2018 February Flashcards
My Life in English: Communicating with My Father
Posted on Tuesday - February 6, 2018 by Dr. Jeff McQuillan
There’s a special connection – we would call it a special bond – between a young boy and his father, just as there often is between a young girl and her mother.
In my family, the bond that my father and I had was a little bit different than the bond he had with my brothers.
Part of the reason was that all of my eight – yes, 8! – older brothers were into sports.
When I say they were “into sports,” I mean they were interested in and participated a lot in athletics – in hockey, in football, in baseball, and so forth.
I, the youngest of the family, was not very athletic for whatever reason, and so as a very young child, I didn’t have that same kind of bonding experience with my father that my older brothers had.
This is not to say that I didn’t feel a connection to my father, only that it was not the same kind of relationship as he had with my other brothers.
However, around the time I was 11 or 12 years old, my father got interested in something called amateur radio. Amateur radio is sometimes called ham radio.
Amateur radio allows you to communicate with people all over the world by getting on a special radio and transmitting and receiving radio signals.
Nowadays, we are used to communicating with people all over the world either through our telephones or through the Internet on services such as Skype or chat or email.
But in the 1970s, there was no Internet, and phone calls internationally were very, very expensive.
To get your amateur radio license in the United States, as in most countries, you have to study and take an exam (an examination), a test that relates to operating a radio as well as electronics and basic electricity.
My father got interested in ham radio and he asked if I would be interested. I said, “Sure! That sounds really cool.”
My father and I both studied for the amateur radio tests together. We would go to classes and meetings and look through books on electronics and radios. Finally, about six or eight months later, we both passed our first examination.
We were both amateur radio operators, someone who could use a radio to send and receive radio signals. It was an amazing feeling, and something we were both excited about.
Amateur radio was an incredible opportunity for me, a young boy of 12, to communicate with people not just in other parts of the United States, but all over the world.
I got to speak to people in Europe, people in Asia, people in Latin America – all before the arrival of the Internet, and without leaving my house in Minnesota.
I stayed very active in amateur radio for least five years or so. Then I got to college and found out there were these people called “girls,” and my interest in ham radio waned (decreased) somewhat.
But I still have my amateur radio license, and I still remember very fondly (with a very positive emotion) that connection, that bond that my father and I developed over ham radio.
My father remained active on the radio for many years after that, almost up until the time of his death a few years ago.
I miss being active on amateur radio, and have thought recently about getting more involved in it again.
Perhaps I miss the excitement of listening in on conversations from people all over the world, as you can on ham radio, and discovering new ideas and learning new things.
Perhaps, though, I just miss my father, and that special bond we shared.
~Jeff
P.S. This article originally appeared in Learn English Magazine. You can get this FREE magazine on your iOS or Android device – just click or tap here.
How to Win a Gold Medal in Speaking English
Posted on Tuesday - February 13, 2018 by Dr. Jeff McQuillan
Have you been watching the Olympics?
It’s fun to see such amazing performances by athletes.
How do they get to be so good?
The obvious answer is “practice.”
They spend thousands of hours working hard, improving a little bit everyday.
Will “practice” help you improve your English? Will spending time everyday at it make a difference for you?
Maybe yes. Maybe no!
It depends on what you mean by “practice.”
Let’s take the example of Chloe Kim, the American snowboarder who won a gold medal in her sport.
I’m sure Chloe practices by going down mountains of snow hundreds of times each week. That sort of “practice” helps her.
But if she “practiced” for snowboarding by eating a pound of potato chips every day, that would obviously NOT help.
You have to do the right kind of practice.
What is “practice” for improving your English?
Many people – teachers, students, random people on the Internet – think that “practice” means actually speaking English or writing emails or talking to themselves in the mirror or repeating what other people are saying (“shadowing”).
In applied linguistics, we call this sort of “practice” output. Output is what, well, comes “out” of something.
Language comes “out” of your brain – through your mouth (speaking) or your keyboard (writing).
There may be some benefits (good things) about a certain amount of output, but in fact the MAIN way of improving your language skills is not through output.
What really helps you is the opposite of output: input.
Input is what goes “in” your brain.
Getting more input is the RIGHT kind of practice for improving your speaking – even though you are not actually speaking!
What exactly do I mean by “input”?
It’s simple: LISTENING and READING.
What goes in your ears (listening) or eyes (reading) is much more important than any kind of output.
In other words, we get better at speaking not by speaking, but by listening and reading.
Think of it this way: your brain has to “get” language before it can “give” language. If you don’t focus on “getting” more input, you have nothing to “output”!
You have to put money INTO in your bank account before you can take money OUT of your bank account.
Reading and listening are like money you put in your brain’s “language bank account.”
When we study people who become really good at second languages, we find that ALL of them have “practiced” the language thousands of hours by doing these two things: lots of listening and (especially) lots of reading.
So if you’re looking for a gold medal in English speaking, you really do need to “practice” it everyday – even 15 minutes a day will help you.
But don’t sit on the couch (sofa) eating potato chips!
That’s the wrong kind of practice.
Instead, get lots of and lots of INPUT – listen and read as much as you can.*
That’s the way to “winning” better English.
~Jeff
*The input you read or listen to has to be something you can UNDERSTAND, however. It is no good listening or reading things that are too hard for you. That’s also a waste of time.
We have 450+ hours and more than 10,000 pages of understandable English in our Unlimited English program – you can find out more here.
100% Organic English Lessons Now Available!
Posted on Tuesday - February 20, 2018 by Dr. Jeff McQuillan
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Honking in Los Angeles
Posted on Tuesday - February 27, 2018 by Dr. Jeff McQuillan
Every city has particular characteristics that shape (change) the people who live there. It may be the size of the city, the culture of the city, the geography (where things are) of the city, the history of the city – all these can change the way people live and act.
Someone who lives in Los Angeles is called an Angeleno. In Los Angeles, we Angelenos have our own personality and sometimes particular characteristics. The one I want to talk about today is feeling entitled.
To feel entitled means to feel like you deserve whatever you get, that, in a sense, the world owes you something. To feel entitled means to think that you’re number one, you’re important, and that whatever you get, you deserve.
In other words, you’re so good, you’re so wonderful, that the world should treat you like a King or Queen!
This is, of course, a very negative way to describe someone’s personality, but I think it really is true in the city where I live.
One of the places you see this sense of entitlement in Angeleno culture is on the freeways.
Here in Los Angeles, we spend a lot of time in our cars, and for that reason, we have some of the worst traffic in the United States. We have too many cars for too small of a space, and we don’t have a good public transportation system.
Logically, when you have a lot of people spending a lot of time in their cars and those same people feel like they’re entitled, well, that leads to (can cause) certain problems.
The biggest problem we have here in Los Angeles is when people drive, they think that they are somehow the owners of the road, that everyone should look out for (take care of) them, to do what is best for them.
Because of this, there is a lot of honking in Los Angeles. To honk means to make a loud noise with your car by using your car horn. We also use the verb “to beep your horn.”
Beeping your horn usually means you are making noise with your horn but for a short time.
Honking your horn means that you make noise for a longer time, especially when you’re angry.
When you feel entitled, you feel that everyone else should just get out of your way. This means that there are a lot of impatient drivers in LA. And they honk a lot.
This is very different in other parts of the United States. Back in Minnesota, where I’m from, people honk, of course, but it’s not considered a very nice thing to do. You don’t do it very often, and if you can avoid honking, you do.
The size of the city certainly makes a difference. Los Angeles, like New York or Chicago, is such a big city that you think, “Well, I’m never going to see these people again anyway, and so I don’t really have to care about them.”
In a smaller city or town, you may actually know the person you’re honking at, or at least see them again.
I think the size of the city is part of the reason you hear a lot of honking on Los Angeles freeways. But it’s only part it.
Another part of it, I think, is because I live in a city where being famous and being recognized is something that people value (think is very important), and that leads to a certain sense of entitlement.
Unhappily, even people who are not famous (like me) act this way. So if you ever come to Los Angeles, and you hear me honking at you, don’t take it personally – but do get out of my way!
~Jeff
