Who's American?

First, notice that's who's and not whose.

Who's - whose - what's the difference?

Ah, it's so frustrating, isn't it? All these things that sound the same but mean different things.

Who's = Who is

Whose = Belonging to someone

Whose red hat is this? And why did they leave it in my car?
Who's the bald man over there? The one running over here?
Is this his hat?

Who's the woman over there with the full lips and the warm brown skin and the curly hair?
Is she an American?
Who's the young boy over there with almond eyes and the thick black hair?
Is he an American?
Who's the old man with the amber skin and the dark eyes and the long, pointed nose?
Is he an American?

Who - is - an - American?

Good question.

Are they brown, white, pink, green?
Straight hair, nappy hair, blonde hair, red?
Freckles, fat, thin, eyes wide, narrow, almond, hound-dog, bushy eyebrows, small feet?

Born on the 4th of July?

Ask an immigrant or visitor to the U.S. this question.

How do you think he or she will respond?

Ask an American this question.

What will they say?

Will an American who lives in San Francisco say the same thing that an American living in Billings, Montana? How about an American from Miami? New York? St. Louis?

Ava, Missouri?

Hawaii?

Is Obama an American?

Quick - close your eyes and think, "American!"

What do you see?

Blonde?
Blue-eyed?
Fair-skinned?

Jennifer Aniston! :-)

Who were the first Americans?

Who were the first immigrants?

Which ethnic groups have the longest roots in this country?

Do roots matter?

Today, I'm not giving answers, just asking questions.

Answers I'll offer another time.

Hey! I put the direct object first.

Direct Object - Subject - Verb
Answers - I - will offer

Is that okay?

Now that's a question I'll answer .

Yes, it's okay.

Is it typical?

Not so much, anymore.

If you want to play it safe, do the typical way: Subject - Verb - Direct Object.
As in: I ask questions.

What's playing it safe as an American?

What's playing it safe?

Playing it safe: not taking any risks.

What's playing it safe as an American?

What's a safe way to be an American?

Do you have to listen to Rock-n-Roll? Hip-Hop?

Do you have to know all the words to the Star Spangled Banner?

Can you eat chicken soup with a chicken foot floating in it and be an American?

Do Americans ever take care of their aging parents?

Can you be an American and live with your cousins?

Can you be poor?

Can you make mistakes in English grammar?

We all walk around with ideas in our head.

Sometimes we call these ideas concepts.

Some picture of what something is.

This is a cat - it has whiskers, a long tail, and it's sitting in my lap.

(And one really is, right now. She is slim, black, and silent. Her front legs are wrapped around mine and her eyes are shut tight against the light of the computer screen.)

This is a dog - it has whiskers, a long tail - sometimes, and it barks.

This is an American.

Quick - who did you see?

You?

Me?

Here's an article about some Americans: Equality A Long Fight.

One of the Americans Mr. Nolte mentions was a professor of mine.

Professor Takaki wasn't flashy in the classroom. He spoke in a quiet way.

Only his mind was loud.

Working like a locksmith, he opened door after door in our minds by asking questions.

What is this?

Why is that?

Who are we?

You can read more about Professor Takaki here.

You can learn more Professor Takaki, yourself, myself, and millions of people, many of them Americans, by asking yourself these questions:

Who's American?

Whose ideas decide?

Hearing, Listening, Understanding - What's the Difference?

Hearing -

Listening -

Understanding -

What's the difference?

Good question!

Let's talk.

Hearing is something that happens with your ears and your brain.

Sometimes when people are old, their hearing is not good. They wear hearing aids. They ask people to "Speak up!" or say, "Please repeat that." They cannot hear well.

My mother wears two hearing aids. She has hearing loss. The little bones in her ears that help her hear - the stirrup, the anvil, and the hammer - are soft. She inherited this problem.

What does inherit means? It means receive from your ancestors - your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents. You can inherit money. You can inherit disease.

When you see a word with her, you know it has to do with family and passing things on - heir, heredity, inherit, disinherit, etc.

She inherited this hearing problem. Thank goodness, I did not inherit it from her.

My mother does not have a listening problem.

What is listening?

Listening is giving your attention to something or someone.

Listening is trying to understand.

Sometimes my daughter has a listening problem.

I tell her "Put away your clean clothes. They are in the laundry basket in your room."

But - does she put away the clean clothes?

Many times, no.

She is not really listening. She is watching TV or listening to a book on CD or drawing. Her ears work. Her brain works. She can hear just fine. But she is not listening to me. She is not giving me her attention. She is attending to something else - the TV, her story she is listening to, the story she is writing.

Attention - noun

Attend - verb

Attendance - noun

Attentive - adjective

Many husbands do not listen to their wives. Many wives do not listen to their husbands.

Some children do not listen to their parents and some parents do not listen to their children. Bosses don't listen to their employees and employees don't listen to their bosses.

It is difficult to listen all the time, isn't it?

It is tiring.

Sometimes we must "turn off our listening ears." It is too hard, too much, too exhausting to listen all the time.

Do you ever feel that way about English?

It is too hard, too much, too exhausting to try to understand?

Your listening ears shut down. Your ears close up. That part of your brain shuts down and you stop listening. No more! No more! No more!

Many ESL students have a listening comprehension problem with English.

What is listening comprehension?

What is comprehension?

Comprehension is understanding.

Comprehend - verb
Comprehension - noun

Listening comprehension: Understanding what you are listening to.

Dimitri has good hearing.
He can hear English words.

He has good listening skills.

He gives English conversation a lot of attention. He listens closely.

But he understands only a little.

He does not know many English words.

He has low listening comprehension.

I don't have listening comprehension for Chinese or Russian.

I know only a few words in Chinese and Russian.
If people speak Chinese or Russian to me, I can hear them. I can listen to them.

But I do not understand.

I do not comprehend.
I have no listening comprehension. I have no understanding.

If you want to improve your listening comprehension, I recommend that you listen to books on CD or MP3 files.

You can borrow books on CD for free from your public library.

You can listen to the books while you drive, ride on the bus, do the dishes, or clean your house.

It is okay if you do not understand every word.

You are absorbing the sounds and patterns of English when you listen.

You are improving your listening comprehension.

You can also listen and read at the same time. You can borrow the book and borrow the book on CD.

If you listen and read at the same time, you will not improve your listening comprehension very much. But you will improve your vocabulary and English a lot.

You can ask the librarian for help.

Tell the librarian what kinds of books you like -

non-fiction - books that are true - about history, gardening, auto repair, politics, or religion

fiction - books that are not true - stories about the present, past, or future

The librarian will help you find a good book that you can understand.

The young adult section of the library has many books that are good for ESL students.

The books are interesting and the English is a little easier. Not super easy but easier.

You can also listen to children's books on CD.

The English in children's books is easier.

I like the Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne. The English is not too difficult. The books are about 3rd grade level Englsh. The children in the stories visit many countries and cultures. You can improve your listening comprehension and vocabulary and also learn about other countries, cultures, and events in history.

The Magic Treehouse books are available on CD or in book form at your Public Library -

for free.

You can also buy them from bookstores or online.

(Support your local bookstore! In San Francisco, I love Green Apple, Red Hill, Phoenix, and Dog-Eared Books.)

If you have children, you can listen to books on CD together while you travel. Listening to books on CD is great for your brain and their brains. Listening to stories increase imagination, vocabulary, brain power, attention span, and listening comprehension.

Your children may not always listen to you but if they listen to books on CD, they will improve their ability to listen to you when they choose to.

And if you listen to books on CD, you will improve your own listening comprehension skills.

Now if you have hearing loss, that is another matter.

Unfortunately, I cannot help you with that one.

Because - Because Of - What's the Difference?

Because

Because of

What's the difference?

How about the word of?

And what kind of word is of?

It's a preposition!

What's a preposition? You know, one of those terrible words that drives you crazy because there are so many of them and they don't really follow the rules. They are like mercury. You try to pick them up and they slip - under, over, through, in, on, between - your fingers.

And what comes after a preposition?

Nouns and gerunds! Only! Only nouns and gerunds!

And what's a gerund? Another terrible thing. A verb + ing. But it's not really a verb. Not really. It's like someone wearing a mask.

Laughing
Dancing
Walking
Talking
Jumping
Leaping
Wearing a mask!

We use gerunds like nouns. We talk about activities. We talk about nouns.
We talk about cooking, baking, frying, simmering, boiling, peeling, tasting, eating fish, potatoes, chicken, asparagus, apples, bananas, yams, and bulbs of fennel.

Back to our question: What's the difference?

Here's an answer:

because of - must be followed by a noun or gerund.

because - can be followed by other things

And we know, right, that we use these words to explain things, to give answers, to tell why something is, to answer questions, to say this is the reason for blah blah blah.

Example:

Because of traffic, I was a little late for work this morning.
Because I did not leave early enough, I was a little late for work this morning.

Because of my mother, I know how to mend clothes.
Because my mother took the time to teach me, I can mend clothes and hem pants.

Because of my daughter, I had a wonderful Mother's Day.
Because my daughter wrote a beautiful poem for me and then took a bike ride with me along the water, I had a wonderful Mother's Day.

What are

I did not leave early enough
My mother took the time to teach me.
My daughter wrote a beautiful poem for me and then took a bike ride with me along the water?

They are clauses.

Does your brain feel like it is on fire?

Mine does.

I hate grammar words. I really do.

I love writing.

I kind of like grammar when I study another language. I like understanding how the puzzle pieces fit together.

But in general, for English, I hate grammar words. They make my head explode. Yes, really they do.

I try to explain grammar for people like me, people who don't like grammar, people who want to talk and write and sing and dance and communicate. And drink coffee. And relax. Maybe near a beach. But not think too much about grammar. Or our heads will explode.

So what is a clause?

Oh, I really I hate that word.

But a clause is a subject - that's a person, place, thing - you know, something you're talking about.

Plus a lot of other stuff. Mostly, it is information about something, someone, or some place.

You're saying something about something.

English is a crazy language. That's a clause.
Other languages are crazy, too. That's another clause.
People are interesting. People are crazy. People create languages and they change all the time because people change. People and languages are like mercury. Those are more clauses.

That's enough grammar.

My head is very, very close to exploding.

The next thing I will write about must be about something else - writing, communication, American culture.

If you want to practice because and because of, go to http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/220.html

Because of the Internet, you can learn a lot about English, grammar, and relaxing with coffee near beaches.

And mercury.