Try using a verb that ends in -ly...

Sorry about last night, y'all.  I spent all my blog time on YouTube trying to find some good vids of comparative adverbs.  I know, you totally want my life.   All of you do.

Specifically I wanted ones that will enforce the form we're learning in our books.  For example:

"She finds good videos on YouTube less frequently than she would like."

This is in contrast to the types of examples my students kept coming back to:

"Finding good videos on YouTube is harder than you'd think."

They have a way of going right for the exceptions every time.  (sigh)  All of my teachers and classmates assured me that the best way to learn grammar explicitly is to teach it.  Now I see why -  by the time I figure out how to get it across to them I've been thinking about it for days.  No chance of forgetting now!


Anyway, I came up with bupkis, so I'll have to look some more tomorrow. 

On a brighter note, today is Tuesday, which is the day Carol comes over and listens to me mispronounce Cantonese in exchange for dinner.  Tonight I made caprese salad and veggie pizza.  I tried to get ground sausage to add on her behalf, but it was harder to find than you might expect for such a meat loving country.  Clearly I need to find a Portuguese grocery store. 

I also got a bottle of the Portuguese red wine I like.  I met an older Portuguese gentleman at one of the fireworks parties, (Porfirio is his name); and he was giving me advice on how to buy Portuguese wine since I'm used to buying French or Italian varieties.  He said the good stuff comes from either Alentejo or Douro.  Did you know that's where port comes from?  I didn't.  I've tried and liked wines from both regions, but slightly prefer the Alentejo.  For my convenience, they sell it in half-sized bottles here, as well as the normal ones.  (Not sure if you can tell the scale from my hand - I should have shot that better.)  Anyway, it's nice since I was drinking alone.  Carol likes orange juice with her pizza, despite my assertions that wine is the way to go.  Now I have something to wash down the leftovers.


Carol taught me about food tonight - clearly she has me figured out already.  She was observant enough to notice the foods I order regularly when we go out and made me a powerpoint of them.  She then patiently repeated the pronunciation of each one while I attempted to make my own pronunciation key on each flashcard.  (She says she can tell which ones are my favorites by how well I say them.)

Nice, huh?

I took the shortcut through the junkyard today to buy some basil and other pizza essentials in Downtown Taipa during my lunchbreak.  On my way down I passed this shed and had a sense that something was amiss.  So I looked up and saw this car on the roof!  How'd they get it up there?  I suppose the crushed trunk may be my clue, but it made me laugh to see it from below.  Such a weird place.

So I'll apologize in advance for tomorrow's missing blog.  I'm going to an overnight conference in Hong Kong with some other teachers from school.  It's for teachers who are instructing classes that are part of the General Education curriculum.  Our level 2 classes are piloting their new material this year and so we and a bunch of other teachers from UM are going to chat with the peeps in HK and compare experiences.  (By "we" I mean about 5 or 6 teachers from the ELC.)  Should be fun and a good chance to eat out and stay in a hotel.  I'm praying for a bathtub.  And hopefully it will be a nice chance to socialize with some of my coworkers.  That's always important.

Anyway, I won't have my laptop (a whole day without either of my computers - unheard of) so I doubt I'll be able to blog.  Unless I can do it from my phone - we'll see.

I'll leave you with the text of an email forward that I received yesterday.  Have you seen this?  The study is bogus, and I question the statistics, but for someone that looks at incorrect English all day long, it's pretty amazing that it works as well as it does.  I can read it at pretty much normal speed.  Cool huh?  I guess it doesn't work for everyone though, kind of like magic eye puzzles I guess.


Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh?Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! If you can raed tihs forwrad it.