Lyviv 2005

At the Lyviv train station, I spent a greevna to sit in the waiting room.

Ukrainians were stretched out as comfortably as they could in the punishing, upright lounge chairs.  not worth paying for, if only 20 cents, but better to avoid the beggars.

I sat next to a beautiful, young woman who seemed sad or angry, maybe both. She had a distant stare that told everybody to stay away.  My only goal was to rest so there would be no trouble from me. 

3 middle aged men alternately slept and talked on their cels.  Cel phones are the status symbol here for those that can't afford a car.

To my right was a young man, again, tired or angry, stretched back with an "I don't give a damn." expression for everybody to clearly see. I guessed he was probably returning from a ski trip. 

Shortly, a girl appeared to my left, bounding across the room, beaming as she carried and showed off 2 bananas. Her eyes led back to the young man. 

I followed her as she excitedly displayed her new find. On a layover in Lyviv, finding fresh fruit isn't easy.

But the young man didn't react and was as bored and angry as before.

The girl was almost skipping as she moved towards him.  She was bubbling with excitement over her find. 

He didn't react.

Eventually my attention was drawn elsewhere.  I watched the floor sweeper pass over the muddy surface in triplicate sweeps, pushing by people and rhythmically following the same pattern over and over.

The woman next to me asked if I would watch her bags for a while.  I agreed and then she launched into a long speech that seemed very important and to have something to do with her stern expression. 

I gave her my well practiced reaction "I only understand a little Russian.", a very good end conversations I can't follow.

Her bags were to my right so keeping an eye on them meant turning my gaze back to the couple.  The girl had lost her earlier enthusiasm.  No, she had become sad. The young man hadn't changed his bored appearance but she was now with her head bowed and her eyes darting down and around.  She seemed to be having a frantic and worried conversation with herself. 

The young man stirred, mumbled something and leaned his head on her shoulder.

She perked up and opened her purse and began digging around for something. It was clear that she was in an awkward position now, being careful not to move and disturb him. It was as if she dared not shift her position for fear that he would be annoyed and move away.

She never found what she was looking for but managed to keep shoulder absolutely still the entire time.

It was time to catch my train.  My neighbor had retrieved her bags and left.  I wondered if she was on my train.

As I walked away, I glanced at the young girl again to see her head still bowed and eyes shifting about as before, purse still opened. 

Of course I will never know what was going on with them but I have my guesses.

Two Times Less than half

This one gets to me.  I can't recall how many times I've had a student say "It was 2 times less..."  leaving me slapping my head to restart my brain.  This phrasing is counterintuitive in American English, sending my mind in one direction only to reverse course in another.  In everyday English we do not use multiples to describe a fraction.  The reason for my brain injury mentioned above is that when you do phrase something like this and I hear "2 times" I immediately think, in a nanosecond, "ok, we are talking about some number larger than another." but then "less" enters my ears and all hell breaks loose.  "ABORT! ABORT! REVERSE COURSE!" go the voices in my head. 

Here is an example.

"The cat is 2 times more than the banana."  When I hear "times" my brain is signaled to expect a larger number.  In American English multiples, indicated by "times", mean greater numbers.  

On the other hand, if I say "The banana is half as much as the cat." the fraction "half" immediately lets you know that I'm speaking of a lower number.  Your brain is much happier.  Any fraction will work of course.  

We can also use percentages such as "The banana is 50% less than the cat." with the same meaning.  

"But Bruuuuuuuuuce, I love to speak in multiples.  I just have to use multiples." you might say and my response is that you could always reverse the objects and save everybody a lot of grief.  Instead of "My boyfriend is two times younger than me." you can say "I am two times older than my boyfriend."

So, when speaking English, keep the multiples in the plus columns and apply your power of division and percentages to talk about lower numbers.  Everybody's brain will thank you.

It is So Very Confusing!

WARNING: we are discussing proper English and NOT colloquial English.  English speakers break the rules all the time and yes, you will hear people break this one BUT only in certain settings and for certain purposes.

"Don't leave me hanging."  Have you ever heard that phrase?  It's common in American English and basically means, "Don't leave me waiting for something."   We don't want people waiting for us to finish.

And that is EXACTLY what we do when we misuse "SO".

A: I am SO hot.
B: Yeah?
A: Huh?
B: You said you were so hot.
A: I am.
B: And...?
A: Huh?
B: You're so hot what?
A: Huh?
B:  AAAAAAAARGH!
B Jumps up, turns over table and runs from the room screaming obscenities.

When we say "so" in a sentence like above, we are setting up an expected example.
"I am so hot I didn't wear pants to work."
"She is so confused that she brushed her teeth with hair gel."
"We are so hungry we could eat a horse."

In each of these sentences, we use "so" as an indefinite adverb of degree, which means it needs something in the sentence to work with.  

"Very", on the other hand, is an intensifier which does not need such a companion.  If you tell me "I am very hungry." "very" tells me that you are more than just hungry.  It intensifies the meaning.  Too often I hear students use "SO" when they should use "VERY".

Ok, ok, there are those who say that we should avoid "very" as well but I don't think it's so bad for learner of English as a Second Language.  When you get ready to start writing your English language novel we'll go over why it should be avoided but for now let's just make sure we keep everybody happy with no one wondering when we're going to finally finish our sentence!

For more on this, try this explanation, which goes a little deeper, especially about the dreaded "very".  Like I said, you can use "very" all day long with me.  It's a lot better than the common alternative.

Diss and That

Oh, the heartbreak of the TH.  Why oh why did we invent this godforsaken sound?  What evil character in history decided we should put our tongue between our teeth when speaking?  Why can't I just keep touching my tongue to the roof of my mouth?  Will this riddle of the ages ever be solved?

We'll leave the riddles and mysteries to the CSI but for now we need to address the issue at hand, correctly pronouncing TH.  This is VERY important for your English.    

As I've told all my students, this is done by bringing our tongue between the bottom and top teeth, blocking the air and then releasing to get that sweet, sweet "th"  sound found in "Mother", "Father", "Brother", "Sis..." hmm, not sure what sister's problem is (sister was always a troublemaker) but basically without the TH, we'd have no family!  Think about that for a moment... 

Ok, now back to how to make that sound.  I say put the tongue between the teeth but I recently realized that often, I often do not do that at all.  Sometimes I put my tongue between my bottom lip and top teeth.  Sometimes, my tongue is even behind my top teeth.  My tongue is all over the place... But it is never at the roof of my mouth and that is where 99% of mistakes are made.  Stay away from the roof of your mouth!

If you want to do a neat experiment, (By "neat" I mean, maybe you want to find a room that you can hide in while doing this so your co-workers or friends don't think you're crazy.) start making TH sounds with your tongue touching the bottom lip and top teeth. 

Go ahead, DO IT!  

TH, TH, TH, TH...ok, now start moving your tongue slowly back and up.  TH, TH, TH, keep making that sound and bring the tongue between the teeth TH, TH, TH and now drop the bottom teeth and keep making the sound with just the top teeth and the tongue TH, TH, TH and slide the tongue back behind the top teeth TH, TH, TH then move it up slowly TH, TH, D, D, D... you just reached the roof of your mouth and the sound changed. Now you know where it turns from TH to D.  That is your NO-GO area when pronouncing TH.  Play around and find the area you like best and fear the tyranny of the TH no more.

Ok, I've explained one side of the TH pronunciation but there is more information here from Rachel's English that should be helpful.  She's the expert.  

How do you say "What"?

Here's a common mistake I run into with students, using "what" when they mean "how" or vice versa (opposite order is equally true, see here for examples).  For example "What do you say..." when the correct question is "How do you say...".  I think it is difficult to break the habit of confusing these two words but if you do, it is very important to stop.  Take a moment and really think about what these words mean. 

First of all, these words have other uses but for in the case of confusion I'm addressing here, it revolves around the following.

"How" is an adverb asking for instruction on the way to do something or the way it is done.  How do you spell your name? How do I get to Italy? How does she cook so well?  Each of these questions is asking about the verbs "spell", "get" and "cook".   How is asking about actions.

"What" on the other hand is asking for a noun or pronoun.  "What is that called?"  "What is the name of that company?" "What is your name?"  What is about nouns and pronouns.

So, you cannot say "What do you say that?"  because say is a verb.  Instead use "HOW." 
You cannot say "How is the movie title?" because you are asking for a noun.  Instead use "WHAT."

This is another issue that may seem small but will really stand out when you make the mistake.  Take some time and try to finally get past this issue and your English will be improved immediately. 

Here's another explanation that may be helpful to you. 

Let me know if you have any questions concerning this or any other English Grammar issue. Thanks!

Face, Vase. It's all in the lip.

I have a lot of students from slavic speaking countries and a common problem they face is, like Chekov above, the pronunciation of the V sound.  Too often I hear and see their mouth make the W sound instead.  Different native languages present different pronunciation challenges but this one I think is not so terrible.  This is because most Slavic students can easily produce the F sound and guess what, we use the EXACT same part of the mouth as with V.  Thus "Face and Vase".  If you can say one, you can say the other.

The ONLY difference is that V is voiced.  This means we engage our vocal cords with the V while the voiceless F does not use them.

So, the challenge of the V sound is not so much retraining mouth muscles as in some foreign sounds but simply remembering, if it is a V, press your bottom lip to your upper teeth just as you do for F, engage the vocal cords and voila! (that's French!), you're speaking like a native.

I'm not an expert in pronunciation but there are some who are and do a great job explaining such things.  I recommend this site for a more detailed explanation.  Be sure to watch Rachel's video explanation a little bit down as well.  She does a great job and I recommend all my student subscribe to her channel.  

It's 7 am and I'm listening to the distant thunder roll in through my window.  Spring in Mississippi is filled with rain and stormy weather.  You lose count of Tornado watches and the public safety siren that's supposed to alert you to take precautions when tornadoes are imminent goes off so often that people simply ignore it.
It's interesting to think about locations around the world that have a constantly recurring danger that is ignored by most people because they simply don't take it seriously anymore.
In South Korea, the first time you hear about some threat from the north, you panic.  After 6 months and living through many more such threats, you shrug or maybe even laugh.  The easiest way to tell if somebody is new to the country is by how concerned they become at a recent threat.
In Mississippi it is Tornadoes.  They strike suddenly and without warning and the results can be catastrophic but you cannot live in fear and so each passing storm usually causes no more than mild concern with the locals.  I am an exception.  I've been living away for so long that I have to become used to what I grew up with again.  
In California it is earthquakes.  We have been told for years that a massive earthquake is coming but people continue to build and live through the many smaller tremors without much concern.
In all of these areas we know that danger is lurking and probably will eventually strike, but people choose to live with it in relative peace.
What is a constant danger where you live?  Do you think about it or are you like so many of us around the world?