GERMANY- A German brewery has developed a beer containing vitamins and minerals it says are designed to slow the ageing process. /The Neuzeller Kloster Brewery plans to introduce its "Anti-Aging-Bier" this year and sell it in grocery and drug stores. The brewery said the beer contained a host of added ingredients that promote good health..
Questions
1. Would you like to drink this kind of beer even you don’t like liquor? What is your tolerance?
British workers told to keep chatting
UK- British workers have been encouraged to keep up the chatter after a study conducted on nurses by occupational psychologists revealed that gossip was good for business. According to the study, gossiping can be seen as trivial but it is very therapeutic and makes people feel better. The study reveals that tittle-tattle could help them to become more creative.
Questions
1. Can you concentrate on work while you chat somebody? How many work can you do at once?
Konglish inquiry traces evidence back to poor textbooks
Koreans spend a lot of time worrying about their English skills. Rightly so ― English is the world's common language, after all, and any native English speaker who wanders around Seoul for a few days will soon realize that most Koreans' knowledge of the language is limited.
So reason holds that Korean parents are ready to thrust their children into private learning institutes from an early age in the hope that they will get a head start in the alien tongue.
However, the educational reality often turns out to be less than perfect. Take the teaching materials Korean students use in the classroom.
A basic teaching principle is that the difficulty of the textbook should not exceed the students' level of skill. In Korea's hagwon, private institutes, this is often not true. Take as an example the following dialogues quoted from a text intended to illustrate basic vocabulary for elementary school students.
The first one is to show the meaning of the word "leaf." Besides the unbelievable fact that the text features an elementary school student who can articulate complex opinions in English about an American poem she has read in translation, the grammar and syntax are for the most part correct. Whatever follows is all downhill .
The second dialogue is meant to show the meaning of the word "eye." The conversation swiftly moves into the realm of the bizarre. The teacher asks a student: "Have you ever seen a one-eyed man?"
The student answers: "Yes, Mrs. Kim. I've seen him."
Teacher: "What do we call a man not to see anything?"
Student: "We call him a blind."
Now, that's more like the kind of Konglish my students would produce. But shouldn't the teacher be speaking better English?
Anyhow, the dialogue continues, reaching new and ever more surreal heights.
Teacher: "What about the three-eyed man, if any?"
Student: "Well, I don't know what I can say, for he is a monster among the two-eyed men."
No comment.
For a final look at the outlandish world of English-teaching materials in Korea ― and if you think I am making this stuff up I can send photocopies of the originals on request ― take the following dialogue to illustrate the word "baby."
Teacher: "What's the skill of babies?"
Student: "Their only skill is crying."
Teacher: "Who is the most beautiful baby in the world?"
Student: "A smiling baby."
Teacher: "What is the baby's main job?"
Student: "It's crying, sleeping, smiling and lying on the bed."
by Jeremy Garlick <jeremygarlick@yahoo.co.uk>
Questions
1. What is most frequent usage of Konglish?
2. Do you know any good idea to learn English without difficulty? Share it with your group members.