Can you speak English? Are you sure?

Can you speak English?

Dear me, a letter to my pre-expat self.

If you could send a letter to your younger self, what words of guidance, comfort, advice or other message would you put in it?


A few days ago I read this article about a book gathering fiction letters written by famous people to their 16-years-old selves telling them what they consider they should know, trying of course not to spoil the forthcoming surprises.




Dear pre-expat me,


first of all, stop packing all your "ifs and buts" in your luggage. England is not the Kalahari desert, you can find everything you need in here, sometimes even cheaper. So stop panicking about what you can fit in the suitcase or it won´t make it trough the airport!


Don´t make a big fuss about that goodbye moment, it´s totally a "see you later". It´s not like we are in the 50´s anymore. Ryanair is there for you anytime and we both now you´ll need to pop in Spain at least once every three months or so to cope with the "English Experience". Let´s say it won´t be a rose garden.


Also you will find plenty of Spanish people in your same situation. I don´t get that "Lost Generation" tag, we are literally everywhere! 
So you´ll be able to share with them your worries over a pint. Just take care with the quantities! Two of them is already a litre! And NO, you can´t eat to help the process, not even a mere packet of crisps. I mean, yes you can, but you won´t see any English person doing it as according to them "Eating is cheating". 
And yes, they drink a lot. What you used to see at the Costa del Sol or Benidorm, they weren´t English people in their "holiday mood", it was just English people. Just make sure you don´t get too British on that.


So yes, some Spanish people is recommended to easy the process but just remember why you are here, and the opportunity you have to meet plenty of new people and cultures you would have never met in Spain. You would have never thought the amount of different cultures and communities coexisting in U.K. 


Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward. So make sure you keep your family and friends close and connected to you but also keep your mind open to everything that is new just in front of you. Opportunities are to be taken.
Keep in mind that this is temporal and can be ended whenever you want so just enjoy it while it last, be it 6 months, a year or ten.


Don´t get stressed with the prices, they are very similar to the Spanish prices if you pay in pounds. Just work in getting a job as soon possible. England is not Spain but still, getting a job takes time. Don´t try to do it all at once, I will recommend: house, and then job or language school, depending on your needs and aims.


Be patient about the job, before and during it.


At the beginning you´ll feel lost and will miss a lot but I assure you, you´ll love the experience and will learn a lot from it. Thanks to it, you´ll become somewhat closer to the person you want to be. They say distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.
And you won´t be alone, you´ll find good fellows and friends on the way, some of them will be in your life for good.


Good luck!

Collocations.

"You shall know a word by the company it keeps." 
J.R. Firth (1890-1960)

What is a collocation?
Collocations are common word combinations, words that often go together that just sound "right" to native English speakers, who use them all the time, such as bright idea, talk freely.


Why learn collocations?
(It´s all advantages!)
- You will be more natural and easily understood. 
- You will have alternative and richer ways of expressing yourself.
- You will express yourself as a native speaker and that´s the whole point, right?
- It is easier for our brains to remember and use language in chunks or blocks rather than as single words.
- if you are getting yourself ready for an English exam, collocations might make the difference between passing ot or not.



How to learn collocations.
- Be aware of collocations, and try to recognize them when you see or hear them.
- Treat collocations as single blocks of language. Think of them as individual blocks or chunks, and learn strongly support, not strongly + support.
- When you learn a new word, write down other words that collocate with it (remember rightly, remember distinctly, remember vaguely, remember vividly).
- Read as much as possible. Reading is an excellent way to learn vocabulary and collocations in context and naturally.
- Revise what you learn regularly. Practise using new collocations in context as soon as possible after learning them.
- Learn collocations in groups that work for you. You could learn them by topic (time, number, weather, money, family) or by a particular word (take action, take a chance, take an exam).
- You can find information on collocations in any good learner's dictionary. And you can also find specialized dictionaries of collocations.


Strong and weak collocations.
If we look deeper into collocations, we find that not only do the words "go together" but there is a degree of predictability in their association. Generally, in any collocation, one word will "call up" another word in the mind of a native speaker. In other words, if I give you one word, you can predict the other word, with varying degrees of success. This predictability is not 100%, but it is always much higher than with non-collocates. It depends on how frequent/infrequent the colllocation is.


- The predictability may be strong for example  with "auspicious" as it collocates with very few words:


auspicious occasion.
auspicious moment.
auspicious event.


- But the predictability may be weak with for example, "circuit" as it collocates with more than 20 words:


circuit collocates. 
racing circuit .
lecture circuit.
closed circuit.
integrated circuit.
printed circuit.
circuit breaker.
circuit training.
circuit judge.


Types of collocations.
They can be “grammatical collocations” or “lexical collocations”:
-  A “grammatical collocation” contains a noun/verb/ adjective plus a preposition or a particular form of the verb (-ing or infinitive).


Verb + Preposition: depend on (NOT depend of)
Adjective + Preposition: afraid of (NOT afraid at)
Noun + Particular form of verb: strength to lift it (not strength lifting it)


- In a “lexical collocations” a verb, noun, adjective or adverb forms a predictable connection with another word, as in:


Adverb + Adjective: completely satisfied (NOT downright satisfied.)
Adjective + Noun: excruciating pain (NOT excruciating joy.)
Noun + Verb: lions roar (NOT lions shout.)


These are some of the most common types:
- Adjective +preposition: keen on sports, fond of music, hungry for knowledge, angry at the children.
- Adjective+to infinitive: it´s nice to be here, it´s necessary to work on that issue.
- Adjective +that clause: They were afraid that they wouldn´t win the match.
- Noun + Noun: a surge of anger (NOT a rush of anger.)
- Noun+preposition: apathy towards, dissatisfaction with, differences with, reason for...
- Noun+to infinitive: I felt the urge to do it, It was a pleasure to see you, they made an attempt to do it.
- Noun +that clause: We reached an agreement that she would come with us.
- Verb + Noun: commit suicide (NOT undertake suicide), keep an eye on. 
- Verb + Expression With Preposition: burst into tears (NOT blow up in tears), apply for a job.
- Verb + Adverb: wave frantically (NOT wave feverishly), drive dangerously.
- Preposition+noun: by chance, at random, in pain.
- Different verb patterns in English (verb+inf) She began to cry, (verb+bare infinitive) we must do it.