Essay about a humorous language problem

My instructor wants us to write an essay about a humorous language problem. It will be due on June 28
Here are some of his suggestions about this essay:
+ What are some words that cause problems for you in English? Why are they difficult?
+ Describe a situation in which you could not express yourself effectively in English. What did you do?
Be specific he told us a funny story about the "homonym" like f-l-o-w-e-r and f-l-o-u-r

Please give me some ideas on this one, Thanks in advance.

Greetings!

Many of us remember the rather politically-incorrect joke from childhood about the shy man with the wooden eye, who goes to a dance. He finally gets up the courage to ask a girl to dance; no one else will dance with her because she has a harelip. The young man approaches the girl and shyly asks, "Would you dance with me?" The girl, thrilled that she's finally going to get to dance, exclaims, "Would I?! Would I?!" to which the young man, thinking he was being insulted, retorts, "Harelip! Harelip!"

Homonyms can cause quite a lot of confusion! Whether it's "would I" being mistaken for "wood eye" or some other pair of sound-alikes, the potential for humor is there. If English is a second language to you, you have probably encountered difficulties with homonyms many times. It might help you to make a list of homonyms, to see if you recall having problems with them. For instance, bread and bred; berry and bury; bored and board; cereal and serial (perhaps a story about confusion over why anyone would worry about a "cereal killer"?); and then there is the really confusing pair of opposite homonyms, "raise" (to lift up) and "raze" (to tear down)!!

I hope this helps give you some ideas! Good luck!

Thanks,

Sarah, EssayForum.com

Thank so much for you help EF_team2. It is very helpful.
I have another question that i really want to ask that can anyone here give me some idea about my instructor's prompt?

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Complete this writing with 2 or 3 well explained examples that support the point (Italic letters).
Have you ever been laughed at because you said something silly in pupblic? Can you imagine what is might be like to be the president of a country and have every word you say scrutimized by reporters and made fun of by late night comedians? now imagine that you are in a foreign country trying to learn a second language. To be successful language learner acquire a thick skin and be able to laugh at themselves because most certainly they will make many cultural and linguistic errors
Thanks,

Greetings!

If the prompt is To be successful language learner acquire a thick skin and be able to laugh at themselves because most certainly they will make many cultural and linguistic errors I have to wonder if you copied it correctly, because it isn't quite proper English grammar. However, I do understand the message, and can identify with it very well! I think most people get embarrassed when they make mistakes, especially when they lead to misunderstandings.

What the prompt is suggesting is that these mistakes are bound to happen, so you might as well accept that and just learn to laugh at them. I know when I chat with my friends in French, I say the wrong thing or misinterpret on a regular basis, and it can be quite funny! For instance, I was quite confused when my friend typed "je souris." I read it as "I mouse." Why was he calling himself a mouse??--it turns out that French uses the same word for smile, and he was just saying, "I'm smiling"!

See if you can think of something similar that has happened to you or a friend. You can write about that and then about how not taking yourself too seriously when you make mistakes can really help you learn a foreign language better. If you're afraid to make mistakes, you'll be constantly editing yourself and never learn--practice makes perfect!

I hope this helps!

Thanks,

Sarah, EssayForum.com

Hi Sarah, Thanks for your help. Here is my essay that's based on your help. Hope you have some free time to check the grammar for me. I think i have lots of mistakes, so please brear with me ( the essay will be due on Mon, July 1st, 07) Thanks in advance.


Have you ever been laughed at because you said something silly in public? Can you imagine what it might be like to be the president of a country and have every word you say scrutinized by reporters and made fun of by late night comedians? Now imagine that you are in a foreign country trying to learn of second language. To be successful language learner student in a foreign country must to laugh at them because most certainly they will make many cultural and linguistic errors. ( Give 2 or 3 examples that well explain your points)


Native language is mother language, the one that we grew up with and use it every day. How's about a second language that we want to learn and capture? It takes time to master in a language. And "master" means we can speak, write, and be understood in that language.
I have taken two and a half years of English. I would not say that I definitely know English. Actually I grew up in a country that is non- English spoken. When I came to the US, I gradually understand that people at my age usually have problem with speaking, pronunciation. Sometime the syllables' stresses can make up some misunderstood, and yet homonyms can cause quite a lot of confusion too! From my own experience, last semester when I was doing the internship in a model shop. There was a stain on the model. I just wanted to use sandpaper to get rid of it. My colleague was passing by and said "Don't scratch ya nut." I looked up and thought "I didn't do it." In the lunch time, I recalled and realized that what he said was "Don't scratch, you are nut," not "Don't scratch your nut." Whether it's "ya" being mistaken for "you are" or some other pair of sound-alike, the potential for humor is there. From that experience, I learned the rhythm of English when people speaking.
English is a second language to me, I have probably encountered difficulties with the grammar many times. I always try to be creative in writing. Sometimes I bring some words in my language and try to put it in the English sentences. I thought their meanings are fit into those sentences. On the contrast, those words were not match up and broke down the meaning; however those mistakes have helped me a lot because once I am corrected means once I am taught how to use English in a proper way. Although I know that might bring to misunderstanding, I tried and would thank to whom corrected me.
Misunderstanding is kind of "not understand." It is sometimes not only frustrated to the person who is speaking, but it is also frustrated to the listener. Somehow the listeners want to ask again what they just heard. And they think they would be rude if they keep asking again and again. For instance, last semester, when the instructor asked "Wasn't Jonathan here yesterday?" I quickly responded "Yes." my instructor and classmates was quite confused because they and even I noticed that Jonathan didn't show up yesterday. They asked me one more time to make sure what I just said. In a blink of eyes, I knew that there was something wrong with my answer; I added "yes, he wasn't here yesterday." The instructor knows that English is my second language, so he said "that's the way of English, Vu."
I think most people get embarrassed when they make mistake in their second language, especially when they lead to misunderstandings about culture or language usage. In my opinion, Native speakers who keep asking when they don't understand are not rude because those are who helping and correcting second language learners. Besides, second language learner should not be frustrated and taking yourself too serious when you are making mistakes. Mistakes can really help you learn a foreign language better. If you are afraid of making mistakes, you'll be constantly editing yourself and never learn because "practice makes perfect."

Greetings!

I think you've done a great job with your essay! I corrected the grammar and punctuation for you and changed a few phrases to make them more like a native speaker would say it.

Native language is the mother language, the one that we grew up with and use every day. Learning a second language takes time to master--and "master" means we can speak, write, and be understood in that language.
I have taken two-and-a-half years of English. I would not say that I definitely know English. Actually, I grew up in a country that is non-English-speaking. When I came to the U.S., I gradually understood that people at my age usually have problems with pronunciation. Sometime the syllables' stresses can be misunderstood, and homonyms can cause quite a lot of confusion, too! I know this from my own experience. Last semester when I was doing an internship in a model shop, there was a stain on the model. I just wanted to use sandpaper to get rid of it. My colleague was passing by and said "Don't scratch ya nut." I looked up and thought "I didn't do it." At lunch time, I thought about what happened and realized that what he had said was "Don't scratch, you're a nut," not "Don't scratch your nut." Whether it's "ya" being mistaken for "you are" or some other pair of sound-alikes, the potential for humor is there. From that experience, I learned the rhythm of English when people are speaking. Because English is a second language to me, I have encountered difficulties with the grammar many times. I always try to be creative in writing. Sometimes I bring in words from my language and try to put them into English sentences, thinking their meanings will fit into those sentences. Often, though, those words just do not match up and destroy the meaning; however, those mistakes have helped me a lot because once I am corrected, I know how to use English in a proper way. Although I know that it might bring misunderstandings, I try to thank to whoever corrected me.
Misunderstanding means, by definition, to "not understand." It is sometimes not only frustrating to the person who is speaking, but also to the listener. Oftentimes, the listeners want to ask again what they just heard, but they think it would be rude if they keep asking again and again. For instance, last semester, when the instructor asked "Wasn't Jonathan here yesterday?" I quickly responded "Yes." My instructor and classmates were quite confused because they, and even I, noticed that Jonathan hadn't shown up the day before. They asked me one more time to make sure what I just said. In the blink of an eye, I knew that there was something wrong with my answer; I added "yes, he wasn't here yesterday." The instructor knows that English is my second language, so he said "that's the way of English, Vu."
I think most people get embarrassed when they make mistakes in their second language, especially when they lead to misunderstandings about culture or language usage. In my opinion, native speakers who keep asking when they don't understand are not rude because they are helping and correcting second language learners. Second language learners should not become frustrated or take themselves too seriously when they make mistakes. Mistakes can really help you learn a foreign language better. If you are afraid of making mistakes, you'll be constantly editing yourself and never learn, because "practice makes perfect."

Best of luck in your studies!

Thanks,

Sarah, EssayForum.com