Hi everyone. I thought I'd type a few lines to basically wish you all a Merry Christmas.
I also think that this season is an opportunity for you to get (re)acquainted with some archaic expressions that only seem to pop up in poems and traditional songs. I'm talking about the pronoun ye (=you), the possessive thy (=your), the adverb yon (=around / over there), obsolete meanings in words such as gay (=happy) and terms like Yuletide (=Christmas) that you may not hear often. Check out those meaning so you don't freak out the next time you hear O Come All Ye Faithful or listen to that other classic carol:
Have yourself a merry little Christmas / Make the yuletide gay
I happen to like Michael Bublé, but I'm definitely not a fan of Ariana Grande. That said, boy can she sing! Her range is off-the-charts awesome and her technique is simply impeccable. Enjoy this short clip and remember that, in a few hours, Santa Claus is coming to town.
Chances are... if you are reading this post you're probably an English student trying to get to or stay in the advanced level. Understandably, you think the classroom material you covered years ago is somehow "beneath you". Stuff like relative sentences, prepositions and irregular plurals are "a thing of the past", which is why you probably prefer to center on truly advanced content: lexical accuracy (epaulet, flout, etc.), inversions (seldom would I dream of...), emphatic structures (an opinion he voiced in no uncertain terms) and that sort of thing. Fair enough. That's a healthy C1 obsession. And if you're inching towards the coveted C2 certificate you may even choose brood over he subtle semantic differences between terms such as masterful and masterly.
Okay. I'm painting something of a caricature. I know. Still, deep down, you know what I'm talking about here, right?
Let's just consider the following situation (which is, by the way, no caricature). Imagine you are reading the press and you stumble upon this:
Now, as the European Union regulators edge closer to approving two of those vaccines...
You stop reading, go online and look up the verb to edge. You immediately realize that its meaning is quite specific: "to move gradually". That is a word you need to incorporate right away (because you're a bit of a word nerd). Somehow, while you look for your vocabulary notebook on your cluttered desk, you vaguely remember a synonymous verb (to inch), which your teacher used in his blog (check out line 7 of this post). Anyway, you finally find the notebook and jot down the word "edge" and its meaning. Who knows? You might also take down a sentence that illustrates how to use the term in a real context. Some days later you decide to use the recently acquired word. So you say:
We're edging close to face a new economic crisis
The sentence does not conform to the grammar rules of the English language. After the adverb close you use the "-ing" form of a verb. Just reread the sentence above ("...edge closer to approving..."). What does this little thought experiment tell us? The answer is quite clear. You may learn an "advanced" word but fail to use it properly due to "intermediate" issues.
This is why I've decided to revisit B1 material and by that I mean prepositions, singular/plural forms, etc. Just this week I touched on the case of weird plurals. Yes. In my C1.2 class we read an article about the kind of life that papparazzi lead. I mentioned that the singular form of papparazzi is, of course, papparazzo. I went on to remind my students that the plural of nucleus is nuclei and the plural of kibutz is kibutzim. I added that this state of affairs makes many native speakers rather uncomfortable, which explains why some language users will write several ultimata but most people prefer the regular several ultimatums.
Of course it's not only Latin terms and loanwords that have unusual plural forms. Take the case of "secretary general". What is its plural form? It is "secretaries general". I know. It feels bizarre, but that's the way it is. Is it possible, then, to be learning sophisticated grammar and make basic mistakes? I'm afraid it is, but the solution to that is extremely simple. Read up on the subject!
If you are curious about the history of irregular plurals in English the video below is an entertaining condensed lesson that will put things into some kind of perspective. Have fun.
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N.B. Word to the wise: check your Educantabria mailbox you should soon receive an email informing you that there's a new quiz ready for you. If you are a C1.1 student the test will be about ways of describing "importance" without using the word "important". Students in the C1.2 and C2 courses will take a quiz about singular and plural forms. Don't panic if your score is not too high. Both quizzes are really challenging. I haven't designed them to boost your self-esteem but rather to teach you some necessary grammar/vocabulary.
This may sound like an obvious statement, but lately I have noticed a gaping divide between two kinds of students: those who still struggle to build sentences and those who simply say them. I know it seems simplistic, but just bear with me.
At the advanced level you're not really supposed to build sentences anymore. By that I mean that you don't make many choices in terms of word combinations. When you want to describe how you feel about a sensitive personal situation you may (understandably) take your time to find the right words. But as far as expressing yourself in most contexts you string sentences together without giving much thought to the grammar or the collocations that are needed. Allow me to repeat this: you do make decisions, of course, but not many.
Let's suppose that you're working on a project with a friend who feels frustrated because of a minor mishap. You may say: "Hey! Keep your chin up. It's not the end of the world". I know that those are two idioms, which means they are somewhat predictable. Few people want to speak in cliches. And that's commendable, but first things first. Before an English learner sets out to speak "originally" (whatever that means) they should master the "obvious" phrases. The beauty of this approach is that, when you finally resort to fixed phrases, you realize that you don't even stop to think of the potential options, that is to say, you don't have to choose between these sentences:
Keep your eyes up
Keep your hair up
Keep your chin up
You just know what you are supposed to keep up: your chin. This way a silly mistake is avoided. As for the second sentence, again, you don't really need to consider the following options:
the end of the universe
the end of the cosmos
the end of the galaxy
See what I mean? You just say "the end of the world" because it is the conventional expression. So, you don't have to hesitate and consider nonstandard/"incorrect" alternatives.
A speaker that is "sort of familiar" with the idea (in the phrase "the end of the world") might ponder the merits of such phrases as "the finish for the world", "the world's ending", "the termination of the galaxy", etc. which needless to say, do not conform to the convention. For all I know, they may be translating from their mother tongues. Unfortunately, that happens to be irrelevant. It just doesn't work in English, which means it's a no-no in an advanced class. Anyway, my point is that all those moments of hesitation vanish into thin air when you know the sequence and say it.
So that's what I mean when I say that "some students just know what to say". They've heard an expression before and simply use it when they identify the function that it serves. Yes. That's the way to go about it, I'm afraid. Less grammar and more "usage awareness".
I can anticipate your reaction: "But I want to be myself. I don't want to speak in stock phrases" (because you avoid cliches like the plague). Well, I've got news for you: you already speak in stock phrases in your mother tongue. Yes, you do. Unless you're a creative speaker, the kind of language user that can come up with dazzling never-before-used similes, the talker that coins neologisms and creates new turns of phrase, you are using expressions that somebody else has created and millions have used. Even great writers are compelled to resort to conventions (even if they often go beyond them). Otherwise nobody would understand their texts. So, however idiosyncratic your English may be, it is, it cannot be not totally original. And that's not sad. That's what a language is: a complex set of conventions. Certain combinations do feel refreshing even if their "components" are not new. Millions of speakers use time-honored expressions to good effect. Some sound predictable and boring while others shine.
I remember Amazon.com used to offer an interesting piece of information about most books: the so-called SIPs (Statistically Improbable Phrases). I haven't seen that feature for a while, but I recall sitting and reading them before buying a book. What are SIPs? Simply put, they are unusual combinations that can give an on-line shopper a taste of what makes a book quirky or different. Think about it. If I told you about a book that contains the phrase turophobic chucklehead, would you be curious or put off by it? I haven't checked (I just put those two words together), but I can imagine not many books in the world contain sentences which include that peculiar "word sequence". So, how many unusual combinations can you come up with? Do you still be want to be original or are you ready to settle for something... less demanding? The good new is... you don't have to be that creative to be an advanced speaker and, of course, you have time to become a writer. Just don't get ahead of yourself.
In short, be humble. Find competent speakers and imitate what they say. Do not try to improve on those expressions. Not yet, anyway.
