Mondegreens

Quite often times, we mishear what others say or song lyrics. This is called “Mondegreens”, which refers to misheard/ misinterpreted song lyrics. Mondegreens originated from the American writer Sylvia Wright. According to Wright, her mother used to read aloud to her from Thomas Percy's reliques of ancient English poetry. One of her favorite poem “The Bonny Earl of Murray” read by her mother sounded as follows:

(source:  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/mondegreen.html)



Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,

Oh, where hae ye been?

They hae slain the Earl Amurray,

And Lady Mondegreen.



But the actual words of the ballad are as follows:



Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,

Oh where have you been?

They have slain the Earl o' Moray

And laid him on the green.

(Picture source:  https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mondegreen)

Being a creative writer, Sylvia Wright coined a term for that form of error: Mondegreen. She says these misheard lyrics are better than their actual/ original words. Let’s find some more examples of mondegreens.

   1.   “Would you like a super salad?”  (actual words: soup or salad)

   2.   “Scuse me while I kiss this guy.” (actual words: “The correct lyric from Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze is 'scuse me while I kiss the sky'.)

   3.   “All my luggage, I will send to you. (actual words: “All my loving, I will send to you” sung by Beatle)

   4.   “Come shave my heart.” (actual words: “Unchain my heart” sung by Ray Charles)

   5.   “Don't you know you've got two chocolate monkeys?” (actual words: “Don’t you know you’ve got to shock the monkeys?” sung by Peter Gabriel) 

   6.   “Her heavy head turned to ice cream, being the one.” (actual words: “turned with eyes that dreamed of being the one” in Billie Jean sung by Michael Jackson)

   7.   “Hope the city voted for you.” (actual words: “Hopelessly devoted to you” from the movie Grease Sound Track sung by Olivia Newton John)

   8.   “I want a new truck.” (actual words: “I want a new drug.” sung by

Huey Lewis & the News)

   9.   “It's like I told you, only the lonely get laid.” (actual words: “It’s like I told you, only the lonely can play.” sung by The Motels.) 

   

  10.   “Jose, can you see?” (actual words: “O, say can you see?” from  The Star Spangled Banner) 

  

  

  11.   “You and me and Leslie: (actual words: “You and me endlessly” from the song “Groovin” sung by The Young Rascals) 

  

  12.   “You've got mud on your face, front disc brakes”  (actual words: “You’ve got mud on your face, big disgrace” from the song “We Will Rock You” sung by Queen)

Wars Would Never End in Warriors' Mind

70 years have passed since the Korean War broke out. Countless soldiers from allied nations came to Korean peninsula to fight for South Korea at the risk of their precious lives. I remember my mom sadly reminiscing the traumatic scenes that had been deeply engraved in her memory. She said those painful days when she had to step over piles and piles of her dead fellow soldiers in the war zone would never disappear from her heart. Seven decades have passed, but not a single soul of the lost or missing soldiers will ever be forgotten.

Here is an excerpt from the poem titled Forgotten Wars by the Korean War veteran and poet Samuel B. Fielder Jr.

Forgotten Wars

by Samuel B. Fielder Jr.

When we came home, we ran into our friends.

They’d say “I haven’t seen you for a while. Tell me, where have you been?”

And went to Heaven we should go

To St. Peter, we would tell

“Just another forgotten warrior, sir

I served my hitch in hell.”

*picture source: https://www.history.com/veterans-stories

On-air challenge from NPR Sunday Puzzle created by Will Shortz. (June 21, 2020):



 For each one, change the initial consonant or consonants to a new consonant or new consonants to get a new word that looks like it should rhyme with the original but doesn't. Every answer is unique.

(You can listen to this puzzle on https://www.npr.org/2020/06/21/881226297/sunday-puzzle-new-start)


Example: Cord --> Word





1. howl


2. golf


3. brave


4. toad


5. gasp


6. green


7. pooch


8. goose




Answer Keys

  1.  bowl

  2.  wolf

  3.  have

  4.  broad

  5.  wasp

  6.  been

  7.  brooch

  8.  choose

*picture source: https://www.thoughtco.com/voiced-and-voiceless-consonants-1212092

Irregular plural nouns make it harder for English language learners to get them down pat. (Quite a lot of the words are loaned vocab originated from other countries.) Those are the ones that simply need to be learnt and remembered. 

Test yourself how good you are at making the plural nouns.

(picture source: https://birdgei.com/2011/08/30/list-of-100-irregular-plural-nouns-in-english/)

   

   1.   aircraft: _____________

   2.   axis: _____________

   3.   bacterium: _____________

   4.   bureau: _____________   or  ______________

   5.   index: ________________ or _______________

   6.   calf: _______________

   7.   roof: ______________

   8.   graffito: ________________

   9.   cactus: _______________

   10.               quiz: ________________

   11.               sheep: ______________

   12.               synopsis: ________________

   

   13.               vortex: _______________  or __________________

**Some nouns might confuse you with their usage in their plural forms. For example, the plural form of ‘person’ can either be ‘persons’ or ‘people’. However, ‘persons’ have more limited usage compared with mostly used form of ‘people’. E.g., “persons of interest”, “maximum capacity of an  elevator: 8 persons or ______ lbs”, “(in the law enforcement) missing persons” or “persons who retain our services will be charged a monthly fee”










<Answer Keys>

      

   1.  aircraft

   2.  axes

   3.  bacteria

   4.  bureaux or bureaus

   5.  indices or indexes

   6.  calves

   7.  roofs

   8.  graffiti

   9.  cacti

   10.              quizzes

   11.              sheep

   12.              synopses

   13.              vortices or vortexes

Jean Lee’s small thoughts on teaching EFL classes

When I teach communicative English classes, there is one thing I have always tried to remind me of:  ‘Are you sure you totally understood what your students were meaning to say?’ However, it was not in the first few years of my EFL teaching that I made it a strict rule to remember as a teacher. In those years of a novice EFL instructor in South Korea, I had felt satisfied myself correcting or paraphrasing my students’ less-than-perfect (in terms of grammar and word choices) English sentences in class on the basis of how I interpreted what they said. Most of the time, my students showed me a gesture of agreement or appreciation by nodding…or taking a moment of thinking before the nods. I was such a naïve teacher that took their docile responses as a wholehearted acceptance or having no other opinions.

picture source: https://www.tes.com/lessons/Jif-bYKcIYQ6PQ/studio-advanced-4-31-32-spirit-mask

Then one day, one of my colleagues who was a native English speaking instructor (teaching beginner’s and intermediate level classes of Critical Thinking English) said he was tired of correcting his students’ speech or writeups that had no logic at all. He went on to say that most of his students tended to become silent in the middle of expressing themselves and then wanted him to reword or finish their clueless sentences. He said his students would never care even if he got on their case about it or misled them. I was shocked listening to his complaints and series of pathetic bravado in class. But then again, he was NOT the only instructor there who got unnoticeably trapped in the world of illusion that made teachers see ‘silence or quick agreement of students’ in English language class as their lack of logic or critical thinking skills. I looked back on my own teachings, and there was another clueless instructor named Jean Lee who misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misled students. The students were full of ideas and great analytical skills that could outdo the instructors, but only lacked the proper amount of vocabulary to describe their thoughts and time to practice the challenge of arguing or debating issues in English. Contrary to many of the EFL instructors’ belief, what they wanted was not paraphrasing their words by teachers’ wild guesswork. They needed a good listener that hears them out while we, the instructors, were judging and labeling them way too fast as “illogic” without warrant. 




I’m still thinking about what was going on in those Critical Thinking EFL classes. 'Were the teachers like me and my colleague (mentioned above) truly showing the students how to approach a problem and argue different ideas or attitudes?', 'Weren’t we always instilling our own parochial opinions into their minds?', 'Should that native English speaking instructor have learned more about the cultural differences shown in the attitudes of Korean students?'  Could be. In hindsight, I came to realize it was the students that showed and taught a decent amount of patience and manners in the process of making a good English language class. Thanks to the awakening moment of conversing with my colleague, I was able to reflect on my own path of teaching English classes and no longer a stone-deaf teacher that enjoyed wild imaginations in class.

Follow-up Word Puzzle: Replacement IDs

(Source from NPR Sunday Puzzle created by Will Shortz, which was aired this last weekend:
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/14/876570406/sunday-puzzle-replacement-ids )


This is a follow-up puzzle to previous "Lost ID's" puzzle. It's called "Replacement ID's." I'm going to give you some words. Each word contains the consecutive letters I-D somewhere in it. Change the I-D to two new letters to get a new familiar word.



Example: Stride --> Stroke or Strafe



1. Fidget

2. Ideate


3. Bridal


4. Rancid


5. Fiddle


6. Afraid (hyph.)


7. Collide


8. Provide


9. Humidity


10. Consider


11. Diffident


12. President







Answer Keys

   

   1.  forget

   2.  create

   3.  brutal

   4.  rancor

   5.  fondle

   6.  a-frame

   7.  collage

   8.  provoke

   9.  humanity

  10.              consumer

  11.              different

  12.              prescient

Sympathy (to sympathize) vs. Empathy (to empathize)

Quite a lot of people feel confused in using empathy and sympathy. Although it might be impossible to draw a clear cut demarcation line between the two words, here’s the difference between the most commonly used meanings of these two terms is:


Sympathy is feeling compassion, sorrow, or pity for the hardships that another person encounters.


Empathy is putting yourself in the shoes of another, which is why actors often talk about it. 
(image source: Photo by Kevin Laminto on Unsplash)

   1.   When I saw my friend having to greet her ailing mom at the nursing home through the window since the pandemic, I found myself deeply saddened and ___________________ with her in her sorrow.

   

   2.   As an actor, he had to learn about the importance of feeling ___________________ with the individual's situation.

   

   3.   In an argument about police brutality today, Tony said “All lives matter.” That remark caused huge furor and agitation in the debate, and one of his colleagues said “Tony, don’t you have _______________ for the black guy who painfully begged for his life while all those insane officers were taking his life?”

   4.   My friend Anthony is a palm reader who always tells me that his psychic ability of _________________is often misunderstood.

   

   5.   Roger has been such a devoted volunteer M.D. at our local hospice for the terminally ill. When I expressed my admiration to him, he said his own challenges, limitations, and injuries had helped support that ________________ and inclusiveness.

   6.   Please accept my sincere _________________ in the loss of your beloved Grandpa. He must be watching over you in Heaven.

   

  v 7.   The moment you break the news of your cousin’s passing, Jess will cry. She always __________________ with her friends in their grief.

   

   8.   I’m sick and tired of your lack of _____________! How could you react so inappropriately all the time? Is it because you have difficulty understanding another person's emotional states?

Answer Keys

   

   1.  sympathized

   2.  empathy

   3.  sympathy

   4.  empathy

   5.  empathy

   6.  sympathy

   7.  sympathizes

   8.  empathy

Let us have fun word puzzles by Will Shortz aired on NPR Sunday challenge. today's puzzle is "Lost ID's." Clues for two words are given: The first word has the consecutive letters I-D somewhere in it. Drop the I-D and what's left will spell a new word that answers the second clue.



(You can listen to the following puzzle on https://www.npr.org/2020/06/07/870610245/sunday-puzzle-lost-ids)



Example: Opposite of narrowest / Direction for sunsets --> Widest, west

   1.   End of the workweek / Disorderly fight

   

   2.   Box for cigars / Jokes and such

   3.   Partition / One jumping in a pool

   4.   Mints that are said to be "curiously strong" / Voices below sopranos

   5.   Mishap on the highway / Stress

   6.   Chief executive / Gift 

   7. Capital of Rhode Island / Southeastern France

   8.   Frighten or overawe / Very close, as a friend

Answer Keys

   

   1.  Friday, fray

   2.  humidor, humor

   3.  divider, diver

   4.  Altoids, alto

   5.  accident, accent

   6.  president, present

   7.  Providence, Provence

   8.  intimidate, intimate

Let us play ANAGRAMS!

An anagram means a word or phrase made by transposing/ rearranging the letters of another word or phrase. give you some words. Anagram each one to make a new word. And as a help, the first three letters of my word will be the first three letters of your answer. 
(source from NPR Sunday Puzzle made by Will Shortz) 

You can listen to the puzzle by clicking on this link:
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/31/865351458/sunday-puzzle-anagram-all-the-way 


Ex. Sublet --> Subtle





1. Platen


2. Thereat


3. Declaim


4. Parleys


5. Magnate


6. Trained (into a hyphenated word)


7. Martial


8. Chorale


9. Senescent


10. Pedantries






Answer Keys

1.  Planet

2.  Theatre

3.  Decimal

4.  Parsley

5.  Magenta

6.  Trade-in

7.  Marital

8.  Cholera

9.  Sentences

10.      pedestrian