May 16, 2011
INTERMEDIO 2
During her presentation Leyre showed us how relevant chemistry is to everyday life
Why Leire cut a diaper open in a classroom and other excentricities Up until pretty recently English learners in Spain considered their target language to be little more than a school subject and, of course, they acted accordingly. Incredibly enough they neglected to realize that, for hundreds of millions of speakers, English is simply a means of communication. That’s why most English speakers won’t know what to say whenever a foreign student asks them about phrasal verbs. When you do things in a language it becomes not a target but a tool. So
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when you watch a film in English your aim should be to enjoy the film (certainly not to analyze the grammar in the screenplay). Remember that a joke is no longer funny when you explain the reasons why it is supposed to make you laugh. Similarly a language may lose its appeal if we keep talking about it (unless you’re a linguist). At any rate, it is a fact that information is more easily acquired when there is some kind of sensory or emotional input connected to the circumstances of the
actual learning. Thus we remember words far better when they are uttered by someone we like or admire. Just imagine that you get lost somewhere in Manhattan and Nathalie Portman (who happens to be walking by) decides to help you out. Wouldn’t you probably remember her exact words when you tell the story back home? By doing presentations we forget how we say things and concentrate on what we say.
Language suddenly becomes a secondary element. So when Mª Jesús told us about those spooky stories we were less concerned with her grammar than we were with the story of that eerie house (or the fact that she has such unusual interests). For the same reasons, when Leyre told us about polymers and showed us how breakthroughs in the field of Chemistry do have an impact in our lives we imitate native speakers who don’t pay much attention to grammar.
Exams are round the corner are we ready? (Don’t even try to answer. It’s a rhetorical question)
On May 4 and May 10 you took some mock oral exams and came to some conclusions. Let’s check them out: 1. We should learn to pronounce the English hesitation vowel: ə. 2. Synonyms can be an easy way to “buy time”. 3. As usual we ought to remember good old fillers (you know, so, the thing is, actually, etc.) 4. Some expressions are useful in every converstaion, no matter what the topic may be (in my view, as far as I know, to begin with, for starters...) 5. We sometimes know chunks 6. Silly mistakes should be avoided at all costs. 7. Try and have a vocabulary reality check. At this point I have to ask you if you remember any of the words in the orange box. If you don’t it’s not the end of the world. Those are simply “extra” words that might help you make progress. The vocabulary you’re expected to know is not so sophisticated. Just remember what we saw on May 11, after the mock oral tests: if you decide to talk about the clothes you would be likely to wear to a job interview you may need to use terms such as to wear (something), to dress, to get dressed, etc. So that you don’t really have to stop and think about how you can say I would wear something dressy.
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It’s a piece of cake (US) it’s a cinch (US) it’s dead easy it’s easy as pie it’s easy as A,B C Tina knows all this expressions, why?
Interesting vocabulary we may not remember:
Witty, crook, pattern, diaper, nappy, awkward, slapstick, subtle, to screw up, twangy, tune, moron, window dressing...
José’s sentence: “I will begin by saying that I would have liked to be a footballer. Unfortunately I had a serious problem in my knee and had to give up”
Marino admitted that he sometimes sends his avatar to class. Apparently he’s not the only one. Mª Jesús (left) does the same thing. This is what she looks like when she’s in Pandora (below).
On being witty Both words and actions can be funny por Rodolfo de la Peña
There are many kinds of humor. Some people enjoy slapstick some others laugh at dirty jokes or prefer refined irony. For some reason many women abhor black humor and, in my experience, nonsense humor tends to be appreciated mostly by men. One thing is certain. There is no accounting for colors and everyone’s got their own sense of humor. Having said that, some ideas need to be clear. Marino questioned the validity of the term witty. Remember? Let’s explore this word.
In his autobiography Groucho Marx tells how his father went to visit once and expressed his disgust at the rats the had seen in the basement. Groucho’s reply came quick: where do you want me to have them, in the living romm? This can be understood by millions of people. In the English-speaking world humor is diverse. British irony is galaxies away from American broad comedies. Likewise Benny Hill has little to do with Woody Allen. Nevertheless there is some common ground that sets the difference between humor in English and humor in Spain. The one-liner, a trademark of anglophone humor, is Witty means showing or characterized by quick and not usually found in Spain. It looks like we need a situainventive verbal humor. And its etymology comes from the tion (van dos y uno le dice al otro...) rather than a Old English word wit(t)ig, which means having wisdom. So thought. In fact, stand up comics (the ones that deliver a being witty is about being smart with words. You may or monologue) are quite a novelty in Spain. may not like Woody Allen or Dorothy Parker. But their huSpanish wits such as Jacinto Benavente (Nobel Prize, mor is based on words not on funny faces or embarrassing 1922) or Jardiel Poncela are all but forgotten now. If we situations. Does this mean that witty remarks are univerthink of successful humor today (Cruz y Raya, Morancos, sal? Torrente) we find catchphrases and exaggerations. We When a joke is based NOT on words (puns) or the way love overstatements. The English-speaking world, however, the lines are delivered (Chiquito de la Calzada) but on a clearly prefers the opposite: the understatement. concept we can at least say it can be translated and is therefore universal.
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