Easter Weekend

To continue the holiday theme of the last few posts, I thought I’d write about this weekend. As you may or may not know, it’s Easter this weekend and for many people in the UK, including those at the London School of English, it means a few days off work. We have bank holidays on Good Friday and Easter Monday so it’s a 4 day weekend. Easter is a Christian holiday which commemorates the death and celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is one of the main Christian festivals of the year, but for people less religious it is often viewed as a nice break from their daily routine. People often take the opportunity to visit family or friends in other parts of the country or if they stay at home, spend some time in the garden or doing some DIY around the house.

There always seems to be a lot going on at Easter and this weekend is no exception . Not only is there the top of the Premiership clash between Manchester United and Chelsea, but also there is the Oxford v’s Cambridge boat race along the River Thames. This will be the 181st year the two universities have competed in the race and it draws many crowds to the riverside.

Personally, my favourite thing about Easter has to be the food and when I say food, I mean Chocolate Easter eggs. It’s common for people to spend all weekend giving, receiving and eating chocolate eggs and me being a bit of a chocoholic, I have to say that I love it. People often have big family meals and cook all sorts of delicious dishes and the most popular are lamb and fish. Overall, Easter is a happy time of the year for a lot of people although it’s nowhere near as big as the Christmas holiday.

Glossary

as you may or may not know - a phrase used to introduce some information that is possibly new to some people.

to commemorate the death - to keep alive and remember the memory of someone's death.

to celebrate the resurrection - to engage in festivities relating to dying and then returning to life.

to do some DIY - constructing and repairing things in your home yourself.

a lot going on - many events happening

no exception - not excluded from the general rule or pattern

it draws many crowds to the riverside - many people are attracted to the riverside

a chocoholic - a person who loves and eats a lot of chocolate

nowhere near - far from, used to emphasize the difference

Indian Words Used in the English Language

Hello there, those of you who have read the recent blogs will see that holidays have featured highly; Andy wrote about his holiday in South Africa, Ben mentioned his recent trip to Morocco and I’m going to talk a little about my fabulous holiday in Southern India (Kerala and Tamil Nadu). Actually, it was Ben who suggested that I go there, thanks Ben!

In Kochin I watched the local fishermen and sampled their catch in the evenings with a cold Kingfisher beer. I then visited the green and lush hills of Munnar and saw wild elephants and buffalo; next I took a houseboat through the backwaters of Appelley and then went south to chill out on the beach. My final destination was Madurai where I visited the Ski Meenakshi Temple (see photo) it’s definitely worth seeing, it’s 52 metres high and covers 6 hectares, it’s amazing.

Travelling around, I was impressed how well most Indians speak English even though British rule finished over 60 years ago. This made me wonder about Indian words that are used in modern English. Below, are some words of Hindi and Urdu origin that the British have 'borrowed' and still currently use today. Enjoy using them!

Bangle - a solid bracelet
from Bāngṛī बांगड़ी, a type of bracelet

Bungalow - a house which is all on ground level
from बंगला banglA & Urdu بنگلہ banglA, literally, "(house) in the Bengal style".]

Cot - a bed with high sides for a baby
from Khāt, खाट, a portable bed

Cushy – easy, e.g. a cushy job
from khushi, cf. Hindi ख़ुशी - Urdu خوشی "easy, happy, soft"

Doolally - crazy
from Hindi डॆऒललि via Marathi देवळाली Deolali, a hospital in Maharashtra,
India. It means having an unbalanced state of mind

Guru - Someone who knows a lot about a particular subject
from गुरु Guru, A teacher, instructor, intellectual or spiritual leader who
councils or advises

Jungle – a thick tropical forest
from जङल् jangal, another word for wilderness or forest

Karma - the belief that all the good and bad things that you do in this life affect how good
or bad your future lives will be
from कर्म Karma , meaning acts or deeds

Pukka - good quality, well made
from Pakkā पक्का,پکا cooked, ripe, solid

Pyjamas – trousers and a top that you wear in bed
from Persian پايجامه Payjama meaning "leg garment" which originated in Hindi पैजामा

Shampoo - a liquid soap for washing hair
from chāmpo (चाँपो /tʃãːpoː/) to smear and massage

Thug – a violent man
from Thag ठग, meaning thief or conman

Remembering how to spell new words

I have recently been on holiday Morocco and I’ve just come back and had a look at Andy and Luke’s recent blog posts. I saw that there was quite a lot of vocabulary to remember so I thought I’d give you some advice on spelling English words.

Remember English is not a phonetic language meaning that the sounds made do not always match the way the words are written and the combinations of letters that are used. This means that both pronouncing new words and learning to spell them can be difficult at times. When you come across a new word to spell try this method.

1. LOOK – Sounds obvious I know but spend a bit of time looking at the word. How can you break it into smaller bits / syllables?? Do any of the bits remind you of the patterns of letters from other words? Pay attention to prefixes and suffixes.
2. THINK – Think about the parts of the words which might cause problems - double letters for instance, or a vowel that isn't pronounced as you would expect or combinations of vowels.
3. COVER – Cover the word or close your eyes. Try to see it in your head. Look again if you need to.
4. WRITE – Write the word down without looking back, if it doesn’t look right try another way and compare with your first attempt.
5. CHECK – Check to see if you're right. If not, look carefully at where you went wrong and try again.

Some more advice

• Whenever you have to copy a new word from the blackboard, from a book, or from the dictionary, always try to write the whole word in one go. Don't keep looking back after every few letters.
• Try finger-writing: while you're THINKing about the word, pretend to write it with your finger, on your desk or on your hand.
• Try to notice common patterns e.g prefixes and suffixes / words with the same sound.
• Break the word down into syllables and chunks and say these in your head as they are spelt not as the word sounds e.g. together to - get - her

I hope you find this method and advice useful. English spelling is not easy and native speakers often make mistakes. Don't worry if your spelling isn't perfect and remember, if you use a computer always use your spell check.

A postcard from South Africa

Hello everyone! Having just returned from my holidays in South Africa, I thought I'd fill you in on a few bits and bobs that you might find interesting about the country.

Did you know that as well as English, there are ten other official languages in South Africa? Although English is the country's lingua franca, it is only the fifth most commonly spoken language. In fact, if you are of Dutch descent, you would probably understand much of Afrikaans, a very widely spoken language (especially in the west of the country) which has its roots in 17th century Dutch.

When most people think of South Africa, they probably think of its troubled and often turbulent past, but the South Africa of today is a modern, vibrant society which, despite it's many problems, attracts almost ten million visitors annually. Of course, this trend looks set to continue with the country hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We visited the stadium in Cape Town and it is an amazing building in a fantastic location with the famous Table Mountain as a backdrop. I hope that the tournament is a success, both on and off the field.

We spent most of our time in Cape Town, though we also travelled around the Western Cape from the coast to the desert! Everywhere we went we were given a very warm welcome, had great weather, ate delicious food and visited some amazing places. In other words, the perfect holiday!

Glossary

to fill sby in to update sby, or to give them some new information
bits and bobs random assortment of things (informal)
lingua franca a common language used by speakers of different languages (from Latin)
to be of Dutch descent to come from The Netherlands
turbulent difficult, unsettled, sometimes violent
annually every year
backdrop the scenery behind something
warm welcome a friendly welcome