C2 Class:
We reviewed some countries and nationalities today. The countries and nationalities we reviewed are in the following list:
COUNTRY - NATIONALITY
France - French
Mexico - Mexican
Spain - Spanish
Turkey - Turkish
Greece - Greek
Poland - Polish
USA - American
Britain - British
Mongolia - Mongolian
Russia - Russian
China - Chinese
Canada - Canadian
We also learned when to use the word for the country and when to use the word for the nationality.We use the word for the country after the word FROM:
Example:
I'm from Canada.
My cashmere sweater is from Mongolia.
We use the word for nationality when it comes after the verb BE (am/are/is):
Example:
I'm Canadian.
They are Chinese.
This cashmere is Mongolian.
We can also use the word for nationality when it is describing another word:
Example:
I like French perfume. ['French' is describing "perfume".]
Mongolian cashmere is very good quality. ['Mongolian' is describing "cashmere".]
Chinese food is delicious. ['Chinese' is describing "food".]
!!! Notice that whether we are saying the word for the country or the word for the nationality, they both start with a capital (big) letter. Eg., She is from Russia. I like Russian dancing.
C2 class, please make sure that when you are in my class, you are listening to me and doing work for my class, not for another teacher's class!
C1 Class:
In this class, we talked about some family vocabulary:
parents --> your mom and dad
grandparents --> your grandmother and grandfather
niece --> your brother's or sister's daughter
nephew --> your brother's or sister's son
first name --> this is also known as your given name. It is the name that your friends and family use to call you.
last name --> this is also known as your surname or your family name. It is the name that is used to link you to other people in the same family (your siblings and your father would have the same last name as you). It is also used to distinguish you from other people who have the same first name as you.
Then, we did some listening practice, and we finished up with some speaking practice. We role played the following conversation:
A: Hello, my name's [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME].
B: Oh, hi! I'm [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME]. Nice to meet you!
A2 Class:
In this class, we reviewed the following phrases, which are commonly used to describe jobs:
travel a lot --> travel to many different places for work
work part-time --> work less than 40 hours per week
work full-time -->work 40 hours or more per week
get good salaries --> get paid a lot of money
work outdoors --> work outside
work indoors -->work inside
use a computer --> do your work on a computer
work shifts --> work in blocks of time at various times of the day
work long hours --> work more than eight hours a day, usually ten to twelve hours per day
work 9 to 5 --> start work at 9:00am and finish at 5:00pm, like in Dolly Parton's song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqiwEafCJ74)
start early in the morning --> start work very early in the morning (usually around 6:00am or earlier)
wear a uniform --> everyone at work wears the same clothes to work (similar to a school uniform, but for work)
work with their hands --> use your hands to do some kind of skilled work (working with your hands usually requires the use of some kind of tool)
We also started to learn about the present simple. We use the present simple to talk about habits and routines (things that you always do) or permanent states (things that will never change, like being short, for example). I promised a more detailed lesson on the present simple in the next class.
A3 Class:
We reviewed "this" and "that". We say this for things that are near enough to touch, and we say that for things that are too far away from us for us to touch them easily (usually, we need to point).
Then we talked about the definite article a/an. We say a if it is before a word that starts with a consonant and we say an if it is before a word that starts with a vowel.
Remember that the vowels are AEIOU(Y) and a consonant is any of the following letters: BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWX(Y)Z.
Two new vocabulary words we learned are "department store" (in Mongolian, ikh delguur-- don't ask me how I know that!) and "fiddle". A fiddle is exactly like a violin, except for we say "violin" when we are using it to play classical music (like Beethoven or Mozart), and we say "fiddle" when we are using it to play more folksy/country music. Here is a link to a youtube video of Canadian musician, Ashley MacIsaac having a stomping good time while playing his fiddle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tIT8VuZ92c
Then, we talked about how you know more English than you think. We talked about some words that sound similar in Mongolian and English, and we discovered that French might sound even more similar to Mongolian than English does. Still, the English words sound pretty similar. Here is a list of similar-sounding English words that we came up with: cinema / theatre / museum / tea / centre / supermarket / internet / cafe / cafeteria / camp / french fry
We finished the class with a listening excercise in which we had to fill in some blanks. One important thing to remember (which is something that even many native speakers of English have problems with) is that the word "no" means the opposite of "yes"; the word "now" means "at this very moment (and it sounds different than the word "no" or "know"); and the word "know" refers to knowledge that you already have in your brain.
The listening exercise also turned out to be useful questions and phrases that any non-native speaker of English should know and should never feel ashamed to say. Here they are:
What's this in English?
How do you say ikh delguur in English?
What does fiddle mean?
I'm sorry, I don't know.
I'm sorry, I don't understand.
Can you repeat that, please?
Can you speak more slowly, please?
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