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Post by Otaku on Sept 30, 2008 13:02:57 GMT 8
Which would you say is correct? "People can go to market and buy anything with the money."
or "People can go to the market and buy anything with the money."The first sentence is found on page 35 of New Horizon's 2nd grade book. I've been running it by other people as well and what we've been able to come up with is that both are grammatically correct but the first sentence kinda implies the market is like a 'flea market', where you can buy/sell things. And, since the sentence only mentions 'buying', the word "the" needs to be inserted before "market", as seen in the second sentence. What do you think?
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Post by junkdna on Sept 30, 2008 13:54:31 GMT 8
Just sounds like a slightly outdated use of 'market' to me. Market could be anything. My first impression of market, is the farmer's market my grandmother used to take me to get fresh fruits and vegetables directly from the farmers.
One of the oddities of living in a country that tends to keept to itself is that the natives tend to know outdated English, especially the older generations. I ran across a guy last year who speaks mostly in English idioms. He's always saying things like, the early bird catches the worm, and time is money, everytime I see him. It's rather surreal, but that's the English he knows. I'm not about to destroy his world. If he moved to an English speaking country, he would catch on quickly that folks don't really speak like that and correct himself.
It's the basic patterns you want them to get down, not the meanings. As you are far too painfully aware, the Japanese don't really care about the meaning of what they are saying, they just want to get the pattern in their head so they can pass the test and then forget it so they can buffer the next sentence pattern.
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Post by rollypop on Oct 1, 2008 7:25:06 GMT 8
I see no reason for it to not be "the market". It`s a little detail that could probably be argued either way, but in the name of keeping things simple...why put in an "exception" that the teacher`s then going to have to explain? And may not be able to, because it`s kind of archaic?
"geez."
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Post by Otaku on Oct 1, 2008 9:16:43 GMT 8
There are so many exceptions already in the textbooks, so one could argue "what's another exception?" For example, in one sentence the textbook will use the words 'and' & 'but' properly, but then the next sentence, there will be a sentence leading off using those words.
If you really want to make the argument of "keeping things simple", I say the teachers need to do like the Nazi's did during WWII and burn the textbooks and start all over again. I have no idea how the textbooks got to the state they are in. If they are getting better with every edition, I would probably would have committed suicide as an ALT working in Japan 20 years ago.
On a side note, I have browsed through an older edition of New Crown and one of the most memorable things that stood out was when the textbooks contained the words "black English". It said something along the lines of, "Black people in America speak black English." I was like....WTF!?!?!
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Post by rollypop on Oct 2, 2008 8:39:15 GMT 8
HAHAHA. I`ve been wondering how the textbooks could possibly be worse, and there`s an answer. Woow.
Basically, it`d be great if the textbooks were written so they didn`t stupidly contradict the things they`re teaching. It would also be great if I had a big bowl of miso ramen with extra ham in it. Right now.
Guess which is more likely to happen?
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