Monthly Archives: April 2018

My Doctor Told Me …

Posted on by

Some examples of how to tell someone else about advice your doctor gave you …

  • My doctor told me TO GET more sleep.
  • My doctor told me TO EXERCISE more.
  • My doctor told me NOT TO SMOKE so much.
  • My doctor told me NOT TO EAT so much junk food.

Don’t Say:

  • My doctor told me you should get more sleep.  (I, not you)
  • My doctor told me to don’t smoke.
  • My doctor told me to no eat so much junk food.

More Detail:

  • We usually use this type of speech to tell someone what somebody else said to you. It’s known as “reported speech“.

SayLish for Pronunciation Practice

Posted on by

  SayLish is a quite-new website to help you listen to English words and phrases – as part of presentations and conversations posted on YouTube.  PLUS – you can record your own voice, to compare your pronunciation with the video.

Voice recording support has been added just recently on iPhone/iPad with Safari, and we’ll give an example with that.  It also works with Android phones/tablets, and desktop computers.

For example, if you search for videos with the word “infrequently“, you will see part of a YouTube video that contains your chosen word.  After you listen to this, you can pause and …

  •   Repeat this to hear it again 
  •   Go to the next video that contains this word
  • or press the “Speaking” button to switch to the screen where you can record your voice
  •   After you listen, press the microphone to record, and try to pronounce the words you hear.  Then press Stop () when you finish

Then you can …

  •   Compare your pronunciation with the speaker in the video
  •   Go to the next part of the SAME video
  •   Go to the next video that contains your search word

Saylish has additional features which we will cover in another posting.

Learning English is like Running a Marathon

Posted on by

      

  • It requires LOTS of practice, and sacrifice (you would often rather be doing something different)
  • There are difficult moments along the way, and probably times when you think about giving up
  • It feels easier if you can find ways to enjoy it, such as having other people to support you and do it with you
  • It takes a long time to reach your goal, but when you do, you get a great sense of pride and achievement
  • Even after you finish, you can always continue to improve

Congratulations to the runners of the 2018 Boston Marathon, including Framingham Adult ESL student Cristina, who finished her 16th Boston Marathon!  And also special congratulations with much gratitude to Michelle Gibson, who dedicated this marathon to raising money for our school.

How Often

Posted on by
  • Think of a question that starts with “How often should …“.  For example:
    • How often should I wash my car?
    • How often should I take a shower?
    • How often should my husband help me clean?
  • Then, spin the wheel, and see the answer!

The choices on the wheel are called “Adverbs of Frequency“.  Here’s a chart (some meanings are approximate).

Scared or Scary?

Posted on by

Don’t say: 
– I’m too scary to go bungee jumping.
– He was scary of the loud noise.

Say this:
– I’m too scared to go bungee jumping.
– He was scared of the loud noise.

Remember:

  • Scared (used as an adjective) is a feeling – similar to afraid.  I feel scared.  She is scared of bees.
  • Scary is the reason for this feeling.  Going bungee jumping is scary.  Sharks are scary.