I used to use the Microsoft Bing (Engkoo) online dictionary a lot: in my classes, I gave Bing dictionary links to words & phrases in the chat window. (I prepare in advance and have the links saved in my class notes, so that I can quickly copy & paste them into the chat window during class.) And in articles on this site, I give Bing dictionary links to words & phrases that I use in the article. In short, I used to find it very useful for teaching English online to my students in China. Some other articles of mine about Bing: But none of those links will work now, because Microsoft/Bing have changed the format of their links (URLs): not only have they introduced a new format for their links, but also they killed the old links, so clicking on one will just take you to the Bing home page. Different URL formats for Bing over time.
This is the 4th time they have done this. Four times before, they've done this; four times before, they have ruined all the links I already have in my class notes; four times before, they have ruined all the links in my articles on this website. Four times before, I have had to fix all the links in my notes (not extremely hard) and twice before I've had to fix all the links in my articles (much harder and much more time-consuming: in fact I'm not sure I've found & corrected all the links in previous formats.). I will not try fixing them all again. And unless I can find some way of automatically updating them (and keeping them automatically updated for all future changes), I will not use Bing online dictionary again. I will not invest more of my time in links for an online dictionary that keeps breaking those links. I can't even complain to them, because their own feedback link on their new-style home page doesn't even work! I'd appreciate any suggestions for alternatives. I already use Jukuu, which provides whole sentences in English, with Chinese translation. (And Jukuu has never changed the format of its links; ones I saved 3-4 years ago still work today.) But can anyone suggest something similar to Bing/Engkoo? An online dictionary, with definitions of words as well as example sentences, preferably also giving a Chinese translation. Also, I apologize to anyone browsing this site who finds lots of broken links to Bing. I will try to find them all and eliminate them (or replace them with links to another online dictionary). Update 2014-04-07: Oxford just changed the links and appearance of their Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary... but 99% of the previous Oxford links still work! The old links are automatically redirected to the new URLs. At least someone at Oxford has enough sense to to make changes in an intelligent way. What a pity I can't say the same for Microsoft. As for English<>Chinese links to give my students, I now use Baidu's dictionary: it doesn't have quite as many features as Bing, but at least the links don't keep changing every few months.
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On the Verbs page of ESL links, I noticed that some of the links for Phrasal Verbs (e.g. put out, look after, take over) weren't working. So I've fixed some, removed some and added some new ones.
Check them out here (2nd section): ESL Links > Verbs. By the way, if you ever find that any links on my site don't work anymore, please contact me and tell me, I'd appreciate it a lot :) A question from Emily about a sentence in an exercise on job interviews. (I have edited the question & answer.) Dear Joe, I have a question about this sentence: As the minutes tick past, you feel a mounting sense of doom as you anticipate the questions that will cause a deafening silence during the interview! I don't know the exact meaning of the whole sentence. Also for the first clause, which is the verb? "tick" or "past"? Yours sincerely, Emily My answer:
(Many words are linked to an online dictionary where you can find out more about the word, like definitions, example sentences, translations, synonyms, pronunciation etc.) In Part I, I gave some reasons why it's better to explain unfamiliar food than to translate it, and some general advice on how to explain it. In this part, I'll start explaining an important part of explaining food: cooking methods. Here's a table of many cooking methods: As you can see there are a lot, so I will focus on the most common ones; or least, my favourite ones :) .
In this part I'll explain baking and roasting. Click "Read More" to continue... Baking
Update 2017-08-18: Fixed and removed some links. Update 2015-12-15: Fixed some vocab links. Replaced Netspeak links with Youdao because Netspeak is blocked in China (?!?). Update 2013-09-02: Removed broken links to Bing dictionary, replaced with links to Cambridge, Oxford & Macmillan. Added links to The Phrase FInder and The Free Dictionary at bottom. My latest class on Marketing and Advertising reminded me of an example of very creative advertising from China.
"Outside the box" means to think or do something that is very creative and even unexpected or surprising. You can:
A box is a container. It contains, it restrains, it limits. Our own habits can also be a container, restraining and limiting our ideas. So when we think outside the box, we try to break out of the limitations of our habits and try something new, original and unusual. In business, we are sometimes asked to think outside the box in order to find a solution to a difficult problem; the usual, normal ideas are not working and we need to come up with something new (and hopefully better). The yoga club was having trouble getting the attention of potential clients, and this advertising idea was unusual... but it worked. So this example of advertising that put a person inside a box is a great example of thinking outside the box. Some people feel the phrase "thinking outside the box" is used too much: it has become a cliché, abused by business people in general and consultants in particular.
But if you work in the modern business world and use English, you absolutely must know what this idiom means. Update 2014-01-07: I have updated the vocab links, as they used to from the Bing online dictionary, which keeps changing its URLs. Im my Hiknow business English class on Food & Entertaining, I like to make one point clear: food can't always be translated. A Chinese dish might not have a name in English. So what do you say when trying to speak about Chinese food in English? What should someone say when trying to explain foreign food to someone Chinese?
An example:
If you said in English to a foreign visitor "Please eat these Acid Hot Copy Hands", they might think you were mad, maybe murderous, perhaps a plagiarist and possibly a cannibal to boot! Although they might also just laugh, realising that the food you're offering couldn't possibly contain acid and hands and that it's (probably?) just a language barrier issue. Here are a couple of alternatives to just translating the Chinese name: 1. Give the Chinese name and a short explanation. "These are suānlà chāoshǒu. They are large dumplings, made with wheat flour. First, pork and spices are wrapped in thin sheets of dough, then they're steamed and finally covered in a spicy sauce. They're a speciality of Sichuan. Try one! They're delicious!" That way, not only does the visitor get the right idea about what the food is, but you're also selling them on it: describing its features and making them want to have it. 2. Give a simple explanatory name. For example "Spicy steamed Sichuan dumplings". It's less poetic... but also less scary and less confusing! What you imagine when you say "suānlà chāoshǒu": What an English speaker imagines when they hear "Acid Hot Copy Hand": So remember:
In Part II, I'll go through some of the different cooking methods, so that you can use them in your explanation. We all need to know vocabulary, but too often we see a new word and then forget it later.
The Language Centre of the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology has some great pages of tips & strategies to help you really learn and really remember English vocabulary. I've added this link to the Vocabulary page in ESL Links. Update 2017-02-25: Updated vocabulary dictionary links. Many of my students in China are mentioning how cold it is there right now, but are having issues with the vocabulary for describing the temperature (how hot or cold it is).
In this article, I will try to clear up how to speak about the temperature of the weather. I will write temperatures and numbers as words to show how they are spoken, e.g. "minus fifteen degrees Celsius". And I'll write the digits and symbols in brackets, e.g. "(-15°C)" to make clear exactly what the temperature is and to show how they are usually written. Firstly, °. That symbol is pronounced "degrees" (UNIT). English speakers talk about temperature both with AND without this word.
Secondly, there are two measuring systems for temperature: Celsius / Centigrade (abbreviated as C) and Fahrenheit (abbreviated as F) . In most English-speaking countries, we now use Celsius. But in the United States ( and in the recent past in Britain and others) they still use Fahrenheit. So if you're speaking with an American, make clear which measuring system you're using.
Thirdly, when it gets really cold, we can use words like "minus" and "below" in combination with numbers referring to the temperature. "Minus" (#2) before a number refers to temperatures below 0°.
Finally, "brrr..." is a sound English speakers make to express that they feel very cold. In my class today on Business - Success and Failure, we saw a lot of phrases related to financial problems. I mentioned Greece as a country that is experiencing a debt crisis.
I found on the BBC News website a Q & A: information presented in the format of Questions and Answers. As the article explains the difficult financial situation of Greece in a clear way, it uses many of the phrases from today's class, like debt crisis, rescheduling, bailout, recovery, IMF, default, creditors, servicing, restructuring etc. Reading this article is a good chance to see these phrases used in context. Here's the article: I've long used the online English-English/English-Chinese dictionary provided by Microsoft, often looking up words and putting the links in the chatbox during classes. It used to be at engkoo.com (and the Chinese name is still that) but a while ago it changed to Bing.
It is a free online dictionary that provides definitions, pronunciation and example sentences, which are great for seeing the word or phrase used in a variety of contexts. The example sentences also have Chinese translations and source links. You can choose to view definitions in English (English-English) or Chinese (English-Chinese). One feature I especially like is comparison: you can look up and compare two words (or even more!) by putting "vs" in between. Especially useful for understanding the difference between similar words. Here's an example: cheap vs inexpensive. It's a great all-in-one resource, although I still often use some more specialized sites when giving links for students. E.g. for example sentences, Jukuu often provides more results. And for pronunciation, I prefer Howjsay as it is all done by a native English speaker (whereas on Bing many are not). Because of the name change, I hadn't got around to putting on my Links During Online Classes page, but it's there now, along with Jukuu, Howjsay and others. |
G.A.L.E.S.L. / joe3
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