A Bit Of An Idiom Tuesday.

 Often used but not often thought about.

You know the drill. You are already familiar with the procedure. 

Who's is she, the cat's mother? Why does she have such a high opinion of herself?

 When pigs fly! Never.

Hell for leather. Very fast.

 Went out the window. Disappeared.

 At the drop of a hat. Suddenly

It's no skin off my nose. The outcome will not affect me personally. 

He can't cut the mustard. He's not performing adequately.

A cold day in July. Never happens.

All the tea in China. Great wealth.

Take a gander. Take a look.

Right as rain. Absolutely correct.

Forty winks. A short nap.

Kith and kin. Family.

Chin music. Meaningless talk.

Biggi

A Few Delightful 17th And 18th Century Proverbs.

 Wise men's sayings.

" A money less man goes fast through the market. "

" Ask no questions and hear no lies. "

" No man is hero to his valet. "

" What can you expect from a pig but a grunt.  "

" Distance lends enchantment to the view. "

" If in February there be  no rain, tis neither good for hay nor grain. "

" A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse. "

" He that will eat the fruit must climb the tree. "

"  Walnut and pears you plant for your heirs. "

" Talk of the devil, and he is bound to appear. "

" You never miss the water till the well runs dry. "

" Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves. "

Biggi

Tuesday's Edition.

Sign of time...

Bob and I have made our home here in Eisenberg for close on nine years. Nine happy years, eventful years and exciting years. Being a part of, if only on the peripheral, a small village means living along side it and its people.

We first started English conversation classes in 2011 and a year or so later it morphed to English extra lessons. Much more fun and much more rewarding. The kids were still in Kindergarten when we first had the privilege to help them with English and through the years I was happy to be allowed to follow their progress by seeing them now and again trying to imprint on them the minute details of the English language. For some odd reason it is more difficult due to it being a second language. Pure torture of the kids at times. All those intricate grammar rules I had to help them understand and learn, we had never been taught back in South Africa. But, anyway, so far so good.

Yesterday I had an extra lesson with one of our ' original ' kids ( I think he was still in Kindergarten back then ) and now, he is in grade 9. Unbelievable. It had been a while since I had helped him with English and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him. Almost all grown up but still friendly and courteous. Well, to him I must seem like an elderly aunt type of person, one that tends to irritate him with repeated writing of verbs and hints to write legibly ( a bit rich coming from me ! ) and of course, to please read books.

Time slips by so fast and often we only become aware of it by seeing the young grow up. Naturally we ourselves never notice the signs of time because if we don't believe it then surely those crow's feet, laughter lines and general stamp of decades gone by can't be real...

Biggi

Happy Feedback!

A nice surprise.

Today was another one of those wonderful mornings. Crisp, cold but thankfully devoid of ice. Perfect for our walk and the walk was perfect for us as the Eisenberg was cloaked in a robe of mystique and pulchritude. Soul refreshing and a visual feast.

The cold made us walk efficiently and when our route took us back into Eisenberg central, we ran into one of my extra lesson pupil's mum. He had recently had another English test, a crucial one for which we had learned for hours. As I hadn't heard any news from him or his mum, I was on tenterhooks as to his grade. Often silence isn't that golden!

So there we walked past his mum and of course I had to ask her. How could I not and anyway, I thought that I might as well grab the bull by the horns and find out how his English test had unfolded. She looked a bit stern so my nerves were on high alert. It isn't as though I am responsible but still, I could be the face of blame.

" Oh hi, hasn't he told you? He got a C. "

Oh my gosh, I literally jumped for joy. For him a C is brilliant although he would easily be capable of getting A's but he has yet to find out how to convert knowledge correctly onto paper.

The last stretch of our walk I was almost skipping along because I understand how important good test marks are for kids and I was happy for him... for me as well actually, because my draconian methods of teaching ( making the kids write out words, sentences and essays ) which they mostly see as punishment are bearing fruit.

Biggi

Wasn't it a divine morning in Eisenberg?

English, Not That Easy After All.

Formal and informal.

The invention of English came with heaps of little asides:

Informal - Formal!
• Anyways.....Nevertheless
• I think.....In My Opinion
• Really, Very....Definitely
• Kids....Children
• Smart.....Intelligent
• Loaded....Rich
• Really Big.....Considerable
• Get On Someone's Nerves....Bother
• Put Up....Tolerate
• Lucky....Fortunate
• Try....Endeavour
• So.....As A Consequence.
• Get Away....Elude
• Danger....Peril
• Sweat....Perspiration
• Enough....Sufficient
• In The End.....Finally

Biggi

The Jungle Book.

Teachers are a groovy lot.

This afternoon I was overjoyed to espy an English book peaking out of the homework pile of my extra lesson's chap.

" Oh great, is it your class book? "
" Yes, we have to read some pages this afternoon. "

Ooh, music to my ears. The book itself is more of a booklet and of course the story is as universal as can be but nevertheless I was happy to read with him.

They'd read a few pages in class and when I asked him about what he'd read, he told me a very brief version, rather like the movie.

" Did you read the German translation of it or see the film? "

I shouldn't be suspicious but having had a few boys for extra lessons, I am well versed in the art of abbreviation, abbreviation of work that is...well, that's when I realized that his teacher was brilliant and as cunning as can be..

" Yes, I have seen the film but our teacher said that the story in this book is a bit different. "

Ah, what a great move on the teacher's part.

We read a page together but as I hadn't read the first chapter, I asked him if he had could tell me about it. Turns out he hadn't quite got the gist of it in class and thus the two of us were wading through the delightful story of The Jungle Book along with Mowgli and co.

You know, reading English is jolly difficult as most words are pronounced misleadingly different to how they are written. Learning to read and pronounce each word correctly takes time and practice.

• ...know, knight, knot...
• ...gnarly, gnome, gnu...
• ...taught, through, two...
• ...could, one, read ( past tense )...

Biggi

Play Of The Sunlight.

The beginning of pop...corn!

Walking past this field of corn was amazing. The sun was rippling through it accentuating greens still there.

These few cob of corn were left for the deer to eat. Literally a strip of corn was left alongside the road. Bob has just made himself a pot of popcorn, the old fashioned way. We tend to forget where those kernels come from...

A history of summer. The extreme heat we've been living through has left its mark on crops.

A corn field a bit further along making today look rather picturesque. In a matter of a few months the little seedlings have sprouted to a lofty height. Taller than me.

Red sirens in clay pots giving credence to the saying...Burgenland, the Toscana of Austria.

Same pots, different angle. The sun's might creates beauty whichever side one takes note of it.

Biggi

English Words Maquerading As German Words Or Vica Verca?

The Germanic roots.

Trying to make English a bit more interesting I bragged about the German and English language deriving from a similar place. I should have known that boys don't take anything unless it's proven:

" Oh really? Great, then give me some examples of it. "

Not surprisingly I failed to come up with any apart from a rather weak Water and Wasser which hardly counts. Well, I turned to the trusty source of Google and found some examples which we all use most of the time without realizing their uniqueness to both languages. I've used capitals to denote the German side of them.

• Bitter, Banal, Beige, Intelligent and Irrelevant.
• Legal, Liberal and Loyal.
• Rational, Relevant and Turbulent.
• Hammer, Hunger and Olive.
• Balance, Bank and Butter.
• Macho, Minister and Museum.
• Radio, Reflex and Religion.
• Winter, Wolf and Zone.

Some of the words almost sound the same although they are spelled slightly different.

• Apfel....apple.
• Buch...book.
• Tochter...daughter.
• Pflaster...plaster.
• Pfeffer....pepper.
• Maus...mouse.

Biggi

Learning My ABC's.

Who needs U anyway?

Alphabet in another language isn't that easy to get the hang of especially with the trickiness of the English one. The usual suspects of alphabetical pitfalls are the i's and e's when German is your first language. Gosh how the kids battle with it.

Every so often I haul out my ABC's and give little quiz tests. Despite the eye rolls, most get it wrong and predictably stumble over the i and e. Small wonder when it is inversely pronounced in German.

i is pronounced e
and e is pronounced a

so you can imagine how imaginative some words turn out to be.

Often I do a small spelling bee at the end of the hour and thus it turns out to be a fun game after writing innate sentences in the present continuous, learning ordinal numbers or prepositions...

It sounds daft but I usually sing my version of the ABC in English while also writing the letters in bold capitals as a visual help for the kids, which most of the time means the song is sung ( by them! ) until the right letter is found. Well, today I was feeling rather embarrassed when I noticed a slight omission in my ABC. Goodness me, who needs those pesky U, V, W in any case!

My young pupil launched straightaway into the German version of ABC and saved the day by adding those three absconders back in. Oh yes, I was jolly embarrassed and mumbled:

" Oh dear, I think I need to go back to school again! "

Apart from that I also need to find more difficult words to let him spell, as after the first two or three letters he correctly guesses the word. Rather brilliant, isn't he?

Biggi

Bookshelves, The New Awe Factor.

Books, so last century.

Afterwards I berated myself but I can't give up trying. Give up that outlandish idea of making kids enjoy reading. No, more basic than that, making kids read in the first place.

Helping a young boy cram for an English test, has made me wonder about some teachers. The test was today and apart from giving them a huge bundle of stuff to learn, know and write ( at least two essays, many grammar questions, two reading sections with questions and all the vocabulary of the past four units ) they were given an A4 sheet of paper yesterday, typed full of questions that might be asked of the various stories they've read in their student's book. All that in 50 odd minutes makes it no wonder that most kids don't like English.

Going through the question sheet with him yesterday and searching for the answers to each of them, made me realize yet again how vital it is to read for pleasure. Whereas we would be able to jot down a few words to remind us and then elaborate properly during the test, the kids who don't read books for pleasure have a hard time formulating answers to questions that they know the answer to. eg:

"Why did the ancient Egyptians wear big pieces of fat on their heads? "

Short answer: Perfume
Long answer: ( fraught with grammatical pitfalls for non readers.) The ancient Egyptians wore big pieces of fat on their heads because when it melted in the heat, it gave off a pleasant smell.

Anyway, we went through the whole lot and at the end, when I could see steam rising from his brain, eyes closing and yawns escaping, I showed him a post I had seen on Facebook recently.
It showed three columns of readers;

• those who read 20 minutes a day ( 1 800 000 words and 3600 minutes per school year ),
• those that read 5 minutes a day ( 282 000 words and 900 minutes per school year )
• and those that read 1 minute a day ( 8000 words and 180 minutes per school year )

I think the penny dropped at least some of the way when I told him how much easier English could be for him. Homework would be a breeze... Bob, who was sitting in the lounge heard me and said:

" Show him our bookshelves. "

which, when I did ensued in eyes as big as saucers and mouth agape at the amount of books on it. For good measure I told him that we've read all of them and some more than once...clearly, to him we are mad as hatters, outlandish and extremely odd...yet hopefully, also an example.

Biggi

The Quirkiness Of English.

Old English words, some still in use and some lost.

• Thwart .....hinder or prevent.
• Thither....to or towards that place.
• Betroth....give to in marriage.
• Trumpery...ornamental subjects of no great value.
• Aught....anything at all.
• Coxcomb...a vain or conceited man.
• Ninnyhammer...a fool or a simpleton.
• Erstwhile...at one time.
• Fetching...pretty.
• Mariturient....eager to marry.
• Speustic...made or baked in haste.
• Vappous...flat or insipid.
• Quire...two dozen sheets of paper.
• Cob...spider.
• Flummoxed...bewildered, disconcerted.
• Comely...pleasant looking.
• Churlish...rude or boorish.

Biggi

English, Not So Easy To Learn.

It's not what you say but how you say it.

• Mints....mince
• Prints....prince
• That's tough...that stuff
• I love you...isle of view
• Grey day...Grade A
• Crewe Station...crustacean
• Jeans...genes
• Hear...here
• Right...write
• Break...brake
• Course....coarse
• Peace...piece
• Stair...stare
• Raise...rays
• Blue...blew
• Rain...reign
• Maize...maze
• Great...grate

Biggi

The Delightful Nuances Of The English Language.

Fascinating beyond measure.

Rare word endings...-gry
can you believe that there are only two? hungry and angry.

Counterfeit
once meant a legitimate copy.

Manufacture
once donated something made by hand, derived from the Latin root of hand.

Asparagus
a term created due to mishearing and thus spelling it wrong roughly 200 years ago. It was meant to be sparrow-grass.

Bolted
two meanings: bolted a door / the horse has bolted

R.S.V.P.
lent from the French language and not even used there anymore. If like me you forgot what it really stands for...repondez s'il vous plait.

Mayday
adapted from the French cry of " m'aider " , meaning " help me "

Exception proves the rule
only makes sense when you realize that the earlier meaning of prove was to test.

Many
always a plural except when followed by an a...Many people were there but many a man was there.

There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.

Biggi

Handwriting Experts.

A spark of interest is lit.

A few of the kids that I help with English happened to have been in the same class at the local village school. In fact, they've been together since Kindergarten days and tend to know each other jolly well.

This year they've gone their separate ways depending on which school their parents have chosen for them. The first few years of the English language ( or as they call it, the torture ) is the same in most schools and thus I have study aids that I use for all of them. Sometimes they write in the book itself and sometimes not.

Vocabulary test involve a lot of writing on their part as I make them write an unknown verb at least three times. Moans galore I tell you and in the beginning I tended to fall for that old excuse of:

" I know the verb and don't need to write it down. "

No more!

Scrap paper to write on is often not there so I have an exercise block that I take along. Whilst looking for an unused page the kids often see each other's handwriting and of course instantly want to know how so and so is doing...

Not wanting to divulge anyone's business I have to side step many a youthful demand of:

" Is he / she better than me? / Does he / she have to learn the same stuff? / How can you read that handwriting ? "

The last one is a bit rich indeed, as the only reason they mention it, is the fact that they can't copy the answers from the study aids. Don't worry, I do make them use either a humble pencil
( which is so old fashioned they don't like to use it ) or a space age pen. To my mind at least, as it writes like a ball point pen yet it can be rubbed out like a pencil. Rather expensive yet, to keep up with the Jones' I splashed out and bought three of these pens.

The only problem is that it takes double the time to rub out the answers from the study aids and often the feint outline is visible...luckily for me only of the unreadable handwriting.

Biggi