Good morning!
As promised, I just closed the Mr. Vig discount store.
But the regular store stays open – mrvig.com/store
To everyone who went shopping there this weekend, thanks!
How wonderful it is to have a store that’s online.
No angry mobs throwing bricks through the windows…
No mafia tough guys demanding payment…
And no government dictating everyone wear a magical mask while shopping.
But as usual with technology, there were a few technical problems. (If you wrote to Claudia or Harry with a problem, I expect they’re back from their weekend adventures and helping you right now.)
So can you guess which was the top seller?
On the shelves of this online store there are guides to fix several common English headaches:
Understanding
Confidence
Vocabulary
Speaking
The winner was the frequency word list; I call it “The Tokyo List.”
These are the most commonly used words in the English language.
And here’s where it gets really interesting — I also bought a word list this weekend – for Italian.
About a month and a half ago I found a free one online for the first 625 words.
When I learned those words, I wanted to keep going but I couldn’t find a good list.
I found one that claimed to have the “core 2,000 words.”
It was inside a membership site.
So I paid to join.
But when I looked through the words I didn’t trust it.
In the list were words like “watermelon”, “turtle” and “coal.”
Is that really what Italians are talking about?
“Rafael, how is your turtle today?”
“Not so good. He ate too much watermelon last night.”
“Hmm. That’s a pity. Let’s talk about coal now.”
“Ok. How’s your coal mine?”
“Not so good. It’s full of turtles.”
No, I didn’t trust this list at all.
Why isn’t the word for “pasta” there? Don’t Italians talk about pasta…?
So I kept looking.
Finally, I found one.
The website even quoted my favorite linguist, Stephen Krashen.
Yes, this was a list I could trust.
I paid $185 for the words, and so far so good.
On Sunday, I even learned how to say “pasta” in Italian.
I know you’re here for English lessons, but a short Italian lesson couldn’t hurt.
Ready?
The Italian word for “pasta” is….
Pasta.
See how clever I am.
I’m like a language-learning machine.
A magnet for words.
Vocabulary goes into my ear, and my mind traps it like an animal in a steel cage.
Ok, back to English.
This week we’ll continue exploring the advantages adult English students have that children do not.
It seems everyone wants to say that kids are the greatest language learners on the planet (after me, of course).
But I say, not true.
Adults have many advantages that children do not.
Tomorrow we’ll talk about the #1 thing adults can buy for their English that children can not.
(And it’s not a teacher or a book or a course or a software program…)
I’ll explain tomorrow.