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British English vs. American English
Hey, everyone!
I'm a native speaker of AE. I've never been to Ireland/UK/OZ/NZ, so my exposure to certain things in BE is still limited. I'm seeking clarification on a couple points...
I'm teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) to several local students. I got dismayed when I realized one of my students' ESL learning books was a Cambridge edition when I came across odd tenses that we wouldn't use here in the U.S.
A) BE uses Present Perfect "I have just been to the shops", whereas AE says "I just went to the shops".
B) "Crowd" is a singular, collective group of people, so why is it "the crowd were" instead of "the crowd was" in BE?
C) BE sometimes says "You was" instead of "You were".
D) They say "The media are" instead "the media is"? (Yes, I know "media" is the plural of "medium", but we think of "the media" as one collective entity. Do BE speakers view "media" as plural entities instead of singular?)
C) Same with company names. We say "BP is..." and they say "BP are"!
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Canúint
Cén canúint Gaeilge atá agat? :)
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How have you been?
Los sagen, zwei Freunden haben nicht von einander in eine Weile gehört. Ich verstehe "wie geht's?" auf Englisch ist "how goes/how are you", aber wie fragt man "How have you been"? Oder fragen Deutschen das nicht? :-)
A German-American friend (from Germany) told me "Hallo, habe schon lange nichts mehr von dir gehört. Was machst du so?," but I don't think that's correct (unless that's as close as Germans get to the question? Meh...)
Danke!
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What's the difference between "nie" and "niemals"?
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Can some1 translate the commentary on this Japanese video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVxPj7dR57Y
I don't speak the language and don't really understand the subtle noises they (the commentators) make...
Please and thank you :))
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Was bedeutet "Urwurzeln"?
Hi,
A new Austrian friend of mine used a word I'm not familiar with: Urwurzeln I couldn't find its meaning anywhere :-( Is this a dialectal word?
Help? Our conversation is about family roots, so yes, it makes sense. Thanks, Munkelman! ^_^
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Teacher's Dilemma
Hi, everyone! :-)
I have a bit of a dilemma. I've been teach Irish here in my city for over a year now and love it. Now I'm ready to start teaching English and German as well (via iTalki, Skype, etc).
The thing is, most people that want to learn German and Irish already know English, so communication isn't a problem.
How do I teach people that want to learn English?
I already have lesson plans set up for the other two languages, but I'm not sure how to make one up for English, because it's my native language and I don't think about things like numbers, days, months, vocabulary. I know proper spelling and English grammar extremely well (more so than plenty of other Americans) but...isn't this a case where I need to know what they need help with more so than in Irish or German? If the student doesn't have enough English to tell me what they've learned or not learned, how can I help them?
It's a little difficult to explain but hopefully someone understands where I'm coming from here. :-)
Thanks in advance!
~_~. Maidhc"I've been teaching Irish," that should say. Sorry, I've been up all night. ^_^
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With whom do you use Irish?
With whom do you use Irish in your daily life?-Yes, Cherry :-)
People who already speak Irish.
Which words do you use, dare I ask? lolMaith thú :-D
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Cabhair / Help
Dia dhaoibh, a Chairde,
I'm working on getting a PayPal account set up for myself so that I can begin officially teaching here on iTalki. I already so do in weekly sessions where I live and am always looking forward to using the language with more people.
I'm also on track to being a faculty teacher someday, as I'm majoring in Education at the University of Phoenix.
I look forward to having more students (both inside the classroom and here on iTalki) soon!
Mise, le meas,
Maidhc
I'm working on getting a PayPal account set up for myself so that I can begin officially teaching here on iTalki. I already so do in weekly sessions where I live and am always looking forward to using the language with more people.
I'm also on track to being a faculty teacher someday, as I'm majoring in Education at the University of Phoenix.
I look forward to having more students (both inside the classroom and here on iTalki) soon!
Mise, le meas,
Maidhc
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Leabhair / Books
Dia dhaoibh, a Chairde,
One of my former students (locally) bought a book for me from Ireland! :-)
It's a book of poems simply called "Dánta" (Poems) by Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin. It's written in the old script (Sean-Chló) on the left page and translated to English on the right page. It's truly beautiful and quite a challenge for me to read! :-)
Are any of ye also trying to read leabhair i nGaeilge?
Le meas,
Maidhc
One of my former students (locally) bought a book for me from Ireland! :-)
It's a book of poems simply called "Dánta" (Poems) by Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin. It's written in the old script (Sean-Chló) on the left page and translated to English on the right page. It's truly beautiful and quite a challenge for me to read! :-)
Are any of ye also trying to read leabhair i nGaeilge?
Le meas,
Maidhc
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