Search results for 'tag:Universities tag:Expressions' matching tags 'Universities' and 'Expressions'

Re: start my department...

Avangi — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:03:45 GMT

You need a different expression. Are you a student, a professor, or the janitor?

To "start a department" would often mean to create or build a new department.

"My department" would often mean you're the head of the department.

In September I'm going to start / begin taking / teaching classes in the Zoology department.

I'm going to start my classes at X University in September.

I'm enrolled in the department of Psychology at X University to begin classes in September.

(I don't know if "dept." should be capitalized in this case.)

- A.

Re: Is this sentence correct?

Avangi — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:57:17 GMT

Yoong Liat
'A friend of mine' means ' One of my friends' whereas 'My friend' refers to a specific friend.

Hi YL. I've tried to keep an open mind on this. My university's motto is "Truth, even unto it's innermost parts," but this is a real challenge. (I thought Harvard's was more elegant - "Veritas.")

At first I wondered, what can he possibly be thinking about? But I'm more rested now and I can appreciate the difference. I must say, in my view this is extremely theoretical and of no possible practical use.

The destinction can exist only in the mind of the speaker, and as I said before, would only be useful to suggest to the reader/listener a possible difference in the level of intimacy. When someone says, "My friend and I went to dinner last night," it's highly likely that the speaker is actually picturing the face of the friend while he speaks and could readily give us his name. (My youngest daughter uses this form to imply it's none of my damned business who she goes to dinner with.)

When "a friend of mine" is used to begin a narrative, the level of intimacy is only slightly above "an acquaintance of mine," as I said before. It's entirely possible that the speaker may not even recall the identity of the so-called 'friend,' as he may be referring to an event that happened thirty years ago. So I absolutely agree that "my friend refers to a specific friend," while a friend of mine may not.

However, you can ratchet up the level of intimacy of this one by adding a name - but not by much. In the 1988 vice presidential debates, Dan Quayle evoked the youth of Jack Kennedy (opposite party). His opponent, Lloyd Bentsen, was irate, and famously said, "I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. You're no Jack Kennedy!" (They were senators together.) Somehow I never took it to mean they were good friends.

That leaves us with "one of my friends," which in my opinion is taken to imply a higher level of friendship than "a friend of mine," but does not approach the level of friendship of "my friend."

So my position is that the distinctions between the three expressions is useful in indicating the level of friendship, as found in common usage; but not very useful in indicating the specificity of the person referred to, except to allow that the speaker may not recall his exact identity. (Is that possibly what you had in mind, Yoong Liat??)

- A.

Re: Which is a correct expression?

Abil — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:04:02 GMT

I am a student of University of Tokyo.
I am a student at University of Tokyo.
I am a University of Tokyo student. Or
I am a Tokyo University student.

Which is a correct expression?

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:51:44 GMT

I wonder which is a proper expression:

I am a {student of University of Tokyo/ student for/at/in Un
iversity of Tokyo/ Univesity of Tokyo student}.

Something else

Thank you very much.

Could somebody revise my english resume?Much appreciated

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:34:52 GMT

Dear all
I am trying to apply for a position of researcher in a Japan branch of a British-based Executive Search firm. Pls revise my resume and any suggestions are welcomed. Thank you very much.(And I am sorry about the font, I dont know how to correct them. )

Professional Objectives
To serve as a market researcher within an Human Resource firm committed to re-engineering peopleâs career with a chance to utilize the ability to communicate in foreign language

Summary

A goal-oriented person with unmatchable willingness in research activities. Recently passed The Proficiency Test in Trading Business Exam and scored over 900 in TOEIC Test. Currently seeking positions of increased responsibility for notable achievements.

Professional Experience

blablabla Trading Shinagawa City, Tokyo 2007~2008

Market Research

ã»Investigate and negotiate with suppliers and customers of specific products
â»this part of my job is, when I get a product research order form my boss, I google it searching for buyers or makers, and if any results turn out , I list them all up then contact them via mail and phone, i am not sure if I stated them right in those expressions.

ã»Analyze market background of specific products

ã»Building up English and Chinese version of Company Homepage â»it means I made the homepage(but technically half of it are done by another person ), and wrote the eng and chinese version

ã»Held the responsibility of vice-presidentâs secretary work

ã»Conduct the recruitment of newly open Shanghai branch office

Education:

Masters in Japanese, Foreign Language, 2006

National blablabla University, Taiwan Taipei

Qualification: TOEIC 910.

The Proficiency Test in Trading Business Exam Level C

Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 1

Re: Standard spoken English

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:00:04 GMT

Something to chew on:

THE NOTION OF STANDARD SPOKEN GRAMMAR

The term âstandard grammarâ is most typically associated with written language,
and is usually considered to be characteristic of the recurrent usage of adult,
educated native speakers of a language. Standard grammar ideally reveals no
particular regional bias. Thus âStandard British Englishâ grammar consists of items
and forms that are found in the written usage of adult educated native speakers
from Wales, Scotland and England and those Northern Irish users who consider
themselves part of the British English speech community.

The typical sources of evidence for standard usage are literary texts, quality
journalism, academic and professional writing, etc. Standard grammar is given the
status of the official record of educated usage by being written down in grammar
books and taught in schools and universities.

Spoken transcripts often have frequent occurrences of items and structures
considered incorrect according to the norms of standard written English. However,
many such forms are frequently and routinely used by adult, educated native speakers.

Examples of such structures are split infinitives (e.g. We decided to immediately sell it),
double negation (e.g. He wonât be late I donât think, as compared to I donât think he will
be late), singular nouns after plural measurement expressions (e.g. Heâs about six foot
tall), the use of contracted forms such as gonna (going to), wanna (want to), and so on.

Standard spoken English grammar will therefore be different from standard
written English grammar in many respects if we consider âstandardâ to be a
description of the recurrent spoken usage of adult native speakers. What may be
considered ânon-standardâ in writing may well be âstandardâ in speech.
Speech and writing are not independent. Although some forms of spoken
grammar do not appear in writing (unless in written dialogues), there is
considerable overlap and there is an increasing range of forms appearing in
informal written texts which previously were only considered acceptable in
speech. In 120 the presence of typically spoken grammatical forms contexts as emails and internet chat-room exchanges is discussed.

From: The Cambridge Grammar of English (GCE)

the middle voice option

Avangi — Tue, 06 May 2008 04:04:16 GMT

ganesh77 started a thread which wrapped up on April 25, called "how to explain the usage of the ergative verb?" She's teaching ESL in an Asian country and her superior is Asian, I think.

I had never heard the expression "ergative," which she defined as verbs having both a transitive and an intransitive use. Her understanding was that to use these verbs in the passive is incorrect.

This seemed plausible on the face of it, but a controversy erupted and I was persuaded to take the other side. In Googling this, I found that "ergative" was usually coupled with "the middle voice option," I broke the window (active) The window was broken [by me] (passive) & The window broke (middle).

I brought this up in the thread, as it seemed to shed light on her problem in a couple of ways. She replied that indeed, this was what her superior had mentioned. I tried to coax some of our members to comment, but no one would bite.

I noticed that the majority of the Google references were from Asian sources (universities and professors) eg. Univ. of Hong Kong.

I've never found the ESL community to be shy about embracing non-traditional approaches to things. On the contrary, they seem to invent them.

Could someone comment on this? Do we mean to disparage "the middle voice option"? Does the "ergative verb" concept have a life of its own apart from the "middle voice" discussion?

Thanks for your consideration. - A.

Re: Shall I write my name and address at the top right side of my Motivation Letter..?

Tanit — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:41:02 GMT

Hi Tamguatlay,

I am not Nona, and you probably won't trust me because I'm not a native speaker of English. I only wanted to share my experience, which can add something to the topic.

As an ESL student of BrE, I was taught to end a letter with "Your faithfully" when it addresses an unknown addressee (i.e., when it begins with "Dear Sir or Madam") and with "Yours sincerely" when you know his/her name (i.e., the letter begins with "Dear Mr/Ms/Miss [+surname]").

However, during my year in the UK, I saw the expression "Your faithfully" only twice, in two letters written by members of my University staff. Funnily enough, the first one began with "To whom it may concern" (another extremely rare expression ) and the second with "Miss [+ my surname]", two opening formulae I was taught NOT to use, when having classes ... none of them actually began with "Dear Sir or Madam"! Both the letters I mentioned (I've still got them) come from a University, so I'm obviously not talking about illiterate writers.

Another thing I can say is that my British teacher on the one hand strongly advised us to close formal letters in our CAE and CPE exams with "Yours faithfully" or "Yours sincerely" (depending on the circumstances) because those were the expression the examiners were looking for. On the other hand, he also warned us that these day most people, also in the UK, will close those letters with "Sincerely", "Regards", "Kind regards".

If my experience is anything to go by, what we learn sometimes can differ from what is actually done nowadays, just as Clive said.

Could someone correct my cover letter?

Anieta — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:14:12 GMT

Hello!

I am a French translator, and I know that my cover letter needs revision, as this is the first time I apply in English and I am not at ease with idiomatic expressions. I would like to apply today, so if you can go over it as soon as possible, I would appreciate very much.

Please do not hesitate to make corrections and to give me some suggestions.

Thank you in advance!

Anieta

Dear Sir/Madam:

Your posting for an English to French freelance translator grabbed my attention as I am currently launching myself as a freelance translator, and after going through your Web site with great interest, I decided to apply to offer you my services.

I possess a trilingual University degree in translation from a French University. After working for the last 5 years as an in-house translator in various companies in Montreal, I decided at the beginning of this year to work as a freelancer as I believed I had gained enough experience and skills to deal with my own business.

Over the years, I developed strong abilities in translation, proofreading as well as in editing, in various fields such as marketing, advertising, subtitle translation and web site localization.

I handle French language perfectly and I am always trying to render the message with right idiomatic French words and expressions adapted to the audience.

Furthermore, I am a multi-tasking person with a strong creative sense and I love taking initiatives. With each freelance project I undertake, I guarantee high quality work delivered on or before deadline and prompt response to your phone calls and emails. I do believe that my skills would be a valuable asset to your company I can currently devote about 30 hours a week to you.

For more detailed information please refer to my enclosed resume. I would appreciate a personal interview at your earliest convenience.

Thank you in advance for your consideration.

it's my composition. help me plz

nocy — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:20:30 GMT

Just a few days ago, about 7,000 university students rallied in downtown Seoul, urging the government to nullify universities' decision to raise tuition fees. These days the tuition has been so drastically going up that many students and their parents have had difficulty in paying it. Our university, GSNU, is also no exception in this situation. So I agree that the tuition fee is very expensive and should go down. However, observing our campus, especially our library, I feel something is wrong. It is actually not that difficult to find people who always complain the tuition is expensive, wasting their valuable time. In my opinion, If we are worried about the tuition fee, what we have to do is not only to protest against rising tuition fees but also to be able to make the use of our university properly. But, as far as I know, we don't. To start with, although our university library is open from morning till night, not so many students use it. For instance, A few days ago, I was reading a book in the main library at about 8 pm, which close at 9:00 pm. But there were few students. Especially, the reading room in the main library is open 24 hours but many seats remain unoccupied. Actually, not student but their books occupy many seats because they put them on the seat and just go out. This is why I think what we say and what we behave seem to be contradictory. The library is run by our money. If we are worried about how expensive the tuition fee is, why don't we use it? -- it's not yet finished. but, give me any advice plz. grammar, expression, somthing like that plz !!