I just read a fascinating post on English in Singapore. Specifically, how they love to use modal verbs.

For example, answering requests with "can":

Could you please get me a copy of this document when you return?'
'Can!'

'Would you be able to make it for dinner tonight?'
'Can!'

That's actually kind of wonderful in its literalism. It reminds me of the old joke teachers and older siblings often play.
An unsuspecting student asks, "Can I go to the bathroom?"
"I don't know. Can you?
This eventually results in the more polite and accurate question: "May I go to the bathroom?"


Another commenter on Singaporean in London notes that,

Singaporeans also like to use the words 'Never', 'Must', 'Have to' which considered absolutes and very strong words by non-Singaporeans. A korean colleague, when he first arrived in Singapore had a taxi-driver telling him that he must go to Sentosa. He found it a tad complusive, almost like an order

Check out this earlier post, English for Britons and Singaporeans for some quirks of the British as well as great comments on Singaporish.

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The problem with learning anything is that you need proper motivation. A natural talent for languages will help you learn English for example, but if you don't dedicate time to studying you will never master the language. And frankly studying languages can be extremely boring. So how about if you could pick up new vocabulary by learn interesting facts about the history of words? Not enough fun? What if you could learn new vocabulary, learn interesting facts about new and old words from the girl pictured on the right?

Marina Orlova, better known as hotforwords on YouTube, is a serious student of philology, a European field of study that is something like linguistics (Nietzsche was one so don't sneeze at it), with a degree from the Russian State University of Nizhni Novgorod Region. She also happens to be really, really sexy. On her videoblog she explains the etymology and usage of words and expressions while dressed in skimpy outfits. It's actually an interesting idea and the explanations are really good (I had to force myself to watch all of them as research for this post. Some of them I had to watch 3 or 4 times! The agony!

So check out her latest entry on the origin of music:



Then check out the discussion at hotforwords vlog.

As for the etymology of her tagname, the expression "too hot for words" means someone who is too sexy to be described in words. But to be "hot for" something means you like it, it makes you excited. So she has pretty cleverly merged these two expressions to say she is excited by words, and also extremely sexy.

Boy, writing this blog is rough sometimes. I think I need to do some more research.

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I've been planning a conversation lesson around the 2008 US presidential election and I thought I would share some resources I found.

With any conversation class, you want to make sure you have lots of background information. When dealing with something as complicated as the US election for president, the class is going to have a lot of questions. So you either need to read up and bring materials to look up anything you didn't memorize. Or you need resources that the students can read and research themselves.

Here is some great material to work with:
Article II of the Constitution which defines how a President is elected and the powers of the President. Links to relevant amendments are provided in the text.

Wikipedia also has the text of Article II with explanations in plain English. I wouldn't recommend giving beginner or pre-intermediate students the original text of the Constitution because it is difficult. Better to summarize for them.

Presidential and VP Debate transcripts from 2008 to 1960. Provided by the Commission on Presidential Debates, a non-profit that sponsors the debates. An interesting conversation topic there--should debates be sponsored by an independent organization or not?

Simplified readings on the candidates and the election process including a good explanation of the electoral college system.

If you have computers with the Internet in the classroom, All About Electing a President is a pretty good slideshow summary of the process from primary to election. And OneVote2008:Election Playbook has more in-depth guides to various topics like delegates and primaries.

On to lesson plans:
The New York Times provides lesson plans based on relevant issues and linked to articles. Good materials and interesting ideas. I particularly like the ones on political humor and cariactures because here in Kazakhstan, they love political humor but it's a bit taboo in the mainstream media.

This plan involves in-depth research on the political process in the US. It's best for intermediate-advanced students where your school has either access to the Internet or a good library. However the worksheets that students are expected to fill in also work well to guide questions or for a teacher to evaluate how much he/she knows.

Some conversation questions from Heads Up English on: Election 2008, Politics, and Freedom.

Finally a couple of quizzes I thought were fun: US Election Facts Quiz and a quiz to find out if you are a Democrat or a Republican.

If anyone has any other resources, feel free to leave a comment.

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