Anshan English

I have been teaching English in China for just over 6 years. However, I don’t teach English. Very little of my class time is spent on grammar. Punctuation and spelling don’t play big either. All of these things can be taught just as well, if not better, by a native Chinese teacher of English. They Read More …

It would be simple to point out that English is a very hard language to learn. Complex tenses, cases, irregular verbs, a huge vocabulary, spelling that truly is just random at times and obtuse at others, plus pronunciations that just don’t fit the Chinese tongue. English is a difficult language. However, China is awash with Read More …

It depends a bit on what the question was and whether you should reasonably be expected to know the answer in order to be competent or not. If the question is on topic, and you are often stumped, then it suggests that you didn’t prep sufficiently. If the question is off-topic, then it is quite Read More …

I would say there is no need for a foreign speaker to use foreign idioms. They’ll often get them wrong anyway and just confuse the conversation. Rather they can introduce their own native idioms into their speech, to give it colour and character. However, a foreigner listening to, or reading English, must know and understand the meaning Read More …

Both –ize and –ise are used by British people. Neither is correct, or incorrect. You’ll have some people say that one spelling is American and the other is British, but not true. The choise of –ize and –ise sometimes depends on the etymology – words with Greek routes are –ize where as Latin routes are  –ise. The Oxford English Dictionary standardised on –ize thus this Read More …

The answer is in the question. If it is superfluous, then you don’t need it. Concise writing is effective writing. When you add superfluous words, you create waffle. Use words when they are required to convey meaning. Omit words when the meaning can be conveyed without verbosity. Using a thesaurus allows you to be specific Read More …

I moved to the US several years ago. I speak English every day. I watch English TV, talk to friends in English and I’m also married to a native English speaker, I barely speak my own native language now, but my English doesn’t seem to be improving at all. It’s so frustrating because after many  Read More …

The native language should be used minimally. There may be some instances where using the student’s native language can help to explain a point efficiently, especially with beginner level students, or to bring students into order and discipline them. As students advance, the need to drop into the native language should diminish. The objective should Read More …

Generally, when writing, you should avoid all contractions. Over using contractions can make the writing harder to read and meanings my bedroom ambiguous. The reader can contact themselves if reading aloud and some would rather not contact if such is their normal style. An exception is when you are trying to write to imitate speech Read More …

My mother tongue is Portuguese, and we have two verbs that can be translated as “to be”: Ser and Estar. I Wonder if English has ever had this feature? I don’t know enough about Portuguese to understand the subtitles of Ser and Estar that would be needed to answer this authoritatively, however, I can talk Read More …