Thanksgiving

A slice of pumpkin pie with whipped cream. I made this last Thanksgiving.

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. It's possibly my favorite holiday (read more about holidays in general here), but most people here in Costa Rica don't know anything about it. So today let's explore what the holiday is about! Many of these words --especially about foods-- may be new or strange for you, so I'll include definitions or explanations for the bold words at the end of the post.

First of all, Thanksgiving is an old holiday. The history of Thanksgiving is a bit complicated, though, and there are different ideas about the "first Thanksgiving." You can watch this video or any of the others on History.com if you want more general information about the holiday's history. For today I just want to focus on the modern celebration.

Thanksgiving is celebrated in the US on the fourth Thursday of every November. Most people generally have Thursday and Friday off from work or school, so generally people try to get together with friends and family for a big meal (sometimes called "Thanksgiving dinner" or a "feast"). Different people eat different foods for Thanksgiving, but the most common food is definitely turkey. As sides, people often eat cranberry sauce together with the meat --it may sound weird, but it's delicious! Additionally, people often eat mashed potatoes with gravy, bread or rolls, stuffing, and save the most delicious thing for dessert: pumpkin pie! 

It's a special time of year, and I think one of the best things about the holiday is that it's not commercial, and that it's just about spending time with loved ones and being thankful for the good things in your life. Many times people take turns saying what they're thankful for in their lives.

At the old school where I used to teach, the students wrote what they were thankful for on a paper leaf. What are you thankful for in your life?

Let's go over some of the vocabulary for today. Before you read the definitions, though, can you explain what each of the words means?

Thanksgiving

holiday

have ____ off

get together (with)

meal

dinner

feast

cranberry (sauce)

mashed 

gravy

rolls

stuffing

pumpkin pie

spend time

loved ones

be thankful for

take turns

Now, let's look at some definitions or explanations for each of the vocabulary words:

Thanksgiving - a holiday at the end of November in the US
holiday - a special day; normally people don't have to work on holidays (see here)
have ____ off - if you have a day off, it means you don't have to work or go to school
get together (with) - to meet with someone
meal - a time when people eat food; the three meals are normally breakfast, lunch, and dinner
dinner - the name for the main meal at Thanksgiving (sometimes it's at lunch time, though)
feast - a very large, special, or elaborate meal
cranberry (sauce) - a cranberry is a tart fruit (see here)
mashed - "mash" is very similar to "smash" or "crush"
gravy - a thick sauce made from meat juices; often served with meat and/or potatoes
rolls - small, individual pieces of bread
stuffing - a mixture of bread cubes, celery, and other ingredients; often cooked inside the turkey
pumpkin pie - a dessert made from pumpkin, a type of gourd
spend time - we normally use the verb "spend" for time (not "pass")
loved ones - people who are important or special to us
be thankful for - to appreciate someone or something
take turns - when different people do something in order, one person at a time

So, what about you? What are you thankful for? I'm thankful for you, for reading this blog! If you have any comments or questions, please leave a comment. Thanks again for reading, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Common Error: "Earn," "Win," and "Beat"

Good afternoon, and welcome again to Mistake Monday! I've been busy traveling the last few months, but I'm back in Costa Rica now, so I'll try to update the blog more frequently again. Today I want to look at another Common Error. If you're not sure what kinds of errors I'm talking about, look here for a list of previous errors we've looked at on the blog.

Monopoly (or "Monopolio," as it's called here in Costa Rica) is one of my favorite board games. I don't always win, but I often am able to beat my opponents by buying as many properties as possible. (Photo by Ryan Sitzman)

Today's error is found often when talking about sports or other types of contests. It's also confusing for Spanish speakers because one Spanish word (ganar) can mean all three of the English words. Let's have a closer look:

Common Error: Earn, Win, and Beat
DON’T say this:	"She wins a lot of money in her job." "Saprissa won La Liga in last night's soccer game."
WHY?	-Earn refers to the money a person receives for doing work or a job. For example, you can say: "Pablo earns 5,000 Colones per hour working for the phone company." "I'd like a job where I can earn enough money to support my family." In most cases, you can also use the word make instead of earn. ("Pablo makes 5,000 Colones..."). -Win (past tense: won) means that one person or team defeats or conquers another person or team. The opposite is lose (past tense: lost). When you use these words, you usually mention the competition or contest, but not the opponent: "Jenny was the winner of the poker tournament. She won $50,000!" "Spain won the World Cup in 2010." The team with the highest score is the winner, and the team with the lowest score is the loser. Also, you can win a contest or competition unexpectedly (like the lottery or a raffle, for example): "I hope I win a free car in the supermarket raffle!" -Beat: Finally, beat is similar to win, but it's used a little differently in a sentence. You have to indicate both the winner and the loser (opponent) when you use the word beat: "Terry beat Tommy in the video game, but Tommy beat Terry playing soccer."
INSTEAD, SAY THIS:	-"She earns a lot of money in her job." -"Saprissa beat La Liga in last night's soccer game." OR -"Saprissa won last night's soccer game."

Hopefully you understand. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment or contact me. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

False Friend: Groserías vs. Groceries

Good evening, and welcome to Word Wednesday! Today we'll look at another False Friend. If you're not sure what a False Friend is, check out this post (and go here for a list of the False Friends we've already talked about). Today we'll look at the difference between groserías in Spanish and groceries in English. 

This is our refrigerator right now. I'd say it's about time we bought some groceries!

False Friend: groserías vs. groceries
This SPANISH word...	Looks like this ENGLISH word...	...but they are DIFFERENT because...
groserías	groceries	In Spanish, groserías are bad words: "No me digas groserías!" ("Don't say bad words to me!") In English, groceries is a word that refers to all the food you buy at a store or supermarket: "We're almost out of milk, and we need to buy more pasta, also. Let's go to the store to buy some groceries." Notice also that the "c" in "groceries" is pronounced like an "sh," like in the word "she," at least in American English.

This is pretty easy to remember, and it's not that commonly confused --but when it is, it's pretty funny! Now that I think about it, I'll have to do a series on bad words in English and Spanish, since there are some that are very similar, but they're less serious or offensive in one language or the other. So stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for other False Friends or Common Errors, please tell me.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

A Really Good English Blog

Peter Bruegel's painting Tower of Babel. (Image)

I recently came across a blog called Separated by a Common Language. The author is a woman who goes by the name Lynneguist. The blog mostly focuses on differences and similarities between American and British English and indeed, the blog's name comes from a quote by George Bernard Shaw that says:

England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

It's a pretty funny quote, since in my job as an English teacher I constantly notice little differences between American and British English, but I really like how Lynneguist investigates and explains them more.

For example, in this post from a day ago she talked about how British people seem to be more likely to say "please" when making a request, especially in restaurants, and then explains why that may be. 

In short, I'd definitely recommend the site if you're an upper-intermediate or advanced English learner, or if you're a native speaker that just likes to learn more about our language's idiosyncrasies.

That's it for tonight. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend! 

False Friend: Colegio vs. College

A hallway at a colegio (high school) in San José, Costa Rica.
(Picture by Ryan Sitzman)

Hello! It's been a long time since we had a False Friend, so let's look at another one today. If you're not sure what a False Friend is, check out this post. Today we'll look at the difference between colegio in Spanish and college in English. 

False Friend: colegio vs. college
This SPANISH word...	Looks like this ENGLISH word...	...but they are DIFFERENT because...
colegio	college	In Spanish, a colegio is like a high school in English: "Ella va a un colegio bilingüe." ("She goes to a bilingual high school.") In English, college is basically the same thing as a university (apparently there's a difference in Britain and Canada, but in my experience in the US, the two were  essentially the same): "Most people in Costa Rica graduate from high school when they're between the ages of 17 and 19. After graduation, some of them go to college, and others get jobs right away."

So, it's pretty easy to tell the difference between these two words, right? Just remember, college=university. For our next False Friend I think we'll talk about the differences between a bachelor, a Bachelor's degree, and a bachillerato in Spanish. 

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for other False Friends or Common Errors, please tell me.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Senses: Final Review

When I drink coffee, it activates all five of my senses (and sometimes even my sixth sense: the ability to find more coffee). If coffee doesn't do the same thing for you, you're probably doing it wrong. (Picture by Ryan Sitzman)

Good evening! Last Friday we finished our last post related to the five senses. It's taken a few months, though, since it was a pretty complicated topic to talk about. So, I decided that for today's post, I'd just give a complete overview of all the other posts, so that you can have them all in one place and you can check any you might have missed.

The Five Senses

Introduction

This post introduced the topic, and also included a video that briefly explained how to use the sense words.

Sight

Sight Post 1:  Common Error. This post talked about how to use the words look at, see, and watch.

Sight Post 2: Vision Vocabulary. This talked about all sorts of words related to sight and vision.

Sight Post 3: Video. A video of Johnny Nash's song "I Can See Clearly Now."

Hearing

Hearing Post 1: Mistake Monday. This post examined the difference between the words listen and hear.

Hearing Post 2: Hearing Vocabulary. All sorts of vocabulary related to hearing and ears.

Hearing Post 3: Podcasts. A list of my top 5 favorite podcasts to practice listening skills.

Hearing Post 4: Common Error. Another common error post, this time about hear and sound.

Smell

Smell Post 1: Vocabulary. Words related to smelling and smells.

Smell Post 2: Videos. Two videos related to "smells."

Taste

Taste Post 1: Common Error. A post explaining the difference between taste, try, test, and prove.

Taste Post 2: Vocabulary. All sorts of vocabulary related to taste.

Touch

Touch Post 1: Common Error. The difference between touch and feel.

Touch Post 2: "Good" Touch Vocabulary

Touch Post 3: "Neutral" Touch Vocabuarly

Touch Post 4: "Bad" Touch Vocabulary

So, that's a lot of posts and a lot of information! If you've been following the series you obviously don't need to read all of these again, but it could be good to review some time in the future if you ever have any questions or problems related to the senses. 

And as usual, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to tell me.

As always, thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Mistake Monday: Find Two Errors

Hi! I was going to complete the series of posts on "touch" words, but today has been a long and tiring day, and I need to get up tomorrow morning for my Chinese class. So today, I'm just going to do a short post, and we'll finish the "touch" words on Wednesday.

Look at the picture below, taken from Turkish Airlines' website. Does anything look strange? I can find two mistakes, can you?*

We'll be back on Wednesday with the answer, as well as the final post in our "senses" series. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great night!

*By the way, I'm referring to language mistakes, not geography. But now that I think about it, there doesn't seem to be much order in the way they're listing cities or prices, either!

Sense Vocabulary: "Neutral Touch" Words

The two people in this picture are holding hands.
(Image by Elizabeth Ann Colette, used through a Creative Commons license)

Hello! Tonight we'll be looking at four more words related to the sense of touch. In our last post we talked about "good" touch, and today we'll talk about "neutral" touch, which are words that can be positive or negative, depending on the context and circumstances.

Today's words can be used for humans, but you may notice that they're also frequently used to talk about touching objects. The words are:

Touch, Poke, Hold and Grab: "Neutral" Touching

Touch

"Touch" is the most obvious of these words, and I'm only listing it here to mention that it can be positive, negative, or neutral, depending on how you use it. It's general, basically. It can also mean to make an emotional connection:

"I was touched by the thoughtful gift you gave to me, especially since I didn't expect it."

Poke

The children in this picture are using a stick to poke into the sand, possibly to find something. (Image by Jconnell22, used under a Creative Commons license)

"Poke" means to use your index finger (or any other single finger, or a long object like a stick or a pole) to touch something. People often poke things to test if they are dangerous, to feel their texture, or to check if they are alive:

"Jane drank a lot of wine and now she's apparently 'sleeping' on the couch. Someone should poke her to wake her up and make sure she's OK."

Hold

This animal is called a Hedgehog. The person is holding the hedgehog in his hand. (Image by Hundehalter, used under a Creative Commons license)

"Hold" is a word that indicates you continually have something in your hand for a period of time. It's often used in sentences like:

"Can you please hold this bag of groceries while I find my keys and open the door?"

Also, if two people have their hands together for a long period of time, they are holding hands (like in the first picture above). This is common in romantic couples.

Grab

The bars on the sides of this toilet are called grab bars. If a person has difficulties sitting or standing up, he or she can grab the bars to help keep their balance. (Image by Shoyuramen, used under a Creative Commons license)

"Grab" is very similar to hold or take, but it indicates taking something quickly or informally. For example, if you leave your house and realize you forgot something, you can say:

"Oh! I forgot my book. I'll go back inside to grab it."

Another way to use "grab" can be to use it like "get," as in:

"After we finish work, a few of us are going to a restaurant to grab some dinner. Do you want to come?"

So, that's it for today. On Monday we'll finish our trio of posts with three more "bad touch" words. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to join the conversation! Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Senses: Touch and Feel

Hello, and welcome again to Mistake Monday! It's been a few weeks since we looked at a Common Error. Today's is actually not very common, but I still wanted to mention it briefly.

I've never seen this game before, but somehow it still reminds me of my childhood.
Image by Axel Tregoning, used through Creative Commons license.

Remember that we were talking about the Five Senses, and that we still had one more to talk about: touch. When we experience this action, we also often use the word feel. This can get complicated, so we'll look at more vocabulary words related to these topics on Wednesday. For today, let's see quickly how to use these words:

Not-Very-Common Error: Touch and Feel
DON’T say this:	"She feels herself bad." "I want to learn to touch the guitar."
WHY?	Hey, I admitted that the errors weren't that common. Anyhow, here are a few tips: -Touch usually means to use your hands or fingers to make physical contact with an object or other person: The crazy man on the bus screamed, "Don't touch me, you aliens!" "Can you close your eyes and touch your nose? If not, you may be drunk." As you can see, touch is normally used as a verb, but there are also cases when you can use it as a noun. -Feel (past tense: felt) is closely related to touch. In fact, you can normally say that a person who touches "does" the action, and the person who feels "receives" the action: "Did you feel that tremor? It wasn't an earthquake, but I still felt the room shake a bit." "I went to the dentist and they gave me anesthesia. I can't feel my tongue when I touch it." -Feel is also commonly used with temporary physical states and emotions (but it's not reflexive like in Spanish or some other languages): "I feel really hot-- do you think you could open the window or turn on a fan or something?" "I felt really sad when my cat died." As you can see, feel is a verb. The noun form is feeling. BONUS: -Touch is not used with musical instruments (unless you only want to touch it... but most people prefer to play an instrument): "In the past I could play some songs on the piano and the saxophone, but I've forgotten how to play them."
INSTEAD, SAY THIS:	-"She feels bad." -"I want to learn to play the guitar."

Do you have any questions? Remember that on Wednesday we'll look at more vocabulary related to this sense. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment or contact me. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Common Error: Taste, Try, Test, and Prove

This is a picture of me sampling (tasting/trying) different batches of coffee at a tasting room in Palmares. This is my dream job! (Picture by Angela Jimenez) 

Good afternoon! Today is Mistake Monday, so I wanted to continue with our senses theme. This week's sense is taste. Today's Common Error is actually a series of confusing words and errors. Most of them are related to the Spanish verb probar, which can be translated into a few English words. Have a look:

Common Error: Taste, Try, Test, and Prove
DON’T say this:	"I haven't proved your tacos. Can I have a test?" "Tomorrow we will prove five different types of coffee."
WHY?	Basically, all of these words can be expressed with the verb "probar" in Spanish. But there are different uses for each in English: -Taste is to put something into your mouth to experience its flavor (saborear in Spanish): "This pizza tastes wonderful!" "I am sick and have a stuffy nose so I can't taste very well." -Try can also be similar to "taste" if you're talking about food, but it can also mean to attempt to do something (like intentar in Spanish): "Would you like to try a piece of this cake I made?" "I will try to come to class on time." -Test can also mean to "try," but we don't normally use it with food. It's more commonly used to see if something functions correctly, or with evaluations and exams (similar to evaluar in Spanish): "Our teacher is going to test us on our new vocabulary." "I took my DVD player to the repair shop, but when they tested it they couldn't find the problem." -Prove means to demonstrate that something is true or real. It's often used in science and math: "Isaac Newton did experiments to prove that gravity exists." "The suspect proved to the police that he was innocent."
INSTEAD, SAY THIS:	-"I haven't tried/tasted your tacos. Can I have a taste?" -"Tomorrow we'll try/taste five different types of coffee."

I hope my explanations make sense. If you try to use them in different situations, please tell me how it goes! On Wednesday we'll look at more vocabulary related to these words, especially taste. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment or contact me. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Fun Friday: Two "Smell" Videos

Hi Everyone! It's Fun Friday, but only for 20 minutes more (I'm writing this at 11:40 pm). I thought this would be a good occasion to post two of my favorite videos for songs about smell. The first you've probably heard if you listened to any popular music in the last 20 years. It's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana (and if you can understand the lyrics without looking at this site, then your English is better than mine!):

In any case, the video was very popular when I was in junior high school, but I still like the song even now. And since you've seen that video, now you can watch the Weird Al Yankovic parody of the song called "Smells Like Nirvana." Here are the lyrics, which basically joke about how hard it is to understand Nirvana's lyrics! Enjoy:

So, thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Common Error: "Hear" vs. "Sound"

"Behind the Scenes at Sitzman ABC": Sitzman ABC has a dedicated team of sound mixing technicians that spend hours and hours getting the sound perfect for each post on our site.

Just kidding. This is just a picture of a guy at a sound board, probably in a recording studio. (Image)

Hello! It's Mistake Monday again, and we're continuing with our series about senses in English. This week I want to talk about the sense of smell, but I don't have a Common Error related to smell. So, for today I decided to do one more post related to last week's topic, hearing. Then, for Word Wednesday we'll continue with vocabulary related to smell. 

How does that sound?

I hope it sounds good, because that's how it's going to be, haha! In fact, that's today's Common Error: 

Common Error: Hear vs. Sound
DON’T say this:	"The music hears excellent." "Celine Dion sound herself very bad."
WHY?	-Remember that last week we talked about the difference between hear and listen. Those are two verbs that we can use when we receive and process sound in our ears. -Sound is used to describe when we produce sounds. It's a bit complicated because "sound" can be a verb ("sonar" in Spanish) or a noun ("sónido" in Spanish). -As a verb: "This music sounds great! What exactly are you listening to?" -As a noun: "It was so quiet in the house that you couldn't hear a sound." Note: It's also common to use "sound" to express your opinion about an idea or some general information, and is often followed by "like": -"That sounds like a great idea!" -"Based on your description, Rodrigo sounds like a very nice person."
INSTEAD, SAY THIS:	-"The music sounds excellent." -"Celine Dion sounds very bad."

That's it for today! If you have questions or comments, please leave a comment or contact me. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Hearing, Part 3: My Top 5 Favorite Podcasts

Use your headphones, don't let them get moldy like mine!
(Although mine are moldy because of the climate, not neglect)

Hello! It's Friday, so you know what that means: party! But when you get a chance to look at this blog again on Sunday evening, I wanted to share my suggestions for my Top 5 Favorite Podcasts. All the podcasts in this list are produced in the USA and are therefore fairly advanced, but you may like them and learn something even if you're not a native speaker. 

You can find all of these podcasts for free through iTunes (that's what I do), or you can go to each podcast's webpage for more information about getting the episodes. So, here's my list!

5. On The Media - This is a weekly NPR (National Public Radio) program that investigates news stories and how they are reported. We have a TV in my house, but we don't have an antenna or cable, so we don't get any channels. Listening to programs like this help me keep at least partially connected to reality. 

4. Stuff You Should Know - I talked about this podcast a while back, and you can read my comments here. The main idea: I still like and recommend this podcast.

3. This American Life - Same as number 4; I mentioned this on the blog here, and I still think it's a great weekly podcast that you should check out.

2. Freakonomics - I've still never read the book with the same title, but I've become a big fan of this podcast, which comes out at least once a week. It's motto is "the hidden side of everything," and it does have quite a variety of topics. It does talk about numbers and statistics, but it still makes economics seem interesting.

1. The Complete Guide To Everything - This is still one of my favorite weekly podcasts, if not my absolute favorite. It's hosted by Tim and Tom, two guys who live in Brooklyn. They mainly just talk about (or around) a new topic every week. It's very funny, and I like their humor. Have a listen if you've not already.

So, that's it for today. Have a great weekend or if you are indeed reading this on Sunday evening like I suspect, then have a nice week!

Senses: Hearing, Part 1

A chart showing the way our bodies hear sounds. (Image)

Hello, and welcome to Mistake Monday! Last week we looked at different words related to the sense of sight, and this week we'll examine the next sense: hearing. This is the sense that you do with your ears; it's also referred to as "listening," but what's the difference between the words "hear" and "listen"? That's a good question, and it's actually a common error that I notice in my classes. So, here is a re-posting of one of our first Common Errors to help explain the difference:

Common Error: Confusing "listen" and "hear"
DON’T say this:	I'm sorry, but I wasn't hearing to you. Hear! I think I listen a car coming! Did you listen that noise just now?
WHY?	Much like the difference between "watch," "see," and "look," the difference between "listen" and "hear" has a lot to do with intention: -You naturally hear things; "to hear" is to perceive sounds that reach your ears by using your sense of hearing. You normally don't plan to hear: it's spontaneous. -To hear of/about something means to have knowledge related to that thing. -If you listen, you carefully or continuously hear something. You have to pay attention to listen to something. If you have an object that follows the word "listen," be sure to add the word "to." -Additionally, "listen" can be used as an interjection, but "hear" generally can't.
INSTEAD, SAY THIS:	-"Listen to this CD. It's great!" -"Sorry, but I didn't hear what you said. I wasn't listening." -"Have you heard about Pete? He got fired for always coming to work late!"

Many people, especially as they become older, have trouble hearing and need to use hearing aids to help them hear. (Image)

So, I hope that helps a bit. On Wednesday we'll look at more words related to the sense of hearing. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Sight: "I Can See Clearly Now"

For today's Fun Friday post I was looking for a song related to sight or vision and I found this classic song by Johnny Nash. It's been redone by a few different people, but this version is probably the best. I'll include the video, as well as the lyrics. I hope you like it, and I hope you have a great weekend!

Lyrics:

I Can See Clearly Now, by Johnny Nash

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.

I think I can make it now, the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is the rainbow I’ve been prayin' for
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.

Look all around, there’s nothin' but blue skies
Look straight ahead, nothin' but blue skies

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you again on Monday for the next sense in our series: hearing!

Sight, Part 2: Vision Vocabulary

If this guy doesn't take the blindfold off his eyes, I have a feeling the binoculars won't help. (Image)

On Monday we talked about how to use the words look (at), see, and watch, so today I wanted to include a bit more vocabulary. Besides these three verbs, there are a lot of synonyms for actions that you can do with your eyes. Watch this video and see what different words you can find. Do you know how to spell them?

Let's quickly go through the words in the video. The man speaks very clearly (here's his site for more English practice), but it's still good to see what the words look like. The words he mentioned are: 

blink, wink, stare, gaze, peek, peep, and glare

Can you explain the differences between these words? How often do you do these actions, and when do you do them? If you aren't sure how to answer these questions, watch the video again and see if you can find the explanations.

Finally, I wanted to add the phrasal verb "check (it) out," which I use very frequently. It is a less-formal way to say "look." You can also move the object that you're looking at when you make the sentence, but if you use the pronoun, it's more common to put it between "check" and "out." For example, you can say:

"I'm going to check out Sitzman ABC."

OR

"I'm going to check it out." 

So, that's it for today. Be sure to check out the blog on Friday for another post related to this week's sense: sight. Thanks for reading, and have a nice night!

Senses: Sight, Part 1

Be sure to put on your glasses (or get your eyes checked) before you read this post. (Image)

As I mentioned last Friday, for the next series of posts I'd like to talk about the 5 senses. To start off, we'll look at the eyes this week. The name of the sense that your eyes perceive is usually called sight or vision. We'll look at more related words on Wednesday for Word Wednesday but for today I wanted to re-post one of the first Common Errors I put up, from back in 2010. It explains when to use the words "look," "see," and "watch." I did make a few small changes based on a recommendation by a coworker earlier today. Have a look:

Common Error: Confusing "see," "look (at)," and "watch"
DON’T say this:	See! There's a giant snake over there! Let's go to the mall and look a movie. I like to see the show "Smallville"
WHY?	This is a difficult problem because the differences between these words are subtle: -“See” means to perceive something by using your eyes (vision). You normally don’t plan to see, you just do it naturally or spontaneously: "It's very dark in this room--I can't see a thing!" One exception is if you're making plans to do something that involves your eyes (like going to a movie or visiting a family member): "I'm going to go see/visit my grandma this weekend, and we may even go see/watch a movie." -When you look at something, you generally move your eyes to see it. This is an action that you plan to do, and you look at something for a reason. Both “look” and “see” could be used as interjections, but “look” is much more common: "Look at this backpack; do you think it would hold all my books and my laptop?" -The word “watch” is similar to “look (at),” but it generally indicates a longer period of time. If you watch, you are carefully or continuously observing something. This is the most common verb to use with TV or movies. Things that you watch are generally moving or involve movement: "I spent the whole afternoon babysitting, watching my neighbor's kids. But it was easy since we just watched a movie on TV."
INSTEAD, SAY THIS:	-“Look! There's a giant snake over there!” -“Let's go to the mall and see/watch a movie.” -"I like to watch the TV show 'Smallville.'" -“I was watching the soccer game, but when the lights went out in the stadium, it was too dark to see anything.” -“I want to exchange my Dollars for Euros, so I’ve been watching the currency exchange rate closely.

"Then again, John MAY just be really dull." (Image)

So, I hope that is clear. What are your favorite activities that you like to do using each of these verbs? Please feel free to leave a comment below if you'd like. 

Thanks for reading and looking at my website. Be sure to watch the Internet on Wednesday for another post with more vocabulary involving sight. Have a nice week, and I'll see you again on Wednesday!

Introduction to Senses

Today I want to talk about words related to the senses, since they involve a lot of good vocabulary. We'll focus on one sense per week over the next few weeks, but for today's Fun Friday video I thought it would be good to have a short introduction to the senses, so that everyone knows what we're talking about.

I found this very good video on the internet that explains how we talk about the senses in English, and it also has text, so you can find new vocabulary, also. Check it out, and next week we'll begin talking about these words and concepts:

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Football

Opening Trivia Question: What do you call the girl throwing the ball in the picture? 

A) The Quarterback  B) The Pitcher  C) The Seeker  D) The Umpire  E) Jenny

(Photo by Edward Simpson)

Good evening, and welcome to Word Wednesday! Today we're going to talk about sports. To be honest, I'm not a very sporty guy. I like to do exercise and walk around and do stuff, but I just don't like watching sports on TV. It's really boring for me, although that's obviously a personal preference.

Every play in a football game is 4 "exciting" seconds of chaos followed by 5 minutes of commercials. (Photo by Ed Yourdon)

Nevertheless, a few of my students are going to do a presentation on "American Football" tomorrow, and I found myself in a position where I had to explain some of the concepts of the game to them. I was a little embarrassed that I actually know so much about the game, so please don't tell anyone!

First of all, in much of the world "football" is the sport where players kick the ball with their feet and try to get it into the goal. It has 90 minutes of excruciatingly boring play, frequently punctuated by players falling down and faking injuries like drama queens. For a few countries, though, that same sport is called "soccer." It's called "soccer" in the USA, of course, but the name "soccer" is also very common in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa, since all of those countries have different sports that are referred to as "football."

In another half-second, all three of these players will be on the ground, holding different body parts, pretending to be in pain. This is the "thrill" of soccer. (Photo by Ingythewingy)

In the US, "football" is completely different. In Costa Rica and Latin America, at least, it's called "American Football," although they also say "we're all Americans," so something doesn't quite compute. But that's OK. A football game in the US has 60 minutes of excruciatingly boring play, but a game somehow takes about 4 hours to finish since the play is constantly interrupted by commercial breaks. It's really quite intolerable. The players also wear a lot more padding and equipment than in soccer. To play football without getting killed you should wear a helmet, shoulder pads, wrist tape, a mouth guard, knee braces, thigh pads, a jock strap and shoes with cleats. 

Some people say that football is better than soccer because football has beautiful cheerleaders. I'll admit it: these women are more attractive than me and better dancers, too. However, if you need to look at beautiful women to distract you from the sport you're supposed to be watching, then I'm sorry, but your sport is boring. (Photo by Keith Allison)

Here's some "cheerleader math" for you: The average cost of a ticket to a professional football game is almost $77, and some are even over $100--and that's the average cost. Parking can cost around $20, hot dogs can cost $6 or $7 a piece, a pop or beer is about $8, and in the end, you may not even see a cheerleader if it's snowing. However, the price of a copyright-free picture of a beautiful cheerleader is exactly $0.00 on the internet. So which is a better deal? (Photo by Keith Allison)

On the other hand, if you want to play soccer you just need some shoes, but even that is probably optional if they get stolen or you forget them on the bus. In soccer, players try to kick a ball into a goal. There are more rules, but that's the main idea of the game. It's pretty simple.

The main idea of football is... well, it's a lot more complicated than almost any sport except cricket, chess, or assembling furniture. I think it's (much) better if I let Burt Reynolds explain it to you:

So, did you get that? Hopefully so. It's cheesy but kind of funny. I really liked this video, mainly because it had Burt Reynolds, but also because of the amazing music and breathtaking fashion trends.

Ugghhh, here we go again: a soccer player fakes an injury to interrupt Sitzman ABC. The clock is still running, but don't get your hopes up: The worst part about soccer injuries (besides the pain the players suffer) is that the referees add extra time on the clock at the end of the game to make up for the lost time treating the injury. (Photo by ecmorgan)

So which is "better": soccer or football? It's very hard to decide. In both sports grown adults run around in the grass for a few hours and get paid more money in an hour than I'll earn in my life. Both sports are really boring unless you are drunk or have a very loose definition of the word "entertainment." Football's advantage is that it has cheerleaders and Burt Reynolds supporting it, but soccer's advantage is that the games end more quickly, giving you more time to do something more interesting and productive than reading a sport. In the end the score is zero to zero, so I'll have to call it a tie!

And that's it for today. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment, either in the comment form below, or by calling Burt Reynolds directly.

Thanks for reading, and have a great night!

Common Error: "News"

"Breaking News" refers to a news story that is urgent or developing at the moment. The particular piece of news in the picture was the death of Michael Jackson. (Image by David McKelvey)

Welcome again to Mistake Monday! We actually talked about today's Common Error a few times in my class last week, so I thought it would be appropriate to mention it here. It's also easy to correct:

Common Error: Use of the word "news"
DON’T say this:	"Did you hear the new? Joan is pregnant!" "That's a very sad new." "That's a very sad news."
WHY?	-This is confusing because noticias in Spanish is usually translated as "news" in English. And that's correct, but only when it's plural. -"the news" is an idea or a concept (not something physical), and we treat it like a plural noun in English. For example: "I got some good news at work today--they're going to give me a raise!" "I watch the news on TV and read the newspaper every day." -If we need to make this idea singular, we can't count "news" since it's an abstract idea. Instead, we can add the phrase "a piece of": "I got an annoying piece of news from the bank: my account is overdrawn." But even in this case, it's still more common to treat the world as a plural and use the word "some": "I got some annoying news from the bank: my account is overdrawn."  BONUS TIP! The word "new" exists in English, of course, but it's only used as an adjective (descriptive word) that means the opposite of "old" or "used."
INSTEAD, SAY THIS:	-"Did you hear the news? Joan is pregnant!" -"That's some very sad news." OR -"That's a very sad piece of news."

That's it for today! If you have questions or comments, please leave a comment or contact me. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!