|
ESL Forum:
Techniques and methods
in Language Teaching
Games, activities
and teaching ideas
Grammar and
Linguistics
Teaching material
Concerning
worksheets
Concerning
powerpoints
Concerning online
exercises
Make suggestions,
report errors
Ask for help
Message board
|
ESL forum >
Ask for help > Help: Year 2010.... How can it be read?
Help: Year 2010.... How can it be read?
|
|
Zora
|
|
Both forms are correct. Two thousand and ten and twenty ten... I have heard both on American, Canadian and British TV, radio and in everyday conversations. I think it depends on who you are talking to.
|
4 Jan 2010
|
|
|
redcamarocruiser
|
Great question and wonderful discussion. It is always interesting to hear everyone �s perceptions and observations on usage in the various parts of the world.
I personally do not say 20-10 and I would probably automatically "correct" a student if he said it in class. Even if I were not on "automatic pilot," I would still point out the more usual form if a learner said 20-10.
In sound bytes in the media where conciseness and catchy phrases are important 20-10 is a space saver.
I conjecture that in informal conversations among friends who want to sound "cool" and "with it" (you know the type: they always write internet speak like c.u. for "see you" and "me 2" for "me too" ), you may hear "twenty- ten," but I think it is more traditional to say
2 thousand 10, as many have suggested.
I would discourage using 20-10 in answers to requests for information, unless the learners are beginners, who have not yet learned the larger numbers.
When will you graduate? In two thousand ten.
What is the title of a recent movie that predicts the end of the earth? Two Thousand Twelve.
I hope that my message is received in the spirit it is sent: as friendly advice from someone who hopes to have helped.
|
4 Jan 2010
|
|
|
|
|
zailda
|
Hi!
I understand that the main objective of a language is the communication. At mu school we try to teach students the same way an average American speaker speaks. We don �t want to prepare a student who goes to the US and says when he returns: "they don �t speak the same way you taught me."
We encourage students to watch movies without using captions and listen to American songs paying attention to what they say and we never give translations.
We are trained to make reduction, so instead of saying "what are you doing?" we normally say "whadja doin �?"
Of course the students learn at the beginning of the advanced course the differences between formal and informal English, British and American, and in the middle of the course they learn differences among standard, substandard, black & cockeney English.
So when teaching how to say dates, we teach both American and British ways to write and to say, formal and informal.
In my POV it �s important to teach all kinds of English, spoken or written, so students will be able to switch from one to another depending on the situation, the person who they are talking to, the place they are, etc.
When we have VIP students, who want to live in a foreign country, the first thing we ask is: "where?" so we can decide what kind of classes they will have.
A student of mine went to England after a 6-month intensive course. Her father wanted to talk to her but couldn �t, because the hotel receptionist couldn �t understand her room number when he called. After a week he went to the school and asked why they couldn �t understand, and I asked what her room number was.
"Nine hundred and eight" he said. So I suggested he say: "nine-oh-eight". He talked to his daughter the same day, at night.
So I conclude that sometimes it doesn �t matter whether you can speak English or not, but what kind of English you are able to speak.
|
4 Jan 2010
|
|
|
acs72ribeiro
|
|
Thanks a lot. As always you are all fantastic! |
5 Jan 2010
|
|
< Previous
1
2
|
as always 