Personnel Service group (AFI Delitzsch)

[Roberto]

Hi Torsten, hi Charles,

I hope you are well. Thanks a lot for your comments too.

Keep in touch!

Roberto
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[Roberto]

Hi dear trainers,

I'd like to summarize the main aspects covered on Wednesday 3 in Delitzsch (Customs).

In the morning:
- Review of some phonetic aspects. Focus on the different sounds of the English vowels: a, e, i, o, u...For example: time versus Tim, site versus sit..etc..
- Spelling exercises. NATO-Alphabet (REVIEW). Importance of this international phonetic alphabet (REVIEW).
- UK-cities and geographic names: how to pronounce them correctly: Leicester, Worcester, Pembrokeshire, Norfolk, Gwynedd, Hebrides, Derby
-US-cities and geographic names: Arkansas, Boise, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Ohio, Phoenix, Utah, Yosemite etc.
- Questions with: Would you like to be a + (profession)? e.g. an actor, an actress on TV? Review of the verb "to like" in the conditional tense: Would you like to...?
- Vocabulary: true, truth, trust, mistrust. My etymological explanation in class this time:all these words can be related to "tree" that stems from a PIE (Proto-Indoeuropean) root *dru- "tree," on the notion of "steadfast as an oak." Words of Romanic descent: confidence, faith, self-confidence
- Vocab review: My family. Do you trust your relatives? Do you trust your mom?
Enhancement of vocab: fidelity, faith. Sentences in class: I like my (relative) because he/she......
- Topic: Setting up a business? Have you got any ideas how to start a new business? Is there any market gap in your city?

In the afternoon:

- Grammar: the verb to need. How much money do you need for living expenses? Review of numbers and the verb "to need". Present tenses
- Topic: Why do we work? I'll post here a similar text to our discussion in class:

"WHEN WE ASK PEOPLE why they work, most will tell you that they do it for the money. But if that's entirely true, how do you explain people like Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, whose combined net worth is greater than the GDP of Luxembourg and yet who throw themselves into their jobs as if their next meal depended on it? Or why do so many lottery winners - some of the participants have begun to play the lottery and hope to win sooner or later-, after a few months of champagne, oysters, and a suite at the Ritz, end up punching a clock again, if not at their old job, at some other kind of work? When Robert Weiss, a research professor at the University of Massachusetts, asked people in a survey whether they'd work if they had inherited enough to live comfortably, roughly eight out of ten people said yes. So if it's not only money, what is it? More and more people today -- and the trend is particularly advanced among baby-boomers -- are looking to work to satisfy some deeply individualistic, emotional, and psychological need. Now that the boomers have hit middle age and become morbidly preoccupied with their mortality, this most self-indulgent of all generations is beginning to ask hard questions about work and what it all means. In your 20s you're mostly concerned with having enough money. In your 30s you start thinking, Is this all there is? Am I going to be an accountant and die?"

- Asking your age, giving your age: How old are you? Comparative forms: -er. Younger, older, newer, brighter, darker....etc..
- Short conversation (last but not least) in class: A seven-day trip to London. What would you do on your first/second/third/fourth.....day in London? Would you talk to people in English there?

Regards

Roberto
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[Mister Micawber]

I'm not sure that I should even be commenting here, Roberto, so please forgive me if I am out of line.

I read with interest your summary, and all seemed fine except for one thing that struck me: I wonder if it is productive to carry etymological discussions to as early as Proto-IndoEuropean, all of which is hypothetical at best, since not a scrap of PIE exists. I sometimes point out roots or affixes that are cognate with the learner's L1 or that should help them associate other words in English (inquire, require, acquire), but I go no further than what might be of immediate help.

(I say all this without having read all 5 pages of this thread but having noticed on page 1 that the group is of beginner level. The relation of 'true' to 'tree' might interest advanced students, but beginners?)
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[Roberto]

Yes, you're right, Mr. Micawber, and I thank you for your comment. In fact, I didn't and wouldn't go so far in this class where some of the participants have an intermediate level though. I simply wrote the PIE-root here in my summary report, perhaps for people that are interested in reading such associations, since this forum is open for other learners and trainers. In this class, when I give etymological (rather: mnemotechnical) help, I usually stick to English words, i.e., I often refer to intralingual aspects - contained within English - such as the examples you mentioned in your comment (require- inquire - acquire - these can be also linked with other English words such as question, query, conquer, conquest, quest etc...which could be of interest for more advanced learners).

Regards from Saxony

Roberto

P.S. I read somewhere that you live in Japan, is that true?
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[Mister Micawber]

Yes, I have been teaching in Japan since 1990. Don't ask me anything about the language though. I don't speak it. I am that quintessential monolingual: an American.
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