Why teaching English is SO much fun! :)

Recently I've been looking at various resources, articles and blogs to get some ideas for teaching English.  I found this little article on just how easy teaching English can be and I thought I'd share it with you.  At times I forget just how challenging this language is! 

So, you think English is easy?

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to

present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let’s face it, English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant,

nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English

muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France .

Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find

that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig

is neither from Guinea nor is is a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t

groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t

the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese?

One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but

not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all

but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats

vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the

English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally

insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a

recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and

feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and

a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a

language in which your house can burn up as it burns down; you fill in a

form by filling it out; an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the

creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all.

That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the

lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’ ?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this:

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other

two-letter word, and that is ‘UP’

It’s easy to understand UP meaning toward the sky or at the top of the

list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?

Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it

UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends.

And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the

leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.

We lock UP the house, and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning.

People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and

think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the

dictionary.

In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can

add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP

is used.

It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may

wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.

When the sun comes out we say it is clearingUP.

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.

When it doesn’t rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP,

for now my time is UP,

so……..it is time to shut UP!

Now it’s UP to you to decide what to do with this

Hope you enjoyed!  I'm sure glad English is my first language!  

Christmas in Chicago

Happy New Year!  This holiday season was quite splendid.  I was able to go home and spend the holidays with my family this year.  It was such a refreshing time spent with family, friends, and food :).  After spending five months in Vienna and then returning home for two weeks, I realized very quickly how important relationships are to me.  Seeing my family and so many close friends allowed me to realize how blessed I am.  I felt so encouraged and enriched by all the conversations, laughs and times spent together.  When returning yesterday to Vienna, it was quite difficult to leave.  Probably much harder than when I first left.  

So thank you once again to all my family, friends and supporters.  I hope you know how much you mean to me and I cannot wait to spend the summer with all of you again.  

PS... there is always room for visitors here in Austria too!  :)  

My Family

High School Friends

Met up with some of my old Kaneland students :)

My two college roommates plus this little peanut

Day in the city with my family

Becoming like children

One of my favorite classes to teach is bible to my ELL students.  At first I was somewhat nervous about teaching bible.  I have not taken a bible class since college and was not really trained to teach bible.  Thankfully we serve a God who loves His children and He has prepared me in so many ways to answer some difficult questions that my students ask me.

We are currently going through the Old Testament and I am teaching stories that are VERY new to my students.  It is so refreshing to watch these little six grade students become so impressed about what God has done throughout history.  In some ways, their amazement about God's power has really challenged me.  How is it that we become so apathetic to the stories that God shares with us in the bible?  It is really AMAZING that God flooded the whole earth or delivered his people from Egypt in many spectacular ways or even allowed a donkey to see an angel of God and talk to his master.

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Matthew 18:3

One thing I am learning about six grade students is that they cease to be amazed and they ask very deep and thought provoking questions.

For example...
1.  If another angel were to fall from heaven, would there be another Satan or evil in the world?
2. Why did God not allow the children into the Ark?  If there parents did not teach them about God, how were they to know?
3. Why do we hate the Muslims when they are such nice people?  Should they not get a chance to go to heaven?
4. Who did Cain and Seth marry?  (this was a fun one) 
5.  Did Adam and Eve go to heaven?
6.  How did the animals know to go into the Ark?  

My three students 

A frosty little visit

Christmas in Vienna is quite spectacular!  I never seen anything like it.  Almost every street in Vienna has some display of Christmas lights.  The Christmas markets are fantastic and Christmas music is played in almost every store.  Vienna does Christmas well!

Yesterday I got a nice little visit from two good friends!  It was such a nice little treat to spend sometime with friends from back home in my new home, especially during Christmas!  Being with people from home made me real excited to come home and see my family and friends.  Two more weeks!  Hopefully see you there :).

Friends are here!

Touring around Vienna

Christmas Markets

First Kebab experience and a good one at that

Such a fun day!

Christmas in Vienna!

  

A Merry Christmas Concert

Last night our high school choir sang at one of the oldest churches in Vienna, Peterskirche.  It was such a rich experience to hear these lovely voices singing Christmas songs in this church.  Many people from the school attended as well as other Viennese people.

Listen below

(my video skills are lacking.  sorry for the movement.)

Entrance to the Church

ICSV choir

My good friend, Kristi-Anna, leading the choir

An International Bazaar

This past Saturday the United Nations (UN) hosted an International Bazaar to raise money for charity.  This is an annual event that generally raises about 1/4 of a million dollars.  About 1/2 of the world's nations were represented at the Bazaar.  Each country had its own booth and displayed pictures, flags and events from their country.  In addition, they sold many items that were native to their country in order to raise money.  In another part of the building, there was a large room dedicated only to food.  You could buy food from any country that was generally homemade by natives.  It was delicious!  Later in the afternoon, each country did a performance or dance native to their nation (unfortunately my camera died and I did not get a pictures).  It was one of the coolest things I have done since being in Vienna.  I felt like I visited the world in a 3 hour timespan.  

Check out some pictures below!

Over 60 students volunteered to work!

South Africa

This one's for you dad :)

Delicious food!  

  

What is language?

Hello!  Halo!  ¡Hola!  Anyung.  Ciao!  Musta!  One thing I appreciate at ICSV is walking down the halls  and hearing a plethora of languages.  I am so fascinated by languages.  I love that God created thousands of ways for people to communicate with their mouths, tongues, bodies and even movement.  God understands every single sound that we make and can communicate back! 

 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ~Revelation 7:9

There are roughly 6,900 spoken languages in the world.  What a beautiful time it will be when there will be thousands of praises from thousands of languages being used for one God.    

I have many students that can speak anywhere from 2-5 different languages.  Usually they were born in one country such as the Philippines and can speak Tagalog; but are now living in Austria (a German speaking country) and attending an English speaking school.  In addition, their parents might be from another part of the world and therefore allowing these students to speak 4 different languages.  I often hear them speaking all four in a matter of five minutes!  They find it easier to express themselves in different languages.  I am very jealous of this skill that most of them have. 


Many times in class we will discuss this idea of language and what it means.  So often we take communication for granted.  I asked my students what language meant to them and here are some of the answers that I received...


Language is a was of communicating.  It allows us to share information with others.  Without language the world would be a very confusing place.  


Language has helped us develop strong relationships and helped us to be able to communicate what we are thinking and feeling to others.


Language is part of the culture.  It tells you where a person is from.... In addition, lands that were conquered were forced to learn languages that were not their own.  


Learning languages challenges us and our brains.  If you speak more than one language and cannot express yourself in one, you can use the other to express yourself better


It's a representation of the country and people


Language has helped people communicate and create relationships.  Through language, people are able to trade and be distinguished as a nation.  It creates a bond and a border.