Re: Pronunciation & word choice

Hi Stephanie,

Looks like you are a caring teacher who wants to give your best to the
students.

There are so many mistakes I made! And some were embarrassing. But let
me just pick two funniest ones when I first came to the U.S.

Whenever someone explained something to me, I always answered "I
know", making it like I already knew it and sounding pretty rude. What
I really meant is "I see", which is that "I didn't know this until you
just explained it to me". I was influenced by the Chinese phrase "Wo
Zhi Dao Le", literally "I Know".

Whenever I was trying to be polite for asking some minor helps from
others or for interrupting other's work, I said "Sorry for trouble
you". Although it's not necessarily wrong, but I found the proper way
to say it is "Sorry for bothering you on this...". Again, I was
influenced by another Chinese phrase "Dui Bu Qi (Sorry), Ma Fan Ni
(Trouble You).

The list can go on and on. In retrospect, I think that my teachers had
emphasized too much on grammar rules and rigidly scripted sentences,
but a lot less on the spontaneity and exposure to the materials that
are live and interesting.

That was typical of teaching English in China a long time ago (which I
shared some of my painful experience as a student in my blog
http://lingualbee.blogspot.com/); it might not be the case today.

Hope my two cents helped.

David
 --
I came, I spoke, I conquered. One sting at a time.
http://lingualbee.blogspot.com/

On 8/22/06, Stephanie Noke <araxy-Z02xGKUfPWYS+FvcfC7Uqw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
wrote:
>
>  Would you mind giving us some examples of poor choices so we can understand 
> better how, as teachers, we may need to focus on these items? 





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