No Time Like the Present

Although I am not currently teaching at CESL, I am going to write now, because I have time to write the things I wanted to say during the summer, when I was teaching.

This is about two ESL issues,rhyming and the verb "became."

I found that many of my students were unable to rhyme in English, or at least did not immediately see the necessity for it. I will give examples.

Unexpected Results

Norther Winslow’s Poem
In the novel (and film) Big Fish, the character Norther Winslow has three lines for a poem about his beloved town Spectre and can’t seem to finish it:

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
_____


My assignment was to finish it. These are the results:

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
I wanna stay here forever.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
And Spectre loves me.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
Who are dancing here.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
And Spectre is the Heaven.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
And I will never leave.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
Let’s go to dance.
Live your life.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
Love is forever.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
Back to Spectre.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
So I want to fall in love with someone.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
But I should leave.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
So I stay here.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
And I love my wife.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
Spectre has everything.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
And I will never leave.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
Everything is Spectre.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
And the quiet of its river.

(Those last two are actually quite nice, with a poetry of their own, I think.)

Then, we have some people who got it:

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
And all people love it too.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
You should too.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
I love my life too.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
Because it’s red and blue.
(Okay, that’s not true, but hey, it’s poetry. And it does rhyme!)

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
I like you.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
Wonder do you.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
And everyone should do.


But I have to admit, these have a certain je ne sais quoi:

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
I got to go now.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
So far so good.

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
I love Spectre,
I like women!

*****

I found that many of my students misused the verb "became." I realized that what they should have said was either "began," or "came to," as in "the character came to understand. . . ."

Examples:
1) Will becomes loving (comes to love; begins to love) stories of his father's life and helps his father to continue the end of his story.
2) William became understood (came to understand; began to understand) (or became understanding of)his father's mind when his father was going to die.
3) He became (came; began) to respect and understand (or, became respectful and understanding of)his father.
4) Finally, son is becoming understand (understanding of) (or beginning to understand)his father gradually.

That's all for now.