When did you have your last epiphany?

[Torsten]

A couple of weeks ago we talked about our Favorite words in English and it just occurred to me that epiphany is an intriguing word. It's good to have at least one epiphany per day, isn't it? When did you have your last epiphany and what was it?

Happy thinking,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

I don't usually use the word epiphany other than in connection with church. But that's just me.

On the other hand, I just love having "Eureka moments". Both small and large.

Do you suppose my "Eureka moment" is the same as or similar to your epiphany?

Amy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Torsten]

Yes Amy, that's what I mean -- you have been thinking about something and suddenly you get an epiphany, a solution to your problem. So, it's what you call a eureka-moment...
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

My most memorable such moment happened years ago. It's not that it was the most important and also not that it has been the only one. I guess it's particularly memorable because I was so actively looking for a particular "light to go on" in my head and that light just refused to light up.

It was when I first took an algebra course. For some reason, the logic just didn't make sense to me. My dad tutored me endlessly in the evenings (when I had to do homework). And in spite of his patient explanations, I just didn't get it. There was a gigantic mental block in my head.

One day, after weeks and weeks of my dad's help, the light suddenly went on. And I don't mean just a glimmer. I'm talking full power. All at once. I went from total darkness to full illumination. Just like that! Suddenly everything was crystal clear. And from that day on, I no longer had any problems in algebra.

By the way, one of my favorite experiences in language teaching is having the privilege of being able to witness or share in my students' "Eureka moments" in English.

Amy

Edit * edit * edit : one went too many; one went removed
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Alan]

Well, of course when you reach my age, it's really a question of senior moments. You go upstairs and can't for the life of you remember why you staggered up there in the first place. Take this morning. I was dashing from house to garden and garden to house desperately trying to do a touch of gardening between the showers because it has rained on and off all month. This of course is why we're experiencing a drought in the S E of England. Apparently the rain, although it makes me personally very wet when I stand out in it, isn't, they tell me, really wet at all like winter rain. This is difficult to follow because I can't honestly tell the difference. Now, where was I? Ah, yes senior moments. So there was I at one end of the garden wondering where I'd left the terra cotta pot that I'd specially prepared to take a euphorbia. Eventually I married the two and all was well. The problem now is where is that metal tape measure that I took out into the garden two days ago to measure a space with a view to setting up an arbour? The space is fine but that's more than can be said for the tape measure. It's lying somewhere in the long grass - long because I can't cut it on account of the rain - unable and unfit to take any sort of measuring task, rusting and for all I know like the Knight in the poem by John Keats alone and palely loitering. Not that it's pale any more because of the rust, you see. I hope you follow me.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Read all about it

[Tom]

Dear Amy

I am a bit confused: You wrote,

"One day, after weeks and weeks of my dad's help, the light went suddenly went on."

Why "went" twice?

Tom

[Yankee]

Hi Hi Tom Tom

Typo typo

Amy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Torsten]

But it's not a typical typo because it shows that both sentences would be possible:

The light went suddenly on.
The light suddenly went on.

So, go on seems to be a phrasal verb that can be split here. Phrasal verbs -- an endless story...
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Jamie (K)]

[Jamie (K)]

I have had so many epiphanies in life that I can't remember them all. However, I want to tell you about someone else's.

Once I asked my dentist how he managed to drill people's teeth correctly while looking at the drill through a mirror. He told me, "For a while it was really difficult, but then suddenly one day it just clicked, and I could do it." Now, THAT'S an important epiphany.

He told me, though, that with today's dental students the problem is different. Dental care has so improved over the past 20 or 25 years that it's very common for Americans in their 20s never to have had a cavity. This means they have never felt a dental drill. From that it follows that they have no idea at all what kind of pain they're inflicting on patients. My dentist said that nowadays dental students have to be taught artificially to be gentle, because they have no empathy for what the patient is going through.