Speaking

How often do you SPEAK?

In any language, you learn how to READ, WRITE, SPEAK and LISTEN. Personally, one of the best ways to tackle and master a language is by learning how to speak.

Think about when you were a toddler or a child and you are just beginning to make sense of the world. From your memory, does your parent give you a pen and paper or a textbook to read as soon as you started to walk? No, of course not.  After toddlers  learn how to crawl and walk...they begin to learn how to speak.

I believe the same concept apply to learning a language. Let me explain and give you an example from my personal experience. 

My native language is Thai. English is the second language I speak and I have been learning English since I was 8 years old. English was a compulsory subject during high school but we weren’t taught much on speaking. In fact, it was very little to none. Most of the time, we were learning how to read and write. As a result, when it comes to watching an English movie or speaking to an English native speaker...we just go blank. Our brain does not process as quickly as it should when speaking because we are too concentrated on how to structure the sentence right in our head by applying what we learn in the textbook. Sometimes, it doesn't work like that...we need practice.

However, Mandarin to me..is very different. I was taught Mandarin verbally. I do know very little on how to read and write but my speaking is at a much higher level. I cannot quite explain how I form sentences together but I just know where the verb, adjectives, noun or sentence structures are meant to be. In other word, I know how to form a sentence together. On the other hand, I studied Japanese for 3 years during high school and I do not remember much from it. I could still read and write (very slowly) but my speaking is poor. Reason being is because I have not had any practice.

Being a multilingual certainly gives you a competitive advantage. Not only you learn how to speak more than one language but you can also learn from the culture.

Do you speak just one language and want to improve your English? Come study with us! www.etc.ac.nz

Greeting-Kia Ora!

September is the first month of spring. Supposingly, it is meant to be warmer...but it feels colder than winter. Is that even possible? Anyway, I am not meant to write about the weather. There is far more things interesting to talk about than the weather! Although, weather seems to be the topic people talk about when they run out things to say. Interesting enough, a great conversation can generate from just talking about the weather. Does that happen to you?

English Teaching College took 75 students plus staff to Pipitea Marae on Thorndon Quay, Wellington this morning. We were first greeted by 2 friendly hosts and were then seated with men on one side and women on the other. Songs were sang and a history of Aotearoa (New Zealand) was very well explained by one of the host. That was what happened briefly.

What really interested me was the Hongi. The Hongi is the traditional Maori welcome expressed by the rubbing or touching of noses. This morning, we were greeted with a firm handshake and followed by the Hongi. The majority of us whom has not been part of the culture would have found this interesting.  

  

Each culture has a different way when meet and greet. some culture bow, shakehand, peck on the cheek...and so on. In New Zealand, I have found the 'meet and greet' to be a handshake (for  business purposes) or a hug (depending on how close your relationship is with that person).

What's your culture like?

 

Back into it....again.

Everyone like the word 'Holiday'......no matter if you are a primary school student, university student....or a professional worker. When I was a student, I look forward to holiday because it means no more assignment and staying up late to revise for exam. Holiday felt like winning a small lotto, it gives you a little pleasure with joy but with no prize given. 

During school or university, holiday dates are specify and designated into your student diary. You know exactly how many days to count down before you put those thick piles of lectures note away. 'Holiday' feels slightly different when working full time. When you start working full time, your manager do not mark down in your diary when your holidays are and to some, you may have to apply early in advance for leave. The real holiday that you can look forward to is the weekend and public holiday. I appreciate my holiday more when I started to work full time simply because...well, it isn't easy to get leave! Perhaps when things does not come easy, it makes people appreciate and value it more. 

Anyway,  I had a 2 weeks semester break and I am back now again. To be honest, I definitely do not look forward to the next 6 weeks.  Although going back into class did give me the drive and motivation to finish this course, that's a good sign. The campus is within about 20 minutes walk from English Teaching College, making it real convenient for me to get to class just in time! ..

What about you? How do you feel coming back to class after you had a holiday?

Excuse me, what did you just say....?

Slang. According to the American Heritage dictionary, slang is define as....

"A kind of language occurring chiefly in casual and playful speech, made up typically of short-lived coinages and figures of speech that are deliberately used in place of standard terms for added raciness, humor, irreverence, or other effect"

 

The Kiwis have their way of saying things. At first, what they said didn’t really make much sense to me....and I remembered my face just went.....waaaaahhttt? I didn’t know how to respond. Most probably because I was not used to it.... After a few years of being here, I begin to understand the meaning behind those slang.

So let’s take a look at a few common ones:

Good as Gold:  So this means a good job well done or not a problem

Sweet As: a term people say instead of "cool" or "awesome". For example if you say...’ see you in 10 mins?’ then you can reply, SWEET AS!

And so i notice as well that...some word have been added ‘as’ behind... such as ‘cool as’

Mad: Well if you open the dictionary, to most people, mad means angry...but to the Kiwis...it means CRAZY. To give you an example, ‘this party is mad! Means this party is crazy’

Ta: when I used to work in hospitality, I heard that word very often when customers came up to the counter to pay their bills. ‘ Ta, that was lovely’.  Well, that means Thank you.

Before you try it, remember to use it appropriately...or you may embarrass yourself. Also, don’t overuse it....

A couple of years ago, one of my good mate (another word for friend that the Kiwi use) got excited about this whole Kiwi slang thing and she wanted to use it with every sentence! So at one time when somebody served her she responded back with, “Ta mate, sweet as pie” .....Ok so that didn’t make sense. Sweet as PIE? I am not quite sure how the word PIE got into it...but anyways, those words. TA, MATE and SWEET AS..should be use separately and not form the whole sentence because it will sound very strange believe me.

Can you think of any other Kiwi Slang that you have come across?