Lately my life has been crazily tied up in English classes. But I am not complaining. I actually really love what I do! The best thing is that I learn some of the most fascinating things about the English language. I am going to share some of this new found knowlege with you right now! :)
A year ago I was in the doctor's office. He told me to come back the next morning in ayunas (without having eaten anything for 12 hrs. prior). I didn't know the word ayunas when he said it to me, so he had to explain what it meant. On the bus ride home, I got to thinking about how we say that in English...after a few minutes of pondering I was able to pull the word "fast" from the depths of my memory (it's not a word that I use everyday in my English classes!). I have always been a lover of words and reading... so I was just aimlessly turning the two words over in my mind: fasting/ayunas when the word breakfast popped into my brain. I thought about it for a second and thought break-fast... interesting. The word for breakfast is desayuno in Spanish. Turning it over more ... des-ayuno. Des is the Spanish (latin?) prefix for "un" such as undo (deshacer), unemployed (desempleo). So naturally I determined that desayuno literally meant undo the fast.. and in English we express that as "breaking the fast" or breakfast. So this all must go back to some religious roots, such as in the Muslim countries that fast at sundown.
I like playing with the words in English because as illogical as it seems at times (especially to a Spanish speaker) there really is a lot of logic behind it. I help the students see words inside of words so they can learn through self-discovery rather than teacher translations. So when I am asked what a words such as overcharge, homeless and keyboard mean, I tell them to break the words down into smaller words and work out the meaning that way. The students come away with a great sense of self-satisfaction when they reach that "aha!" moment of working out the meaning of the word. It's something that really makes me happy to see.
1 comment:
Post a Comment