Check this out!

When it comes to building vocabulary, I'm a strong believer in word mapping and contextualizing (i.e. putting the word in a sentence).

I found an interesting tool that could help you with word mapping. Check Visual Thesaurus. It is interactive and branches to related words for you. Very cool! The only catch is that it is not free..but worth checking it out, I believe.

~라고 여기다

A quick grammar tip re: A가 B라고 여기다.

I've seen a lot of students incorrectly saying "consider A as B." The correct expression is "consider A to be B" "consider A B." See the following examples:

• While Palestinians consider the peace demands by Mr. Netanyahu unacceptable, most are matters of consensus here. The right in Israel comprises those who oppose giving up the West Bank for a Palestinian state because they consider it the land of the Jews, and those who oppose doing so now because they do not trust the Palestinians and fear for Israel’s security. (New York Times, May 25, 2011)

Note how the author did NOT say "consider the peace demands as unacceptable" or "consider it as the land of the Jews."

Also note that it is OK to say "consider the peace demands to be unacceptable" or "consider it to be the land of the Jews" instead, although it would make the sentence relatively wordier.

starting in, from, since

Another common point of confusion: "~부터"

A lot of students use "from" for everything that involves "~부터" which is not always correct. There are three different cases.

1) Starting in/on
If the thing you are talking about has not started yet, use "starting in/on." A lot of my students use "from" for this, which is actually (I believe) British English. See the third bullet below.

• e.g. Ahead of likely elections this year, Mr. Tharman announced a package that includes S$3.2 billion in tax cuts and rebates for households in the fiscal year starting in April and set aside S$3.4 billion for long-term social investments (Wall Street Journal, Feb 18, 2011)
• The company, which will be the third private-equity-backed initial public offering to raise more than a billion dollars so far this year, is scheduled to launch its roadshow starting on Tuesday and price its IPO on March 9 (Wall Street Journal, Feb 19, 2011)
• Last week, it asked all its staff in the UK to volunteer to take up to one month's unpaid leave or work unpaid for that time...In exchange the pilots will be given, from June 2011, shares worth £13m if certain company targets are met (BBC June 18, 2009)
  

2) since
If the thing you are talking about has already started, use "since"

• I have been working on this thing since last month. I don't know what to do!
  
• The government has implemented a new rule since January 2010.

3) from X to Y
If the thing you are talking about has clear starting and ending points, use "from ... to..."

• From June 2010 to January 2011 rising food prices have driven an estimated 44 million people into poverty in developing countries (Huffington Post, Feb 19, 2011)
  

How to use "a/an"

One of the most frequently asked questions is about how to use a/an/the. I've previously written two posts about "the," so today I'm going to focus on "a/an"

Meriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th edition) says the following about "a/an":

• used as a function word before singular nouns when the referent is unspecified e.g. a man overboard
• before number collectives and some numbers e.g. a dozen
• the same e.g. swords all of a length
• used as a function word before a singular noun followed by a restrictive modifier e.g. a man who was here yesterday
• any e.g. a man who is sick can't work
• used as a function word before a mass noun to denote a particular type or instance e.g. a bronze made in ancient times
• used as a function word with nouns to form adverbial phrases of quantity, amount, or degree e.g. I felt a little tired
  

If this is too much to remember, the rule about "a/an" at a very very very basic level is that you need "a" before a singular countable noun or when you are defining/identifying something for the first time. For instance:

• But conditions have since deteriorated: the talks stopped in 2009, and that same year the United Nations imposed sanctions on Pyongyang after it conducted a second nuclear test and launched a long-range missile. North Korea also prohibited reunions between North and South Korean families (New York Times, September 16, 2010): Here, Jimmy Carter didn't say "the" second nuclear test, because this is the first time in the article he is referring to the test, i.e. he is talking about an unspecified event.
  
  

Make sense? :)

To declare

The word for making something known formally or officially (~을 선언하다/공표하다) is to declare. Many students incorrectly say "declare to do something." The correct expression is "to declare something " or "declare that subject verb."

• "We need to have leaders of both parties — or Mr. Obama alone if necessary — declare that both violence and any language hinting at the acceptability of violence are out of bounds (New York Times op-ed, Jan 13, 2011)
  
• Policymakers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers (New York Times, Jan 21, 2011)
• North Korea has declared to build up its nuclear arsenals (incorrect): the correct expression is "North Korea has declared its intention to build up nuclear arsenals"
  

improve & change

Today's post is really one of the most frequent mistakes I've seen among my students.

The verbs "change" and "improve" are tricky because they could be translated as either 바꾸다/개선하다 or 바뀌다/개선되다. The problem is, when students see the latter, they automatically translate it using a passive voice construction. This is not necessarily incorrect, but could make your sentence stilted and wordy. Unless you really want to emphasize that there is a third-party do-er, I recommend using the active voice.

For example, for 상황이 개선되었다:

• The situation has improved: perfectly fine
  
• The situation has been improved: this is ok, but makes the reader wonder "by whom?"

Similarly, for 그의 의견이 바뀌었다:

• His opinion has changed: perfectly fine
  
• His opinion has been changed: makes the reader wonder who made him change his opinion
  

...은 말할 것도 없이

A recent translation prompt that I sent out had a phrase "A는 B에 도움이 되지 않는다. C는 말할 것도 없다." And I had quite a few students who said "it is a matter of course..." which is not the right phrase in this case.

A matter of course means naturally/automatically/normally. When you do something as part of a normal procedure, without consciously thinking about whether you should do it or whether you want do it, it is a matter of course. Take a look at the following examples:

• A recent visit to France reminded me of the differences between the "new world" of America and the "old world" of Europe in approaching historic preservation. The French have been saving, restoring and adaptively reusing their architectural patrimony as a matter of course for many centuries. To us, 100-year-old buildings are antiques (Washington Post, November 19, 2010): Here, the author is emphasizing how old buildings are such a natural part of French cities by saying "a matter of course"
• By the end of the 1930s, most states in the world, including those that retained political freedoms, had imposed restrictions on trade, migration and investment as a matter of course. Some achieved near-total economic self-sufficiency (autarky), the ideal of a de-globalized society (from Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money): Here, the author is using "as a matter of course" to stress that protectionism was a norm across the world in the 1930s.

What my students should have used is not to mention, which means "let alone" or "also something/someone else." It is used to add emphasis to what you are saying. For example:

• Ortiz estimates that, just among the buildings his company represents, about 2,000 units in larger high-rise buildings have gone smoke-free. Add to those hundreds more in smaller buildings, down to two-flats and three-flats, not to mention individually owned condominiums whose owners have decided to rent them out as smokeless, he said (Chicago Tribune, November 19, 2010): Here, the author is emphasizing his point that a lot of buildings are going smoke-free by adding examples with "not to mention"
  

In fact, I'm writing this post not just to explain the difference between not to mention and as a matter of course. It is about a bigger problem that I see among my students: learning words in context. I'm suspecting that many students used "as a matter of course" because that is the first thing you get when you look up "...은 말할 것도 없이" in N*v*r (let's not name names) dictionary. The problem with using N*v*r dictionary (and many other Korean-English dictionaries) is that they don't give you the context in which a particular word is used. In most cases, they simply give you a definition of the word.

What you need to do, therefore, is:

1. Use an English-English dictionary that gives you both the definition of a word and a few sample sentences from which you can learn the context to use the word.
2. If your dictionary doesn't give you sample sentences, go to the websites of major newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal etc.) and search the word. You will get hundreds of articles in which the word is used.
   

This method is particularly helpful when it comes to learning verbs. It may be a little bit more work than usual, but the reward makes it all worth it. Hope this helps!