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Post by 1234 on May 20, 2011 17:23:21 GMT -5
oh gosh. It's not brains--it's just the result of being a teacher. I taught middle school in the Bronx, so NONE of my kids spoke English as their first language and I had some kids who had just landed and didn't speak English at all, so language instruction was sort of necessary.
The really embarrassing part was me trying to teach graphs and charts and things for 6th grade math. I had to study so hard for that unit. NOT a visual learner. I was down with multiplication, but started sweating bullets the minute I had to chart changes over time. And those word problems about Billy, Sally, and Liza Sue painting a room of 750 square feet how long will it take them. My fight or flight syndrome would kick in when I had to teach those.
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Post by JC on May 20, 2011 17:31:16 GMT -5
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Post by Karen on May 20, 2011 18:26:19 GMT -5
The really embarrassing part was me trying to teach graphs and charts and things for 6th grade math. I had to study so hard for that unit. NOT a visual learner. I was down with multiplication, but started sweating bullets the minute I had to chart changes over time. And those word problems about Billy, Sally, and Liza Sue painting a room of 750 square feet how long will it take them. My fight or flight syndrome would kick in when I had to teach those. I'm a former math teacher - high school. Super big math geek here! ;D
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Post by hellsbells on May 21, 2011 3:13:13 GMT -5
You know why! Lol. I'm your go-to person for grammar!
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Post by JC on May 21, 2011 6:58:02 GMT -5
Yeah you are! I figured you'd be the one to reply to this question HAHA I didn't know we had a closet grammar fanatic here! HAHA Myrtle!
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Post by 1234 on May 21, 2011 9:36:48 GMT -5
I'm out of the closet now, I guess. But Hells, I'll defer to you. After all, you're English and my background is 100% pure Scotch Irish, which means that a decade ago none of yall could have understood a damn word I said. I've normalized now, but it was bad.
Karen, if I ever have to teach middle school math again, you'll have to show me now to set up those problems of Train B coming from Chicago at 30 miles and hour, Train A coming from NYC at 50 miles an hour, when will they cross. I hate those too.
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Post by gemstone on May 21, 2011 9:40:46 GMT -5
Argh! Rust, you just made me realise a childhood fear again!! Those trains plus my incredibly non-mathematical brain = brain death.
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Post by hellsbells on May 21, 2011 10:19:15 GMT -5
I really am very impressed with the explanation - I knew about the preposition side of it but hadn't really considered the rest of the clauses and the impact. So I learned something too! Thanks!
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Post by JC on May 21, 2011 17:33:32 GMT -5
OK I have another question. I actually think we have a thread somewhere about American vs. British words. I was wondering, why do we use the word "while" and you guys use the word "whilst?" And how come some of our words have Z's and you guys have s'. For example: socialize, sympathize, realize... why do you guys spell those words with s'?
LOL I feel like a 5 year old curious about the world, "mommy why does.."
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Post by hellsbells on May 22, 2011 3:58:57 GMT -5
The z and the s thing - I don't know! I guess it's just the way the language has evolved over the years in different countries. We often swap the s and the z anyway, we can't make our minds up at times! While and whilst - again, I think they're interchangeable. It may also depend on the context, but it's not something I can explain or give examples of. I think 'whilst' is just a little bit posher!
I HATE the way you guys drop 'u's where it's 'ou' as in 'colour/color'. Ughh, that's about my biggest bugbear about America spelling!
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Post by JC on May 22, 2011 7:36:56 GMT -5
HAHA YEAH! That's the other one I wanted to ask about. Like behavior vs behaviour. My spell checker actually tells me they are wrong when I put a "u" in words like that. OH us Americans, we like to be unique I guess.
I actually like the "u's" in words. I think it looks better. But it's actually marked as incorrect here! lol
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Post by 1234 on May 22, 2011 8:47:54 GMT -5
Well, since I'm out of the closet.......
The "while" "whilst" thing I'm less confident in, but I think it's because British English retains the distinction between the noun (while) and adverb (whilst), whereas we Americans just figured what the heck and use the same word for noun, adverb, and conjunction.
The spelling thing--most of the differences in American and British spelling come from british spelling showing a difference in consonant quality which American english no longer has.
British English still retains two versions of every consonant--slender and broad. Americans figure we only need 1 version of each consonant, and so we don't have the pronunciation difference. Slender consonants are indicated by being surrounded by the slender vowels (i and e) and broad consonants by being surrounded by broad vowels (o and a). U is a tricky little character--it's sort of an evolutionary vowel, since it started out as a child of v/w. But it can go either way, depending.
So with color/colour, americans no longer have a distinction between a slender r and a broad r, so we dropped the "u", whose only purpose in life was to indicate that the "r" was slender.
the sympathise/sympathize thing is sort of a next step. Or at least related (I have no idea the order). But in losing the slender/broad distinction in our consonants, the vowels also lost it and american vowels are "fatter"--longer, flatter, more nasal (sounds so attractive). the "i" in sympathize (and similar words) is much longer in american english than british english, and so the "s" sound becomes more of a "z" sound, and the spelling changes to show this. Try to say "sympathize" with a southern accent and have an "s" sound at the end. I've been trying and my husband thinks I'm affected. He actually just got off our chairs on our front porch and went inside so he didn't have to listen to me make unpleasant noises.
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Post by JC on May 22, 2011 9:01:37 GMT -5
WOW. HAHA I am laughing because I have been wondering this stuff for SO LONG. Figures we'd do someting fatter. Typical American. HAHA Thanks for the explanation!
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Post by pretty on May 22, 2011 12:04:44 GMT -5
ok why do Brits say "disorientated" instead of "disoriented" hmmmmm?
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Post by JC on May 22, 2011 14:03:59 GMT -5
We really need to find that British vs. American thread where we talk about all these differences. It was quite entertaining. I don't remember what the thread was called though!
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