The semester is winding down and I only have one more freshmen class of oral exams left and then I am done. Although they were a little tiring the exams went really well and it was nice to be able to talk with the students one-on-one for a change. They students picked a topic from a hat as soon as they sat down in front of me and then talked to me for about three minutes about that topic. The topics were pretty easy and ranged anywhere from "tell me about your family" to "what is your opinion on adoption". Most of the students had a relatively high level of English and had no problem communicating with me. I kept track of some of the most common mistakes made while they spoke so I can look out for them next semester and also because mistakes are just plain interesting. Sometimes they can tell you a lot about the previous method of instruction or about the student's native language. Here are a few:

- the persistent and consistent mix-up of "he" and "she"
- the mix-up of "go" and "went"
- omission of articles like "the" and "a/an"
- confusion of "person", "people" and "child(s)" and "children(s)"
- use of "womans" instead of "women"
- saying "I will" instead of "I would"
- confusion of "much" and "many"
- the use of the verb "play" to mean "hang out" or "spend time with" (i.e. I spent the weekend playing with my friends)
- saying "knowledges" "attentions" and "informations"
- confusion of "good" and "well"
- constructing verbs like "catched" and "teached"
- saying "I and my friends"

Challenging pronunciation: r, l, th, and v
Tough words: world, clothes, thing, really
Overused words: lovely, beautiful, delicious, pity (as in "it's such a pity"), colorful
Favorite male quote: "I am most proud of my eyes which are big, round and bright like a fresh grape"
Favorite female quote: "I wish we could do oral exams like this every day - I love talking with foreigners!"

English is such a tough and frustrating language to learn because of all of its exceptions in grammar and pronunciation mainly because of the influence it still carries from other languages. I am impressed that my students can remember what they do and a lot of their mistakes are logical and still comprehensible. One of my favorite classes I took while an undergrad was "The History of the English Language" which detailed the journey of English through Old, Middle and Modern English. Today, Tally, one of my friends that I met in that class, sent me a quote about English that I think is fitting for this post. It comes from a book called The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of "Proper" English, from Shakespeare to South park.

"The result of all this improvisation, as everyone knows, is a language that isn't the least bit ordered, tidy, or rational. If some Intelligent Designer were to sit down to plan a language, surely He--She? It?--wouldn't have created this tangled mess we call English. If the language were logical, the verb to dust wouldn't mean both "remove dust from" (as in "dust the bookcase") and "add dust to" (as in "dust the cookies with powdered sugar"). The noun oversight wouldn't mean both "careful scrutiny" (as in "they agreed to submit to the oversight of the committee") and "neglectful inattention" (as in "they lost everything because of an oversight"). Cleave shouldn't mean both "stick together" and "cut apart"' bimonthly shouldn't mean both "twice a month" and every other month." But they do. The verbs loose and unloose shouldn't mean the same thing, nor should flammable and inflammable. And yet the do. The same illogic shows up in our phrasal verbs for the act of eating: eat up, chow down, tuck in, pick out. Which particle is the logical one for eating, up, down, in, or out? Reason tells us the same act can't warrant all four. But it does."

As for me, I'm glad that I already know English and am amazed that other countries readily offer jobs to me simply because I grew up speaking it.

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