French, and Spanish Sentences Russian
I am learning Italian on Duolingo. I had already heard some strange sentence in other languages. When I was a child we used to make jokes about absurd sentences such as 'la plume de ma tante' (the pen of my aunt).
A famous sentence about Spain is for for those learning Spanish, but English. When teaching English, one heard 'the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain'. (This came up in the Hollywood version of My Fair Lady, teaching English.)
The Elephant Out of The Room
At least both those sentences deal with everyday objects. But today I had to translate 'the elephant walks on the strawberries' in Russian.
Italian Cakes - and Snakes
Later the Italian possessives sentences had me in hysterics. I had to translate: 'My snake eats your cakes'.
How often would you need that? Well, I hear you asking. How do you say it?
Il mio serpente mangia la sua torte. No I haven't. It should be le tue torte. Or le vostre torte.
There, you see I have learned it. Perhaps that is the purpose of it. One kind of memory system is to remember totally absurd images.
Singaporean Sentences about Scotland
I can remember the absurdity of the answers I was given when I was teaching English as a second language in Singapore. In one class, I was teaching a lesson about what countries and people from those countries were called. One example was Chinese people live in China and grow rice. Another example was Scotland and Scottish people. The sentence I was given in class by a pupil was, "Scottish people live in Scotland where they grow rice."
Living in London, England, it was obvious to me that the people in Scotland eat porridge and some of them drink whisky. For the benefit of any readers who live in Asia. Scotland has mountains, cold mountains. In Scotland they they have pine forests and sheep. Sheep? Yes. Remember, The Edinburgh mill sells wooden clothes made from sheep.
The people in Scotland eat shortbread and potatoes. They do not grow rice.
Never let the truth get in the way of grammar.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Language teacher. Author and speaker.
I am learning Italian on Duolingo. I had already heard some strange sentence in other languages. When I was a child we used to make jokes about absurd sentences such as 'la plume de ma tante' (the pen of my aunt).
A famous sentence about Spain is for for those learning Spanish, but English. When teaching English, one heard 'the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain'. (This came up in the Hollywood version of My Fair Lady, teaching English.)
The Elephant Out of The Room
At least both those sentences deal with everyday objects. But today I had to translate 'the elephant walks on the strawberries' in Russian.
Italian Cakes - and Snakes
Later the Italian possessives sentences had me in hysterics. I had to translate: 'My snake eats your cakes'.
How often would you need that? Well, I hear you asking. How do you say it?
Il mio serpente mangia la sua torte. No I haven't. It should be le tue torte. Or le vostre torte.
There, you see I have learned it. Perhaps that is the purpose of it. One kind of memory system is to remember totally absurd images.
Singaporean Sentences about Scotland
I can remember the absurdity of the answers I was given when I was teaching English as a second language in Singapore. In one class, I was teaching a lesson about what countries and people from those countries were called. One example was Chinese people live in China and grow rice. Another example was Scotland and Scottish people. The sentence I was given in class by a pupil was, "Scottish people live in Scotland where they grow rice."
Living in London, England, it was obvious to me that the people in Scotland eat porridge and some of them drink whisky. For the benefit of any readers who live in Asia. Scotland has mountains, cold mountains. In Scotland they they have pine forests and sheep. Sheep? Yes. Remember, The Edinburgh mill sells wooden clothes made from sheep.
The people in Scotland eat shortbread and potatoes. They do not grow rice.
Never let the truth get in the way of grammar.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Language teacher. Author and speaker.
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