Laughter Means Understanding

 

I was teaching last week and for the first time in months I felt the urge to share the original version of the English blooper post.  You can read my motivation for writing this there.   My student is quite young but  she was really laughing when she was reading it. It dawned on me that she was authentically laughing because she authentically knew that the mistakes were so bad they were funny. Laughter means understanding. What would be really funny if I told her where I got these quotes from. Allow me to reiterate, I did not source my material from students. I got them from people who proport to be better than ESL students. Moral of the story:  if your grammar is so bad that a young ESL student finds it laughable then brush up on your subject/ verb agreement, article rules, prepositions , verb tenses , spelling and conjugation. 

Ed

****************************************************

• Student inform to be absent   ( English major said this) 
• I was able to see a news 
• I always had a fruitful conversation with you. See you soon. Stay well. 
• You have so many food that you eat 
• What do you think is this? 
• Travelled but never lived in abroad  
• work in fast food as a part-time
• what did you ate for breakfast  ?
• work in fast food as a part-time
• She did not speak fast. The phasing was just right for the student. 
• She goes to the gym every weekend with her husband and go to the grocery store together.
• She can not teach to a public school in Japan because she is not a Japanese.  
•  - student answered, unfortunately she will not be able to take the lesson. Call was ended
• He was 21 years old.  ( You only say this when the person will no longer age. ) 
• Hi. Good evening you where absent in today's  *****  I hope to see you again next time. ( this was a written note) 
• Lives to her house for 3yrs. ( if you are like me , then you live to eat but eating is a verb not a noun) 
• I`m happy to talked with you again Ms ___ .  o :) Thank you so much for sharing a lot of things especially about your passion. You are such an amazing woman. Take care always and have a  great evening! ( first sentence has 2 verbs but the tenses don't match. Read up on infinitives ) 
• Thank you so much!  Good luck to your studies! ( you don't wish good luck to your studies. You do wish good luck to your brother though)
• M***  is a very kind students, and she can talk a lot if it is a free talking, just enjoy the the class with her.
• You've shared an interesting information about your traditional costume. Thanks for sharing! ( look up uncountable nouns) 
• ..........lesson was ended at 18:55 ( there might be reasons for two verbs both in the past tense to be back to back but I doubt this is one of them). 

Meanings of Yield

 

 

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/yield

yield

verb

UK  /jiːld/ US  /jiːld/

yield verb (PRODUCE)

 

C2 [ T ]

to supply or produce something positive such as a profit, an amount of food or information:

an attempt to yield increased profits

The investigation yielded some unexpected results.

Favourable weather yielded a good crop.

The process yields oil for industrial use.

Burning waste yields energy that can be used for electric power or heating.

The excavation yielded some superb artifacts.

Early radio equipment yielded poor sound quality.

The experiments yielded some surprising results.

  

yield 

verb (GIVE UP)

 

[ I or T ]

to give up the control of or responsibility for something, often because you have been forced to:

They were forced to yield (up) their land to the occupying forces.

Despite renewed pressure to give up the occupied territory, they will not yield.

 More examples

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

yield verb (BEND/BREAK)

 

[ I ] formal

to bend or break under pressure:

His legs began to yield under the sheer weight of his body.

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

yield verb (STOP)

 

[ I ] US

(UK give way)

to stop in order to allow other vehicles to go past, especially before you drive onto a bigger road:

If you're going downhill, you need to yield to bikers going uphill.

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Phrasal verb

yield to sth

 

yield

noun [ C usually plural ]

UK  /jiːld/ US  /jiːld/

 

an amount of something positive, such as food or profit, that is produced or supplied:

Crop yields have risen steadily.

Yields on gas and electricity shares are consistently high.

 

US  /jild/

yield verb (PRODUCE)

 

[ T ]

to supply or produce something positive such as a profit, an amount of food, or information:

Some mutual funds are currently yielding 15% on new money invested.

 

[ T ]

If something yields information, it provides it:

A letter found by the FBI last week may yield new clues.

yield verb (GIVE UP)

 

[ I/T ]

to give up the control of or responsibility for something, often because you have been forced to:

[ T ] to yield power

 

[ I/T ]

If you yield to something, you accept that you have been defeated by it:

[ I ] It’s easy to yield to the temptation to borrow a lot of money.

 

[ I/T ]

To yield to traffic coming from another direction is to wait and allow it to go first.

 

yield

noun [ C usually pl ]

US  /jild/

yield noun [C usually pl] (PRODUCE)

 

a profit or an amount esp. of a crop produced:

Over the past 50 years, crop yields have risen steadily in the US.

 

How To Tell Someone You Got Vaccinated

Content made on Kapwing 

 

How To Say It:

I got my shot. 

I got my jab. 

I got my vaccine.

How Not To Say It

I got shot.

Usually that kind of shot involves a gun not a syringe,

I Had No Idea The Song Was About That

 

The following is dedicated to Todd Schindler. A man who taught me the importance of lyrics in songs and dialogue in movies by frequently shushing a distracted version of me while we were watching movies. We also watched several memorable concerts together including Randy Newman and Joe Jackson. 

Many of us love music. The reason being that music gives us so many things to love. You can fall in the love with the melody, the harmony, the production, the musicianship , the mood. One more  thing you can fall in love with are the words. At least in my case , I can love a song  for decades and even see it performed in concert by the original artist and still not see what the lyrics really mean. 

Keep in mind that music like any art form is in the eye or ear of the beholder. You can make it mean what you want it to mean but some song writers pack a bit more to their songs than others. One thing I have noticed with "deeper " songs is  I try to figure out is from whose point of view is the song coming from. Just because you see the pronoun "I" all the time it does not mean the song is from the first person perspective. A good example of that is Barry Manilow's I Write The Songs. 

The songs I chose below have been out many years. Some of them are simple stories. Some of them look like simple stories but are indicative of a deeper theme. It will really enhance your vocabulary and your comprehension if you can find that deeper theme or themes which are usually not found in the words of the song. Read between the lines. The mood or atmosphere of the song may or may not correlate  with the overall theme of the song. In other words, do not assume a bright , lively beat is a happy song. 

See if you can appreciate the melody, the voices and the instruments, then scrutinize the words and try to mine them for meaning.  Enjoy !! 

 

The Dance (medium)

Bus Stop (easy)

 

Don't Worry Baby (medium) 

Davy The Fat Boy (harder) 

Missing You (medium)

Hit Single (hard) 

Lyin Eyes  (medium)

Four Eyes (easy)

Escape The Pina Colada Song (medium) 

 Turn the Page (easy) 

Message In A Bottle (easy)

Roxanne (medium)

Piano Man  (medium) 

Lights of LA County  (medium)

Be My Girl Sally (easy) 

Short People (medium) 

In Germany Before the War (medium) 

Bachelor Boy (harder) 

Greatest Discovery (easy) 

The Different Meanings of Draft

 

DRAFT 

 

B2 [ C ]

a piece of text, a formal suggestion, or a drawing in its original state, often containing the main ideas and intentions but not the developed form:

This is only a rough draft - the finished article will have pictures too.

She asked me to check the (first) draft of her proposal.

 More examples

I've knocked out a first draft of the report which we can amend at a later date.

We decided to abandon the first draft of the report and start over.

The first draft of his novel needed a substantial amount of rewriting.

We submitted a rough draft of the changes we proposed to make and waited for the council's approval.

He pointed out that the latest chapter was only a draft and not the final version.

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

 

Want to learn more?

Improve your vocabulary with English Vocabulary in Use from Cambridge.

Learn the words you need to communicate with confidence.

draft noun (MILITARY)

 the draft [ S ] mainly US ( UK conscription)

 

the system of ordering people by law to join the armed forces:

He avoided the draft because of a foot injury.

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

draft noun (SPORTS)

 

[ S ]

the system by which sports teams in the U.S. choose new young players at the beginning of each season:

the NBA draft

He was a second-round draft pick by the Raiders.

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

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draft noun (MONEY)

 

[ C ]

a written order for money to be paid by a bank, especially to another bank:

I arranged for some money to be sent from London to L.A. by bank draft.

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

draft noun (COLD AIR)

 

[ C ] US ( UK draught)

a current of unpleasantly cold air blowing through a room

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

draft noun (BOATS)

 

[ C ]   SAILING   US specialized ( UK draught)

the depth of water needed for a boat to be able to float

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

draft noun (BEER)

 

[ U ] US ( UK draught)

a system of storing and serving drinks from large containers, especially barrels:

Is the lager on draft or is it bottled?

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

 

draft

adjective [ before noun ] US ( UK draught)

US  /dræft/ UK  /drɑːft/

draft adjective [before noun] (BEER)

 

(of drinks such as beer) stored in and served from large containers, especially barrels:

draft beer/lager/cider

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

draft adjective [before noun] (ANIMALS)

 

(of animals) used for pulling heavy loads, vehicles, etc.:

a draft horse

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

 

draft

verb

US  /dræft/ UK  /drɑːft/

draft verb (PLAN)

 

C1 UK

 

to order people by law to join the armed forces:

He was drafted (into the army) at 18.

 SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Phrasal verb

draft sb in

 

draft

adjective [ before noun ]

Parody and Parity

 

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par·o·dy

/ˈperədē/

Learn to pronounce

noun

1. an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

   "the movie is a parody of the horror genre"

par·i·ty¹

/ˈperədē/

Learn to pronounce

See definitions in: Medicine

noun

noun: parity

1. 1.

   the state or condition of being equal, especially regarding status or pay.

   "parity of incomes between rural workers and those in industrial occupations"

   Similar:

   equality

   equivalence

   uniformity

   sameness

   consistency

   correspondence

   congruity

   congruence

   levelness

   unity

   coequality

   parallelism

   evenness

   • the value of one currency in terms of another at an established exchange rate.

     plural noun: parities; noun: purchasing parity; plural noun: purchasing parities

     "the euro's parity with the dollar"
   • a system of providing farmers with consistent purchasing power by regulating prices of farm products, usually with government price supports.

Defining and Deafening

 

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de·fine

/dəˈfīn/

Learn to pronounce

verb

gerund or present participle: defining

1. 1.

   state or describe exactly the nature, scope, or meaning of.

   "the contract will seek to define the client's obligations"

   Similar:

   explain

   expound

   interpret

   elucidate

   explicate

   describe

   clarify

   give the meaning of

   state precisely

   spell out

   put into words

   express in words
2. 2.

   mark out the boundary or limits of.

   "the river defines the park's boundary"

deaf·en·ing

/ˈdef(ə)niNG/

Learn to pronounce

adjective

1. (of a noise) so loud as to make it impossible to hear anything else.

   "the music reached a deafening crescendo"