Knife Catching Monkeys
Title says it all really. Oh, and I managed to find a camera. It’s on my phone - useful (but grainy).
James hasn’t enough time on Fridays.
Does the title sound strange to you? This is not an IQ test, since there is nothing grammatically wrong with it. Actually, this is an example of a change in style English over the last few years. You might feel more comfortable if the sentence was corrected to:
James hasn’t got enough time on Fridays.
Or:
James doesn’t have enough time on Fridays.
The words in bold act as auxiliary (”helping”) verbs. They don’t change the meaning of the sentence but are probably necessary to use nowadays. However, no-one told the writers of the English textbooks that are used in China, so my students continue to make this style-mistake. And a market is created for native English teachers. Yay.
Actually the reason I wrote this sentence is that Fridays have become my busiest day this term. I begin with teachers’ meeting in the morning, followed by lesson planning in the afternoon then I teach my class in the evening. After more than 12 hours at the school, I still have to plan for tomorrow’s lesson and do my Chinese homework. Instead of getting on with it I chose to moan on my blog.
I’m not bitter - honest
The term is now in full swing and the period of mourning for my camera is over. Actually, I don’t care so much for the camera; in the sense of realising that life goes on and there are bigger things than losing an earthly possession.
However, it does degrade the quality of my blogs because I can’t show the more interesting aspects of life in China. If pictures paint a thousand words, then my blog posts will be longer and I will have to concentrate on crafting my words.
<<Insert picture of boy getting over loss of camera.>>