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Hi Learneng,
Glad to know that your application for the visa to enter the UK is successful. Besides being good for your resume, the trip also provides an opputurnity to experiance in person the English lanugage, spoken in the Englishman's diction. Wow! What could be more original than that.

As to how to determine what constitutes a countable noun or uncountable, it is an idea quite difficult to grasp. To this date, I am still not sure up as to which group the word " information " belongs to because I have seen the word being used in the the plural form.

Benleon     

Well, it depends on who you are teaching and which subject. Do you know what your classes will be about, and the age range of the students?

Typically foreigners teach oral English, in which case grammar is not something to worry about. Chinese teachers do that better than we can, so our focus is on pronunciation and confidence building. I use lots of projects and games to get them talking in fron of the class as much as possible; public speaking.

If you really need a grammar book, any standard book will do fine. But I doubt you will teach it. Can you provide more info about your course and the students' level.

Luke

Hi Luke,

I think you're correct about my PGCE but I sometimes struggle with grammar terminology which is specific when you train through TEFL, CELTA etc.
I worked as a teacher with Studio Cambridge in July 2008 and when I was observed the observer said that I did to much TTT (teacher talking time).  I explainned to him that I was trained as a teacher to teach a specific subject, so TTT was an essential element.  I was employed intially for 2 weeks because the director of studies felt I didn't have enough teaching experience...  I ended up teaching for the whole of the summer vacation because both students and thier group leaders were impressed with my teaching.
I decided after to look for employment working overseas and now I have accepted the teaching position in China.

What book/s would you recommend is useful when teaching grammar?

Yvonne

Hey Yvonne,

I came out to China without a teaching certificate, but since did a TEFL course. When I started it was enough just to be an English-speaking foreigner, but times are changing in main cities.

Your city is quite small though, so I don't think you will need much if anything. Your PGCE will hold you in good stead. You can do a TEFL or TESOL if you want, or something related, but I don't think its necessary. Your PGCE is a masters degree or sorts, so that will dictate your salary.

When are you coming? It is getting cold now.

Luke

Hi Luke,

Thank you for your information.
I have read quite a lot of 'stuff' about where I will be teaching and living (Benxi) and it's a relatively small city in comparison with other cities in China.  I am looking forward to the experience and I am hoping to visit other places in China whilst I am there.
May I ask - have you got a CELTA or TEFOL qualification?  I am asking this because I haven't and I am thinking about completing one - which would you recommend?
I have a degree and a PGCE so I am qualified to teach but it would be an 'added bonus' to have another qualification.


Yvonne

["cake"]

Hi All,

Below is a story in which the word "cake" has been used as a mass and countable noun. Cake-m is a mass noun and cake-c is an example of countable noun.

Hope this helps,
Learneng
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The Story of “Cake”: A mixed mass/count noun

Cake is a food substance. Like many foods, it is consumed in mass. We will call this type of cake “cake-m.” You chew the food mass cake-m and swallow it. The food mass cake-m that you eat, you eat in an uncountable form that must be counted in bites (10 bites of cake-m), forkfuls (3 forkfuls of cake-m), slices (2 slices of cake-m) or pieces (a piece of cake-m). You can eat a piece of cake-m a day for breakfast—and perhaps you won’t gain weight. You might even be able to get away with eating cake-m every morning for breakfast without gaining weight, depending on how much you eat.

In the real world, cake-m comes in predictable shapes and sizes that can be counted. We will call these countable cakes “cake-c.” When on the prowl for cake-m, we usually encounter square, rectangular, or circular cakes-c that are 6 to 10 inches in size. You may come across cakes-c as large as 24 inches, but these are usually for special events such as company birthday parties or weddings. Even larger cakes-c have been spotted on vacation cruise ships and at celebrity galas. If you told someone you’d never met that you “ate a cake every morning for breakfast,” they would surely think “cake-c, 6-10 inches across” and assume you weighed 300 pounds.

Unlike butter-m, which comes in an even more predictable shape than cake-m (the quarter-pound stick), people actually still sometimes make cake-m in their kitchens. Perhaps that’s why we count them—one cake-c, two cakes-c, three cakes-c—after going to all that trouble.

Here’s another reason why mass cake-m sometimes becomes countable cake-c. If you are in the business of manufacturing food –  in your own kitchen, a small shop, or large factory—you are in the business of replicating. The mass cake-m that you eat becomes replicated cakes-c that you bake. You may use the same recipe (the cakes-c are identical) or different recipes (so you have a variety of cakes-c)-Either way the mass of food cake-m, from a commercial standpoint, transforms into plural cakes-c that are priced, sold, and bought individually.

And that’s the story of cake (cake-m AND cake-c)
Epilogue
Other food substances have similar stories. They transform in other environments:
•   The mass meat-m that you eat transforms in a butcher shop into a variety of meats from different sources and of different types, flavors, textures, etc.
•   The building material stone-m that is mined in quarries, stacked to form walls & foundations, aligned to form patios, and crushed then spread to form driveways remains stone-m when encountered in nature in massive sheets, but transforms into countable stones-c when broken down by erosion, scattered about mountains or sprinkled into hiking boots (I have stones in my boots.)
•   The mass fish-m that you eat in its native environment, the ocean, represents a variety of fishes-c; that is, species of fish-m (but this fish story is more complex and warrants a complete story of it’s own.).

There is a big culture difference. China may be getting more westernised, but it is still a very unique country.

These days I have become so used to China that there is no chock for me. But I remember some of my first impressions. I recall finding the lack of personal space and staring both difficult to handle, and the food was quite bizarre! But if you remember that people are mostly curious, not rude (int their eyes), then you can let it go.

Luke

Just be brave. Think about something simple and tell me about it. A story, an event, anything is okay. And provide your opinion.

The first step is the hardest; after that it gets much easier.

Luke

Hi Luke,

I want to know what it is like when you first arrive in China... Am I going to experience a 'culture shock'?
I have travelled to many places worldwide but never China...

Yvonne

Hi Smilervon,

What kind of thing do you need to know? I teach in China now, and can answer your questions.

Luke