Next month in the Group we will read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Many of you will already know the background to the creation of the story. Mary Shelley at the age of 18 was on holiday with her husband, the poet Percy, visiting the Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva where Lord Byron was staying when one evening Byron suggested that they all write their own ghost story and Mary's contrinbution was what became Frankenstein or, the Modern Prometheus.
Many of my colleagues have been talking recently about the benefits of creative writing. Differently from speaking, when you write you have time to reflect on what you are saying and how you express yourself. It is the ideal opportunity to try out any new vocabulary or grammatical structures you have found whilst reading or listening. Reading is a great way to see words and phrases in a meaningful context. Imagine how much more memorable those words would be if you wrote the story yourself! An online student of mine has recently asked me to write him a story using new words he would like to memorize better. I really enjoyed trying to weave the words and phrases he gave me into a story, but I think that this experience could be even more powerful for a person learning a language. If you use words to talk about something that comes from you, your experience or even your imagination, you make them your own, you master them. Here are the words that my student gave me: Sticking point Incessant Indignantly Pasty Dainty ( or daintiness) Bells start chiming It would never have occurred to me to ... Inept Cut back Twitchy Rift Stumped Taut He mumbled something under his breath. Predicament Treasure trove Whinnig Wince whiff Sinuous Measly Entrails Strew Surreptitious Haze Protruding Wound Intricate Weave Walk something off Lend itself to something Bashed in And here is the story I created The evening lent itself to an after dinner walk. It was cold but not damp, that short of crisp cold that can be envigorating. I headed down the sinuous Union Canal that wove its intricate path through the capital. Edinborough seemed like a treasure trove of possibilities to a budding young doctor like me. I was the first in my family to attend university and that made me proud but at the same time the investment my parents were making in me weighed heavy on my shoulders, I had to prove I deserved their trust. At the strike of midnight the church bells started chiming and almost simultaneously the street lights dimmed, the council was cutting back on spending and the measly light made me feel quite twitchy as it strew eery shadows. In the haze a pasty girl in a dainty dress dashed past me, casting a whiff of her sweet floral perfume into the night air. Her scent took me back to the party and I immediately recognized her as the girl my friends and I had all seen loudly having it out with a young man we had presumed was her boyfriend. It would never usually have occurred to me to follow her. I was a shy boy and quite inept at approaching strange women. But Dutch courage and the incessant ringing of the bells provoked a rift from my usual behavior. I hurried after her. ‘Miss! Wait! Are you OK?’ I cried. She quickened her pace so I reached out to her and managed to grab her arm, squeezing it perhaps too tight. ‘Leave me alone!’ she snapped indignantly as she struggled to get free and ran off. I froze: the sticking point was that I was a stranger and she must have been afraid of me. I retreated to consider my predicament and must have got lost in my own thoughts and lost track of time. I was awakened from my reverie when I heard a whining coming from just around the corner. I took a surreptitious glance and caught sight of a taut arm protruding from the back of an abandoned building. Overcome with fear I tiptoed closer and there was the girl, stumped against the wall, holding her arm to her side to protect a wound. Her face was bashed in. I tried to remember my first aid and as I tried to I grabbed her arm to get a better look at the wound she winced. ‘Help me’ Elena mumbled under her breath. I managed to whisper ‘It’s all ok now', before she fainted in my arms. We have never been apart since. I hope you liked the story, but even if you didn't, that's not the point. The point is to use words to internalize them, no matter how weird it seems. So, with Halloween coming up, like Byron I challenge you to write a ghost story. Challenge yourself to use some more difficult structures. This is a good way to make them more familiar. If you would like to send me your story, I can comment on the English you use. As for the content of the story, the stranger the better! If you would like to receive a recording of me reading the story above, feel free to contact me. It is a pleasure for me. As always, lost in classics Your Anna
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What is this?When I started lostinclassics I looked for language lessons in the books I was reading, such as for example the use of phrasal verbs or inversion in conditionals and I explained them through examples found in the text. I also did reviews of the books I read and tried to give some advice on how to read classics using the various resources I know of. Then I switched to just reviews and lately I have been doing a bit of creative writing inspired by my reading. Who knows what I will come up with next! Archives
September 2020
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