⌛ DOCSiShQACNMN - Teaching English in the Philippines

As the school started here a month ago or so I was (like always) interested what is in the curriculum of the Kids.

I finally found out that I better attend the weekend-class for non-english-speaking Germans.

Here are 2 quotes from government approved text-books...

A passage in one for grade 3 reads: “The dog rolled on the floor so fast and fell on the ground. There he laid yelling louder than ever. The dog yelled on top of his voice.”

.... hmmm ok...

the next one just drove me out of my slipper, they can't be serious...

A book for 11-year-olds advises, mysteriously: “Just remember this acronym—DOCSiShQACNMN—to make it easy for you to remember the order of adjectives in a series.”

Maybe I take my little one out of school, I am sure the rest of the world will understand her better if she does NOT learn that crap...

... or again it might be just me and some of our members (who have english as mother language) can explain that things to me that I am prepared for my weekend classes...

cheers and have a nice Weekend

Rhoody

PS: just got a mail (not text) in reads like that : i bn n a rlationship b4 wv bn 5yrz bt daguy lyf me.....s2pid guy

 

Thanks for that Rhoody. If it's frustrating for you, how frustrating is it for us that currently reside in a country that (supposedly) speaks English as a primary language. I don't claim to have an authoritarian command of the English language but I can assure you the majority of CITIZENS here have horrible grammar. I believe texting and chat-room shorthand only exacerbate the problem. Additionally, there's the barrage of misspelled words in advertising. Another habit that's getting on my nerves is the incessant use of the word "like" in every sentence. "He was like talking and then there was like this other guy who was like being all rude and stuff..."
ARRRRGH!

 

Hey Rhoody,

I am always curious to hear reviews of the various schools around town...where does your girl attend?

 

Must be Fuzzy English. LOL

Rhoody , I do agree with you that looks frightening even to me. I have seen so many books that appear to have no idea about English. Here in Taiwan they seem to mix British English and international English which is a nightmare for many teachers. There are 4 thousand differences between them that I know about alone. Most people learn English by hearing it spoken.

Then the rules of grammar which are really guide lines not rules they are only important for academic purposes. English is a living language and as a living language it is always evolving. Word change meaning as time goes by as well as grammar.

 

do you really think you can learn english in the philippines,,,,,,,,,,,, this is just a transit country where koreans come to learn english because they cannot get a visa to learn english in a native english speaking country

 

I'm having a hard time with this statement. Surely you can't mean there's no such thing as incorrect grammar. Colloquialisms are tolerable but complete misuse of words and sentence structure shouldn't be. Isn't the concept of language the ability to communicate effectively? How is that effectiveness compromised if we don't at least try to learn the rules, a.k.a., "guidelines"?
Obviously English has evolved but during it's evolution those that share the language have adhered to basic rules. While I would not be able to speak to a person from 12th century England I should be able to effectively communicate with someone from the 20th century.
For those members on the forum who speak English as a second language (or third, fourth, etc.) please don't take my comments as a criticism. In that circumstance, mistakes are completely understandable.

 

Awww debate

Koreans come for many reason and it's not for the English most of the time, that is only the excuse to be in The Philippines. They love to drink and the women. many Koreans come on there vacations or get time off work to study English paid for by there Company. I had Korean's and Japanese's that only came to class when they didn't have a hangover.

English existed long before the rules of grammar. The rules are to explain how to use the language. Now they use terms such as formal English, informal English and academic English. No matter what your English teacher says, some grammar "rules" no longer apply. The style mavens of our day all agree that the ability to communicate clearly and concisely takes precedence over archaic grammar rules.

1. Never split an infinitive.
I want to carefully consider all of the options presented to me.

Following this rule all of the time will make your prose unnecessarily academic and stuffy. When in doubt, don't split the infinitive. But if splitting the infinitive conveys your meaning more clearly and concisely, split away.

2. Active verbs are always better than passive verbs.
Jerry was robbed. (The active alternative: Somebody robbed Jerry.)

Generally, active verbs are better. In the following cases, however, passive tense works just fine.

3. Never start a sentence with a conjunction (and, or, but).
And then he left, never looking back.

Starting a sentence with a conjunction can help transition from one idea to another or add a dramatic tone to a passage. If you start sentences this way too often, your paragraphs will sound like one long run-on sentence. Use conjunctions at the start of sentences judiciously.

4. Never start a sentence with there are or there is.
There is no excuse for your behavior.

Sentences that begin with there are and there is are usually weak sentences in need of a stronger noun. But making a conscious decision to start a sentence this way to place emphasis on specific words is perfectly acceptable. "Your behavior is inexcusable" and "You have no excuse for your behavior" just don't sound as stern as the sentence above.

5. Never end a sentence with a preposition.
What is he pointing at?

This holdover from the 18th century has no place in modern language. Imagine how stilted and formal our language would be if we followed this rule!

6. Always use more than instead of over with numbers.
The relic is over 300 years old.

Over, more than and in excess of can all be used with numbers. Let your ear, rather than a rigid rule, be your guide.

7. Data is plural, so the verb must always be plural.
The data proves his thesis.

Like several other plural words with Latin origins, data is now accepted as either singular or plural, as any up-to-date dictionary will confirm. When was the last time you heard someone use the word datum (the singular of data) in a sentence?

These are all out dated rules of grammar so please understand times change so do words...I have to teach academic English everyday so when I come here I hate to talk shop. (I generally throw grammar out the window and enjoy myself when I am here).

 

My last word on this subject.

Teachers trying to teach grammar are generally unsuccessful. The majority of English students attend English classes in the hope that a teacher can teach them English grammar. Their teacher tells them that grammar rules are important and without a good knowledge of grammar they can't speak correct English.

So the students try hard to study all the grammar rules of English. Do you know how many rules there are? There are thousands of them and it is simply impossible to learn them all through conventional methods. Most English teachers won't tell you this but it's a fact that in order to speak correct English you actually don't have to learn grammar rules.

Now, how many theoretical grammar rules of your mother tongue can you explain? How often do you think about grammar rules when you speak in your native language? Why then do you think you need to be able to explain grammar rules when speaking English? What you need is to learn correct English rather than grammar rules. You want to use English as a means of communication.

 

Can someone explain what the "Teacher" is talking about, he lost me at the second paragraph!!!! thanks Johnny English.

 

All I can say is that instructional English as taught in Dumaguete is horrible. Asawa ko had to take a required English as a second language course here in the states before she would be able to continue with college credit courses and she could not even get by that. The strange thing is that her hand written English is almost perfect but spoken English is technically poor.

The worst part was that many of the asians in her class from other areas had horrible, un-intelligable accents yet they were able to pass the course I believe based on their ability to comprehend some of the grammer rules. Unfortunately I was not available to help her with this course otherwise the outcome might have been a bit better for her ego.