Parts of a Bike

English Vocabulary - Parts of a Bike

As you probably know, bike is a common short word for bicycle in English. Let's build our bicycle vocabulary by learning English names for parts of a bike!

The place where you sit is the seat, just like at the movies or in a car. You put your hands on the handlebars. Notice that this word is a combination of two other useful words: handle (something you hold in your hand) and bar (a long straight piece of metal). You put your feet on the two pedals.  

The word bicycle actually means two (bi-) wheels (cycle). The rubber part of the wheel that touches the ground is called the tire. The thin metal pieces that connect to the middle of the wheel are called spokes.

The pedals connect to the rear wheel with a chain and many different circular gears. All of this is held together on a metal frame, the red part in this picture.

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Take a look at the different parts of a bike in English!

Parts of a Shoe

English Vocabulary - Parts of a Shoe

Next up in our Ginseng English series Parts of a... is shoes! Do you know the names for the parts of your shoes? Read on and you soon will!

Three parts of a shoe actually have the same names as parts of your body. The toe is the part of the shoe where your toes are. The heel is the part of the shoe where your heel (the back of your foot) goes. The third one is a little less expected. The part on top that comes from the inside is called the tongue! Your foot doesn't have a tongue of course, but this part of the shoe looks a little like a tongue! 👅

On top of the tongue, the strings that you tie together are called the laces. Finally, the part on the bottom that touches the ground is called the sole of the shoe.

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Top 3 family films to watch in English (Guest Post)

Top 3 Family Films to Watch in English

(That the Whole Family Will Love!)

Ginseng is happy to host this guest post by Katie from Break Into English!

You know the drill: you’ve spent all week working hard to then go and pick the kids up from school. 

Luckily you don’t have to take them to that English academy across town since you’ve signed them up for online English classes for kids so you can go straight home instead of getting stuck in another unbearable traffic jam.

But you still have to cook them dinner. And get them to do their homework. And correct the homework. And bathe them. And put them to bed. All this five times a week. You can’t wait for the weekend! Then you think of all the time and energy you will need to keep them entertained when all you want to do is relax. You think about putting a movie on—but really you cannot deal with the idea of sitting through another mind-numbing kids’ movie, yet again.

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. 

Here are our top 3 family movies that adults will love too. You can all curl up on the sofa—the kids with popcorn and parents with a glass of wine (or two!)—and the whole family can brush up on their English listening skills without even feeling like they’re studying! Read on to find out which kids’ movies are also entertaining for adults, and let us explain why they can be a great complement to the English classes they’re already taking! It can even help them to prepare for the listening section of exams such as the Cambridge Flyers.

1. The Lego Movie

Lego is everywhere. A timeless toy that never goes out of fashion (or gets boring!). Whether you love building princess castles or Star Wars spaceships, everyone loves Lego. As an adult you might be a little doubtful about whether this movie might actually work: will you really be entertained for 1 hour and 41 minutes watching Lego? The answer is Yes! 

The movie has a great storyline with lots of jokes (some of which only adults will get!). You’ll love seeing the relationships form between the characters and you definitely won’t be bored! 

The theme song ‘Everything is Awesome’ is extremely catchy and, if you listen to the lyrics carefully, they’re very funny for adults. For example, one part of the songs states, ‘Lost my job, there’s a new opportunity, more free time for my awesome community’. After the movie, if you really want to study English for half an hour or so look up the song and study the vocabulary. You’ll learn some new words whilst having a laugh at the irony of the song!

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2. The Addams Family

Well known around the world, The Addams Family is a great movie for both adults and kids (just make sure the kids aren’t too young; they might find it a little scary!). If you like scary movies, then you’ll love this slightly more tame family version. It’s a great movie for learning English. Even the theme song contains some really great advanced vocabulary:

“They’re creepy and they’re kooky, 
mysterious and spooky,
They’re altogether ooky, 
The Addams Family”

Creepy = scary

Kooky = strange

Spooky = scary (usually to do with ghosts!)

Ooky = unpleasant

Remember to note down any new vocabulary you come across!

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3. Uncle Buck

This film really is great for all the family, as it is so relatable. When the parents of a family have to leave town, suddenly there is only one person available to look after their three children: the lazy, carefree Uncle Buck. The two younger children love their funny Uncle but the teenage girl of the family is a little harder to crack. You’ll love the characters and really enjoy watching them develop. And the kids will love all the mischief Uncle Buck gets up to!

Watching movies in English is a great way to practice your listening skills as well as pick up new vocabulary. Another engaging, interactive and practical way of learning English is via webcam.

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This article was written by Katie Gyurkovits, a blogger and English Teacher at Break Into English.

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5 Myths About Learning English

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Learning English is tough. And it's even tougher because there's lots of bad information about what makes good education. Today, let's look at five myths—things that many people believe, but that are not true—about learning English.

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1. We learn vocabulary and grammar in the order that we study.

Many students assume that there is a logical order to the English grammar items and vocabulary words that you should try to study. They think that if we arrange things from "simple" to "complex" and study them in that order, we will learn them in that order. Most English textbooks are designed around this idea, but that simply isn't how it works.

Research shows that, yes, there are some basic patterns. But many factors, such as your first language, can really change the order that you learn grammar or vocabulary. This does not necessarily mean that we should not study grammar or vocabulary directly, but most experts now say that the curriculum should be based around something other than grammar topics.  

“Some studies suggest that second language learners acquire a second language in different orders depending on their native language.”

— Language Teacher Toolkit

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2. Native speakers are better teachers

There are English schools around the world that advertise, "English Lessons with Native English Teachers!" These are especially common online (see below). And many English learners seem to share the idea that native speakers are the best teachers. But why?

An ad emphasizing "native speakers."

35 #Languages. Flexible Schedules. Engaging, Native-Speaking Teachers. The Best Location in #LA. Next term Oct 30th! https://t.co/TlriJjFIMS pic.twitter.com/3kXqc2Tiq3

— BH Lingual Institute (@BevHillsLingual) September 20, 2017

A native speaker of English did not have to study and learn the language as an adult. They haven't necessarily experienced all the same challenges and struggles as someone who learned the language at a later age. Native speakers can often follow English grammar patterns without knowing what that grammar pattern is, so they can do it but they cannot teach it.

“‘All sorts of people are fluent, but only a tiny proportion of them are sufficiently aware of the structure of the language that they know how to teach it.’ ”

— David Crystal

They can probably pronounce TH, but they might not be able to tell you how to pronounce TH. In other words, a native speaker might have the ability to speak English very well, but they often don't have the skills needed to teach English well. As linguist David Crystal puts it, "All sorts of people are fluent, but only a tiny proportion of them are sufficiently aware of the structure of the language that they know how to teach it." In many ways, a non-native English speaking teacher can be more helpful than a native speaker! Of course, there are very good native and non-native teachers, but skill and qualification as a teacher is much more important than your first language. 

Check out this article at TEFL Equity Advocates to learn more about how we select the best teachers at Ginseng.

3. Accuracy is the most important thing

So many of my students tell me that they want me to correct them every time they make a mistake in their speaking or writing. My response is, "No, no you don't want that." When students ask this, they assume that English is all about accuracy, and that improving your English means eliminating errors from your English.

But English is about a lot more than accuracy. In fact, focusing too much on accuracy can really limit your fluency, your ability to speak rapidly and naturally, and fluency is an important part of language learning. If you are too worried about making mistakes, you might also avoid more challenging, complex structures, and complexity is another important part of language learning. As your understanding of the language develops, you need to try more complex sentences and structures, and you will make mistakes as you experiment. Those mistakes are important, and if you have someone correcting you every time you make a mistake, you won't experiment as much!  

Accuracy is important but it's not everything! We need to balance accuracy, fluency, and complexity as we learn English. 

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4. Learning English should be a constant challenge

Learning a language can be a challenge, but that doesn't mean that everything you do in English class should be as difficult and challenging as possible. Generally, you just want small challenges: new language that is just a little above your current level. This is called comprehensible input. Comprehensible means you can understand it. Input is language that you take in.

But there is also a lot of important language acquisition that happens when you are doing things in English that are not challenging at all! Extensive reading, or easy pleasure reading, is very important to developing your English. So is casual conversation, which can really develop fluency!

Make sure that you spend some time challenging yourself with English that is just above your level, and some time using the English that you already know. Again, it's all about balancing those two!

5. Progress in English is linear

This can be really frustrating, but learning English is not a straight line from no English to fluent English. Some parts of the language you will learn quickly. Others will take years. Generally we learn a lot in the first year or two that we study, and our learning slows down after that. Sometimes it will even seem like your English is getting worse! Don't worry. All of this is common and part of the process. 

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How Men And Women Talk About Love

How Men and women talk about love

 

Today Ginseng English is going to talk about a really interesting new interactive article up at the New York Times (NYT). The NYT has a section called "Modern Love," and it is written by their readers. People write essays, send them to the NYT, and some of them are published each week.

For this newest article, they did some research using all the essays that people have sent in for the past 4 years. They looked at the most common words, and then they mapped them based on gender. They found some very interesting patterns. Men and women tend to use different words to talk about love.

Take a look at some of the results in this chart and in the original article!

Common words men and women used to talk about love.

Parts of a Car

Basic English Vocabulary - Parts of a Car

Welcome to the first post in a new series on basic vocabulary from the Ginseng English Blog: Parts of a... Today, let's look at some useful vocabulary for the outside of a car!

On a car there are four tires, two front tires and two rear tires. Front and rear are useful words when we talk about cars. A car has two bumpers to protect you in an accident: a front bumper and a rear bumper. Above the bumpers are lights. There are headlights at the front of the car, and taillights at the rear of the car. On each side of the car is a side-view mirror, to help you see behind you. Inside the car is a rear-view mirror, too.

What other car vocabulary do you know? What do you want to know? Comment below!

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English for Halloween Costumes

Halloween Costume Trends

I recently came across this great infographic over at the W5 blog, called Spooktacular Halloween Costumes (notice that spooktacular is just a fun portmanteau of spooky and spectacular—more on portmanteaus in this blog post). 

This seems like a great opportunity to talk about how we talk about costumes in English, which can be a little tricky. If you're talking to an American friend about an upcoming Halloween party, she might ask you:

What are you going as?

What am I going as? Going as?

It may sound like a strange question, but your friend is asking you what your costume will be, or what you will be pretending to be for halloween. Another way to say this is:

What are you dressing up as?

You could answer with:

• I'm going as a ghost.
• I'm going as a dog.
• I'm going as Wonder Woman.
• I'm going as Jon Snow from Game of Thrones.

Notice that if you are going as something generic (not a single, specific character), we use an indefinite article—a ghost, a cat, an elephant—but for specific characters, we don't need an article.

One more thing: if you're a character from a movie or TV show, it's common to add from [the movie]:

• I'm going as Jon Snow from Game of Thrones. 
• She's going as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.
• He went as Wolverine from X-Men.

So, what are YOU going as for Halloween!?

Nonexistent Words

Last week, Dictionary.com published a fun list of words that don't exist. What does that mean? Well, they're not just random letters, they are words that you might expect to exist because of other words that look like their opposites. Confused? Here's an example.

Combobulated

Discombobulated is a real word in English. Usually when we add the prefix dis-, we are creating the opposite of another word. For example, we can take agree, add dis-, and we get the opposite: disagree. Right? This works for lots of words: appear/disappear, approve/disapprove, believe/disbelieve, connect/disconnect. But discombobulate is funny, because combobulate is not a word. It doesn't exist.

Reckful

Here's another one. We can add the suffixes -less and -ful to many nouns to turn them into adjectives. A person with no hope is hopeless. A person with lots of hope is hopeful. Something that causes no pain is painless, and something that causes a lot of pain is painful. Other examples are fear/fearless/fearful, care/careless/careful, color/colorless/colorful, use/useless/useful.

But we have another word in English: reckless. Reckless is similar in meaning to careless. Based on the pattern we looked at, you might think that reck is a noun and reckful is the opposite of reckless. But, as always, learning English is crazy, and reckful and reck do not exist in English.

A few more:

Disheveled is an adjective meaning not neat. But sheveled does not exist.

Nonchalant means cool, relaxed, and calm. But chalant does not exist.

Disgust is a strong feeling of unpleasantness or sickness. But gust does not exist.

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Check the original post at Dictionary.com for more! Can you add any in the comments?

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Online English Classes

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Why Are Online English Classes in Groups Better?

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why are online english  classes in groups better?

Many online English schools out there are advertising one-on-one lessons with native speakers via Skype. Ginseng doesn’t do this. Want to know why? Read on!

When you go to an English school, they don’t just sit you in a small room with one teacher, right? Why is that? Well, because we don’t learn English quickly and easily by talking to just one person. Language is social. 

In good English classes, you will be placed in a class full of other students who are at the same level as you. The best English teachers may teach some grammar or vocabulary to the whole class, but then she will put you in situations where you have to use that language with your classmates. You will have practice conversation in English with the whole class, with small groups of 3-4 students, or in pairs. A good teacher will give you problems to solve together, projects to complete in English. THIS is the most important part of your language learning! It’s not just listening to the teacher talk about grammar.

Similarly, having a group of other students around you is very important for your motivation. If you just meet with one teacher hour after hour, week after week, both the teacher and the student struggle to maintain the conversation and the interest. If you are surrounded by many different people with many different opinions and experiences, you will stay more engaged and motivated! 

This is why we focus on group English classes at Ginseng! Join one today!

Basic Geometry Vocabulary

Basic geometry vocabulary

Rob from Ginseng English recently took a trip to Shanghai and recorded a lesson on geograph—err, geometry vocabulary. Take a moment and have a look!

Geometry Vocabulary List

Vertical (adj.) - positioned up and down rather than from side to side; going straight up

Horizontal (adj.) - positioned from side to side rather than up and down; parallel to the ground

Diagonal (adj.) - not going straight across or up and down

Beam (n.) - a long and heavy piece of wood or metal that is used as a support in a building

Post (n.) - a piece of wood or metal that is set in a vertical position, especially as a support or marker

Narrow (adj.) - long and not wide

Wide (adj.) - extending a great distance from one side to the other; not narrow

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Free Vocabulary Resources

If you're trying to improve your English vocabulary online, check out these other free vocabulary resources from the Ginseng English Blog:
 

Ginseng Named to Top 50 ESL Blogs

Top 50 Blogs

We are so pleased to share that the Ginseng English Blog was selected by Feedspot to be featured among their Top 50 English Language Blogs. There are some other fantastic blogs on there, and we're so proud to be in their company! Thanks, Feedspot!

Take a look at where else we've been featured!