sábado, 28 de marzo de 2009

English corner (1)

My tailor is Rich

One of the crazy, useless things I do is to collect old methods of English learning. Sorry; I don’t know if my short number of old books – somewhere between forty and fifty – could stand the name of collection, but that is what there is. They don’t show a nice appearance, some of them dirty, full of dust and not very well preserved, indeed.

I’ve been collecting them along the years. I’ve got them in the rag fair which takes place every Sunday morning or in the old book annual fair.

I’ve thought that one of the ways to make them appear a little less useless and clean the dust that covers them, is – from now and then - to show here some of the shocking things you can find inside. It may be also considered as a way to compare the kind of learning people used to receive years ago and the one we are involved now.

"El Inglés sin Esfuerzo" from Assimil was used by thousands of students in Spain to try to learn the language in the 60s and 70s. This method started with the sentence “My tailor is rich”, which has remained as a set phrase related to those who are always starting to learn English and are not very successful. It also stands for the kind of silly sentences you have to learn by heart and hardly ever use.

First unit of the Assimil method
Finally, Here is an excerpt of the first unit of Modern English I. It was a very popular English textbook in the seventies. This was the method I had my first contact with English.

7 comentarios:

Marina dijo...

Ufffffffff, tengo que tomarme esta entrada tuya con tiempo, con ucho tiempo y con ayuda, con mucha ayuda..... Le pediré a Cristina que me eche una manita, porque entender... lo que se dice entender.... poca cosa, para que nos vamos a engañar, algo el recuadro último, pero.....Ufffffffff

Un abrazo en inglés qu NPI de como se dice. Kiss

Merche Pallarés dijo...

How funny! Yes, that famous phrase "my tailor is rich" has become a landmark of English learning for foreigners. However, many DID learn and that's what's important... I also taught English conversation and, even though, the verbs are SO easy (compared to the Spanish ones) it was frustrating to see that it wasn't so easy, after all... Besotes guapetón, M.

Pedro Ojeda Escudero dijo...

Es curioso, a mí siempre me llamó la curiosidad el motivo de su riqueza...
De todas las formas, los idiomas cambian con la velocidad de los tiempos...

Manuel de la Rosa -tuccitano- dijo...

He de reconocer que me tuve que ir a un traductor on-line de inglés ... todo el idioma que se es el francés (inglés solo informático y poquito)...

No conocía este método. Saludos

pancho dijo...

Marina: si le dedicaras al Inglés la mitad de tiempo – o menos - que al blog …

Merche: the most important factor to be taken into consideration to become fluent, is the amount of time everybody is prepared to dedicate to study the language.

Pedro: Bueno, ahora los modistas y diseñadores de ropa no tienen nada de pobres. Las lenguas cambian, más el nivel coloquial que el culto, que es al que tenemos que aspirar como vehículo de comunicación entre las personas de muy diversa condición y procedencia.

Tucci: Nunca es tarde. Ahora los métodos son muy amenos y comunicativos. Te ponen a hablar desde el primer día.

Perdonad la tardanza en la respuesta; los fines de trimestre están las cosas justas de tiempo por todos los lados.

northshorewoman dijo...

what is interesting too is the sketched image of the tailor and the man from the old book. It has a sexual connotation, and almost implies some sort of homosexual relationship between the two men.

pancho dijo...

northshorewoman: I didn't have thought about what you say but may be you are right. I know you through Merche's blog and I've visited yours sometimes. Thanks for your visit from so far away.