Today I would like to remind you all of your homework (which you should send to my email adress: rdelapena@eoilaredo.org)

C1 students: you were kindly requested to submit an essay expressing your opinion about the influence of a person’s name. Remember?

B2 crowd: I would like you to write a 250-word recount of a personal experience. Think of some unique anecdote, a funny experience you like to share at parties, etc. Just make it interesting, please. We have learned how to do that, haven't we?

Just remember this:

B2 students: watch out for avoidable mistakes, be careful with those verb patterns: (it prevented them from going to jail), go for natural combinations (a crowd gathered outsider the theater) and use several tenses (although she had been considering other options she ultimately decided to marry Archibald)

C1 learners: you are expected to use natural expressions. For example, if you’re discussing how important a person’s name is you may want to deal with the connection between one thing (the name) and another (their life). Many verbs come to mind: it has an impact on your life or it has an effect on your life. Alternatively, you may say that something makes a difference. Then you can proceed to embellish the expression: it had a great impact on my teenage years, it has quite a powerful effect on...

The speaker in the video I posted two weeks ago said all this: “can our names really influence our personalities?”, “can our names predict our futures?”, “there have been a ton of studies over the years trying to figure out how our names affect our lives”.

Let’s just dwell on that for a second. Check out the verb+noun combinations: influence-personality, affect-life. If you’ve been reading carefully you may have noticed that I have already given you a third collocation “to have an impact on you life”. We know that those combinations are safe because two different competent speakers have used them. The legitimate question might be can I say “it impacted me”? To which the answer is yes. I personally don’t like it (for reasons regarding style) so I never use it but it definitely is used.

Do you have to use those very words? Not necessarily. You can, of course, choose to define the kind of influence/impact something has. Check out these sentences: it has ruined my life, it has boosted the sales, it has limited my chances, it has forced me to come to terms with… etc. That might actually be the true difference between B2 and C1. The B2 speaker is happy not to make a mistake (it has influenced my life). The C1 speaker goes a little bit farther (the media has a powerful effect on people). A C2 speaker might choose from a wider gammut of resources ranging from the evocative (it has become the bane of my existence) to the prosaic (it the most critical factor for securing a job interview). All in all, one thing is clear, we should always aim for natural expressions, i.e. sequences that frequently used. “Grammatically possible” doesn’t cut it anymore.

Patricia Camino

When the World Trade Center was destroyed by a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 the producers of the TV series “Friends” (arguably one of the most successful sitcoms ever) had to face a tough dilemma: should they acknowledge the tragedy in the show or have their characters go on with their lives? As it turned out, they decided that the New York City depicted in the series was not the real New York but rather a dream-like version of it. They also thought that the feel-good vibe of the show might actually offer grief-stricken New Yorkers a way to escape from the ubiquitous news of a horrific catastrophe. I suppose we all sometimes act like that. It’s human nature… but when the pain is sudden, sharp and all-pervasive it is almost impossible to pretend that nothing really happened. Even if it is true that, as they say, “the show must go on” I believe a few words must be uttered first.

I am fully aware that this blog is probably not the ideal place to write a eulogy nor is it a teacher’s duty to do so, after all a blog like this one exists only as a tool to help students. Yet I can’t pretend a dreadful tragedy has not occurred. I just can’t. I refuse to stifle my urge to let my feelings show. So here goes…

Patricia Camino died yesterday. She was one of my C1 students in Castro Urdiales and barely twenty-four hours later I’m still in a state of unspeakable shock. I am lucky enough to have known her personally. She was my student some years ago and even agreed to appear in one episode of my series of video podcasts on English pronunciation. Every now and then we would bump into each other in Castro Urdiales and catch up.

What can I say about Patricia?

She could light up any room she walked into. Her enthusiasm was simply infectious. She was a generous student, a devoted mother and loyal friend. So I felt truly happy when I learned she had been elected to hold office as a councilwoman in Castro Urdiales, partly because it was a project she was passionate about and also because the world of politics desperately needs people like her. Just two weeks ago she texted me to let me know how thrilled she was that she had gotten a place in the C1 course. On Tuesday evening, right after class we exchanged a few words…

Devastated by the loss of Patricia, one thought keeps echoing in my head: the world is today a little bit worse because she’s no longer around. RIP.

What's in a name?

Attention my dear C1 students! This post is for you.

Names can be tricky. A name that is attractive and refreshing in a country might be old-fashioned and boring somewhere else. Names are also deceitful because they sometimes hide weird or unexpected information, which is why I'm still baffled that most people are completely unaware of the actual meaning of their own names. Let's face it. How many Claudias know that their name means “limp” in the original Latin? How many Kennedys realize their last name used to mean “misshapen head” in Irish?

The video below these lines is a nice summary of some of the ideas that came up in the classroom. Those conflicting studies that reveal latent forms of racism may only confirm that we all have mixed feelings about certain social trends. We should also “update our prejudices”. Some names that used to give away information about the parents’ background have become so mainstream that they are no longer useful.

To know that Eugene, Walter and Sheldon are not exactly sexy, that Amanda and Brooke are hot, that Kevin is alright in the US but carries certain connotations in the UK requires the kind of language experience that belongs to the world beyond the C2 level. For the time being, we should be happy if we manage to understand the lexical differences between such diverse terms as pseudonym, moniker, stage name, assumed name, pen name, given name, maiden name, forename or nickname.

 

Just a little reminder

My dear B2 and C1 followers (I say followers to use "the parlance of our times"), here’s a little reminder of some of the things we discussed in the classroom last week. I thought a voiceover might help you remember the explanations. Just remember that this presentation is only intended as a brief summary of what the B2 level is mostly about. C1 students should realize that they are expected to have overcome the challenges. Don’t forget that specificity translates into nuanced expressions whose meaning may vary according to perspective, register, dialect, etc. Enough said, right? Enjoy it...or ignore it. It's really up to you.