Sunday, August 1, 2021

How to use "wanna" correctly

Recently one of my adult students said, "They just wanna toys."

She didn't realize that "wanna" means "want to".

The easy way to remember how to use "wanna" is to remember that after you use "wanna" you always have to use a verb.

They just wanna get toys.

They just wanna go home.

So the simple rule is: wanna + a verb 

However, you can't use "wanna" with "he" "she" or "it".

That's because "wanna" is "want to" NOT "wants to".

So you can't say, "He wanna go home." You have to say "He wants to go home."

Sorry, but you just can't use "wanna" with "he,she,it".

So, the other rule for wanna is: you can ONLY use wanna with: I, you, we, they.

e.g.

He wants to buy a car.

Not: He wanna buy a car.

Bob wants to eat pizza today.

Not: Bob wanna eat pizza today.

The students wanna take a trip. <-- This works.

The student wants to take a trip.

Not: The student wanna take a trip.






Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Chicago's tap water contains cancer-causing agents

 


Chicago is certainly a city with problems. One of its biggest problems is racism. Chicago is a segregated city. That means white folks live in one area of the city and black folks live in another. Furthermore, there is a huge disparity (difference) in regard to wealth. It seems that most of the wealth in the city is owned by the white folks. The organization called the Urban Institute states that for every $100 that a white family has in Chicago, a black family will have $10 and a Latinx family will have $12.

So black and Latinx neighborhoods are generally poor and most of the gun violence, for which Chicago has become famous, happens in these poorer neighborhoods.

As if that isn't bad enough, it looks as if you have a stronger chance of getting cancer if you drink Chicago's tap water (ordinary water you get from a sink). God help the people of Chicago, since its politicians certainly will not.

An article on Chicago's dangerous tap water:

Chicago's water contains contaminants

Vocabulary from the article:

cancer-linked - something that is linked to cancer, something that probably causes cancer e.g. Cigarette smoking is definitely linked to getting cancer.

a contaminant - something that makes something else less pure or more dangerous. A contaminant pollutes something. The verb is: to contaminate. e.g. A few years ago there was a scandal where milk for babies had been contaminated by a chemical and many babies died.

to deem something to be something - to consider something to be something

not to think twice about something - not to think about doing something at all. e.g. Don't think twice about our friendship, I am definitely your friend and will always be.

the nervous system - the system that starts with your brain and runs through your body, controlling thought and movement. There are many body systems - the digestive system is the system involved in eating, the circulatory system is involved in how your blood flows through your body, your skeletal system is your skeleton.

hormones - chemicals in your body that control how you feel or what you want.

pregnancy - giving birth.

collaborating with - working with.

aggregated and analyzed data - gathered and looked at and tried to understand data.

a water utility - a government organization responsible for providing clean water to people

discrepancy - difference

the current legal limits - what the government says the limits for contaminants in water should be

authoritative studies on what is safe to consume -  so the government has established limits to how many contaminants may be in a glass of water, but the limits are not good enough - authoritative studies (studies done by experts) show that the limits should be stronger and there should be fewer contaminants in the water people from Chicago drink.

outdated - from too long ago

to fill the gap - this means that the old limits are not good enough and a gap exists between what the limits are and what they should be. This organization wants to help establish new limits and fill the gap.

immune-system damaging - your immune system helps protect you from catching illnesses.

to impact health - to affect health, to do something to one's health

detected - discovered or found

the regulatory system - the system meant to provide laws for clean water

inexcusable - there is no excuse for it, there is no reason for it to exist

to be saddled with a cost - to be forced to pay for something that you shouldn't have to pay for. A saddle is something you put on a horse in order to ride it.

filtering technology - this is a device you can use to try to clean the water from your faucet before you drink it. Your faucet is the thing that water comes through before it enters your glass.

a band-aid solution - this is something you do to temporarily fix a problem without changing the source of the problem.

Monday, August 10, 2020

7 highly useful vocab words for the ESL student

 

to be in custody – this is when the police believe someone has committed a crime and they take the person to the police station to question him/her. The person will either be arrested and charged with a crime or allowed to go free. i.e. The police currently have a person in custody who may have been the person who robbed my house. They are still investigating, however. Or: That guy who got into a fight in the local bar and hurt Joe is in custody right now. The police are trying to decide whether to charge him with a crime. Joe had to go to the hospital but it looks as if Joe might have started the fight.

solemn – something very formal and serious, usually a ceremony or event. i.e. For a few years after the 9/11 attacks in New York City, there was a very solemn and moving ceremony each year to remember the innocent people who died. Government leaders and family members would speak about this tragedy and prayers would be said and very emotional music would be played. Or: My father had been a soldier, so when he died the US Army performed a very solemn ceremony at his grave. Soldiers fired their guns and a person played a very sad song on a bugle (a type of horn instrument).

to curb something – to reduce something, do something less then one usually does it. i.e. If Bob wants to lose weight, he needs to curb the amount of beer he drinks. Or: I want to start saving more money, I need to curb my spending. (a curb is the area between a sidewalk and the street; it is connected to the sidewalk and higher than the street and a person parks his/her car next to it)

to be slated to begin on a date – to be scheduled to begin on a certain date. i.e. The rollout of our new product has been slated to begin on January 4th. Or: Construction on our street has been slated to begin next week. We won’t be able to park our cars on our block next week. (a slate is a flat piece of rock that students used to write on over 100 years ago – it was easy to erase writing from a slate and so one slate could be used over and over again)

to be charged with a crime – this happens after a person is arrested, if the police are sure he committed a crime. A person will be formally charged or accused of the crime and have to go on trial. A trial is in a courtroom with a judge. If a person charged with a crime wants a jury, then 12 people will be chosen to listen to the case and decide whether he/she is guilty or innocent. i.e. The police arrested Joe because they believed he had stolen his roommate’s smartphone. The phone was discovered, however, in the apartment before Joe could be charged, so the police merely let him go. Or: Right now they are investigating Trump for various wrongdoings, but there might not be enough evidence to actually arrest and charge him with a crime.

to summon someone, a summons – to call someone is to summon someone, a summons is like a ticket the police give someone indicating he has to go to court because he has been accused of a minor crime. i.e. It was time for dinner and Bob’s wife summoned him from the garage into the kitchen to eat with the family. Or: In New York City, if someone is caught drinking alcohol publicly the police will not arrest him/her because that takes too much time. They will issue the person a summons, indicating that the person must appear in court, before a judge, to determine whether the person was guilty of that minor “crime”.

an aficionado – (uh FISH ee un AH dough) someone who really likes or is into something (this is a Spanish word, used in English). i.e. I like soccer (football) but Joe is a real soccer aficionado. He watches a few games every week and knows a lot about the different teams and players. Or: It is safe to say that I am an art aficionado. I love going to art museums and galleries and I read and write about art.

7 highly useful ESL (English) vocabulary words

 

to assassinate someone – an assassination is a political murder or a murder of someone in politics or government. i.e. Abraham Lincoln was the first US president to be assassinated. This happened in 1865 when an actor shot Lincoln at a Washington D.C. theater. Or: Four US presidents have been assassinated because it is so easy for people to get guns in the USA. Two other presidents were shot, but they were merely wounded and did not die.

a version of something – a different copy of something that came before it. i.e. I don’t know how many versions of the iPhone there have been so far. Each version has a slightly better camera and memory capacity, I suppose.  Or: The writer came up with three different versions of the ending of her book. She decided to finally choose the happiest version to make her readers feel good.

to dock your pay – this is when an employer takes money out of an employee’s paycheck, usually because the employee has been late or violated some other company policy. i.e. I live near one of the worst subway lines in the city and I sometimes can’t get on the train in a timely manner because service is so bad. But my company docks me a significant sum each time I am late. It’s so unfair. Or: Because Joe kept coming in to work ½ hour late each morning, his company has now threatened to dock him a big chunk of money for each time he is late in the future.

to sneak into a place – to go into a place, usually without permission, in a very quiet way. i.e. In New York City the subway fares are kind of high, so many poor people will try to sneak into the system. If they get caught, they will be punished with a fine (they will have to pay money). Or: Trump does not like illegal immigration because he says people sneak into the country and use educational and medical services for free. According to Trump, this hurts the economy.

to be vulnerable – capable of being hurt. i.e. It is important to be kind to children as much as possible because they are developing and very sensitive. They are super vulnerable and can be really hurt deeply if we are not careful. Or: We need to be very nice to Joe over the next few days. He just broke up with his girlfriend and he is quite emotionally vulnerable now. He seems to get hurt emotionally very easily these days.

periodically – every once in a while, not a lot but not a little, and not according to a set schedule. i.e. I used to go to Hong Kong from Shenzhen periodically. I averaged maybe once every three weeks. Because of the protests, I have stopped going completely. Or: A good supervisor will have meetings with individual staff members periodically to provide useful and supportive feedback.

superficial – on the surface. i.e. There are many people who look cool in Brooklyn, but when you talk to them, they are kind of stupid. These are just superficial people who want to look interesting, but who are not interesting. Or: Superficially the deal between our companies looked good. But when I read the details of the agreement more carefully, I realized we needed to avoid this agreement.

5 ESL vocab words (6)

 

to vow to do something – to promise to do something; to seriously say you will do something i.e. The mayor (leader) of the city vowed to make sure that the subway system would run more efficiently, because so many people were complaining about it. Or: You are a good friend of mine, I vow that I will always try my best to help you.

relentless/relentlessly – never giving up. The United States pursued the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden relentlessly and, finally, after many years, they executed him. Or: Scientists have been relentlessly searching for a cure for cancer, and they have made great progress over the years in cancer treatment.

to boycott something – an organized effort to get people not to buy something from a business or a country for political or moral reasons. i.e. Caesar Chavez wanted to help poor Mexican workers in California who were picking grapes for large farms, but not being paid much money. He asked Americans to boycott grapes to force the farms to pay the workers higher wages. The boycott worked – when farers started losing money because people were not buying grapes, they raised the wages of the poor workers. Or: South Africa used to have a racist system in which black people could not live among white people. Countries around the world started to boycott South African diamonds. Because South Africa needed to make money from selling diamonds, they ended their system of racist ‘apartheid’ (keeping blacks separated from whites).

dignity – to have a sense of dignity is to have a sense of self-respect; to treat others with dignity means to realize they are human beings and that they should be treated with respect and consideration. i.e. This boss of ours is terrible, he does not treat people with dignity. He is insulting and cruel and often shouts at his staff. Or: Even the poorest person deserves to be treated with dignity because he/she is a human being and worthy of kindness, mercy and respect.

to smuggle something into somewhere – to take something into a country secretly and illegally. i.e. In Singapore, they will execute anyone who tries to smuggle illegal drugs into their country. Or: In US airports trained dogs are used to sniff around (smell) pieces of luggage to catch drugs and even food that some people might be trying to smuggle into the country.

5 ESL vocab words (5)

 

to be diligent – basically this means to be hard working and focused on details. i.e. Our last accountant, Bob, had a good education but he just wasn’t diligent enough. He always seemed to make mistakes that others had to correct. Or: No student is going to do well in school unless he/she is diligent about reading the materials assigned and doing thorough (complete) research.

to be or feel overwhelmed – to experience too much of something  i.e. I had so much work to do and then my boss gave me three extra projects to finish by the end of the week. I felt so overwhelmed by work that I wanted to scream. Or (used positively): When I visited China two summers ago people were so kind to me; I was overwhelmed by their kindness and cannot even express my gratitude to this day. Or: I decided to go to a nightclub in Manhattan by myself but there were so many attractive and cool people that I felt overwhelmed and I went home. I now realize few people go to nightclubs alone.

to bail on someone or something – to abandon someone or something, to run away from someone or something. This term comes from “to bail out of an airplane” – in a war if an airplane is damaged a pilot will jump out (bail out) of the airplane and glide down with his parachute. ‘bail’ can be a confusing word because you can also ‘bail someone out of trouble’ or someone arrested by the police can pay ‘bail’ and stay out of jail before his/her trial. So ‘bail’ has a few meanings, but I want to focus on ‘to bail on someone or something’. i.e. When I got to the dance club I realized that everyone there was a teenager, so I bailed on the club and went elsewhere. Or: Joe had a blind date from an internet dating site (he was meeting the person for the first time without having seen her before). At the restaurant he realized that his date was a nasty and insulting person, so he made an excuse to leave and bailed on her.

a rant – this is when a person complains loudly about something, for a significant amount of time. i.e. At the press conference Trump launched into (began) a long rant about how much journalists hate him and how unfair everyone is to him. Or: Sometimes crazy people launch into crazy rants on the subway in New York City. They just start complaining loudly about anything and everything.

to be booted from some place – to be kicked out of some place, to be removed from some place. i.e. A crazy woman launched into a scary rant on an airplane recently and started saying that the airline was corrupt and they were all going to die. The plane landed early so she could be booted and arrested. Or: Two people wouldn’t stop talking at the concert hall recently and this upset many people who had paid a lot for their tickets. So the security guards booted these two people from the concert hall.

5 more English vocab words (4)

 

to jinx yourself – to do something that brings bad luck onto yourself. i.e. Two days ago I wrote on Facebook that my relationship with my girlfriend was super strong and we would love each other forever. The next day we had a huge argument and broke up. I totally jinxed myself by saying we would love each other forever. Or: I bought a new car last week and then I learned that I am not going to receive the bonus I expected. I jinxed myself by buying that car!

to execute someone – this is when the government kills a criminal who has committed a serious crime. i.e. The state of Texas recently executed a man who had killed an entire family after robbing them (stealing money from them). Or: In the USA a person can only be executed for murder or for betraying the USA to a foreign government (helping a foreign government to gain secrets about the USA).

a tragedy – this usually means someone or some people who were innocent died in an unnecessary way. i.e. It was a real tragedy that several Chinese immigrants died in a truck as they were being illegally transported into England. Or: September 11th 2001 is a tragedy that no New Yorker will ever forget. 3,000 innocent people died in a terrorist attack.

to suffocate – to die because of a lack of air. i.e. The Chinese people who died in the truck in England may have suffocated due to the container they were in, or they may have frozen to death because it was a refrigeration container. Or: In the tragedy of the Kursk submarine, many sailors suffocated when the submarine dropped to the bottom of the ocean and it could not be brought back to the surface. (A submarine is a ship that travels underwater – about 10 years ago a Russian submarine called the Kursk had an explosion and dropped to the bottom of the ocean. Most sailors suffocated.)

a good cause (or: a cause) – this is an organized effort to improve something in the world. i.e. I like to donate money each year to a good cause. Last year I gave money to a program for orphans and the year before I donated to the cause of protecting the environment. Or: In the 1970s many women joined the cause of women’s rights. Or: In the 1980s in the USA gay rights became a major cause leading to equal rights for gay people in America’s cities. Or: I am going to donate money for research into how to end cancer. This is a good cause I want to support.