This is my first blog too!
Hello Ana Paula, and hello everyone out there.
My name is Alex, and as of today I’m taking over from Samantha as the new teacher blogger. Look at the top of this page, and you’ll see a photo of an incredibly handsome man – that’s me! Actually, Samantha and I used to work together in Newcastle a few years ago – but now I live in London, and I teach at a big, busy English language school on Oxford Street, which is the main shopping street in central London. I have a love-hate relationship with London; this city has lots of wonderful cinemas, theatres, and art galleries, as well as restaurants from all around the world, but it can also be very crowded and frantic – especially Oxford Street, which is always full of people pushing and shoving their way into the shops. You seem to have the best of both worlds, Ana Paula – Mogi sounds like a fairly calm and peaceful place to live, but you’re only an hour away from central S茫o Paolo. And close to the beach too! I’m very envious.
Overall, Ana Paula, your writing looks pretty good to me. In particular, you used some nice long, complex sentences with several clauses in them, and that’s always good to see. However, there are a few mistakes that I’d like to point out. First, though, I’d like to say one thing, and it’s so important that I’m going to write it in capital letters: MISTAKES ARE GOOD! In fact, making mistakes is a necessary part of learning a language – you try using a new word or a new piece of grammar, and maybe you don’t use it perfectly, but then you learn from your mistake and next time you can use it better. When you’re writing your blogs, I’d always encourage you to take risks, and experiment with vocabulary and grammar structures even if you’re not completely sure how to use them. If you make mistakes, we’ll discuss them, and hopefully the discussion will be useful for you and for everyone else who reads these blogs too.
Today I’d like to comment on the tenses in just two sentences. The first one is this:
“I live in S茫o Paulo state, in a city called Mogi das Cruzes, where I live since I was born.”
The first part of this sentence, “I live in S茫o Paulo state,” is fine – you’re making a general statement, and you’ve chosen the present simple tense, which is exactly right. In the second part, however, you’re describing a situation which started in the past and is still continuing now, and for a situation like this we need the present perfect tense. So, the sentence should read:
“I live in S茫o Paulo state, in a city called Mogi das Cruzes, where I have lived since I was born.”
Secondly, I’d like to comment on the sentence which starts,
“In addition, if you take a train, in an hour you are arriving at Paulista Avenue…”
I’ve added a couple of commas to this sentence to make the meaning clearer, but again the real problem here is the tense. “You are arriving” is present continuous. We use the present continuous for something that’s happening at this moment. However, this sentence isn’t about something that’s happening at this moment, it’s about something which is generally true (the same yesterday, the same today, the same tomorrow), so we need the present simple here:
“In addition if you take a train in an hour you arrive at Paulista Avenue…”
OK, that’s enough from me for today. I’m looking forward to hearing more about you and about life in Mogi, but right now the sun is shining (this doesn’t happen so often in London!) so I’m going out to enjoy the nice weather.
All the best,
Alex
Useful vocabulary:
We ‘take over from’ someone when we start doing something which that person was doing previously. Samantha was writing this blog previously, and now I’m writing it, so I’ve taken over from her.
‘Incredibly’ means ‘very very’, or ‘extremely’. ‘Incredibly handsome’ means ‘so handsome that I’m amazed, I can’t believe how good-looking this guy is’. I think that describes me quite well, don’t you?
‘Frantic’ is an adjective meaning fast-paced and slightly crazy.
The verb ‘to shove’ means almost the same as ‘to push’, but it’s a little more aggressive. ‘Pushing and shoving’ is a phrase we use to describe people who are pushing each other aggressively – for example, shoppers in a crowded shop.
‘Fairly’ means ‘quite’ or ‘somewhat’.
‘Envious’ is an adjective with the same meaning as ‘jealous’.
Of course, the adjective ‘pretty’ means ‘attractive’ (normally for a woman), but it can also mean the same as ‘quite’ – so ‘pretty good’ means ‘quite good’ (we could also say ‘fairly good’).
I used the adverb ‘hopefully’ to mean that I hope this will be true.
A comma is a small punctuation mark which normally, but not always, indicated a pause in speech, and there are three commas in this sentence.
I also used two more phrases – ‘a love-hate relationship’ and ‘the best of both worlds’. Can you guess the meaning of these phrases?
Comments
Hi Alex, Nice to meet you on bbc site. I was the last student of Samantha and love her style of work. I want to thank you for the first lesson today. I think it is a very useful practice to include some examples of mistakes. Please make your comments & explanations with exactly examples. I helps so much.
HELLO EVeryone, I would like to welcome our new teacher from 蜜芽传媒 LE , i also would like to tell you that this is my first comment, too. How lovely to see such a handsome man , and at the same time he told us that he thinks himself he is gorgeous man . And finally iam also handsome like you. Finally i hope to enjoy your blogs and stay in touch with us very much, if that is so , you are very kind and handsome,too. Bye
Hallo Alex! I hope we're going to have very nice time with you as a our new English teacher.Thank you for encouranging to experiment with words and phrases. I my case I'm always afraid to write something of which I'm not so sure.I'll try to express my thoughts more freely ( but not too freely I hope :):)) Even though in Poland we have very beatyful weather, with the sun shining and spring waking up in every possible way, I also envy those people living in the exotic countries. I sure if it was possible majority of us would chose to live close to a beautyful beach and warm sea, and probably many wouldn't find the time ( like Ana Paula ) to lay on a beach ... how strange! greetings to everyone
Dear Alex, I am writting to say just hello for you, our new teacher! And I have just reminded, that some years ago I used to go to the English school in Oxford Street, but it had been lasted only for a vacation; but I have nice memories... best wishes
Hi Alex, welcome and thank you for your encouragement. I find disconcerting when I am fed-up with my own errors and I ponder the choice of words but I cannot express what I am trying to say better. I know I shouldn't but I just keep trying to reach the pace of my mind when I am talking, particularly a foreing language. It's like a torture that only sensitive teachers like you can understand.
Hello Alex, My name is Aaron,an english learner with an age nearly 30, I am from Beijing ,I am very glad to see you in your blog. I am an engineer,my job is something to do with petrolem,do you have any idea oil field?I think there is a very large oil field in England,it is near North Sea and near to Norway. I would like to comunicate with you by writting some comments in your blog,would like to give me some comments?it is realy appriciate if you do so. Ok, I have to stop here,it is time for breakfast.after breakfast,I will go to work. All the best Aaron
Hello everyone out there! Now is early morning tuesday in VietNam. I am presumably today is a happy and wonderful day with me as I read and hear from all you at this site. I take Alex's instruction with me all, it's great. Unfortunately, it's so hot in VietNam, average of degree of day is about 37 to 38 celsius. oh! It's time to work. Goodbye all! Have a good day!
Welcome to the blog and thanks a lot for your clear explanations about some aspects of present perfect and present continous. Unfortunately, I couldn't find your picture at the top of the page. Ccertainly by mistake, they put a picture of an "incredibly not handsome" guy... :-)) Hope to read you soon.
I forgot to answer your questions. "A love-hate relationship" is a contradictory relationship where someone experiences opposite feeling (very positive and very negative) about somebody or something. I don't know the meaning of the expression "the best of both world". I will guess. Does it mean "the very best"?
Nice to meet our new blogger teacher.You are incredibly handsome,aren't you?Maybe be..:) Hopefully i will work out the two phrases you mentioned.You have a love-hate relationship probably means partly you love in London because of its wonderful cinemas ,theaters,art galleries, as well as restaurants from all around the world.But it also can be crowed and frantic--especially where you work for,which troubled you a little.
continuing..... The best of both worlds means a wonderful blend,which i think has similiar meaning as MIX AND MATCH.So Ana lives in a harmonia city.Best wishes.Bye for now.
Hey Alex, how are you? You know that when I first saw your photo I knew that I like this teacher! Yesterday night I waited a long time beyond the computer for your first blog but I didn鈥檛 see it. This morning, I checked in and saw your update. I鈥檓 so glad. I like your writing style. I couldn鈥檛 help wondering where the 蜜芽传媒 finds such excellent teachers? As your tasks left for us, in my opinion, a love-hate relationship means you love London because of its cinemas, theatres and so on, and also, you hate some unpleasant details such as the crowds and fast-paces. And 鈥榯he best of both worlds鈥 means Ana could enjoy the modern life as well as the peace life. Am I right? Looking forward to reading your next post.
Alex, hi! You are incredibly handsome, that鈥檚 true and no doubt. And your blog is incredibly interesting to read. Hope you enjoyed the rare London鈥檚 sunshine and now you will be able to share a little with us. Please do, because here we seem to get stuck for warm sunny spring days (keeping only +3 to+5 degrees, no more). Please say hello to London and Oxford Street for me, because I do remember it all very fondly. Luna Russia
Hello Alex, so you have taken over the charge of teaching us and Ana from Samantha. Welcome to the blog Alex, the incredibly handsome person with terrefic smile! Do you like your profession and wanted to be a teacher from very begining or you have taken this by chance? I agree with you that Ana, as she has described in her blog, is living in a beautiful city. The place looks pretty good with its serene environement and nearby beaches. Whereas the ususal hustle and bustle of the city is not far away from her place. In other words she is enjoying the best of both worlds. You love London because you like the city for many reasons like its wonderful cinemas, theatres, and art galleries, as well as restaurants but you dislike its crowded streets and shopping areas. So, you have a love-hate relationship with London. Isn't it Alex? The great and handsome!!
Dear Alex, Thanks for your clear explanation on using tense and I would like to ask if we can use 'present countinous tense' instead of of 'present perfect tense' in your first comment. I hope you dont mind to answer me.... Cheers....
Hello Alex! You are really an incredibly handsome man with a great sense of humour! Hope you will enjoy your time here with us, your students. By the way, it is my first comment. I couldn`t resist the temptation to write to you:) I feel very sorry that I didn`t take part in the competition so I could be instead of Ana Paula:) I welcome both of you to the cyber area of blogging!:) Hopefully, this month will be very funny and humorous as we have such a teacher. I also hope that we will learn lots of humorous phrases and words as well as all the anecdotes of London from Alex and some funny stories from us.
Hello,Alex. I have been reading the blogs for about half a year. so maybe I should say "welcome Alex" :) . I like the way you explain the useful words with and I think it is detailed and impressive. Thank you!
Hello Alex, it is nice to meet you. Yes you are, as you pointed out, a very handsome man! I saw Casino Royale some time ago, and James Bond also looked like a very striking man. I was personally very pleased to hear, that your place of work is in London. For many, many years back I also used to work on Oxford Street. I have been back to London only twice since those times, and yes pushing and shoving luckily still goes on. As you said; it is easy love and hate London. I personally loved it. You also asked us what 鈥淭he best of both worlds鈥 mean. It is strange how difficult it is to explain the meaning, and yet the saying is so often used. As I mentioned Casino Royale earlier, I take another example from movies: I think Darth Vader wanted the best of both worlds. I look forward your next topic Alex. All best for everyone.
I'm very happy to read your blog. Your words are as funny as your face. Nice to see you, my teacher on line!
Hello Alex, it's nice to meet you , I really liked the way you introduced yourself , now when we have a love-hate relationship of something so (I'm not sure) we are trying to express that we like part of it , while we hate another part of it , for example that what you have mentioned above that in London you can easily find a lot of things to amuse yourself and at the same time you can easily meet a lot of things annoying you , The expression "the best of both worlds" I think it seems like the expression "kill two birds with one stone", Best wishes ,
Hello! First, I would like to take the opportunity and say: Welcome Alex and thank you in advance for the effort you will make to help us improve our English. One more thing, the way you write is as (handsome) as you. I like it very much. In respond to your two questions: 1- 'a love-hate relationship': this means that you sometimes only have love to London. However, in other times, you have the opposite feeling. It means that you have alternating feeling about London, due to the aspects of London that you encounter. 2- 'the best of both worlds': It is like a child who take the good things from each one of his parents character, in the same time, he leaves the bad things . So this child takes the best of his Parents. To sum up, the best of something is taking only the positive aspects and leaving the negative aspects of this thing. Thank you again, and happy learning every body.
Hello Alex, Though I鈥檝e been practicing my writing skill in English a little bit more than a half of a year, here at the 鈥楳essageboards鈥, I鈥檝e not often popped in this page (Blog). Whereas, today, after I鈥檝e read your comments on Ana鈥檚 message I thought that it would be not bad to do so regularly. I must say that your style is pretty hospitable and friendly and at least a couple of times I laughed my pleasure. Besides, your explanations of new words and expressions were rather full. I think, for the better comprehension of somewhat new it鈥檚 wrong to grudge words. As for me, I鈥檓 from Russia and am learning English for the sake of my little daughter who is only 10 MONTHs old. Every day I try to speak with her in this language and in spite of such an age, she pronounces rather surely the word 鈥榙addy鈥. I consider it as one of my little achievements. Well, thanks for your clever, friendly and full comments what is the point in such cases. Best regards, Valeriy.
Hi Alex, I would like to mention that just like you I am also a new blogger here and I hope that I can improve my poor English from this site. Your explanation was quite easy to understand, but I want to ask you one thing about the use of tense. In the correction 'In addition, if you take a train, in an hour, you arrive at Paulista Avenue鈥' you have asked us to use present simple tense, but can we also use future tense, like 'In addition, if you take a train, in an hour you will arrive at Paulista Avenue鈥'? Thank you in advance.
Hi,Alex You started your fist blog with showing your handsome face off.I wonder what makes you SOOOOOOOOO confident of your face.When I asked my son,who is five,whether your face is handsome or not he shook his head, stared at your picture for a while and said he was far better than you.But I must admit that you are a very good looking man indeed.It is nice meet you and I am looking forward to learing English from you a lot.
Hi Alex, it鈥檚 so good to have you with us as a new teacher blogger. Hope you鈥檒l find it exciting to be exposed to comments from all around the world 鈥 actually we are very friendly and hungry for learning. Many thanks for continuing a good tradition to give us some tasks or just ask the questions 鈥 we love!!! So I am going to ask the first one: 鈥榣ove-hate relationship鈥 is an ambivalent attitude to something, and 鈥榯he best of both worlds鈥- perhaps it means that you have a culmination of the best and the worst of that world. Best wishes,
Hello Alex Yes, you are an incredibly handsome man. I鈥檓 very envious because I'm not. You said 'making mistakes is a necessary part of learning a language'. I absolutely agree with you. I would even say that mistakes are necessary when you study any subject. Making mistakes plays a major role in organizing and reorganizing our memory. In Poland there is a saying that those who do nothing make no minstakes.
Hello, Alex! I also want to welcome you and thank you in advance for advice and help in improving our English! It is nice of you to embolden us not to be afraid of making mistakes.My former English professor always repeated to us that who never climbed, never fell.
Hi Alex, is the first time I read this blog an I got amazed by your explanations about the mistakes and the new words as so as tenses explanations. I love it, so I am going to have a look to this blog more often
hi alex...im realy glad to see your blog cos i learned some new and usefull words...about the words you wrote i think a love-hate relationship means that you like some cases of london and you hate other ones....and the second the best of both world means that it has two good advantages; good luck
Hi Alex. Where's your today's post? I can't wait more. It's bedtime for me. Ok. I confess I think you are handsome so...appear. If you were here you would hear from women you are a cat. A cat( gato in portuguese) here means you are handsome. After that I deserve a blog from you. Good night
Hi Alex, be welcome. You sure have a hard task ahead. Samantha was great in her job as a blogger. But I can tell from the way you started that you are going to be as great as she was to our fortune. It's great to count on nice teachers as you and Samantha to help us on our journey as English learners. Count on us to be with you on this job. Welcome again and Best wishes.
Hello,Alex.welcome you to be our teacher and thank you for your first blog.actually ,your blog give me the courage and made me know that don't be afraid of making mistakes.it is an necessary part of language learning.i think i will not feel shy when i make mistakes and i should speak more and write more.there is nobody that will laugh at a beginner of English learning.
Hi teacher Alex, nice to meet such an incredibly handsome man like you!!!:-) I think "a love-hate relationship" means a feeling that you love and hate something at the same time because it has both of the thing you like and the thing you dislike. "The best of both worlds", I think, means you can get the benefits or adventures of two different things at the same time. Is my answer right?
Hi alex. By reading all these comments, i'm sure that you have understand that a great sense of humor it's more important that your lookings.Even so, i think you are handsome. i have some difficulties with relative clauses, so I hope you can help me in one of your future blog.
Hello, Alex! Nice to meet you! I looked up in the Oxford student's dicrionary "to have the best of both worlds" means "to enjoy the benefits, advantages, of two opposite possibilities"... I'm very glad to have you? like a new teacher blogger...I'm the first time, here on this site ...
i could not understand your love hate relationship with London why? Did weather, crowd make you feel like this. Any how you must be a incredible man as you said, not only your physical apperance.but your teacheing may be like this also in the next two months. happy to know about you and Samanath are colleque.
Hello, Alex.I would like to say warm welcome .First blog via 蜜芽传媒 learning English look so splendid task . By the way , writing or posing on site is another process of learning English as well as reading , speaking , listening . Unfortunatly, I usually try again and again from making a mistake in order to such a great progress .From time to time , I shy when I am writing . And another skills are also the same. I wish I could use English in routine so that in future I could get better job or upgrade my life. Thank you very much for useful text as vocabulary , example and so fort. I am looking forward to an wonderful blogs. With warm good wishes. Wisarut..
Hi Alex, Your explanations about mistakes gave me courage to write in this blog. Although I'm very shy and my English is not very good, I'll try to write regulary. I will not to be afraid of making mistakes. Thank you very much!
Hello Alex,Warm welcome to our international community.You seem very handsome person with terrific smile.You attracted us in very first blog. Your explantion about grammar in Ana's blog and teaching style , I love it. Give us task everyday, that make us study more. I can't wait to see your next blog. Kind regards.
Hello Elex. It's very nice to meet you! I couldn't agree more that you are an "incredibly handsome man". I really like the way you smiled as well. By saying you have a love-hate relationship with London, you mean you love and hate London. You love its wonderful theatres, and art galleries, and ect. On the other hand, you hate it when people fight one another over their way into the shops. So do I with Saigon. But I didn't know how to express myself before. Thank you so much.Surely, I won't foget this expression. I don't have a very good memory that limits my English skills. For the next question, I do not understand why you say "the best" but of "both" worlds. Why not "the better"???Terribly sorry to cut out your fixed expression. I can't wait for your explanation. Keep good smile!!!!Best wishes.
Hi Alex, welcome here. I believe you are a shrewed fellow who knows perfectly well how to capture the students' attention with clever lines. Have you noticed how many of us have reacted to your 'incredibly handsome' introduction? The trick has worked really well. The incredibly delightful opening lines took our breath away, just forced us to sit up & take notice and now you have everybody in this virtual class eating out of your hand.
Hi Alex! I'm writing from Meltchet St., which is a very small alley in quite a small city in Israel (which is not very big itself...). I'm an 11th grade student, with not much talent but a lot of good will. I genuinely want to improve my English but I often get stuck especially with the tenses. You see- Hebrew is built on roots and structures, so that we only have 3 tenses (past, future and present) but 7 "houses" in which all the verbes in the language are divided. Could tou please refer in your blogs to ways in which we can identify the correct tense we have to use? that all for today, don't worry i saved a lot of problems in need of help for tomorrow too ( ; I have to admit that I find bald spot very nice as well as a fine way to save a lot of money on shampoo and conditioner! good day, enjot the holidays Yana
Hi! Alex, I feel so happy for your comments about using the "present perfect and continuous" tense because it麓s exactly what I麓m lookin麓at school and it麓s a little confusious to me ,to understand it, thank麓u so much for your explanation, please give us more examples to use it.;)
Hi! I really like your blog. I think it is very useful for us, students, it is somthing different from the usual Efl page, Iwas looking for something like this. Nice to meet you, and i am going to look to this blog, more often.
Hi, Alex. I was looking around the Web and luckily I found your Blog. I have to confess that the way you explain details about grammar and sentence麓s structures is really easy and friendly, specially for English learners like me. I could`t be more agree with the rest of the learners to meet such an incredibly handsome man like you!) I`d like to take advantage of your time and ask you to suggets me related places in the bbc-Web that I could use to improve my English standard. I麓m looking forward for your remarks.
Hi Alex Iam anew member.I have joined bbc to improve my english and i think you will be agreat help.My understanding of english is pretty good but i make mistakes while speaking because somtimes i get confused about using correct form of tenses.So kindly help me in improving my written as well as spoken english.
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