pen_is
07-13-2009, 01:27 PM
English gives students lots to chew on
Jul. 8, 2006. 01:00 AM
LISA GOLDBERG
SLICE OF LIFE
Toronto Star
"What does `corny' mean?" one of my English-as-a-second-language students asked.
As I struggled to come up with a workable definition (it's harder than you might think) another student asked if it meant the same as "cheesy," a word he had heard on TV. This led to a question about "the Big Cheese," which led to a question about "the Big Apple" and considerable confusion about the meanings of "a bad apple" and "the apple of my eye."
As a teacher of Adult ESL, I get questions like this all the time. English vocabulary, with its abundance of idioms and slang, is often bewildering for second-language learners. But until this latest crop of questions, I hadn't realized how much everyday language is based on food.
Those questions about "corny" and "cheesy" led to an impromptu vocabulary lesson that left every inch of blackboard covered in "edible" verbs, nouns and adjectives.
A list of the verbs alone could easily fill a dozen pages. You can egg someone on or butter someone up. You can milk a person or a situation.
You can fudge something. You can stew over something. You can take something with a grain of salt. You can pepper your conversation with idioms. You can use your noodle. You can ride the gravy train.
You can do doughnuts with your car in the parking lot. You can have your cake and eat it, too. Or bite off more than you can chew. Or chew the fat. Or eat your words.
And after all that, you can eat crow.
Many food words, particularly nouns, describe people. A tall, skinny person is a string bean. An adored child is the apple of her mother's eye. A ham is a bad actor. An egghead is an intellectual. A good egg is not the same as an egghead, and a bad apple is not something you can take back to the store for a refund. A couch potato doesn't like to get off the couch and the Big Cheese probably doesn't like to make his or her own coffee.
Then there are the adjectives. Some, such as syrupy, are fairly easy to figure out, but how do you master a language in which fishy means suspicious and chicken means scared? And good luck finding a dictionary that explains how consuming certain intoxicants can leave you fried or baked (but not half-baked, which is something else entirely).
As for baked, a student asked the meaning of, "Nice buns!" I had to explain that "buns" has a meaning apart from bread rolls. And no, "Nice rolls!" is not an adequate synonym, because "rolls," too, has another meaning.
No doubt about it: English vocabulary, in all its rich and expressive variety, is a tough nut to crack. It's no piece of cake, and it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea. If it weren't for the enthusiasm of my students and the occasional moments of hilarity, I'd surely go nuts. Or bananas. :65:
Jul. 8, 2006. 01:00 AM
LISA GOLDBERG
SLICE OF LIFE
Toronto Star
"What does `corny' mean?" one of my English-as-a-second-language students asked.
As I struggled to come up with a workable definition (it's harder than you might think) another student asked if it meant the same as "cheesy," a word he had heard on TV. This led to a question about "the Big Cheese," which led to a question about "the Big Apple" and considerable confusion about the meanings of "a bad apple" and "the apple of my eye."
As a teacher of Adult ESL, I get questions like this all the time. English vocabulary, with its abundance of idioms and slang, is often bewildering for second-language learners. But until this latest crop of questions, I hadn't realized how much everyday language is based on food.
Those questions about "corny" and "cheesy" led to an impromptu vocabulary lesson that left every inch of blackboard covered in "edible" verbs, nouns and adjectives.
A list of the verbs alone could easily fill a dozen pages. You can egg someone on or butter someone up. You can milk a person or a situation.
You can fudge something. You can stew over something. You can take something with a grain of salt. You can pepper your conversation with idioms. You can use your noodle. You can ride the gravy train.
You can do doughnuts with your car in the parking lot. You can have your cake and eat it, too. Or bite off more than you can chew. Or chew the fat. Or eat your words.
And after all that, you can eat crow.
Many food words, particularly nouns, describe people. A tall, skinny person is a string bean. An adored child is the apple of her mother's eye. A ham is a bad actor. An egghead is an intellectual. A good egg is not the same as an egghead, and a bad apple is not something you can take back to the store for a refund. A couch potato doesn't like to get off the couch and the Big Cheese probably doesn't like to make his or her own coffee.
Then there are the adjectives. Some, such as syrupy, are fairly easy to figure out, but how do you master a language in which fishy means suspicious and chicken means scared? And good luck finding a dictionary that explains how consuming certain intoxicants can leave you fried or baked (but not half-baked, which is something else entirely).
As for baked, a student asked the meaning of, "Nice buns!" I had to explain that "buns" has a meaning apart from bread rolls. And no, "Nice rolls!" is not an adequate synonym, because "rolls," too, has another meaning.
No doubt about it: English vocabulary, in all its rich and expressive variety, is a tough nut to crack. It's no piece of cake, and it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea. If it weren't for the enthusiasm of my students and the occasional moments of hilarity, I'd surely go nuts. Or bananas. :65: