Saturday, September 13, 2008

Teaching stuff

Been busy lately, with quite a full schedule. Haven't written much about what I actually teach.

Now that I've relaxed into teaching much more, I find that I've gotten better at answering questions, explaining grammar points, and presenting ideas in a simpler way. I find myself explaining new words or pointing out grammar structures a lot more in class.

Some things I explained this week:
  • When to use 'in' and 'has' in questions like 'Which hotel is the cheapest?', 'Which hotel has the best view?'
  • the meaning of the word 'proponent'
  • The difference between 'I appreciate your showing me...' and 'I appreciate you showing me...'
  • the northern and southern hemispheres
  • the difference between 'myself', 'by myself' and 'for myself" (this is much, much more difficult than you would imagine -_-)
  • the expression 'err on the side of caution'
  • the meaning of 'g'day'
  • how we change 'do you believe in' to 'did you believe in' when asking about childhood beliefs
  • the meaning of 'way' (as in 'way too hot')
  • how 'probably' is more certain than 'maybe' (in Japanese, there is one word which can mean either 'probably' or 'maybe')
  • the difference between 'danger' and 'peril' (a challenging one)
  • how we say 'I don't have enough money to travel', but 'I don't have much money for travel'
  • how to use 'is this yours?' vs 'are these yours?' and 'I can't find it/them anywhere'

    Having always been a bit of a language geek, I must confess that I love this sort of thing. I never get tired of answering questions about English.

    One of our students went scuba diving in Okinawa this week and brought us back a big box of mango cookies. I really love my job sometimes. ^_^
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