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 Thu May 04, 2006 11:49 am Have you ever won anything? |
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Hi! Who thought of that contest? He must have had a lot of sense of humor. Anyway, I didn't win anything in spelling bees or writing contests. I was chosen to represent our class in oratorical and impromptu speaking contests in high school, but I didn't win. I don't even know why my teacher thought I should do it. 
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looks just fine! |
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chocolatee
You can meet me at english-test.net
Joined: 22 Apr 2006
Posts: 70
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| Thu May 04, 2006 13:51 pm Have you ever won anything? |
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| chocolatee wrote: | | Hi! Who thought of that contest? He must have had a lot of sense of humor. |
We frequently had contests like this at that company. The reason was that the company's suppliers often brought various little gifts. If the gift was food, everybody just ate it. If it was something more expensive, such as a gift certificate, a walkman or something even bigger, it was immoral to accept it, but the supplier refused to take it back. We therefore took those gifts to the human resources department, and they figured out a way to get rid of them. Usually they made them a prize in some funny contest. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 4218
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| Fri May 05, 2006 16:07 pm Ethylic prize |
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There are many, many things I consider to have won in my life. Materially speaking, though, there's only one, as far as I can remember: a bottle of Kirsch at a party!
We had been playing the following game: one of the guests had to strum the introductory notes of a long list of popular tunes on a keyboard and the rest of us had to guess the most tunes. Guess who won? |
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Conchita
Language Coach
Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 2702
Location: Madrid, Spain
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| Sat May 06, 2006 3:56 am Ethylic prize |
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| Conchita wrote: | | We had been playing the following game: one of the guests had to strum the introductory notes of a long list of popular tunes on a keyboard and the rest of us had to guess the most tunes. Guess who won? |
That game is called "Name That Tune". It was a show on American TV in the 1950s and was then revived in the 1970s. Not only do the players have to guess the songs, but they have to bet how many notes need to be played before that can guess correctly. We say, "I can name that song in 4 notes." The objective is to recognize the song based on a smaller number of notes than the other people do. And there's no song list.
My younger sister and I enjoyed playing our own game called "Sister Mary Edith". At the elementary school where we had weekly catechism classes, there was a nun named Sr. Mary Edith who had an amazingly high voice and a strange way of talking. In our game, the contestants had to blurt out the words "Sister Mary Edith", "Jimmy's toasty peanuts" or any phrase with the same number of syllables and a similar sequence of vowels. The trick was that the phrases were said very fast and in the way we thought Sr. Mary Edith might pronounce them. The other players had to guess which phrase you said. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 4218
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| Sat May 06, 2006 12:37 pm Games |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: | | My younger sister and I enjoyed playing our own game called "Sister Mary Edith". At the elementary school where we had weekly catechism classes, there was a nun named Sr. Mary Edith who had an amazingly high voice and a strange way of talking. In our game, the contestants had to blurt out the words "Sister Mary Edith", "Jimmy's toasty peanuts" or any phrase with the same number of syllables and a similar sequence of vowels. The trick was that the phrases were said very fast and in the way we thought Sr. Mary Edith might pronounce them. The other players had to guess which phrase you said. |
This game could be good practice for (advanced!) English learners – and fun, too! We could try to do something like this online – minus the guessing part! How about ‘Give the money ‘n beat it’?
Isn't it a pity that this kind of entertainment, as well as board games and traditional toys, are being relegated and replaced by electronic and other technological games? I also fear that real books are in the process of becoming obsolete, too.  |
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Conchita
Language Coach
Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 2702
Location: Madrid, Spain
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| Sat May 06, 2006 12:56 pm Games |
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| Conchita wrote: | | Isn't it a pity that this kind of entertainment, as well as board games and traditional toys, are being relegated and replaced by electronic and other technological games? I also fear that real books are in the process of becoming obsolete, too. |
Well, we thought of this as a rather wicked game. We had other strange games, like one we called "Hold It Nice and Snug". In this game, two people would lie on the sofa, and one would put his head between the other one's knees. The latter person would graduallly squeeze the former person's head between his knees, harder and harder and harder. The objective was to be the one who bore the most pain the longest without screaming.
Of course, there is a very well-known game called "Bloody Knuckles", which is just a type of gin rummy. At the end of each round, the loser gets hit hard on the knuckles with the full deck of cards. So, yes, in the old days kids didn't need computer games to have fun.
We also had a form of soccer in which a light plastic ball was not kicked, but propelled by being whipped with loose coils of clothes line. Of course, to survive a game like this, you needed to wear jeans. Kids who played it with shorts on were in for a lot of pain.
Anyway, I disagree with you that board games are being replaced by video games. Kids I know still play board games, card games and other kinds of games from the analogue world, partly because they like them, partly because their parents restrict their computer time, and partly because they enjoy the human interaction. And I notice that the libraries in my area can still attract a roomful of kids to their chess club meetings. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 4218
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| Sat May 06, 2006 16:15 pm Have you ever won anything? |
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I won a dishwasher once  |
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Karina
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 15 Jul 2004
Posts: 188
Location: Poland
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| Sat May 06, 2006 23:32 pm Have you ever won anything? |
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| Karina wrote: | | I won a dishwasher once |
Are you still married to him? |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 4218
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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Conchita
Language Coach
Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 2702
Location: Madrid, Spain
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| Sun May 07, 2006 0:13 am Gem for a husband? |
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Is it gem for a husband or gem of a husband?
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A smile will open doors  |
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Andreana
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Posts: 203
Location: Argentina
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| Sun May 07, 2006 0:24 am Gem for a husband? |
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| Andreana wrote: | | Is it gem for a husband or gem of a husband? |
Hi Andreana! It's been a long time!
Both sound right to me. However, I would say: 'he is a gem of a husband' or 'she found a gem for a husband'. So, it seems to depend on the verb you use and it's also a matter of collocation, I think.
Edit: the more I think about it, the less I like my explanation, but I'm afraid I can't find a better one. |
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Conchita
Language Coach
Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 2702
Location: Madrid, Spain
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Andreana
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Posts: 203
Location: Argentina
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| Sun May 07, 2006 1:01 am Gem of a husband vs. gem for a husband |
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| Andreana wrote: | | In any case it's good to have a husband who can operate a dishwasher . |
I don't think this is quite what Jamie had in mind! I can see that men who actually do the washing up themselves must be as rare in your latitudes as they are in mine (OK, maybe my statement is a bit unfair to the few ones who do)!
| Andreana wrote: | | By the way, I often read the messages here but don't write anything because I'm stuck with my studies, then I have another posting spree... |
Looking forward to it and sending lots of positive energy for your studies! |
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Conchita
Language Coach
Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 2702
Location: Madrid, Spain
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| Sun May 07, 2006 8:05 am Gem of a husband vs. gem for a husband |
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| Conchita wrote: | | I can see that men who actually do the washing up themselves must be as rare in your latitudes as they are in mine. |
There's an interesting British idiom: "washing up" used to mean washing dishes. When I hear that used, my first thought is that the person washed his face and hands and anything else that has to look presentable for dinner or a meeting. That British idiom "washing-up liquid" is also strange and indecipherable to us, and people probably wouldn't understand right away that it meant what we call dish detergent. That usage of "washing up" and the idiom "washing-up liquid" are definitely not international English.
Once a woman in her 20s visited me from Leipzig when I lived in Eastern Europe, and she got very agitated when I washed the few breakfast dishes, as I was trained to at home. She blurted, "THAT'S A RATHER FEMININE ACTIVITY, ISN'T IT?!" and wouldn't stop jumping around the kitchen from nerves until I let her dry them. (I had intended to let them just drain.) I've always wondered if this was characteristic of pre-1989 East Germans, or of her family, or just of her. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 4218
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| Secret code at the supermarket ('bath tissue'?) | Learning English through Movies and Music? |
