Live and Learn English with Jean Lee

Life By Jean Lee Tossed into the light Loved by parents in delight Learn to walk and talk Sometimes stop and balk Grow up and live Find some ways and gather much to give Make a lot of mistakes and hope for pardon Reached midlife, feel blessed to be in my sunny garden Pray for another day with ailing mom and pop Realize that the end doesn’t prepare you for a teardrop Come back to your good old chair Breathe in the age-old air Sing a song of lamentation from yesterday and of faint memories that are not so gray Ready to patiently sit Reading the words of wit Feel alright looking back Grateful that I’ve been on the right track Holding nothing much left in my pocket But relieved to survive this lunatic world of sprocket Not defined with one simple word Because my life has many a side unheard Learn to say with silence Still sometimes roar in defiance Hoping to be remembered as a good friend Even long after my days end

Students make a lot of sentences either in the form of speaking or writing or sometimes body language, and the teacher is busy spotting the wrongful use of grammar, inaccurate pronunciation, or awkward collocations in the students’ output created in the target language they learn. It is not an uncommon scene in a language learning class. However, there is not one best way for teachers to find their students’ errors and correct them throughout the course. When I first became an instructor for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, one of the major foci in my class was to point out my students’ errors or mistakes. What is the difference between errors and mistakes? Errors are the results from students’ lack of knowledge of the correct norms of target language. Burt (1975) explains that errors interfere with communication and affects overall sentence organization, whereas mistakes are the deviation or processing problem in learner language that happens when they fail to perfo...

Some may say money is the root of all evil, while others argue that money talks. Some would agree that money can’t buy happiness, whereas others’ ultimate goal in life is to become a multi-millionaire. Regardless of what your take on moolah might be like, living in a capitalistic society – especially in the States where consumption is encouraged more than any other countries in the world – keeps us think about the value or worth of money in life.  This week, let us work on some interesting idiomatic expressions which contain or are related to money. (*source from https://www.learnenglish.de/vocabulary/moneyidioms.html and http://www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idiom-categories/money/money2_deep-house.html ) Fill in the blanks to complete the following sentences with a proper expression for each (using the clues given below the questions) 1.    I love this house because it gives me a sense of coziness, but the other _________________________ is that it is v...

There are some topics that have been tabooed to talk about in public. Depending on cultures, it could be religion, political inclination, prostitution, some diseases like AIDS, and asking women’s age in public to name a few. Above all, the subject of “ death ” makes most people feel emotionally charged and frustrated. If anyone (who is in the right mind or does not have a totally aberrant idea about life or death) happened to learn about someone’s death, they would stop for a second and feel their heart welling up with sorrow. What makes people get serious or uncomfortable about death? How should we respond to the end of one’s life? Are we supposed to prepare for the finale in a somber mood? Otherwise, could it possibly be somewhat festive or convivial ? I have personally seen deaths of my close family and friends both in my home country and here in the States as well. As most of you may already know, when the family says their final farewells at the funeral home , the pallbe...