Is there a better way to inaugurate our Word of the Day feature than refer to Webster's?
Sure there are several sites you can consult for a word-of-the-day, but Mr English 101 gives you more. Along with our daily pick of our Word of the Day, you receive our daily English news article and our articles providing insight into the English language.
Overshare - v. - to divulge excessive personal information, as in a blog or broadcast interview, prompting reactions ranging from alarmed discomfort to approval.
It beat out competition from leisure sickness, cyberchondriac, selective ignorance and youthanasia.
Now, our inaugural Word of the Day: slyboots: a sly or tricky person. Example: Would you buy a used car from a slyboots?
Vocabulary, as noted in our previous post, is essential to learning any language. English, as a vacuum cleaner absorbing words from other languages and constantly evolving from its Latin and Greek roots, still has a reserve for its own original words.
Slyboots dates from the 1700's. Of course, sly means cunning or deceiving. The Word Detective fills in the interesting part about boots (a "fellow") thus a "sly fellow" or slyboots. *** If you are in Buenos Aires and want English lessons personally designed to fit your needs or need to increase your English vocabulary, please call Professor Winn at 1160 461 342 or send an email to mrenglish101@gmail.com.
Anyone interested in translations from Spanish, French, or Portuguese to English may send an email to mrenglish101@gmail.com for a prompt evaluation.
From beginning English students to veteran wordsmiths, there is a constant search for le mot juste (the correct word) as the French put it. A rich and powerful vocabulary is essential for communication in any language.
We have two vocabularies: 1) active and 2) passive. An active vocabulary is the one used in every day speech. These words are on the tip of our tongues, very familiar, and commonly understood. Our passive vocabulary comes into play when reading and understanding newspapers, documents, or other literature. Since written English is more formal, words not commonly spoken but only written are recognized and processed by the brain.
How do you build a strong vocabulary? Read!
Both our active and passive vocabularies are increased in context. While reading, do not skip over words that you do know. Write them down and look them up in a dictionary. Pay careful attention to the pronunciation and analyze how the word is used in the sentence. Often you can gather a clue about the meaning of a word simply by reading the other words surrounding it.
In English, knowing certain Latin and Greek roots can boost your understanding of words.
If you are up for a challenge, start with 5000 vocabulary words and best of all have fun learning and enjoying the love of words!
If you are in Buenos Aires and want English lessons personally designed to fit your needs, please call Professor Winn at 1160 461 342 or send an email to mrenglish101@gmail.com.
Anyone interested in translations may send an email to mrenglish101@gmail.com for a prompt evaluation.
If you are fascinated by the English language or just curious about the impact of the modern lingua franca on social, political, and economic affairs around the world, you have stumbled upon the right blog for YOU!
I am Professor Winn, an English instructor and certified translator (Spanish/French/Portuguese to English) currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Teaching English as Foreign Language (EFL) is both rewarding and challenging at the same time.
I created Mr. English 101 to demonstrate how my native language interacts with our global society. The demand for English instruction is the highest among second languages. From arts to commerce to diplomacy, English dominates communication in our multipolar world.
My point is not English-language chauvinism. I am fluent in Spanish and read French and Portuguese at a very high level (thus I can translate from them into my native language, as a professional translator should). My respect for other languages and cultures is deep and genuine.
However, the English language at this current time has a greater impact in everyday life. Mr. English 101 demonstrates this fact via reports throughout the week drawing from headlines around the world in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese about how the English language is impacting our global society.
As an added bonus, English lessons are included in the mix for those who are learning English and want to learn more or native speakers who want to improve their own language skills.
So, sign up to follow this blog or subscribe today so you will not miss any of my exciting posts as together we go forward in the discovery of just how important the English langauge is today.
If you are in Buenos Aires and want English lessons personally designed to fit your needs, please call Professor Winn at 1160 461 342 or send an email to mrenglish101@gmail.com.
Anyone interested in translations from Spanish, French, or Portuguese to English may send an email to mrenglish101@gmail.com for a prompt evaluation.
Thank you, my loyal readers, for your support and stay tuned for our exciting excursion ahead!
Can you and your team tackle the communication challenges of international business in the future?
Mr. English 101 is proud to offer the following English Services in addition to English classes.
Please contact Professor Winn via cellular in Buenos Aires @ 1160 461 342 or mrenglish101@gmail.com:
Our Services:
1. Translation - from Spanish/French/Portuguese to English in the following areas: business/commerce/finances, medical, legal, technology, and government/international relations.
2. Copywritingand Proofreading - If you need a letter, essay or other document written originally in English (not translated), please contact us immediately for your project. We promise to communicate your meaning precisely and succinctly directly to your attended audience. We also proofread your existing English documents. You only have one chance to make a first impression!
3. Perfecting Business English - Are you able to compete and win the business you want with your current level of Business English? From documents to negotiations, Professor Winn can transform your business products into a competitive advantage.
Professor Winn can assist you with the following (not exclusive):
E-mail Writing
Telephoning
Presentations
Efective Meetings
Accent Training
We are qualified and ready to design any kind of workshop. Our clients tell us their needs and we work to meet them with excellence and professionalism.
4. Executive Services - Business English Executive Coaching: face-to-face or via e-coaching - learn the cultural aspects of the English business world and learn professional and intercultural competencies.
Professor Winn understands today's world of global business from the inside out.
If you are in Buenos Aires and want English lessons personally designed to fit your needs, please call Professor Winn at 1160 461 342 or send an email to mrenglish101@gmail.com.
Anyone interested in English-language services or translations (Sp/Fr/Pt>En) may send an email to mrenglish101@gmail.com for a prompt evaluation.
What is RSS? This questions comes to mind for many new readers. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) makes it easier for your to keep up with your favorite website. Get my feed!
You do want to keep up to date with the latest posts on Mr. English 101?
We have a number of ways that you can subscribe to this site and receive updates. The main one that our readers use is our RSS feed. But what is RSS?
What is RSS?
RSS is a technology that is being used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of their favorite websites.
In the ‘old days’ of the web to keep track of updates on a website you had to ‘bookmark’ websites in your browser and manually return to them on a regular basis to see what had been added.
The problems with bookmarking
You as the web surfer had to do all the work
It can get complicated when you are trying to track many websites at once
You miss information when you forget to check your bookmarks
You end up seeing the same information over and over again on sites that don’t update very often
RSS Changes Everything
What if you could tell a website to let you know every time that they update? In a sense, this is what RSS does for you.
RSS flips things around a little and is a technology that provides you with a method of getting relevant and up to date information sent to you for you to read in your own time. It saves you time and helps you to get the information you want quickly after it was published.
It’s like subscribing to a magazine that is delivered to you periodically but instead of it coming in your physical mail box each month when the magazine is published it is delivered to your ‘RSS Reader’ every time your favorite website updates.
The key is for you to understand why it’s good and how to use it.
I have found RSS to be almost an addiction and much easier to get the information you need from the sites you like.
How to Use RSS
Get an RSS Reader - The first thing you’ll want to do if you’re getting into reading sites via RSS is to choose an RSS Feed Reader.
There are many feed readers going around with a variety of approaches and features - however a good place to start is with a couple of free and easy to use web based ones like Google Reader and Bloglines. Either one will do if you’re starting out (I use Google’s Reader) - as I say there are many others to choose from but to get started either of these are fairly easy to use and will help you work out the basics of RSS.
You can receive your own news briefing in the reader and decide which stories you want to read more about or skip to the next item.
The best way to learn how to use either Google Reader or Bloglines is to simply subscribe to some feeds and give it a go. Both have helpful help sections to get you up and running.
Find Some Feeds to Subscribe to - there are two places to look for a site’s feed:
On the Site
In Your Browser
On Site Subscription Over the last few years you may have noticed a lot of little buttons and widgets appearing on your favorite sites and blogs. Little orange buttons, ‘counters’ with how many ‘readers a blog has, links called RSS, XML, ATOM and many more.
There are plenty more - but any time you see any of these buttons or anything like them it means that the site you are viewing almost certainly has a feed that you can subscribe to. In most cases it’s as simple as either copying and pasting the link associated with the button into your RSS Reader or clicking the button and following the instructions to subscribe using the feed reader of your choice.
Browser Subscription
Many internet browsers now have the ability to find and subscribe to RSS feeds built right into them.
When you surf to a site you can usually tell if it has an RSS feed by looking in the right hand side of address bar where you type in the site’s URL with the familiar orange RSS icon.
Using Safari Browser it is a blue RSS icon.
Other modern browsers will have similar icons.
To quickly and easily subscribe by clicking these icons you’ll want to set up your browser to do it with your feed reader of choice as by default they will probably subscribe you using the in-browser reader. You can do this by going to the ‘preferences’ to your browser and choosing ‘Google Reader’ or ‘Bloglines’ etc as your feed reader.
Once you’ve done this and have subscribed to a few feeds you’ll begin to see unread items in your Feed Reader and you can start reading.
Don’t want to Use an RSS Reader? Email is an Option
If the above explanation all just seems a little too complicated for you then please don’t worry. Many sites also enable you to subscribe to RSS feeds via a more familiar medium - Email.
Here at Mr. English 101 we offer a handy email sign up in the top right sidebar where you can enter your email address and get a daily email with a summary of our latest posts. You can unsubscribe at any time and your email will be kept private and not used for any other purposes than to send these daily updates.
There are two main ways that you can keep up to date with the latest news at Mr English 101. Choose the best option for you and you’re more than welcome to pick any (or all) of them.
RSS Feed
For those of you familiar with RSS and News Aggregators you can follow Mr. English 101 via our RSS feed. Simply add it to your news aggregator and you’ll get notification every time something is published on Mr English101. Learn more about how to use RSS.
Email Subscription
If you’re not an RSS user you can get one daily email that gives you any post that has been written on Mr. English 101 that day. You can unsubscribe from this this service at any point. This service is provided by a third party (Feedburner) and you can subscribe to it by leaving your email address in the following field and following the instructions.
Please note - your privacy is assured with any of the above options. I do not use your details for any other purposes than what you sign up for and details are kept private.
Welcome to Mr. English 101 - a blog helping you understand and appreciate the English language!
Into the Virtual English Classroom
My name is Winn Trivette II - the Ace Translator and English professor as well! Languages are my passion and I share the love of my native language everyday to students, mis amigos here in Buenos Aires, and of course with you, my loyal reader through posts to Mr. English 101 and accompanying blog, English in Buenos Aires or my blog dedication to translation.
I am a US expat living in Buenos Aires who teaches English and does freelance translations to afford a comfortable life in Argentina's sprawling capital city.
Learning is no longer confined to the stuffy classroom with a teacher before the class lecturing on the value of the subject material and imploring you to learn or else.
Language learning is booming after the explosion of the World Wide Web in the 1990s allowing one to listen to radio broadcasts (like RFI for French) and podcasts in Portuguese, watch live(!) television (like RCN from Colombia) or read Prime Minister Putin's local Moscow paper in English.
Why Mr. English 101?
The site is dedicated to you - the student of English and even we native speakers are all students of English at sometime. The learning never stops. Mr. English 101 is important to you for the following 4 reasons:
1. Influence of English
The flexibility of the English language and the heavy influence of popular culture require constant monitoring of trends in the language. Also, the influence of English on other languages grows each day. We explore these phenomena in our commentary on the English language in posts to Mr. English 101.
2. Importance of English in today's world
Communicating in English is a certain route to a better living and cultural enrichment on an unparalleled scale. International commerce, media and entertainment, science and technology, and diplomacy are conducted on a global basis in English as a common medium between interested parties. English is the modern lingua franca and for that alone the importance of learning the language is paramount.
Mr. English101 is fluent in Spanish and encourages the learning of another language for cultural enjoyment alone.
3. Learning English
Mr. English101 covers English grammar, writing, proofreading, and even resume writing. Business English is a favorite topic given its role as described above.
4. Learning how to use English
Mr. English 101 provides helpful tips on how to use English in the four disciplines of speaking, reading, writing, and listening. The hope is that our information aids in learning the language in the smallest amount of time possible.
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