English Matters

Jyothisri Thanks for the reply. The travel agent has really shocked me by saying those words.But now everything is done and am going to India shortly:).

Ansuya I too felt that remembering words has become very difficult now.As a kid I would by heart everything without any effort but now its not that easy.This may be because there are other things in life that have to be taken care of more now.However, am trying to remember the commonly used words and not going into more esoteric words and their meanings:).
Its fun to read the meanings of some uncommon words but very difficult to use it when speaking.And also I felt that if our vocabulary is good we can express ourselves in short sentences following KISS(Keep It short and Simple) otherwise I would make it too long and unclear too.

Confused211 your explanation for can\could was good.However, I saw many people using Can in place of May or Could while talking.Is it okay if we use any word while speaking.

Hi Smrithi, I think it is ok to use it while speaking, unless you catch a person at his/her uncooperative best, and the person replies, "Yes I can" (and thinks, "But I won't, ha ha!"), or "I don't know, can you?", in response to "Can you..." or "Can I...". Speaking as one of those creatures who tortures fellow creatures (read my husband) using technicalities... . Before you go pitying him, he ain't all that better than I am.

Oooh, love that quote from this as yet unknown person about grudges.

Thank you Anusya for your detailed reply.
Yes, It's one of our IL-ite's signature. I hope its "Sarawathip" - greeter.

Smrithi, I like how you've explained the importance of speaking and writing simply and clearly. You couldn't be more right. Enjoy your trip to India!

Shel, you might want to let SaraswathiP know about this discussion, and how much we like her saying.

Now to a book recommendation for those of you with children - I bought Dr Seuss's Oh, The Places You'll Go! today and I've already read it three times to my daughter. For those of you not familiar with this title, it was the last book Dr Seuss wrote before he died, and it is an excellent example of his distinctive style. What I like most about this book is how inspirational it is no matter how old you are (apparently this book is also a very popular graduation present). Of course, the beautiful illustrations and sing-song rhythm of the words make it a good read for very young children as well. But I suspect I'm reading this book more for me than my little girl right now...

Here is a link to the text in its entirety:

Oh! The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss

I do encourage you, however, to take a look at the book with its illustrations. It's wonderful.

Hi Shel, Anusya and all here ,

First of all Thanx to Shel for pointing out this beautiful discussion going on. Bad of me to have not joined you all here earlier .
Yeah..I loved the quote
"Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die"
which I came across while randomly browsing. Its a wise one indeed..and Anusya has explained, exactly what I feel about it.
When we nurture a grudge against a person...it robs us of our peace of mind, and prevents us from looking for a true solution.

We refuse to free ourselves from bad feelings which will slowly crowd out the positive thoughts in us. So, we chose to feel less happy, which means we suffer. But this doesn't affect the other person (for whom we hold a grudge).

And hey friends..good to know that you all liked the quote which I chose to use. Was thinking of changing it recently..but now I think I will let it be there for somemore time . Thanks a lot.

Will continue to come here...after catching up with all the previous posts here.

Bye

Saraswathi, so good to see you here, and "meet" the ILite with the intriguing signature saying. Thanks for illuminating for us what the words mean to you. We hope you like what you read on this thread :)

Smrithi, here is a link to an old English Matters post

English Matters

that may be interesting to you. It's a great website that will help you with your spoken English. Reading is often very useful in this regard, but listening can also be of great benefit too. I hope you find something useful there :)

Ansuya and others, Ladies do you have any tips for me? , I have put up a new query related to my English problem in this forum. Thanks!

Nithya

There are tips that may help you scattered throughout this thread. I know this thread is long and it will take you a lot of time to go through all the posts, but I have not been cataloguing the content as we go along, so I can't give you a systematic, post-by-post reference.

However, the link I gave to Smrithi in my previous post should help you too. Please click on it, and see if this is the sort of help you want. If it is, I can find more resources for you and post the links here. Also, be as specific as possible in detailing the kind of help you need. I'm sure there are many resources we can share with you if we know exactly what it is you want.

Thanks for dropping by with your query :)

Ansuya, thanks for your reply. Indeed this thread is full of good discussions and I occasionally go through it.
My specific problem is this: I am facing this difficulty while conversing with Americans.
I work as a volunteer in an office once a week where I sometimes answer calls and help callers with registration work. I can speak English well, but the problem is in understanding the callers. Even after staying here for over 2 years I find it hard to understand their accent sometimes(and vice versa, I think)Sometimes I am unable to understand what they are asking and get confused, mostly I ask an employee to take over in such a situation, but if no one is available, I have to handle it myself. Many times the callers get irritated with this and some are very rude too! Some of them even ask what nationality I am and that they want to speak to someone who knows English. Ironically, I have a degree in English Literature from India!! Therefore, it is extremely detrimental for my self-confidence every time I face this. I even contemplated giving up on this volunteer work for this reason, but then I would have nowhere to go(H4).
I want to continue and be able to be understood and understand. Do you have any tips for me? How to handle phone conversations in US? Also its not just American accent, sometimes callers have chinese, British, Spanish accents!! How to handle all this?

I started a different thread to get some replies and some I'Lites suggested I should take ESL classes. Is it required, because I am very far from where they are offered.

Dear Ansuya and friends of this thread,

I have a small query. Recently I happened to post a blog and while discussing
that with a friend of mine online, he pointed out something to me. The sentence is It is held on the first Tuesday in November each year.
He things it should be first Tuesday of November each year, although in November also sounds right to me.

Could you please help us in clarifying which one is the right usage?

Thank you in advance.

PS: Sorry that I posted a query before yours was answered. I did not mean to barge in like that. Apologies from me.