As David walked by the marina

[Bassim]

I am wondering if my sentences are grammatically correct.

As David walked by the marina where dazzling white yachts bobbed up and down on the water, he suppressed his anger. Here were people who spent millions on pleasure while he struggled on his meagre wage.

 

[Lynxear]

I like the picture you paint with these words but I think the first sentence can be improved. I would break up this sentence into two sentences

The dazzling white yachts bobbed up and down on the water as David walked by the marina. He suppressed his anger. Here were people who spent millions on pleasure while he struggled on his meager wage.

When you have a long sentence with more than two clauses, try to break it down into two or more simpler sentences. Overall I think you made a pretty good attempt here.

 

[andrewg927]

It's pretty good. I didn't know "meagre" was a correct spelling.

 

[Rover_KE]

BE meagre/AE meager

Cf centre/center theatre/theater etc

 

[Lynxear]

BE meagre/AE meager

Cf centre/center theatre/theater etc

Being Canadian I am always conflicted when it comes to BE versus AE spelling. In school we are basically taught the BE version of spelling, at least when I was in school (too many decades to count now.). Hence, we still are taught the alphabet as ..... x, y, zed.

I personally like "center" and "theatre" for my spelling. "Centre", while I suppose it is a British spelling, is also a French spelling for the word "center". Coming from a country that has French/English as its two official languages I tend to keep the two spellings separate. "Theatre" on the other hand just looks more descriptive to me. It gives the word more polish than "theater". Again it has a French influence as that is that language's spelling.

Of course, living in Canada we come under the influence of American television. As a result our English changes slowly but there are many words we use that are distinctly different from the USA. In fact it is those words that often tripped USA draft dodgers in the late 60's/early 70's when they tried to pretend they were Canadians.

I taught ESL for 6 months in Thailand and I felt sorry for the students there at times. They were taught by ESL teachers from many countries. Britain, USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and now Canada. Many of those previous teachers insisted on their particular brand of English spelling and accents.

I was teaching mostly listening/speaking English then and I recall an incident when I mentioned there was a CONtroversy about an issue we were discussing. A very brave student who previously had not participated in the class slowly raised his hand.

"Yes, Pop (in Thailand everyone goes by a nickname). Do you have a question? I asked.

"You are not pronouncing that word properly. It is conTROVersy, not CONtroversy"

I looked at him and smiled. "I am guessing that you previously had a British teacher before me."

He nodded his head and I explained that both pronunciations were acceptable as far as I was concerned. It was just the different way the British and North American people pronounced the word.

 

[andrewg927]

When I volunteered to help international students (mostly from Asia) with their English a while ago, I noticed that most East Asian students speak with a slight British accent and mixed spellings. Also most students struggled with pronouncing the American "r".

 

[Lynxear]

When I volunteered to help international students (mostly from Asia) with their English a while ago, I noticed that most East Asian students speak with a slight British accent and mixed spellings. Also most students struggled with pronouncing the American "r".

There is a very distinct "r/l" in many Asian English learners. The reason for this is that there is no "r" sound in their native language. It is especially evident in Japanese and Korean learners.

I had a Korean girlfriend for many years. When I first met her I discovered that she loved coffee. If she could walk around with a coffee drip line in her wrist, I swear she would do it. Anyway, she had a horrible "r/l" problem when she talked. It was so bad that she would order a "medium" coffee as she was embarrassed when she said "large". I coached her over and over again to get her to say r/l's properly. One day I opened an email from her. It was titled "I ORDERED A LARGE COFFEE!!!!". I laughed at the capped letters and read on that she screwed up her courage and ordered her favourite Tim Horton's coffee (a Canadian favourite fast food coffee) and the server never looked at her in a funny way.... she was so happy.

You would not find a problem with "r's" spoken by a Thai learner of English. They roll their r's like a Scotsman. They were surprised that I could roll my r's in a similar manner. I told them truthfully that in my heritage I am half Scottish and half British.

Each language has its problem letters. Have you ever tried to speak Mandarin? They use many "z" sounds. At least that is how they are written in their romanized version of their language, Pinyin. It took me forever to pronounce Shenzhen properly so that a Chinese person understood me. (I went there to see about teaching ESL in that country). Japanese have more issues besides r/l. For example, "f" sounds are pretty much nonexistent. They don't say 'Mount Fuji" with an "f" sound. They say it like Hoooji. In fact they treat the mountain like a revered person and say something like Hooji San. "Golf" is when pronounced in Japanese is hilarious to our ears. It is pronounced like "gohoolu". "Coffee" is pronounced like "kohee".

So the upshot to all this is that, when you are teaching speaking English to an English learner from anywhere, you must learn what sounds do not exist in their native language. Those will be the greatest language problems for them.