Love / In Poland - guys opinion about brazilian girls [21]

Well, I'm not Polish, but taking a wild guess here, and drawing on positive sterotypes, I would think that the phrase Brazilian girl would provoke a very very positive reaction from most males on this planet. ; )

Language / I teach English to some Polish people - how to explain them tenses? [33]


Yeah, there are probably quite a few other obvious uses too. You're right.


No experience at all - other than what I'm currently doing. Have been doing this for about 5 years now - just the odd evening. Previous students had a fairly advanced level of English and were familiar with perfect tenses but just recently I have started teaching two new people who are more or less beginners.

I have an internationally recognised TEFL qualification but TBH I can't remember what it's called - got it 10 years ago. I'll check out the details over the next few days if you are interested.

One of the reference books I'm using was regarded as something of a bible when I did the course: A Practical English Grammar by Thomson & Martinet. Don't know how it's regarded these days. I also have one of the Cambridge practical exercise books which is pretty handy. Together with a bit of reading & chatting, the rest I make up as I go along really.

Language / I teach English to some Polish people - how to explain them tenses? [33]

Yeah, fair enough, you're probably right but it's not really critical to me or my students.

It's a pretty informal set up and right now, most will be content just to have enough English to "get by" as they say. I don't think they would thank me for introducing the passive right now as they are frustrated enough as it is with, amongst other unanticipated obstacles, phrasal verbs. Which IMO, are arguably more important than some of the more obscure voices/tenses - at least for the moment.

In fact, education about cultural aspects of life here (Ireland) is proving to be almost as important as the language!

Language / I teach English to some Polish people - how to explain them tenses? [33]


Yes I do this and it's usually helpful.


Hang on, just to be clear, are you making a distinction between e.g. He watched the TV and the TV was watched.... ?

Because although obviously they are different constructions, in terms of teaching, I don't really consider it to be another tense to be learned. It's just a variation on an existing apsect as far as I'm concerned.

Life / Fascination of Poles with German Laundry Detergent [16]


No. I don't accept this. Absolutely impossible.

To date, research has shown that there is not one single recorded case of any Polish person admitting that anything from any other country is better than a Polish made item.

; )

Language / I teach English to some Polish people - how to explain them tenses? [33]


Well, not really 12 tenses. Strictly speaking, yes, but some of these are merely variants are not actual distinct 'tenses' to be learned as such.

It was my understanding that Polish verbs have more cases in common use and are more irregular. I could be wrong of course.

Language / I teach English to some Polish people - how to explain them tenses? [33]

Thanks - what should I called that construction then, in Polish that is?

Present perfect is probably the more important though. Past perfect is not often used in everyday speech - and is kind of easily explained as "well you know the present perfect? well imagine that for usage in the past and there you go. next!"

Re simple past, I'm treating that as a beginners thing together with present and continous (inc. future usage) and will wait until the simple past has been properly grasped ( including the hilarious amount of irregular verbs) before I move on to the perfect tenses.