Show 455 Wednesday 1 August

Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi, I’m Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show.

Today is Wednesday – so it’s error correction time again. And this week no one took up my fantastic offer of sending me an email so I could correct your English.
So, I thought I’d just talk about a common mistake.

This is one of the first ones that used to bug me when I first started teaching in Japan.
I went to shopping.

When I worked at ECC I heard this almost every day. Because shopping is a popular recreational activity in Japan. And also because at ECC I usually taught different students every day.
Once I started teaching privately I didn’t hear the same mistakes all the time because once you teach someone something once or twice – they usually remember it.

So: I went to shopping is wrong.
It should be I went shopping. No to.

But why a student in Japan say: I went to shopping?

Well, one reason is that in Japanese, it’s 買い物に行きました。
かいものにききました。Kaimono ni ikimashita.
There’s a particle there – に（ni）.
So when people go to say it in English, they want to put something like a particle in there.
So they say to.

Another reason is that it’s common to say: I went to something.
And it’s usually correct. Just not in this sentence.

You can say I went to a place or an event.

I went to Paris.
I went to Germany.
I went to the bank.
I went to Wal-Mart.
I went to church.
I went to my great aunt’s birthday party.
I went to the Christmas parade.

But, in the following sentences, you can’t use to.

I went shopping.
I went surfing.
I went swimming.
I went skiing.
I went snowboarding.
I went skateboarding.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today, a Japanese airline has dressed up one of its planes as a panda.

ANA is an abbreviation for All Nippon Airways Company, Limited – the second biggest airline in Japan.
ANA has been flying to China for 20 years. To celebrate this – as well as 35 years of friendly relations between China and Japan – ANA has decorated one of their planes as a panda.
The aircraft, formerly known as a 747-300, is now called Fly! Panda. It got its name thanks to a naming competition for primary school children.
Japan Today reported a panda motif adorns cabin crew uniforms, cups, snack wrappers, napkins, headrest covers and pillows.
And passengers are served "panda" desserts.

And that was Stick News for Wednesday 1 August.
Kia Ora.

conversations with sarah
#278 So are you going to fly on the Panda plane?

Step 1: Repeat Brian’s lines.
Step 2: Read Brian’s lines and talk to Sarah.

Brain So are you going to fly on the Panda plane?

Sarah No.

Brain Why not? It’s cute!

Sarah Yeah, but it’s probably way more expensive than a normal flight.

Brain True. Do you have a favorite airline?

Sarah Not really. I have some airlines that I don’t like though.

Brain Which ones?

Sarah Hmmm ... Cathay Pacific for a start.

Brain Why don’t you like them?

Sarah Oh, I had a bad experience with them – it’s a long story – but the service was terrible.

Brain Which airlines do you like?

Sarah Um, Eva, or Eva I thought that was good. And coming here it was pretty good too. We flew with China Airlines.

links

today's news
ANA

music

show start, cws start, qa start
artist: Matthew Tyas
album: Music for the movies vol1
tracks: Superheros, Intellectuel, Three ways to run away
from: Oloron Sainte-Marie, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

other music
artist: pharmacopia
album: For The Stilling Of Volcanoes
track: Bossarim Quatro
from: Boonton, United States
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

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