LANGUAGE IS A WEIRD CREATURE or IS ELEANOR an ELLENŐR?
Yesterday we had an Open Day at the language school. It was Nyelvtudás Napja. We were very busy with lots of people wanting to have a free level test and to do a mock exam in English and German.
Apart from my presentation on the 7 secrets of effective learning I did a cooking class that was pretty successful. We managed to make a lovely LEEK & POTATO Soup with WELSH RAREBIT and we also made the forevergreen CBM (chicken, bacon, mayonnaise) sandwiches with the 10 participants.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, by the time I cleaned up the kitchen and was about to sit down for a coffee, my school secretary came up the stairs and announced an English-speaking lady as a guest.
I was so shattered but didn't want to be impolite so I said to Márti to tell the lady to sit down and I'd be with her in a few minutes.
My school manager, Kriszti who speaks fairly good English but too shy to use it, asked me:
- Tudod, ki jött hozzád? (Do you know who this is?)
- Szerintem Eleanor. (I think, it's Eleanor.)
- Itt az ellenőr???? (Is the inspector here??) - she asked as she raised her eyebrows, completely taken aback by the fact that we are inspected by NYESZE on this free day event.
It was so funny, I couldn't stop laughing... :)))) Eleanor sounds nearly the same as the Hungarian "ellenőr"... Well, yes, language is a weird creature.
I told Eleanor the story and she asked me what other words are like that. I shared one more story with her:
In my beginner class I was teaching CAN-CAN'T. We focus a lot on the right pronunciation and I told my students to pronounce CAN YOU... together as in CAN YOU SKI? /pron.: KN U SKI?/ They went like: "Á, könnyű szkí!" :)))
You can use this story to help you memorise words. The people who participated in my presentation on the 7 secrets of effective learning asked me for techniques how to learn faster and easier.
Well, this is one example. Connect the new phrase to something hilarious, make a joke out of it, associate it with something completely different. The whole idea is that you have to have some kind of experience with the word or phrase. The more weird, the better. Your mind will remember the extraordinary combinations much easier.
Enjoy and make use of this story.
ALL THE WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS PRINTED IN GREEN IN THIS ARTICLE ARE TRANSLATED BELOW. It's better to learn them connected to the story, though. :)
- weird creature - fura szerzet
- do a mock exam - próbavizsgát tesz
- to cut a long story short - hogy a történetet rövidre fogjam...
- announce someone as a guest - vendégként bejelent valakit
- shattered - megtört, fáradt
- raise someone's eyebrows - felhúzza a szemöldökét
- be completely taken aback by the fact that.. - totál meglepődik a ténytől, hogy..
- they went like - mire ők..
- hilarious - könnyekre fakasztóan vicces
- the whole idea is that.. - az a lényeg, hogy
- though (at the end of a sentence) - azért
Yesterday we had an Open Day at the language school. It was Nyelvtudás Napja. We were very busy with lots of people wanting to have a free level test and to do a mock exam in English and German.
Apart from my presentation on the 7 secrets of effective learning I did a cooking class that was pretty successful. We managed to make a lovely LEEK & POTATO Soup with WELSH RAREBIT and we also made the forevergreen CBM (chicken, bacon, mayonnaise) sandwiches with the 10 participants.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, by the time I cleaned up the kitchen and was about to sit down for a coffee, my school secretary came up the stairs and announced an English-speaking lady as a guest.
I was so shattered but didn't want to be impolite so I said to Márti to tell the lady to sit down and I'd be with her in a few minutes.
My school manager, Kriszti who speaks fairly good English but too shy to use it, asked me:
- Tudod, ki jött hozzád? (Do you know who this is?)
- Szerintem Eleanor. (I think, it's Eleanor.)
- Itt az ellenőr???? (Is the inspector here??) - she asked as she raised her eyebrows, completely taken aback by the fact that we are inspected by NYESZE on this free day event.
It was so funny, I couldn't stop laughing... :)))) Eleanor sounds nearly the same as the Hungarian "ellenőr"... Well, yes, language is a weird creature.
I told Eleanor the story and she asked me what other words are like that. I shared one more story with her:
In my beginner class I was teaching CAN-CAN'T. We focus a lot on the right pronunciation and I told my students to pronounce CAN YOU... together as in CAN YOU SKI? /pron.: KN U SKI?/ They went like: "Á, könnyű szkí!" :)))
You can use this story to help you memorise words. The people who participated in my presentation on the 7 secrets of effective learning asked me for techniques how to learn faster and easier.
Well, this is one example. Connect the new phrase to something hilarious, make a joke out of it, associate it with something completely different. The whole idea is that you have to have some kind of experience with the word or phrase. The more weird, the better. Your mind will remember the extraordinary combinations much easier.
Enjoy and make use of this story.
ALL THE WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS PRINTED IN GREEN IN THIS ARTICLE ARE TRANSLATED BELOW. It's better to learn them connected to the story, though. :)
- weird creature - fura szerzet
- do a mock exam - próbavizsgát tesz
- to cut a long story short - hogy a történetet rövidre fogjam...
- announce someone as a guest - vendégként bejelent valakit
- shattered - megtört, fáradt
- raise someone's eyebrows - felhúzza a szemöldökét
- be completely taken aback by the fact that.. - totál meglepődik a ténytől, hogy..
- they went like - mire ők..
- hilarious - könnyekre fakasztóan vicces
- the whole idea is that.. - az a lényeg, hogy
- though (at the end of a sentence) - azért
Megjegyzések
Megjegyzés küldése