毎日通える英会話教室‐English Garden の英会話ブログ

Last week in both Beginner and Intermediate class we talked about your parents using the verbs want, make and let.

Here is the handout


want somebody to do something
My mother wants me to buy an Audi for her.
(An Audi is a luxury European car)


make somebody do something
My parents made me go to Kumon when I was a child.
I absolutely hated Kumon.


let somebody do something
My parents didn't let me quit piano.
But now I feel thankful that they didn't let me quit.

There are many useful phrases that start with "let" in English. For example,

let me know
let me see
let me think about it
let me through
let me down

In intermediate class we also covered the word "persuade".

persuade someone to do something 説得
My mother persuaded me to study university in Toronto.
I tried to persuade people to come to the Halloween party.

On Saturday we also talked about Kumon. My parents made me go to Kumon when I was a child. But some people think Kumon is just mindless repetition. We often call these drills. Are drills really useful for a child's education?

I have mixed feelings about Kumon. On one hand, I think drills are very useful for particular activities like sports and math. One other hand I also think drills are sometimes pointless especially for language. I never learned Japanese through drills, but I admit that it might work for other people.