Having your lessons delivered

Last week we worked on the different kinds of passives.  Here's a nice way to review.

http://www.engvid.com/english-grammar-passive-causative/

EngVid.com has a collection of grammar presentations waiting for you.  All you have to know is the name of your learning target for the hour you are studying.  Search for it and BOOM- instant lesson.

Of course that's not all you need to do if you want to change your English.  Watching a videoed lecture is never going to help, unless you start using your English right away- and then regularly- whenever you can.  There are just four ways to use your English:

1. Listening
2. Speaking 
3. Reading
4. Writing

Let's choose one.

LISTENING: Watch this classic kids' video. Each time you here that "Service Passive" do something simple like touch the screen, or, if you are Japanese, touch your nose.  That's ACTIVELY listening.



Warning: Do NOT take Cookie Monster.  He is not a native speaker.  It might be useful to try determining what his basic grammar problem is, though.





READING: Next try to find it when reading.  Try reading this poem and tell me why it's all in the passive.  Do the same thing. Just point at the screen where you see the passive.





WRITING: Write a piece on how little you actually need to do for yourself to get a pizza.  Think of how much work your €20.00 did for you.

Start like this "My money is amazing.  Look at what it did for me.  It got my wheat planted.  Then it got it harvested and ground into flour.  It got my tomatoes planted, picked, cooked and pulped.  It got my cows fed, sheltered and milked. It got my milk turned into mozzarella cheese..."

Then get a pizza delivered tonight.  Domino's do 2 for 1 deals on Tuesdays.  Hit that.





SPEAKING: This is the easy one.  When you are talking to someone complain about everything you need to get done before next week.  Having someone teach you about the passives again shouldn't be on that list though...

Post a response here if you like. Or you could write a response on your blog and leave me a link here.

Dialogue Assignment from Monday

Create a dialogue using all the phrasal verbs we pulled from the text on this page:
http://www.eng1on1.com/media/dialogue/pdf/07-06%20love%20and%20dating.pdf

• burn out
• finish up
• settle down
• moving in (together)
• come up
• set (someone) up

Also include one example of the "it" subject with (be) and a complicated subject following starting with a gerund e.g.
Isn’t it a little strange dating a guy that much older?
It's a bit irritating having my name mispronounced constantly and people constantly telling me I'm Chinese.
It's easy finding your way home when you know the way.
It's hard doing your homework when you can't remember what it was supposed to be about.
It's ridiculous his kissing me on the street like this all the time.  I wish we had car.

Attach a link to your homework in the comments section.  Thank god Valentine's Day is over.  Bring on Patrick's Day in Dublin!