User:Hassandiva

[This is an article I wrote for somewhere which I hope they can publish it. Comments welcome.]

Movenglish English Movie English Subtitle Every now and then I hear riveting news from my students around the world, of whom Husein from Azerbaijan, Ketkamol from Thailand, and Farideh from Iran, conveying their triumph and sense of gratitude for teaching them English in a way that transitioned their whole life, the matter that I am privileged and honored for. As a TEFL English teacher with years of overseas experience, I think this is my duty to propound some basic ideas to pave your way of learning English.

First, Some Honest Words With Teachers! I am not into criticism, yet the key, the thing that haunts me is the sense of distribution. There are some common error I hear from time to time due to word-for-word interpretation from Turkish to English which makes me end up pondering if I do not correct them, the same ones will pass down through, like you have never been told before, but somebody must.

Good morning/afternoon/evening only means hello in English and we never can use them to mean goodbye. If it is still day and we mean to say goodbye, we may say Good Day and if it is dark say Good Night which only means goodbye. Even Morning! instead of Good Morning! Afternoon, Evening, Night instead of Good Afternoon, Good Evening, Good Night would suffice.

Mr. is a title before the family or full name of a man. For instance, entitling a person such as Mr. Murat! is wrong. In English, you speak Formal or Informal. If you are friendly, just say Murat!. We may use Mr. Murat Arcak or Mr. Arcak instead. The same goes for Miss (=title of a girl/woman who has never been married) and Mrs. (= title of a married woman), and most preferably Ms. /mız/ (=title of a woman we don't know if she is married or not.)

Now imagine two people go fishing. One of them just drops the fish hook into the water and waits for hours. The other one baits the fish hook with some breadcrumbs. Which one do you think will catch the fish sooner? This is a simple example yet carries an insightful message that we need a wise, concrete method to encourage students. We cannot force them to fancy English or expect them to learn it by themselves unless we come up with some thought-provoking ideas to activate their slept consciousness. I believe 'everybody' has this power to learn it even if they think their English is too poor. How about this? Did you know:

Breakfast includes break (end) and fast (not eat). It means when you go to bed, you do not eat anything till morning (=you are fasting) and now you are breaking your fast!

Bicycle includes bi (two) and cycle (a space during which repeated sequence of events happens). Imagine two cycles moving round and round, that is bicycle!

Do not criticize students. It is 'poison' and exactly the same reason so many people quit studying. They need appropriate encouragement. You are like what, Master of Art holder? I believe if there is any kind of art in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone, sharing something.

Do not interrupt them while reading to define word by word. It bores them. Years ago, Francis Bacon in his essay On Reading concisely explained that we should read the whole text once to get some ideas, and then repeat reading it elaborately.

Some Honest Words With Students I have always believed that success does not appear to people like delusion angel or fantasy parade. It is lodged in life like branches in river flowing downstream caught in the current. To learn English, you do not have to dangle a rope to the sky or dig a pit into the ground. It is just there... inside you. I have always had these scattered random thoughts, of which you can invent the best and the worst for yourself. This is the world of conflict, it can be asinine, or it can be beneficial. But what can I do in the short collection of minutes to conjure up an easy yet effective method to let everybody have the opportunity to learn English? If I say what I say I am, so there must be a way to 'be'. The answer to approach the ideal must be in the attempt, in shaking the dust off your mind. So let us face it. Where do you start to converse? Les Brown once said, ''You don't have to be great to get started. But you do have to get started to be great.'' Isn't it catchy? Unfortunately everybody knows to elaborate problems, no one gives practical solution. I do not intend to indoctrinate you with my opinions, but I myself and the ones who listened to this have taken enormous advantages. It would be beneficial for you to do so too. You have certainly suffered from 'language barrier' when you took a trip abroad, or have seen your friends' English is so much better and yours is still rusty. Here I am to give you a practical, easy, fun way of learning English, of which you have never heard before. Ask everybody to describe the feeling they get by hearing the word 'movie' and most probably it is farsighted to hear them say 'fun'. It would be absurd to expect them say 'oh no!' but the same may occur about the word 'book' because it unconsciously reminds them of strict school days and man is naturally against strictness, believe me. Do not glue yourself to books. Do not get the wrong end of the stick (=misunderstand me) though, books are vital, but too much books will dull your mind and frustrate you. Now do you want to learn English in a 'fun' way without constant look at sole words of books? The things that you need are preferably a personal computer (PC) or if not, a DVD player, and the Internet access through your PC to be connected to some cyber-dictionaries, which I highly recommend dictionary.cambridge.org -which has the simplest definition with the simplest possible words- and if it does not satisfy you, then thefreedictionary.com is a tremendous choice. Go grab some DVD movies that you fancy most with English language and English subtitle. This is what you have never heard before, the movie must absolutely have 'English' subtitle. Remember. Do not watch it with Turkish subtitle. Why? Because every time you have some questions that what the actor/actress said, you have to just guess, which is vaguely pathetic. But with the English subtitle, you have the answer; just pause and check it. You have to take notes of the words you hear a lot, or phrases that seem spirit-lifting to you. Have that notebook with you all the time, in the metro, taxi, bus, or wherever you go. Do not waste any time. Bring the notebook out and check the words. Believe me, each word 'reminds' you of a scene you have seen in a movie. As if you are watching the movie again. Chances are they make you smile and unlike the flat, similar words of books, you have the chance to memorize them well. Do you know how I learned the word 'triumph'? There is a scene in the movie French Kiss where Kate (Meg Ryan) talks to her mom on the phone. I still have a vivid image of that although I have watched it say 5 years ago! But where I learnt a specific word in a specific book, I do not remember because they all look like each other. Books do not speak to you, movies do. Audio system is good but you do not have the chance to see the lip movement or emotions of that person. It is not genuinely-felt most of the time, but is recommended in case you do not have any movie access. When people talk to you in Turkish, you see them, and their actions and reactions as well. The same -even if it is not face to face- happens when you watch a movie i.e. you can see the characters' movements, actions, and reactions. Movies have huge benefits of which a way of self-correction of pronunciation. I have heard a teacher pronounced 'museum' as 'miyuzeym' instead of 'miyuziyem'! If that teacher could watch movies, most probably he would not make a preposterous mistake like that. Now another benefit of watching movie is when it comes in handy for you to know the most-used, up-to-date words and expressions. Look at a Turkish dictionary. Assume it as 100%. How many percent of it do you practically use everyday? Probably 20%. Believe me, that is the same in English. Do not waste your time with learning words that are old-fashioned and boring. Wise students go for that 20% first -which I prefer American English. Now the question is how you can find those 20%. Well, watch 10 movies and you will see words like 'Weird, Pathetic, Tough, Stuff, Insane, Awesome, Coincidence, Brag, Fussy, and Scam' or expressions like 'Knock it off; I'm starving; and You're soaked;' or verbs like 'Sneak around, Suspend, Soothe, Yell, and Triumph' are repeated in one or some of them. Now imagine you watch 100 movies! What kind of listener and speaker you would be! It is not only this. Body language is the best part. Studies manifest that the best teachers are not necessarily the ones who have the best of knowledge, but the ones who have the best of body language (55%) -which most teachers just sit down on their chair and speak like flat- then tone of voice (35%) -which again most teachers ignore this fact and just shout and make the students feel asleep or reluctant- and then, the 'third' best part is teacher's knowledge (10%). Books do not have any body language, motions, emotions, but movies do. Gosh! How many benefits so far! If somebody tells you 'Come here' in another language without body language, you will probably be confused, but if the same person tells you to 'Come here' with body language, even if you do not understand what he said, you have the idea that he wants you to go to him. Now another common problem which has not been answered is that some students ask, ''Teacher! I know so many vocabularies but I cannot speak. What should I do?'' The answer is this: Fear of being judged by others in case you make a mistake. Imagine that you have all the knowledge of the world and have 'the richest bank of word', but you do not dare to speak. Wouldn't it mean your knowledge has not been tested for itself? This is exactly fear, just as I experienced and 'felt' it. If you want to triumph over this fear, you should think that nobody is perfect and everybody makes mistake, including me of course, and that this is a part of the huıman nature. No one ever has the right to judge you. Now a huge responsibility here is on teacher's shoulder. Teachers should create an atmosphere of safe competitiveness so everybody could have the opportunity to express themselves. You are in a class to speak. Do not care what others might think. Make mistakes as I did. Let it be a part of your speaking. Believe me if you are passionate about English, you will take risk. Do not be self-conscious. Feel this feeling. Be perfect in imperfection. Let all your cells be involved in this process. Make. Break. But... do speak. No matter what. Nobody dares to criticize you. Look where the world is going and what? You cannot speak English? You sure do. Just know that mistake is a part of everybody. Do you know how I have learnt to ride a bike? I was 10 and it was my brother who encouraged and trained me. He used to hold the back of the bike so I could ride and because I knew that he is holding it, psychologically I felt confident. Then once he suddenly left me alone and after a few seconds, I could hear his voice from a bit far! I was scared but then he guided me to ride it the same way as I did 'everyday'. The same is about English -and literally everything. If I feared and gave up that day, I would still have had the same fear. A famous football player is not famous the first day. He probably could not even kick the ball. But they were his wisdom, practice, and perseverance that made him famous. Entertainment is not tedious. We never get exhausted of it. We have fun and we definitely learn... naturally. I know that every new idea befalls some controversy. But the constant conversion of fanciful ambitions into practical ventures never happens unless we come to awareness of challenging the right way at the right time. It's not that I'm basically intend to give contradictory advice about the idea of studying, dead not. But the idea of scattering these words is because I witness so many people easily give up in the middle of the way. We need to 'revise', the clue to the question. Do watch movies continuously and be confident that one day you speak the most fluent ever possible. Have faith in my words. Admit that you can make some sentences now and that is a good start. The same I experienced. Take the good parts and do imitate movie characters' way of speaking sometimes; you will see in real life you speak to your friends the same way, and inevitably, because you have practiced the words every where, the speaking is a part of you. You will see the same people you were trying to avoid speaking to, are the same people you want to have a free discussion most. Isn't it wonderful? I would like to anticipate that I was rapturously speaking to some adolescents who are mature, sophisticated and rational individuals. I would like to believe that the transitional effect I had on these souls has been profoundly positive, even if I did not say all I had to say. Life is too short. And we cannot conquer the finite amount of time of either leaving vivid or vague footprints in people's life. Truth is life does not stand still for us. 'Now' is the time that you should start. Just that you must have a feeling of coming over. And if anything, really anything stops you, think about this for one moment: How can you possibly learn when you refuse to speak? Remember no one can use your abilities but 'you'. I hope Movenglish (MovieEnglish) moves you and improves your English. And I really do hope that this, this is the future.