Get Your Tash Out, It's Movember!

Over the last week you may have noticed the emergence of some unusual facial hair amongst the male population. Is this the latest trend in male fashion? Or is it a means to ward off the winter chill? Whilst in a handful of instances this may be the case, the likelihood is they are sprouting these furry specimens for a more altruistic reason.

Handle-bar, curly, pencil and military are just some of the wacky styles of moustache being sported around the country to raise money for male health – in particular for prostate and testicular cancer. Those taking part begin with a clean-shaven face on 1st November, then for the entire month of November they must grow and groom the perfect tash.

As the wife of just such a ‘Mo Bro’ I can’t say that I am too fond of the furry friend appearing on my husband’s upper lip, but at the end of the day, it’s all for charity. So, whether you love it or hate it, embrace the ‘mo’ and raise money for this great cause!

Check out the official Movember page below for more info:

Has Political Correctness Gone Mad?

Think of any English person you know. Have you noticed that they are reluctant to talk about certain subjects? This is probably due to a covert form of censorship that has taken Britain and its inhabitants by storm.

In every culture there are taboo subjects that people try to avoid - some of the more common examples might be religion, race, gender and sexuality. But the British just take it one step further. Even mentioning something that could be seen as making reference to the aforementioned subjects is a risky business, for fear of offending someone. So let's keep away from them.

One example that springs to mind is that we are no longer able to use the word 'brainstorm' (which means to gather ideas), as it is deemed to offend epileptics. Instead you should use the word 'thought shower'. God forbid should you ever be caught singing Britain's epic nursery rhyme, 'Baa Baa Black Sheep', for risk of being called a racist. For more political correctness gone mad, have a click on the image below, because quite frankly... I don't want to offend anyone!

Monumental Day, Monumental Men..

Today is a monumental day in American politics. Obama has successfully been re-elected as president of the United States. This was met with a very positive reaction by all of the staff and students at OISE Oxford. Of course, here at OISE Oxford, we are extremely interested in political leaders. After all, 26 of Britain's Prime Ministers were educated at Oxford University. Interestingly enough, 50% of Britain's 26 Prime Ministers attended Christ Church College, a stone's throw away from our school (see map below):

But if you're thinking it's only British leaders that were educated at Oxford, think again. Bill Clinton also studied here, along with leaders from India, Japan, Trinidad and Tobago among other countries. And let's not ignore the fact that several of OISE Oxford's legendary tutors studied among the great world leaders at Oxford University. 

Let's analyse who you are and how we can help you!

This blog has now been up and running for approximately one month and we have had a total of 3,200 views. What we, the staff at OISE Oxford, find particularly interesting is not the quantity of views the blog gets, but where you, the people viewing the blog, come from. Blogger (ran by Google) very kindly provide the owners of their blogs with the nationality breakdown. Excluding the English fan base we seem to have acquired (mainly from Burton-on-Trent and Leicester FYI), please see below a list of the top 8 nationalities to view this blog:

Russia - 24%
France - 21%
Spain - 14%
Italy - 13%
Japan - 10.5%
Turkey - 7%
Germany - 6.5%
Czech - 4%

You might be asking yourselves what is the point in us telling you this information. The answer is simple. Every so often we are going to pick one of the top viewing nationalities of our blog and briefly discuss one of two specific difficulties that this particular nationality has when learning English. We figured that this would be an effective way to interact and provide relevant information to our readership.

We will start with France. I asked two of our highly experienced tutors to pick one difficulty each:

1) The Present Perfect
The French sometimes struggle to comprehend the unique nature of bringing past and present actions together in one present perfect continuous tense. For example the French would say 'I am studying English since two years' instead of 'I have been studying English for two years'. In English, the logic is this; I started to study English two years ago. I am studying now = I have been studying for two years.

2) False Friends (Les faux amis)
There are many words in English that resemble French words and vice versa, but that have completely different meanings. Here is a list of some of the most common French false friends:

to control = diriger, maîtriser * contrôler = to check
deception = tromperie * délais = time, time-limit
to demand = exiger * demander = to ask
deputy = adjoint * député = Member of Parliament
eventually = finalement * éventuellement = perhaps, possibly
to resume = recommencer * résumer = to summarise, to sum up
sensible = sensé, raisonnable * sensible = sensitive
to support = soutenir * supporter = to stand, bear, put up with

If you are a teacher or a French student and can think of any other specific difficulties that the French have when learning English, please feel free to comment below!

Next time we will focus on the Russians! If you are a Russian learning English, or have experience in teaching Russian students English, please let us know the difficulties you think Russian students have while learning English.

Do you have a brain for languages?

Some people are naturally gifted at speaking and understanding foreign languages. Their ears become tuned to the new sounds and with a bit of practice they are able to reproduce these new sounds with little difficulty.

Others find it virtually impossible, and no matter how hard they try, the words just don't seem to flow. 

So is there something unique about certain brains that enable some of us to speak and understand foreign languages? Is it in our genes? Or is it simply a question of starting from a young age?

What do you think the key is?

Click on the image below to read more

The name's Bond, James Bond!

Smooth, silky, sexy, seductive, suited and booted - there's only one man that springs to mind, it's Bond, James Bond! The 23rd Bond movie is out on the 26th of October. Whether you're into the gadgets, the girls, the colourful villains or the quips, you're sure to be in for an absolute cracker!

Since the release of the first Bond movie, this iconic figure has grown to be a national treasure. Six different Bonds have graced our screens over the last 50 years and everyone has their favourite - whether it be the dashing Scot, Sean Connery, the smouldering Pierce Brosnan (grandma's favourite), or the most recent spying hunk, Daniel Craig.

The last time Bond visited Oxford was back in '97. He was focusing on Danish at the time, so unfortunately he didn't pay OISE Oxford a visit. Sit back and enjoy the trailer.

The Subjunctive

English Grammar: The Subjunctive.[1]

Source: www.engvid.com

Word Of The Day

26/4/13

Word of the day: missle

Mizzle is a term used in Devon and Cornwall for a combination of fine drenching drizzle or extremely fine rain and thick, heavy saturating.

Source: www.weatheronline.co.uk

26/2/13

Word of the day: hurtle

verb

Meaning: to rush violently; move with great speed

Example: The car hurtled down the highway.


Source: www.dictionary.com


16/01/13

Word of the day: inkling

noun

Meaning: a slight hint or suspicion

Example: He had an inkling that something bad was about to happen

"I remember that, although I was full of fervour, I didn't have the slightest inkling, even at forty, of the deeper side to the movement we were pursuing by instinct. It was in the air!"

--Camille Pisarro


Source: www.searchquotes.com


Word of the day: Fuddy-duddy

Meaning: a person who is stuffy, old-fashioned, and conservative.

Note: adjective or noun


Source: www.dictionary.com 


16/11/12

Word of the day: bird-dog

bird-dog \BURD-dawg\ , verb:

1. To follow, watch carefully, or investigate.
2. In slang, to steal or attempt to steal another person's date.

noun:
1. One of various breeds of dogs trained to hunt or retrieve birds.
2. A person hired to locate special items or people, especially a talent scout who seeks out promising athletes.

“Connors thinks my department is so incompetent that he's sending someone tobird-dog my investigation?
-- Judith A. Jance, Partner in Crime

Smart organizations will assign an employee to bird-dog the consultant from the start and learn everything there is to know about a service or application.
-- Dan Tynan, Escaping Services Addiction, Infoworld, August, 2006.

Source: www.dictionary.com 

Date: 31/10/12

Word of the day: lily-livered

lily-livered \LIL-ee-LIV-erd\ , noun:
Weak or lacking in courage; cowardly; pusillanimous.

But surely, for your own sake, you will not be so lily-livered as to fall into this trap which he has baited for you and let him take the very bread out of your mouth without a struggle.
-- Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers

He had skin as white as a lily, but he was not lily-livered; he was as strong as a champion at the Shrovetide games.
-- Geoffrey Chaucer and Peter Ackroyd, Canterbury Tales

Source: www.dictionary.com

26/10/12

Word of the day: Supernormal

supernormal \soo-per-NAWR-muhl\ , adjective:
1. In excess of the normal or average: supernormal faculties; supernormal production.
2. Lying beyond normal or natural powers of comprehension: supernormal intimations.
On the other hand, the voyager may also feel that he possesses supernormalpowers of perception and movement, that he can perform miracles, extraordinary feats of bodily control, etc …
-- Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, Richard Alpert, The Psychedelic Experience
The limbs twitched, the eyes gleamed, the blood-pressure appeared heightened, and there was a supernormal pinkness in the epidermis of the cheek.
-- P. G. Wodehouse, Summer Lightning



Source:  www.dictionary.com

25/10/12

Word of the Day - uncanny:


uncanny \uhn-KAN-ee\ , adjective:
1. Having or seeming to have a supernatural or inexplicable basis; beyond the ordinary or normal; extraordinary: uncanny accuracy; an uncanny knack of foreseeing trouble.
2. Mysterious; arousing superstitious fear or dread; uncomfortably strange: Uncanny sounds filled the house.
Again the mood is uncanny, with strange perturbations in the atmosphere, the abstruse word choice purposely jarring: “suzerain,” “diacritic,” “acephalous,” “zebu,” “argute.”
-- Charles Bukowski, introduction by David Stephen Calonne, Absence of the Hero
She saw him put his hand on the shoulder of their mother's chair, touch the fringe on a lampshade, as if to confirm for himself that the uncanny persistence of half-forgotten objects, all in their old places, was not some trick of the mind.
-- Marilynne Robinson, Home


Source:  www.dictionary.com


17/10/12

Word of the day: Fulgurant

fulgurant \FUHL-gyer-uhnt\  , adjective:

Flashing like lightning.[1]

Now, as died the fulgurant rage that had supported her, and her normal strength being exhausted, a sudden weakness intervened, and she couldn't but allow Mike to lead her to a seat.


-- George Moore, Mike Fletcher: A Novel



Source: www.dictionary.com 


Longest word in a major English dictionary: 

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Noun

an obscure term ostensibly referring to a lung disease caused by silicadust, sometimes cited as one of the longest words in the English language.

Source: www.dictionary.com


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Prepositions

Date: 1/11/12

Lab post 30

Common errors in the use of prepositions:

Some verbs are directly followed by direct objects without prepositions. Examples are: 
discuss, enter, marry, lack, resemble and approach.

Incorrect: My father loves with me.
Correct: My father loves me.

Incorrect: We reached at the airport.
Correct: We reached the airport.

Incorrect: He ordered for my dismissal.
Correct: He ordered my dismissal.

Incorrect: John married with his cousin.
Correct: John married his cousin.

Incorrect: Jane entered into the room.
Correct: Jane entered the room.


Prepositions are not used in expressions of time beginning next, last, this, one, each, every, some, any and all.

Incorrect: See you on next Monday.
Correct: See you next Monday.

Incorrect: I will be rich on someday.
Correct: I will be rich someday.

Incorrect: We met on one Friday in February.
Correct: We met one Friday in February.

Prepositions are not used directly before the conjunction that.
Incorrect: I knew about that she had decided to quit.

Correct: I knew that she had decided to quit. OR I knew about her decision to quit.
Incorrect: I had no idea of that she had problems.

Correct: I had no idea that she had problems. OR I had no idea of her problems.
Prepositions are not normally used before infinitives in English.

Incorrect: I am thinking of to write a novel.
Correct: I am thinking of writing a novel.

Incorrect: I don’t like the idea of to get old.
Correct: I don’t like the idea of getting old.

Incorrect: She is very good at to cook.
Correct: She is very good at cooking.




source: www.englishpractice.com



Prepositions of time:

Source: www.falibo.com 

Weather

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29/10/12

Words used to describe cold weather

cold 
 adjective
used about the weather

crisp 
 adjective
crisp weather is pleasant because it is cold and dry

brisk 
 adjective
if it is brisk, the weather is fairly cold and a fairly strong wind is blowing

fresh 
 adjective
if the weather is fresh, it is fairly cold and the wind is blowing

harsh 
 adjective
harsh weather is extremely cold and unpleasant

bleak 
 adjective
bleak weather is very cold and grey

biting 
 adjective
biting wind or cold is so cold that it makes you feel very uncomfortable

frosty 
 adjective
cold enough to produce frost

raw 
 adjective
raw weather is cold and unpleasant

hard 
 adjective
a hard winter is a very cold winter

Source: http://www.macmillandictionary.com

British Vs. American Vocabulary

British vs American vocabulary

Many people learn English from watching American films and TV shows and pick up words that we don't use in Britain. Take a look at the 10 words below to see what we would say instead:

British        American

Biscuit    =       Cookie

Chips     =        Fries

Sweets    =     Candy

Film      =          Movie

Petrol     =        Gas

Lift       =           Elevator

Post       =        Mail

Rubbish    =     Trash/garbage

Torch =       Flashlight

Trousers   =     Pants



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Adverb / Adjective + Enough

That's enough!

Why does enough sometimes come before and other times after the word it is describing?


Adjective / Adverb + Enough

When enough modifies an adjective or an adverb, place enough after the adjective / adverb:

Examples:

Do you think he is strong enough to lift that weight?

I can't play the violin well enough to join the orchestra.



Enough + Noun

When enough modifies a noun, place enough before the noun:

Examples:

He has enough money to buy a ticket.

I don't have enough time to go to the supermarket!

Once you think you've mastered the use of enough, click here to test your knowledge!

Source: www.esl.about.com

Body Parts

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Body Parts

Verbs with the mouth

Source: www.iswearenglish.com