I wouldn't normally post a mistake by one of my ESOL students here - it isn't fair to make fun of someone who is making such an effort to learn English - but once this one was pointed out to the student he thought it was pretty funny himself.

In an exercise to write a description of himself he had written.

"My name is G-------. I like collect women and girl."

The look on his face when I explained that this meant he has a lot of them and keeps them in his house was priceless.

Apparently he meant to say "I like to connect with women and girls."
Personally I'm not sure that that's much better but I couldn't think of an easy way of explaining why not.



Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditur

Read all about my travels around the world here.

I can hear the commercial now:

Swap 'em! Trade 'em!! Collect them all!!!

Oh, Bob, I could bore you for weeks with all the papers I have gotten from students--poor grammar, sentence construction, spelling, choice of words, etc.! They are juniors in college, and most of them have been raised speaking English! I just don't know what has happened to writing in the school system.

quote:

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Oh, Bob, I could bore you for weeks with all the papers I have gotten from students--poor grammar, sentence construction, spelling, choice of words, etc.! They are juniors in college, and most of them have been raised speaking English! I just don't know what has happened to writing in the school system.

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I intended no criticism of my student. He's studying ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and his first language is Arabic. He's actually one of my better students - attentive, interested and able. He just has a habit of grasping beyond his reach and coming up with the wrong word.
Its quite rewarding to teach English to people who want to learn it as opposed to trying to teach it to English kids who couldn't care less (or if they are American could care less !) about rules of grammar or correct spelling.

Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditur

Read all about my travels around the world here.

[This message was edited by BobHale on Thu Nov 21st, 2002 at 10:46.]

Yes, of course, I understand. I have much admiration for those who can master another language. We had a speaker yesterday who was raised in Norway, and she did not even have an accent. She warned us that she might use words differently, but she did not. I was amazed at her ability to master another language.

PS You've just raised another pet peeve of mine: "I could care less!" As if....