Ron's ESL Blogs

My childhood life looks like an intriguing book. As a child, I did many interesting and stupid things. There are some memories that are blurry to me now, but there are still some unforgettable things in my memory. My most unforgettable memory was I drunk cleanser as milk.
When I was six years old, I liked drinking milk very much. One day, I saw my mother used milk as a face mask. Thus I thought milk could be anything. That was amazing. And my mother had a milk cleanser that looked like milk. One day, my mother went to market but I am at home. I want to drink some milk but no more. I tried to drink the milk cleanser. It felt wrong decide and tasted so bad. Then I vomited and washed my mouth. Suddenly, I hit the cleanser bottle and lost some cleanser. I didn’t know what to do. Then I put into some milk in cleanser bottle and shook it. Finally, my mother found it. But my mother just laughed me. She said, “You’re so cute.”
Until today, I still remember I drunk cleanser. Even several years after, it is funny experience in my mind. I will talking to my grandchild as my childhood story when I became grandma.

My best friend TVC has so many good trail. One of  his good trail is helpful. He is a helpful person, he likes helping people . He used to help me a lots.

One example happened three year ago, when we were in high school together. One of my classmate, his name is Vincent and he got sick. He couldn’t go to school and missed classes. No one in class help him but TVC. One day , TVC didn’t see Vincent come to class anymore, then he thought it would be something wrong. He found out that he got sick . He asked teacher Vincent’s phone number and address. He came to Vincent’s house and helped him to catch up with class. Ove week later, Vincent got well and came to class. He hasn’t missed anything, TVC helped him a lots.

To give another example, I am a student so bad at math , i always get low score for my math test. My score was about 50%-60%. TVC voluntered to be my math tutor,  to help me to improve my math skill. He told me to practice more , and my math skill would get better soon . He spent all his free time to help me . I was so worry , because the final test is coming , and if my math skills don’t get better ,i would fail that test. Finally , i got high score from my final test , after so many day study hard with TVC. I was so happy.

One more example took place a few months ago , I was on the way to school by motocycle. My school is kind of far from my house like 30 minutes away. I was taking freeway , and this car was driving behind me and hit me suddenly. i fell down and my hand hurts a lots and bloods were falling down. I was so nervous and did not know what to do. I called my house and there was no one pick up the phone, and i called my best friend TVC to help. He was in class and he left class to come with me . He helped me eveything , and went to hopital with me.

TVC is a helpful people. A good friend with good trail that I never had. I’ve learn how to be helpful person from him.

English has an ability to express an idea or concept with the finest details possible.

This can be done using synonyms.

A synonym is a word with the same, or almost the same, meaning as another word.

For example, you could say, “Janet wears a blue hat and a red dress.”

You could also say, “Janet sports a navy cloche and a burgundy gown.”

Let’s explain the second sentence:

“Sport” means “to wear in a proud way.”
It is a synonym of “wear.”

“Navy” means “very dark blue.”
It is a synonym of “blue.”

“Cloche” means “a woman’s hat that is shaped like a bell and fits close to the head.”
It is a synonym of “hat.”

“Burgundy” means “dark red,” like the Burgundy wine.
(That’s wine from an area in eastern France called Burgundy.)
It is a synonym of “red.”

“Gown” means “a long woman’s dress, worn in special occasions.”
It is a synonym of “dress.”

If we didn’t have the above words in the English vocabulary, we would probably say something like this:
“Janet proudly wears a very dark blue hat. Her hat is shaped like a bell and fits close to the head. She also wears a dark red long formal dress.”

This is longer and slightly less accurate. (Though definitely clearer if you are unfamiliar with the above words!)

- Now reread the first and second sentences.
- After reviewing each, Imagine Janet’s appearance.
She looks quite different, doesn’t she?  :-)

This is only one way of using synonyms.

Understanding synonyms (and their opposite – the antonyms) is important to truly mastering the English language with all its “colors” (= aspects).

1) So what are synonyms and antonyms?

2) Pretty, beautiful, handsome… what’s the difference?

3) Why are synonyms and antonyms important?

4) How to use them to improve vocabulary?

5) How to use them to improve writing skills?

Visit the Synonyms and Antonyms lesson to get the answers.

There are many ways on learning English such as attending school, buying English course, taking online classes, reading books and talking English frequently. Learning English is a challenge for some people although to others it is easy to learn.

 For me learning English is a challenge, because I’m a shy person to speak to others, when I speak English I get nervous and my tongue freezes then the pronunciation is different from the spelling also English is not my first language and learning a second language is not easy as it looks. These are some of the problems for me to learn English, but this time I’m very confident on myself to reach my goal on learning English that’s why I’m trying hard on it.

 These are my ways to learn English, first of all I’m coming to school every day, I pay attention in class, I’m doing my homework and the exercises in the book, also I’m reading books at home, listening to the radio and watching TV in English. Another thing that I’m doing is speaking a little more English with others.

 Second I’m writing every day a short paragraph without worrying about punctuation and spelling for me it is a way to help myself on how to write an essay. Another thing that I’m doing is writing vocabulary words this way; I learn how to spell and the meaning of the word.

 Third I download applications on my phone like grammar, how to pronounce the words, verbs, prepositions and more, also I’m studying on the web site the teacher gives us.

 The most important to learn English is studying hard and be a fighter to achieve the goal of learning

This time I would like to talk with you about a topic relevant to vocabulary.

That topic is English word formation processes.

As any student soon discovers, English has a very rich vocabulary. But obviously, it didn’t get all of its words at once. Most of the English words were gradually developed, some adopted, some simply invented.

By understanding these processes, you can get greater understanding of the background of English.

More importantly, by looking into the origin of single words, students can gain deeper understanding of the vocabulary they are trying to learn.

Let’s look at a practical example.

The student is studying a new word for them – “guard” (a person who protects a place or people). After understanding the literal meaning of “guard,” you can look into this word’s origin.

It turns out that it comes from the Old French word “garder,” which means, “protect.” Now, this makes sense, doesn’t it? A guard indeed protects!

Here is another example. The English word “secure” actually comes from the Latin word “securus,” which is built from “se-” (free from) and “cura” (care).

So as you can see, word etymology (the origin and history of words and their meanings) can truly enhance understanding.

Try this tip and see how it affects your or your students’ progress.

And click here to learn more about the different word formation processes in English.