Miss Universe Contest’s Flub: Learning How to Apologize

General, , , , ,

You might be wondering what a “flub” is. A flub is an embarrassing mistake or blunder and this is precisely the best word to describe what happened at this year’s Miss Universe pageant where Miss Colombia was by mistakenly crowned Miss Universe by host Steve Harvey.

Yes, I agree. Everybody makes mistakes, to err is human and stuff like that, but  -hey Steve!- this one was just huge, enormous. It was a Himalayan blunder. Perhaps it was a Freudian slip and you wanted to crown Miss Colombia and thought nobody would notice!

Anyway, I feel bad for both misses, don’t you?

At the Golden Globes this year, the actor Jamie Foxx parodied this situation and this gives me the chance to have a look at the ways we can apologize in English. See? Every cloud has a silver lining!

Level: Intermediate

Age group: any

PROCEDURE:

Step 1.Watch the video and write down all the expressions Jamie Foxx uses to apologize. Check them at the end of this post.

 

Step 2. Speaking.Get students in groups of three or four and ask them to discuss the following questions

♥ What’s the worst mistake you’ve made at work/school and how did you deal with it?

♥ What is the biggest mistake you have ever made and what did you learn from it?

♥ Is it easy for you to admit that you have made a mistake or do you tend to blame         others or circumstances for your mistakes?

Step 3.Do you know when to use excuse me, pardon (me), beg your pardon and sorry?

SORRY

  • You usually use sorry to apologize after you have done something wrong. It is the simplest way to apologize.
  • If you want to be more polite, you can always use the longer version “I’m sorry”.
  • If you want to emphasize how sorry you are, you can use “I’m so /terribly/very/extremely/really sorry”.
  • If you want to say what you’re sorry for, you can say:

                   I am sorry I shouted at you

                  I am sorry about last night

                 I am sorry for being late

  • When you accidentally step on someone’s toe , you say ” I’m sorry” or just “Sorry”
  • When you bump into someone on the street, you say “Sorry”
  • When we hear bad news  and we want to express our feelings, we say “ I am sorry to hear that.”
  • It is also used as a polite way of introducing disappointing information or bad news I’m sorry, but you have not passed the test
  • Used when you have said something that is not correct, and want to say something that is correct. For example: A synonym of large  is small – sorry big!
  • Used when you disagree with someon. For example: I’m sorry but I can’t agree with you here.

EXCUSE ME 

  • when you want to interrupt someone. For example: Excuse me, I have a question.
  • When you want to call someone’s attention. For example: Excuse me,can I have the bill?
  • When you are trying to leave a room and someone is in your way
  • When you want ot ask for permission to do something , you might start with Excuse me, can I open the window?
  • Excuse me can also be used, especially in American English, when you have not heard or understood what someone has said. For example:You’re late.’ ‘Excuse me?’ ‘I said you’re late.’ ‘Oh, sorry.’

PARDON (ME)

  • Speakers of British English usually use pardon when they have not heard or understood what soemone has said. For example: ‘My name is Timothy.’ ‘Pardon?
  • In American English, it is also possible to use pardon me in these situations.
  • In British English, you usually say pardon me when you have done something slightly impolite such as burping or sneezing. In American English, you usually say excuse me.

BEG YOUR PARDON

  • This expression  is rather old-fashioned. It is used to apologize for doing something embarrassing or for making a mistake in what you have said

                          A synonym for big is small – beg your pardon- it’s large.

Source: http://www.ldoceonline.com/

Answers to Step 1 (video): I’m sorry folks, I’ve made a mistake, horrible mistake, I take full responsility, I apologize.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Video: Alcatraz, The Rock

Listening, , , ,

Do you like visiting places off the beaten track?  Do you choose for your holidays unusual tourist destinations? Would you choose to visit Alcatraz, the famous penitentiary?

Alcatraz, also called The Rock, is an island and probably the most famous or maybe infamous prison in the world. Located in San Francisco, it is separated from  the mainland by 2,5 kilometres of freezing water, strong currents, cold winds, and high waves, which made it impossible to escape.

Gangster and mafia boss Al Capone was one of the best-known residents in Alcatraz. As soon as he set foot in prison, he paid the guards to make his life comfortable while in prison. Below, a picture of his cell.

Would you like to know more about Alcatraz? Watch the video and test your comprehension with the exercise below. (video lasts 2:08)

Level: B2

Materials: Handout 

Before watching the video, you might want to pre-teach the following words

Inmate  /ˈɪnmeɪt/= A person living in an institution such as a prison or hospital

Infamous/ˈɪnfəməs/=Well known for some bad quality or deed

  1. While most tourists would rather avoid jail,  no trip to San Francisco would be complete without ________________________________________________
  2. Alcatraz is located____________________________________ San Francisco Bay.
  3. Alcatraz,the Rock,  was America’s premier ______________________________and for 29 years the final stop for the nation’s most ___________________________
  4. Make sure to buy your tickets online and in advance because they  _______________
  5. If you schedule your trip for early in the morning, you’ll have more room to _________________________
  6. For a spooky trip, book the ___________________
  7. When you are visiting the prison, you might want  to pick up a headset for an ____________________ audio tour.
  8. You’ll hear stories told by _______________________________________

 

Find the answers in the handout.

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The Spelling Challenge: are you up to it?

Common Errors, The English language, Vocabulary, Writing, , , , ,

Is it definetely or definitely? Which is correct, possession or possesion?

Most students struggle with English spelling and no wonder, English spelling is difficult. Plain and simple. The best advice I can probably give you to improve your spelling is to read a lot and then if you keep misspelling a word, you might want to write it down  several times ( I’m sorry! I know it sounds like a very traditional thing to do, but it works and this is what is really important, isn’t it?). Doing spelling quizzes can also help, and it’s certainly more fun than writing the tricky word several times.

So, are you up to a little challenge? Then, try these three quizzes based on students’ common spelling mistakes found in Intermediate, Advanced and Proficiency exams. I have created them with the aim of helping my students get rid of these common spelling mistakes and I hope they are helpful to anybody visiting the blog!

 

This is how I suggest you work with the quizzes:

  • Start with the intermediate quiz even though you are an advanced or proficiency student. Life is full of surprises and it doesn’t hurt to double-check tricky words.
  • Once you have finished the quiz, try to remember which words were tested and write them down on a piece of paper. You don’t only need to be able to recognize them but to remember its correct spelling.
  • Do the quiz once again and compare your written answers with the ones given in the quiz.

Good luck!


Easy? Good! Let’s take a more difficult quiz now!

Piece of cake? Well done! Let’s try now the most difficult one!

I’d like to finish this post with an excellent piece of advice from Thomas Jefferson.

“Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well.”

(Thomas Jefferson, American president  1800-1809, in a letter to his daughter Martha)

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Moving away from Traditional Homework

Students' Corner,

This is my suggestion for Christmas homework and the kind that if I were a student , I would love to be given.

1. Word Games. Do you have five minutes to spare? Find your level and choose from these 13 addictive games. Click here

2. Watching Series. Do you like watching series? Go to ororo.tv, choose the series you’d like to see and watch an episode every day on this site. I am suggesting series and not films ’cause I hope you’ll get hooked on the series . The only catch is that you can only see an episode a day on this site. Click here

3. Listen to music, but not any kind of music; for this exercise listen to ballads , which are easier to understand. Listen to a song and  concentrate on understanding the lyrics. Then, look up the lyrics online  and sing along. I suggest singers such as the mighty Adele, Ed Sheeran or James Blunt. If you live in Spain, you can listen to radio stations such as  Kiss FM.

Merry Christmas  and thanks for reading!

A Word on Grammar: The Tricky “Want”

A word on Grammar, , ,

In case you haven’t figured it out by now , I am  kind of a  very-much-into-games teacher, but this doesn’t mean  that everything in my classes  is fun. I would be lying to you. I wouldn’t  dare say a large part, but  a significant part of my classes, is dedicated to teaching “boring” stuff, which might be dull, but necessary; and I think my students would agree here.

One of these boring, yet interesting, parts of the lesson today will be dedicated to fixing mistakes from their written assignments.

One of the most common mistakes students make and that can be easily fixed is with the verb “want”.

The verb “want” is probably one of the first verbs we learn in English and  the simple structure  “I want to go” or “she wants to buy” poses no problem. But as become more fluent in the language ,we risk trying more complex sentences and this is where “want” becomes tricky.

THE TRICKY “WANT”

Read the sentence below  and decide whether it’s right or wrong.

Do you want that I give you a lift home?

If you think it’s wrong, then you’re right 🙂 and you might want to stop reading this post now. Hey! I wouldn’t blame you!  But, if you  can’t see why the sentence above is incorrect, then dear reader, this post is right for you and here’s the explanation

  • “want” is not followed by a “that clause”. Instead we use an object+ infinitive structure. So,

  • Look at how we introduce the subject after the verb ” to want”:

  • Some other common verbs that can be followed by object+infinitve are: advise, allow, ask, encourage, forbid, intend, invite, need, persuade, recommend, teach,  warn, tell, cause…etc.
  • “Want” can also mean ” need” in informal English. We can say that a thing “wants” (meaning “needs”) something, in particular with reference to actions.In this case, “want” is followed by an -ing form.

                 ♥ Those windows need cleaning (= needs to be cleaned)

                 ♥ This floor needs sweeping (= needs to be swept)

You can also say :

                ♥ Those windows need to be cleaned

               ♥  This floor needs to be swept

Test your knowledge with this translation exercise (sentences in Spanish, sorry!)

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