Five Sentence Pattens? I've never heard of it!

In Japan, mastering "five sentence patterns" is centerned on not only grammar classes but also English education. Do native speakers of English know "five sentence patterns," though?

According to Grammar & Sentence Patterns (Tomonaoabe, TS Kikaku):

1st Sentence Pattern S(Subject) + Vi (Intransitive
Verb)
God exists.
She is in that room

2nd Sentence Pattern S + Vi + C(Complement)
The sky is blue.
My friend is a lawyer.
The sky looks blue.
My friend became a lawyer.

3rd Sentence Pattern S + Vt(Verb Transitive) +
O(Object)
We eat fish.

4th Sentence Pattern S + Vt + O + O
Father bought his son a car.

5th Sentence Pattern S + Vt +C +C
I consider him a fool.
We eat fish raw.
I watched him swimming.
We found the matter settled.
I found the machine out of order.
I want you to study.

I admit that this theory has been playing a role in helping Japanese English learners become familiar with English sentence patterns. However, I also wonder if there's something incomplete in this grammar theory. For example:

I am fine.

The sentence above is categorized into the 2nd Sentence Pattern (S + V + C). But, the sentence below, which seems to mean and function in the same way, is categorized into the 1st sentence Pattern (S + V):

I am in good health.

We have to consider it.

I really hope that young grammarians in Japan will give English learners and English teachers in Japan and world a better theory to understand English sentence patterns easier.

Time needed.

I have to work on something else recently, and I had been away from here for a while. What've I been up to? Hmm... I'm drinking coffee and despising people who think money always comes first.

Jammy Bastard

One of my Japanese colleague regarded an email account that contained "jammy bastard" as a male's name. As a matter of fact, though, it's a British slang item. In American English, people say "lucky bastard."

Are you dating Scarlett Johansson? You're a lucky bastard!

Listening CNN might not be always good.

Although I know that my English is not that good, I often wonder what is good English. If you are a serious English learner, you often try to speak good English as I do.

This time I don't want to include people who have lived in English speaking countries and who acquired native-like fluency without any conscious efforts. Anyway, their English is not always good as you think. I'm working with two Americans who think of theirselves perfect bilinguals of English and Japanese. But, one doesn't know the difference between to "realize" and to "recognize." The other uses English like "I'm looking forward to see you," as I mentioned before.

If you started out learning English after becoming an adult like I did, you must have been doing consistant efforts. Most Japanese bilingual English teachers often try to listen to English for their free time like their commutal time on the train. But, what do you listen?

Most serious English learners often listen to news in English such as CNN or BBC. However, those who learned English from only such materials tend to speak kind of monotone and solid English despite the fact that their vocabulary are excellent. As for me, American TV dramas are my textbook. But, I have to admit that my vocabulary is limited and sometimes my English is too colloquial. What is the best way? It's a good question....

Those who are good at the TOEIC can't speak English, while Americans are not good at English grammar

If you are an English teacher in Japan, you can't stay away from the existence of the TOEIC test. It is widely believed that if you have a TOEIC score of over 900, you are really good at English. However, if you live in Japan, you may come across a lot of Japanese who have gotten scores of over 900 and who can't speak English good enough.

Talking about myself, my latest score is over 900. But, I surely know that my English is not that good, as you may notice it from my poor writing.

Anyway, most Japanese who've got higher TOEIC scores is just good at exams. Actually, most Japanese bilingual English teachers know this well but they need to keep teaching the TOEIC coures to make ends meet.

Another thing that may often be mentioned in English teaching industry is that Americans are often poor at grammar. According to my colleague's observation, one of American teachers I'm working at have said "I'm looking forward to see you." Of course, you have to say "I'm looking forward to seeing you." I don't know whether or not Americans are really bad at English grammar, but I can say that some of Americans who live in Japan for teaching English can get English teaching jobs much easier than Japanese teachers or other native-speaking teachers such as Australian teachers and Canadians teachers, and that they are not serious about their jobs. I wonder how much they can get on the TOEIC test. Full mark (990)? Or less than 900.

Higuchi and Higashino

I'm reading One-way Love by Keigo Higashino. When I read his other book for the first time, I felt that his style was very monotone and kind of boring. Now, I feel his style is just fine.

I've also felt that the style of Yusuke Higuchi is n't satisfying any more. Maybe my preference has changed unless their styles have changed.

Surprised and...

Recently, I noticed that Beni Arashiro has got it going on in an advertising poster hung in a train. I am kind of surprised by the fact. I think she is attractive, but she's not that famous.



Another thing that surprised me is that an American, who is teaching English at the same place, told me that he liked a group called "AKB48." Actually, I didn't know those people. And then, I checked it out though the Internet. I sighed, because they are teenagers wearing school uniforms. I thought that Americans and Europeans who are over 20 do not like those girls. But, probably I was wrong.