It's up to you

It's up to you means that you can decide. For example, "it's up to Arnaud whether we go out for dinner or stay in." It's Arnaud's decision. In the negative "I can give you my opinion, but finally it's not up to me what we do."

Signing off

To sign off is to end a communication. With business emails, there are some very basic and common ways to end the message. The only question is how formal or informal you want to be.

The last sentence of an email often says something like this: please contact me if you have any questions. This is neutral and you can always use it. To make it less formal: please let me know if you have any questions. More formal: please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Closing the message, you can put: regards or best regards. More formally, you could put sincerely. Less formally: best or all best. Sometimes people from the UK will put cheers.

Want to practice? Send me an email titled "practice email" at coultonv@yahoo.com

When the going gets tough...

...the tough get going.






This is a classic expression! It plays with the words and their double meanings, and it makes sense to look at it in detail.


In the first part, the going means the way we have to go, or the thing that we're trying to do. To get tough means to become difficult. So you can translate this as "when the way becomes difficult."


In the second part, the tough refers to strong people. To get going is to start moving. So you could translate this part as "the strong people start moving."


When the going gets tough, the tough get going. When the way becomes difficult, the strong people start moving.


P.S. This post is dedicated to Calderwood and Davis: great friends, great people, a great romance. Two truly tough customers in the best old school sense: quiet heroes.

I heart NY

The logo here was designed in the 1970s by Milton Glazer, and commissioned by the city of New York for a promotional campaign.

This design became extremely popular, and it was intended to be read as I Love New York. Lots of people copied the design and made stickers and teeshirts for just about everything.

At some point, however, people started saying "I heart" instead of "I love." This expression comes up in articles and blog posts, for example, "Why We Heart the Kinect." When you see this expression, you can remember the original image!

Thinking about New York made me remember the opening of Woody Allen's film Manhattan. Here it is:

Although it's been many, many years since I last went to New York, I hope that I'll go again soon... What about you? Have you been there recently or are you planning to go soon?

P.S. This post is dedicated to Barbara Montaner, who hearts NY. I think NY also hearts Barbara. Who wouldn't?

What's happening?

"What's happening?" is a typical way to greet someone you know well, like a friend or coworker. It's very casual. You could also say "What's new?" or "What's going on?" or "What's up?" Then the other person could say "Nothing much," or something like that, or he or she could tell you what's happening...

Handmade/Homemade

This December I have received a beautiful origami Christmas ornament. It's made very well and I see it every time I come in my front door. It's handmade by someone very special. Handmade is an adjective that means made by hand, not by machine. We use it to describe things like clothes, books, ceramics, and other objects made by hand.

Homemade is similar: it's an adjective that means made at home instead of bought in a store. We usually use it for foods and drinks, like homemade cookies. These are cookies baked at home instead of bought.

I have to admit that I buy many things that aren't handmade, and this is something I'd like to change. More and more, I see that lots of people are making wonderful things! Certainly, I love to cook, and although I enjoy going out to restaurants, I prefer places where everything is homemade, including the desserts.

I hope that you receive something handmade this season, like a card or a small gift, and that you enjoy some great homemade treats!

P.S. Thanks to http://merchgrosso.blogspot.com/ for the image. They make some very nice clothes that you might find interesting, and they have a lot of good links on the blog.

P.P.S. This post is dedicated to Sandra Tulleuda, who makes beautiful things and gives them truly from the heart.

Nourish

In this season about giving, I find this video very, very moving.
To nourish is:
1. To provide with food or other substances necessary for life and growth; feed.
2. To foster the development of; promote.
3. To keep alive; maintain.

The most important thing is to express your true nature in the simplest, most adequate way and to appreciate it in the smallest existence. --Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

P.S. This post is dedicated to Jaume Gurt, with joy and appreciation

Check it!

This blog seeks to bring you only the highest quality of posts and links. However, since a HUGE number of students ask me about slang expressions, here is my suggested link: The Online Slang Dictionary at http://onlineslangdictionary.com/. I want to warn you that a lot of the words and expressions there are sexual in nature. On the other hand, a lot (maybe the majority) are not, and you can search the site. I've given you the link to the home page. One more thing: the content of this site is user-generated. This makes sense because slang is also user-generated. What I like about this resource is that it gives us expressions currently in use.

Enjoy!

Ya gotta wanna

The title of this post is an example of spoken English. The sounds have been made into words which are similar to the original words, but not the same. A translation into more formal English would be "You've got to want to."

Here are a few more examples of this kind of spoken English:

Gonna = going to
Hafta = have to
Gimme = give me
Lemme = let me
Should've = should have
Would've = would have
Could've = could have
Ya = you
Doncha = don't you


It's typical to find these kinds of expressions in songs, because people rarely sing in a formal way. Also, some singers and native speakers say -in instead of -ing, for example "I'm goin' to California."

Pixar University's Randy Nelson on Learning and Working in the Collaborative Age

Feel like

Feel like is a way of saying that you want to do something or experience something. When we combine it with a verb, the verb is -ing. For example, "I don't feel like dancing." This means that I don't want to do it right now. We use this expression a lot when we're talking about what to do. For example:

"Do you feel like going out for lunch?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Where do you want to go? Do you feel like having Chinese?"

"Ummm, not really... What about Thai?"

"I don't really feel like going that far. What about pizza?"

You can also put a noun after feel like, so you could say, "I don't feel like Chinese... What about Thai?"

Shake your booty

To shake your booty is to dance. The first time this expression became well known, it was in the song by KC and the Sunshine Band, Shake, Shake, Shake Your Booty in 1976. Your booty is your behind. Some people shake their booties more when they dance than others. Also, some people like to dance and some don't. Personally, I'm not much of a dancer. You're not likely to find me shaking my booty very often. But sometimes...

Speaking of dancing, one of my favorite dance scenes ever has to be the one from Pulp Fiction.
Maybe Vincent and Mia are not shaking their booties disco-style, but they're really dancing...



Anyway, if you like to dance, I hope your holiday season will be full of booty shaking. And if not, I hope people respect your desire not to dance!

P.S. This post is dedicated to Anna and Encarna with great affection.

Exciting/excited (adjectives)

A number of adjectives can end with -ed or -ing. What's the rule for this?

Skiing is exciting. You are excited. Skiing is the cause of your feeling. It's exciting, with -ing. The feeling you have is being excited, with -ed. Here are some more examples:

The book was interesting and the students were interested.

Some people thought the film was boring, but I wasn't bored.

Traveling can be tiring, especially for children, who often get very tired on a long trip.

Old school

Old school is an adjective. We use it to describe things which are old-fashioned in a good way. A typical example would be the barber shop on my street. This is a place where men get their hair cut. Only men. They have magazines for men and the place is very simple and direct: you go in, sit down, wait for your turn, and get a haircut. This haircut is good and very, very inexpensive. There are no fancy shampoos and conditioners for sale, and no house music playing. This barber shop is old school. In Barcelona, we still have a lot of places which are old school, and that's a wonderful thing. You can also use old school to apply to a person, a strategy, a way of doing things. The key is that you admire the classic elements of the thing you're talking about.

Here's a video of Joan Armatrading singing a song she wrote called "Love and Affection." The year was 1976. To me, Joan Armatrading is old school. I wish this video didn't have any advertising or the name "Dave" across the top, but I think it's still worth it to see Joan and hear the song. See what you think...



P.S. This post is dedicated to Tanya Figueroa, maven of cheese, great teacher, and lovely friend, someone who appreciates the best of what's old school.

Alphabet!

We learn the alphabet at the beginning of our study of English, and native speakers have to learn it too. Because most of us learned the alphabet a long time ago, it's hard to remember that it wasn't easy! For adults learning English, some of the sounds aren't easy to make or to recognize, depending on your native language or mother tongue. This expression is very good, I think, because the language you grow up with conditions your tongue as well as your mouth and what sounds you're able to make. For non-native speakers of Spanish and Catalan, for example, making the "rr" sound can be difficult. It's important to continue practicing the sounds of the alphabet, even though you know them, and especially if some of them, like "a" for example, are hard for you to recognize correctly when people say them. This can be a problem if you're on the phone and someone is spelling something, like his or her name.
For some good practice on pronunciation, I recommend New English File. Here's the link:
http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/englishfile/preint/c_pronunciation/
This is the pre-intermediate one, and you could go to the other levels to practice.

P.S. This image is from a book by Peter Blake, Alphabets. Many thanks to www.dezeen.com

Getting together

When we plan to meet some friends or family, or even one person, we often use the the phrasal verb get together. For example, "This weekend I'm getting together with Viri and Nedra." The concept is that you'll see each other and do something together, like have lunch or drinks, or just relax at someone's home.
At this time of year, when the nights are long, it's great to get together with good friends, especially ones who make you laugh and tell great stories and know wonderful games and have good books to recommend...

(This post is dedicated to Harriet Sandilands, marvelous poet, teacher, and friend.)

Funny

Funny is an adjective and we use it to describe something which makes you laugh. This could be a person with a good sense of humor, or a joke, a film, a cartoon, even something you see on the street which strikes you as amusing. There are many different kinds of humor, from silly and slapstick to witty to sarcastic and acid. One kind of humor is parody: making an imitation of something, usually in an extreme way, in order to make it funny. Sometimes when I want to read something funny, I visit The Onion at http://www.theonion.com/. This is a site which parodizes the news of the United States. It's not always funny, but I often find something there that makes me laugh so much that the people of the sales department start shaking their heads.

If you have any funny websites or publications to recommend, it would be great to hear about them!

Thanks to Bill Watterson and http://www.fanpop.com/ for the image from Calvin and Hobbes!

Health

My word for the day is health. This is the noun and the adjective is healthy or healthful. A person is healthy when he or she feels well and doesn't have any physical or mental problems. Things that promote good health are healthful, like exercise, good eating habits, etc.

We can speak of different kinds of health, for example, financial health or mental health. A company or country could be financially healthy. The comparative and superlative forms of healthy are healthier and healthiest. The opposite adjectives are unhealthy and unhealthful. Some environments are polluted and thus unhealthful.

Sometimes when we make a toast (say something when we raise our glasses of wine, beer or champagne), we say, "To your health." We often write "Have a healthy and happy New Year" on cards we send for Christmas.

I hope that you are enjoying good health. If not, I hope that you feel better soon!

P.S. This is my one hundredth post. Thank you for reading, making comments and being supportive!

Benefits

Benefits are good things. We talk about a situation having benefits, for example, "the benefits of renting an apartment for a week vs. staying in a hotel." In terms of employment, benefits are the services that the company offers employees in addition to salary. These benefits typically include health insurance, discounts for things like child care or the gym, etc. The combination of benefits offered by a company is often called the benefits plan or package.

Benefit can also be a verb, defined as: to do good to; be of service to. For example, "we need a health program to benefit everyone."

Google is one company which is famous for having great benefits for its employees. To see what they offer, you can go to http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/lifeatgoogle/benefits/index.html

You can also watch a video about how it is to work at Google, at http://www.youtube.com/lifeatgoogle

Gift

A gift or present is something we give to someone for his or her birthday or on some other occasion. We often take a gift to someone's house when we go there for dinner, something like a bottle of wine or some flowers. Sometime the gift is wrapped in paper, sometimes not. The paper we use for this is called giftwrap, and many stores have a giftwrapping service. We use the verb give with gifts and presents. The noun is giftgiving. A gift could be many things, including a donation to a charitable organization.

We also use the word gift to describe the special talent or ability a person can have. For example, he has a gift for music. This means that he has a special ability with music. There's also an adjective, gifted, which is often used to describe very talented children.

Most cultures and families have some traditions about giftgiving. Are there any that you especially like?

Thinking in English

Jason Fried, in his TED talk Why Work Doesn't Happen at Work (posted below), compares doing serious work to sleeping, in the sense that interruptions make both activities very difficult. He talks about sleep phases or stages, and how you have to pass through them in order to get to the deepest and most valuable sleep.

Thinking about this over the weekend, I realized that thinking in a foreign language is probably the same. A person needs time to go through the stages of speaking and understanding in order to really start thinking in another language. One of my favorite students recently requested a two hour class, so that she would start thinking in English.

For me to think in Spanish takes time, but I notice that it starts to happen during a film, a long conversation, or while I'm reading a book or long article. Then it lasts for a while after, and I really enjoy that. Also, sometimes I dream in Spanish!

To increase your ability to think in English, reading, watching films, listening to the radio and talking with people are all great methods. The key seems to be to give yourself enough time, and the amount of time needed will be different for everyone. Also, if you try to limit interruptions from your native language, the effect will be greater.

Image from Lost in Translation, courtesy of http://www.fanpop.com/

Commuter

A commuter is someone who has to travel to get to work, usually by car, bus, train or metro. Walking to work isn't commuting, because the concept is that some distance is involved. Some people have short commutes, others have quite long ones, even travelling between cities every day or every week. What about you? How do you commute? How long does it take? What do you do with your commute time?

Job vs. work

There are some differences between job and work. For example, when we're talking about business, job is countable and work is uncountable. We can talk about jobs with a number, for example, 100,000 jobs were created last year. Usually when we talk about work, we can't use a number, but we can say a lot of work or not very much work.
A job can be a position, like software developer. The work is software development.
To do a good job is to do something well, and we usually use it to talk about a single project, for example, the team did a great job on that campaign.
Work can also mean the place where we work. We say "I go to work at 9am every day." Right now, I'm writing this post at work.

TED Talk: Why Work Doesn't Happen at Work

This is a somewhat long presentation and it may take you a few minutes to get used to Jason Fried's accent. But I think he's saying some interesting things here...

Also, here's a bio for him with a link to his new book, in case you're interested:

Jason Fried is the co-founder and President of 37signals, a privately-held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary.
Jason co-wrote all of 37signals books, including their latest “Rework.”, and is invited to speak on entrepreneurship, design, management, and software all around the globe.
37signals’ products include Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Campfire, Ta-da List, and Writeboard. 37signals also developed and open-sourced the Ruby on Rails programming framework. 37signals’ products do less than the competition – intentionally.
37signals weblog, Signal vs. Noise, is read by over 100,000 people every day.
Jason believes there’s real value and beauty in the basics. Elegance, respect for people’s desire to simply get stuff done, and honest ease of use are the hallmarks of 37signals products.

What to say when you're ill

We have a lot of ways to describe the condition of being ill or of not feeling well.

I'm a bit under the weather = I don't feel well but it isn't serious

I don't feel well

I have a cold = I'm coughing and sneezing

I have the flu

I have a sore throat = My throat hurts

I have a headache = My head hurts

I have a stomach ache

I'm sick/I'm ill = Nonspecific but more serious than "I'm not feeling well."

I hurt my back/arm/shoulder, etc.

When you call your workplace to tell them that you can't come in, this is calling in sick. For example "Bob called in sick today becuase he has the flu."

When you hear that someone is ill, you can say, "I hope you feel better soon!"

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving and the 4th of July are truly American holidays, in the sense that they don’t have a religious connection.
As kids in school, many Americans are taught a story about “the first Thanksgiving” which is a mythological meal that the Pilgrims and the “Indians” shared in Massachusetts. It’s customary to make crafts or dress up as Pilgrims and “Indians.” The standard images of Thanksgiving include turkeys and corn, autumn leaves, etc.
Currently, Thanksgiving is a family holiday in the US, and it’s a big time for traveling. Lots of people fly to visit family and have a feast together.
The traditional Thanksgiving meal includes roast turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing (often a combination of bread and vegetables), mashed potatoes and gravy (a sauce made from the turkey). For dessert, pumpkin pie is a classic. Most families only cook these foods for Thanksgiving, so there can be some stress involved!
One trend with regard to Thanksgiving is to incorporate foods from other cultures because extended families often include recent immigrants. So a dinner might have some American elements and some Vietnamese dishes, for example.
Another Thanksgiving tradition in some families is to watch American football. And then to fall asleep on the sofa…
Hopefully, Thanksgiving is also an opportunity to reflect on what we’re thankful for. This year I feel especially thankful for the wonderful life I have, and for everyone who has been so generous and inspiring to me.
So, Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for everything!

Mindset

My word of the day is mindset. The American Heritage Dictionary defines this as "a fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person's responses to and interpretations of situations." Mindset is different from mood, because it changes less. We use it to talk about a person's general attitude, his or her way of thinking or way of seeing things. You will often see this word with an adjective describing the attitude, for example "environmental mindset," which means that the person or entity is in the habit of thinking about the environment.

Discussion vs. argument

A discussion is simply a talk about something. An argument is a talk in which people disagree. Sometimes the argument involves getting angry, sometimes not. The verbs are discuss and argue. Here are some examples:

Hi Bob, I'd like to meet with you today to discuss our plans for the holiday lunch.

We were discussing the surprise party when Cynthia walked in.

Unfortunately, our discussion turned into an argument when Jerry started talking about politics.

Our neighbors argued all night and I could hear every word!

I don't want to argue about it. Let's just forget it!

P.S. Thanks to Bill Watterson for the image from Calvin and Hobbes.

Acronyms explained: DIY and RSVP

An acronym is a word, usually capitalized, where each letter stands for a word. You probably already know a lot of these in English, like ASAP and VIP.
DIY means "do it yourself" and you will see it as an adjective for things you can build or make on your own. For example, "DIY toys are popular at Christmas." This means that you have to assemble the toy yourself.
RSVP means to tell someone whether you can come to an event. It comes from the French expression respondez si vous plaît. You'll see this at the bottom of invitations, usually with some contact information and posssibly a deadline, like "RSVP to Michael by October 25th."

Calling guest bloggers: songs!

The other day one of my favorite people was talking about learning English through songs. What's interesting to me about this is that native speakers learn a lot through songs too, and especially when you're a kid, you don't understand all the lyrics and sometimes you even hear them incorrectly! So you go around singing to the radio or cd with the wrong words, sometimes for years.

If you have a song that you learned some English from, or even just a song that you really like, it would be great to post it here so other people can enjoy it too. If you'd like to participate, please email me at coultonv@yahoo.com.

What's my level?

It's natural to wonder about your level when you're learning a language. It's also important to think about the concept of levels and ask why we have them. For teachers, determining a student's level may be important in order to place the student in a group, or to plan an appropriate course. We often talk about levels with adjectives like "elementary," "intermediate," "advanced," etc. Our teaching resources are generally labeled with these levels.

Aside from being an organizational tool, however, the concept of levels can be problematic. When you get off the train in London and need to ask someone for directions, he or she won't care what level you have according to your academy, or whether or not you've passed the First Certificate. The question will be whether you can communicate. As I wrote in an earlier post, communication is really the objective of learning a language. It's possible that communication has as much to do with your intention and your attitude than with your pronunciation, vocabulary, etc.

I don't mean to say that you shouldn't care about your level or try to improve it. In fact, I think it's important to keep trying to improve in your native language too! My only point is that after we've used the concept of levels to organize a class, it's a good idea to move on to communication, and realize that even people with an "elementary" level can be great communicators!

Go the extra mile

To go the extra mile is to make an extra effort, to do more than the usual amount, to exceed expectations. This week, several of my current and former students have gone the extra mile. I won't embarass them by writing their names here, but whether it was making a comment in English or writing a truly excellent report, studying very hard for an exam or doing homework in the middle of a very busy week, they all went the extra mile. I'm impressed and inspired by these efforts!!!

Settle for

My phrasal verb for today is settle for. It means that you will accept something, even if it isn't exactly what you want. For example, "I would prefer to have chocolate, but I'll settle for vanilla." Or, "The original price was €1,000, but they settled for €950."

Understanding the news

News stories can be challenging to understand because they use unfamiliar vocabulary and different structures. For example, when you see a headline that says "Obama to visit India, " it means that Obama will visit India. News writers try to capture people's attention by writing in ways that are surprising, but this can make the meaning more difficult for readers.
One of the best resources I have found is the BBC's Words in the News site. Here you can listen to a story, read the story, hear the key vocabulary and read definitions of the vocabulary words. If you use this resource regularly, you will definitely improve your ability to understand news reports. Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/ and click on the story you want to listen to and learn about.
As always, I would love to have your feedback!

How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?

Here's the trailer for a film which has inspired me a lot. It's about the life and work of the British architect Norman Foster. He has designed a huge number of projects around the world, and is currently involved in the new World Trade Center project in New York City. His energy, creativity and stamina are fantastic! I hope you enjoy the trailer...

SWOT!

The graphic here is of the SWOT chart. As you can see, the concepts are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. We use the tool to analyze internal and external forces to create strategies. Here are the concepts in more detail:

Strengths: characteristics of the business or team that give it an advantage over others in the industry.

Weaknesses: are characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to others.

Opportunities: external chances to make greater sales or profits in the environment.

Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business.

Famous failures

This short video shows us some very famous people who were considered failures at some moment of their lives. I like the message, because really doing things in life usually means failing sometimes. I would love to hear your thoughts about this...

Word order with question words

Question words are words like what, when, where, and how, etc. We use them to form questions like "Where are we going?" As you see, the word order here is question word + auxiliary verb + subject + main verb.

Sometimes, however, we use question words in sentences that are not questions. For example, "We don't know where we are going." Here, you can see that the word order is different after the question word. The order is question word + subject + auxiliary verb + main verb.

If you review the examples below, you will see the difference:
Who is he?
I know who he is.
Where is the post office?
I don't know where the post office is.
What am I doing?
I know what I'm doing.

When you're speaking, it's easy to use the question order even for sentences that aren't questions. But if you start practicing with this, you'll start to improve. Also, when you're listening to the news, watching a film or video, or talking with your teacher or another native speaker, you can pay attention to the way they use these word orders.

What to say when someone sneezes

If someone sneezes and you want to say something in English, the best expression is "Bless you!" As we're entering the cold and flu season, you'll probably have a lot of opportunities to use this!

False friends in English: assist and attend

False friends are words from two different languages that appear to be the same, but have different meanings.
One example from Spanish would be the verb asistir. The correct verb for this in English is attend, and the noun is attendance. We attend meetings, classes, and other events.
The verb assist in English means to help, and the noun is assistance. Assist and assistance are more formal, so they are good for business emails, and you will also see them in news reports. Here are some examples:
"I can't attend the meeting tomorrow because I'll be out of town."
"We have to keep good attendance records so we can see who comes to class."
"I'm writing to ask if you can assist me in preparing my application for an MBA program."
"The government has promised its assistance to people who lost their homes in the tsunami."

Sesame Street and British Council for Kids

I've added links to Sesame Street and the British Council Learning English for kids. When I was growing up, Sesame Street was a very important part of my day! It's impossible to estimate how much I learned from watching that program. The amazing thing is how fun and funny it still is, while being educational. I think this is a big advantage for parents, because you can enjoy it along with your kids...

The British Council Learning English for Kids is also very good, and the resources there are appropriate for older kids too. I hope you find these useful, and as always, your feedback is appreciated!

Percent and percentage

We use percent after a number, like "Forty-eight percent of the people like hot dogs." Percentage is the noun for the concept, as in, "What is the percentage of people who like mustard on their hot dogs?" The answer could be "Sixty-seven percent."Personally, I like mustard on a hot dog. How about you?

Find out and let me know

To find out something is to learn about it or to discover it. For example, "I don't know where the nearest bank is, but I'll find out." Or, "We were planning a surprise party for Cynthia but she found out."
We use this a lot in business. We have to find out how much things will cost, who can provide the services we need, etc.
Let me know means tell me when you have the information. For example "When I have the exact dates for the conference, I'll let you know." Or, "Could you let me know when Bob comes back from lunch?"

Spend vs. waste

To spend time is to use time. For example, "I enjoy spending time with my friends." or, "I spent a lot of time on that project." We use the same verb with money.
To waste time is to use it in a way that has no value. For example, "I wasted my time waiting for the bus when I should have taken the metro." Once again, we use the same verb with money. For example, "Don't waste your money on this product because it doesn't work!"

Plan, plans, planning

Plan is a verb, and it's regular. "We're planning a surprise party for Cynthia." It's also a noun: plan is the thing and planning is the process. Here is an example: "Our planning was excellent, and the plan worked perfectly." A plan can be a physical object, like the drawing here, or a series of steps that you have in writing or in your mind. (The plan here is by the American architect Louis Kahn, for the Esherick House.)

Have a good day!

It's common to say "Have a good day" or "Have a good weekend" when you're saying goodbye to someone. What is the best response? "You too."

Using new language

This is a nice graphic from Presentation Zen, and the message seems very good. When you learn a new word, expression or structure, the best thing will be to start using it when you speak. This isn't easy, but until you start using the new language, it won't really be active for you. If you practice with it, with time it will become more natural.

Meet/know/see

When you encounter someone for the first time, you meet him or her. Usually, we say "Pleased to meet you" or "Happy to meet you."

After you've met someone, you know each other. You may not know him or her very well, but you know who the person is. On the other hand, you might know him or her very well. For example, "I've known my best friend for thirteen years."

When you see someone you already know, you can say "I'm happy to see you!" We don't say "happy to meet you" in this case, because we already know the person.

Crave/craving

My word of the day is crave. This is a verb, and it means to want something very, very much. For example, right now I'm craving chocolate. I hear the voice of the Milka bar calling me from the vending machine. Do you hear it? Maybe not. It's calling only for me!

We often use this verb with food, but you could use it with many things. She craves sleep! He craves the new BMW!

The noun form is craving, and we usually use this with the verb have. He had a craving for guacamole.

What about you? Are you craving anything right now?

Having more effective meetings

Recently the subject of meetings has come up often. Many people go to a lot of meetings and wish that these were more effective. I've added a link to a nice website called Effective Meetings, where you can find a lot of simple, practical ways to improve your meetings. Although many of these concepts are basic and may seem obvious, like so many other things, the key is to do them! As always, your feedback is appreciated!

http://www.effectivemeetings.com/

Freedom to comment here

Finally, I've figured out how to enable all comments here without people needing to have a Google account, etc.
Sorry for the delay! If you have any problem trying to leave a comment, please let me know at coultonv@yahoo.com.
Thanks!!!

Communicating in English!

There is no question that learning English, or any language, as an adult is not easy. If you're learning, there is usually some reason, or many reasons, why. It may be for your job, or for your professional development in the future, or because your boyfriend is from Australia! Knowing why you need and want to learn can help you to direct your effort, and also to evaluate your progress.

I would argue that for most people who don't want to work as English teachers or editors, the most important element in learning English is communication. For you in your study, you can ask what you need to communicate, who you need to communicate with, and what the situation is. Some people need to know more formal expressions than others. Some people send a lot of email, for others the phone is more important. Knowing this can help you to target the areas you need to improve in.

Often, people communicate well but feel disappointed because they know they made some mistakes. In my experience, native speakers make mistakes all the time! In writing, on blogs, in speaking, in presentations, so many mistakes! Even in advertising campaigns! I'm not saying you should be happy about mistakes, only that the real measure of your success in English is whether or not you can communicate. You can always improve. But after you talk with someone, maybe you can ask yourself if you communicated with them or not. If the answer is yes, then you succeeded! Next you can think about how to improve for next time.

One of the best practices I see with my students is that they correct themselves in the moment. I think this is difficult, because it means that you are calm enough to do it, but it's an excellent way. Do you have any practices that have helped you? It would be great to hear about them...

On my own, by myself

On my own and by myself both mean "alone." The important thing to notice here is the preposition for each one. Both expressions are often used when we're talking about being independent. The second one comes up a lot with children, for example, "Today Nicholas tied his shoes by himself." This means that he did it without any help. Sometimes we add all to give more emphasis, for example, "Jenny made this cake all by herself!"
On my own is often used with living, to talk about living alone after leaving the family home, or after living with other people or with a partner. For example, "After his divorce, Jim decided to live on his own for a while."
The image here is by Buson, and it's called Landscape with a Solitary Traveler. We could say that the person is traveling by himself. Some people really enjoy traveling on their own, but most seem to prefer to travel with others. What about you?

Walk the talk

My phrasal verb for today is walk the talk, which means to do what you say, or to have coherence between your speech and your actions. We use this a lot in business. We think it's important for people and companies to walk the talk. What do you think?

Call her! Ask her!

One of the most difficult things in English is when to use "to" and when not to use it. With call and ask, for example, we don't put "to" between the verb and the object. We say "I'll call her," not I'll call to her. The same is true for ask. "Let's ask him if he knows the answer." Also, with things like a company, the concept is the same. "She called the restaurant and made a reservation."

Comments? Questions? Suggestions?

Some of my favorite people have said that they would like to post a comment here but it's difficult or impossible because they don't have a blogger or Google account. I'm sorry about that and I don't have a solution to the problem. You could create a gmail account in order to post your comments on blogs (this is what I did in the past), or you could send me an email at coultonv@yahoo.com with your comment or idea. I would love to hear from you! Especially because you may have a question or an idea for a post that would be interesting. Whether you decide to comment, email, or not, thank you so much for visiting thinking in English!

Figure out

My phrasal verb for the week is figure out. It means to understand something or someone, or find the answer to a question or problem after thinking carefully. For example, "I've known Bob for a long time, but I can't figure him out." This means that I've tried, but I don't understand Bob. For example, "We have to figure out how to do the project with half the money." This means that we have to solve this problem.

Looking at the examples above, you can see that when we have a person or thing, we can put this in the middle, between figure and out. If we have a question word, like how, what or why, we put it after. For example, "I can't figure out what the problem is with my phone."

Saying thank you

When someone says "thank you," you have two basic, polite options. You can say "you're welcome," or, if you want to thank the other person, you can say "thank you." We don't say "thanks to you," even though this seems right because it's a direct translation from Spanish or Catalan. The trick is to put some emphasis on "you."

Some people in the US and the UK will say "no problem" instead of "you're welcome." This is very informal, so you would use it with your friends, etc.

If you want to make your thank you a little stronger, you can say "thanks a lot," or more formally, "thank you very much."

Doable or not?

My word for this week is doable. This is one of those real words that might not appear in your dictionary, but we use it all the time to talk about what is possible. If something is doable, it means that we can do it. This is an informal word, and a very useful one when you're talking about plans and ideas. For exmple, "I love the concept, but is it really doable?"

How should my English sound?

Sometimes, people worry about how they should sound in English, and whether it would be better to speak with a British accent, or to sound like an American. This is a good question, but it might relate more to being able to understand different speakers, than to how you should try to sound. As a teacher, sometimes I run into trouble with English resources because the guide to pronunciation is British. It's important to pronounce English correctly, but what does that mean, when Scottish people speak in a completely different way from New Yorkers? I think the most important thing is to speak as clearly as you can, in order to communicate. Communicating is more important than sounding like this person or that person, or trying to speak as a native speaker.
Here's a short video from Misterduncan on this topic. If you like it, you can find a number of other videos from him on YouTube, where he appears as duncaninchina.

Talking about the weather

When we talk about the weather, we often use "it."

For example:
"It was raining when we left, but now it's sunny."
"It's too windy to go for a walk, so let's stay home and watch a video."

This is the most colloquial way to say how the weather is. To talk about the present moment using a verb, we say "it's raining." To talk about general conditions, we can use the simple present, "it rains a lot in Indonesia." When we make a prediction, we can say, "I think it's going to rain" or "they say it's going to rain tomorrow."

Here's a link to more vocabulary for speaking about the weather: http://www.englishclub.com/speaking/weather.htm.

P.S. The image here is a painting titled "Extreme Weather Warning" by Jim Bergerman and John Avignon, available at www.factoryfresh.net

Well, actually...

Actually is an adverb that we use the same way as "in fact." It's a way to correct information.

"So, you're the new receptionist, right?"
"Well, actually I'm the new CEO."

Or:

"We thought he was really ill, but actually he just wanted to stay home and play video games."

In both cases, you could substitute "in fact."

Fear and being afraid

Fear is a noun. We usually use the adjective afraid to talk about the feeling that fear creates. In Spanish we say tengo miedo, but in English we usually say I'm afraid. As in, I'm afraid of spiders.

Some people have a lot of fears (spiders, snakes, tall buildings, elevators, flying, etc.) and others only have a few. I think most people are afraid of something.

The other day one of my students was saying that she was afraid to post a comment here because she might make a mistake. This didn't surprise me because many people (including me) don't want to make mistakes and feel embarrassed. But the truth is that I make mistakes every day and nothing terrible happens. Sometimes people correct me, sometimes not. As a foreigner living here, mistakes are 100% guaranteed! I appreciate the generosity of people who help me to learn, even if I feel embarrassed in the moment.

People who take risks, even small ones, really inspire me. Maybe they're afraid, but they continue anyway, and this is the important part.

Here's a video of people talking about their greatest fears. Some of the people are easy to understand and some are almost impossible!



As always, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts about this.

Words from Jeff Bezos

Here are some thoughts from Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon). These were part of a speech he gave to students graduating from Princeton University:

Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life -- the life you author from scratch on your own -- begins.
How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?
Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?
Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?
Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?
Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
Will you bluff it out when you're wrong, or will you apologize?
Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?
Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?
When it's tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?
Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?
Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

Steven Johnson: Where Good Ideas Come From

English@InfoJobs: a quick prezi

English@InfoJobs on Prezi

I'm forgetting the summer! Could you give me a hand?

It's the end of September and my summer travels are beginning to fade from memory. What about you? It would be great to hear about where you went and what you did, and maybe see a photo or two. If you'd like to participate, just email me at coultonv@yahoo.com. This way we can remember what happened and start dreaming for the future!

Let's give him a big hand! (part 3)

To give someone a hand, without "with," means to applaud them! We hear this on TV, especially on contest programs where amateurs are performing. For exmaple, "We gave Victor a big hand after his monologue" means that we applauded him a lot!

Give someone a hand (part 2)

As mentioned in the previous post, to give someone a hand with something is to help him or her. I think this expression comes from "helping hand. " The key to it, though, is with. For example: Could you give me a hand with this translation? Or: Her bags were very heavy but nobody stopped to give her a hand with them. When we understand the context, we can subtract with. I need help here. Can you give me a hand?

Could you give me a hand? (part 1)

To give someone a hand means to help them with something. As in, my bags are really heavy, could you give me a hand? Although the meaning here is often literal (I need an extra hand to help me), it can also be help with something non-physical, like a project, etc.

Video: Making meaning in your company, with Guy Kawasaki

Take up/give up

Take up and give up are two phrasal verbs which are opposites. They both relate to activities and hobbies. To take up surfing is to start doing it. To give up something is to stop doing it. Often, people decide to take up a new habit or activity in September, since this is the time we associate with going back to school or work after the summer. You could take up yoga, for example, or some other kind of physical practice. We generally give up activities because we don't like them or because they're too difficult at the moment. For example, he gave up skiing after the accident. Sometimes we give up habits because we decide they're bad for us, as in I'm going to give up smoking. How about you? Are you taking up anything or giving up anything these days?

Back to the future

Back to work, back to school... Often, the word back has the sense of returning. For example, I'll call you back = I'll return your call. I'll get back to you = I'll give you the information when I have it. Right now, many people are coming back from vacations and going back to work. Soon the kids will go back to school.

Speaking of back to the future, Wired Magazine has a nice feature right now on the future that never came: things people thought we would have now (like laser guns) which never materialized. You can read this at: http://www.wired.com/magazine/18-08

On blogging, from David Monreal

I have been writing on my own blog for more than 5 years now and have gone through drought times...

My blog receives between 200 and 300 daily visits (I can reach 500 If I write about the public job boards and used to be higher when I posted more than once per day), plus some followers via Google Reader who never show up on the web, etc. This is sometimes a burden and what started as a hobby, a place to gather and give shape to my ideas has become more than that. Some sales people are told by some of their clients: "Hey, you work with David? Tell him to keep it up! I read his blog!" It's good for the ego, but it's embarrassing sometimes. Not only clients read what I say in there but competitors, HR magazine journalists, some "gurus 2.0" and providers.

As a result of all this, haven't been talking openly on my blog for the last three years. I can't talk about what I do because I do not want our competitors to know even at what I am looking at. I cannot give my oppinion about products, jobboards, business models, etc. as I know probably people working at those companies will be reading me.

It was helpful for me when I was Account Manager at my Company. I was aware of trends even my best clients had never heard of. It was helpful for me to have a backup of knowledge. It's been even helpful to find a couple of jobs! And this last thing made me realize something interesting. As I can't spill my ideas over the brim freely, I am exploring new ways to tell my opinion on things. I have found what I know is interesting to other people and some are even willing to pay me for that.

You can read David's blog at http://www.davidmonreal.com/

3 ways to improve your English

1. Read. This can be anything from a book or article to glancing at the headlines on the internet. The more you read, the more you internalize the structures of English while improving your vocabulary. Need some ideas? I would be happy to recommend something especially for you if you don't find anything you like in the links here...

2. Listen. The BBC world service has news bulletins continuously throughout the day. This is great practice for listening because you get to hear a lot of different accents. Something else to try is NPR (National Public Radio), which has a lot of different programs. Finally, songs in English are another great way to learn! Just be aware that sometimes when the lyrics don't make sense, it's because they really DON'T!

3. Watch. From "Friends" to TED, to news videos and films, you can learn a huge amount this way and have fun at the same time. Start with subtitles in Spanish or Catalan, move to English subtitles, then try without any...

More thoughts on "making sense"

Here's a thought provoking post from guest blogger Leo Corchia:

Reading the posts of this blog and its “Make” series, it came up to my mind quite spontaneously the expression “make sense”.
And more or less quickly I thought about the difference of this expression between English and French or Spanish.
In French and in Spanish, we don’t say “make sense” but “have sense”.
And obviously it leads you to think about this difference in a conceptual or philosophical way.
I mean that if something makes sense to you, it seems like that thing is active because it makes. And many times when you say “it makes sense” or “it makes sense to me” it sounds like something quite relative, a part of the whole thing that lead you to say that “it makes sense” or “it makes sense to me”. Additionally, I’d say that if it’s possible in English that something makes sense to you, it means that you brought your own part of reasoning to get to the conclusion that this thing makes sense even if it’s by itself or as a part of something more global, doesn’t it?
In French and Spanish, things HAVE sense. What a difference! It sounds like it’s not related to the way you feel or see things because this thing has sense by itself in an absolute way.
And I was thinking about the possible parallel with the different kind of managements.
Is it possible that assuming that things can “make sense” when those things are the result of someone’s work is appreciating the quality of this work or at least the quality of the work that has made it possible for this thing to “make sense”?
And is it possible that thinking that things “have sense” is a way to evaluate your capability to reveal the sense things have?
I could speak about this difference a very long time and be much more boring but I’d like to conclude with this parallel: Make sense/Have sense: same difference as Creative/Scientist?

Many thanks to Leo for these thoughts!