Ba Lao Shi Perfect English

04/08/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19z8RcFEDv/
This is my latest mystery novel review on my Facebook site, the Mystery Fantasy Book Club. It is about the wonderful Vish Puri series set in Delhi India! If you click the link, it will take you there. If you enjoy mysteries, please like my Mystery Fantasy Book Club page!

這是我在Facebook網站「神秘奇幻讀書俱樂部」上發布的最新懸疑小說書評。它講述了以印度德里為背景的精彩小說系列《維什·普里》！點擊連結即可訪問。如果您喜歡懸疑小說，請按讚我的「神秘奇幻讀書俱樂部」Facebook主頁！

Vish Puri is the owner-operator of Most Private Investigators Ltd. He is the chief protagonist in this thoroughly enjoyable mystery series, set in contemporary in Delhi India. FYI, New Delhi is actually a specific district located within the city of Delhi. New Delhi is India’s capital. It also has tremendous cultural and historical significance, having been established in the 6th century. The reader is treated to a close up view of Delhi and Indian history, customs and language use.

Vish is known as “Chubby” to his friends and family, as he is corpulent and seems to be always eating. India’s vast assortment of food from its variety of ethnic cultures is prominently described — and consumed. His family life sometimes serves as a backdrop and we meet his wife, Rumpi, and his “Mummy-ji.”

Detective Puri is somewhat pompous, but dutifully honest. He is assisted by canny team of operatives, all of whom are known by nicknames he as given them related to their jobs or specialties, Handbrake, Doorstop, Tubelight, Flush and Facecream.

Besides the descriptions of the food, setting and culture, a further magic to the books is the vernacular Punjabi English used by Vish and the people in his immediate surroundings. This adds to the vividness (and humor) of the characters.

The mysteries are sometimes odd and are well concealed and the steps to solve them told in detail. The titles of the six books in the series so far will give you some idea of the humor of the books: “The Case of the Missing Servant,” “The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing,” “The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken,” “The Case of the Love Commandos,” “The Case of the Reincarnated Client,” and “The Case of the Elusive Bombay Duck.”

The author, Tarquin Hall, is a former South Asia bureau chief of Associated Press TV, based in New Delhi. He is married to Indian-born journalist Anu Anand.

The Vish Puri series takes you on a humorous series of adventure to India with a cast of delightful, well-drawn characters. I highly recommend this series to any reader, but especially to any “armchair travelers interested in foreign cultures.

Vish Puri是Most Private Investigators Ltd.的所有者兼經營者。他是這部以當代印度德里為背景的精彩懸疑系列小說的主角。順便說一下，新德里實際上是德里市內的一個特定區域。新德里是印度的首都，建於西元6世紀，具有重要的文化和歷史意義。讀者可以近距離了解德里以及印度的歷史、習俗和語言。

Vish被他的朋友和家人稱為“Chubby”，因為他體型肥胖，而且似乎總是在吃東西。書中著重描述了印度各民族文化的豐富多樣的美食，以及他們所享用的美食。他的家庭生活有時也作為背景，我們也會見到他的妻子Rumpi和他的「Mummy-ji」。

Puri偵探略顯浮誇，但為人誠實守信。他得到了精明的特工團隊的協助，這些特工都以他根據其工作或特長而起的綽號為人所知，Handbrake, Doorstop, Tubelight, Flush and Facecream. 。

除了對食物、場景和文化的描述之外，維什和他周圍人們使用的旁遮普方言英語也為本書增添了另一抹魅力。這為人物的刻畫增添了生動活潑的色彩（也增添了幽默感）。

書中的謎團有時詭異難解，但隱藏得當，解謎步驟也一一詳盡。該系列目前六部作品的標題或許能讓你略微領略到這些作品的幽默之處：“The Case of the Missing Servant,” “The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing,” “The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken,” “The Case of the Love Commandos,” “The Case of the Reincarnated Client,” and “The Case of the Elusive Bombay Duck.”。

作者Tarquin Hall‧霍爾曾任美聯社電視台南亞分社社長，常駐新德里。他的妻子是印度出生的記者阿努·阿南德。

Vish Puri系列將帶您踏上一段幽默的印度冒險之旅，劇中人物生動活潑，栩栩如生。我強烈推薦這一系列給所有讀者，尤其是那些對異國文化感興趣的「紙上談兵的旅行者」。

26/07/2025

All cultures seem to have idioms related to hats. In English, three that come to mind are:

1. To wear many hats — means to have several job responsibilities beyond just a person’s main job description. For example:

“In my capacity as a small business owner, I have to wear
many hats. Some days, I have to do the marketing, other
days, I have to fill out many government forms.”

2. Throw my hat into the ring — this expression started with the boxing tradition in the 19th century. If someone wished to challenge the champion boxer, he would throw his hat into the boxing ring. Today, it means to compete in business or politics. For example:

“The Presidential election was made more interesting today
when the nation’s most popular movie actor threw his hat
into the ring and said he was going to run for President.”

3. Tip my hat (or hats off) — The origin of the expression is from the old days when a person would raise their hat to show respect to someone. Today it means to feel respect or admiration for someone, usually for some accomplishment.

“I tip my hat to my colleague, who is both an engineer and a
mom.”
“Hats off to you for completing your first marathon – what an
achievement!”

所有文化似乎都有與帽子相關的慣用語。在英語中，我想到的有三個：

1. To wear many hats（戴許多帽子）－指一個人除了主要工作職責之外還承擔多項工作職責。例如：

“In my capacity as a small business owner, I have to wear many
hats. Some days, I have to do the marketing, other days, I
have to fill out many government forms.”

2. Throw my hat into the ring（丟帽子進拳擊場）－這個表達源自於19世紀的拳擊傳統。如果有人想挑戰拳擊冠軍，他會把帽子丟進拳擊場。如今，它的意思是在商業或政治上競爭。例如：

“The Presidential election was made more interesting today
when the nation’s most popular movie actor threw his hat
into the ring and said he was going to run for President.”

3. Tip my hat（or hats off）－這個表達源自於古代人們脫帽致敬以表示對某人的尊重。如今，它指的是對某人（通常指某項成就）表示敬意或欽佩。

“I tip my hat to my colleague, who is both an engineer and a
mom.”
“Hats off to you for completing your first marathon – what an
achievement!”

19/07/2025

A lot of people ask me about this corner of books that appears in videos I make. It is my collection of winners of the American Library Association’s annual Newbery and Caldecott Medal winners and is part of the BLS Education Library.

The Newbery Medal is given to the book that was judged to be the outstanding children’s or young adult book of the year. The Caldecott Medal is given to the outstanding illustrated children’s book. I believe I may have the only complete collection of Newbery Medal winners in Asia, going back to the first year, 1922. The Caldecott collection is less complete. The Caldecott Medal was first awarded in 1937. As of the date of this post, July 19, 2025, we had 43 of the 88 Caldecott winners.

There is a video about the Newberry Medal on the Ba Lao Shi Perfect English YouTube channel., https://www.youtube.com/ There is also a video about the BLS Education Library. If you go to the BLS Education website, https://blseducation.com, you can download complete lists of the books in the BLS Education Library (that I struggle to keep up to date).

很多人問我關於我製作的影片裡出現的這本書。這是我收藏的美國圖書館協會年度紐伯瑞獎和凱迪克獎得獎書籍，也是BLS教育圖書館的一部分。

紐伯瑞獎頒給年度傑出兒童或青少年圖書。凱迪克獎頒給傑出的兒童插畫圖書。我相信我可能是亞洲唯一擁有紐伯瑞獎完整收藏的書籍，可以追溯到第一年，也就是1922年。凱迪克獎的收藏就沒那麼完整了。凱迪克獎首次頒發於1937年。截至本文發布之日，即2025年7月19日，我們收藏了88位凱迪克獎得主中的43位。

在“巴老師完美英語”的YouTube頻道上有一個關於紐伯瑞獎的視頻，https://www.youtube.com/。還有一個關於BLS教育圖書館的影片。如果您造訪 BLS 教育網站 https://blseducation.com，您可以下載 BLS 教育圖書館中書籍的完整清單（我努力保持最新狀態）。

13/07/2025

This video continues the discussion from the first three “Teacher Rob Talks…” videos on the Ba Lao Shi Perfect English Youtube channel. It talks about the challenges of adult ESL learning and some of the drawbacks of learning a simplified version of English, as is typical in ESL instruction. It also discusses Interlanguage Fossilization. If you have not subscribed to my YouTube channel, I would recommend that you do. I have made quite a few YouTube videos and will make more. If you subscribe, you won’t miss any! https://youtu.be/jc73ml2-5rg?si=eV7rmC0ygsV3G2n3

本影片延續了巴老師完美英語YouTube頻道前三期「Rob老師談…」的討論。它探討了成人ESL學習的挑戰，以及學習簡化英語（ESL教學中常見的）的一些弊端。此外，它還探討了中介語僵化現象。如果您還沒有訂閱我的YouTube頻道，我建議您訂閱。我已經製作了不少YouTube視頻，並且還會製作更多。訂閱後，您將不會錯過任何精彩內容！https://youtu.be/jc73ml2-5rg?si=eV7rmC0ygsV3G2n3

This video continues the discussion from the first three “Teacher Rob Talks…” videos. It talks about the challenges of adult ESL learning and how typical ES...

06/07/2025

“Change” can refer to coins or to the money you receive back when you pay for something with a bill or note larger than the amount owed, such as in a restaurant.

“Keep the change” is a statement made to a clerk or waiter to tell them they can keep the money owed to the customer as a tip or gratuity.

“Spare change” = money to give to a beggar or homeless person.

“Loose change” = coins found in a sofa that have fallen out of a pocket.

“Small change” = coins of little value. Can also be used as a negative idiom to mean a business or business deal that is of small value economically.

“The light changed” means the traffic signal has gone from red to green and the car can now move ahead.

“I need to get changed.” = I need to put on different clothes.

“The changing room” = The dressing room.

“The change,” sometimes called “the change of life” = women’s menopause.

“A changed man” is often used to refer to man who has experience an event that caused him to critically examine himself.

「Change」 可以指硬幣，也可以指在餐廳等場所，用大於應付金額的鈔票付款時收到的錢。

「Keep the change」 是對店員或服務生說的話，告訴他們可以把欠顧客的錢當作小費或酬金留下。

「Spare change」 = 給乞丐或無家可歸者的錢。

「Loose change」 = 從口袋裡掉出來的沙發裡的硬幣。

「Small change」 = 價值不高的硬幣。也可以用作貶義習語，指經濟價值不高的生意或交易。

「The light changed」 表示交通號誌從紅燈變成綠燈，汽車現在可以繼續行駛了。

「I need to get changed」 = 我需要換衣服。

「The changing room」 = 更衣室。

「The change」，有時也被稱為“人生的改變=女性更年期”。

「A changed man」通常用來指經歷了某件事而開始自我審視的男人。

29/06/2025

https://blseducationlibrary.blogspot.com/2025/06/english-for-everyone-phrasal-verbs-esl.html This is my latest book review on the BLS Education Library Blog. It is about the book, "English for Everyone, English Phrasal Verbs."

22/06/2025

This is my newest YouTube video. It is about the pronunciation of the “-ed” suffix, which is added to English verbs. It is very frequently mispronounced.

I hope you like this video. I recommend you subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of my videos! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfY7UpJnHy0

這是我最新的YouTube影片。影片講的是英文動詞後綴“-ed”的發音。這個後綴經常被讀錯。

希望你喜歡這個影片。建議你訂閱我的YouTube頻道，這樣你就不會錯過任何影片！https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfY7UpJnHy0

This video is the first of two videos about the pronunciation of the suffix -ed when added to a verb

15/06/2025

Recently, Amy and I got together with two former students of mine, Joey and Wing, at Koko
s Coffee in the Mills. I hadn’t seen them for a while and it was great. Afterward, we walked around the Mills and met some friendly dogs. It was a nice day!

最近，我和艾米與我的兩位前學生喬伊和溫在米爾斯的科科咖啡館（Koko's Coffee）聚會。我好久沒見到他們了，感覺很棒。之後，我們在米爾斯附近散步，還遇到了幾隻友善的狗狗。真是美好的一天！

09/06/2025

3 Correlative Conjunctions

I have previously explained the first two types of conjunctions, (1) coordinating conjunctions and (2) subordinating conjunctions. The 3rd type is the “correlative conjunction.”

Correlative conjunctions connect two equal things together in a in a sentence. They are different from the other two type in that there are two words used to form the connection.

Example sentences:

“I can’t decide whether to have spaghetti or pizza.”

“Neither fat boy nor his sister care about learning.”

“Japan is not only a beautiful country, it is also safe.”

Correlative conjunctions:

so…as
either…or
neither…nor
whether…or
not only…also
not only…but also
both…and

3 相關的連詞

我之前已經解釋了前兩種類型的連詞，（1）協調連詞和（2）從屬連詞。 第三種類型是“相關聯合”。

相關連詞在一個句子中將兩個相等的東西連接在一起。 它們與其他兩種類型不同，因為有兩個詞用於形成連接。

例句, 例句:

“I can’t decide whether to have spaghetti or pizza.”

“Neither fat boy nor his sister care about learning.”

“Japan is not only a beautiful country, it is also safe.”

相關的連詞:

so…as
either…or
neither…nor
whether…or
not only…also
not only…but also
both…and

03/06/2025

Subordinating Conjunctions

The second type of conjunction is a subordinating conjunction. They are more complex than the first type (coordinating conjunctions, such as “and, but, or”). Subordinating conjunctions join two clauses together.

Sentences are made of words, phrases, and clauses. A clause is a longer part of a sentence. There are usually two types, “dependent” and “independent.” The independent clause is also called the “main clause” and could be a complete sentence on its own. The dependent clause can be a long group of words but does not make sense on its own.

Because she ran, she was on time for work.

“Because she ran” is the dependent clause. It is not complete statement. “She was on time for work” is the independent clause. It could be a sentence on its own. “Because” is the subordinating conjunction.

The dependent clause gives more information about the independent clause. The subordinating conjunction can usually be places either at the beginning of the sentence or in the middle to introduce the dependent clause:

She was on time for work because she ran.

If the dependent clause is first, it is followed by a comma.

Because she ran, she was on time for work.

If the dependent clause is at the end of the sentence, there is no comma.

She was on time for work because she ran.

Some common subordinating conjunctions are:

while, although, where, when, until, provided, once, unless, in case, as far as, so that, because, as soon as, after, though, supposing, how, no matter how, as if, because, before, as, since, in that, after, if, so that, even if, whenever

從屬連詞

第二種類型的結合是subordinating conjunction。 它們比第一種類型更複雜（協調連詞，例如“and，but，或”）。 Subordinating conjunction將兩個子句連接在一起。

句子由單詞，短語和從句組成。 A clause是句子的較長部分。 通常有兩種 ”從句” 和“獨立”。獨立子句也稱為“main clause”，從句是一個完整的句子。 The dependent clause可以是一組很長的單詞，但它本身沒有意義。

Because he ran, he was on time for work. 因為他跑步所以他可以準時返工.

“Because因為 he ran” is the dependent clause. 這不是完整的句子 “he was on time for work” 是獨立的句子. 他本身可以是一句句子. “Because因為” is the subordinating conjunction.

dependent子句提供有關獨立子句的更多信息。 從屬連詞通常可以放在句子的開頭或中間。
She was on time for work because she ran.

如果從屬子句是第一句，則後面跟一個逗號。 ( , ):
Because she ran, she was on time for work.

如果從屬子句在句子的末尾，則沒有逗號。She was on time for work
because she ran.

一些常見的從屬連詞是：

while, although, where, when, until, provided, once, unless, in case, as far as, so that, because, as soon as, after, though, supposing, how, no matter how, as if, because, before, as, since, in that, after, if, so that, even if, whenever

25/05/2025

Conjunctions 1. Conjunctions are words that link other words.

They also link phrases (short sets of words, inside a sentence, that do not have a verb) and clauses (longer sets of words, inside a sentence, that can contain a verb).

There are 3 different types of conjunctions: “Coordinating,” Subordinating,” and “Correlative.”

The most common type is a “Coordinating Conjunction.” The easiest way to remember them is the word “FANBOYS,” which stands for “for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.” They can link words, phrases, or clauses:

“I would like to order pizza and beer.”

“I would like to go to my friend’s house and to the park.”

“I would like go to my friend’s house and play with his dog.”

Subordinating Conjunctions only link clauses. They will be discussed in Conjunctions 2.

Correlative conjunctions are in pairs. They will be discussed in Conjunctions 3

連詞 1. 连词是连接其他单词的单词

它們還鏈接短語（短句單詞，句子裏面，沒有動詞）和從句（句子裏面可以包含動詞的更長詞組）。

有三種连词: “Coordinating,” Subordinating,” and “Correlative.”

最常見的是 “Coordinating Conjunction.”

最容易記得的是 “FANBOYS,” which stands for “for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.”

他們可以鏈接單詞，短語或子句：
“I would like to order pizza and beer.”

”I would like to go to my friend’s house and to the park.”

”I would like to go to my friend’s house and play with his dog.”

Subordinating Conjunctions只是連接子句。從屬連詞只連接從句。 它們將在聯結 2 中討論。

Correlative conjunctions are 成對的。它們將在連詞3中討論。

18/05/2025

This is Mr. Lion. He helps me teach. He lives in my office with some other animals and lots of books. Mr. Lion is very friendly. That’s important because leaning a language can be difficult. Improving your English if you can already speak it can be even more difficult. This is surprising but it’s true. It’s because of something called “Interlanguage Fossilization,” which I will talk about a little more in another post. For adults, it can also be challenging to reduce your accent. By the way, I mostly give English lessons one-to-one on Google Meet + Google Docs. I charge HKD $400 per hour and can give discounts if you pay in advance for more lessons. My schedule is always pretty busy. You can see more details on my website, https://blseducation.com. You can email me at [email protected]. Mr. Lion and I are happy to help you!

這是獅子先生。 他幫我教書。 他和其他一些動物以及許多書籍住在我的辦公室。 獅子先生非常友善。 這很重要，因為學習語言可能很困難。 如果您已經可以講英語，那麼提高英語能力可能會更加困難。 這令人吃驚但卻是事實。 這是因為一種叫做「中介語僵化」的現象，我將在另一篇文章中詳細討論。 對於成年人來說，減少口音也是一項挑戰。 順便說一句，我主要在 Google Meet + Google Docs 上進行一對一的英語課程。 我的收費是每小時 400 港幣，如果您提前支付更多課程費用，您還可以享受折扣。 我的行程總是很忙。 您可以在我的網站 https://blseducation.com 上查看更多詳細資訊。 您可以透過 [email protected] 給我發送電子郵件。 我和獅子先生很樂意幫助您！