How I became an ESL teacher

Long hours of drive, nocturnal life and unlimited coffee was my world when I was working for American Based Company. The free coffee was a big part of my life since I had to battle against nature. Why? I was awake while the rest of my fellow men were sleeping. That's what you get if you're working in American company since we have 9-12 hours difference depending on the state. It was a good thing that DELL (The company i was working with) was kind enough to provide us with different flavors of coffee. There was the regular coffee, caramel coffee, and my favorite one toffee nut coffee. The work was hard but the pay was higher compared to other jobs in our country. Due to the economic crisis the DELL branch I was working with was to be leased to another company that I didn't like so I didn't accept the new company offer to hire me. DELL was generous and gave a really good severance package for those who did not accept the offer of DELL's buyer.

Thanks to DELL I was able to buy a high end laptop using the severance pay which became my major tool as an ESL tutor. I pampered my self and had a vacation. Visited some of the tourist spots here in our country. After Vacation I decide to look for a job that would be easier. I stumbled upon and decided to give it a shot. I got students and even private students. It was fun and fulfilling for me specially when i hear sincere thank you and appreciation from my student's. I also love the fact the I'm working at the comfort of my own home.

That's my story!


Enrich your vocabulary:

* Nocturnal - animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day

* Economic crisis - unstable situation due to recessions, stock market crashes and etc

* Severance pay - pay and benefits an employee receives when they leave the company.

* Generous - Selflessness behaviour

* Pampered - being luxurious; indulged to the full

* stumbled upon - came across

* ESL - English as a Second Language

* DELL - American Company that sells and customizes laptop, desktops, software and other Electronic gadgets. It is founded by Michael S. Dell who reclaim the CEO throne.

Verb Tenses

We will be reviewing verb tenses

Verb Tenses

SIMPLE

Present - expresses an unchanging, repeated, or reoccurring action or situation that exists only now. It can also represent a widespread truth.

Example:
1.The mountains are tall and white. Unchanging action
2.Every year, the school council elects new members. Recurring action
3.Pb is the chemical symbol for lead. Widespread truth


Past - expresses an action or situation that was started and finished in the past. Most past tense verbs end in -ed. The irregular verbs have special past tense forms which must be memorized.

Example:
1.W.W.II ended in 1945. Regular -ed past
2.Ernest Hemmingway wrote "The Old Man and the Sea." Irregular form

Future - expresses an action or situation that will occur in the future. This tense is formed by using will/shall with the simple form of the verb

Example:
1.The speaker of the House will finish her term in May of 1998.
The future tense can also be expressed by using am, is, or are with going to.
2.The surgeon is going to perform the first bypass in Minnesota.

* We can also use the present tense form with an adverb or adverbial phrase to show future time.
1.The president speaks tomorrow. (Tomorrow is a future time adverb.)

Progressive Forms

Present Progressive Tense

Present progressive tense describes an ongoing action that is happening at the same time the statement is written. This tense is formed by using am/is/are with the verb form ending in –ing

Example
1. The sociologist is examining the effects that racial discrimination has on society.
Past Progressive Tense
Past progressive tense describes a past action which was happening when another action occurred. This tense is formed by using was/were with the verb form ending in -ing.

Example
1.The explorer was explaining the lastest discovery in Egypt when protests began on the streets.

Future Progressive Tense

Future progressive tense describes an ongoing or continuous action that will take place in the future. This tense is formed by using will be or shall be with the verb form ending in -ing.
Example
1.Dr. Jones will be presenting ongoing research on sexist language next week.

Perfect Forms

Present Perfect Tense

Present perfect tense describes an action that happened at an indefinite time in the past or that began in the past and continues in the present.This tense is formed by using has/have with the past participle of the verb. Most past participles end in -ed. Irregular verbs have special past participles that must be memorized.

Example Meaning
1. The researchers have traveled to many countries in order to collect more significant data. At an indefinite time
2. Women have voted in presidential elections since 1921. Continues in the present


Past Perfect Tense

Past perfect tense describes an action that took place in the past before another past action. This tense is formed by using had with the past participle of the verb.

Example
1.By the time the troops arrived, the war had ended.

Future Perfect Tense

Future perfect tense describes an action that will occur in the future before some other action. This tense is formed by using will have with the past participle of the verb.

Example
1.By the time the troops arrive, the combat group will have spent several weeks waiting.

Perfect Progressive Forms

Present Perfect Progressive

Present perfect progressive tense describes an action that began in the past, continues in the present, and may continue into the future. This tense is formed by using has/have been and the present participle of the verb (the verb form ending in -ing).

Example:
1.The CEO has been considering a transfer to the state of Texas where profits would be larger.

Past Perfect Progressive

Past perfect progressive tense describes a past, ongoing action that was completed before some other past action. This tense is formed by using had been and the present perfect of the verb (the verb form ending in -ing).

Example:
1. Before the budget cuts, the students had been participating in many extracurricular activities.

Future Perfect Progressive

Future perfect progressive tense describes a future, ongoing action that will occur before some specified future time. This tense is formed by using will have been and the present participle of the verb (the verb form ending in -ing).

Example:
1.They will have been talking for over an hour by the time Thomas arrives.
2.James will have been teaching at the university for more than a year by the time he leaves for Asia

What is a preposition?

These are words that specify place, direction, and time. A preposition also connects a noun to other words and shows the relationship between them. There are three general types of prepositions.

1. Time prepositions - are used to define time. Prepositions usually come before a noun or pronoun. Prepositions never come after a verb.

•after - I will be there after work.
•around - We will be there around 3 PM
•before - I will be there before I go to school.
•between - I will be there
•by - I will be there by the time that you leave for work.
•during - I will be there during your class.
•for - I will be there for your birthday.
•past - I wasn't there for the past 2 months.
•since - I didn't see her since I was 10 years old.
•until - I will not be home until 7:00 PM.
•within - I will be there within 2 hours.

2. Prepositions of place - are used to clarify a specific place. Place prepositions are used with all nouns. The preposition usually comes before the noun or the pronoun. The preposition never comes before a verb.
Common Place Prepositions:

•aboard - She is aboard the boat.
•above - The picture is above the sofa.
•across - My house is across the street.
•against - The desk is against the wall.
•around - My house is around the block.
•at - Is your house at the end of the street.
•at the back of - We are going to sit at the back of the theater.
•at the bottom of - The coins are at the bottom of the lake.
•at the top of - The books are at the top of the shelves.
•between - We sit between the two boys.
•behind - The girls sit behind the two boys.
•below - The desk is below the window
•by - The books are by the door.
•in - I live in the big green and white house.
•inside - I live inside the big green house.
•on the corner of - We live on the corner of 3rd avenue
•in the middle of - We live in the middle of the street.
•near - I don't live near the supermarket.
•next to - I live next to my best friend.
•on - The sun heater is on the top of the building.
•on the side of - There is a big sign on the side of the house.
•on top of - There is a man on the top of the roof.
•on the other side of - Do you see what is going on over there on the other side of the roof?
•opposite - The post office is on the opposite side of the street.
•outside - The car is outside the garage.
•underneath - The pen is underneath the box.

3. Direction Prepositions - Direction prepositions are used to clarify the direction of someone or something. Examples: under, over, right, left etc.

•to the left of - The blue box is to the left of the green box.
•to the right of - The orange box is to the right of the yellow box.
•under - The blanket is under the bed in a box.

Parts of Speech

In grammar, a lexical category (also known as word class, lexical class, or in traditional grammar part of speech0 is a linguistic category of words (or more precisely lexical items) , which is generally defined by the syntactic or morphological behaviour of the lexical item in question. Common linguistic categories include noun and verb , among others. In simpler explanation , the parts of speech explains the way of words that can be used in various context. Every word in the English language functions as at least one part of speech; many words can serve at different times, as two or more parts of speech, depending on the context.


There are Nine parts of Speech:

1. Noun - A word or phrase that names a person, place, thing, quality or act. A noun maybe used as the subject of a verb, the object of a verb, an identifying noun, the object of a preposition, or an appositive (an explanatory phrase coupled with a subject or object)

* Person: Mr. Park likes to play tennis.
* Place: Seoul is the capital of Korea.
* Thing: To bake a cake, you need an oven.

2. Verb - A word or phrase that express action, existence, or occurrence (throw, be, happen). Verbs can be transitive, requiring an object (her in i met her)or intransitive requiring only a subject (The sun
rises) . Some verbs , like feel are both transitive (Feel the fabric) and intransitive (I feel cold , in which cold is an adjective not an object).

* Action: He was running through the forest
* State of being: Claudia was sad that particular morning.

3. Pronoun - A word that substitutes for a noun and refers to a person, place, thing, idea, or act that was mentioned previously or that can be inferred from the context of the sentence (he, she, it, that ).

* Guillermo was studying for the mid-term exam when he realized that it was three o’clock in the morning

Note: (There are actually many types of pronouns: personal, interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite, relative, possessive, reflexive, and reciprocal)

4. Adjective - A word or combination of words that modifies a noun (blue-green, central, half-baked, temporary).

* The beautiful woman only wanted a couple of pairs of shoes.
* The rainy day made us even sadder.

5. Adverb - A word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb (slowly, obstinately, much).

* The little girl walked happily through the park.
* The orphan hungrily ate the hot stew.

6. Conjunction - A word that connects other words, phrases, or sentences (and, but, or, because).

* Manuel and Marisol loved to cook.
* You will go to school, or you will fail.
* I am happy because I just received my check.
* It has been cloudy since the morning.

7. Article - Any of three words used to signal the presence of a noun. A and an are known as indefinite articles; the is the definite article.

* The bicycle was not only red but shiny.
* A yellow moon always appears in October.
* An excellent student, Armando passed all his exams.

8. Preposition - A word or phrase that shows the relationship of a noun to another noun (at, by, in, to, from, with).

* The cat was on the table.
* The dog was under the table.
* These are some common prepositions: (For, on, to, up, at, under, above, toward, With, between, in, behind, From, upon, into and off )

9. Interjection – expressive word, phrase, or sound used as an exclamation and capable of standing by itself (oh, Lord, damn, my goodness).

* Wow, you knocked that ball out of the park.
* Oh, you really need to take care of yourself.
* Huh, what did you say?
* Ah, now I understand the problem.

Why do we need to learn ENGLISH?

Why do we need to learn ENGLISH?

The answer is very easy. English is an important aspect of our daily lives. WHY? English is a universal language (global language in case ,we are not the only creature who can speak.hehehehe.. im talking about aliens. I'm not sure if they do exist though) The world has changed. We no longer live in our country alone. There are tourist, immigrants, foreigner and etc in our country and the best way to communicate with them is by using English as a mode of communication.

In the world on IT (information technology) the common language used is English. Most website uses ENGLISH as their main Language. For business men you would have to learn English to expand your business to overseas. If you are a student you would have to learn English for your own bright future or, at least, pass the exam. As for employees you would have to learn English for the benefit of your career. Even if you are just a street walker you might still want to learn English to understand what's going since it would be nice to learn how the world is doing. Right?

No matter who you are, no matter where you are. Learning English is very important. You can't avoid it and do not avoid it before you get too far behind.