Problem
The first thing you need to know in a new country is the greeting to start a conversation. (Along with please and thank you.) What's the greeting? What's not appropriate?
Answers
Even nodding in the street, you often learn greetings first because you hear them so often, at the start of every conversation. The easiest to learn are those which stay the same all day.
English
Hello. Hi. (Hi is an Americanism which was shocking in the 1960s but has become universal in texts and amongst the younger generation. In the UK in 2017 some grandparents, bosses, and a proportion of other people will still be taken aback if you open a conversation with an informal Hi.)
I responded to a request for help on BUSUU.
The speaker wrote as answer to How are you
I drafted my reply with my initial reaction:
Well done. Your answer, when spoken, is grammatically correct.
The picture is confusing. Her hand is his arm suggests they are half way through the conversation. So your answer would be right.
As a conversation opener, however, 'I'm not great,' does not match the question.
'How are you?' as an opener is not a question. It is a greeting.
'How are you?" is slightly formal and has a standard answer: "Very well, thank you. How are you?"
The reply echoes the sentence structure, length, formality and positivity of the apparent question.
Hi!
'Hi' would be a response only if the other person opened with Hi.
Punctuation
The punctuation is missing. The sentence of reply should have a full stop after 'great' because this is a complete sentence. Start 'How' with a capital letter to indicate complete pause for breath, then a new thought in a new subject-verb sentence.
This is your reply to somebody else's polite and cheerful greeting?
'Hi.'
'Hi.'
'How are you?'
'I'm not great. How about you.'
Negatives
It is rather negative. Sounds like you just failed an exam. British conversations and conversations worldwide start with positive greetings. Even in wartime Arabs greet you by saying Salaam and Israelis say Shalom.
Third word into your reply, and you are already negative. You could say this to your mother or a very close friend if you did not mind depressing them. Greetings are usually cheerful. This answer implies you have a serious problem you need to discuss. The other person is going to ask, "What's the matter?"
If you have read any of my other posts you will have seen that I am learning several languages on Duolingo, the free language learning system which you can use on a computer, laptop, Kindle or smart phone.
Today I looked at BUSUU, who had emailed me. I wanted to learn from their free introductory course, or the travellers' course, a language I was not already able to learn on Duolingo.
On Duolingo I listed the available languages for English speakers, in alphabetical order, the ones I had signed up for in bold:
Czech, French, Dutch, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Turkish, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Welsh.
Busuu offered Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese which are all on my wish list.
I went back to BUSUU and found that I had already signed up for Italian, but wanted to try out the Chinese. Premium (paying) members can switch languages themselves and learn more than one. As a free member I have to contact them and abandon Italian in order to start Chinese.
When I looked up BUSUU and learning languages on Wikipedia, hoping to find a langauge hours and system companrison chart (probably quicker to find it from one of my ealrier bposts in this blog) I found something else instead. I was immediately distracted by a fascinating account of learning langauges as different ages, and how being blinigual or starting a second language at primary or secondary school or as an adult affect learning the grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and the rate of forgetfunless.
Since I am already an adult, there's nothing much I can do to change my own situation, except knowing whether I am being unsually dense or bright compared to most people, and whether I can still succeed and how long it will take and what methods will increase my rate of learning.
What I read confirms what I already believed and had heard or read. The younger you start the better in most cases.
Any surprises or revelations? Studies have been done on every aspect of learning. Learning a language has four separate areas: Vocabulary, grammar, reading, speaking. You can learn from reading or listening or both, and by speaking. Some systems have flash cards for revision, separate areas of the website accessed through settings where you can practice speaking to check your pronunciation, link up with somebody, like a gym buddy, also learning your foreign language, join a small club of members learning, your language, or link up with a foreign buddy from the language you are learning for mutual help.
The standard polite response to 'how are you' is: Very well thank you. How are you?
'Fine.' (Said on it's own, it is rude. Terse. No interest in the other person. It means: 'Go away - I don't want to talk. You are interrupting me. I'm in a bad mood. If you said it to a stranger on a train, they would move away.)
(However, it is so negative it is almost rude as a conversation opener. You could also answer, almost as negatively:
Could be better.
Okay.
So-so.
Bearing up.
'As well as can be expected.' (Very negative, depressed - suitable after a bereavement.)
I'm tempted to say, you'd fail a job interview. You've upset me already. Be positive. Think of a doctor's bedside manner. Think of NLP, positive thinking.
Say,
"I'm great. How about you?'
Since the girl in the picture is clearly smiling and flirting the negative response is confusing.
More information from
duolingo.com
Author
Angela Lansbury. Please see my other posts on leanring languages.
The first thing you need to know in a new country is the greeting to start a conversation. (Along with please and thank you.) What's the greeting? What's not appropriate?
Answers
Even nodding in the street, you often learn greetings first because you hear them so often, at the start of every conversation. The easiest to learn are those which stay the same all day.
English
Hello. Hi. (Hi is an Americanism which was shocking in the 1960s but has become universal in texts and amongst the younger generation. In the UK in 2017 some grandparents, bosses, and a proportion of other people will still be taken aback if you open a conversation with an informal Hi.)
I responded to a request for help on BUSUU.
The speaker wrote as answer to How are you
Hi. I'm not great how are you
I drafted my reply with my initial reaction:
Well done. Your answer, when spoken, is grammatically correct.
The picture is confusing. Her hand is his arm suggests they are half way through the conversation. So your answer would be right.
As a conversation opener, however, 'I'm not great,' does not match the question.
'How are you?' as an opener is not a question. It is a greeting.
'How are you?" is slightly formal and has a standard answer: "Very well, thank you. How are you?"
The reply echoes the sentence structure, length, formality and positivity of the apparent question.
Hi!
'Hi' would be a response only if the other person opened with Hi.
Punctuation
The punctuation is missing. The sentence of reply should have a full stop after 'great' because this is a complete sentence. Start 'How' with a capital letter to indicate complete pause for breath, then a new thought in a new subject-verb sentence.
This is your reply to somebody else's polite and cheerful greeting?
'Hi.'
'Hi.'
'How are you?'
'I'm not great. How about you.'
Negatives
It is rather negative. Sounds like you just failed an exam. British conversations and conversations worldwide start with positive greetings. Even in wartime Arabs greet you by saying Salaam and Israelis say Shalom.
Third word into your reply, and you are already negative. You could say this to your mother or a very close friend if you did not mind depressing them. Greetings are usually cheerful. This answer implies you have a serious problem you need to discuss. The other person is going to ask, "What's the matter?"
***
If you have read any of my other posts you will have seen that I am learning several languages on Duolingo, the free language learning system which you can use on a computer, laptop, Kindle or smart phone.
Today I looked at BUSUU, who had emailed me. I wanted to learn from their free introductory course, or the travellers' course, a language I was not already able to learn on Duolingo.
On Duolingo I listed the available languages for English speakers, in alphabetical order, the ones I had signed up for in bold:
Czech, French, Dutch, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Turkish, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Welsh.
Busuu offered Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese which are all on my wish list.
I went back to BUSUU and found that I had already signed up for Italian, but wanted to try out the Chinese. Premium (paying) members can switch languages themselves and learn more than one. As a free member I have to contact them and abandon Italian in order to start Chinese.
When I looked up BUSUU and learning languages on Wikipedia, hoping to find a langauge hours and system companrison chart (probably quicker to find it from one of my ealrier bposts in this blog) I found something else instead. I was immediately distracted by a fascinating account of learning langauges as different ages, and how being blinigual or starting a second language at primary or secondary school or as an adult affect learning the grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and the rate of forgetfunless.
Since I am already an adult, there's nothing much I can do to change my own situation, except knowing whether I am being unsually dense or bright compared to most people, and whether I can still succeed and how long it will take and what methods will increase my rate of learning.
What I read confirms what I already believed and had heard or read. The younger you start the better in most cases.
Any surprises or revelations? Studies have been done on every aspect of learning. Learning a language has four separate areas: Vocabulary, grammar, reading, speaking. You can learn from reading or listening or both, and by speaking. Some systems have flash cards for revision, separate areas of the website accessed through settings where you can practice speaking to check your pronunciation, link up with somebody, like a gym buddy, also learning your foreign language, join a small club of members learning, your language, or link up with a foreign buddy from the language you are learning for mutual help.
The standard polite response to 'how are you' is: Very well thank you. How are you?
'Fine.' (Said on it's own, it is rude. Terse. No interest in the other person. It means: 'Go away - I don't want to talk. You are interrupting me. I'm in a bad mood. If you said it to a stranger on a train, they would move away.)
(However, it is so negative it is almost rude as a conversation opener. You could also answer, almost as negatively:
Could be better.
Okay.
So-so.
Bearing up.
'As well as can be expected.' (Very negative, depressed - suitable after a bereavement.)
I'm tempted to say, you'd fail a job interview. You've upset me already. Be positive. Think of a doctor's bedside manner. Think of NLP, positive thinking.
Say,
"I'm great. How about you?'
Since the girl in the picture is clearly smiling and flirting the negative response is confusing.
More information from
duolingo.com
Author
Angela Lansbury. Please see my other posts on leanring languages.
No comments:
Post a Comment