Part of learning English in the U.S. is living the life.
A popular past time for Americans is to be a "foodie," someone who likes to try different kinds of foods. I'm not a huge foodie, but I like to explore new restaurants every once-in-a while. One of my favorite breakfast places that we recently went to with some of our morning class students is Old Vine Cafe located in Costa Mesa. The food there is a little expensive, but the food is tasty and interesting, always a good experience. Old Vine Cafe is located at the Camp. The Camp is a cool "hipster" area in Costa Mesa, CA near South Coast Plaza. Hipsters is a type of sub-culture that is artistic and creative, and a little nontraditional. It's a great place to spend a couple of hours. There are many other places to check out in the Orange County or Los Angeles area. To find out more, check out eating my way through oc. Let me know what are your favorite foodie finds!
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As someone who studied English and teaches it, there is a tendency to want to correct the mistakes that I commonly hear in everyday conversation. I usually don't to avoid being annoying. However, here I offer a mini-lesson on the difference between sympathy and empathy, because I hear them misused a great deal.
Empathy is identifying personally with what someone else may feel, which usually comes from a similar experience you have had yourself. Dictionary.com defines it this way: "the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another." Sympathy, in contrast, is acknowledgment or recognition of another person's feelings. A literal example of this is: When a woman complains about the pain she has from wearing high-heels all day long. If a man says, "Oh, you should wear more comfortable shoes," he is sympathizing with her. But if he has worn high-heels himself all day, and personally understands the pain of wearing them, he can empathize with her. Another example is: That a man can sympathize with the pain of a woman giving birth, but he can never empathize with a woman in that way, because men cannot give birth themselves. Usually we use sympathy and empathy in situations when someone is suffering emotional pain, which makes it a little more difficult to distinguish between empathy and sympathy. But I hope my examples help you to make the distinction and to use the words more properly next time. :) In our advanced Business English ESL class, we have been reading Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. In chapter 5, he uses the phrase, "...we're getting ahead of ourselves." For those who are ESL students, what does this idiom mean?
Usually, when someone wants to explain something that has more than one point, they have to explain it in steps. Sometimes, they get to the end before explaining the earlier points well enough. So, they say, "I'm getting ahead of myself."
On Freedictionary.com they explain it like this: get ahead of oneself Fig. [for someone] to do or say something sooner than it ought to be done so that the proper explanation or preparations have not been made. I have to stick to my notes or I will get ahead of myself in my lecture. When he bought a new little bicycle before the baby was born, he was getting ahead of himself. I hope this short explanation helps you to understand this phrase better. :) "The desire to write grows with writing." --Desiderius Erasmus Over the years, the biggest complaint I've heard about writing is, "I'm not a good writer." The truth is very few are naturally good at writing, and those that are usually write fiction. Being a writer has much more to do with practice than talent. The more you write, the better you become at it.
I really like the Erasmus quote above, because I think it's so true. The more you write, the more it becomes an expression of your own thoughts, feelings and what you want to communicate to others. The more you write, the more you appreciate how it can increase your faculty for clearer thinking and communication which enables a more accurate expression of what you want others to understand. For most people, the difficulty with writing comes from intimidation by the idea that their writing must be perfect. But most, if not all writers will tell you that good writing requires editing, revision, editing, revision, and then more editing and revision. This process naturally builds a skill to sort through immense amount of words that you encounter every day, not only in your own writing, but in what you also read and hear and helps you determine what is most meaningful. If you want to learn how to write, but can't seem to get around to it, start with something simple. Write just a couple of sentences a day about your thoughts. You'll be surprise to see how that develops! Bonne chance! Language is organic. It is like a living creature whose growth needs continuous nourishment from various resources. For a tree, nutrition comes from water, sun and rich soil. For English nutrition comes from reading, writing and practice. Irvine's challenging academic environment requires students to strive in their growth to thrive in articulate writing and speaking. At the same time, southern California's friendly and relaxed environment provide the ideal situation for ESL learners to learn and practice their English. This blog is here to assist and provide resources to encourage students to grow in their English knowledge and thinking. We hope you enjoy! .
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About Growing Your EnglishEnglish Steward strives to help students to better their abilities in English writing, reading and speaking. Archives
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