VOA · Everyday Grammar
Advanced · C1learner speed7:462024-04-04public domain
Everyday Grammar digs into one grammar topic per episode — verb tenses, prepositions, sentence patterns — with plenty of spoken examples. Because you are listening to language about language, it doubles as grammar review while you train your ears.
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01In today's Everyday Grammar, we will take a delicious trip to East Asia.
02We will taste wonderful and perhaps unfamiliar foods, if only in our imagination.
03We will also learn about some of the details of writing, including common spelling and punctuation mistakes.
04In a recent Everyday Grammar, we explored how to talk about a national dish.
05We asked our listeners and readers around the world to write to us about their national dish.
06In today's lesson, we give feedback on some of that writing.
07Let's start with Japan.
08Here is part of what Kaori wrote.
09Chirashi Sushi is the national dish of Japan.
10It is a sweet and sour dish that consists of rice, shrimp, eggs, dried gourd, vinegar, salt, and sugar.
11In May 5th, we eat the traditional sweet called Kashiwa Mochi.
12It is a sweet and sticky small snack that consists of rice powder, small red beans, and sugar.
13Kaori used the structures that we discussed in our previous lesson.
14The writing included adjectives such as sweet and sour, the phrasal verb consist of, and nouns such as rice, shrimp, and eggs.
15We were especially interested to read about dried gourd, an ingredient that is not common in America.
16Our main suggestion is to replace the short word in with on, as in on May 5th we eat the traditional sweet.
17Remember, we use on for exact dates.
18So, we say, for example, on January 1st, or on September 27th.
19Next, we go to China to learn about two popular dishes.
20Here, we notice a similarity between the United States and China.
21If you asked Americans to write about a national dish, you would likely get different answers.
22In the same way, we received different answers about a national dish of China.
23Here is part of John's message.
24Chicken soup is a national dish of China.
25It's a light soup that consists of hens and medicine plants.
26Most part of chicken soup is hens meat, because it tastes finer.
27The other ingredients of it are Chinese medicine plants, such as dang gui.
28Of course, we need some flavorings to make it tastes more delicious.
29Soybeans, peppers, ginger, and garlic are necessary to the soup.
30John's message is clear and easy to understand.
31That said, we have a few suggested changes.
32In terms of grammar, we should remove the noun form medicine and instead use the adjective medicinal, as in medicinal plants.
33We could also use a more exact noun, such as herb, as in medicinal herbs.
34We should also replace the short word, to, with for, as in necessary for the soup.
35We could also make a few small stylistic changes.
36For example, in the first sentence, we could use the noun chicken in place of hen, although a hen makes it clear that the bird is a female.
37Here is one way we might update the message.
38Chicken soup is a national dish of China.
39It is a light soup that consists of chicken and medicinal herbs.
40Most of the chicken soup has meat from the female chicken, or hen, because it tastes finer and softer than meat from the male chicken.
41The other ingredients of chicken soup are Chinese medicinal herbs, such as dangui.
42Of course, we need some flavorings to make it taste more delicious.
43Soybean, peppers, ginger, and garlic are necessary for the soup.
44Next, here is part of what Ming wrote to us.
45Mei Zai Koro is the national dish of China.
46It is a salty dish that consists of pork belly, fermented red tofu source, dry mizuna, soybean source, salt, and species, such as Sichuan peppercorn and star anise.
47Mei Zai is the mizuna's pronunciation in Chinese.
48Ming wrote a nice message that is clear and easy to understand.
49We suggest a few changes for some of the nouns.
50Instead of source, we want to use the word sauce.
51And instead of species, we would use spices.
52So, the second sentence might say fermented red tofu sauce, soybean sauce, and salt and spices.
53It is a salty dish that consists of pork belly, fermented red tofu sauce, dry mizuna, soybean sauce, salt and spices, such as Sichuan peppercorn and star anise.
54Mei Zai is the Chinese pronunciation for mizuna.
55We can take a few lessons from the messages that we received.
56The first is that writing does not need to be perfect to be understandable.
57All the messages had nice, clear structures and were easy to understand for a native English speaker.
58The main issues were in the details, the spelling of nouns and adjectives, punctuation, and other small things.
59Our recommendation is to carefully look over these details several times in future writing efforts.
60We will give more writing feedback on messages from our fans around the world in coming lessons.
61We will learn more about national dishes from other areas of the world, including Europe and Africa.
62If you have a question or comment about today's lesson, feel free to send us an email at learningenglish at voanews.com.
63I'm John Russell.
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
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