VIP Class Notes (Nicholas)

• Research a “non controversial” conspiracy or conspiracy theory and write a brief, 1-2 paragraph summary in your own words.

Grammar

1. Pay special attention to when words should be singular vs. plural, for example:

• Country vs. Countries

1. Focus on eliminating common “Chinglish” grammatical formations:

• “I very like this company.” (incorrect) vs. “I like this company very much.” (correct)
• “It’s very obviously.” (incorrect) vs. “It’s very obvious.” (correct)
• “Very good than before.” (incorrect) vs. “It’s better than before.” (correct)

1. Let’s eliminate contractions for now (e.g. he’s, she’s, you’re) and focus on speaking more deliberately and precisely (e.g. he is, she is, you are):

• Your “his” sounds like “he’s”. For example, you would say something like: “Look at he’s computer.” (Incorrect) vs “Look at his computer.” (Correct)
• Remember, much like “him”, “his” should be pronounced harshly, and compactly, similar to the 4th tone in Mandarin (quick, downward).

1. “She talked about me.” (OK) vs. “She spoke about me.” (Better)

Pronunciation

1. Let’s focus intently on correctly pronouncing these common words to achieve a more native English accent:

• Heem (incorrect): long, sounds like “steam” / Him (correct): short, harsh and compact; sounds like “the arm is a limb”
• Dis (incorrect) vs. This (correct): focusing on the TH sound; I suggest exaggerating the TH sound every time you say words like “they, then, this, that”.
• Bose (incorrect) vs. Boss (sounds like BAWS) (correct)

Vocabulary

• Insult; Meaning: to speak rudely to someone, or purposely ridicule them.
• Toxic work environment (i.e. gossipy)
• He/she owns an external company (correct) vs. He/she owns a company outside. (incorrect)
• “He/she is very good to me”.
• “Sometimes, people need to stop acting childish and grow up.” (good) vs. “Sometimes, people need to stop acting childish and mature.” (good)
• Conflicted; Example: “I don’t know; I’m so unsure. Sometimes I think I should ‘yes’ and other times I feel like I should say ‘no’. I’m conflicted.”
• Alternative Media; Meaning: social media news commentators; people commenting on news events who are not part of a formal news organization (Note: in class you used the word “self media” to refer to this.)
• Short selling; Meaning: betting against a company’s stock value; the opposite of being “long”, or holding a company’s stock and hoping for an increased value.
• Shareholder; Meaning: a person who owns shares or “stock” of a company.
• Spy; Meaning: a person who covertly, or secretly, seeks information from a person or organization for the benefit of himself/herself or another organization/government.
• Prosecute; Meaning: to formally and legally, seek the punishment (e.g. jail or a monetary fine) of an individual for a crime. For example, lawyers prosecute criminals in a courtroom, and if their prosecution is successful, the criminal will be punished.
• Conspiracy; Meaning: a secret or covert plan by a group of people to achieve a goal without letting others know; purposefully deceiving the general public for the benefit of a small, well-connected group of people.
• “Don’t burn a bridge.” Meaning: Maintain good, friendly relationships with people, even if you must end a relationship/friendship.
• “Threw me under the bus.” Meaning: Someone blamed me for a problem to avoid blaming themselves for fear of punishment.
• “Unfortunately, we are no longer friends; we had a falling out.” Meaning: things between two friends were good in the past, but now they are not; the situation/relationship has fallen apart — “we had a falling out.”