Greetings dear readers! It’s Friday, and I’m finished teaching for the week. To be precise, I’m sitting in a café drinking a beer and waiting on two kitties to be neutered. Spaying and neutering cats and dogs is the best way to prevent overpopulation of domesticated animals. You should definitely do it! But I digress.
Let’s talk about language! This week I started teaching English to a group of women that contacted me recently. Group lessons in person are completely different than online individual lessons, but the beauty of learning is constant. There’s just something about learning and speaking another language that is totally thrilling.
Speaking of language learning, the goal of this blog is to facilitate just that. So I’ve decided to corrwvt 5 mistakes made by students this week.
Disclaimer, the English language is spoken far and wide, and oftentimes there is not just one way to express something. When I correct grammar or pronunciation, I like to remind students that language is more about communication and undertsanding tham restricting ourselves to arbitrary rules.
5 mistakes corrected:
| My grandmother speak us using Portuguese. | My grandmother spoke to us in Portuguese. |
This statement was made in reference to the past. It could very easily be made about the present, in which case it would be, “My grandmother speaks to us in Portuguese.”
| The connection is worst. | The connection is bad.
The connection is getting worse. |
| I think when we learning a language, we could view the world in a different way. | I think when we learn a language we can view/ see the world in a different way. |
| In her neck is a necklace. | On her neck is a necklace./ There is a necklace on her neck. / She’s wearing a necklace. |
| I passed 4 or 5 years studying. | I spent 4 or 5 years studying. |
Mallory Echols 