Comments on: First day of class. http://mf.rox.com/archives/2006/02/20/first-day-of-class-2/ "Of course it's hot! It's on fire!" Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:42:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0 by: MF http://mf.rox.com/archives/2006/02/20/first-day-of-class-2/#comment-11699 Fri, 24 Feb 2006 10:58:43 +0000 http://mf.rox.com/archives/2006/02/20/first-day-of-class-2/#comment-11699 Hi -- It's strangely difficult to explain why this is funny! To native speakers, it would mean "I've studied for fifteen years longer than I wanted to." This is the sort of thing someone would say if they really regretted something. For instance, let's say a man and his wife were married for fifteen years, but were getting along very badly. The man is angry at his wife and regrets marrying her. If someone asked him how long he had been married, he might reply, "Fifteen years too long." So, when my student answered that way, it really sounded like he regrets studying English! Hi –

It’s strangely difficult to explain why this is funny! To native speakers, it would mean “I’ve studied for fifteen years longer than I wanted to.” This is the sort of thing someone would say if they really regretted something. For instance, let’s say a man and his wife were married for fifteen years, but were getting along very badly. The man is angry at his wife and regrets marrying her. If someone asked him how long he had been married, he might reply, “Fifteen years too long.” So, when my student answered that way, it really sounded like he regrets studying English!

]]> by: Dane http://mf.rox.com/archives/2006/02/20/first-day-of-class-2/#comment-11647 Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:46:21 +0000 http://mf.rox.com/archives/2006/02/20/first-day-of-class-2/#comment-11647 MF,glad you resumed your teaching schedule today.how is everything going?how is school? and here comes my question as to the funny way of expression of your student you mentioned in the post,when he said "fifteen years too long" in this case,couldn't he mean "fifteen years is too long for me to master the english?"I mean is it grammatically incorrect or just funny-sounding? Look forward to your tutoring. Dane MF,glad you resumed your teaching schedule today.how is everything going?how is school?
and here comes my question as to the funny way of expression of your student you mentioned in the post,when he said “fifteen years too long” in this case,couldn’t he mean “fifteen years is too long for me to master the english?”I mean is it grammatically incorrect or just funny-sounding?
Look forward to your tutoring.

Dane

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