Monday Workshops L2, L3, MAG

Yesterday in class, I had groups 4A, 6, and 3B.

In groups 4a and 6, we listened to an episode "What Kind of Country" from NPR (National Public Radio - US) This American Life, discussing taxation in the United States. I gave a brief overview of the political beliefs of the right, or Republicans/Conservatives in the US as well as the Left/Democrats. I explained the differences between a Full Time (FT) and Part Time (PT) job. Even a Full Time job in the US does not entitle you to healthcare. Of the 55% of Americans who have health care, (which is the equivalent of l'assurance maladie and securité sociale, social security in the US in the money that seniors receive from the government when they are over 65 and retired), most Americans receive health care through their employers. The employer has a group healthcare plan for all their employees, and the employees pay for it through a portion (usually 10% of their salaries). Obama is trying to enact universal healthcare, but has not yet succeeded against the Republicans in our Senate.

In group 3B, I gave a basic grammar review on the difference uses between different past tenses in English. We have 3 basic kinds, which are the past simple, past continuous, and the use of past participle. The use of "to have" does not construct the past tense but the present-perfect, which most resembles the French past tense. The sentence construction, subject + "has" or "have" is NOT used the same as French past tense, causing many ESL French students to use "have" when they don't need to. There is a good explanation of this here. And even more, there is a large amount of verbs in the past tense that are irregular, and it's hard for students to learn and remember each one. We then used this information to tell stories of problems while traveling and corrected the stories together.

Simple Past
There are two principal past tenses used to make general statements about the past: The past simple and the past continuous. The two tenses are quite different. Use the past simple to talk about an event which happened at some point in time in the past.

Tom flew to Chicago last week.
Peter visited his friends in Florida two months ago.

Past Continuous
The past continuous is usually used to refer to events happening at the same time that something important happened in the past.

They were doing their homework when she arrived.
Jack was studying while Dave was cooking dinner..

The past continuous is also used to express what was happening at a precise moment in the past.
I was attending a lecture at 2.30 yesterday afternoon.
Alice was reading a book at six yesterday evening.

Past Simple Structure:
Positive
Subject + Verb + ed OR Irregular Past Form + Objects
I, You, He, She, We, They -> played golf yesterday afternoon.I, You, He, She, We, They -> went lunch at noon.

Negative
Subject + did not (didn't) + Verb + Objects
I, You, He, She, We, They -> didn't go on vacation last summer.
Subject + did not (doesn't) + Verb + Objects

Questions
(Why, What, etc.) + did + Subject + Verb + Objects?
Did -> I, you, we, they -> attend the meeting last week?

Past Continuous Structure:
Positive
Subject + conjugate the helping verb "be" + verb + -ing.
I was, You were, He was, She was, We were, You were, They were -> watching TV when I arrived.
Negative
Subject + conjugate the helping verb "be" + not + verb + -ing.
I wasn't, You weren't, He wasn't, She wasn't, We wasn't, You wasn't, They wasn't -> working when he came into the room.
Questions
Question word + conjugate the helping verb 'be' + subject + verb + -ing
What -> were you, they -> doing at seven o'clock?What -> was I, he, she -> doing at seven o'clock?

Study the Past Simple and Past Continuous in Depth:
Here are detailed guides to the past simple and the past continuous tenses.
Each guide provides situations, common time expressions used with the tense, as well as examples.
These guides were prepared especially for beginners and include dialogues and a short quiz.
Past simple with the verb "to be" for beginnersPast simple with regular and irregular verbs for beginners
It's also important to know your irregular past simple forms which are included in this list of the most important irregular past simple and past participle verb forms

Drinking Culture

We discussed some questions, in groups, about drinking in general.

How often do you drink per week or per month?
Who in your group drinks the least/the most or not at all?
What is the drink you like the most?
What is the most popular drink in your group?
What country do you think drinks the most as a group, why?
Who was the youngest when you had your first drink, who was the oldest
?Where did you have your first drink, with famiily or with friends?
Where do you prefer to drink and why?
What are some things you don't like about drinking?

We listened to This American Life, a non-profit radio show in the U.S. The episode was no. 396: #1 Party School, and about drinking at a large University located in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania. The link to the episode and transcripts can be found here. If you are interested by beer, there is a good documentary on beer called, American Beer. You can see a trailer for it here.

We discussed how U.S. wine consumption surpassed French Wine consumption in March 2011. Americans consume 329 million cases of wine. An example of a successful wine seller in the States is Gary Vaynerchuk, who started his website in 1997 to sell wine. He now sells 60 million dollars of wine a year through his site. He offers video wine reviews through his site as well.

Link to the article with episode and transcript: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135578933/a-wine-bloggers-guide-to-social-media-for-business
Link to Gary's video review of Saumur & Chinon Wines: http://tv.winelibrary.com/category/saumur-champigny/
Gary's Review of Chateau Clinet in Pomerol, Bordeaux with Owner:
http://tv.winelibrary.com/2008/07/16/bordeaux-adventures-commence-at-chateau-clinet-episode-502/

The Hookup

Sex Without Intimacy: No Dating, No Relationships
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105008712

Vocabulary

the hookup - can be non-sexual. "no strings attatched" relationship, no commitment, short-term, unspecific

workaday world - having to go to work everyday, Monday through Friday, main activity is work

child-rearing - raising of children, having babies

stalwart - unwavering; steadfast, unchanging

getting laid - slang for having sex, or other sexual relations with someone

3 day rule - in the US, a social rule that states you must not call or text a girl for at least 3 days after a date or a hookup

dormitories - co-ed (both genders) university housing, can also be strictly male or female

lights out - the time you are supposed to be in bed by

curfew - the time you should be in your building by; its also popular to have curfew for teenagers within certain towns in the US as well