I've just come back from teaching my ESOL class and in answer to " What did you do at the weekend ? " one of the students wrote " Me and my friends went to the cinema ". I said it should really be " I and my friends... " The student said that was what she put at school but her teacher said it should be " Me and my friends.. "
Is this what they teach nowadays or had she misunderstood ? ( Genuine question btw, not being sarky )
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Do you realise that some of them would not be too happy if they were to know that they were not taught to the standard of their own, complex and rich language ?
But, unlike in French, English grammar is very flexible and I have not yet met an English teacher who could answer a complex grammatical question !
Excellent, TBD. I'm inviting John D to join us. All the English need is a French(wo)man, a Scot and an Irishman to set up L'Académie Anglaise to save English from the English. Michael Gove will be so delighted once we mention 'Academy' that he will load us down with lorry loads of cash. Aux armes!
always teach to the highest level !
Good for you TBD!
It's not necessarily wrong to break rules, but before breaking them, its good to know what the rules are and how and why you're (not "one") might be breaking them. Like not splitting infinitives where the result would sound clumsy.
I'd rarely use "with whom do you live?". It sounds stilted and formal and it is for those reasons that in some contexts, it might be appropriate.
I was fortunate to be a French Assistant in Scotland,
Education in New Zealand was based on the Scottish (certainly at university level).
Bonjour TBD!
pupils wear a school uniform
Well, I don't know what's going on there. When I attended secondary school in NZ a while ago, I had worn uniform and looked forward to the then "privilege" of wearing mufti in the Seventh (or upper sixth) Form.
On the achievement of this immensely high level of education, the school authorities then decided that pupils of all Forms could wear mufti, removing all distinction. After some decades of uniform, it was controversial amongst parents. It was argued that uniforms were (desirably) a great leveler and that mufti meant that parents' differing wealth would then be reflected in the expense, and possibly ostentation, of clothing.
Perhaps uniforms have made a come-back in NZ.
Onslow College—local, co-ed, state and secular—was known in NZ then as an avant garde school. One of my fellow pupils, who sported hair half-way down his back, once fell into trouble for distributing in school the radical EYE magazine (he is now with the Church of England, a man-of-the-cloth and probably with conservative flock, in an English Home County).
Thanks Rich for the interesting comments. I agree that " my friends and I " is the more elegant but at the beginner level I usually choose to correct one error at a time.
In the ESOL context, would you accept or correct " We was / you was / they was " - grammatically wrong but in very common use ? Most of my students will have learned at least some English at school in their native countries and to hear me say " We was hungry " would confuse them or lead them to ask for a different teacher
As far as I know, it was in a writing exercise at her school. Yesterday evening it certainly was an essay-type task.
Wow that jesus was astonishing, speaking English, albeit ungrammatically, where Aramaic, Latin and Hebrew were the -er- lingua Franca.
Remarkable, John!. A little question on English usage raises as many comments as a lament for a missing cat. Good to see (that) we English have our priorities balanced.
Seen sprayed on a wall - " Descriptive's rule innit "
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