Question About "in his time/age/ages/era/period"

hirashin · 3 Jun 2020

Dear native English speakers, I started teaching at a high school, which is in Ashiya,
Hyogo Prefecture this Monday. It takes about two hours to get there.

By the way, I have a question. Would you kindly help me?

Which sounds correct? If more than one sound right, do they have the same meaning?
He lived in the 17th century. He went on a long journey a number of times in his life.
[(a) In his time, (b) In his times, (c) In his age, (d) In his ages, (e) In his era, (f) In his period,
(g) In his day, (h) In his days,] there were no public transportation systems.

Hirashin

mdchachi · 4 Jun 2020

Wow that's a long commute. Why did you change schools?

All of them sound a little unnatural because usually you wouldn't say "his" you would say "those" or "that." Similarly in Japanese you would say そのころ not 彼のころ wouldn't you?

(a) In his time - this sounds good to me.
(a') In that time - even better
(b) In his times - this sounds odd
(b') In those times - for some reason this sounds good
(c) In his age - NG
(d) In his ages - NG
(e) In his era - maybe acceptable but sounds odd
(e') In that era - sounds good
(f) In his period, - NG
(f') In that period - uncommon but acceptable
(g) In his day - good
(g') In that day - NG
(h) In his days - sounds odd to me but maybe acceptable
(h') In those days - good
,] there were no public transportation systems.

In conversation I would probably use (h'). As for what is most correct or most used in literature, I'm not really sure.

hirashin · 4 Jun 2020

Thank you very much for the help, mdchachi.

mdchachi said:
Wow that's a long commute. Why did you change schools?

I am a temporarily dispatched teacher, so almost every year I have to find a new school
that will hire me. (Do I make sense?)

The high school I taught last school year was terrible. A lot of students are not interested
in English or any other subject. They did nothing in class.

The new school is much better. There has been nobody who does nothing in class so far.
[Please correct my sentence if needed.]

Here's the passage from the textbook. Does it sound natural?

When we say that life is a journey, we usually understand it in its metaphorical sense.
But there was a poet who really lived his life as a traveler. In fact, he went on a long
journey a number of times in his life. On one such journey, he covered a distance of
1,767 kilometers, spending a total of 143 days.
How did he travel? Did he drive? Did he take a train or bus? No, in his time, there were
no public transportation systems. Instead, for the most part, he walked. This kind of journey
would be challenging for young people, to say nothing of a man in his middle age. So why
did he constantly take to the road? What made him do it?
That poet was Matsuo Basho (1644-1694).

Hirashin

mdchachi · 4 Jun 2020

hirashin said:
I am a temporarily dispatched teacher, so almost every year I have to find a new school
that will hire me. (Do I make sense?)

Yes it makes perfect sense. I'm glad you have found a better school with motivated students.

hirashin said:
Here's the passage from the textbook. Does it sound natural?

Yes it sound natural to me. And as I said in my first reply, the sentence pattern (a) sounds good to me. I'm glad my opinion was aligned with the textbook's.
However as you noted there are many other ways to say "in his time."

hirashin · 6 Jun 2020

mdchachi said:
Yes it makes perfect sense. I'm glad you have found a better school with motivated students.

Thank you.

mdchachi said:
Yes it sound natural to me.

I'm glad to hear that. (Can I say "That's good to hear" instead here?)

I hope the textbooks we use are in good natural English.

SomeCallMeChris · 7 Jun 2020

hirashin said:
I'm glad to hear that. (Can I say "That's good to hear" instead here?)

Yes.
Or "I'm happy to hear that."
Or "I'm pleased to hear that", but this one is very old fashioned.
Or even simply "That's good.", although that has slightly more of a sense of relief and slightly less sense of being pleased.

hirashin · 7 Jun 2020

Thank you for the help, Chris. Is "I'm pleased to" old-fashioned? Is it that you don't say "I'm pleased to meet you" any more?

Lothor · 7 Jun 2020

Very happy to hear that you've found a better school to work at. Are you a dispatch teacher out of choice? I imagine most teachers would prefer a permanent contract because it's more stable.

SomeCallMeChris · 7 Jun 2020

hirashin said:
Thank you for the help, Chris. Is "I'm pleased to" old-fashioned? Is it that you don't say "I'm pleased to meet you" any more?

"I'm pleased to" is generally old-fashioned, yes, but still used formally.

"I'm pleased to hear that", "I'm pleased to say" and so on are not used much anymore except in prepared speeches.

"I'm pleased to meet you", "Pleased to meet you" or "Very pleased to meet you" are still used for formal introductions at business meetings or the like, but are not likely to be used when meeting your friend's friends in a casual social setting.

What replaces it has a lot of regional and situational variation, I think, but "Good to meet you" is the most straightforward update, and works in any setting. Asking "How're you?" or "How ya' doing?" is common too in areas where "How're you?" and similar phrases are used like greetings.

"How're you?" as a greeting is a trend, by the way, that I wish would stop, to be honest... it leads too often to the conversation,

A: How're you?
B: Good! How're you?
A: Good! How're you?
B: Good! How're you?
A: Good! How... I just asked that didn't I?

(This may have something to do with texting-while-talking ...)

mdchachi · 8 Jun 2020

hirashin said:
I'm glad to hear that. (Can I say "That's good to hear" instead here?)

Yes this is perfectly fine too.

hirashin · 8 Jun 2020

Thank you, Lothor.

Lothor said:
Very happy to hear that you've found a better school to work at. Are you a dispatch teacher out of choice? I imagine most teachers would prefer a permanent contract because it's more stable.

Because I run a juku school in my house, I can't be a full-time teacher. It's very hard to find a job as a part-time permanent teacher. So I have to find a new school to work at almost every year. I wish I could find a school that is much closer to my house. [Do I make sense? Would you correct my sentences if needed?]

Hirashin

hirashin · 8 Jun 2020

Thank you for the further useful information, Chris.

SomeCallMeChris said:
What replaces it has a lot of regional and situational variation, I think, but "Good to meet you" is the most straightforward update, and works in any setting. Asking "How're you?" or "How ya' doing?" is common too in areas where "How're you?" and similar phrases are used like greetings.

Is "Good to meet you" used more often than "Nice to meet you"?

Do you ever say "What's up?" or "What's new?" instead of "How're you"?

Hirashin

SomeCallMeChris · 8 Jun 2020

"Nice to meet you" sounds to me like something a salesperson says to a prospective client... But people do use it, and I suppose if it works for salespeople that it sounds friendly and natural enough to most people.

hirashin said:
Do you ever say "What's up?" or "What's new?" instead of "How're you"?

I haven't used "What's up?" since that obnoxious Budweiser commercial. For years afterwards, saying "What's up?" would get an exaggerated "WHAAAAZZZZUPP!!!" in response. Still does, actually, although very rarely now and only from men above a certain age. I think young(ish) people (under-35) have started using it normally again.

"What's new?", "What's happening?", "What's going on?" and "How's it going?" are all usable as greeting-questions, but all of them added together are not as common as "How're you?" when meeting a new person. You're much more likely to use the variations to greet people you see regularly.

Lothor · 8 Jun 2020

hirashin said:
Thank you, Lothor.

Because I run a juku school in my house, I can't be a full-time teacher. It's very hard to find a job as a part-time permanent teacher. So I have to find a new school to work at almost every year. I wish I could find a school that is much closer to my house. [Do I make sense? Would you correct my sentences if needed?]

Hirashin

Perfect sense.

hirashin · 9 Jun 2020

Thank you for the further information, Chris.

Lothor said:
Perfect sense.

Thank you, Lothor.

Question About "in his time/age/ages/era/period"

hirashin

Sempai

mdchachi

Moderator

hirashin

Sempai

mdchachi

Moderator

hirashin

Sempai

SomeCallMeChris

先輩

hirashin

Sempai

Lothor

Freelance proofreader

SomeCallMeChris

先輩

mdchachi

Moderator

hirashin

Sempai

hirashin

Sempai

SomeCallMeChris

先輩

Lothor

Freelance proofreader

hirashin

Sempai

Similar threads