You now have a word bank of adverbs. Let’s start to use them … correctly.
We’ll keep it really simple, ça va ?
Remember – never start with a pronoun (he, she, it, they etc). Say what the subject is then what they are doing, then HOW they are doing the verb – use an adverb.
1) The tall man is hiding …
a) easily b) mysteriously c) greedily
2) The Korean girl is looking at her friend …
a) well b) calmly c) angrily
3) The talented musician plays his guitar …
a) very well b) nervously c) politely
4) The man in the white T-shirt eats …
a) greedily b) carefully c) honestly
5) The funny man rides the bus …
a) seriously b) dangerously c) beautifully
Now … your turn
Write sentences about these photos. Top Cats, I expect amazing adjectives, perfect grammar and creative thinking.
Please Note: All photos are taken from Google Images or free photo sites, and are used for educational purposes only. No copyright infringement or offense is intended. If I have used your photo or image, and you wish me to remove it, just ask. This site is not monetized, I run it on my own dollar. Thank you.
Let’s kick off with an adjective review. What adjectives have you been taught recently ? I’ll give you a clue with the first letter:
f (means to be cheeky, a little impolite but in a funny way)
u (not usual, someone acting unlike their normal self)
p (very relevant, of interest at this time)
This is a test to see who has been making notes in class, and who has been coasting.
Hhhmmmm … this is not going to be a piece of cake
The answers are facetious, uncharacteristically & pertinent. For those that didn’t know, you now have to use them in a sentence. It may be one complex sentence, which would really impress me, or three basic sentences. What are you waiting for ?
If you learn English you will increase your job ____________
Nowadays, most young people are _____________ _________________ . They are able to use programs such as Word, ___________ & ________
When selecting a university, you may have to be ______________ in case you don’t get into your first choice.
Getting a great, well-paying job is essential if you want a high ________________________ .
One student moved to Boston where the temperature can drop to below freezing. He’s really having ________ to the new culture.
My actor friend is busy 24/7, attending parties, setting up meeting, pitching ideas and Tweeting. That guy is constantly ______________ .
Phew ! Thay Paul is a Tiger Teacher
Class Game
Split class into two teams.
One team selects an idiom and the other team has to use it, correctly of course, in a sentence.
EXAMPLE:
I would love this guitar, a left-handed Rickenbacker which is a famous American company with a very distinctive look and sound yet, to my dismay, it costs ______________________
Idioms from Semester 2
Another string to (your) bow – a new skill or learning experience
bear with me – please wait a very short time (usually spoken as opposed to written)
bit of a sore point – something that makes you sad or angry
down in the dumps – depressed, unhappy, feeling gloomy
hit the ground running – to start something immediately and with all your energy
like a madhouse – a place or area that is crazy, too noisy, too busy etc
run of the mill – ordinary, typical, normal, usual, boring
up in arms – to be very angry about something, to protest strongly
you take your life in your hands – doing something that is extremely dangerous
Idioms from Semester 1
Which you should all know by heart and be able to reel off at the drop of a hat.
it’s raining cats and dogs
it costs an arm and a leg
piece of cake
I’m burning the candle at both ends
once in a blue moon
pass with flying colours
Remember these old chestnuts ?
without further ado // tricks up your sleeve // ace the test
pass with flying colours // do yourself proud //
you are in the driver seat(or you are in the driving seat) //
Please Note: All photos are taken from Google Images or free photo sites, and are used for educational purposes only. No copyright infringement or offense is intended. If I have used your photo or image, and you wish me to remove it, just ask. This site is not monetized, I run it on my own dollar. Thank you.
Just because you’re having online classes, with different teachers, (lucky you) doesn’t mean you should stop expanding your knowledge of weird and wacky English expressions, and let me tell you, you won’t find many of these in those cotton-pickin’ textbooks.
English speakers use animals as:
metaphor (my neighbour is a pig)
simile (she drinks like a fish)
idiom (look what the cat dragged in)
adjective form (he is rather bovine – like a cow, she moves with a feline grace – like a cat)
Today, I’m going to introduce you to expressions featuring animals, some of which may not be suitable for polite company …hey, you want to learn REAL English … that’s how we speak !
Now, without further ado …
ANTS: Ants in your pants – when someone can’t keep still, is always moving about which can be very irritating.
BATS: Bat-shit crazy – NOT used in formal, standard English. This is more common in US English to describe someone who is acting very strangely.
CATS: To let the cat out of the bag – to tell a secret, to tell something you were not supposed to disclose.
DOGS: Gone to the dogs – someone or something that was once respectable but is now dirty, useless etc.
ELEPHANT: Couldn’t hit an elephant – implies that someone is very bad at something for example, if they had a rifle they wouldn’t be able to hit a very large target.
SIDEBAR: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance,” are the famous last words of John Sedgwick, an officer in the Union army in the US Civil War. He meant that the enemy was so far away, they couldn’t possible hit a massive target let alone a single man. Sedgwick was, ironically, shot and killed by the enemy. Read more here:
FISH: Like shooting fish in a barrel – refers to something that is so easy, no effort at all is required to be successful.
Groucho Barks ?
At this point, time to stop and reflect, practice what you’ve learnt. What expression fits ?
He used to be a respectable professional, but his wife left him he began drinking and now he’s _______________________________
The bloody woman next to me on the plane just wouldn’t sit still. She had ___________________________________
I’m never teaching that class again ! The kids are all __________
This job is so easy, it’s _________________________________
Oh ! I knew they had a secret. Now the _____________________
Don’t worry about Peter, he’s so bad, he _______________________
Hahahah ants in my pants, I love that one !
Ready for some more ? OK, let’s kick it !
GOLDFISH: Living in a goldfish bowl – a life with no privacy, everyone can see what you do, all the time.
HORSE: A dark horse – someone that has hidden talents or abilities
INSECT: Go away, you little insect – not polite, used when someone is making you feel very uncomfortable, or is harassing you.
JACKASS: You jackass ! – again, very informal signifying a silly or stupid person.
LION: Taking the lion’s share – taking the biggest amount of something.
MONKEY: Too much monkey business – too much madness or uncontrollable behaviour
Practice makes perfect so … kick it !
You spent $100 on that Relox watch, made in China ! _____
Being famous is awful, everyone taking photos all the time, it’s like _____________________________________
I can’t work for this company anymore, I don’t trust them, ________________________________________
As the CEO, he took ___________________________ of the bonus.
I don’t want to buy those cheap fake sunglasses, go away you _________
Wow, Julie wrote this ? It’s so good, she’s a real _________________ always so quiet in class.
OK, enough for one blog, I’ll continue N – Z if there’s any interest, I’ll continue N- Z even if there isn’t any interest. Now I gotta prepare for two online classes and a speaking placement test, drink tea (I am English, don’t forget) and hope my internet doesn’t act like a jackass and pack up on me.
IELTS students always need to concentrate on expanding their lexical resources. Having said that, I feel this class needs extra work on fluency and pronunciation. To that end, some exercises to assist:
Exercise 1: Just a minute. In pairs, one student has to speak for one minute without repetition, hesitation or deviation.
The subjects are: Your favourite gift // your neighbourhood // what you like about your city // shopping // your family
Exercise 2: Newsreader. Read the following extracts with appropriate pronunciation, intonation and stress, not forgetting body language.
Some stories are sombre (sad, solemn), others convey information that is somewhat depressing or raise concern. However, we end with some lighter entertainment gossip and football transfer speculation.
LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II returned to royal duties just four days after the death of her husband, Prince Philip, with her first in-person event Tuesday.
The queen hosted a ceremony at Windsor Castle for William Peel, who retired after serving for 14 years as lord chamberlain, the most senior aide in the royal household.
A report by the World Travel and Tourism Council, or WTTC, has revealed the full extent of the damage done to the global travel industry in 2020 after business was devastated by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Globally, the sector’s income slumped by almost $4.5 trillion last year. In 2019, travel and tourism was linked to one in four of all new jobs created around the world. But in 2020, more than 62 million jobs were lost.
HCMC – The Ministry of Health has confirmed 16 new imported Covid-19 cases in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Hanoi, Danang, Quang Nam and HCMC, taking the country’s tally to 2,733 as of tonight, April 14.
Five of the new cases were reported in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. The patients, aged between 29 and 39, returned to Vietnam from Russia on Flight VN5062 on April 12. They were immediately transported to Ba Ria-Vung Tau for quarantine after arriving at the HCMC-based Tan Son Nhat International Airport. All of them are being treated at Long Dien District Medical Center.
Who is Hey Stephen by Taylor Swift about?
The song is about a crush Taylor had on Stephen Barker Liles, who’s in the band Love and Theft.
The two reportedly met in 2008 when his band was opening up for her on tour.
Speaking to Access Online, Taylor said: “The song is actually about a guy who I had a crush on and never told him.
“So I wrote everything that I was thinking down in the song instead of telling him.”
Manchester United are eager to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Juventus – according to Sai Gon Post.
The Red Devils will consider an exchange deal that would see Paul Pogba return to Turin in order to bring Ronaldo back to Old Trafford this summer.
United are on course to receive a big payout for finishing in the Premier League’s top four again, and plan to put those funds towards the re-capture of a club legend.
See you next week
Vietnam festival, London 2012 … it was raining cats and dogs !
Everybody Up 6, Unit 4: Review new vocabulary, fixed expressions and sentence building
What does she use ?
In my opinion she uses perfume. She needs shampoo as well as conditioner.
NOW … Your turn
In ___________________ he uses ___________ . He wants ___________ as well as ______________.
__________________ she uses __________ as well as ____________. When her hair looks great, she feels de__________ .
In ___________________ he doesn’t ever use __________ or __________ on his hair. He has a b_____ so he doesn’t need to buy a r________ .
________________ she uses _________ before playing in the sun. After sports, she takes a ___________ so she needs a b_____ of s______. When she’s finished she puts on d____________ .
I reckon he has no t________ so he doesn’t need to buy a t_____ of __________ or use d_______ f_______. However, he may want to use some m___________ .
I r___________ the dog wants to go out. The dog doesn’t need ___________ or _________ . However, it is raining cats and dogs, so he feels very dis_________________ .
You should use ________________ before you go to school.
A quick recap of recent language. Tell me what you like.
Example
Google Images (photostockeditor.com)
I like playing guitar as well as playing with elephants.
freepik.com
I love playing loud music as well as playing with big grey intelligent elephants.
Elephants are very strong as well as very hungry.
Sometimes Mr Elephant is so clever, he can play piano
What does he like ?
NOW, who works in a:
hospital // a school // a restaurant // a bus ?
Does she work in an airport ?
Does he work in a school ?
Do they work in a school ?
Do they work in a school ?
What do you want ?
I want some delicious spaghetti
Why ? Because I’m very hungry.
I want some delicious spaghetti because I’m very hungry.
What does he want ?
He wants _______________ because he’s ______
What does she want ?
She __________________ because she’s _______
Does he want salad ?
Does she want steak ?
What do you want to eat ?
Please Note: All photos are taken from Google Images or free photo sites, and are used for educational purposes only. No copyright infringement or offense is intended. If I have used your photo or image, and you wish me to remove it, just ask. This site is not monetized, I run it on my own dollar. Thank you.
Our plan for the next semester is to develop speaking skills – presentation and delivery – as well as, naturally, increasing vocabulary, colocations, phrases, idioms … in short, the whole nine yards.
New idioms
I don’t want to overburden the class with too many idioms, so these are what we’ll be using over this semester. That means using them repeatedly until they become second nature and the students, of whom I am very fond, will have another string to their bow … oh, heck – ANOTHER idiom !
Another string to (your) bow – a new skill or learning experience
bear with me – please wait a very short time (usually spoken as opposed to written)
bit of a sore point – something that makes you sad or angry
down in the dumps – depressed, unhappy, feeling gloomy
hit the ground running – to start something immediately and with all your energy
like a madhouse – a place or area that is crazy, too noisy, too busy etc
run of the mill – ordinary, typical, normal, usual, boring
up in arms – to be very angry about something, to protest strongly
you take your life in your hands – doing something that is extremely dangerous
NOW … your turn … what idioms fits ?
At breaktimes, all the younglings come pouring out of their classes, screaming their little heads off …
it’s ___________________________________
Students are unhappy about tuition fees
They are _____________
She can speak five languages, do karate and is now learning violin
She has added __________________________
She thought the novel would be extremely exciting.
Unfortunately, for her, it’s just a ___________________ story.
Some areas of downtown are no-go areas.
You really _________________________________________ if you go after dark and alone.
Poor Buster is so funny, yet he always looks _______________________
Oh, dear …
This beautiful young lady seems to be upset about something.
Possibly something the man said is a ______________________ with her ?
We’re going to have a tremendous success with our new product which we shall be launching in Europe, the US and parts of Asia.
We’re really going to ________________________________
Excuse me, I have to take this call _______________________
Part two:
How would you describe these neighbourhoods ? I want full sentences, as complex as you can make them, bursting with idioms, expressions and Low-Frequency Words. Give your opinions – would you like to go there, or even live there ? Explain your rationale.
Manchester, north-west England
Tunbridge Wells, south of London
Birmingham in the British Midlands
Rural Wales
Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, during the festival
Part three:
Practice making complex sentences, with two clauses at least, from these simple sentences.
Example:
Johnny always went to the cinema when he was a child.
As a child, Johnny always went to the cinema.
GRAMMAR NOTE – the first word after the supporting clause has to be the subject.
We always played games when we had Mr Tony as our teacher.
He speaks English well although his written work is rather poor.
The Who were formed in west London in the early 1960s. They are a very famous, influential bands despite never having a Number 1 hit single.
My neighbour only works in a convenience store. She thinks she is a big star. She is constantly taking selfies.
And … to end, let’s start copying some classic movie scenes:
In the early 1990s, I inherited an 8mm Bell & Howell cine camera and, with my flatmate Martin O’Shea as actor, began making short films in the East End of London.
8mm cine camera late 1950s / early 1960s
We had a two-bedroom flat near Mile End Tube Station (which we could somehow afford on a student grant), walking distance to Bethnal Green, Brick Lane and Limehouse, areas synonymous with names such as Hawksmoore (the architect), The Kray Twins (local crime lords) and Jack the Ripper (local ripper).
St George in the East, a Hawksmoore church
The area is incredibly historic, and well worth a walk for local historians, psychogeographists, or anyone with a passing interest in this less salubrious quarter of London.
Ragged School Museum, Mile End
Walk is what we did, one Saturday night, up to Victoria Park, down to the street markets of Brick Lane and back home via the city farm at Stepney and a visit to St Dunstan and All Saints Church, where we had a lovely chat with the vicar. He was in his working outfit, white, pressed and clean … us, none of the above.
This was where we decided to film what was, I believe, our first film together, ‘A Day Well Spent’, and I think this would be Spring 1992.
St Dunstan and All Saints Church, Stepney, East London
Now the technical side. 8mm film lasted four minutes in total. The film had to be thread, in a figure 8 shape, in the camera, then reversed after 2 minutes. This meant keeping careful time, and not shooting anything vital in the dying seconds before the film ran out.
The film was silent and the camera, I believe, had no zoom and no auto-aperture; the light had to be set manually. Basically, it was a ‘point and shoot’ affair. Close-ups had to be physically close, long-shots, far away.
So, we had four minutes to tell a story, beginning, middle and end. Martin plays a tramp, a happy-go-lucky, Chaplinesque character. He awakes, on a rubbish heap, scratches himself, looks around and gets up. He wanders through the City farm at Stepney
Stepney City Farm
Naturally, he’s hungry and seeing the chickens gives him an idea; he has to ‘procure’ an egg for breakfast, without being detected or suffering an avian assault. With his cunning and agility, he is successful, and celebrates his victory by holding his prize aloft as he runs past St Dunstan’s.
However, when he searches his pockets, he only has a fork with twisted prongs … not a suitable implement to eat his breakfast. Disappointed, he throws the egg away, and decides to go back to sleep.
We also had a recurring event, namely a visit from the rozzers (London slang for police). One burly boy in blue was curious what we ne’re-do-wells were up to in his manor. To see a young guy, in trenchcoat, asleep on a rubbish tip alerted his instincts. And we had a recurring escape, namely I showed my camera and all became clear … “Oh, they’re making art,” heavy irony on the pronunciation of ‘art’, and that sarcasm has repeated through the years.
Or maybe, like most people of my generation, he would have seen some short compilation films on BBC1 after 5.30 pm and before the 6.00 pm News. This was how so many of my friends were introduced to the world of Harold Lloyd.
Everyone knew Chaplin, most people had heard of Buster Keaton, but Mr Harold Lloyd was totally unknown. That all changed with a series of 20-minute programs featuring scenes from his silent films … and all my school-friends were knocked out by them. You would even hear people shout out as they left school, “Don’t forget to watch Harold Lloyd.”
Harold Lloyd, referred to as ‘The Third Genius’ was, and remains, a major influence, especially in how to tell a story by images alone and how comedy works. This photo from ‘Safety Last’ (1924) is iconic … and even more amazing when you know that Lloyd lost a thumb and finger in an accident on a film set.
His films and many clips are available on YouTube. I used to show them during break time to my Kindergarten class, and they loved him … I was able to silence 15 hyper-active kids with a silent movie star.
Meanwhile, Mr O’Shea is busy in Berlin with a massive project: to put all our 8mm and Super 8 films onto computer, add commentaries and upload them on social media. Wish him luck, and take some time to watch Harold Lloyd … you won’t be disappointed
Here’s a quick blog for a class I’m covering tomorrow. As a warm up and review, I’ll play this music as the students enter the class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHWhebFt_r0
The video has a lot of new words, so I will pause the clip and board new words. Following the video, I’ll ask these questions. Being a large class, the students can work in teams, maybe each team having the name of an animal (that should be fun for Team Monkey).
Which big cat has spots, which has stripes ? Why do they have patterns ?
What is the name of the line that goes around the middle of the Earth ?
Rain forests has two things … what ?
What fruit can you find ?
What animals live at the top of trees ?
Is Vietnam in the tropics ?
BONUS POINTS:
Why are rain forests important ?
They absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen
They are home to lots of different wildlife
They produce water and rainfall for the planet
Moving on rapidly – Adverbs
Give me a sentence for these photos:
EXAMPLE:
The jaguar runs quickly // The jaguar with black spots, runs very quickly
KaraokeA slothReading in a library ssshhhhhhh …Buster Keaton doesn’t stand in a very safe place
How do I follow that !
The remainder of the lesson is given over to reading, the theme being a music recital, so I can lead in by asking who play an instrument (then explaining that my long nails on my left hand are for playing guitar, not for scaring students).
Thay Paul's Notes 