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Hello, Friends.
What an exciting week. We began with the Superbowl and we are ending the week with Valentines' Day. Our classes are all up and running with many interesting topics and conversations.
In our adult American English and Culture meetings we are working on our professional stories. Resumes need to be submitted so we can move forward with sharing and telling our professional stories as well as having professional conversations.
In our Kids' American English and Culture we had an afternoon conversation where we practiced speaking nonsense. Nonsense is an important language learning strategy.
We have been doing a lot of talking about AI and using AI to generate words. The Valentines' Day piece below was generated using the prompt "Valentines' Day fun and more". What do you think? Does AI do a good job? What kinds of edits would make this piece more interesting.
Valentines' Day
Valentine's Day is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate love and affection with your significant other, friends, or even yourself! Here are some fun ideas to make the day extra special:
Romantic Ideas:
- Dinner Date: Plan a candlelit dinner at home or make reservations at a cozy restaurant.
- Love Notes: Write heartfelt love letters or notes and hide them in places your partner will find throughout the day.
- Stargazing: Set up a romantic evening under the stars with blankets, pillows, and a telescope or binoculars.
- DIY Crafts: Make personalized gifts, such as photo albums, scrapbooks, or handmade cards.
- Cooking Together: Try cooking a new recipe together or bake heart-shaped cookies or a cake.
- Couples' Photoshoot: Have a fun photoshoot with themed outfits and props to capture memorable moments.
- Galentine's Day: Celebrate with your friends by hosting a brunch, movie night, or game night.
- Secret Admirer Exchange: Organize a gift exchange with friends where each person gets a surprise gift.
- Adventure Day: Plan a fun outing with friends, such as hiking, visiting a museum, or going to an escape room.
- Spa Day: Treat yourself to a spa day at home with a relaxing bath, face masks, and soothing music.
- Journal Writing: Reflect on your journey and write down things you're grateful for or love about yourself.
- Favorite Activities: Spend the day doing activities you love, such as reading, painting, or watching your favorite shows.
- Acts of Kindness: Spread love by performing random acts of kindness, such as leaving positive notes for strangers or donating to a charity.
- Memory Jar: Create a memory jar by writing down special moments you’ve shared with your loved ones and reading them together.
- Surprise Delivery: Send a surprise delivery of flowers, chocolates, or a thoughtful gift to someone you care about.
American Culture: Names and Naming
How do you fill out forms? What is the norm for names in the United States? Is your name too hard for anyone else?
America is the land of many names.
Words for categories of names on official documents:
- Last [name], surname, family name
- Maiden [name]: a woman's name from birth (prior to legally changing her name in marriage)
- First [name], given name, first name
- Middle [name], middle initial [MI]
- Previous name or names
- Nickname, alias
And then, on the computer or in cyberspace there are more names:
- User name
- Gamer tag
Entity names are proper nouns identify things that
- Company name
- Website name
- Product
Often, people from another country assume a different name that they feel will be easier for "Americans" to pronounce and help them fit in the community. This is interesting since American names are not ethnically standard. We come from all over the world and our parents often choose names for their sound or meaning regardless of origin. A current trend is to create a new name by combining other names.
For those of you that love to geek out on grammar, names are classed as proper nouns (as opposed to common nouns). Proper nouns are always capitalized no matter where they occur in a sentence.
International Friends Meeting Notes
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International Bible Study: Monday, 8-9:00 PM, Zoom
We continue with Genesis 34. Once again our study group was surprised by the violence that occurs in the Bible (a book all about the creator God who is the definition of love). While we could understand the need of the Dinah's brothers to exact revenge, we were astonished at how they carried out their attack.
Yet life goes on in the next chapter. Chapter 35 tells the names of the sons of Jacob and tell of significant deaths. Jacob's beloved Rebeccah dies in childbirth and Isaac dies at 108 years old and Jacob and Esau bury him. In this sentence, we know that the wounds between the brothers are healed. The brothers move away from the lands of their childhood because they are blessed and needed more space to grow. Chapter 36 lists Esau's descendants.
February 3: We continue with Genesis 37 and a beloved Bible story.
American English and Culture: Thursday, 9-11:00 AM, Zoom
Telling about our first jobs was our main topic. Two important questions to frame our story telling were:
- What was your first job?
- What did you learn?
The first question leads to a solid, factual answer. The second question begs for reflection and opinion.
We listed some words from our professional life. We put them on a whiteboard to share with each other. We used these words to make conversation. We will continue to play with our professional words over the next weeks.
February 6: Bring a list of your personal "professional" words to explore in grammar, context, and pronunciation. Bring your resume and we can look at your specific professional (and personal) history.
American English and Culture: Thursday, 7-8:00 PM, CLC, Carmel, room 102
Try the 16 Personalities Test and see what descriptive words this tool provides to you. Do you agree with the results? Tests like these can be used to screen prospective employees. They may be part of the onboarding process to give workers and idea about how individuals can work to reduce conflict and be more productive in their teams. These tools can inform you about your strengths, they can be shorthand for others to know how best to work with you. While they are interesting, it is most important to be able to demonstrate your attributes through your work.
We practiced brainstorming words and noticed how our ideas bounced off one another.
February 13: Celebrate Valentine's Day Eve. Warm up with word lists. Send Carolyn your resume so we can learn your work words and phrases.
American English for Kids: Thursday, 4:30-5:00 PM, private Zoom
We talked nonsense. To prime the pump we read Jabberwocky by Lewis Caroll Be prepared to sound clever, but really not say anything. Make up words, facts, associations that lead nowhere. Groundhog Day is a good example of nonsense talk. This is always fun and sparks our imagination.
When its spring and the air is cold and wet,
The fish fly freely across the I can't think of it.
And the universe doughnut space already ate itself.
Donut world barks candy cane cars on fire.
Chocolate swimming freely up and down in shape.
Monster picking flowers off kelp once upon a time the end.
Creating this was a lot harder than you would think. Blabbering random sounds and associations are tough when you are put on the spot and when you spend all your time trying to be reasonable and logical people.
Let go. Have fun. Roll around in some nonsense and see where it doesn't get you! Freely playing like this is good for your skills. Build your fluency, confidence, and creativity. Sentence structure and pronunciation and cadence are still important. Writing and talking nonsense can be surprisingly valuable for language learning.
February 14: Happy Valentine's Day! Let's talk pink and red and lovingly.
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