PROFESSOR PANDA'S QUESTION CORNER

Hi! It's me again, Professor Panda, PhD. Today we have a question from one of our students so let's get right to it!

Recently I tried to buy at online shop of USA but there were many difficult English for me in the web page. Please look at the following English:”Express airmail delivery to most major European destinations within 1-2 working days and Worldwide within 2-3 working days.”I used dictionary and I tried to understand the meaning but I can't understand 100% because, I don't know where subject and verb are in this sentence.
Please tell me.
When I translate such sentence, is there good way?

Good Morning Lee-san!

This was a case when a dictionary could not be a complete help to anyone. “Express airmail delivery to most major European destinations within 1-2 working days and Worldwide within 2-3 working days”.

This is an incomplete sentence or sometimes called a “sentence fragment”. It does not have a verb! It is common in advertising, which some people think is a good excuse to use bad English! I have seen terrible English on signs and buildings here in Gifu Prefecture and it makes me a bit nuts!!!!! Also it makes me laugh. They should ask me for proper English for their signs – I won’t charge them much! (hee hee)

Ok, as to the meaning of the “sentence fragment” or incomplete sentence.

It means that they can provide airmail delivery of items purchased from them to most places in Europe within 1 or 2 working days. A working day in the West typically means, Monday through Friday, when businesses are generally open. They, except for many stores, tend to be closed on Saturday and Sunday.

It goes on to say that they can provide “Worldwide”, meaning that they can provide worldwide delivery, to places other than most places in Europe, within 2-3 working days.

So, if you were in Europe, and it was Monday, you might get your package Tuesday or Wednesday. If it was Friday when you made your order, then you might get your package on Monday or Tuesday, because Saturday and Sunday do not count.

By the way, my experience is that you need to add an extra day!

Anou…there is no rule or good guidelines for finding the meaning of incomplete sentences or “sentence fragments”. To get the meaning one needs to understand basic English grammar, have a good vocabulary, and some experience in using English. The key is, practice, practice, practice. Read everything you can get your hands on, from USA magazines to The Japan Times!

Ok, watch out for the flu.

-P. Panda

QUIZ ANSWERS

Here are the answers to the quiz. No cheating now!!!!

1. China, tiger, jungle, something
2. men
3. man, tre, book, man, piece, paper
4. tiger, man, book
5. tiger, readers, writers

The puns are:
a. "readers digest" which is the name of a popular English language magazine as well as meaning that readers can be easily absorbed or taken into the tiger's system.
b. "writer's cramp" which can mean that eating writers can cause cramps or it is also the term for the pain you get in your hand if you write too much.

MORE ABOUT NOUNS

MORE ABOUT NOUNS

So, as we learned last time, a noun is a word that names or refers to a person, a place, or a thing. To make things even more clear, I hope, a thing, can actually be not just an object or a person, but also a quality or even a concept.

We also leaned about common nouns, which name any one of a class of persons, places or things, and proper nouns, which name a specific person, place, or thing.

Let’s talk for just a moment about “number”. Number means that a word can be singular (which means that it referrs to one person, place or thing) or plural, which means that it refers to more than one person or place or thing. Of course, in Japanese, we don’t bother with number because the same word can be used for one or for more than one person, place, or thing. Here are some examples:

· Hon = book or books
· Shinbun = newspaper or newspapers
· Uchi = house or houses
· Ki = tree or trees
· Te = hand or hands
· Hon o motte imasu. ( I have a book) or
· Hon o motte imasu. (I have some books).

We should also begin to think a little bit about articles! In Japanese we do not use articles before nouns. There are no words in Nihongo that correspond to the English a, an, or the. For right now, just be aware that English does use articles a lot and that they are an important part of learning to both speak and write in English well. A major mistake that is often made is to forget to use articles when speaking or writing in English because Japanese people don’t normally use them or even give them a thought.

Some English nouns also show gender. Not so much in Japanese right? There are no special endings to show masculine, feminine, or neuter forms, but there are in English, so for now, just be aware that they exist.

Now, let’s talk a little bit about two “new” kinds of nouns. The are compound nouns and collective nouns. Please don’t be intimidated by these new names. The ideas behind them are pretty simple.

Compound nouns are two or more nouns that function or work together as a single unit. They are partners! A compound noun can be two individual words, words that are joined by a hyphen (-), or two words that are combined into one “new” word.

· Individual words: time capsule
· Hyphenated words: great-uncle
· Combined words: basketball (basket + ball)
Collective nouns name groups of people or things.

· Audience
· Family
· Herd
· Crowd.

Don’t forget, as you learn to read, write and to speak English, a really good dictionary is an important thing to have close by to refer to. My favorite is the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language which I always keep at my desk (yes, even I need a dictionary, often!!!). You can see it here for yourself:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/American-Heritage-Dictionary-English-Language/dp/0618701737/ref=sr_1_26?ie=UTF8&s=english-books&qid=1209238747&sr=8-26

Another really good dictionary is the Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, available in several forms:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/s/ref=nb_ss_fb/250-4870713-0556251?__mk_ja_JP=%83J%83%5E%83J%83i&url=search-alias%3Denglish-books&field-keywords=webster+collegiate+dictionary

Well, we have covered a lot of material today so take a minute to relax! After you have done that, we have a short quiz for you! Oh, it’s not too hard and it is good practice for you.

QUIZ

If you can, print out a copy of this quiz onto paper. Underline the nouns in each of the following sentences.

1. In ancient China, a hungry tiger was roaming through the jungle looking for something to eat.

2. He came across two men.

3. One man was sitting under a tree and reading a book; the other man was writing on a piece of paper.

4. The tiger quickly pounced on the man reading the book and devoured him.

5. Even a tiger knows that readers digest and writers cramp.

Give yourself 5 points for each noun you find. Also, there are two puns in this quiz. Yes, even English speaking people have fun with puns. Can you find them? If you can, give yourself an extra 5 points for each one.

NEW BOOKS AND ESSAYS

Hi everybody! We did not forget about you, but we have been very busy indeed. We just began a new publishing company called Shisei-do Publications and it has kept us too busy with no time for anything else. Sometimes not even time for eating!

Anyway, we are going to be publishing what we hope are interesting books on Japanese history, culture, and literature, including many old books about Japan that are no longer published but have lots of good information and some very interesting stories, etc.

Our first book coming out soon is The Annotated Bushido, by Inazo Nitobe, edited by H. Tokugawa. It will tell all about samurai philosophy and lots of things about samurai and Japanese history and culture. It was published in 1895 but the English in it is very hard to understand, even for me, so I have "translated" it to modern English and put in lots of illustrations.

Please visit us at http://360.yahoo.com/shiseido publications


Also, if you like to practice reading in English, we have published an essay on a great Japanese scholar and some Japanese history. HIs name is Shoin Yoshida and you can read this essay at:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/11997930/A-Most-Audacious-Young-Man


Please visit and enjoy it. Soon there will be some even more interesting essays about interesting people in Japanese history.

As to English lessons - later this week there will be a nice and new lesson for everyone!

See you then!

-Prof. Panda, PhD.

THE PARTS OF SPEECH

Hi everybody! I thought it would be fun to begin to study the basic "parts of speech": all the words we use to speak and write English well. They are like our basic tools and we can't do a good job on something unless we know our tools well. So let's get started!

THE PARTS OF SPEECH

Words in English or divided into eight parts of speech, each one different, according to their “job” in a sentence. Oh yes indeed, there are different kinds of words and each kind of word has a specific function in a sentence. They are:

Adjectives
Adverbs
Conjunctions
Interjections
Nouns
Pronouns (No, these are not nouns that have given up amateur status to become professionals!)
Prepositions
Verbs

These are some of the “nuts and bolts” (the basic parts) that make up English, and to speak and write English well, we must have a good understanding of them and their jobs. I say “some”, because there are other parts of speech, but I do not want you to go running away into the night, screaming in terror, so I will keep them to myself for a while until you are comfortable with the parts I have mentioned above.

So, let’s get started!

NOUNS

A noun is simply a word that names a person, place, or thing. A good way to remember nouns is this:

NOUN = NAMAE

A noun is a name and they come in different varieties; and just like names, there are some what we like, some that maybe we don’t like so much, and some that we are stuck with no matter what. The varieties of nouns are:

Common nouns
Proper nouns
Compound nouns
Collective nouns.

Don’t panic! It’s not as complicated as in sounds, as you will soon see. For today’s lesson, we will explore two types of nouns: common nouns and proper nouns.

Common nouns – nouns that name any one of a group, or class, or type of person, place or thing.

girl
city
food

Easy right?

Proper nouns – nouns that name a specific or certain person, place, or thing.

· Mitusko
· Osaka
· California Roll

Until next time, look through your favorite magazines or books, and see if you can pick out common nouns and proper nouns. I am sure you will find lots of them and suddenly you will discover that you have a new way of thinking about the words you see.

Ok, now let's relax and have some tea!

MORE ABOUT VOWEL SOUNDS

Hi! It's me again - Professor Panda! I hope everyone is fine. Did you have fun over the Lunar New Year? I sure did!

Today I want to talk a little more about vowel sounds in English. I know just about everybody who comes to this blog is studying English as a second language - a language they want to speak in addition to the language spoken in their home or country. Even Mrs. Panda is studying English as a second language and she says our cat is learning it as well! I guess the kitty will speak three languages, Kitty, Kitty Japanese, and Kitty English! Busy cat!

Whenever we are learning a new and different language, how the language sounds, especially what sounds the vowels make is extremely important to us. Unfortunately, here in this blog, it's very hard to teach much about the actual sounds, especially in a way that you can practice them. But have no fear! I have some fun tools I am going to share with you, that can make learning and practicing English vowel sounds much easier and fun.

The first one is from an organization called fonetiks.org.They offer vowel sounds for 9 varieties of English and also 9 other languages. You can study vowel sounds for American English, British English, Irish English, and several other styles. And the offer the sounds that one vowel make, two vowels together, three vowels together, and several other kinds of sounds that you will encounter in speaking and listening to English, Just follow the link below, and then click on the kind of sounds you want to hear, like American English Single Vowel Sounds or British English Two Vowel Sounds and so on. A new page will open up. just place your cursor over the letters at the left and someone will pronounce the sound. To the right are examples of words with that particular sound.

http://www.fonetiks.org/

Now the second tool, and I think it is the best one, is an online dictionary. Actually, it's a lot of things, a full Webster's New World Dictionary, which is one of the best, a full Roget's Thesaurus, plus audio pronunciations for each word you look up in the dictionary. If you look up "dog" there will be a small icon at the top with the shape of a speaker. Click on it and you will hear the word. Also there are many examples of how the word is used. So this is a really useful thing to have and I hope you will use it often.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/

Just be a bit careful with both of these fun sites, not to have your computer sound up too loud or it might make it so you can't understand the word or the sound. If you experiment a little, you can figure it out! I did!!!!

Ok, that's it for today! Have lots of fun listening to and practicing making the vowel sounds you hear on these two sites and have fun finding new words in your new dictionary!

ENGLISH SOUNDS: PART I

ENGLISH SOUINDS: PART I

Hi! This is Professor Panda again! How are you? I hope everyone is well.

Today I want to cover just a few extremely basic points that might be of help to you in understanding both how to speak and how to write in English. I must apologize for the fact that some of what I will talk about is a bit “slanted” toward those who speak Japanese (Nihongo), but along with English, they are the languages I know best. I used to know some Vietnamese but over many years and lack of practice, I have forgotten 99% of what I learned. I hope sometime in the next couple of years, to return to Viet Nam and then I can get a bit of much needed practice!

Anyway, let’s get started and remember to have a good dictionary with you for this lesson.

Before I do however, I want to mention something that will be very helpful to you. When you are studying all the words and phrases and sentences in these lessons, make sure that you articulate (speak) aloud. In fact, it is really helpful if you read the entire lesson aloud. Try never to read these lessons silently. Perception of a sound is not the same as the production of a sound – thinking the sound is not the same as speaking the sound. Clear speaking (articulation) is the best way to make your brain recognize sounds as English sounds. Silent reading does not activate your brain, speaking aloud does. I assure you that you will make much faster progress this way.

Consonants

Ok, the first things I want to talk about are consonants, which are simply speech sounds that are characterized by constriction or obstruction of the airflow at various points in the mouth or throat when talking. For example: “t” is a consonant because in order to pronounce it, you use the tongue to block airflow at the edge of the mouth between the upper teeth and the gum.

What letters in English are consonants? As you will see in a minute, anything that is not a vowel (I know, I know, I’m a big help!)

Vowels

Vowels are speech sounds that are produced without any obstruction of airflow in the mouth. For example: “i” is a vowel because to pronounce it, you push air forward and out smoothly, without using your tongue.

Syllables

A syllable is a unit or part of spoken language that consists of:

• A vowel or vowel-like consant alone, or,



• A vowel or vowel-like consonant pronounced with one or more consonant sounds before or after
  

It is how words are divided when speaking. For example: the word consonant is divided into three syllables – con-so-nant. By looking up a word in your dictionary, you see that the word is broken down for you into syllables. Practice the word by slowly pronouncing each syllable slowly, and then you can increase speed until you are comfortable with how you are saying the word.


Sounds

Japanese is quite simple in comparison to English when it comes to sounds. Japanese has only 14 consonants and 5 vowels. English however has 24 consonants (which include the “semi-vowels “Y” and “w”) and even though English has only 5 vowels as well, it has at least 12 vowel sounds! It is much easier for and English speaker to speak Japanese sounds because they already exist in English; however, it is often a real struggle for Japanese speakers to master English pronunciation because they have to deal with many sounds that do not exist in Japanese!

Also, in Japanese, each syllable ends with a vowel and each syllable is considered to have the same “weight” or emphasis – Japanese syllables sound as though they have the same length. This is not quite the same in English, for example:

Karaoke – in Japanese the word has four syllables: Ka-ra-o-ke. In English the same word also has four syllables: car-rie-oh-key. You can already start to see a difference in pronunciation!

In Japanese, each syllable sounds as though it has exactly the same length as all the others. Each syllable is short and open. In English, syllables are not characterized by the same length – car-rie-oh-key. Pronounce both the Japanese word and the English word. With care, you can begin to hear the slight difference in length between “oh” and “key”. The same thing applies in other words like Eng-lish or Jap-a-nese. Can you hear the long “nese”?

Well, that’s enough for today! Next time we will discuss specific vowel sounds to help you along the way to pronouncing Western English. I’m a bit hungry now and need a snack! I think I’ll have a bit of panda soup! Would you like some?

Bye bye until next time!