You’re dead right (and other deathly vocabulary)

Today is the Mexican Day of The Dead where people in Mexico and some other cultures remember those family and friends who have died.

I think it’s a lovely thing to do and very different to the way we deal with death in Britain.  Over here dying is on the long list of perfectly natural things which we find impossible to talk about – instead we try to change the subject as quickly as possible with a mixture of distaste and embarrassment. I’ve never taught a lesson on death, doubtless for this reason, and thus the subject joins the long list of things which teachers seldom teach thus leaving serious gaps in students’ vocabulary.

So here are some of the most important words.  Use a dictionary if you don’t know what they mean and put them in the text below. Answers are on the worksheet (see bottom of page).

hearse	undertakers	cremation	burial	coffin
ashes	funeral	wake	mourners	cemetery

In the United Kingdom there are two options when you die:  you can have a ____________, where your body is put in a wooden____________ and put in the ground (six feet deep) in a _____________. Or you can have a ____________, where the body is burnt. Afterwards the family can take the ____________  and either keep them in an urn (see pic) or scatter them in a special place, for example, at sea, or in a garden.

The body is carried to the ____________ in a special vehicle called a ____________. In the past this was a horse-drawn carriage but nowadays it’s a long black car. The people who drive the car and organise the ceremony are called ____________ (they take you under!) The ____________ (the friends and family who attend) wear black.

In Ireland it’s common for the dead body to be kept at home for a few days, this is called a ____________ and people come and pay their respects (and sometimes have a little drink). See Irish comedian Dave Allen’s description!

“Dead right” etc.

There are a number of phrases in English which use “dead” as an intensifier, where it means “extremely/absolutely” (see the worksheet for exercises for these).

dead right/wrong	dead tired	dead hungry	dead ahead
dead sure	dead drunk	dead against	dead centre

Other common phrases include:

A dead end – when you drive down a dead end street there is no exit. A dead heat – when two people in a race finish at exactly the same moment. A deadline – the time by which you must have finished something. Deadpan (adj.) – when someone says something funny but doesn’t smile.

Euphemisms

The number of euphemisms for “die” reflect our uncomfortable relationship with death. The most polite and sensitive way to say someone has died is to say that they “passed away”.  There are however many more completely unsuitable slang phrases including:

to snuff it

to kick the bucket

to meet your maker

to peg it

 Personally, most of them sound horribly brutal to me as well as rather desperate, as if trying too hard to appear indifferent. I wouldn’t recommend using any of them!

Expressing sympathy

Perhaps most importantly is what to say when you hear that someone has lost a family member or friend.

“I’m so sorry”   or  “I’m very sorry to hear that” would be appropriate when speaking.

“Please accept my sincere condolences for your loss” is the rather formal phrase used in writing.

"I'm so sorry to hear about *****" would be less formal (i.e. to a close friend).

 On this worksheet  https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1LCyaQkPPAhRWtsbDhDVDRYVWM you can find exercises for all of the vocabulary as well as a transcript of the Dave Allen monologue.

English and Drinking

I think the number of synonyms in English for "drunk" says a lot about our culture:

Now watch this clip - it shows a group of English friends who have a new flatmate from Holland. They find her attitude to (not) drinking very confusing. It sums up the British perfectly:

You can find a tapescript of the clip on this free worksheet, https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1LCyaQkPPAhdWNteFRFamZaMEk

Here is some more useful vocabulary for drinking in Britain:

a teetotaller	a soft drink	spirits	sober
an off-licence	a shot	shandy	lager
bitter	sparkling/still	a round	cider

Can you match the word in the box with the definitions below? Answers are on the worksheet.

1.     ------   a non-alcoholic drink

2.    ----- a shop which sells alcohol (in Australia “bottle shop” in the USA “liquor store”)

3.    ---- drinks such as whisky, vodka, rum, tequila etc

4.    ----- a small drink which you drink very quickly (in one gulp)

5.    ---- a traditional british beer, also called ale, dark gold colour, often served at room-temperature – served in pints or half pints

6.    ---- a cold, golden-colour beer, usually imported from France, Belgium, Germany etc – served in pints or half pints

7.    ---- a mix of beer and lemonade, popular with in summer especially with ladies and Australian men.

8.    ----  a person who doesn’t drink alcohol

9.    ----  an adjective meaning “not drunk”

10. ---- a cold, golden-colour drink, made from apples, served in pints or half pints.

11.  ---- a selection of drinks which you buy for everybody with you (everybody takes turns to buy all the drinks, we don’t just buy individual drinks for ourselves).

12. ---- adjectives used to describe if a drink has bubbles or not.

Listening - Monkey Fairness!

Here's a video clip about two Capuchin monkeys, Vulcan and Virgil, and how they understand sharing and fairness. I thought it was pretty cute. Watch the clip and see how much you understand - here is some vocabulary which you'll need -

smart – smart is an adjective with two meanings 1) to talk about clothes - looking nice and neat  2) clever (the meaning in this video).  “Learning English was a smart decision”.

to struggle – to have difficulty doing something “He struggled through the deep snow.”

the lot – all of something “I wanted some cake but my brother ate the lot.”

a fair share – a good, equal amount. “There was a lot of work but we all did our fair share.”

to lose your composure – to start to get upset or angry “She tried to stay calm but his unkind words made her lose her composure and she started to shout back at him.”

would sooner – an alternative to would rather “We can go to the party if you want but I’d sooner stay at home.”

to short-change someone – to not give enough money back “The beer was £4 and I gave the barman £10 but he short-changed me and only gave me £5 back!”

There is some other vocabulary which you maybe don't know but should be able to understand more or less from the context.



Here is the transcript if you want to check it later:

A pot of hazelnuts…and the flint that’s needed to open the lid. You need both to get a nut, but they’re separated by a see-through barrier. Vulcan has the rock but can’t reach the nuts. Virgil has the nuts but knows he can’t eat them without a rock.

Vulcan quickly offers the tool. He must hope Virgil is smart enough to open the lid and fair enough to cut him in on the spoils.

Virgil is struggling. He doesn’t have his friend’s skill and Vulcan is getting impatient. The flint is finally through the lid but can Virgil be trusted to share the nuts? With Vulcan out of reach it must be tempting to take the lot.

Three nuts - a fair share. Vulcan and Virgil have used teamwork to beat the system but can Capuchins really have a sense of fair-play?

Ted gives Vulcan a white chip which can be exchanged for food, in this case a dry biscuit. An identical token for Virgil but in return he gets a juicy grape - a far better exchange. Vigil is back for seconds, but this time Vulcan sees him get the grape, he now expects one too.

Biscuit? That’s not fair. Virgil is back again…another grape! Vulcan is losing his composure, this injustice is too much, he was happy with biscuit but that was before Virgil got grapes, now he’d sooner have nothing than be short-changed. It’s a point of principle.

Virgil returns, so Vulcan suspects Ted of readying another grape…must be in there somewhere. At last! – a succulent grape.

Adverbs of frequency

Today's lesson is on Adverbs of Frequency

Watch it here:

Here are some pairwork exercises which teachers can print out and use with their students for further practice:
https://docs.google.com/a/londonenglishclasses.com/file/d/0B1LCyaQkPPAhaTN3NzYxeDNtOEE/edit

Pronunciation - Top Twenty Mispronounced Food Words

Food, we all love it (or at least I clearly do) and it usually makes for an interesting English lesson as everybody has an opinion and, especially in classes of mixed nationalities, we can often find some interesting cultural differences and similarities.

I've been teaching for a long time now and  the subject of food has come up on countless occasions. It's very noticeable that the same English words cause the same pronunciation problems every time. 
This can be because of silent letters (e.g. "salmon") or because they are pronunciation false friends (there is already a word like this in your language, but it is pronounced differently); e.g. "yoghurt" in some languages.

I recently made this top twenty of the words I often need to correct. Can you pronounce them all perfectly? If you can I think you must have a fantastic level of English!

fruit	vegetables	biscuits	tuna	raspberries
salt	soup (not soap)	pear	oranges	sausages
lettuce	tomato	dessert	chocolate	juice
pies/peas	yoghurt	spinach	salmon	cereal

Later I'll add audio files here so you can listen but until then you can check here: http://www.howjsay.com/
just type the word in and listen. It's a good site as it gives both British and US pronunciation (tomato, most famously).

So this is your task to start this week - make sure you can say all 20 perfectly! What other food or drink words do you find difficult? I'd be interested to hear people's suggestions - I'm sure there are many words which I've forgotten. .

I shall finish with this food-related illustration of the obstinancy of English sometimes. I like the imagined conversation on the right - "we've just discovered this new fruit, what shall we call it?"