Conveying Messages

Filed Under Grammar (文法), Guidance | Leave a Comment

Expressions containing mutliple references can be difficult for non-native speakers. For example,
‘I told her to tell her that I said “hello”.’ has 3 people in it. The person saying something, that is the reference to “I”, the person listening, which is the first reference to “her” and the third person not in the conversation, which is the second reference to “her”.

Here is another example, “I want you to buy dinner for him.” Here, one person is asking another person to complete an action, which is “to buy dinner” and the person receiving it is “him”.

As a non-native speaker, just check your sentence patter. For example, “I want you to buy dinner.” is a complete sentence. Adding “for him” just describes who will receive the result of the action.

Popularity: 42%

Dec

15

Xmas

Filed Under Guidance, etymology | Leave a Comment

If you are wondering why Western culture abbreviates Christmas using Xmas, here is the reason. Some people feel it is inappropriate to use the name Jesus Christ in writing the word Christmas (just like some religious people do not like to write the word God.) But the truth is it originated early in the Middle Ages along with other symbols for Christianity. Anyway,

The letter X represents the first word Christ,
but is also the first letter in the word, Christos (which also means Christ)
and which in Greek is the letter chi (written as x).

Popularity: 49%

Nov

6

The Stag/Bachelor

Filed Under slang, Guidance | Leave a Comment

A party given to a man by his friends just before he is married is called a stag party in the United Kingdom and a bachelor party in the United States. The word stag refers to “men only“. Bachelor just means single and in this case it is usually the last time the groom (the man to be married) can go to such a party.

While I was discussing this with my student, I found an interesting web site, that I think is useful for non-native English speakers to improve their command of the English language. It is located at The Best Man Speech.com. What I really liked about it is that you can see a lot of sample speeches (結婚式のスピーチ・挨拶) and pick the parts you like to create your own speech.

Popularity: 40%