Thursday 5 January 2017

English View in Interview - Aish

English Language is vast with stories, essays, poems etc. Each of these depict various structures and patterns, one such is the short structured poem with varied concepts. That was a good one Pri! Here, let's take a brief look at how this beautiful language is construed with basics not just for a beginner.

Touch of Language! 


Resuming my Classical dance and performing at events, I gradually relaxed myself from the daily hassles of travelling to work with my then year old daughter. It was my sister in law who working in a reputed school as a class Teacher, urged me to attend the ongoing interviews in her school seeking a qualified teacher with added skills. My passion for learning languages and the love for English started from my schooling with a Convent tag and while in school, later pursuing in College my touch for this wonderful language grew more by sharing and teaching the pupils in the institutes too.


Many do agree that one of the best professions after motherhood, for a woman would be a teacher, since it's with early-return-home timings, couple of holidays, relatively stress free. But advantages do have the 'dis' prefix in whichever profession we are into. Entering into a 'reputed' school is - dance according to the tune played, i.e to sustain the reputation by providing the best results, schools intend in pressurizing the teachers too along with the students, while entering into an 'upcoming' school is dance without any music too, i.e to attain the reputation they do the same but with more efforts.

With 'let's give it a try' belief, I started off to the school. Was taken aback to see plenty of applicants already waiting and still couple of them flowing in, most of them with some notes memorizing and discussing stuffs. Have I entered an examination center with bunch of students preparing?

"The session started, just a demo to be presented" said a lady with 4 years of teaching experience standing beside me.

"I gave a demo on a Hindi poem "Patshala (School)". Seeing them smiling, I hope they were impressed", added up the Hindi teacher of a school after stepping out of the session.

"It can be any language or topic of our choice" replied another applicant quickly and sank in her notes, for questioning the type of demo to be presented. "What exactly are those Notes?", I really wondered.

Seeing people stepping out of the session, some with smiles, some grumpy, waiting outside all others were totally anxious and fretful. That was my turn, only aware that a demo is to be presented on any topic.


Entering the room, I wished the three teachers one being the Vice Principal and the other two were heads of the Primary and High School respectively, sitting in front facing a white board with markers at the bottom of it and at the back of them were lots of computer cubicles.

After a thought, I began my topic "English Tense System". This topic provoked me as most of us know about tenses but application of them in the sentences do matter a lot. Let's dig into tense :

Usage of English Tenses - Present, Past and Future Tense!



Before having a peek at the Tenses, a brief on these words will help us. We will have a look at each of these in detail in our upcoming "Touch of Language - English" posts.

Verb -  A word to express a physical action (e.g to swim, to write), a mental action (e.g to think, to remember), or a state of being (e.g to be, to exist).

Auxiliary Verbs - The helping verbs used in forming the tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs. The primary auxiliary verbs in English are be, do, and have ; the modal auxiliaries are can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would.

Past participle - This is used with an auxiliary verb and it indicates past or completed action or time.

Let's look with illustrations the 15 Basic English Tenses :

1. PRESENT - The Present tense indicates an action that is presently going on or actions that are factually or habitually performed, or a state that currently or generally exists.


2. Present Simple tense - This tense is used when an action is happening right now, or when it happens regularly.

(I, You) do / (He, She, It) does / (They, We) do

e.g I play in the park.
      He goes to school everyday.
      We speak English.

3. Present Continuous tense - This is used to express an ongoing action which is in progress at the time of speaking.

I am doing / (He, She, It) is doing / (You,They, We) are doing

e.g I am singing a song.
      It is raining.
      They are coming.

4. Present Perfect tense - This is formed with a present tense form of "to have" plus the past participle of the verb.

(I, You) have done / (He,She,It) has done / (They, We) have done

e.g She has lived in Sydney all her life.
       I have come to the Museum thrice.
       We have watched this movie in the theatre.

5.Present Perfect Continuous tense - This formed with have/has been and the -ing form of the verb

(I,You) have been doing / (He, She, It) has been doing / (They, We) have been doing

e.g It has been raining for hours.
      They have been dining together for every Thanks giving.
       I have been going to my hometown for every vacation.

6.PAST - The Past tense is used to talk about the past, to describe the present or future in conditional statements, to make hypothetical statements (to imagine), or to be polite.


7. Past Simple tense - This is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now which can be in the recent past or the distant past.

(I, You) did / (He, She, It) did / (They, We) did

e.g I came home.
      He ran outside.
      We went to the market.

8. Past Continuous tense - This describes actions or events which began in the past and is still going on at the time of speaking.

I was doing / (He, She, It) was doing / (You,They, We) were doing

 e.g They were doing their homework when I got home.
        The other day, I was waiting for the bus.
        She was working in a Consultancy before.

9. Past Perfect tense - This is used with the verb 'had' and the past participle.

(I, You) had done / (He, She, It) had done / (They, We) had done


e.g She had gone.
      I had finished my work.
      We had lived together.

10. Past Perfect Continuous tense - This is formed with 'had been' and the -ing form of the verb.

(I, You) had been doing / (He, She, It) had been doing / (They, We) had been doing

e.g She had been going.
      I had been finishing my work.
      We had been living together.

11. FUTURE This describes the verb that has not happened yet, but expected to happen in the future.


12. Future Simple tense - This indicates that an action is in the future and employs the helping verbs 'will or shall' with the base form of the verb.

(I, You) will do / (He, She, It) will do / (They, We) will do
Will could be written or said as 'll like I'll do.
Negative sentences with will, can, do can be said or written as won't, can't, don't.

e.g He'll go to office tomorrow.
      You will sing in the concert on Wednesday.
      We'll buy the vegetables from the market.

13. Future Continuous tense - This expresses a continued or an ongoing action in future.

(I, You) will be doing / (He, She, It) will be doing / (They, We) will be doing

e.g I will be driving to home in the evening.
      They will be coming to see us next week.

14. Future Perfect tense - It talks about the past in the future.

(I, You) will have done / (He/She/It) will have done / (They/We) will have done

 e.g I'll have finished when you arrive.
       She'll have forgotten everything.
       They'll've had their dinner by then.

15. Future Perfect Continuous tense - This is just like the Future Perfect tense with have been + ing, but it expresses longer actions extending up to some specific event or time in the future.

(I, You) will have been doing / (He, She, It) will have been doing / (They/ We) will have been doing

 e.g I'll have been driving for five hours.
       She'll have been watching TV.


These are the basics of the English language that is used in a day to day basis.
While presenting my demo, I was amazed to see heads popping out from each cubicle. There were around 20 staffs in the room listening to English. The appreciation with applause and immediate appointment after completion, definitely shows the reach of English.  We could say that out of 10 native English speakers only 1 would have gone deep through the language, the rest 9 but would be fluent. It shows the power of speaking, but knowing the basic is always appreciated and the flow of speech would be natural.

Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions. From an English teacher to a Successful business magnate, Jack Ma is the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a family of Internet-based businesses . I really admire people no matter what age, who, feel to learn a lot not because of the ignorance to the language but that drive to know deep without minding other's concern.

Teaching emphasizes Learning
Learning embraces Knowledge
Knowledge creates Sharing
Sharing binds Teaching!

26 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes Englist is such a language, highly flexible, with only 26 letters it has done so many wonders, adopted from other languages many things and u can manage with English in almost all countries. Good article

Unknown said...

Rightly said, Thank you! 😊

Sripriya said...

Britishers may have left, but English has rooted strong within us. Love English. Love your article Aish.

Unknown said...

Exactly! Thank you Priya! 😊

AiringMyLaundry said...

How interesting! English is my first language, so it intrigues me to see how other people learn it. I'm always impressed when people know other languages.

Unknown said...

That sounds great Amber! Knowing various languages definitely boosts our confidence. Thanks for stopping by 😊

Blair Villanueva said...

English is my secondary language, and most of my fellow Filipinos knows how to speak this language. Its fun and flexible :)

Unknown said...

Interesting post regarding English. I have a deep respect for teachers and the creative tools they use to teach.

Unknown said...

Glad you liked it Blair! I love to learn more languages, one of them is Filipino. Thank you for stopping by 😊

Unknown said...

That is wonderful to know Adina! Through this marvelous profession, many professionals are created in various fields. Pleasure you liked it Adina 😊

Unknown said...

Learning new languages is a great way to stretch your mind and perspective on life! Kudos to you for taking it on....

Brandi Kennedy said...

It's always interesting to see how other people learn and play with English as a language - it is my first language, so it comes easily to me. I imagine it must be pretty challenging as a second language though, just like any other.

Unknown said...

A great post. English can be a hard language to learn!

MichelleCat said...

A strong sense of the English language to include grammar is a wonderful tool to have in my opinion. I always find it fun doing literal translations from another language into the English language. The result never comes out quite right and has to be re-translated to conform to the rules of the English language.

Unknown said...

Splendidly said! Thanks a lot Robin Ross. Pleasure you stopped by 😊

David Elliott said...

This takes me back to my teaching days and having to show all of the kids how to properly construct a sentence. It's all very useful information when learning English.

Unknown said...

Wow! Great you liked it David. Pleasure for a teacher like me to get a compliment from another teacher. Thanks a lot for stopping by 😊

aareeba said...

U know couple of years back I didn't knew how to write a paragraph in English without any mistake...and today am writing blogs in English .. am still learning most of the things but still am very proud about myself

Unknown said...

Awesome Nazy! Great going. It definitely shows your self confidence and urge to learn more. Appreciate for stopping by 😊

Unknown said...

Not so tough when we pour our interest into, is my opinion. Thanks a lot Ritchie. Pleasure for stopping by 😊

Unknown said...

English is my second language. Thank you so much for sharing...a great read

Unknown said...

I'm a teacher and it seems to be a good career to balance with family. You just need to find the right school.

Unknown said...

Well said Laura! Balancing work and family well depends on the best place we work into.

Unknown said...

Glad you liked it Doris! It's a pleasure to share what we learn. 😊

Unknown said...

Grammar is the key for translations. I love translating my second languages 'Hindi' and 'French' to English. Thanks a lot for stopping by Michelle! 😊

Unknown said...

True Brandi! By conversing in English, people with English as their second language do get the fluency. A very wonderful language to learn! Glad you liked it 😊