Dr.....

May I ask you a sensible question?

Who [edited]?

I really don't want to sound insulting, but why do we need to blind these poor bastards with even more technical stuff?

Chinese - English teachers already blow their minds with 12 tenses, when often 3 is enough - If it's happened, it's PAST - if it hasn't happened yet, it's FUTURE and if it's happening now it's PRESENT.... why do they need to know the difference between the 'Simple Past' and the 'Past Participle' ?

Sure, there's a difference between 'I did it' and 'I have done it' but why confuse them with REASONS ?

Teach them that 'I have did it' is wrong and tell them 'No why' (which they seem to understand perfectly)

Anyone who has read the book 'Robinson Crusoe' should be aware of the famous phrase 'it was violent hot' - yet if a student said that you would tell them they are wrong.....why?....because language is constantly evolving

They are more interested in keeping up with modern terms such as 'I'm eating my lunch al-desko' or 'I have a new e-quaintance' as opposed to linguistics and mechanics of language that tells us WHY we do something - who gives a shit why?

Why does wood burn on a fire?

Well, let's see.....wood comes from trees and trees are predominantly made from carbon. Carbon molecules LOVE to be attached to oxygen molecules and they stick together very tightly, so how can trees separate the carbon molecule from the oxygen molecule?

Well here's the sun.... the sun creates heat that allows the trees to throw away the oxygen molecule into the air and keep the carbon. Add to that the water - which although it comes out of the ground, it doesn't really - it comes out of the air - well, the sky

So a bit of wood is essentially carbon and water without the oxygen molecules that it loves so much

Fire needs oxygen to burn so the carbon molecules in wood are happily re-united with the oxygen molecules that they miss so much and the heat and light that a fire generates is essentially stored sunlight

As interesting as it may be, do we NEED to know it? Or do we ONLY need to know that wood burns on a fire?

English is a difficult language at best.... native speakers take it for granted and the fact that we DO SAY something is often far more important than the reasons WHY

Who cares why?

As the Chinese always say ....'No Why!'

No offence intended

If they want to KNOW why, then by all means tell them - if they don't ask then they don't want to know - simple!