The Snowstorm---and other News
We used to have an expression in the United States Army that went like this, " There are some people who never get the word no matter what you do!" That happened Wednesday with the snow, ice, sleet and heavy rainstorm. WE HAD NO SCHOOL AT UMASS AND YOU HAD TO LISTEN TO 580 AM ON THE RADIO AS I TOLD EVERYBODY TO DO. (Well, I know at least two students who showed up for school, and I am sorry about that. I met one of them tonight and she said that was okay because it was on her way to work and she had to go to work anyway.
What we were going to do this Wednesday, we will do next Wednesday. That means that Ye Yang, our anesthesiologist (who has promised not to put us all to sleep) will enthrall us with her presentation of Noninvasive in vivo Measurement of Venous Blood ph during Exercise using NIR Reflectance Spectroscopy. (Try to say THAT five times fast!) Ye will be working on all of the factors for presentation that we have been working on in class. While the content of her presentation may fit the idiom we had in class: "It's all Greek to me!"---the factors of volume, enunciation, speed, confidence, pronunciation, signposting, etc. will not be lost on me. So far, Monika and Mukesh have done a fine job and the presentations are a great way to practice your oral English "on the hot seat"so to speak.
The first paragraph of this blog is a good illustration of the first idiom that I taught you: "THAT'S THE WAY THE COOKIE CRUMBLES." Two people came to school even after school had been canceled.
The second paragraph, of course, is a good example of the idiom: "It's all Greek to me!" (I wonder what Greeks say?)----One more bit of news: We are adding one new student this week. Her name is Eun Young Yun, from South Korea. She is a Phd. , but I do not know her specialty yet.
4 comments:
Hello,
I found out what Greeks say when they don't understand something. They say, "It's all CHINESE to me!" The lady who manages the Quinsigamond College Outreach Program is Greek and she told me.
We say the same in Spanish.
When something is impossible to understand we say: "es chino!"
I notice on the FEEDJIT Map that South America is looking in on my blog again after a long absence. At first I thought the country was Uruguay(Lakale's country) but no, it is Argentina. They were looking at the story Lakale wrote about El Mate which is the national drink of Uruguay. It is hard to believe that the picture that goes with the story is that of a SQUASH! (click on the red dot in South America and it will take you to a window which will take you to the story I am talking about.)
The story I am talikg about in the last comment can be found easier by going to NOVEMBER 4, 2007. Do this by scrolling down the RIGHT side to the word "ARCHIVES". Click on "ARCHIVES" Then click on "NOVEMBER 2007" Scroll in November 2007 until you find the story written on Nov.4th. with the picture of the cup that hold the national drink--El Mate. That fancy cup with the silver-colored rim is a dried squash! Do you believe it? There is another picture someplace of a gaucho on a horse drinking out of one of those things using a very long straw. When I taught at the Learning Center, Lakale brewed some of that drink for the class one day.
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