A Klezmer band got on my train tonight and played for a couple of stops. It was so silly and fun and uplifting, the perfect way to end a great evening. Also, it was a nice counterpoint to how hard I'm having to work to understand this book. I'm a halfway smart chick, I think, but wow, I so do not get some of the shit she's talking about. I have to go back and forward and try again and sometimes I still don't get it. (Give me instant gratification or give me death!) Yet so many other people totally get it. I keep telling people they'll love the book then telling them something about it that I don't understand and getting essentially this conversation,
"I still have no idea what a gerund is."
"You don't know what a gerund is?"
"Still no."
"addihfpn hpdifap fweoihfdna ihddpdah fiehpfhep hipeha"
"But how is that not a verb."
"Because fsepfeofdjs noun sihfpfefed eifj hfhing."
"Oh."
On the bright side, I know some really smart people.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Klezmer
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What book???
ReplyDeleteSeester, PapaKizz gifted her "Sin and Syntax" for her birthday. I'm jealous.
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while to get gerunds, too. See if this helps - replace the "ing" word (you know, the one that LOOKS like a verb but is acting like a noun" and replace it with "THE ACT OF."
So, in "Swimming is good exercise," "swimming" is the gerund. How is it not a verb? Because it's not SWIMMING, exactly, that's good for you, it's THE ACT of swimming. Putting the "the act" in front of it makes it easier to see as a noun - at least, for a bunch of my students.
Chili, you have answered every question I was going to post in this comment.
ReplyDeleteRocking On.
(the act of rocking)
So is that a book similar to "Making Calculus Sexy?"
ReplyDelete