Rock Paper Scissors

In a discussion about the order of how we declare Rock-Paper-Scissors or Paper-Scissors-Rock or Scissors-Paper-Rock or Paper-Rock-Scissors........

When you search this online Rock-Paper-Scissors comes up more often than others but some others are still out there. Although, on the Wikipedia entry for this it's titled Rock-Paper-Scissors so I'm inclined to go with that one.

One word that came up was Roshambo as an American English alternative to Rock-Paper-Scissors and said as 'Ro-Sham-Bo' and uses the same rock, scissors, paper hand gestures.

One variation on the game came from China, which is reported being played around 200 A.D, where you use the thumb as 'frog', the small finger (pinkie) as 'snail' and the long finger (index/pointer) as 'snake'. In this version winning is as follows:

Frog beats Snail
Snake beats Frog
Snail beats Snake

In the popular U.S. television series The Big Bang Theory they come up with Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock, Watch:

A lizard is reptile animal and Spock is a famous television character from the show Star Trek.

In another not so popular animation series on the Cartoon Network, Regular Show, the characters are in a heated Rock-Paper-Scissors battle and the character of Pops refers to the game Quartz-Parchment-Shears. Watch:

Quartz is a type of rock, Parchment is an old English word for paper and Shears is another word for scissors but are usually larger and used to cut bushes or hedges.

How do you play Rock Paper Scissors in your country? What order do you go in? Leave your answer in the comments or shoot us an email.

Happy Learning!

March Newsletter

2013 March Newsletter

The Coming of Spring
by Joshua Wood, Manager and Teacher

In Japan and most of Asia spring is the start of the year. In America it's Autumn and in January for Australia, but they're in the Southern hemisphere so January is summer and July is winter. In spring we celebrate the rebirth of nature after the long cold winter. It's a time when we celebrate new beginnings and new opportunities in life. Especially in Japan we celebrate this idea with the viewing of the cherry blossoms. The beautiful pink and white flowers that only bloom once a year and if your lucky last for about 3 weeks.

It's also a time for spring cleaning! That time of year when the weather gets warm and you open your doors and windows and get rid of the stale air and dust that has accumulated over the winter months. It's also a good time to start new goals and activities. In the west we have our New Year's resolution yet it's hard to achieve new goals when it's just so cold outside. So that is why I like to adopt the Japanese idea of spring as a new beginning of the year. With the warm weather, blooming nature and a freshly cleaned home it's a good time to start those things you've been wanting to accomplish.

What is it that you hope to achieve this spring? I have many things on list and I hope you do too! Let's achieve them together.

Chromatic English Featured Articles

Passive Voice: by zombies!

A while back I read about using by zombies at the end of a sentence to help with identifying the passive voice. I tracked down the source to Rebecca Johnson and put together some examples and explanations from her brilliant idea!

Independent Speaking Task #4

In this exercise from the TOEIC speaking exam you'll answer three questions on the topic of travel. Use the Voice Thread to record and share your answers. It's setup as if you were taking the actual exam with 15 seconds to answer the first two questions and 30 seconds for question three. Good luck!

Events

Saturday, March 30^th 1:00pm-3:00pm

Meet Chromatic English Teacher Mr. Joshua Wood. Questions or concerns about taking lessons with Chromatic English School? Let's meet up on Skype and have a chat about learning English online. It's safe, secure and free!

Don't have Skype, go to www.skype.com to sign up and join for free today.

If you would like to make a reservation email us at chromatic.english@gmail.com.

We hope to see you there!

Promotional Discount
Sign up for online lessons with Chromatic English School by April 1^st and receive a 1 hour lesson FREE!

Subscribe 
New free English learning content is being added daily. Sign up to receive Chromatic English post in your inbox. In the subscribe box on the right type in your email and click submit. In your inbox you'll find a confirmation email. Click confirm and start receiving our posts as soon as they're published.

Also email us at chromatic.english@gmail.com and schedule your free 30 minute trail lesson to decide for yourself if Online English learning is for you!

Speak Bravely and Happy Learning!

Our Teaching Material: Textbooks

Here at the Chromatic English School we use a diversity of textbooks and pictures to teach English and help building your speaking and listening skills.

Here's a photo of some of the textbooks we use:

Of course if you have a textbook you would like to use we can study with that too!

Please share your textbook photos with us! Take a photo of your textbook you use to study English and post it in the comments. We would love to see how you study!

Speak Bravely and Happy Learning!

Idiom: I hoofed it!

In the previous post we talked about commuting. A not so much said idiom I heard on the Freakonomics podcast about commuting the host said "I hoofed it." in regards to how he went to work that day.

A hoof - a foot of a four legged animal; some animals with hooves include a horse, pig, sheep, camel, giraffe.

to hoof it = to walk

Normally we will say:

I walked to school today.
I went to went to work by foot.

With the idiom:

I hoofed it to school today.
I went to work by hoof. This one we don't say.

To hoof it almost implies a quick walking, not jogging but not just walking.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts and the places you like to hoof it.

Speak Bravely and Happy Learning!

Study Tip: Commuter School

A commuter is a person on there way to or from home, school, work, supermarket or other daily errand that you have to do.

A school is a place where we learn and study about a subject or subjects (hopefully) that interest you.

A commuter school is the activity of learning and studying while commuting in the car, on the train or bus, riding a bicycle or walking.

With the exciting new world of personal electronic devices (smartphone, tablets, micro PCs, etc.) we can travel anywhere with them and study anytime with digital audio and text.

So are study tip for you is: Go to commuter school! 

While you are commuting turn on an English language podcast, read a blog (this blog perhaps), a digital book, flip through your flashcard app, go on to Voice Thread or however you like to study on the go.

How do you like to study in commuter school? (With what devices, with what material, etc.)
Write in comments below.We love to hear from you!

Happy learning!