Monday, May 20, 2013

English Grammar

Today, I took the final in-class exam, and I will have a potluck party this week. After taking the final exam, I studied about grammar with my friend for an hour at school. Then, I came back home and took a rest for a while. In the evening, I returned to school to meet my teacher in order to learn about article. I still often make mistakes about article even though I am confident with English grammar mostly. However, he told me that article mistakes are not a big problem, and he advised me that I shouldn't care about it too much. He told me that when he attended a high school graduation ceremony last week, the principal made many article and preposition mistakes in his speech. The principal was from Italy and has been living here for over 20 years now. My teacher noticed his mistakes, but none of the other people cared about that. He told me that I have less problem with grammar and most of my sentences make sense, so I should keep my blogging and writing. He told me, "if you understood article clearly, your grammar knowledge would be equivalent to Ph.D degree." Which means for ESL students, it is impossible to figure out every single rule about article because there are also a ton of exceptions. :( While I was talking with my teacher, some students showed their interests in grammar. Because they have noticed that English grammar is a huge problem for them through our writing class, they are planning on taking an advanced grammar class next semester. I took his grammar class last semester, and my teacher asked me if the class was helpful. Frankly, the most of grammar I learned last semester was something I had already studied before, and the class was boring for me. I'm sorry, but it is true. I sometimes thought that my knowledge of English grammar was partly stronger than my American teacher's, and I corrected his explanation about grammar when he couldn't explain logically. Because American people can uneventfully use English without logically understanding grammar, it is not easy for Americans to figure out every grammar rule. I was planing on taking the advanced grammar class for at least two semesters, but I changed my mind. I didn't want to spend too much time studying what I already know. Instead of that, I have been studying grammar with my friend. However, for most advanced writing class students, I highly recommend to take the grammar class. Because they started learning English from advanced level, they didn't have chance to learn grammar. Advance writing classes do not teach grammar since those student are supposed to know that. Ironically, most students are confused about grammar very often. In contrast, I have less problem with grammar now because I started learning English from the very beginning level, and I had to study grammar in many beginning and intermediate classes. I learned English grammar for three years, but it was worthwhile. By starting from very beginning level, I could learn English grammar fundamentally.     

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