Answers to Wordforming

Here are the answers to the word forming article. Hope you got them right. To read the first part click here.

1. She was delighted when she heard that she had been successful in her interview.
2. He always waited for her to choose the film, he was so indecisive.
3. Due to the recession a lot of people don’t have jobs and therefore unemployment is high.
4. When selecting our new suppliers, reliability is the most important benefit to us.
5. The sales forecast was promising but the results were dramatically better.

Our New Government

So we’ve now had a coalition government for two weeks, which means that the government is made up of more than one party. Those of you who followed the election will know that the results were very close (Conservative 306 seats, Labour 258 seats, Liberal Democrats 57 seats with the others getting 28 seats) which means with no overall majority for the Labour or Conservative party, the Liberal Democrats were put into the interesting position of being able to decide which party they would most benefit working with. After a week of toing and froing Nick Clegg chose to work with David Cameron, a decision which many fear will be doomed to failure as their policies have been as different as chalk and cheese in the past!

Today, in the Queen's speech, she announced the ambitious legislative programme put forward by the new coalition government which they hope to achieve over the next 18 months. These are the keys points, obviously the main priority is to reduce the deficit (which Cameron points out is bigger than Greece's). They also aim to promote energy efficiency, give more power to local councils and open more schools. Additionally, they'll introduce a referendum to change to the alternative vote for the whole of the UK and parliamentary reform, introducing fixed term elections every 5 years. And just to add insult to injury the unpopular ID cards that Gordon Brown's Labour government hoped to introduce, have been scrapped.

This is a new and potentially difficult period for British Politics with Harriet Harman (the Caretaker Labour leader) watching and waiting for the 'happy couple' to make their first mistake...I, for one, will be watching this space with interest!

Glossary

to to and fro Continuous movement from place to place
doomed to failure Sure to fail
as different as chalk and cheese Complete opposites
a referendum People vote to make a decision about subject
the alternative vote a ranking system of voting
add insult to injury to make something that is already bad, worse
to scrap to get rid of something
caretaker Labour leader a temporary leader until another one is chosen

Learning English Outside the Classroom

Working in a language school as a teacher, I’m often asked by students how they can improve their English when they return to their home countries or when they are not in the classroom. There are many ways to do this. So, I’m now going to share the best ideas with you.


Reading
Whatever level your English is, reading will help to consolidate what you have learnt in the classroom or from a grammar book and is a great way to learn new vocab. Reading should be an enjoyable activity so it often helps if you choose a subject that you have an interest in, for example I love football so I enjoy reading about football in another language (I’m currently studying Modern Greek at evening classes). You can read most English newspapers online nowadays. Something I sometimes do in class is compare a news story that has been written about in two different newspapers, you can see how the language and style varies in each newspaper, for example comparing an article in The Sun to the same article in The Guardian can be very interesting and shows how an article in the tabloid press (The Sun) can often be harder to read than an article in a broadsheet because The Sun uses far more phrasal verbs and colloquial language than The Guardian. See links for both newspapers below.

All good bookshops will sell graded readers from beginner to advanced; you can read anything from Shakespeare to John Grisham. Sometimes it’s a good idea to read a book that you’ve read in your language. Lots of my students have read Harry Potter in English and because they’ve already read it in their own language they don't feel the need to look up every word they don't understand.

When you are reading it sometimes a good idea to focus on one thing, for example, you just read one column of a text or newspaper article and you focus on one aspect of language such as prepositions or phrasal verbs. You can then see which preposition is used with which noun, adjective or verb.

Internet

There are so many internet sites for English language learners to use. As I mentioned earlier, most English newspapers have sites. If you are studying for one of the Cambridge exams like FCE or CAE then you can go on to Flo-joe and practise grammar, reading and listening. See link below.

My favourite site is the award-winning BBC website, as well as having podcasts and interesting news stories it has an English language learning section which is excellent. It an easy site to navigate so try it and see. See link below.

Films, TV and Radio

Watching films is a great way to improve your English, you can turn the subtitles on and play back scenes again and again until you understand or can follow what is being said. TV can be a lot harder to follow but can be good if you watch the same programmes each week like the Apprentice and Dragons’ Den (both on the BBC) and understand what’s happening. I like to listen to Greek radio so that I hear Greek everyday and I try especially hard to listen to the news. Find an English radio station that you like and listen regularly; there is a broad range to choose from such as Radio One with DJs from all over the British Isles with their various accents, to LBC which stands for London’s Biggest Conversation, this station has discussions and phone-ins, it never plays music. See links below.

Out and About

Something that I do and encourage my students to do is to use ‘dead’ time to learn English. For example, when you are travelling on a train or bus or are queuing in a museum or shop; you should look around and see if you can describe your surroundings and the people around you in English, is there any vocabulary that you don’t know? If so you could make a note of it in your own language and look it up later.

Finally, speak English as often as possible. If you go to English classes, ask the people in your group if they want to go out and speak English together. If you aren’t having lessons and live outside the UK then you could see if someone wants to do a language exchange with you. If you have a language school or university near you then you may find that there’s a native speaker who is willing to speak English to you for an hour or so in exchange for you speaking or teaching them your language.

Learning English should be fun…try some of these methods and let me know how you get on and if you have any tips on how you learn English outside the classroom let me know!

Good luck and have fun!


http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/
http://www.lbc.co.uk/

English Expressions and their Origins

Today I thought we’d do a little quiz. Please read the story below and decide where the expressions in bold come from, Shakespeare, the Bible or elsewhere. Good luck!

Amy was from very small village in Kent and when she was 20 years old she was invited to her best friend Adam’s party, which was quite exciting as nothing ever happened in the village. She dressed up and spent a long time doing her hair and make-up and when she got to her friend’s house he told her to eat drink and be merry…so she did! She met Mark, who was tall dark and handsome. He told her that he was very successful and had a huge house in the next village, he asked her to go out with him. Adam was worried about his friend Amy and warned her that all that all that glittered is not gold. She replied that she understood this and wasn’t wearing her heart on her sleeve. She also told him that there was Hobson’s choice in this small village and if she didn’t go out with him then someone else would.

They dated each other for six months, then, he got bored and left her high and dry for a member of the Royal Family. She felt a bit sad and rather silly and went to talk to her best friend Adam about it. He told her that he was glad that she wasn’t seeing Mark anymore because he wanted to tell her how he felt about her. He told that he had loved her since he was 12 years old and that he would stay with her through thick and thin. She told him that she didn’t deserve his love as she had not been a good friend but he told her that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet and that, for him, it was better to give than to receive. She then realised that he was right and they got married and are still together 40 years later!

Now look to see if you have guessed correctly!

Answers

Eat, drink and be merry is from the Bible, Ecclesiastes VIII 15. The meaning is clear.

All that glitters is not gold has many references; the most common is from Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice (1596). It means that, just because something looks good, it may not be.

Wear your heart on your sleeve may be from the middle ages. Knights used to wear the colours or ribbons on their arms of the lady that they were trying to impress or support. It is also more famously in Shakespeare’s Othello (1604).

Hobson’s choice means that there is not choice at all. It is believed to come from Thomas Hobson (1545-1631) who rented horses to people; however, they could not choose the horse so they had to have the horse he gave you or no horse.

High and dry is from the language of sailing. If a boat is high and dry it is out of the water and has been for sometime, the situation is not good. It usually means that there is no hope of recovery or of things getting better.

Through thick and thin is a very old English expression. It refers back to a time hundreds of years ago, when England was mainly trees and woodland, there weren’t many roads therefore travelling was difficult. Through thick and thin meant how many trees and bushes there were (a lot or a few). It now means whatever problems or obstacles there are. It is usually used to express determination.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet is from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1594). It means that it doesn’t matter what we call something but what it is that is important.

It’s better to give than to receive is from the Bible, Acts 20:35. The meaning is clear.

Writing Emails in English

Writing in English is sometimes seen as easier than speaking because you usually have more time to think about what you are writing and can correct any mistakes. With spoken English you need to respond immediately and can often forget words and tenses which can be embarrassing. I’m going to look briefly at some formal and informal writing styles, including some useful phrases that will hopefully help you. All correspondence should have a purpose, so ask yourself ‘why am I writing?’ The subject should be clear to the reader immediately; if action is required by the reader then this should be stated in the subject line and then repeated in the first line of the email. The emails below are about the same subject, however the first is formal and the second informal.

To: Brad Pitt
From: Heather Daniell
Subject: Action required re Marketing meeting Nov 25th
cc: George Clooney

I am writing with regard to next week’s meeting on November 25th at 9.30 am. I have already received confirmation that Angelina, Tom, Clint and Keira will be attending and have had apologies from Elvis and Michael. I would be grateful if you could bring samples of the new posters and leaflets that you have produced. Clint has kindly offered to present the pricing strategy to us at 9.30 however, will have to leave at 10.00.

I would appreciate confirmation of your attendance by return email. If you have any questions regarding this matter please do not hesitate to contact me.

I look forward to seeing you next week.

Regards

Heather


Just a quick note about next week’s meeting on November 25th at 9.30 am. I’ve heard that that Angelina, Tom, Clint and Keira can make it and Elvis and Michael can’t. Please can you bring samples of the new posters and leaflets that you’ve produced. Clint will present the pricing strategy to us at 9.30 but, has to leave at 10.00.

Please let me know if you’re coming asap. Call or email if you need to know anything else.

See you next week.

Bw

Heather

Most emails are informal, however if you are writing to someone you’ve never met before or someone quite senior in a company then you may wish to ‘play safe’ and use more formal language. If you aren’t sure then you should copy the style of the incoming email. Good luck and happy emailing!