Sunday, January 20, 2008

Talking About Rope And String...

I'm still thinking about Spike Milligan. Last week I asked some of my students to complete the poem "String":

String
is a most peculiar thing.
Rope is thicker,
but _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

One student suggested, "string is slicker". Very nice. Perhaps it is even better than the original, "string is quicker".

Let's make some more comparisons of string and rope:

String is quicker than rope, so

Rope is _ l _ _ _ _ than string.

Rope is _ _ _ _k _ _ than string, so

string is _ _ _ _ n _ _ than rope.

Rope is r _ _ g _ _ _ /_ _ _ _ / _ t _ _ _ _, so

String is _ m _ o _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _.

_ _ _ _ is _ _ _ _ _ g _ _ than _ _ _ _ _ _, so

_ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ ak _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _.


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David Hurley
Succeed-In-English.com

Monday, January 14, 2008

Silly Verses for Kids, and English Students!


I was eight years old when I first read Spike Milliagan's "Silly Verses For Kids". It was my friend's copy. We used to read it together during playtime. I liked it so much I asked my parents to buy me a copy of the book, and eventually they did.

I still have the book, many years later, in a box somewhere in the attic of my mother's house.

Spike Milligan (1918-2002) was an Irish citizen who was one of Britain's best-loved comedians. He made radio and television shows, as well as writing books of verse and his war-time memoirs.

Last week I was about to teach an English class at a community centre in Hiroshima but I had not prepared anything to talk to them about.

Then, on the bus up to the community centre, I remembered Spike Milligan and some of his "silly verses". I immediately decided to teach the class three of the verses that I can still remember.

As it was a rainy day, the first verse I taught them was:


There are holes in the sky
where the rain gets in,
but they are ever so small,
that's why rain is thin.


Do you ever think about string? Funny stuff, isn't it. What is the difference between string and rope? Spike Milligan had the answer, and very philosophical it is too:


String
is a most peculiar thing.
Rope is thicker,
but string is quicker.


Here is my favourite verse by Spike Milligan. It is about a little girl called "Mary Pugh":


Mary Pugh was nearly two
when she went out of doors.
She went out standing up, she did,
and came back on all fours.
The moral of the story, please meditate and pause -
never send a baby out with loosely waisted drawers.


Language Notes for "Mary Pugh"
on all fours = crawl on hands and knees
meditate and pause = stop and think
loosely waisted = not tight around the waist
drawers = underpants

David Hurley
Succeed-In-English.com

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

End Of Term Scrabble!

On Thursday 20th December 2007 one of my English classes in Hiroshima celebrated the end of the year by playing Scrabble. Scrabble is a popular board game in America, Britain and much of the English-speaking world.

Members of the English Class get stuck into Scrabble - or just get stuck?!


Two to four players score points by making words on a 15-by-15 grid. The words may be connected like a crossword, across and down the board. Each player starts with seven tiles. Each tile has a single letter on it and the players use them to make words on the board.

Players score points according to the value of the letters and where they are placed on the board.

The rules are quick and easy to learn, but learning to play well is more difficult, especially if English is not your first language, as the class members discovered!

A game in progress. Strangely, the board has been set up sideways!


We set up three games and the most experienced student and myself acted as referees while the other class members cheerfully struggled to make English words with their letter tiles and the tiles on the board...

For the first time in the whole of 2007, the whole of the class is deep in concentration!


It was hard work, but cheerfully undertaken! The verdict was that it was quite difficult to make words because you had to think about connections and the position of letters on the board, not just the letters in your hand.

However, if you keep on playing you soon get used to making connections and your vocabulary will also improve from your own efforts and by learning from other players.

You can find out more about how to play Scrabble and the history of the game at these sites:

www.mattelscrabble.com
www.hasbro.com
wikipedia.org

Play Scrabble online!

The online game is called Scrabulous. You can play free after you have registered.

Take the challenge and test your English vocabulary like never before! Go to: Scrabulous.com

Happy New Year!

David Hurley
Succeed-in-English.com