100 Mistakes #13 - How do you say...? What do you call...?

English is pretty easy if you don't already speak another language!

Let's look at a mistake that a lot of Spanish speakers make in almost every conversation:

"Como se dice en inglés 'cosechadora'?"

"How is it called in English 'cosechadora'?"

Here we have some strange mix of English and Spanish; call it Spanglish, if you like. The big problem is that it's structured completely differently in English.

1) The "como se dice...?" part translates literally as "how does it say itself...?" But we don't use this kind of structure in English because 'cosechadoras' don't usually say anything apart from "whirra-whirra-whirra clankety-clanka-clanka-clanka..."

We want to know how you say it! (you = people in general)

"How do you say...?" √

2) The part of the sentence that starts with 'in' goes at the end. We don't like interrupting sentences with prepositions.

"How do you say in English 'cosechadora'?"

"How do you say 'cosechadora' in English?" √

Of course, you don't have to say it that way either. You can also say:

"What's 'cosechadora' in English?"  √

"What's the English for 'cosechadora'?"  √

"What do you call 'una cosechadora' in English?"  √

"What's 'una cosechadora' called in English?"  √

Notice that these are all "What...?" questions.

The words 'how' and 'call' do not go together unless you want to know how something is achieved or how something is possible.

"How do you call your mum when you're in Barcelona?"

"I usually use Skype."

So how do you say 'cosechadora' in English? I guess you'd better watch the video.

Interactive Lesson - Time

Part 1 - The Passing of Time

Look at the Still Life picture below. Do you think it is a modern or classical work of art?

Click on the picture to see a short video by artist Sam Taylor-Wood. What do you think it says about the passing of time?

(If you don't want to spend 3 minutes watching a silent video, you could watch it on double speed.)

• Why do you think the artist chose to include a biro in the film?
• Some people think that the video is pessimistic. Can you think of an optimistic reading of the video?
• Why does YouTube include an option to watch videos on double speed? What does that tell us about modern life?

Part 2 - Comprehension

Here is a short talk by psychologist, Professor Philip Zimbardo.

As you watch, make notes on the following points:

> The six different perspectives on time.

> How these perspectives relate to where you live. 

> Their impact on health, education and human behaviour.

If you would like to see the full 40-minute lecture, you can watch it on the RSA website.

Part 3 - Discussion

Do you think you are...?

• Past orientated?
• Present orientated?
• Future orientated?

Is there anything you spend too much time doing?

What would you do if you had an 8-day week?



Part 4 - Time idioms

I was early for the meeting so I killed some time looking around the shopping centre.

Every morning, I wandered down by the river, just to pass the time.

I spent some time reading through the programme.

What's the difference between spending, passing and killing time?


Here is a list of 'time' idioms. In pairs, write a two-line dialogue for each one, which clearly demonstrates their meaning.

Example: 1. A waste of time

- I've already called her five times today.
- She never picks up; it's a waste of time.

1. A waste of time
2. All in good time
3. In the nick of time
4. Living on borrowed time
5. It's high time / It's about time
6. Time flies (when you're having fun)
7. Having the time of her life
8. Time will tell
9. Make up for lost time

Now swap dialogues with another pair. Compare their dialogues with your own and with my examples here, to check that you've understood the meaning correctly. If you need more help, you can google them to find their definitions.

Interactive Lesson - The Glass Ceiling

Task 1

Consider the following questions and share your ideas with a partner:

·         What are the names of the directors of your company?

·         How many of them are women?

·         Do you agree that women's careers are obstructed by a 'glass ceiling'?

·         Can you justify your opinion with any examples?

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Task 2

 

Sheryl Sandberg works at Facebook as the COO.

What do you think COO stands for?

What do you think the term “C-level positions” means?

Sheryl believes that there are three important messages for women who want to succeed at the highest level in business:

1. Sit at the table
2. Make your partner a real partner
3. Don’t leave before you leave

What do you think she’s trying to say? (All will be revealed in Task 3!)

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Task 3

Sheryl gives a talk on TED.com about why we have so few women leaders. Read through the worksheet before watching the talk, and then try to answer the questions while you listen.

The talk is available with subtitles and an interactive transcript, so do play around with TED.com to uncover the detail.

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Interactive Lesson - Global Population Growth

Task 1
Discuss the following questions with a partner:

• How many people are there in the world today?
• What's the population of your country?
• Is it growing or shrinking?
• How does it compare to the UK?

You can find answers to these questions and more on the BBC's feature: The World at 7 Billion

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Task 2

Hans Rosling gives an interesting talk on Global Population Growth on the TED website.

Take a look at the worksheet, and try to answer the questions while you listen. First focus on the main ideas of the talk, then go back and listen again for more detail, and switch the subtitles on, if it helps.

You can find the talk here.

Watch Hans's presentation again and think about how he structures it. What language does he use that could be useful for your own presentations?

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Task 3

The digital graphics that Hans Rosling uses are available on his own website, gapminder.org.

Try to work out how to use the graphs and plot different variables on the horizontal and vertical axes. There is a pdf guide to help you.

Prepare a presentation using a Gapminder graph. You can choose an example by clicking on "Open graph menu", or you can select variables of your own.

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