On Exceptions
Grammar and I have always been on pretty good terms. We were fast friends early on, leaned on each other in rough times and kept our fights to a minimum. I spent a few weeks giving it the cold shoulder in middle school, but all relationships have rough patches; we forgave and forgot. So has been our love story.
Grammar and I aren't doing so well these days. I mean, I understand all the tics and tricks and weird little pitfalls; I know how it works, but not everyone does. I find myself trying to explain its behavior to outsiders and receiving blank stares in return. Some of it is just so asinine, so pointless and without precendent that I have no way to legitimately defend it.
"So.. this is the rule."
"Right."
"But it doesn't work all the time."
"Nope."
"So what's the rule for the exceptions?"
"...well."
A little consistency would be nice.
Exceptions to rules for things like adverbs and verb tense are a nightmare for me to explain. I can manage the grammatical basics like sentence construction, word choice and punctuation just fine, even with a LEAP student, but trying to convey something like present simple versus present continuous to someone that hasn't grown up speaking the language and lacks the intuition we take for granted is tremendously difficult. I honestly don't know where to start half the time.
Class helps. Learning to verbalize on independent and dependent clauses, comma splices and construction, semi-colons and the like has been really helpful. I understand all the little jokes and subtleties myself, but I've never had to explain them to another human being before - or at least not one I had to be nice to. (I have cousins.) Refreshing helps. I know the material, but it's been years since I've had to use the terminology or think about writing in a structured way. Reading through the textbooks makes it easier. Eavesdropping on other tutors helps. It seems like everyone else has a better grasp on vocalizing these concepts than I do, but I'm not above ganking other people's methods.
But yeah, it's hard. Explaining these abstract concepts is hard. I so often take for granted that grammatical proficiency is natural and shared by everyone as part of a uniform cultural experience; I forget that we don't all share intellectual traits. I have to remind myself to slow down, back up and be clear (but not condescending.) I feel like I do more to confuse than to clarify half the time I open my mouth. Is anyone else having issues with this?
Grammar and I aren't doing so well these days. I mean, I understand all the tics and tricks and weird little pitfalls; I know how it works, but not everyone does. I find myself trying to explain its behavior to outsiders and receiving blank stares in return. Some of it is just so asinine, so pointless and without precendent that I have no way to legitimately defend it.
"So.. this is the rule."
"Right."
"But it doesn't work all the time."
"Nope."
"So what's the rule for the exceptions?"
"...well."
A little consistency would be nice.
Exceptions to rules for things like adverbs and verb tense are a nightmare for me to explain. I can manage the grammatical basics like sentence construction, word choice and punctuation just fine, even with a LEAP student, but trying to convey something like present simple versus present continuous to someone that hasn't grown up speaking the language and lacks the intuition we take for granted is tremendously difficult. I honestly don't know where to start half the time.
Class helps. Learning to verbalize on independent and dependent clauses, comma splices and construction, semi-colons and the like has been really helpful. I understand all the little jokes and subtleties myself, but I've never had to explain them to another human being before - or at least not one I had to be nice to. (I have cousins.) Refreshing helps. I know the material, but it's been years since I've had to use the terminology or think about writing in a structured way. Reading through the textbooks makes it easier. Eavesdropping on other tutors helps. It seems like everyone else has a better grasp on vocalizing these concepts than I do, but I'm not above ganking other people's methods.
But yeah, it's hard. Explaining these abstract concepts is hard. I so often take for granted that grammatical proficiency is natural and shared by everyone as part of a uniform cultural experience; I forget that we don't all share intellectual traits. I have to remind myself to slow down, back up and be clear (but not condescending.) I feel like I do more to confuse than to clarify half the time I open my mouth. Is anyone else having issues with this?
posted by Briasaurus REX at 3:37 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home