Re: Re EF bashing instead of women bashing!

Londongirl went for the jugulars with this post...

I would just like to say, I honestly didn't come to these boards in order to humiliate. I would much rather have a good, clean debate about the state of ESL teaching in China, but some people make that next to impossible with their insinuations and prejudices.

I would never, ever pick somebody apart quite so thoroughly if a) They hadn't repeatedly implied (or outright stated) that my knowledge of tertiary teaching was far below theirs. -or- b) I hadn't been invited to do so by one of their supporters.

I take no real pleasure in doing it, but I think enough is enough and hopefully it will put an end to all of the bitchiness and furthermore to the assumptions about my ability (or lack thereof).

In the interests of fairness, I have just noticed that in 'Mistake 4' in my post I wrote 'simple' instead of 'simply' and missed 'is' out from 'the does unnecessary,' it should read "the does is unnecessary." I assure you this is just a question of my fingers not keeping up with my brain and I know when to use an auxiliary and an adverb!

Re: Re EF bashing instead of women bashing!

I would argue that Turnoi is an expert in regard to both Chinese and English. If you have any evidence to the contrary please share it with us.

I'm bored and in the office waiting for a download to finish... So here are a few direct quotes from Turnoi showing evidence to the contrary and an explanation of what is wrong underneath each, for those to whom English grammar is fabled beast.

1

I don't think that London Lady (not "girl"....hahahahaha) does not need to be humble. If she thinks she is a "damn goof teacher", then it may be true or not.

Mistake 1) Double negative 'don't think/doesn't need' given the second statement is affirmative, the first clause should be 'don't think/needs'.
Mistake 2) Ellipses should be used to show an omission, when a word, phrase or clause trails off and doesn't need to be completed as the rest should be obvious to the reader. It's 3 full stops together and goes at the end of a sentence/clause. Not at the start of a sentence, not more than 3 and so the line of full stops preceding the 'hahahahaha' is grammatically incorrect.

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2

how nice their hat or handbag looks like.

The word 'like' is incorrect. We use 'looks like' to show a resemblance to something "He looks like his father" or "That apple looks like a pear". When describing the appearance of something, we simply use 'looks' "how nice their handbag looks" or "You hair looks lovely today"

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3

it is a bit too "private" to make such a more intimate comment to someone you have no relationship whatsoever with.

'such a more' is incorrect. It should be 'such an intimate' the 'more' is completely extraneous.

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4

An employer's opinion regarding a job applicant's profile always does carry weight, if you like it or not

Mistake 1) 'always does carry' the does unnecessary, it should simple read 'always carries' the adverb of frequency 'always' relating to the verb 'carry' (in this instance in the 3rd person 'carries').
Mistake 2) 'if you like it or not' The phrase is 'whether you like it or not'

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5

I do avoid any type of woman who only knows lipsticks, handbags, shoes, hats but has nothing else in her brain.

The purpose of 'but' as a conjunction is to show contrary information, such as "I like coffee but I don't like tea". As the start of Turnoi's sentence uses 'only', the conjunction he should have used in this sentence is 'and' to show coordinating or connected clauses. -OR- If the use of but were to be correct, one would have to omit the word 'only' from the first clause.

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6

Once I had written a small paper on teaching the use of indefinite and definite articles in English to Chinese students

'Once I had written' is past perfect and we use past perfect when we are talking about actions taking place before a certain time in the past, for example "I had already been shopping when I met my friend". As Turnoi is talking about a completed action in the past in this sentence, the simple past should be used, "Once I wrote". Although the sentence continues "and I introduced a rule..." the use of past perfect is still incorrect as the two clauses are both completed actions (ergo requiring simple past).

Well, my downloads have finished and I think that's quite enough to be getting on with. Over to you.