Probably you noticed that I had been away for some time. Yeah, I abandoned my blog! How it is possible? Where have I been?! I have been busy. The important thing is now I am back. Hehehe, that is enough, now seriously...
It is already November, my favorite month. The further the darker it is outside.
Well, this blog is about English then let's talk about English. This week I joined 5 days free English course. I came across it on Facebook. This is the second time which I joined online English course. The first time it was online course of British Council and I didn't finish it. The course I joined now is email course about how to study English effectively. The teacher is sending me some materials and I am sending my stories to him. I don't know if it would be something useful but I believe every contact with English is good for English learners. Also I really appreciate the teacher's effort to help English learners. Besides, I don't have much opportunities to correspond with native English teacher.
I have been watching English lessons for beginners from one English school in Mongolia. They broadcast the lessons live on Facebook. I was just curious because I am learning English in Slovak-English. I mean I use English-Slovak dictionary. I translate words in my head from English to Slovak or from Slovak to English.
I have watched some Mongolian-English materials on Facebook. It seems to be hard to translate English phrases to Mongolian. Because these two languages are very different in all aspects. Also Mongolian language isn't rich in polite and formal phrases. Although spoken Mongolian language is old enough, the written modern formal form is very young. We can say Mongolians started using polite and formal phrases recently.
Generally European languages are close. Although Slovak and English are in different groups, we can see the similarity of meanings of phrases and idioms.
I think learning English is harder for Mongolians than for Europeans.
So I was just curious and watched the videos. This Mongolian school is called Sondorkhilen English Centre. According these articles on Facebook the teacher is supposed to be excellent teacher. But he makes beginners' mistakes. I couldn't believe my eyes and ears. Just today when he wanted to make past tense of his own example:
"Today is Chimeg's birthday." He was going to make a past tense of this sentence. He changed it:
"Today is Chimeg's birthday yesterday."
Maybe the teacher was just confused. But another serious mistakes were: Possessive adjective ITS according him: It's with a apostrophe. When he was explaining about Indefinite Pronouns instead Somewhere and Anywhere he used Some place and Any place.
I don't know what qualifications are required for Mongols to become English teacher in Mongolia but it looks like my knowledge of English grammars is much better than knowledge of this English teacher. Maybe he is really good at speaking, I guess.
Well, enough criticism. It was just interesting to compare my knowledge with someone else's.
It is already late here. Have a nice weekend, everyone.
Good luck with your study!
Welcome back after long time. Your persistence in improving English language knowledge is commendable. Often people tend to stop learning when they get enough to live with but you are on a continuous mission to improve further. Indeed you are far far better then many others who are learning English. the was a good read with knowledge of Mongols and their language pattern. Hope to know more about many things. Keep writing please.
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