Often we make mistakes when learning a new languge because of the influence of our native language. Over the next few weeks I will be looking at some of the problems Brazilians find when learning English.

(material reproduced from© John Clites 2011 www.EnglishForBrazilians.com)

Say/tell/talk/speak

English has a number of verbs referring to talking which are almost , but not quite, the same. These are “say”, “tell”, “talk”, and “speak”. Portuguese has a similar set of verbs: “dizer”, “contar”, and “falar”. “Say” (or its forms “says” or “said”) is used frequently in English for “reported speech”, that is, repeating what someone else said. It generally translates as “dizer” in Portuguese. Examples: “She said that she would meet us here at noon.” “He called to say he’s sick.” [Notice how the “that” after “say” is optional.] “Tell” is used when communicating information, directions, or orders to someone. Examples: “I told you to clean up your room, young man!” “The boss told me that the report must be finished by Friday.” We also “tell a story” and “tell a lie” or “tell the truth”. “Tell” generally would equate to “contar”.

Special note: We “tell” someone something. In our examples above “I told you…” and “The boss told me…” In English, we would never say “I said you…” or “The boss said me…” This is a fairly common mistake among those learning English. You can use the verb “say” in such situations, but you must use the preposition “to” before the object: “I said to you…” or “The boss said to me…” However, more frequently native speakers use “tell” in these situations.

 Finally, “talk” and “speak” generally would translate as “falar”. When should you use “talk” and when “speak”? Very often either is fine. “Talk” is generally used for more informal situations and “speak” for more formal ones: “Hi, Joe. We were just talking about your new car.” “Sir, could I speak with you when you have a minute?” When giving a presentation to a group of people, we use the noun forms of “talk” and “speak”, which are “talk” and “speech”. Examples: “I have to give a talk to the new employees next Monday.” “I have to give a speech to 300 people on Thursday and I’m really nervous!” Again, the meaning is essentially the same, but “speech” is a bit more formal than “talk”

The Story of Easter and Easter Eggs

Easter Egg Tradition

Eggs have been associated with the Christian festival of Easter, which celebrates the death and resurrection of Christ, since the early days of the church. However, Christian customs connected with Easter eggs are to some extent adaptations of ancient pagan practices related to spring rites.

The egg has long been a symbol of 'fertility', 'rebirth' and 'the beginning'. In Egyptian mythology, the phoenix burns its nest to be reborn later from the egg that is left; Hindu scriptures relate that the world developed from an egg.

With the rise of Christianity in Western Europe, the church adapted many pagan customs and the egg, as a symbol of new life, came to represent the Resurrection. Some Christians regarded the egg as a symbol for the stone being rolled from the sepulchre.

Eggs as an Easter Gift

The earliest Easter eggs were hen or duck eggs decorated at home in bright colours with vegetable dye and charcoal. Orthodox Christians and many cultures continue to dye Easter eggs, often decorating them with flowers.

The 17th and 18th centuries saw the manufacture of egg-shaped toys, which were given to children at Easter. The Victorians had cardboard, 'plush' and satin covered eggs filled with Easter gifts and chocolates. The ultimate egg-shaped Easter gifts must have been the fabulous jewelled creations of Carl Fabergé made during the 19th century for the Russian Czar and Czarina, now precious museum pieces.

Chocolate Easter eggs were first made in Europe in the early 19th century, with France and Germany taking the lead in this new artistic confectionery. Some early eggs were solid, as the technique for mass-producing moulded chocolate had not been devised. The production of the first hollow chocolate eggs must have been painstaking, as the moulds were lined with paste chocolate one at a time.

Cadbury Easter Eggs

John Cadbury made his first 'French eating Chocolate' in 1842 but it was not until 1875 that the first Cadbury Easter Eggs were made. Progress in the chocolate Easter egg market was slow until a method was found for making the chocolate flow into the moulds.

The modern chocolate Easter egg owes its progression to the two greatest developments in the history of chocolate - the Dutch invention of a press for separating cocoa butter from the cocoa bean in 1828 and the introduction of a pure cocoa by Cadbury Brothers in 1866. The Cadbury process made large quantities of cocoa butter available and this was the secret of making moulded chocolate or indeed, any fine eating chocolate.

The earliest Cadbury chocolate eggs were made of 'dark' chocolate with a plain smooth surface and were filled with sugared almonds. The earliest 'decorated eggs' were plain shells enhanced by chocolate piping and marzipan flowers.

Decorative skill and variety bloomed and by 1893 there were 19 different lines on the Cadbury Brothers Easter list in the UK. Richard Cadbury's artistic skill undoubtedly played an important part in the development of the Easter range. Many of his designs were based on French, Dutch and German originals adapted to Victorian tastes. Germany came up with the 'crocodile' finish, which by breaking up the smooth surface, disguised minor imperfections. This was the forerunner to the many distinctive finishes now available.

The launch in 1905 of Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate made a tremendous contribution to the Easter egg market. The popularity of this new chocolate vastly increased sales of Easter eggs and establish them as seasonal best sellers. Today the Easter egg market is predominantly milk chocolate

One of the most difficult, but important, things to help you develop your English is your listening skills. If you have never heard of Ted Talks then maybe now is the time to check it out. The web site at https://www.ted.com/talks/browse will let you search thousands of videos on hundreds of topics that you are interested in. If you would like subtitles or download the video to watch later then these options are all available.

But remember: (source: http://busyteacher.org/)

 Listening Mistakes ESL Students Make 

      

             Giving in to Mental Block

When you’re not a native speaker, listening takes massive amounts of effort and concentration. What happens after a few minutes? You simply decide you don’t understand, give up and shut the audio off. What do students do when they don’t understand a conversation in a real life situation? Of course, they can’t shut it off, but they might just decide it’s too hard, and simply tune out. Give up.

What to do:  In a real life situation, there’s nothing wrong with asking the native English speaker to slow down, repeat or rephrase. Native speakers are often polite, understanding and absolutely willing to help out. Students must be taught right from the start to lose the fear of asking for repetition or clarification.

Translating in  your  Head

Some students have the nasty habit of translating what you say, in their heads, as you speak. This is terrible tiring, it does not help you develop fluency, and in fact, it hinders it as you must constantly pause to translate before replying.

What to do: Learn early on (even if beginning) about the importance of thinking in English. Translating is hard enough as it is; it takes professional interpreters years of practice to get simultaneous translation just right. You are not training to become translators; you are learning to speak English. And if you want to speak it, you have to think it!

     Being too Ambitious

There’s nothing better than being motivated to take listening practice into your own hands. Buy audio and video CDs, listen to music or podcasts or even watch entire movies in English. The problem arises when you don’t recognize your own limitations. You buy a CD that is not appropriate for your level. Watch an entire movie where the protagonists are ‘gansta rappers’ and then feel absolutely deflated because you did not understand a single word.

What to do: Ask the teacher to recommend films where the actors speak very, clear educated English and approach the listening in steps. First: watch with subtitles in English and then turn off the subtitles. Maybe watch the movie in parts and not all of it in one sitting. Also, a short, but focused listening exercise is a lot better than a longer listening where you have more chances of getting lost.

Doing Other Things as you Listen

You must understand that sometimes it’s more important to understand the conversation in general, than the meaning of a single word. It’s not necessary to understand every single word all the time. Listening comprehension takes time to build, and you start by listening and getting the gist of a conversation. Then, you are able to listen and pick up more details. In time, there will be fewer words you won’t understand.

Welcome to everyone reading CCBEU's blog for the first time and welcome back to those of you returning. If there is anything you would like to see here then please let us know. Also if you have any questions about English then I will be happy to answer them.

In this blog, I would like to share with you some web sites that I have found useful in helping me and my students in learning English.

www.englishpage.com

www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html

This is an excellent site, especially for explaining verb tenses and examples. There are lots of exercises for you to practice also.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learn-english

There is a lot of information on this site. It is especially good for listening exercises.

http://www.englishwsheets.com

This site has many worksheets on all different subjects to help you study.

http://www.eslgamesworld.com

Here you can play different games to help you learn.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish

You can find many different activities and help here.

If you have any websites that you like to use then you can share them here with us.