You never know what your students are going to write.
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you ppl are such disgrace to make fun of the work of a student. shame on you!
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teachers these days….it is indeed a shame that people like you become teachers…it was such a good profession in my days with many teachers who wanted to help students
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how about blocking out the name? he trusts you as his teacher.
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It would actually be "They appear smarter than I." A valiant attempt though, how's 4th grade working for you?
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make up your mind, is it fake or not
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pants are man's romances. I like that
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Scolders, lighten up! If you ever taught English in Japan, you would know the unintentional funny things that are said and written. One of my students returned from a vacation in Mexico. I asked him, "What were the people like?" He said, "They were pussy." I then had to spend 10 minutes doing 's' and 'sh' drills.
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Both "than me" and "than I" are correct. Switch out "I" for its corresponding 3rd person pronoun. Clearly "They appear smarter than HE" is incorrect. Than can take either "me" as an object, or "I" in the case that you meant "smarter than I am." –Your attempt was not valiant, just condescending.
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no, because I is not the subject. So it is, "They appear to be smarter than me." You only use I when you are the subject, but in tis case, "They" is the subject.
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You're assuming that correction is even required here.
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I think that comma should be either a semicolon or a dash (though I'm not sure what the correct name for a "dash" is). More to the point, anyone who says "they appear smarter than I" is a pompous prick. Saying "they appear smarter than me" is, while technically incorrect, common enough that it's acceptable. So is "they appear smarter than I appear".
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as a man, i prefer skirts! hahaha
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i'm in the wrong business.
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>rudy >I like pants down No rudy. Best is pants UP!
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Wrong, drunko. Both are right, depending on whether an implicit "am" sits at the end of the sentence. But grammarbolshevik's sounds less pretentious, so he wins.
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Uh, no. I + he + she, me + him + her. You'd say "They appear smarter than him," so you'd also say "smarter than me." Of course, "They appear smarter than I" is also valid, but that's really "They appear smarter than I [appear]."
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As Rich said, in British English (which, by the way, is not necessarily "real" English*), "pants" means underwear. *I am British, by the way, not American.
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what a big rant about pants! – i change mine only when they stick to the wall …
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If I was this student, I'd find it funny. I know that if the oral presentation I gave for my French GCSE which caused the teacher to nearly fall off her seat ended up on the Internet, I'd wander around for the next month with a smile on my face.
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oh those hilarious foreigners! Abream plaut, do you have the student's permission to post that, leaving their name in? I agree with some comments that this is disrespectful. And if you think i'm a miserable git, then fair enough.
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don't be a square
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To begin with, some of you need to get a sense of humor. Teaching is hard work, so you have to find humor where you can. Quite frankly, I don't consider leaving a student's first name in to be "disrespectful." And for the love of god, if you're not amused by this, I wouldn't recommend visiting engrish.com.
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A & N, you are a class A idiot. it's not about getting a sense of humor when you post it up on the internet fool. Teachers have a professional responsibility and all this guy does is bring that level of professionalism down in the name of humor. To post their homework even if it seems harmless shows a lack of good judgement as well as a total disregard for their students. Do you have children? How would you feel if their teacher took their mistake filled homework with funny remarks about those mistakes and posted it up on the internet for everyone to see? Would you think it is funny if that was your child even if the teacher felt it was harmless? Just because this is ESL doesn't give a teacher the license to use it as comedy material on the internet. BTW Abram if you are reading this, I'm documenting and collecting all of these postings related to this from your blog and sending them off to MEXT so that they can decide if you are infact violating any teacher-student confidentiality policies at the school you are teaching at.
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Who gives a shit about the minor errors in grammar? Holy mother of God, it's just the internet.
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Good God, Vigilante. Lighten up…
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Yeah! You're an idiot, idiot.
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Ahaha this gave me a good laugh. I'm going to live in another counry for a few months soon and barely speak the language. I'm HOPING for some hilarious mis-translation, if only to break the ice. If this was my kid, me, or my student, no doubt I would post it on the internet myself.
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Yeah seriously. With as many jokes there are for us, it's not a big deal. buy a sense of humor at wal mart or something.
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Hehe, very cute.
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Where else can we bike-shed endlessly? At our friends or spouse? A fast path to loneliness if you ask me. Metacomplaining is also good for an outlet.
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I have heard people from other countries talk about how confusing the English language is. After reading all of the comments so far, I can agree. Even people born in an English speaking country/or countries do not agree on proper usage of words, or punctuation.
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Surely it ought to be girls'… Don't beat yourself up about it – you'd only have got in wrong anyway
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By the way, Australia also calls soccer football and vice versa… But we know its wrong.
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In Australia, a common joke dating back generations is about the "Penis Butter" and "Vaginamite" [Vegemite] which are commonly spread on toast, of course…. but never together.
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Correct.
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it would appear teaching english in japland is a little more amusing than espana…
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The student's name was not relieved was it?
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This reminds me of a Taiwanese pen pal I had last year. It was part of English class. She would write the strangest things. I’m not going to quote her but some of it kind of freaked me out.
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Actually, "They appear smarter than he [appears]" is right. It would be incorrect if you used "him" instead of "he". And you can't swap out "I" and "me" in any old sentence. One is a subject, and one's an object. I only say this because you sound a little condescending yourself.
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I assume you have children from the condescending tone you have used, and I bet you're a right barrel of laughs as a parent. My Dad used to belly laugh at all sorts of stupid things I wrote in my homework, then have a good giggle with the next door neighbour over the wall about it too! Has it crossed your mind that this student, who i am assuming is not a child due to the content, could be fully aware that this is on the internet, and maybe gave his permission? I think it's more of a shame that this content isn't appreciated by people like Vigilante, who would much rather threaten to jeopardise a man's career than press that X in the top right of the screen. The internet's a big place fella, i'm sure you can find something as small minded as you are.
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I suggest none of you consider teaching abroad.
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If you don't fix the grammar we have now, eventually no one will care. For the few people that do care, they will have to translate the nonsense into a legible sentence.
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I think people call whatever type of football (there are many types) is played most in their country fotball, while calling the rest by their actual names. That's not very clear, so let me explain. England's football = soccer America's football = American Football Ireland's football = Gaelic Feel free to correct my grammar or my opinion if you wish. I will laugh at you.
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We all love pants!
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I love being Australian.
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Hello, my neme is Suguru. (Hello, my name is Suguru.) I will talk about pants. (I am going to speak about underware.) We put it on every day (We put them on every day.) I am putting on the boxer pants. (I am putting on boxer shorts) Pants are important things. (Underware are important items.) It get excited when girl's pants are seen. (people often get excited when women's underware is seen.) Am I abnormal? (Am I abnormal?) Pants are man's romances. (Underware is often a male fantasy) Does the teacher like it? (Do you, as the teacher appreciate this? Thank you. (Thank you. ) uk english .
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Hello. My name is George W. Bush and I don't appreciate you posting my memoirs here.
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GRAMMAR NAZIS!!! GRAMMAR NAZIS!!! GRAMMAR NAZIS!!!
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I agree. At least have the decency to take away his name.
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