Re: Grammar in HS (Was: Re: Argument Structures)

On Wed, 23 Aug 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 23, 2000 at 04:05:48PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> [snip]
> > YHL
> > wondering what others' experiences are, and wishing she had more formal
> > grammar (I learned more English grammar from taking French, like what
> > this infinitive thing is, than from taking 12 years of English classes)
>
> Did you learn English here or in Korea? I learnt English when I was still
> in Malaysia, and boy were we drilled with English grammar :-)
YHL:
Born in Houston, TX.  Learned spoken/written Korean from my mom, who also
taught me to *read* but not speak English (despite a faithful regimen of
Sesame Street).  When I went to preschool, the teacher had trouble with
me because I couldn't understand what she or the other kids were saying
(you know, things like "it's Bobby's turn to play with the toy truck now,
right Yoon?").

1 year later, in kindergarten, I helped other kids write their names, and
(this was at a Dept. of Defense school at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri)
after I kept acing their silly vocabulary tests, they accelerated me to
1st grade English.  In 1st and 2nd grade I took English with the 2nd and
3rd grade teachers, respectively (DoDs school--Seoul American
Elementary).  And after that I moved to Seoul Foreign Elementary School
(my dad quit the U.S. army) and was placed in "normal" English.

In short, I learned some of my English in Korea and some in the U.S.
Nobody will believe I'm from Texas because I absolutely don't have the
accent (my sister has a trace of it); I speak boring, "standardized"
dictionary-ish English (exception being those occasional words I've never
heard used, but have read).

> Though I also have a similar experience as your learning French -- I had
> also somewhat acquired a "gut feeling" for English and wasn't exactly
> clear on many grammatical points, until I took a course in classical
> Greek. I had never differentiated gerunds from participles until I learned
> the difference in Greek.... :-)
I'm still not sure how to tell a gerund from a geranium.  :-(

I spent one winter break with a Latin primer that got me used to the
notion of cases, and then a summer with German plus a semester has me
feeling decently comfortable with them, though I still have to pause with
some of the prepositions (so do I use dative or accusative with "mit"?).
I *like* cases.  I regret I didn't grow up using a language with cases.
<wry g>

YHL