A Commercial for Jeanne Coleman's Massage

I have a neice who lives in Grafton, Massachusetts which is a small town adjacent to Worcester. Jeanne is a lovely lady who like everybody else on this planet is trying to earn an honest living in the best way that she can. Jeanne has come up with an interesting way of doing that. She has become an expert at massage and as one of her uncles I think it is time that I give her business " A PLUG" (?). Now, if you are one of my students, you may be scurrying off to your American Heritage Dictionary to find out what a plug means. Well, it won't be there because I am using the word as an IDIOM. When a person gives a business a plug, he is saying good things about that business.
The way I am going to give Jeanne's business a plug is to give you its website so that you can look at it. Jeanne went to Thailand to improve her knowledge of massage and while she was there she had this beautiful website made. (Her brother David told me this.) This is the website to look at: www.thaitransformations.com
(Now if someone will give Mr. Leo "a plug" for his ESL tutoring business,
both Jeanne and her uncle will be able to buy gas for their gas guzzling cars!)Go see Jeanne for your weary bones and Mr. Leo to learn English.

Join the Blog.

I am glad that I am the 3rd person in our UMass ESL class to join Mr. Leo's blog. It seems we don't really need a google email acCount to log in TO the blog because I was successful enterING it with my yahoo email account. But it did take me a little while to see how TO post A new post. Finally, I found that it was on the right top of the page. /Ye

(Ye, I only made a few changes. Good job, especially for someone who has been as busy as you have been the past few days!)

Happy

I'm very glad to know that I'm the second member of our class to join Mr Leo's blog.

Mr. Leo's Grammar Challenge

Listed below are ten sentences. They are all WRONG! Your challenge is to write them again using correct English. If you are in my Wednesday class, you can do them for homework, or wait for me to take them up in class. Remember, there may be several ways to make each sentence correct. Good luck.

1. I want to learn English since I am a child.

2. Our class has have three tests since the beginning of the term.

3. All of us has learn many things since we were children.

4. Since I were young, I like animals.

5. Shira said In my country women are soldiers in the army since the 1970's.

6. Mukesh was busy every day since he arrive at Worcester.

7. Hua haven't to eat any kind of chinese food for a week she misses it a lot

8. I almost die in a automobile accident five years ago since that day my life changed completely.

9. When I was at my sisters house we had an argument. Since then I didn't talk to her for three days.

10. If I was you I would get eight hours of sleep each night.

Our Class Today at UMass

The weather was terrible again this morning for the fourth Wednesday in a row. Mukesh did not make it in from Rhode Island. Ye sent me an e-mail and apologized for missing class. She had an interview. HeyJoon also e-mailed me. Monika is still sick with the flu, although she is getting better. Let us hope that spring will really arrive by next week!
I told Ye in my answer to her e-mail that I would write a summary of our class on my blog, so here it is as best as I can do it.
We began with an explanation of three IDIOMS. They were as follows:
l. A "Snow Job"
2. "Spill the Beans"
3. To "Feed someone a Line"
I cannot go into a long explanation on a blog the way I can in the classroom, but I will give you a sentence at least using each one and you can send me an e-mail if you want to talk about them further.

I knew the car salesman was giving me a "snow job" when he told me that that old junk of a car was worth $3,000 when I knew it was only worth $1500. I did not believe him!
I wanted to keep my blog address a secret for awhile, but Hua "spilled the beans." (To "spill the beans" means the same thing as to "let the cat out of the bag.")
To "feed someone a line" is closely related to giving someone a "snow job". They mean almost the same thing. To "feed someone a line" is to tell someone something that IS NOT TRUE. Example: Leo was feeding me a line when he said that I was the Princess of China!
We were next treated to a delightful Powerpoint presentation by Weifang entitled One World--One Dream. It was different from our previous presentations in that it had nothing to do with medicine or medical research. It dealt with the 2008 Olympic Games which are going to be held in Beijing, China this coming August. Weifang's presentation was wonderful. She told me after she finished that for the last year and a half of her doctoral program in China she was taught English by an American couple who had traveled to China for that purpose. It really showed in Weifang's pronunciation. (Weifang had an intriguing suggestion for the class which I will take up with all of you when I see you next Wednesday.)
After a very short critique, I took up the pronunciation key of the American Heritage Dictionary. I got through about half the alphabet. I will review that quickly next week and finish it. Also, I will go over the HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT I sent you by e-mail that you needed to use the link http://www.medlineplus.com/ (If you are saying, "What is he talking about?" look back at your e-mails from me, and if you still don't know, write to me and I will tell you again.-----(poliomyelitis) ???----Goodnight,Ye.

IMMIGRANT

Being an immigrant is different now from fifty years ago. My country is made by immigrant from all over the world, like USA does.
My profession allowed me to talk with my patients widely. They told me amazing stories. I would never made the same journey. Some of them leave their families and never saw them again, like my great grand parents.

I remember an old man from Portugal that told me that he had a farm of olive trees in his country that he left sixty years ago, traveling by ship. Once in Uruguay, he struggle to survive keeping money to come back, but he felt in love and married, bought a house and stayed. He used to write to his family once in a while. He missed his olives. I asked him if he was going to go back now that he was widow, he had not children or other tied in Uruguay. He answered that he didn't have any relatives or friends to visit. He had only curiosity to know how things changed in Portugal. He passed away a week after we talked

Other man that was from Italy traveled by ship with fake documents because he was minor and was not allowed to travel alone. His father and his older brother were already in Buenos Aires. They worked making shoes and sent money back to their mother and sister. They wrote once a month. When his father finally retired, he decide to go back with his family, but suddenly got ill and died.

My patient sent money, and letters, and once the war ended, he went to visit his town. He made the first bathroom in the town. The people from all around went to see the modern thing that he brought from the new world. He was a hard worker and had a shoe's factory with his brother. He was continuous sending money and letters to her family, and ten years after, he went again and found that Italy was another country. He was sending money to them but they had better houses, and cars, and appliances than he had. He was really surprised.

My family is now spreads around the world but I can talk everyday with them, by phone, email or messenger. I can see their faces, see pictures, listen their voices. I know even what my children eat everyday. I would never live for a long time not knowing about my family. My great grandparents came from Italy during the nineteenth century and never went back or even write a letter to their family. Was like if the the life that they lived back disappeared.

IMMIGRANT

Being an immigrant is different now THAN IT WAS fifty years ago. My country is COMPRISED OF immigrantS from all over the world JUST AS THE UNITED STATES IS. My profession allowed me to talk with my patients EVERYWHERE. They told me amazing stories. I would never HAVE made the same journeyAS THEY DID. Some of them LEFT their families and never saw them again. THAT IS WHAT MY GREAT GRANDPARENTS DID.

I remember an old man from Portugal WHO told me that he had a farm of olive trees in his country that he left sixty years ago. Once in Uruguay, he struggleD to survive keeping money to GO back, but he felL in love married, bought a house, and stayed. He used to write to his family once in a while. He missed his olives. I asked him if he WERE going to go back now that he was A widow AND had NO children or other tieS in Uruguay. He answered that he didn't have any relatives or friends to visit. He had only curiosity to know how things HAD changed in Portugal FROM THE TIME HE LEFT. He passed away a week after we talked.

ANOther man WHO was from Italy traveled by ship with fake documents because he was A minor and was not allowed to travel alone. His father and his older brother were already in Buenos Aires. They worked making shoes and sent money back to their mother and sister. They wrote once a month. When his father finally retired, he decideD to go back with his family but suddenly got ill and died.

ANOTHER patient OF MINE sent money and letters ,and once the war ended, he went to visit his town. He made the first bathroom in the town. The people from all around went to see the modern thing that he brought from the new world. He was a hard worker and had a shoe factory with his brother. He was continuousLY sending money and letters to her family, and ten years after, he went again and found that Italy was another country. He was sending money to them, but they had better houses , cars, and appliances than he had. He was really surprised.

My family is now spread around the world but I can talk every day with them by phone, email, or messenger. I can see their faces, see pictures, AND listen TO their voices. I EVEN know what my children eat everyday. I would never live for a long time not knowing about my family. My great grandparents came from Italy during the nineteenth century and never went back or even WROTE a letter to their family. IT was AS if the life that they lived back THEN disappeared.

Jumping Rope versus Eating Ice Cream

A few days ago an ESL teacher friend of mine telephoned me and said that she and a few of her colleagues were having a discussion about a grammar construction in a sentence. She wanted my opinion on the matter. The sentence was this: " Jumping rope is fun." The question was, What role does "Jumping rope" play in the sentence? The answer is "Jumping rope" is a GERUND PHRASE. Normally, a gerund by itself is a present participle of a verb(an "ing" word) acting as a noun. Thus, in the sentence, "Skiing is my favorite sport, "skiing" is the subject of the sentence and a gerund because it is a present participle acting as a noun. If you say, " I am skiing." "Skiing" in that sentence is NOT a gerund because it is part of the verb and is not acting as a noun.

Let's get back to "Jumping rope".As I said, Jumping rope is a gerund phrase because it has TWO words. The technical definition of a gerund phrase is as follows: " The gerund phrase includes the gerund and the object of the gerund or any modifiers related to the gerund.
Another thing: A gerund or gerund phrase can only be a SUBJECT or OBJECT in a sentence. In Jumping rope is fun, "Jumping rope" is the subject of the sentence. If the sentece read: I like jumping rope, the gerund phrase, jumping rope would be the direct object of the verb "like"

Here is another example: Eating ice cream out of a cone can be a messy experience for a two year old child.

I hope I haven't confused the issue more! At this point one might say, Who cares? Why is it at all important in English grammar that I be able to recognize a gerund or a gerund phrase when I see one?
Well, There is one more rule you should know about gerunds. IF YOU ARE USING A PRONOUN IN FRONT OF A GERUND, IT SHOULD BE A POSSESSIVE PRONOUN.....SO...You should not say, "I hope you don't mind ME jumping rope in the classroom!" You SHOULD say, "I hope you don't mind MY jumping rope in the classroom.......and now I hope you don't mind my signing off.....goodbye.

The non sense

This is the statue that the mothers use to walk around.
I need to tell you that even the woman that lead the idea of go to Plaza the mayo, Azucena
Villaflor, disappeared at the same time that three nuns from France. Recently the body of them were found in NN tomb.

You didn't need to be opposed to the dictatorship to disappear or be tortured. The father of one of my friends was a Teacher of History at a high school and died as a consequence of be tortured. Ideas, and books were specially dangerous.

One of my friends has a fanny story. She lent a ladder to her neighbor. A week after she needed the ladder and asked her brother to go to the neighbor house to take the ladder. After an hour of wait for the ladder she decided to go herself to see why her brother didn't come back.
When she knocked at the neighbor' door , it opened and she was dragged into the house by a soldier, finding the whole family and her brother tied on the floor. She was also tied, hooded, and everybody went to, she didn't know where. They were all tortured, asked for something that they didn't even understand. They were released after two days of horror.

International Women's Day

March 8, 2008 is International Women's Day. Every year since 1911 people around the globe have celebrated both the accomplishments and continuing struggles of all women. This year, Women Together, a local women's organization,will note the occasion with a breakfast/brunch and sharing of women's stories.
During the 1970's, military dictatorships prevailed in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay in South America. Many people who opposed these governments were arrested, tortured, kidnapped, and simply disappeared. Frantic mothers traveled from one police or military station to the next seeking information about the whereabouts of their sons and daughters. They were met with SILENCE! These women took enormous risks doing this because they could have been arrested themselves. In desperation, the women began meeting in churches asking for help from the clergy.
On April 30, 1977, a group of 14 mothers after realizing that the priests were powerless to help them decided to stage a protest in front of the presidential palace on the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. in an attempt to pressure the president to meet with them. They all wore the same white head scarves to demonstrate their solidarity. The police took a stand and would not allow the women to stand in front of the president's palace, so the women decided to encircle and walk slowly around a nearby statue. Thus began a tradition that has continued for the past 31 years. This group of women wearing white scarves walk solemnly around this statue in Buenos Aires demanding to know what happened to their relatives. From 14 women in the beginning the numbers have now grown to where they now number in the thousands.
During the dictatorship years, 30,000 people disappeared without leaving a trace. Probably about half of that number consisted of blue collar workers because the military intended to break the power of the unions. Only a small number of these victims were associated with the left-wing guerillas.
Most likely, the fate of the victims of the military dictatorships of South America will never be known. However, the struggle of these courageous women will never be forgotten even if the walk around the statue were to stop.....Why?....because, as I understand it, there is an institution founded by these mothers called,...PLAZA DE MAYO UNIVERSITY!!!
Truly an amazing story, wouldn't you say?
AUTHOR'S NOTE and a note to LAKALE: I wrote the story again mostly for my Wednesday class. Lakale, they ended up with three versions of the story. I gave them your uncorrected story first. Then I gave them your corrected story. Finally, I gave them my version of the same story. Now they can compare all three along with the homework assignment I gave them. Now Lakale you get an "A" if you can add a picture of the statue that all those women walk around. Also, you can correct any facts that I may be mixed up on. (Maybe some Wednesday if you have a day off you can come as my guest to my Wednesday class. You really have been part of it anyway!)
AUTHOR'S NOTE #2: (Recently, the Worcester organization known as WOMEN TOGETHER was honored as an outstanding community group by the Worcester Telegram and Evening Gazette at a ceremony at Mechanics Hall.