Harlem Shake

         

          YouTube has been the source of many overnight sensations throughout the recent past years.  I think it is amazing how quickly a video can go viral once it is posted for everyone to see.  Psy's famous dance video, for example, gained millions of views within the first week.  The Harlem Shake videos are currently one of the most recent video explosions on YouTube.  A group of boys decided to create a funny video to go along with a part of the song "Harlem Shake" by American DJ and producer, Baauer.  It became a huge hit, with millions of views within a couple of days.  Now, people are mimicking the video by making their own. 
          The Harlem Shake videos have totaled to over 30 million views altogether.  In the videos, it usually begins with one person dancing, usually wearing a mask or something to cover their face.  While the one person is dancing, the other people featured in the video are doing regular everyday things, as if nothing was irregular about their day.  After a certain part of the song clip, everyone in the video is doing something funny, usually also wearing some type of costume.  There are people who feature their videos in offices, retirement homes, underwater, with motorcycles, parking lots, schools, and much more.  In fact, Molloy College created one also!  There are even some videos that feature people in the marines and army doing this dance.
          Along with these videos, of course, there are many people who do not like them.  I have seen numerous videos of people from Harlem that find the videos to be insulting, because they are portraying the "Harlem Shake" dance the wrong way.  My opinion about this situation is that you cannot please everyone, and sometimes I feel that people take things to seriously.  I don't believe that the boys who began this dance craze meant to offend anyone while making their video.
          I find this internet explosion to be hilarious, especially because everyone is making a different video to the same song, with the same concept.  My favorite (posted below) is when a news station participates in this outbreak of Harlem Shake videos.  I hope you get a good laugh!

There are many more "Harlem Shake" videos to choose from.  Go to YouTube and type "Harlem Shake" in the search box.
Click here to watch Molloy College's Harlem Shake Video


Vocabulary:

1. Sensation (noun) - widespread public excitement
2. Explosion (noun) - a fast or rapid increase
3. Mimic (verb) - to copy, imitate
4. Irregular (adjective) - not normal, not following the same method
5. Insult (verb) - to treat with rudeness
6. Portray (verb) - to represent or make a likeness of something
7. Opinion (noun) - a personal view or belief
8. Offend (verb) - to hurt feelings, annoy
9. Hilarious (adjective) - extremely funny
10. Concept (noun) - a general idea

The term "go viral" means to become extremely popular on the internet within a short amount of time.


Vocabulary Cloze Exercise (Fill in the Blanks):

          The Harlem Shake videos have become an overnight ________________!  So many people have tried to _____________ (copy) the first video by making their own.  The ______________(increase) of Harlem Shake videos came very quickly.  They each tried to ___________ (represent) the first Harlem Shake video.  People look like they are not doing anything ____________(not regular) in the video, until the second part of the song clip. These videos did not mean to ____________ (hurt feelings) anyone.  Some people think that they were ___________ing (treating with rudeness) the people from Harlem by doing the dance the wrong way.  My ________ (belief) is that the videos were ___________ (funny).  I loved the whole __________ (idea).  


Grammar Point - Count and Noncount Nouns:

          The definition of a noun is a person, place, thing, idea, or a process that has been nominalized (has become a noun).  A count noun consists of singular and plural nouns that are countable.  For example, phone/phones, day/days, notebook/notebooks, thought/thoughts, and foot/feet are all countable nouns.  They can be preceded by a or an, and also by a number.  Noncount nouns (also called mass nouns) are nouns that cannot be counted as a whole.  They do not have a plural form, and cannot be preceded by a or an, or a number.  For instance, love, hate, rice, milk, and information cannot be counted.  Rice would be able to be counted if you were counting each grain of rice, but rice as a whole would not be able to be counted.  There are always exceptions to the rule, and some nouns can be both count and noncount, such as time. 
          
For more help on count and noncount nouns, click here.


 Grammar Activity:

           This blog includes many examples of count and noncount nouns.  Fold a piece of paper in half, and label one side "Count Nouns" and the other side "Noncount Nouns".  Reread this blog entry, and for every noun you find, write the noun in the correct category on your paper. 


For more practice, try this game!








 

Origami Owl

Origami Owl Necklaces

           My cousin introduced me to another great gift idea, Origami Owl.  This company sells a newer version of a locket necklace.  The customer can choose from a variety of lockets, and then a chain for the necklace part of it.  After you pick the chain and locket, you can choose what kind of charms you would like.  The charms you can pick from are arranged by category.  You can choose from categories such as celebrations, love, animals, food, birthstones, and much more.  The charms actually go inside the locket, which is transparent.  There is also an option to buy plates, which are placed in the back of the locket.  The plates consist of words such as "family", "believe", and "mom".  You can buy a large plate and a smaller plate to create a more "layered" look.  When you are finished, you can also find dangles to add to the necklace.
          This is such a nice gift idea for any female who loves jewelry.  Many women, such as myself,  have the Pandora bracelets, where they show off their collected charms.  I think this is another way to collect meaningful charms, and they are so pretty!  I like that everyone's necklace is unique, and it could represent the person wearing it.  My cousin had an army charm (her husband is in the army), a mom charm, a candy cane (for Christmas), and other things inside.  This is such a thoughtful gift!

Origami Owl's Website

Vocabulary:

1. Introduce (transitive verb) - to bring to a knowledge of something, to bring in for the first time
2. Locket (noun) - a small case (usually of a metal) that has a space for a small special item or picture
3. Charm (noun) - a small item worn on a bracelet or chain
4. Arrange (transitive verb) - to place in a certain order
5. Category (noun) - a section that something would be arranged into
6. Transparent (adjective) - see-through, clear
7. Option (noun) - the right to choose
8. Consist (intransitive verb) - include, make up with
9. Unique (adjective) - different
10. Represent (verb) - stand for, to serve as a sign or a symbol of something



Cloze Exercise (Crossword Puzzle)

Grammar Point:

Commas are used in everyday writing, although we can sometimes get confused about when to use them in our sentences.  This can be especially confusing to the English language learner.  In this blog entry, I used commas for two different reasons.  For example, look at the sentence, "My cousin introduced me to another great gift idea, Origami Owl."  I used the comma after the word "idea" to create a pause in the reading.  I was introducing Origami Owl, and we sometimes use commas to create a short pause while you are reading.  Now look at this sentence: "You can choose from categories such as celebrations, love, animals, food, birthstones, and much more."  When listing more than two things, we usually use commas to separate the items.  There are other ways to use commas, but these are the reasons why I used them in my writing.

For more information on commas, click here.

Grammar help exclusively for commas used in lists

Grammar

Exercise:

Write a paragraph about taking a trip or vacation to wherever you may choose.  In your paragraph, be sure to include a list of what you will pack in your suitcase.  Also, include a list of what you are planning to do when you get there.  Be sure to include the proper use of commas while writing about your trip.

White Manna Hamburgers

 

My boyfriend, my son, and I had a couple of eventful things to do this weekend.  My boyfriend's parents came from Puerto Rico, so we picked them up at the airport.  They live in Puerto Rico, but they have a wedding to attend, so they are able to visit for about a week.  After picking them up from the airport, we went to New Jersey because his father had to get fitted for his tuxedo.  We decided to eat dinner at White Manna Hamburgers in Hackensack, New Jersey.  We have seen this place on a TV show, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives featuring Guy Fieri on the Food Network Channel.  People said they loved their burgers because they were made from fresh ground beef that they have delivered every morning.  My boyfriend absolutely loves burgers, so he was dying to eat there.

The place smelled so good as we pulled into the parking lot.  It was very small and crowded.  We waited an extended amount of time for our burgers.  I noticed that there were only three workers: one working the grill, one making the drinks, and one in charge of the fries.  My son was getting very impatient as we waited for our food.  We were served our fries first, but they were not as hot as they should have been.  After that, they gave us our sodas, and finally, our burgers.  The burgers were small, like the ones from White Castle.  They had cheese and onions on them, and I asked if they could put pickles on the side.  They were scrumptious, except I did not like the potato rolls.  Overall, I thought they were alright, but I would not go out of my way to eat there again.  We also realized the next day that our coats all smelled like burgers and onions, so we had to put them all in the laundry as well!  I think Guy Fieri made the place a bit overrated.

After eating dinner, we all came home and spent the rest of the night conversing with the family.  It was a pleasant weekend and I am happy that we were all able to spend quality time with each other.

Click here to learn about the TV show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives!

Guy Fieri

Vocabulary:

1. eventful (adjective) - momentous, full of events or happenings
2. attend (verb) - go to, to be present
3. feature (verb) - to play an important part, show
4. extended (adjective) - drawn out in length, especially in time; extra long
5. impatient (adjective) - restless, not wanting to wait
6. scrumptious (adjective) - delicious
7. overrate (transitive verb) - to estimate too highly
8. converse (intransitive verb) - to talk
9. pleasant (adjective) - delightful, nice

*The term "get fitted" refers to when someone gets measurements taken in order to get the clothing to fit as close to perfect as possible.


Cloze Exercise (Multiple Choice - Choose the correct answer to fill in the blank.)

1.   We had a very _________________ night.  We were able to do a lot of different things.
     a) eventness     b) scrumptious     c) eventful     d) attend

2.  Can you _______________ my birthday party next week?
     a) attend     b) overrate     c) attended     d) converse

3.  The late night television show will _____________ some of the funniest comedians.
     a) pleasant     b) feature     c) pleasantful     d) features

4.  During the football game, the time was _________________ because the score was tied.
     a) extended     b) extend     c) eventful     d) conversing

5.  I was very ___________ while waiting for my mail to arrive.
     a) pleasant     b) impatient     c) impatientness     d) extend

6.  Our fudge brownie dessert was ____________!
     a) featuring     b) extended     c) scrumptious     d) scrumptiously

7.  The Super Bowl is extremely _______________.
     a) overrating     b) scrumptious     c) pleasant     d) overrated

8.  We _____________ for a little while before we went to work.
     a) conversing     b) converse     c) feature     d) conversed

9.  The candle had a ___________  flowery scent.
     a) pleasant     b) featuring     c) converse     d) pleasanted


Grammar Point:

The sentence, "We have seen this place on a TV show, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives featuring Guy Fieri on the Food Network Channel" displays the use of present perfect tense.  Present perfect tense is used to say an action that happened at an unspecified time before now.  You can only use this tense when using a general expression such as: never, once, many times or already.  It is used when you do not know the exact time the event happened.  Present perfect tense usually is associated with experiences, changes over time, accomplishments, something that is not completed yet, or something that has happened multiple times. 
The form is has/have + past participle.
Examples:  You have seen that movie many times.
                 Have you seen that movie many times?
                 You have not seen that movie many times.

For more examples, visit this website.


Grammar Exercise (Using the words in the parenthesis, complete the text below with the appropriate tenses.) :

1.  I (have, not) ____________ this much fun since I was a kid.
2.  She (have) ______________ seen this movie many times.
3.  Toni Morrison (have) _________________ written many great books.
4.  My car (have, not) _____________ been giving me any problems yet.
5.  Our school teams (have) ____________ won many awards.
6.  The company (have, only) ______________ six employees working today.
7.  Joseph (have, dream) _______________ of going on a vacation for many years.
8.  In the last few years, jobs (have, become) ________________ much harder to find.

For more practice, click the link.