Very short stories

Dear All,

Here's the stories I promised to post in case you want to read them during the holidays. They're very short, and different in nature - some funny, some sad...

Page 1

Page 2

They're from the collection True Tales of American Life, edited by the US writer Paul Auster, and written by radio listeners who contributed their own stories to an NPR program. Auster wanted "stories that defied our expectations about the world, anecdotes that revealed the mysterious and unknowable forces at work in our lives, in our family histories, in our minds and bodies, in our souls, true stories that sounded like fiction".

Hope you want to read more of them after these four!

Breath-taking photographs

Hi there!

A colleague of mine just recommended this book by the photographer Linde Waidhofer. The pictures are just breath-taking, but as a reading exercise, you can also download the book (it's free) and read the texts in English during the holidays.

Enjoy!

"You guys"

Hi there!

Francisco (17:30 group) sent me this video and commented he was surprised by the informality of the speech. The speaker refers to the members of the European Parliament as "you guys".

The speaker is definitely outspoken, even looking for direct confrontation, but the register of his speech can still be considered, in general, a formal one. The use of "you guys" is informal but not to the point I think Francisco or you guys might think it is: when the speaker (or your teacher) says "you guys" they're not calling you "tíos/tías" ;-) "You guys" is only a plural form of "you".

Thank you very much, Francisco, for drawing our attention to this video and to this aspect of English grammar!

Here's a more comprehensive explanation from Wikipedia:

New plural forms

Because you is both singular and plural, various English dialects have attempted to revive the distinction between a singular and plural you to avoid confusion between the two uses. This is typically done by adding a new plural form; examples of new plurals sometimes seen and heard are y'all, or you-all (primarily in the southern United States and African American Vernacular English), you guys (in the U.S., particularly in Midwest, Northeast, and West Coast, in Canada, and in Australia; regardless of the genders of those referred to), you lot (in the UK), youse (in Scotland, the north east of England and New Zealand), yous (in Liverpool and some parts of Ireland), youse guys (in the U.S., particularly in New York City region, Philadelphia, Michigan's Upper Peninsula and rural Canada; also spelt without the E), and you-uns/yinz (Western Pennsylvania, The Appalachians). English spoken in Ireland, known as Hiberno-English, sometimes uses the word ye as the plural form, or yous (also used in Australia, however not the form ye). Although these plurals are useful in daily speech, they are generally not found in Standard English. Among them, you guys is considered most neutral in the U.S. It is the most common plural form of you in the U.S. except in the dialects with y'all, and has been used even in the White House.