Somehow we got on the subject of emoticons and the abbreviations people use in chatting and text messaging, such as "lol", "brb", "lmao", and "jk". It was funny -- she knew intuitively that lol meant that something was funny, but she actually thought that it was intended to mimic the image of someone with their hands thrown up in the air with their mouth gaping open! It was fun to discuss how this whole new language has formed in the past 15 years or so, and how malleable the English language is. I really look forward to visiting more with Jae after I get back from Oklahoma later this month.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Jules TP-10
For our final tutoring session, Jae and I revisited the extensive list of idioms I had compiled for our previous meeting. She especially enjoyed the imagery of "to bend over backwards" and "to bite off more than you can chew". Some idioms definitely make more sense than others. Then we did a pronunciation exercise that involved tongue twisters. She is getting a lot better at distinguishing between R's and L's ever since I gave her the hint that the tongue touches the teeth to make an L sound.
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I used to think that too (about LOL)!! It was kind of disappointing when I discovered that it was an acronym. Idioms are almost inevitable for me-I usually use one naturally, then end up backing up and explaining it. Sometimes it's rather tricky explaining them too....but once with my CP, it was neat, because I then asked him if there was anything similar in his language, and ended up learning that idioms can even give a little glimpse into the language user's culture :)
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