Showing posts with label Vocabulary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vocabulary. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 May 2010

UK vs US


It is not only the students who (hopefully!) learn something new each week at E-Style. One of the advantages of working with American teachers like Alan and R.T. is that I also learn new words each week.

As you may know there are many small differences between British and American English, especially with vocabulary, and if possible I try to teach my students both (usually after checking with Alan!).

Here are some common examples of different vocabulary used in the US and UK:

US: Apartment, UK: Flat (アパート)
US: Candy, UK: Sweets  (お菓子)
US: Chips, UK: Crisps  (ポテトチップス)
US: Cookie, UK: Biscuit (ビスケット)
US: First floor, UK: Ground floor (一階)
US: Fries, UK: Chips  (ポテト)
US: Line, UK: Queue  (待ち行列)
US: Movie theater, UK: Cinema (映画館)
US: Pants, UK: Trousers (ズボン)
US: Soccer, UK: Football (サッカー)
US: Trash, UK: Rubbish  (ごみ、くず)
US: Truck, UK: Lorry (トラック)

There are of course many other differences including differences in spelling and also grammar. I will introduce some more in a future post.

Saturday, 5 September 2009

Scrabble

The other week I introduced my intermediate class to a popular English board game called Scrabble. In the game you have to make words from a limited number of letter tiles. Each letter has a different score with unusual letters like "x" scoring the highest.

The rules are not that complicated but would be difficult to explain without looking at the board, so please follow the link below for an explanation of the game and its rules in Japanese:

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/スクラブル

After reading that if you feel like giving it a go, click the link below for an online Scrabble game:

http://macsinfarlands.com/scrabble.htm

I think that Scrabble is a fun game both for native and non-native English speakers and is a great way to build your vocabulary (and test your brain!). My class certainly seemed to enjoy it and I highly recommend it to all English learners.

If you are interested in buying the real game, it is available from Amazon Japan with both English and Japanese instructions:

Tuesday, 21 July 2009

Vocab Builder - At School

Every week at the start of my beginners' class we play a vocabulary building game. One of the students picks a card, and then everyone has to say one word connected to the picture on the card.

This week's card is "At school" (学校で)
Here are some useful school words for you:
  • Biology - 生物
  • Chemistry - 化学
  • Physics - 物理
  • Art - 美術
  • Craft - 図工
  • History - 歴史
  • Geography - 地理
  • Mathematics (maths) - 数学
  • Music - 音楽
  • Physical Education (P.E.) - 体育
  • Social Studies - 社会
  • Home Economics - 家庭科
  • Calligraphy - 書写
  • Ethics - 道徳

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

Basic Grammar Words


I have been teaching in Japan for a few years now, but I still have trouble remembering some basic grammatical terms (文法用語).
Therefore I have decided to introduce a few useful words here to help you (and me!) in class:
  • Noun - 名詞
  • Verb - 動詞
  • Adjective - 形容詞
  • Adverb - 副詞
  • Preposition - 前置詞
  • Subject - 主語
  • Object - 目的語
  • Sentence - 文
  • Paragraph - 段落
Next time I will introduce some basic words connected with verbs (動詞)and tenses (時制).