Eve and Justin sneak a kiss

Apologies

It’s been a busy summer, and so I haven’t been as diligent about blogging as I might have been.

First, I had foot surgery, which required a far longer recovery than anticipated, and then my oldest daughter was married in a beautiful ceremony at home a few weeks ago.  That’s my daughter, Eve, and her new husband, Justin, in the photo, if you haven’t already guessed.

I guess all that warranted a bit of time off for me.

But now I’m recovered and back at work -

My Good Fortune

I feel very fortunate indeed that I am able to do work that I love in a place that I love.  I’ve had a number of different careers in my life, but teaching at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English is definitely my very favorite.

Many of our clients at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English have met my dear friend Mary.  She teaches for us on occasion and is a frequent dinner guest with clients.  Always outgoing, interesting and friendly, Mary specializes in what she laughingly calls “coffee and chat” jobs.  She just loves being around people and wouldn’t work at anything that doesn’t involve talking with them.

What Could Possibly Be Better?

For me, the Lake Tahoe Institute of English is like a “Mary job” or a “coffee and chat” job.  It’s a lot of work, but so much of it is incredibly interesting and fun.  After all the preparation, most of what I get to do all day is talk to amazing, interesting and varied clients from all over the world.  I make friends for life, learn much about everything, and get paid to do it.

What could be better than that?

So, to build on my last post, which explained why English grammar is impossible, why do nearly every one of my clients at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English tell me that learning English is easy?

They say that English is, for them, easier than learning French or Portuguese or Russian.  On the face of it, that doesn’t make sense, either.

Irregular grammar, irregular spelling, irregular pronunciation would not logically indicate that the language is easy to learn.

My theories

I have a couple of theories that are, as far as I know, unfounded and unproven.  They just come from my experiences here at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English.

First, I think that English, particularly American English, is such a combination of other languages that nearly everyone in the western world at least can recognize words and phrases.  Just as English speakers can study Latin to increase their vocabulary, speakers of other languages can study English to find words or remnants of words from their native languages.  If they speak more than one language, for example German and French, then this only increases their platform.

Something for everyone in English

In English there is something familiar to everyone.Not only do western world non-English speakers regularly find their own language in English, but non-English speakers  everywhere in the world have taken on English expressions in their own languages.

According to Bill Bryson in Mother Tongue, in 1964 just under 10 percent of words used in Japanese newspapers were English, or at least interpretations of English, such as “nekutai” for “necktie” or “bata” for “butter”.  If that was the case in 1964, imagine what it is in this post-modern tech-driven world.

You already know more English than you think

My clients find they already have a large working English vocabulary just from living in the modern world.  Without even trying they know hundreds, maybe thousands of English words.  As they actively study and try to acquire vocabulary, they realize that there are many more words they know or can guess at, coming from a conglomeration of many, many languages.

Bill Bryson is the kind of man I could fall madly in love with.  I would marry the man if:   a) I knew him, b) I hadn’t already been married for 30 years, and c) if he was at all interested in leaving his wife and family for a 56 year old woman with bad feet but good hair.

Actually, the same is true with Mick Jagger.  In fact, I have a fidelity exception written into my marriage contract for Mick that my husband has even agreed to (he’s thinking, “fat chance”, and after 30 years he’s probably right).  Are you reading this, Mick?  Hmmm….. Thought not.

But that’s perhaps too much information, known in the USA as TMI – as in “sweetheart, you do have a lovely shit-eating grin on your face, but really, the exact details of last night’s date are TMI for your mom.”

Why I Love Bill Bryson

But, I’ve digressed. Why do I love Bill Bryson?  And who is he?

Well, Bill Bryson is a wonderful, funny writer who has written many books on all topics.  Loosely, he could be called primarily a travel writer, but his books are far more than that, and not always about that at all.

His book that I have recently thoroughly enjoyed is called The Mother Tongue – English and How It Got That Way.  In it Bryson explores the history and development of the English language (not everyone’s cup of tea, but I love stuff like this.  Yeah, I know….)  And, what he concludes is that the English language is crazy.

And, why I love him is that he concludes that English grammar is also crazy and makes no sense whatsoever.  As I said, I love this man.  (You can see that my pathetic life has become way, way too involved with grammar.)

Learning English Grammar Is NOT the Same as Learning English

I’ve always been good at English, at reading it, at writing it, at speaking it, but I have never, ever been good at grammar.  In middle school, when we first studied grammar, I failed every single grammar test I ever took.  I went on to study English literature at UC Berkeley, quite a reputable institution, and managed to graduate with extremely high grades, but only because there were no grammar tests.

I have long felt that learning grammar bears no relationship to using the English language well.  And now, I am vindicated.  Bill Bryson says, “In English we possess a language in which parts of speech are almost entirely notional” and “the parts of speech must be so broadly defined as to be almost meaningless.”

EXACTLY! I am a rational, logical person, as are my Lake Tahoe Institute of English clients.  I can’t always explain grammar questions to logical English learners because there is no logic to much of it.  To date, I have done my best, but have all too often resorted to saying “I’m sorry, but English is crazy.  Just memorize it.”  And now I know, English is crazy, and it is because I am so logical that I can’t explain it.  I’ll be writing more abut the reasons for this in future posts, but for now, let me just say:

I love you Bill Bryson!

When I tell people what I do for a living I get all kinds of remarks and questions from them.  Everyone always wants to know how and why we do this.  They want to know what textbooks we use, and how we conduct our “classes”.  They want to know all about the “structure” of the classes. 

No Ordinary Language School

It is very difficult for many people, teachers in particular, to understand that this is no ordinary language school, and that we don’t teach in an ordinary way.  Rather, we have found that by working individually with clients, and designing their “lessons” around exactly what we feel they need to know, or what they want to know, we have tremendous success. 

Really Speak English

We teach very little grammar and formal structure here at the LakeTahoe Institute of English – we teach what you need to know in order to be able to actually speak English, to have satisfying conversations with other English speakers, and to have confidence in your ability to speak English.  Click on the following link if you would like to see a short video of me talking about how we got the idea for starting this kind of language school:  Founding the Lake Tahoe Institute of English.

A lot of people think that as adults they can’t learn a new language, or that they can’t learn it as well as a child can.  And a lot of adults would like to learn a language for reasons as varied as needing it for business or travel, for personal enrichment, and because research shows that learning another language is one of the best ways to keep your brain working well.  The good news is that adults can learn new languages, and they can do it as well as children, given the right learning conditions.  Watch the this video, Adults Learn Language Better Than Children, to learn more about this topic.

Come Ski With Me

Wanderlust

My children are all adventurers, who love to travel.  It seems like one or more of them is always off traveling, or even living somewhere besides near me.  I don’t think they’re trying to escape from me.  I think they’re just full of wanderlust, and want to see and experience everything there is to see in the world.

Sometimes this bothers me.  Like right now.  I have no children living within shouting range, or even driving range.  After having 4 children at home for so many years, it is often very strange to not have even a single one of them around.

Yet, I know this is pretty much all my fault (well, my husband’s fault as well).  When they were young we made every effort to take them to new places, new countries, to experience new and interesting things.  So, it’s no wonder now that they love to go, and have left me behind.

In fact, right now my oldest daughter is on vacation in Mexico, and my oldest son seems to have moved to Medellin, Colombia, at least for the time being.  Something my son said to me the other day (via SKYPE, a wonderful, wonderful invention), is actually the subject of this post.

“Street English”

My son, Cole, speaks quite a bit of Spanish.  We lived in Puerto Rico when he was 13, then he was an exchange student in Paraguay when he was 18, and then spent another year in Costa Rica when he was at the university.  He also has a degree in Spanish from the University of Nevada.  He’s always felt very confident in his ability to speak Spanish to anyone, anywhere.  He’s a very casual guy, though, and his Spanish is that of a young person, and is full of slang and street expressions.  He speaks in Spanish the same way he would speak to his friends in English.

Years ago, when I taught English to teenagers, I used to explain the difference between “street English“, or the English they would use with their friends, and what I call “cash English“, or the English they need to learn and speak to be successful in the world of work.  This is, of course, a more formal language, with a different vocabulary, and a different set of social rules for usage.

At the time, I recall that the students didn’t have any great understanding of why they had to use different types of English for different situations.  I hope that over the years they have remembered the lessons, and now know when to use which English.

“Cash English”

The point of this is that my son is now living in Medellin, Colombia.  He just purchased a house, and is looking for a job there.  He just told me that he didn’t realize how little Spanish he knows.

Trying to buy a house or actually doing work in another language requires a whole different kind of vocabulary than he has ever learned.  Remember, he has a university degree in Spanish, but he still doesn’t have the proper vocabulary for what he is doing now.

Cole didn’t learn the language he now needs in years of school, or even years of living in Spanish speaking countries, because what he was learning and using all that time was “street Spanish”.  Now he needs a crash course in “cash Spanish”.  Fortunately, he is mature enough to realize what he needs, and he is intent on learning it.

When Kim and I first started the Lake Tahoe Institute of English we were very surprised by the seemingly high level of English our clients already had when they came to study with us.  What we have found, though, is that we spend a great deal of our time working on “cash English” with our clients.

We have had clients from all over the world, and in all different businesses, but nearly all come to us to learn for a very specific purpose.  They can easily carry on a very general conversation with us from the very beginning, but most need help to learn the language of their particular business, or they need to know how to formulate questions, and how to answer specific questions related to their disciplines.  They need help learning the language of negotiation, of problem solving, of team building, of management.

Here at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English, we focus on “cash English“, the language professionals need to learn.  In order to earn the respect and cooperation of other professionals around the world, there needs to be not only a common language, but a common vocabulary and a common usage of the language. Wish our son luck in learning the nuances of “cash Spanish” really quickly.  He needs a program like ours!

Well, Kim and I have just returned from our winter break from the Lake Tahoe Institute of English.  It was great to get away for a little while.  When you work where you live, it can be difficult to relax sometimes, so going completely away is what is called for.

Living at Lake Tahoe in the winter is incredibly beautiful, but when we have too many storms in a row, we can all feel the need to get away and get some sun.  So, Kim and I headed south on Highway 395 to Phoenix to visit our daughter, Eve.  We’ve only driven this route before in the spring and summer, so this was a very new experience for us.  After leaving Tahoe, the road fairly quickly begins to hug the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada.  If you are not familiar with the Sierra Nevada, it is a very rugged mountain range that runs nearly the length of California, and into Nevada a bit, too.  Incline Village, Nevada, where we live, is on the western slope of the Sierra.

On the western side of the mountains it is less rugged, with more trees and greater snowfall.  The eastern side is very barren, rocky and dramatic.  Highway 395 winds along beside these mountains through beautiful high mountain valleys, alongside lakes and through high desert landscapes.  In the spring and summer the valleys are filled with wildflowers, and the mountainsides are carpeted, from a distance anyway, with greenish-purplish foliage.  As you drive you pass by small towns and ranches; it is truly representative of the old west from the movies.

Winter Transformation

In the winter, though, it is quite a different scene.  All is covered with a light layer of snow, cold and windswept.  The sky, too, is a cold, cold blue.  Snow clings to the craggy mountains, highlighting their ruggedness.  It is a grand landscape, with great beauty in the desolation of the desert, the frozen and misty lakes, and the high, wild mountains.

It is a 12 hour drive from Incline Village to Phoenix, Arizona, and I was reminded during the long day of driving just how easy it is to travel enormous distances in the United States.  And, I was reminded of the enormous contrasts of the western United States.  In one day, we transported ourselves from the beauty of Lake Tahoe, all glistening water and snow-covered pine trees, through a desolate and dramatic mountain and desert landscape into a great desert city that takes 2 hours to drive across.  We transported ourselves from a frozen world, into eternal summer, with a day long drive.  That alone is an adventure.

Mono Lake Covered with Mist

Ranch on the Eastern Slope of the Sierra

Baby, it's cold outside

            Winter At Lake Tahoe

We’re deep into winter here at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English.  It’s been unusually cold, and although it is sunny and beautiful today, we’ve had a number of nice storms with lots of snow.  We have clients right now, but in a few days I’ll be able to try out my new skis!  Yahoo!  We love winter here.

My Favorite Cake

I wanted to share my very favorite recipe with you today.  Many of our clients have had Sweet Potato Cake when they have studied with us, and I think it has always been their favorite, too. 

This recipe came to me many, many years ago from a friend’s mother, who is from Macon, Georgia.  It has been in her family for a long time, and is an authentic and incredibly delicious traditional Southern cake.  I hope it is easy for you to make, and that you find it delicious, too!

Here is the recipe:

SWEET POTATO CAKE

from the kitchen of Juanita Huckaby

Macon, Georgia

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups cooked, mashed sweet potato

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup chopped nuts

1/2 cup coconut  

Beat eggs and oil;  combine with dry ingredients.  Fold in potatoes.

Bake at 375 degrees F in tube pan.

                       ICING

1 stick butter (1/4 pound)

1  8 ounce package of cream cheese

1 cup chopped nuts

1 box confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)

2 tablespoons vanilla

2 tablespoons of milk, if needed

Soften butter and cream cheese.  Mix well.  Add vanilla, sugar and nuts.

**Note from Boni:  This is the recipe exactly as it came to me from Juanita Huckaby. 

I usually add a little vanilla to the cake.  Since I live at 7000 feet altitude (2,350 meters), I bake the cake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  At sea level, it probably takes about an hour.  Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

When I do the icing, I mix the butter, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and milk, and spread it on the cake.  Then I sprinkle the nuts on top.

Bon apetit, buen provecho, etc.!

Most of our clients come to us at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English wanting to read better in English, as well as speak better English.  With English being the international language of business, and often of cutting edge technology, any business person who wants to be out ahead of competitors must learn to read English well.  If you want your business to be on the cutting edge, then you have to be able to read the most cutting edge materials and ideas when they are first published.

Increase Your Reading and Speaking Ability at the Same Time

Here’s an idea to help you keep up on the newest ideas while increasing your abilities at the same time:  Many general business books are now distributed in an audio version at the same time they are published, or soon thereafter.  Buy both the book and the audio version.  Listen to the audio version as you read along.  Read and listen to one chapter at a time.  Then, go back and repeat the chapter.  Do it several times until you are able to understand 80 to 90 percent of what you are hearing and reading.

Engage More Than One Sense at a Time

Research tells us that engaging more than one sense at a time while learning will significantly increase learning and decrease the time needed to learn.  So, both reading and listening to the same words at the same time will enhance your ability to understand both the written and spoken word. 

It is really important, though, not to stretch your ability too far.  If you take on something that is far beyond your ability to understand, it will be frustrating to you, and you will not learn as much.  Better to try something fairly simple at first, and increase the level of difficulty as you find your comprehension improving.

Here’s another thought, but I have not actually tried it myself.  I would love feedback from someone who has.

I know people who have purchased the Kindle from Amazon.com, and who love reading with it.  They have over 350,000 titles available, and most are available internationally.  You can download just about anything.  They also have audio books available.  This might be a great solution for people wanting to read or listen to the latest books, but who have some difficulty obtaining the books at home.

And, here’s another thing with Kindle that sounds very cool.  They have what they call a Read-to-Me feature that can be activated with any book or English-language newspaper, magazine or blog that they publish.  Apparently, you can turn this feature on at any time while reading, and have it read to you.  You can also speed up or slow down the speech.  It sounds great, doesn’t it?  Has anyone used it, and can you tell us how well it works?

Maria Joao and Boni

Worksheets:  A Sigh of Relief

Maria Joao, from Portugal, and I were discussing how best to learn a language the other day.  She was remarking that she rationally understands that immersion learning is the best, and the fastest, way to learn English, but that she sometimes just really wants to have a worksheet in front of her.  As you know, we hardly ever use them, but on the rare ocasion that we do, she says she breathes a sigh of relief when she sees one in my hand!

That’s interesting, because virtually all of our clients claim to hate worksheets.  They find them tedious, boring, and generally not so beneficial.  They can learn the lessons on the worksheets, but find they don’t use the lessons in practice.  Yet, sometimes, as with Maria Joao, you can almost feel their relief when we hand a worksheet to them.

Most Adults Love Structure

I think that some of this has to do with our need for structure.  Adults, especially, like order, rules and structure.  Even when we say we don’t like it, I think that sometimes having structure forced upon us allows us to relax a bit.

We don’t have to think quite so hard with imposed structure.  Sometimes it is really nice to be told what to do.  It gets very tiring to be using all of our senses, thinking, working, trying to figure out what someone is saying, how to respond to them, how to generate a question. 

How lovely to fill in a blank on a worksheet!  It gives us a degree of security to know that all we need is one simple word to fill in a blank, and then we will be right.  We will have demonstrated that we have mastery over a tiny bit of the frustrating English language.

So, on occasion, to give our clients a break, we do a worksheet or two.  It is reassuring.  It is restful.  It allows them to stop thinking in English, and allows them to think about English.  It becomes an intellectual exercise instead of an intuitive exercise.

Feeling Good

A word of caution, though.  I think it is good to have a sense of the formal structure of the English language.  It gives you something to hang your hat on.  When all else fails, you can think about the language.  You won’t be speaking fluently, but you can stop, think, refer to a lesson, or a point of grammar, and then continue on.  It makes you feel good.

Feeling Better

What makes you feel better, though, is actually speaking English and understanding English.  This is only accomplished with many hours of practice listening to real English being spoken, and of speaking real English with a native English speaker. 

Feeling Best

There is really no short cut.  You just have to dive in, and listen and speak, and listen and speak, and listen and speak, until you think you can’t do it any more.  Then you have to do it some more.  And the more you do at one time, the faster you will learn.

So, use the occasional worksheet if you need to. We do here at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English.  But, focus the majority of your time on listening and speaking.  You will be a far better speaker of English if you do.