Real ESL

When I lived and traveled through Mexico and Central America for a year (Note - ‘traveled’ can be spelled as ‘travelled’ if you are not living in the United States), every day I wrote in a spiral notebook, which served as a journal (a spiral notebook - a notebook that has a wire binding…wires that hold the pages together and twist down in a spiral). I wrote in Spanish and this, more than any other factor, (factor = element, point, aspect) probably helped me improve the fastest.

As a result, I always encourage my students to write as much as they can (as a result = therefore). Writing is one of the best ways to improve your language skills, both in your native language and in other languages. Any new vocabulary words that you’ve learned can be included in the journal.

I went to Mexico with a guy who I didn’t trust. Go figure. (Go figure = Who knows why. It’s crazy. You can’t figure it out.) For many reasons, we did not part ways, (to part ways = to go on your separate paths, to say goodbye to someone) but mostly it was because I was young and foolish. The good thing about writing in this journal was that (the good thing was that … = It was good that …) this guy could not speak Spanish, so I could write down all of my thoughts without any fear that he would read the journal, which, of course, was not the kind of journal that locks.

Perhaps you are afraid to write down your deepest thoughts (deepest thoughts = private/personal thoughts and feelings) because someone might read them. Well, it’s perfect - just write in English. Of course, it’s hard (hard=difficult) if the person who you don’t want to read your journal speaks English too!

Now, I want you to look back at all of the paragraphs in this blog post. All of them have adjective clauses. This is a description after a noun. Often, the description uses ‘who’, ‘that’ or ‘which’. However, it doesn’t have to do this.

Look at the first sentence in the last paragraph, especially: “the paragraphs in this blog post.” The adjective clause is “in this blog post.” It describes “paragraphs.” I could have said, “…the paragraphs that are in this blog post.” However, if you can cut ‘that’ and the ‘be’ verb, you should (cut=delete).

Now, I’d love you to write about a travel experience you had. (Note - do you see that I cut ‘that’ in the adjective clause in the previous sentence?) (previous=last)

Use one adjective clause in every paragraph to practice. Use a comma before the adjective when it’s just extra information. Don’t use a comma before ‘that’ or before any description that is essential to identify the person or thing (essential = important, can’t be deleted).

Feel free to email me your essays (feel free = go ahead, don’t worry, I don’t mind if you…, It’s okay if you…). I’d love to see them.

Have a wonderful day!
Kim