By Robby
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Hi, guys! Hello, boys and girls!
It’s Robby here from EnglishHarmony.com and welcome back to my video blog!
In today’s video, I’m going to finally put the whole matter of English grammar studies to rest once and for all. And a funny thing that I realized today is that, whenever I’m referring to studying grammar, studying English grammar rules, and whenever I’m saying that it’s not really necessary in order to improve your English, I’m not being very precise about it.
I’m actually being very vague in my terms. I’m saying it’s not worthwhile studying English grammar and then I always get a certain amount of comments and response from people saying: “Hold on a second, Robby. You can’t actually totally ignore the grammar aspect of the English language!”
And then my response to that is always: “Well, you have to learn the English language contextually and that way you’re going to acquire all of the grammar quite naturally,” which is true.
But, I’m not actually defining what I mean, in fact, by saying it’s not worth studying English grammar. And, if I’m not mistaken, I’ve never actually – to the best of my knowledge – I’ve never actually stated on my blog explicitly what exactly I mean by that, right?
And I’m sorry. I have to take a drink. That’s my coffee, nightly coffee, right? As a matter of fact, a while back I promised to myself that I would not have any coffee late at night, and there you go. I’m breaking my promise yet again!
But, I’m addicted to coffee. So, that’s one of the things that I’m still addicted to. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. So, for Christ sakes, I have to do something, right? But, it’s just a joke. Obviously, you don’t have to do something. If you don’t have any addictions, that’s even better than having one addiction, which in my case is caffeine, right?
But anyway, going back to the subject of grammar, I’ve never stated that by saying it’s not worthwhile studying English grammar rules what I mean by that.
So Here’s EXACTLY What I Mean By That – Grammar TERMS!!!
It’s not necessary to study the terms, the specific TERMS!
That’s what I mean by that. And the fact that led me to thinking about it and realizing this whole thing was a particular blog post on my blog where I’m getting almost daily comments from a guy who asks me specific grammar-related questions.
And the other day he asked me about degrees of comparison and here’s the comment: “Rather timidly” – which degree of comparison, right?
And then there were another couple of comments about the same topic, degree of comparison, and I was looking into it. I spent about half an hour on Google trying to figure out – “rather timidly” – is it actually – you see, I’m after forgetting the three different degrees of comparison because I’m not so well versed in these grammar terms because I’ve stopped caring about them long ago, right?
But, then, I had to refresh all that knowledge in my mind. And, then, it got me thinking – so “rather timidly” seems as if something is being compared, but is it the first degree? It’s not called the first degree, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s refer to it as the first degree, or second, or the third, right?
The third was called superlative if I’m not mistaken, but it’s not too relevant because this is something that I’m against.
I’m against knowing the terms, spending your time and resources on understanding the specific terms, and analyzing your language, trying to figure out which degree of comparison is “rather timidly.”
What’s the point of it? It’s much better if you just know how to use the co-location “rather timidly,” right, instead of trying to figure out which degree of comparison it is! And this is a vivid example of what I always mean by saying that it’s not worthwhile studying grammar.
If You Learn English Contextually, Grammar is OK
It might be worthwhile studying grammar in a contextual way. So, you basically take a particular grammar topic. Let’s take the same degree of comparison, right?
And, then, you do some spoken English practice whereby you incorporate those adverbs and adjectives and you conjugate. Is it applicable? Can you even say you conjugate adverbs depending on the degree of comparison? I’m not really sure, but basically you get the drift, right?
We incorporate those grammar aspects into your spoken English practice, or you do some writing as well, and so on and so forth. But, basically, you do it all contextually. You don’t necessarily have to know the specific terms and you don’t have to analyze sentences trying to figure out what it is. You just have to develop your own gut feeling for correct English!
And this is, my friends, what I’m always referring to whenever I’m saying you don’t have to study grammar.
I’m not actually saying that you have to ignore English grammar and speak just the way you want because, obviously, grammar is a very crucial aspect of the language.
Grammar is what binds the words together, right?
Sentences are being formed following grammar rules, which you don’t have to study. You don’t have to know what those specific rules are called and what the exact grammar stipulations are. And you don’t have to construct sentences by combining words, and conjugating verbs, and whatnot by applying those specific rules.
That’s when your thoughts get all messed up and that’s what I am against. That’s what I’m advocating against strongly and very passionately, right?
So, I hope this clarifies the matter once and for all. And, obviously, if you have any further questions, and if you want me to specify a few aspects of the whole matter, obviously don’t hesitate to publish your comments in the comment section below my friends. Thanks for watching and talk to you soon again. Bye-bye!
Cheers,
Robby
P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!
P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!
P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!