Saturday 11 June 2011

Why are you happy?

Are you happy? Yes? No?
Dan Gilbert talks about happiness and his studies around it.
The video is interesting, difficult and may require a lot of patience to watch and understand everything... but it is worth watching!
The main point is that it has subtitles (1) for many languages, so you can select to watch it all with English subtitles (1) .

Direct link: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html



The video, in the blog.




(1) subtitle: secondary title appearing below the main title; translation of a foreign-language film which appears at the bottom of the screen; caption or dialogue which appears between scenes in a silent film

example:

Smiles, emoticons, slang expressions

Have you ever came across a word, in a chat, like MSN, orkut, or some site or forum that you had no idea of what it was?
When someone talks to you with a very informal sentence, like;

like 2 c a movie 2nite?


To understand this, you have to know that:

2 = to
c = see
2nite= tonight

Some abreviations are obvious, but some are not... so here I present a list of them for you to have as reference. You don't need to memorize them all, just take a look and have them whenever you face (1) them!

4
For
404
A clueless person
10q
Thank you
AKA
Also known as
ASAP
As soon as possible
B4
Before
BK / BC
Because
BRB
(I’ll) be right back
BTW
By the way
CIO
Check it out
CYL / CUL8R
See you later
D / C
Disconnect
EOD
End of discussion
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
F2F
Face-to-face
FYI
For your information
GJ
Good Job
GR8
Great
GTG / GG
Got to go
HAND
Have a Nice Day
IAC
In any case...
IDK
I don’t know
L8TR
Later
LUV
Love
LOL
Laughing out loud
LTNT
Long time, no type !
M
Am
NITE
Nite
OIC
Oh, I see...
OTOH
On the other hand
PLS
Please
R
Are
RU
Are you ?
SOME1
Someone
SRI / SRRY
Sorry
THANX / THX
Thanks
TIA
Thanks in Advance
U
You
Ur
You are
W8
Wait
YGBK
You gotta be kiddin’
YYSW
Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever



I also have a list of emoticons! You can surprise your friends with them!

:-| Ambivalent
o:-) Angelic
|-I Asleep
(::( )::) Band aid
:-{} Blowing a Kiss
\-o Bored
:-c Bummed Out
|C| Can of Coke
|P| Can of Pepsi
:( ) Can't Stop Talking
:*) Clowning
:' Crying
:'-) Crying with Joy
:'-( Crying Sadly
\_/7 cup (coffee/tea)
:-9 Delicious, Yummy
:-> Devilish
;-> Devilish Wink
:-P Sticking out tongue
:*) Drunk
:-6 Exhausted, Wiped Out
>> >><)))`> Fish/fishy
> ><<*> Fish/fishy
:( Frown
\~/ Full Glass
\_/ Glass (drink)
:-I Indifferent
:-)*(-: Kiss
:-# Lips are Sealed
:~/ Mixed Up
:-O Mouth Open (Surprised)
(_) Mug (coffee)
:-@ Screaming
:O Shocked
:-) Smile
:-& Tongue Tied
:-\ Undecided
;-) Wink
|-O Yawning

You can also download the printable version, here.

(1) to face: In this context, means that you see the expressions, come across, look at them, find them

Friday 10 June 2011

Why pipes?

Well, these first topics exist because I imagine that people may ask, eventually, so I have them already prepared, he he.


This is a pipe.

A personal quote(1) that I use a lot in my classes is this one "You have to put it in your pipe and smoke it", so I decided to create a blog, but I had to give it a name, right? (It couldn't be Englishclassesblog, or teacherleo.blogspot.com, these names are really boring[2]) So I decided to base my blog on this. I even created an e-mail just for this!

What does "You have to put it in your pipe and smoke it" mean (3)?

This is an expression that means "You have to accept things as they are" or "You can't change it, just accept it". It is used in cases where people can't change the facts, and another one says that for the first to accept. For example, imagine that your friend Bob has a car. He left it on the street and went to your apairtment ot have some tea. One hour later he discovers that his car was robbed (4) and can't accept that fact after 3 days. You can say this quote to him.

Isn't this expression a little...impolite?

Yes it is, but I never used it on the impolite way with my students. I used mainly whenever I said to them that they had to study a lot, there was no other way....


(1) quote: citation, passage taken from another source
(2) boring: not interesting, dull
(3) to mean: mean or intend to express or convey;
e.g. "You never understand what I mean!"; "what do his words intend?"
(4) to rob: steal, plunder, illegally take property by force


note: this is also a pipe

Why all in English?

Você deve ter sido redirecionado para este tópico, pois estava difícil entender os meus posts, ou então porque etsava curioso do porquê tudo em inglês, ou simplesmente não concorda com a metodologia, certo? Afinal, devia estar em português, para pessoas que estão aprendendo em inglês, certo?
Na minha opinião, errado.

Eu sigo uma linha de pesquisa que afirma que uma língua deve ser aprendida sem o intermédio de outra, mesmo que isso torne o processo mais "doloroso". Sim, é bem mais difícil, e cansa mais... porém compensa mais e tem vantagens inúmeras.
Portanto este será o meu único post em português, mas caso você não esteja entendendo muito, ou ficou alguma dúvida em alguma das frases usadas, ou se você não conseguir construir este tipo de frase, por favor me mande um e-mail, que isso pode ser resolvido! (pipe.teacher@gmail.com)

Até a próxima!

First Topic

Ok, first of all, be welcome, anyone that reads this blog, either because you found it in the internet, or because I asked, or because I demanded....You may know me, or may not, in any case, feel free to send me e-mails, ask questions, recommend stuff, complain about everything or donate $.$

This blog has the initial objective of being an archive for files, videos, or anything that may help or interest my own students, but it is also avalable for any other student that I have never seen personally.
Do you study English ofr yourself, or intend to? Please send me emails, I will help you (or at least intend to)
Do you study in a school? And want to complement with extras? Right place!
So, to finish my first post, I will leave my e-mail, (pipe.teacher@gmail.com) for any contact needed.

Não está entendendo nada? Prefere em português? por favor leia o tópico seguinte, "Why all in English?"