Erika's Journal

Is it been so long? Really? RL has been a bit crazy. I'll start by saying that YES, I am aware that I didn't close the latest round at sga_lfws. I was made aware a few days ago and I PROMISE I will count those half dozen votes still today. I'd help immensily if some of you guys would drop by and vote. It's just three little fics, and the prompt was to write a five things fic.

Now I'm finally on vacations, starting today. And the first things I did were: (1) buy a LOT of chocolate and (2) order a new camera. Yes, I know, spending money, but I simply could not resist. It was a very good deal. On both cases.

I have plans for vacations. Plans that got me really excited and in a frenzy since Saturday (I went to bed at 3AM doing it XD). I'm making my own EFL student book (in case you don't know, EFL stands for English as a Foreign Language). I don't intend on having it published, but I indend on having it printed and use it with my private students. It's turning out SO PRETTY! Oh I wish I had samples, but I'm doing it in my own computer (which doesn't have internet access) instead of this one which is my brother's. The problem is that my bro's computer doesn't have MS Word 2007 and the layout breaks completely if I open the file in another program. I need to solve this issue because to continue writing it, I'll have to choose between Word 2007 or internet, and internet usually wins. I wonder if I could borrow it from the school I work, it's a computer school after all.

I'm also catching up on Doctor Who because, shame on me I know, I still didn't watch all of the Eccleston episodes, nor all of Tennant's. Next on the list is Aliens of London.

TO DO LIST FOR VACATIONS:

*Eat chocolate
*Work on the EFL book - Beginner level
*Arrange a copy of Office 2007
*Eat chocolate
*Watch lots of Doctor Who
*Take the new camera out for a spin once it arrives
*Eat chocolate
*Play on Livejournal, Facebook, Orkut, MSN and remind people that I still exist
*E-mail uni friends and ask if they want to go out
*Eat chocolate
*Go to the movies
*Not spending money (Which is going to be hard)
*Eat more chocolate

Let's see how successful I will be. Garanteed is the part which talks about eating chocolate. XD

I posted a new teaching worksheet and ideas at my esl comm, erika_esl_files. It's about teaching the interrogative forms and it includes a song activity.

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As an English teacher, I must say there's a bunch. I sometimes can't remember what the English words are like in Portuguese. My students think I'm weird. I didn't earn English by translation, I learned by ear, so I know the concepts and the meanings, but not their corresponding words in Portuguese. Does that make me weird? I don't know, but there are lots of words that even the most accurate translation isn't enough to describe something. I, for example, can't write fics in Portuguese. I can only express the stories in my head in English. Even when I daydream Atlantis scenarios, I can only do it in English. Now, everyday life keeps changing in my head, and I mix everything up with the first word my brain thinks of, regardless of language. My brain is very confusing if some telepath tries to read it. I have sometimes caught myself saying words in English with other people without knowing, because that's how my brain works and there isn't a switch to turn a language on or off. They are both on at all times.

So it's normal for me to have a thought proccess like this: "Now eu vou have breakfast depois go to school e casa."

I found this somewhere in the internet:

Let's face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins were not invented in England or french fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So, one moose, 2 meese? One index, two indices? Is cheese the plural of choose?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can the weather be hot as hell one day an cold as hell another?

When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out and an alarm clock goes off by going on.

When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?
Now I know why I flunked my English. It's not my fault; the silly language doesn't quite know whether it's coming or going.