I Vant to Suck Your Blood!!

 
   Well, I don't.  But the popular arch-villian Count Dracula probably does.  Do you know why he is portrayed with that accent?  In the book he hails from eastern Europe, Transylvania specifically.  Many of the languages spoken in that area do not have both a 'w' sound and a 'v' sound like we have in English.

   The original story titled Dracula by Bram Stoker is much different than the movies and popular stories that have been influenced by this nineteenth century text.  For one thing, the Count (as I affectionately refer to him) never says anything so cheesy or unrefined as I want to suck your blood.  Though, he does have an imperfect English accent despite his near mastery (fluency) in English.

   The novel is written almost entirely in fictional journal entries of the various protagonists.  This is an interesting style and allows for exploration of the characters' thoughts and psyches without having them spout their feelings in dialogue for seemingly no reason.

   Another big difference between the original novel and so many of the more recent adaptations is that the setting is not Transylvania.  At the very beginning of the novel one of the characters is at Dracula's castle in eastern Europe, but from there most of the story takes place in and around London.

                 (Castle Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains, Romania)

  Dracula is a challenging read by modern standards.  If one is not comfortable or familiar with reading novels written over one hundred years ago, they may find it difficult to get through.  There are probably young adult and ELL adaptations to be found(note the graphic novel version pictured above).  I have seen great ELL adaptations of another favorite gothic horror classic, Frankenstein , by Mary Shelley.  This book also differs greatly from the famous movie versions that have been produced.

Vocabulary:
1. arch-villain (noun) - the main bad guy of a story
2. portray (verb) - to show something, represent something, like in a painting or movie
3. hail (verb) - to come from a place, or to call out from a place
4. imperfect (adj.) - not perfect
5. protagonist (noun)  - main character of a story, there may be more than one, like in Dracula
6. psyche (noun) - the mind, personality, what goes on inside someone's thoughts
7. adaptation (noun) - an altered or changed version of something, like a book or movie

Activity:  fill in the blanks
1. Spiderman is my favorite comic book  __________.
2. He is sometimes ___________ as his alter ego Peter Parker.
3. Even Spiderman is ___________ , sometimes he makes mistakes or gets his ribs broken.
4. Peter Parker _________ from the Big Apple, New York City.
5. It must be a weight on one's  ____________ to have multiple identities.
6. Venom and the Green Goblin are two ______________ in the Spidey comics.
7. There are a few movie ___________ of the Spiderman comics.

Grammar Point: Titles of full length works.
When you write the name of a novel, movie, or any full length work it should be italicized.  This is when the writing is on a diagnal or slanted.  When we write about the book, Dracula it needs this treatment.  You may be more familiar or comfortable with underlining, it is a good way to show the same respect for the work when you are writing by hand and cannot italicize.  You see in the post above that sometimes I did not do either to the name Dracula.  When I am writing about the character I do not need to change it, even though his name is the name of the book.  When I refer to the book, Bram Stoker's Dracula, it is necessary.

Introduction to Snowboarding cont'd

  So, you've got your board, boots, and bindings, and you think you're ready to hit the slopes!  Well, think again city dweller!  Apart from the  fact that snowboarding is difficult to learn and you can  expect to spend at least a few days racking up bumps and bruises before you start to get the hang of it, you're going to need some warm clothing.

It is even less fun to stumble, fall and twist if you're miserable from being cold and wet.  A big mistake for first timers is that they do not take this into account.  They don't want to try a second time because they were freezing cold and wet. Remember snow is after all frozen water!

What will you want/need to stay warm and dry?
1.  Snow pants (waterproof and insulated)
2.  Ski/Snowboard Jacket (waterproof and insulated)
3.  Thermal/Synthetic undergarments (breathable and synthetic fabric)
4.  Ski Socks (a must for your toes!)
5.  Warm gloves/mittens (preferably waterproof)

If your pants and/or jacket are not insulated, that is OK. It means you will have to wear extra layers underneath.  Synthetic fleece is a great layering choice, top or bottom.  Below are my pants and jackets.  The pants and jacket on the left are not insulated, so I primarily wear them late in the snowboarding season when the weather warms up.

 Vocabulary:
1. dweller (noun) - a person who lives someplace or stays one place for a long time
2. miserable (adjective) - extremely unhappy or very sad
3. freezing (adj.) - very cold, or literally turning from a liquid to a solid- like water to ice
4. insulated (adj.) - filled with or covered in something to effect temperature- ie. to keep something warm
5. synthetic (adj.) - a man-made version of something  or chemically created substances like plastics

Activity:  Answer the following questions.  Please write your answers in English.
1.  Why do you want good snow pants if you're going to try snowboarding?
2.  Do you think having warm clothes is important for you?
3.  How does where you live effect you answer to question 2?
4.  If you want to snowboard how will that change your thinking?

Grammar point:  series

 Look at the first sentence of today's post.  I have some words in blue.  They are three items I am discussing as well as the conjunction and.  When you write about more than two items and you are listing them one after another you must place a comma after each one except the last.  You use the conjunctions 'and' or 'or' only before the last item, no matter how many there are.  If I were to talk about many of the Seven Dwarfs (or dwarves?) from the Disney Movie, Snow White it might look like this:  Sleepy, Grumpy, Dopey, and Franky all went looking for firewood. 

Do You Like to Read?

 I sure do!  I like to read novels.  Novels are works of fiction, that are full-length.  I like the endless possibilities and stories that authors can dream up and put on paper.  A few of my favorite novelists are Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.  Some of their books are read in school, and you may have already read one! 

Sometimes I cannot read a whole book for one reason or another.  It can be fun and informative to read short-stories instead.  These are also works of fiction, but can be as short as one page!  The three authors mentioned above are all known for their short stories as well.  Short stories are great for ELLs too!

Another option for shorter reading experiences is something called a novela.  This means a short novel.  These are longer than short stories, but not as long as a novel.  Whether a book is called a short novel, a novel or a novela can be something of a grey area.  Some great short novels include Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and Time Machine and War of the Worlds by 19th century British author, H.G. Wells.

Vocabulary:
1. fiction (noun) - completely made up stories, false, make believe. 
2. novel (noun) - a book that tells a (fictional/made up) story
3. novelist (noun) - one who writes novels, an author who writes novels
4. informative (adj.) - provides information, teaches something, shows you something new
5. grey area (noun) - refers to something that is difficult to answer, ambiguous, no definite solution

Exercise:
 Read a short story.  It can be from one of my favorite authors, or from one of yours. Write me an email or make a comment post about the story you read.

Grammar Point:
Making plural nouns.  Many regular singular nouns can be made into plurals by adding 's' to the end.  Some examples of this are how novel becomes novels, book becomes books, work becomes works and author becomes authors.  Words that end in -y usually become plural by removing the -y and adding -ies.  Examples of this are story becomes stories and possibility becomes possibilities.  There are other ways of making plurals but these are two common regular formations.

College Football and the Heisman Trophy

Today is a big day for college football.  The regular season is winding down and bowl season is coming up.  The bowl games are important season-ending games for some of the best college teams in the country.  Because there are so many colleges they have to use a special system for deciding which teams will play for the championship and in the various bowl games.  It is called the BCS or Bowl Championship Series.  It uses a complicated system of computer analysis, votes from writers and experts, and college coaches' input.

Today they will be annoucing the college football player who won this year's Heisman Trophy award.  This award is presented to the single most impressive football player in the whole country.  This is a very famous and prestigous award.  Look at the picture above.  The statue is famous for its pose as well as what it represents.

Only the top players from the top teams are looked at for the Heisman because of the level of competition they face.  One very exciting rivalry game in college football is when Westpoint (Army officers' training academy) plays against the Naval Academy located in Annapolis, MD.  It is referred to as the Army-Navy game and all of the students at both schools want their team to win.  I am a fan of Navy because I like their style of play and their current quarterback, Ricky Dobbs.



Vocabulary:
1. winding down (expression): close to finishing, almost done
2. system (noun)- a method or series of steps and procedures to do something
3. championship (noun) - the final game of a sports competition
4. various (adj.) - referring to a number of different things
5. prestigous (adj.) - known to be of great value and/or importance

Exercise:
Write a few sentences about a sport you like, or one you don't like.  What do you think about American football?  Do you think snowboarding is a sport?  What about golf? 

Grammar Point:
 When a dash (also called a hyphen) is used between two words it connects them.  It is used to show that the two words go together, or together create one meaning.  In the post above you see Army-Navy which is the name of the game that the two teams play against each other and season-ending.  When the two words 'season' and 'ending' are combined with a dash they become one adjective to describe an event that ends a season.  It is often heard in regards to sports, but many words can be connected in this manner.

Snowboarding for beginners

Maybe my blog should be retitled:  A blog about snowboarding.  I just can't help myself.  It seems everywhere I go someone is asking me about snowboarding.  When will the mountains open?  Where are we going to go?  I can't wait to try out my new board! These are just a few of the questions that I have been hearing.  So here is a rundown of the equipment you need to snowboard.  You can rent it at most mountains so you don't need to make a large investment upfront.  But be warned, snowboarding is a very expensive hobby!

You will need special boots called snowboarding boots.  On the left are the boots I wear.  They are basically just thick snowboots.  One advantage of snowboarding over skiing is that the boots are more natural and comfortable.

You will also need bindings.  Bindings hold your boots to the board.  On the left is an old binding that I still have around.  The straps close around your boot.  (I am just wearing my jeans and sneakers)

And of course you will need a snowboard! On the left are my snowboard (can you see the bindings?) and a new snowboard I bought for my girlfriend.

Vocabulary:

1. rundown (noun):  a short list with just a few details about each item

2. rent (verb): to pay to borrow something for a short time

3. investment (noun): money used to start something including savings, a business or a hobby

4. to warn (warned) (verb): saying something that helps avoid danger or difficulty

5. expensive (adj.): worth a lot or costing a lot of money

6. binding (noun): an object that holds other things together, like the spine of a book or a snowboard binding.

Fill in exercise:

1.  You should also be __________ that snowboarding can be dangerous.

2.  I like to _________ movies instead of buying them because I don't usually watch them more than once.

3.  Putting money in the stock market is a form of financial _________.

4.  I will warn you that it can be __________ if you don't invest wisely.

5.  The _________ is wearing off of the back of my favorite book because I have read it so many times.

6.  Can you please give me a ___________ of what we are going to do today in class?

Grammar Point:

A form of a verb that is used as an adjective is called a participle.  Warned is a particple of the verb to warn.  In the examples in this blog post it is used as a predicate adjective along with the verb 'to be'.

For instance:  You should be warned...

We can also write: You should be happy...      See how happy is the predicate adjective here?

'Warned' is playing the same role in the previous sentence.  The difference is that it was formed from the verb 'to warn' by adding 'ed' on the end.  This makes it the past participle.

PS.  Here's a closer look at the graphic(picture) on the white snowboard.

Places I long to be...

Park City, Utah.  Vancouver, British Columbia.  Otis, Massachusetts.

What do these three places have in common?  They are all places where people can ski and snowboard.  Whistler Mountain in Vancouver is where the Winter Olympics will be in February.  Otis is the first place I ever snowboarded, and Park City Utah is where I have had my most memorable riding experiences.

What you see below is a bowl I shredded called McConkey's at Park City Resort. Pretty steep huh?

One of the unique things about Park City, Utah is that the ski mountain has the same name as the town.  This demonstrates how the city feels about skiing and snowboarding.  The culture of the mountain is so ingrained in the town, that even though the base area is a couple miles away, they have a chair lift that comes right into the center of Main St.  Appropriately, it is called the Town Lift.  It is a little easier to see how it goes right into the heart of town in the summer time picture on the left.

I would say this should be your first stop if you are visiting, but you need to have your ski/snowboard gear on before you hop on the lift.  If you want to have lunch first, there are some great restaurants right on Main Street as well.  One place right next to the Town Lift, sells cheeseburgers that has grilled cheese sandwiches for each bun!! Wow!!

Wow, indeed!

 Vocabulary: 

1. Vancouver (proper noun): a large city in British Columbia, Canada.

2. hop (verb): to jump, especially on one foot only.  To get on something quickly.

3. gear (noun): equipment used to do something, especially specific equipment for a sport or hobby

4. appropriately (adverb): an action that is expected, normal and/or acceptable for the situation.

5. chair lift (noun): a large machine that has chairs hanging from a moving cable to bring you up a mountain.

6. unique (adjective): belongs to only one person, place or category; special.

Vocabulary Exercise:

1. One of the ___________ things about Park City, Utah is the Town Lift.

2. If I am going to drive you to school you better ________ in the car before I have to leave for work!

3. The coldest part of skiing is when you ride the _____________ up to the top of the mountain.

4. I try to get one new piece of  ________ before snowbaoridng season, even if it is a helmet or gloves.

5. I _____________ wear a helmet when I snowboard becuase it is easy to hurt your head.

6. The Winter Olympics are in ___________ in February 2010, a city in Canada near Whislter Mountain.

Grammar point - another use of commas

When we write about a place within a place we have to use commas to separate the place names.  Usually the smaller place is written first, then a comma and then the bigger place.  Here are some examples:

Long Island, New York

Rockville Centre, New York

Park City, Utah

Vancouver, British Columbia

Can you write the name of the town and state you live in following this method?

What would you do if you want to inclue the country?

...and boy are my arms tired!!

  From whisking, stirring and making some Thanksgiving food!  It is the day before Thanksgiving, and I am attending a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at my friend's house.  It is a 'potluck' dinner, so each person is in charge of cooking a dish or two.  First, I made brownies with a raspberry swirl covered in white chocolate and salted almonds.  Yum!

My arms were already a little tired from whipping the brownie batter into shape, but then it was time to chop the onions for the turkey stuffing.  Well, my eyes got a work out too!  Cutting onions is supposed to make your eyes tear up, but I was crying like a baby.  It was quite a sight, I am sure.  There were also a few ingredients that needed to be whisked up for the stuffing including heavy cream, some more eggs and chicken broth.

It was hard not to eat all the brownies before the stuffing was done, but it's about ready to come out of the oven.  I am very excited to go to my friend's house to eat it along with the turkey we are going to fry!!

Vocabulary:
1. whip (verb)- whipped, whipping:  to mix or stir something quickly and thoroughly
2. whisk (verb)- whisked, whisking: also to mix or stir somethingly quickly and thoroughly
3. stuffing (noun): a food that goes inside something else, or is cooked inside of something else.
4. ingredients (noun): different food items that are used to make a dish, found in a recipe
5. fry (verb): to cook something in oil
6. batter (noun): a mixture of ingredients that is a thick and has qualities of a solid and a liquid
7. Thanksgiving (proper noun): An American holiday
8. raspberry(noun): a small red berry, a fruit.

Exercise- fill in the blank with a vocabulary word.

1.  My favorite Thanksgiving dish is the _________ that comes out of the turkey.
2.  The instructions in the recipe called for two eggs and a cup of cream to be ____________ together.
3.  I like to have extra _________ cream on my ice cream sundaes.
4.  On the American holiday of ________________ people get together for a big dinner with their family.
5.  We have a berry bush in our yard that grows little red ____________ that we can pick.
6.  When I cook pancakes for breakfast the ________________ gets everywhere.
7.  You can __________  a whole turkey by slowly lowering it into a big tub of hot oil.
8.  A recipe contains instructions that tell you what to do and a list of __________ that tells you what to use.

Grammar point:
 Do you know what a synonym is?  It is a fancy word we use to say two words have the same or similar meanings.  For instance, cup and mug are synonyms.  They are both things we drink out of.  Can you find a pair of synonyms in the vocabulary list?

Whistler Mountain, British Columbia

        I am eagerly awaiting the 2010 Winter Olympics.  Even though they are still a few months out, I am so excited that I had to write about them.  It is that time of the year when we feel the first chill in the air and the first frost is just around the corner.  In some parts of the country they have already had snow fall!  In Colorado they had to postpone a baseball game because of snow!

      So, why am I so stoked on the Winter Olympics?  I have always enjoyed the competition of the Olympic Games.  When I was a child my family used to gather round the TV and watch the best athletes from around the world face-off in their sport of choice.  The Winter Olympics occur only once every four years.

      One of my favorite sports and one of my favorite hobbies is snowboarding.  I especially look forward to the Winter Olympics for the snowboarding events.  One of the most exciting to watch is Snowboard-Cross which is a heads-up snowboard race. 

  

     Above, is a female snowboarder that I like alot whom I will be rooting for to win gold in 2010.  Her name is Lindsey Jacobellis and she took silver in Itlay in 2006 because of this fall right before the finish line.

Vocabulary:

eagerly (adv.) - to be excited about something

chill (noun) - a feeling of cold

frost (noun) - a thin layer of frozen water, rain or dew

postpone (verb) - to change the time something is going to occur

stoked (adj) - to be very excited about something (especially used by surfers and snowboarders)

competition (noun) - a game or event with clear winners and losers

occur (verb) - to happen, when something happens

heads-up (adj.) - two or more people go at the same time, especially in a race

Vocabulary Exercise:

1.  I woke up and saw ice on my window and knew there would be a layer of _________ outside.

2.  The NOPI National automobile drag races are ________ style drag races.

3.  I feared my English teacher would give me alot of homework and then it _________.

4.  The World Cup is the highest level of international soccer(football) ________ in the world.

5.  Among the things I get ________ about are D&D, snowboarding and videogames.

6.  I will _______ my dinner party so I have time to do all that English homework.

7.  When I get a fever I get a _______ through my body so I feel very cold.

8.  I _______ and excitedly told my students about the exciting science fiction story we are going to read.

Confessions of a Life Long Gamer

        In the year 2009, the term 'gamer' has a different connotation than it did ten or twenty years ago.  A common use of the word in the modern era refers to people who play video games as a hobby.  Sometimes we hear it used in sports to describe a player who plays with passion and shows dedication to playing a sport.  In a few select places the term also refers to people who play boardgames, strategy games, war games, pen and paper games and role-playing games.  These are some of my favorite topics, and I hope to return to them in later posts.

   I have played video games since I was a child.  It has always been a hobby for me, but now people are earning money and becoming professional video game players.  In some places they are even famous! Not every game is appropriate for every person, but as long as you have finished your homework and have your parents' permission, you can say you are training to be a professional athelete.

Wall Street Journal Article on pro-gaming at mongabay.com


Vocabulary: 
era (noun) - a period of time. Example: the olden days, the middle ages, pre-historic times
gamer (noun) - a person who plays games, especially video games
passion (noun) - a great deal of energy and enthusiasm for something
dedication (noun) - being willing to work for a cause, organization or activity
modern (adj.) - of or having to do with current events, world happenings and technology
boardgame (noun) - a game that is played on a specific surface that the rules are based on
pen-and-paper (adj.) - used to decribe writing that is not done on a computer or other digital device
strategy (noun) - a way of approaching a problem or task intentionally to yield desired results
hobby (noun) - something a person does for fun, usually on an ongoing or repeated basis
professional (noun)-a person who does something for money, or (adj)the qualities pertaining to those people
appropriate (adj.) - describes something that you will benefit from seeing or experiencing

Exercise:

1.  This young adult novel is _________ for 7th and 8th grade students to read.
2.  General Washington's ________ in the Revolutionary War was to use hit and run tactics.
3.  Are you learning ___________ graphing in math class or is it all on the computer and calculator?
4.  One of my favorite hobbies is playing video games, so I am a _________.
5.  I am very _________ about games, that is why I wrote a blog post about them.
6.  The 1800's are called the Victorian _______ because Queen Victoria was the Queen of England.
7.  When people ask about my favorite ________, I tell them I like snowboarding and video games.
8.  Monopoly is a __________ about construction in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
9.  It takes a lot of   __________ to finish a game of Monopoly because they take so long to finish.
10.  My grandmother does not own a microwave, she says she doesn't need  ________ cooking appliances.

Grammar Point:

A lot of non-count, abstract nouns have similar endings.  When you see words that end in -ion like dedication and passion it is a clue that they might be abstract nouns.  This type of noun represents something that cannot be easily defined, seen, held or placed in a box.  Can you find another noun on the vocabulary list above that is like this?

One of ESL Josh's Jobs

Here we are, the first Monday of the official NFL Season. "My" New York Giants won their first game of the season yesterday, leaving them an undefeated 1-0!!

A lot of the time, if I want to see the game I have to set my DVR to record it, so I can watch it when I get home from work on Sunday.  It is my job to insert graphics into football broadcasts on TV.  Specifically, it is my job to keep track of the first down marker and line of scrimmage, and put in the digital First Down Line and Line of Scrimmage to help the viewers at home interpret the action on the football field.  Below is an example of a yellow First Down Line that is not there in real life, but is in fact an inserted graphic just for the TV broadcast.

 See how it looks like it is under the players?  That is one of the things that makes these graphics so cool.  Part of my job is to make sure the lines are going to be in the right place for each play, and it is also my responsibility to make sure the lines look like they are really there by appearing to go under the players.

Til' next time!

-ESL Josh


Vocabulary:

official - adjective.  Authorized by some governing body
DVR - noun. Digital Video Recorder, used to save TV programs to watch at another time
insert- verb. To place or put in
broadcast - noun/verb.  The sending of information from far away, as in TV and radio.
first down - noun.  In American Football, for example the NFL, the place on the field the offense must reach to gain a new set of downs.
specifically- adj.  Referring to something definite, just one thing.
scrimmage - noun/verb.  A competition or face-off, usually between two people or groups.  Also the location of the ball at the beginning of every play in American football.
interpret - verb.  To make sense of, gain an understanding of something.
graphics - noun.  Images used to represent or show something, especially on TV or a computer.
responsibility - noun.  Something one must do.
appearing - verb.  The way something looks.


Vocabulary Exercise

1. In order to _________ the ancient writings, Indiana Jones needed refer to an old language book.

2. The ________ artist creates pictures using computer software.

3.  When Congress voted on the Bill of Rights they made it _________.

4.  On such a nice sunny day I was surprised to see clouds _________.

5. When writing your essays, please use _________ examples from the story, not general ideas.

6.  During football practice, coach divided us into two squads so we could play a _________ against one another.

7.  The Winter Olympics are in Canada this year, but I will watch the television  ___________ so I can see it from my house.

8.  If I am not home when my favorite events are on TV, I will use my __________ to record them for later.

9.  It is your ____________ to make sure all of your homework is done before you watch TV.

10. The model car instructions read: " ________ Tab A into Slot A".

Grammar Note
   Abbreviations are shortened versions of a word that we can use to save time and space.  An example from the above blog post is: DVR.  This stands for Digital Video Recorder.  The first letter of each of the three words in the phrase is used to make a three-letter abbreviation.  This is one way of creating an abbreviation.  Another example from above is First Down Line.  When I am at work, we like to use a shortened version of this because we say it so often.  How would you make a short version of First Down Line?  Look at the first letter of each word.  What about Line of Scrimmage? 

First Post/Voki Avatar Dude

There is the link to create a compelling cartoon dude like mine ------>

You'll get more from me later!!

-ESL Josh