크리스마스

It's nearly Christmas Day in Seoul. Happy holidays to all.

Racism In Korea

I have a student in one of my classes from the United Arab Emirates. I'm happy to have him in the class, as his particular strengths and weaknesses add an unusual challenge for me and, as importantly, the other students as well. And he's an interesting guy. The new supervisor at work--a job which might've been mine, had I been interested--asked me if I'd "patted him down for bombs." What does one say to that?

Photo Dump

Here are some Facebook links to photos of my brother's visit to Korea and our trip to Thailand.

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More Grammar Matters

The Toronto Star's Editor-in-Chief has written a column saying, basically, what I said about CTV's interview with Stephane Dion, which is nice to see. What's irritating about this, for me, is not that the interviewer--whose job requires, if nothing else, clear and effective communicative skills--made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. What's irritating is that neither CTV's anchor, who was unable to recognize his mistake and clarify the question, nor CTV's editors, who chose to run the interview uncut, realized the mistake. These people are journalists?

When Grammar Matters

I've avoided posting about the Canadian election, but I want to comment on this exchange because it concerns the English language, and particularly listening and speaking it as a second language, an area in which I have some knowledge. Here's the exchange:

"If you were prime minister now, what would you have done about the economy and this crisis that Mr. Harper hasn't done?”

“If I had been prime minister two-and-a-half years ago?” Mr. Dion replied.

“If you were the prime minister right now.”

At this point Dion begins talking about his plan for today. But he stumbles and again he asks for clarification: "“If I was prime minister starting when? Today?”

The question is a difficult one, grammatically--you've got the second conditional, and you've got present perfect. Add to that something I haven't seen mentioned in the media: The question isn't grammatically correct. Asking what Dion would have done (which is a question about the past) if he were prime minister now (in the present) doesn't make sense. The question, as Dion appears to recognize, should be: "If you had been prime minister since time t, what would you have done..." (if the interviewer wants to know about the past) or "If you were prime minister now, what would you do..." (if the interviewer wants to know about the present). As it is, it's unclear what he wants to know.

Sarah Palin Makes Intermediate Language-Learners Look Like Churchill

I teach the English language to Korean learners from the beginner to advanced level. And I can say, with absolute confidence, that my intermediate-level students would perform better than Sarah Palin did in her latest interview. I linked to an excerpt last time, but this answer is even worse (or better, if comedy is what you're looking for):

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? Allow them to spend more, and put more money into the economy, instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.

Actually, I shouldn't even compare her answer to the kinds of things my students say. My students make sense.