pronunciation

Yes! Awesome job everyone!
Here is the chart that shows Where and How words in English are formed.

Remember: The column (list that goes down) shows HOW words are formed with your tongue and air. The row (list that goes across) shows WHERE in the mouth the sounds are formed.

There is also a map of the head and the main parts used to form speech sounds. It is not as pretty as my drawing in class ;-)

Words for "Breakfast of Champions"

Here are words that will be helpful for "The Breakfast of Champions" (the story you're reading this weekend) and a few links on the pronunciation we did today. Notice, I forgot a column in "how" (just after nasal, before approximates, is "lateral" which includes the letter L as n alveolar).

Words:

Disparage=to ridicule

Defunct=not working

Bawdily=rudely

Syphilis=a sexual disease

Idling=resting, sitting still

Goiter=enlarged thyroid

Brink = edge

Balderdash=nonsense

Quadrillion= 1024

Gibberish=nonsense

Motto=an old saying

Baroque=ornate/decorative (exaggerated)

Truncated=shortened

Radiant=glowing

Listless=lethargic (really tired)

Velocity=speed

Projectile=thing flying through the air

Incipient=just beginning

Tour de force=great work

Jeu d’esprit=witty (smart/clever) comment

Camisole=shirt


For next week:

Hoist=lift

Assurance=certainty

Plight=situation

Spurt=spray

Vitality=life force/energy

Pettiness=smallness

Livid=bruised

Shrill=sharp

Console=comfort

Stoically=without emotion

Incongruous=out of place

Snatch=grab quickly

Harrowing=terribly upsetting

Love

Dear Everyone of You:

I hope you dance this weekend. Seriously.
Relax.
Shake your booties.

Love,
Marta

Gray Skies

"All the leaves are brown/and the sky is gray/and the sky is gra---ay...I went for a walk/on a winter day...."
- "California Dreamin" by The Mamas and the Papas

They were big in the 1960s. So we call them "oldies" (oldies but goodies). I like them =)


Marrakesh story from the New York Times in full here.
**IF I were to ask you about the tone, what do you think it would be?
What words/sentences point to the tone of the author?

The NYT is a newspaper for an educated demographic. Usually newspapers in the United States are at an 8th grade reading level. The NYT is a little higher.

Modern World

Erich Fromm doesn't seem too happy with the modern world, or technology, or the way it's changed the relationship of man/woman to work.

And thus I remembered an awesome song, which deals with this same issue. Wolf Parade's "Modern World."

Here are the lyrics:

I'm not in love with the modern world
I'm not in love with the modern world
It was a torch driving the savages back to the trees

Modern world has more ways
And I don't mention it since it's changed
While the people go out and the people come home again

It's gotta last to build up your eyes
And a lifetime of red skies
And from my bed saying you're haunted, hissing in my bed
Modern world don't ask why
Cause modern world will build things high
Now they house canyons filled with life

Modern world I'm not pleased to meet you
You just bring me down


* If you liked the song during break, it was by Ratatat. Here's another song, "Seventeen Years."

Radio Lingual

Hi Guys!

I just learned one of my friends from college started a radio program back in the US about language. This is a perfect chance for us to use English and discuss what is difficult/interesting. The link is: http://www.jackstraw.org/radiolingual/ and you can even record a short greeting to say hello.

I will be recording people about their thoughts on English and Chinese. Feel free to join in!

Very cool.

Marta

skit words

Group 1:

Look at the mourners, wailing sadly and flinging dirt over your corpse into a derelict, oblong coffin.


Group 3:

It was taken when you were one of the infantry.

How mummified you are!

You were glittering in my heart.

Marriage needs to be well cultivated.

The paper is inverted.

They give a contemptuous laugh.

Group 4:

Clergyman: Boy! Can't you see the mourner--your friends--wailed with grief? They love you. No matter if you live in a luxorious house or a derilect one, the small oblong place will bring you to paradise. God bless you! For your eternal life. Amen!

A: Several minutes ago, you were alive, but now, you are a corpse. Tell me why. (fling something) Let's fling flowers on him.

another:

It is a cluster of prickly pears.
They are trapped in a desolate desert.
They are groping for their way out.
I will drink anything, even a bottle of urine.
It's conspicuous, but we'll get through the desert.

马行 is very keen on this smell.

My heart is now pulsing 300 times per min!

Mr 马 I feel exalted when I see you here!

Mr 马 will never be lagged by trivial things.

I assert that nail polish will illuminate you greatly.

Our great leader gave us a mission to cultivate us.
We must do something to invert people's opinions. (*usually we would say "convert")
It's mummified.
I'm contemptuous.
Assemble, infantry!
Something is glittering.

Here is a desolate desert.
In front of us is a cluster of cactus; it's very conspicuous.
I heard that cactus is prickly.
...We're going to see the waterfall, darling...
Actually, it's the sound of a camel urinating!