this class, I was a little surprised at how well everyone communicated the mental picture of their rooms to their partner.

Some useful sentences:

There is a bookshelf next to the desk.
Next to the bed is a desk.

I prefer curtains to blinds.
I like curtains more than I like blinds. 

Some words that came up in the class were:

mosquito net A mosquito net is necessary in Thailand.

coat hanger  I keep my jacket on the coat hanger in the corne.
closet   I keep almost all my clothes in my closet.

In class I heard, “I’m boring.” This is possible. This means that when people talk to me they feel bored. I think this is a very strange sentence. More likely is “I am bored” or “It’s boring (to me).”

Another phrase that I sometimes hear is, “I’m think.”  We should say, “I think.”

I think that everyone did a great job this week. Again, I think some people are feeling like they are not improving, but I can see very clearly that you are improving. Great job!

Design a building for language learning

So, today we took yesterday’s topic of designing a classroom and took it further, this time designing a whole building. There were many great ideas.

One group said the building should be modeled after the English Villages that have been popping up all over Korea lately. I thought this was an interesting idea. I also like Charles’s group (of course) idea to have a HOF pub at the top of the building. Some groups choose a library and one group had a massage center. Sounds like a nice plan!

We also discussed the question, “Do you think laptops in class are a good idea?” I was quite surprised at the answer. Only four people said yes. I got the feeling that almost everyone would think that laptops in class were a a good idea. I guess some people agreed with me that they could be a distraction.

As usual there were a few new words that came up during the class. They were:

sound proof Anni thought sound proof rooms would be useful for loud singing.

basement Some people suggested a seminar room in the basement.

convenience store 7-11 is my favorite convenience store.

tank top (click here, Rooney) He always wears a tank top to work out at the gym.

In the next class we will design an English program.

Design a classroom

We started today’s class talking for a few minutes about the weekend or whatever came to mind. One common topic in these times is dating. Someone, (its a secret who) had 소개팅 this weekend. My translation of this is a blind date:

to have/to go on a blind date–I had a blind date this weekend.

After chatting for a while we started on the topic for the day. Today’s goal was to design the ideal classroom. There were quite a few interesting ideas. One idea was to have a room for resting (not a restroom (bathroom) where people could take naps. One idea that I think is a good and easy one is a bookcase. I especially like Chang-Bo’s idea to allow sunlight to shine in. I think that would make class a better place to be.

One correction that I talked about was the phrase, “I’m expecting ______.” I think a much better way is to say, “I’m looking forward to ____.” I feel like the English-Korean dictionary tells us to use expect in this case, but it sounds strange.

After class Lisa asked me about using “have + PP” in daily life. The examples that I gave her were:

I have seen Spiderman 3.
I have been to China.
I have eaten dog soup.

All these examples are about life experiences.

These examples are different than using simple past.

I saw Spiderman 3 last night.
I went to China in 2003.
I ate dog soup yesterday.

I hope this helps. If want more examples or need more help, please let me know.

Week ending April 20th

Hello guys,

How are you? I hope that you are enjoying this rainy Friday. I also hope that you do not drink to much makoli tonight.  Be careful. I know it is a rainy day..hehehe.

This week we shared childhood stories and any other stories from our lives.

My childhood story was about how my little brother picked on me and I ran away from home.

Rooney’s story involved something about a group blind date (Konglish–meeting).
Royal’s story involved some injury and rubbing tiger balm on his injury.
Someone’s story involved someone that they loved. The speaker loved to a girl.

Wednesday was the picnic. I had a nice day.  I hope everyone did as well. I enjoyed chatting with you guys as well as seeing your painting. Nice job!

On Thursday we talked about storied from our lives and I told how I met Steven King in America. It was hard for to catch everyone’s story but they seemed to be pretty interesting. I was sorry for one person who said that he never had anything interesting happen to him in his whole life!

Have a great weekend and I will see you on Monday!

Mike

MT

Before I start talking/writing about today’s class I want to say that everyone did a great, great job on the test on Friday. I was very impressed. You did a great job. I know that sometimes it is heard to feel improvement, but I am sure that that performance would not have been possible 10 weeks ago. I was very proud of everyone and I think that you did a great job.

I got the feeling that everyone felt relieved after the end of the test and was ready to have some fun. I hope that the loooong test did not tire you out.

Today’s topic was the MT trip that many members took. If my memory is correct Lisa, So-Eun, Kate, and Jessica did not go on the trip. It was their job to find out as much information as possible. I expected that this would be a contest, but it was very hard to hear who learned the most information. I guess it was a tie.

Some of the questions that were asked were:

How was the trip?
What did you do?/What did you do at night?
What stories did you hear at the candle ceremony?
How was the candle ceremony?
Did you cry?    Why did you cry?
Could you tell me about the games (you played)?/What games did you play?
Did you have fun when you played ____? 
When did you go to bed?
What did you eat (there)?
Why did Rooney wear his pants high?/Why did Rooney pull up his pants to his stomach?
How many pictures did you take?
How much soju did you drink?/How many bottles of soju did you drink?
How much beer did you drink?/ How many bottles of beer did you drink?/
(Countable nouns coming soon in Top Notch!)
How many people threw-up?
How many people were hung hungover?  (related to the soju question!)
What did Royal do while he was sleeping?
What transportation did you use?/How did you get there?
How did you feel about the condominium? 
Did you see the cherry blossoms? /Did you have time for the cherry-blossoms? 
Was ____ delicious?
When did you arrive/leave? 

These were all very good questions. It certainly sounded like everyone had a very good time…even those who threw up.  (Remember: throw-threw-thrown).

Another important thing to remember when talking about drinking is that a hangover is just the next day.  Also, remember that drunken is an unusual word that is not used so much, while drunk is a very common word. They are (in this case) both adjectives but drunk is much more common. My advice is to only use drunken to modify a noun; drunken behavior, drunken sailor, drunken antics, but not I was drunken last night. 

When the girls who did not join the MT were sharing what they heard, Lisa asked, “What did you hear?” This is a very useful question. The answer to this is would be, “I heard _____.” (the sound of heard is the same as herd).

I think two of the most interesting things I heard (other than Rooney’s pants) where about Royal’s snoring and Rose’s second wind.

It sounds like people had a fun time. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Finishing Western Stories and EXAM TALK!

Hello everyone,

I guess that you are quite busy studying for your exams. I hope things are going well and that you get enough sleep.

To start today’s class we split into groups and took turn explaining the Western stories that we had talked about yesterday. All the groups seemed to do well with this. I felt sorry that Nana did not have enough time to talk about her story (I thought your group was finished).  While explaining the stories quite a lot of new/difficult words came out.  Some of these were:

pervert (n.)/perverted (adj.)  His strange tastes made everyone think he was a pervert.

naked   The emperor was naked but everyone was afraid to tell him.

disguise  The spy always wore a different disguise.

witch  In the Wizard of Oz there were good witches and bad witches.

cruel  The evil witch was very cruel because she did not care about people at all.

straw   The first pig’s house was made of straw.

fireplace  We had a nice fire in the fireplace.

chimney Santa Claus comes down the chimney.

We also talked about the differences between hear, listen and understand. Remember, I can hear Chinese perfectly (because my ears are good).

In the second half of class we talked about midterm exams.

Some interesting questions came up in these conversations:

Did you study for the exams?
Did you study for the ____ exam?
Did you study for Mike/Ruth/Matt’s (etc.) exam?

How did you prepare for the midterms?

Which subject are you most worried about?
Which  subject are you worrying about the most?

Did you very hard study?
Did you study very hard?

After talking about midterm exams in general we talked about the exam for this class. I gave each group a chance to ask me three “hint” questions. I think that maybe the groups did not know that they were allowed to share the information or did not plan ahead very well. There were, however, some good questions.

Many people were very curious  if the exam would include the FTA between America and Korea. The answer was no.

The correct way to ask this question would be:

Is it include FTA?
Does/Will it include the FTA?
(don’t worry the answer is still no)

I was also asked if the exam would include a survey.
The answer is no.

Someone asked if there will be a topic about suriving on a desert island.
The answer is no.

Some people asked if travel, daily life (What did you do last night/this weekend/yesterday?) and storytelling would appear on the test. The answer is yes.
Please be ready for these three topics.

I hope that you do not worry tooooo much about this test. If you check this blog and think about the topics that we have discussed you will be fine! Just think of it as a usual class but you will get a grade. It is really nothing to worry about.

Take care and see you soon!

Good luck with your other exams!

PS-Of course if you have any questions before the test, ask me.

Western Stories

Today we talked about famous Western stories. We did not limit ourselves to just folk tales or fairy tales so the list was quite long. The stories that we thought of were:

Little Red Riding Hood
The Emperor’s New Clothes
Snow White (and the Seven Dwarfs)
The Three Little Pigs
Pinocchio
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Rapunzel (David knew this story better than I did)
Gulliver’s Travels
Hansel and Gretel
Jack and the Beanstalk
Mickey Mouse (I think everyone knows about this one)
Beauty and the Beast
Alice in Wonderland
The Wizard of Oz
Swan Lake (now i know the story, Anni)
The Nutcracker
The Ugly Duckling
The Lion King (just a movie)
Winnie the Pooh (what is the story here?)
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
Aladdin (not just a movie but also an old story)
Shrek
Finding Nemo
Garfield

I am looking forward to hearing the first four stories tomorrow. I hope that the two groups that finished very quickly will be able to tell the story perfectly.

I also hope that everyone remembers that if we are telling an old story, each verb needs to be in the past tense. He is greedy >>> He was greedy.

We also focused on some pronunciation issues.

The words we practiced were woods, wolf, rich and stomach.
Don’t worry, Kim Woori, these words should not be hard to pronounce.

Hongbu and Nolbu

Today was an interesting class. Everyone told the story of HUNGBU AND NOLBU. I thought it was funny that there were many different variations of this story told in class. I think that Lina and I had the same version but many other people had different variations.

Some words that came up during the telling of this story today were:

greed  Nolbu was very greedy. He wanted money and wealth and did not want to share.
envied  (past of envy) Nolbu envied Hongbu’s good luck and wanted to try the same thing.

swallow  The swallow gave Hongbu some seeds to pay him pack for his kindness.
gourd  The seeds grew into three big gourds. Hongbu/Nolbu chopped open the gourds.

Again, very good job. Again, the 50 minutes flew by. I did not expect that it would go so quickly. There were some errors/issues in pronunciation. We will talk about the pronunciation problems tomorrow.  For the errors, there was nothing that really stood out as a common error from today’s class, so let’s not worry about errors today.

Please remember that we have the midterm examination this week.

Story Telling (+Happy birthday Rooney)

The last two days of class we talked about the youtube clip, birthdays and 2 traditional Korean stories. We used the youtube clip with “We are sinking/What are you thinking about?” to start a mini-project of creating a CF commercial for learning English based on possible mistakes. I thought each group did a very good job. I think they should be real commercials.

In Wednesday’s second hour we talked about tigers and some famous Korean stories that have tigers in them. I did some research on my favorite website and found some information about some Korean stories. I guessed that this would be very interesting for Rose because her major is folklore, but she said that she never studied these kinds of stories. We heard 3.4 stories that involved tigers. It seemed to be a fun time for everyone and maybe I learned more than anyone.

On Thursday, we continued practicing story telling. Today’s story was Chunhyang’s story. We practiced telling the story a few times adding words and focusing on past tense. I could feel that the story sounded smoother as I heard it more and more.

There were a few words that gave us trouble. Sometimes I think it is better to use the Korean word and be ready to explain the meaning, rather than trying to find and English word that matches exactly. Two examples of this are yangban and kisaeng. I know what these words mean because I have lived in Korea. Other people that have not lived in Korea might not know these words or even the words that the dictionary suggests. In this case, I think it is best to use the Korean word and explain it.

Happy birthday loony Rooney! I hope you have a nice night and everyone has a great Friday and weekend. Take care!