Vocabulary's tadpoles

American colloquial expressions

2010-11-25T11:06:00.000-08:00

Hey guys!

So I decided doing and all-american post with (slangish) expressions used in the states! Here we go :

- to push off = to leave: I am going to push off now.
- put the moves on = seduce: If you like her, put the moves on her!
- rack = bed: I have to hit the rack by ten or I'll be tired in the morning.
- to rack out = to sleep
- grubby = dirty/untidy: Those clothes are too grubby to wear to the party.
-hairy = dangerous (I particularly like this one): That was a hairy plane trip. I am glad the storm is over.
-hang loose = relax: Just hang loose for another few days.
-have good vibes = feel good about (this one must be my father fav): I have good vibes about our new secretary.
-to not have it all together = to not feel mentally all there

-Expressions with "gut"
Gut = stomack but in the expressions "to have guts" "it takes guts" it means courage and if you say the "GUT issue" = the basic issue

-ditch = leave, skip clases: I'll ditch my younger brother with my grandmother.
-flaky = unreliable: He is too flaky to do the work.

- Out in the boonies (that's mine^^)
the boonies are places in the middle of nowhere, in the wilderness
I lived in the boonies in France

Well well I think I'm going hang loose taking a nice shower and reading a good book before I rack out! Tomorrow is a big day and although it will be tiring and have good vibes about it!

I hope I'll be less flaky with V'sT but I can't promise anything!

Eye halve a speling chequer

2010-11-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

It never occurred to me to exploit this in teaching a language. The following poem is a pearl. I hope you enjoy!

Eye Halve a Spelling Chequer

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a quay and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weight.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its really ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect in it's weight
My chequer tolled me sew

(Sauce unknown)

Awesome, in't it? Well, just for checking here is what someone said (pfff) the author meant...

I Have a Spelling Checker

I have a spelling checker
It came with my PC
It plainly marks for my review
Mistakes I cannot see.

I strike a key and type a word
And wait for it to say
Whether I am wrong or right
It shows me straight away.

As soon as a mistake is made
It knows before too long
And I can put the error right
It's rarely ever wrong

I have run this poem through it
I am sure you're pleased to know
It's letter perfect in its way
My checker told me so.

(Source unknown)

'Till next time!

Over the hump?

2010-08-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

How are you guys?

There's often this fight between two parts of me, one which is well aware of things I want to do and another which is well aware of the (nondisposable) time it'll all take to be done.

This time, after some coaxing by the former half, the whole being was convinced to be back (definetely, hopefully) to posting.

After all, we're supposed to be over the hump of the steep learning curve of the language. From here on honing skills is mostly a matter of perseverance and exposition. (Right?)

Well, straight to the point, I'll tell you a tad about my recent English-related activities. I've read: a selection of Sherlock Holmes' tales, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Fight Club. Last three weeks I've been engaged on a quick foray reading a physics book written to be accessible to non-specialists: Molecules, the second book of the series Physics for Everyone, by L. D. Landau and A. I. Kitaigorosdsky.

Now I write this last sentence in the nick of time I'd stipulated for today: see you!

How can I say...

2009-11-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

Hi there folks!
I guess you all know www.forvo.com, but I'm pretty sure this one is all strange to you guys: http://howjsay.com/

For those who are into the british accent, like me, that's an awesome website for spending free time!

See you!!!

In the words of the ancients...

2009-05-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

Actually, my post is about what (and how) the moderns say =) You probably have a friend who's your pocket dictionary, to whom you ask the meaning of any and every word you may stumble upon. Maybe you are such a subject! Like me! What I find attractive about this is that my fellow human dictionaries and me are capable of giving more flexible definitions which may not be as accurate as the ones given by our official counterparts, but surely hit the mark more often. Bearing that in mind, I present you a little discovery of mine which has given me quite a share of new knowledge and amusement: the Urban Dictionary!

http://www.urbandictionary.com

This site works exactly like that friend of yours only instead of one person you can hear people from everywhere in the world giving their own definition of a word or expression. It's pretty useful for searching slangs and unusual expressions (e.g. expression generated in the Internet, such as "lol"). Let me give some examples:

Textrovert: a person who feels boldened when communicating by text (in opposition to doing this in person) or who can only reveal his or her true feelings in written form.

Bromance: a deep friendship between two straight males who are so close their relationship is almost a marriage

Zonked: to be in a state of extreme exhaustion or under the effect of drugs

Mouse Potato: someone who spends too much time in front of the computer (similar to 'couch potato' which refers to people who watch too much TV)

Of course, it's predictable there will be a lot of vulgarity. I'll keep from posting some of them since I know Tássio-san wouldn't be pleased by my doing so. Instead, I'll give you a couple more curiosities. By the way, some definitions you'll find in this site don't refer to words, but facts or ideas.

Mozarting: Screaming while peeing in a public urinal as to make others frightened

F'shizzle my n'izzle: A bastardised version of "Fo' sho' nigga", which is a bastardised version of "for sure my nigga", which is a bastardized version of "I completely concur my african-american brother"

French military victories: Early mistake by Google that when you typed "french military victories" it would say "No entries. Did you mean french military defeats?"

And now for a last round, I'll explain some of the expressions I used in this post:

Hit the mark: to be correct, suitable, or successful

Bear in mind: to remember a piece of information when you are making decisions or thinking about a matter ((often + that))

[Source: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com >> a good site for searching idiomatic expressions]

e.g. : it means "for example" and its cousin is "i.e." which means "that is" (when you explain the same thing with different words).

[Source: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/e.g.html >> this site has a list of common errors in English which may come in handy (be useful): http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors]

That's all folks! Hope you've enjoyed the post!

Intense inactivity? Or discrete action?

2009-05-29T05:10:00.000-07:00

Something is comming. I now it.

Just put your patience to work while I go fetch it.

As usual

2009-05-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

Long time no see folks!

Again, some er... short time has passed since our last update. Dio must be rejoiced. But there is always and explanation. What is it? No need to tell, some things are best left unknown.

As for a quick note on English-learning lately, I can say that I had the chance of reading The Elements of Style, by William Strunk. The book is a classic on English writing. It was written in 1918, and even so was very easy to find (!). Yes, I didn't read it by chance, I was looking for the book. I was pointed to it by the references of the great book LaTeX: a Document Preparation System, by Leslie Lamport.

Even though some of the advised spelling pactices are out of date (to-day things are different, as surely as the writers of to-morrow will not spell as we do) the reading gave me a handful of interesting insights on important aspects of writing (and also of not writing). Let me tell it another way. Writing involves much more than laying down words in a gramatically acceptable way. Writing is (can't help thinking has to be) connected with communication, thus implying the existence of a recipient for the message. It is then that things get messy. As long as the main goal is to have the message conveyed, the necessity of a transparent containter for it will be highly important. The text is the container of the message, the clearer it is, the "tastiest the milk" (Paulo Feofiloff). Plainly speaking, that was the line I followed while reading the book (it may not apply directly to literary writing).

So much for this post.

Take the plunge

2009-03-31T14:29:00.000-07:00

Some people just seem to have a screw loose. Skittish as you might be reading this, bide your time to interrupt and while you do so piggyback on this post, whose contents run the gamut from commonplace to the tech-related vocabulary.

So what about it? Could you follow me? If so, please head to another blog—I don't suppose there is something new for you below. Otherwise, c'mon fellow, let's have a bit of fun.

Firstly a word or two, as usual, on the provenance of such a flood of unusual expressions (here I am imagining you've never seen them), for the whole lot (sic) was found at the same place—the book Computer Networks, written by Andrew Tanenbaum.

I am still surprised to have found such a fountain of unknown at a tech-book. Delightedly surprised. Customarily, the most those books offer, after you've read some of them, is some there-and-there new expression, for generally there are few completely new ideas being presented. (Books on programming, I must say, tend to display a more informal tone, which leads to a higher density of new expressions per chapter...)

But let us pull up our sleeves and get down to work. What is a screw? My dictionary (Cambridge Advanced Learner's) brings a rather funny definition (there's more to it than I actually transcribed below. the main point here is to give you folks an idea of the feeling which stuck me at the time I read it),

A thin pointed piece of metal with a raised edge twisting round along its lenght and a flat top with a cut in it, which is used to join things together, especially pieces of wood.

After that, I was on the verge of turning o google's image search when the penny finally dropped. (I did the search anyway, it couldn't hurt...) The description was fine, and the expression is identical to one in portuguese: to have a screw loose is to be mad, or to have lost the ability to reason well.

Heading on, I can say someone (or some animal) is skittish if he or she is nervous and easily frightened, or (only for people) if they're likely to change their minds frequently.

When you bide your time for doing something, you wait patiently until ou have the opportunity to act; by its turn, to piggyback is to be carried on the back of someone, with your arms round their neck and your legs round their waist (I used that expression figuratively, above). Finally, as for run the gamut, it is used to refer to a range of things (read the first paragraph again if you didn't graspt it, and I am sure you will then).

Surprised? I was, when I learned these expressions' meaning at first (then a second and a third time, as I couldn't help forgetting them... an issue I think is now solved as I have myself written them down). What is really awesome is that I happened to come across two of those very brand new (to me) expressions elsewhere the same week I've seen them for the first time! I heard run the gamut on an Obama's interview, while a professor at university happened to say piggyback during a lecture!

Small world, that's all I can say, for so many expressions... and yet that's a big stimulus to keep to studying English, don't you think?

Nuts

2009-03-23T04:54:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I can say I have been saving things too much for too long now. Perfectionist as I may be, there is surely a sort of ultimate extent to which I can delay posts in order to come up with something innovative and interesting.

But that limit is far gone and I still didn't want to publish anything. Then the gods decided to make something happen, and a divine poke woke me up. Thanks Dio!

Before I go ahead with the main content of this post, I'd like to update you on what has been my recent English activity. Well, I have recently finished reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (fabulous book by the way, wrote by Robert Louis Stevenson) and dove into a (unexpected) reading, The Road to Reality—A complete guide to the laws of the universe, by Roger Penrose. As the latter author was a complete strange to me, I decided to do a little search on his background.

Penrose (Sir Penrose, as I happened to learn) happens to be a little more famous than I expected. There's even (sic) a page on him at Wikipedia. The "praise for the book" (section in a book where quotes of newspaper and magazines telling us how great the book is are displayed) as well as a section on the author told me a little about him— for example, that he has worked with Stephen Hawkings, and he lectures at Oxford. All in all (and as far as I can tell just by its beginning) this seems to be a enriching reading experience. Future will tell.

Now back to the main point of this post (which will seem rather short when compared to all the talking about books above)—nuts.

I learned two expressions with the word nuts (more precisely, nut) recently. I must tell that by then the only thing I could remember was that going nuts is the same as going mad, plus that The Nutcracker's Suit is the name by which I recognise the geat work of Tchaikovsky.

At first they startled me, really, because I couldn't make out their sense. These expressions were of the sort of words that are a nut to crack. There are some people as well (coming to think of it), which are a (hard or tough) nut to crack.

In a nutshell, if something is a nut to crack, it is a difficult problem to solve, or a person (difficult) to understand. I could say, for example, that throughout my life some girls have been a nut to crack to me.

On the other hand, in a nutshell is used to say in one (or the smaller possible number of) word(s), as in

There is more to playing go than just reading variations. It is required that the good player displays a sharp judgment of the equilibrium of the positions, a certain patience when pondering, and yet the energy necessary to pursue eagerly and passionately the counterattack when under disadvantage—something that a computer cannot achieve. If we then bear in mind that the mere reading of sequences is out of question (given the astronomical number of them), we could say, in a nutshell, that a good go player needs to have instinct tempered with wisdom.

And that's all for now, folks!

A place for everything and everything in its place

2009-02-14T12:40:00.000-08:00

Next week is going to be a week of happenings. The English course ends, the classes start (4th year at college! Still two to go though...) my sister turns 19... and so it will be a week full of consequences (I have a composition to handle in, an exam to do, a party to throw, and lectures to attend to *sigh*). On top of that I still have some personal notes from last semester to organize. Busy week ahead.

But first things first. I was going to work on the composition, or maybe study for the exam, but I felt like postponing it and blog-posting before. I know, surely, waiting until the bottom of the ninth to do things is an old and bad habit I must drop, and that is right on top of my goals for this year (cross your fingers, I might manage it). But some twenty-minute delay won't do any harm.

Secondly, I would like to share two expressions I came across recently. Take a peek at the example below:

'You'd better not drop the ball this week again.'
'Why that? You say it as if it had been me, who'd broken the scanner!'
'Just wake up and smell the cofee, all right? You know you were the only one at the office when it happened!'

When someone "drops the ball', they make a blunder, or fail in some way. And 'wake up and smell the coffee' is something you say to someone in order to make them aware they're wrong about something they should realise.

Finally, a note on the expression

A place for everything and everything in its place.

It is used to say that the best way to keep tidy is having a place in which to place each thing, and to keep them there. A nice and funny definition can be found at the Urban Dictionary:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=Reginald+Spaz
compare to the definition at the Phrase Finder:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/14400.html

My farewell!

More on being back.

2009-02-14T10:32:00.000-08:00

Back I am, a result of. . . yeah (again) I am doing an intensive holiday english course. But that doesn't matter, let's work our fingers to the bone now and for as long as we can. That said, compromise made, let your hair down, and get anxiety off your chest. It's not going to be all boring. Remember: all work and no play will make Jack a dull boy.

What some people recently pointed out, (putting my nose out of joint by the way) is that they just had to migrate to other blogs, once mine was depressingly discontinued. That made me sad. . . I mean, think. I like having a finger in every pie, and that usually leads me to scattering my focus and energy over a large number of activities - put simply, I do nothing properly, even though I do lots of things. For that I think I can be sorry.

Having experimented a little on many things lately amounts to a bigger knowledge and a better selection of my pies this semester. . . Hopefully I'll be more focused and will be able to fournish the world with a better output, metaphoricaly and geekly speaking. So much for the reckless maintaining of my notes.

As now I am receiving a continuous input of publishable information (aha, there're the stimuli), I reckoned it wouldn't be really painful to have one rack-my-brains session or another every two or three days, so as to write down something for you guys (as if there's anyone left).

Then keep your eye on it, there are going to be more posts.

Back. (?)

2009-02-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. Back again, yes we are, hopefully, thanks. It is not worth explaining the. . . perceptible disruption in tadpoles' updating, and therefore I shall go straight to business (to satisfy those sharp wondering minds as for the motor behind the ressurection, I can spare two words: holiday course).

Blood is thicker than water.

As usual, a little saying to season the post. The above sentence is used in order to convey the idea family bonds are stronger than others. Sort of expression likely to be listened to as one's lectured by one of their parents, if they're creative enough.
Also, and that's the context in which I happened to hear the expression, it can be used to justify one's unexpected attitude, as in:

'Weren't you "dead tired"? Why didn't you go straigt to bed and went shopping then?'
'My grandma's asked me to help her with the shopping. You know, blood's thicker.'

I could (and definetely would like to) write a lot more. But let's save it for the future. Lastly, to the sceptics about "tadpoles strikes back", can't help but say

Better late than never.

slang

2008-06-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

Hi there!
Am I the only one who still visits this blog?!
He! You guys could drop by and comment every now and again!!
ò.ó
hehehe
ok..ok..you may not be interested in participating actively but you won't make me give up posting here! At least I AM practicing some English! =P

Well, I've found some interesting stuff, a bit of slang. Have fun!

BIG TIME = a lot/very (US)

They screwed up big time.

ITTY-BITTY = a little/little

She has these itty-bitty little fingers.

ITSY-BITSY = a little / little

She has these itsy-bitsy little fingers.

UMPTEEN = a lot/very

I called him umpteen times, but he was never there.

ZILCH = nothing

These old coins are worth zilch.

HELLUVA = a lot/very

I’ve been waiting a helluva long time.
(helluva = hell of a) !! amazing isn't it?

NO END = a lot / very

His work has improved no end.

OODLES = a lot / very

Mary put oodles of chocolate sauce on her ice cream.

SERIOUSLY = a lot / very

He plays some seriously good music.

DEAD = a lot / very

The test was dead easy.

ISH = a little / little

“Did you get nervous during the interview?” “Ish.”

TEENY-WEENY = a little / little

Just a teeny weeny piece for me, please.

PIFFLING = a little / little

How can I buy a new car with such a piffling salary?

PIDDLING = a little / little

How can I buy a new car with such a piddling salary?

JACK SHIT = Nothing

He doesn’t know jack shit about computers. (US)

GOOD AND… = a lot / very

I like my coffee good and hot.

MASSES = a lot / very

We’ve still got masses of things to do. (UK)

BUGGER ALL = Nothing

Bugger all! (UK)
[Porcaria nenhuma!]

DINKY = a little / little

He lives in a really dinky apartment.

MILES = a lot / very

His new movie is miles better than his last one.

HEAPS = a lot / very

I’ve got heaps of things to do.

ODD = a little / little

I’ve lived here for twenty odd years.
[Eu moro aqui há 20 e poucos anos.]

A TAD = a little / little

I’m feeling just a tad disappointed.

TONS = a lot / very

I’ve got tons of emails to answer.

REAL = a lot / very

Why don’t you try it? It’s real easy. (US)

ZILLIONS = a lot / very

On New Year’s Eve there were zillions of people on Copacabana Beach.

DIDDLY = nothing

She doesn’t know diddly about computers. (US)

ZIP = nothing

He knows zip about women. (US)

That's all!
see ya!

curiosities

2008-06-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

hi there!!

hey this is really cool!!
do you know what it means??
yeah "Whatchamacallit", it does mean something!
^^
that's the word you use when you are speaking about something or someone whose name you can't remember!!!

and when you're at restaurant or something and you want pay the bill for your friends...what do you say?
"my treat"
^^

nice isn't it??

well...that's all
see ya!!
=**

Thunder and Lightning!

2008-04-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody,

I dare to add a little post. I haven’t found the correct answer to Tássio’s piquant “bumpkin” but I’ll find one some time “soon”.

I chose a passage from the novel “the adventures of Huckleberry Finn” written by an American writer, Mark Twain. (Yeah yeah I know you guys are more into British English…) If ever you can get a hand on that book: read it! It’s enriching in many ways, i-e, it’s meaningful, pleasant to read, funny, just… an American classic. Well anyway, here’s the extract:

“It would get so dark that it looked all blue-black outside, and lovely; and the rain would thrash along by so thick that the trees off a little ways looked dim and spider-webby; and here would come a blast of wind that would bend the trees down and turn up the pale under-side of the leaves; and then a perfect ripper of a gust would follow along and set the branches to tossing their arms as if they was just wild; and next, when it was just about the bluest and blackest -- fst! it was as bright as glory, and you'd have a little glimpse of tree-tops a-plunging about away off yonder in the storm, hundreds of yards further than you could see before; dark as sin again in a second, and now you'd hear the thunder let go with an awful crash, and then go rumbling, grumbling, tumbling, down the sky towards the under side of the world, like rolling empty barrels down stairs -- where it's long stairs and they bounce a good deal, you know.”

To thrash: it can mean to whip or to move or swing about with flailing, violent motions (I’d say it’s this definition in the text). It can also be to work windward, against the tide or when swimming.

A Ripper of a gust: a violent/sharp blow of wind.

Yonder: distant but within sight

Rumbling, grumbling, tumbling: “a loud low dull continuous noise” (from www.wordreference.com) and for tumbling : “pitching headlong with a rolling or twisting movement” This I suppose was clear. Just listening to the words and you guess the sound of thunder! Great isn’t it?

Well that’s it! Hope you enjoyed it!

A lesson of war (and english too)

2008-04-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

June 7th, 1945 - Normandy, France
Pvt. Lazlo Perestroika (a.k.a. Poor Lazlo)

Cpt. James Ryan: "Ok, private, here's the situation: we're under heavy fire from a nearby enemy artillery unit. If we don't solve this ASAP, the poop will hit the paddles.Problem is: they're right in the middle of a mine field, so we can't just step in their yard. I want you to get near them and kill them with the mortar. Corporal Blaskowitz will help you."

Poor Lazlo: "Roger that, sir!"

Some minutes later, near the enemy artillery unit...

Cpl. Blaskowitz: "Ever fired a mortar? No? Here, give it it whirl!

The Poor Lazlo pressed the fire button, but he had forgotten to open the launch tube so the shell exploded just in front of his face. He died instantly, but Corporal Blaskowitz survived with just a scratch. Private Perestroika was buried and in his thomb you can read the following message:

Private Perestroika, KIA
"Poor Lazlo was a nice guy, but was killed by his own stupidity"
RIP

Right, this story was just an excuse to use some expressions and words. Here come their explanation:

a.k.a. = also known as >> it's used to give another name or nickname for something or someone, for example: Frank Sinatra, aka 'The Voice'
Ok >> everybody knows this is used to answer positively to questions and to say 'everything is fine' and so on, but do you know the origin of this word? Well, there are lots of theories, but one I like is that it comes from the military reports in the American Civil War saying that there were '0 kills' (nobody died) in a mission. '0' can be said 'zero' or 'oh' and 'kills' abbreviated (shortened) to 'k' (pronounced 'kay'). That's why you can also write 'okay' instead of 'ok'.
ASAP = as soon as possible >> it's used when the speaker wants to emphasize the urgency of something and means the same as 'quickly'. Another expression with a similar meaning is 'on the double'.
The poop hit the paddles >> this means the situation will get bad or you'll get in trouble. I don't know if it's a dirty expression, but I wouldn't use it in any situation other than informal ones. By the way, 'poop' means 'shit'and paddles are what you use to move a boat or play table tennis.
Give something a whirl = Give something a try >> it's a expression used to encourage someone to experiment doing something new
KIA = killed in action >> it's a word used in military contexts to say someone died during a battle
R.I.P. >> this one is a classic! It means 'rest in peace' If you like latin quotations, here's the original expression: 'requiescat in pace'.

I hope you have enjoyed my first post in this collaborative blog even though my English writing skills are no match for Tássio-san's.

Ashamed, flabbergasted, but alive and kicking!

2008-03-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

Hi there folks!
Almost run out of time, but here I am, fulfilling the weekly-post-promise. As it is already late, I am going to be quick, although I can assure more is to come (really) soon.

This week I have happened to get an overdose of amazing English learning sources I hadn't ever imagined would exist in such a big number. It was like references to english learning just kept popping up all the time, out of the blue. Some of the e-resources I came across this week and which are easy to share are listed below:

vocabulary:
http://www.englishidioms.uni.cc/
listening english - english resources:
http://www.listen-to-english.com/
http://www.thewordnerds.org/
http://www.eslpod.com/website/
http://feeds.thisamericanlife.org/talpodcast
http://englishcaster.com/idioms/

portuguese-english blogs - surprisingly good material there!
http://www.teclasap.com.br/blog/
http://denilsodelima.blogspot.com/

All those are worth each minute you can spend on them.
And, just to deny I only pasted the websites, not ading anything of my own this week, I'd like to comment on an unusual word: bumpkim (sounds like pumpkin...). It is a word which shows disapproval, and sometimes is even offensive, used to refer to a person who was brought up in the countryside (remembers me of someone... jk). I was saving it for my vacations - going to receive an special guest - but couldn't just keep it for myself. As a way of not forgetting it, I wrote it on my hand before going bed, and, to my utter astonishment, it worked! Maybe I've just developped a new and fantastic method of language-study!! Well, let aside the joke, it is worth messing up with your study method. Although with time people tend to acquire knowledge of their favourite ways of learning, it is sometimes worth to change to less effective, different ways, even if it is just for fun. It is nice having an unusual learning experience, you'll remember it later. I think.

As usual, follows a saying - an English proverb this time:

Enough is as good as a feast.

Next week - or as I prefer to call it - this week, if the best comes to the best, I'll be able to post a heap of (= a lot of) sharp material here. Anyway, even if the worse comes to the worse, it will be done ASAP (= as soon as possible)

ttys! (talk to you soon)

The Changeling Twins of Corwrion

2008-03-25T03:40:00.000-07:00

Hi there!
Yeah I finally decided to post something in here! I thought long and hard about what should I write - you know, first post...very special thing ^^ - and I've decided on a traditional tale!
So I've searched the web from top to bottom and found this really cool website (http://www.cln.org/themes/fairytales.html) which contains a lot of tales from all over the world.
I've choosen a British one. Enjoy!

The Changeling Twins of Corwrion
John Rhys, Celtic Folklore

Once on a time, in the fourteenth century, the wife of a man at Corwrion had twins, and she complained one day to a witch, who lived close by, at Tydyn y Barcud, that the children were not getting on, but that they were always crying day and night.
"Are you sure that they are your children?" asked the witch, adding that it did not seem to her that they were like hers.
"I have my doubts also," said the mother.
"I wonder if somebody has exchanged children with you," said the witch.
"I do not know," said the mother. "But why do you not seek to know?" asked the other.
"But how am I to go about it?" said the mother.
The witch replied, "Go and do something rather strange before their eyes and watch what they will say to one another."
"Well, I do not know what I should do," said the mother.
"Well," said the other, "take an eggshell, and proceed to brew beer in it in a chamber aside, and come here to tell me what the children will say about it."
She went home and did as the witch had directed her, when the two children lifted their heads out of the cradle to find what she was doing--to watch and to listen.
Then one observed to the other, "I remember seeing an oak having an acorn," to which the other replied, "And I remember seeing a hen having an egg"; and one of the two added, "But I do not remember before seeing anybody brew beer in the shell of a hen's egg."
The mother then went to the witch and told her what the twins had said one to the other; and she directed her to go to a small wooden bridge not far off, with one of the strange children under each arm, and there to drop them from the bridge into the river beneath.
The mother went back home again and did as she had been directed. When she reached home this time, she found to her astonishment that her own children had been brought back.

So, the moral of the story is that witches are good at giving advice. - ?!
Maybe the traditional Celtic tales have no moral...

Well, that's all.
Take care!

What to study and what not to...

2008-03-21T06:51:00.000-07:00

Learning. Such an important thing (nowadays more than ever), it is a subject that fascinates me. As I grow older, I have come to realize the importance of planning and organizing the study as something special and capital on learning.

Thinking about things to post on this e-notebook, I went into considering what are the areas one should focus on when studying by him/herself. It turned out that what people might be lacking *personal point of view on* 'home vocabulary'. By this I mean tools to comunicate every-day simple things, often left aside on english courses. For example, what do the salt containers on restaurant are called, how to describe food flavours and textures, how to nickname a pet or to make jokes. I got to that through thinking on the profile of people who need to improve their english, but already have studied it for a time. These people already, I think, got handle of specific, career-linked vocabulary. Therefore the formal structure of the language is already something of a familiar ground to them (us). The big gap yet to be filled (besides, in some cases, literary vocab) is the language one use outside the walls of the laboratory/office/library. *personal point of view off*

People, I promise I will cut out the meta-discussions, it just happens that I like them ... a lot ...

Smart alecks . . .

2008-02-25T08:50:00.000-08:00

Finders keepers, losers weepers.

Childhood is really a rich time. It's when we build an important part of our cultural background, which is going to be quite useful in understanding many subtleties of the life in the community we belong to. I have been drawn into thinking about how much those cultural frameworks are important to the actual communication the other day. This led me to consider how deep it is interesting to dip into children's world when learning a new language.

As individuals, it is during the childhood that we are taught the language which is going to accompany us all our lives (usually). It seems reasonable therefore to consider peeking into how we teach children a language if one wants to learn about how we learn a (new) language. I was amazed, even though not really surprised, therefore to recognize some familiar ways of introducing vocabulary when I read a short story for children. *philosophical mode off*

I'll take the opportunity to do some anti-marketing here. Surprisingly enough, I'm not the only person blogging about english-learning on the web! Here's a nice blog I've just found, which has many interesting posts, and seems to be frequently updated: www.inglespraque.com (mainly writen in portuguese). I learned quite some new tricks in there, i.e.: that sure thing! may be used when one wants to express informally ready agreement: 'Could you give me a ride today?' 'Sure thing!' Frankly, that blog inspired me. I hope we can do here something nice like that!

There are some things left to say: smart alec(k), or smart ass is that person which always comes which an intelligent answer, usually intended to annoy people (a know-it-all). As for the 'saying', well it's something fit into grating category... referring to the 'belief' some people have that whoever finds something becomes it's owner, even if the actual owner happens to appear!

I'll stop here, this post is already too long. More later on!

A second thing

2008-02-19T15:56:00.000-08:00

To begin with, I'd like to share a saying I've just seen:

Many a true word is spoken in jest.

To me, the first obstacle was the meaning of jest. Accordingly to Cambridge's online dictionary (http://www.dictionary.cambridge.org), jest is something which is said or done in order to amuse, (hence in jest means intended as a joke and not said seriously).
So... "many a true word is spoken in jest" refers to humorous remarks which contain serious or truthful statements (yet according to Cambridge's dic).

Ah, almost had let it go: CEO is the abbreviation of Chief Executive Officer, as someone asked me the other day.
That's it for today!

First things...

2008-02-19T15:36:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! At last this blog was created (you're all supposed to agree).
This blog is meant to be an open notebook with interesting English vocab people come across. Here's where the motivation comes from:
I think we learn best through teaching. And we teach by telling people things we're interested in, or discoveries we made which brought us amusement. The interaction involved in telling, trying to transmit something, adds to the post-it we stick to our memories a special taste, which helps us remembering it - and therefore learning it.
So this is the space to tell your eager fellows - students of English - what you have just learned. I'm eager to hear from you!
My farewell!