Could you help me again?

[hirashin]

Dear native English speakers,

The English textbook we have to use in the high school where I teach seems to be full of unnatural English. So would you please proofread the sentences from the textbook? I think it's written in American English.

<Starting Out>
Yuka : I'm going to a movie with Mike tonight.
Susan : You must be excited. What's the movie?
Yuka : Backstreet. It's an action movie.
Susan : It has had good reviews. It may be difficult to get a ticket. Could you get a movie program for me?
Yuka : Sure. No problem.

<Focus 23>
a) You watched TV for ten hours yesterday? You can't be serious!
b) You must be tired today after watching TV for so long.

1) This movie must be good. A lot of people are standing in line to see it.
2) We may not be able to get good seats.
3) This movie theater is so big that it can't become full.

<Focus 24>
a) When I was in New York, I would watch old movies at movie theaters.
b) There used to be a movie theater here, but now there is an apartment building.

1) Could you turn off the TV?
2) I used to watch baseball games on TV, but I don't now.
3) When I was a boy, I would go to the ballpark.

<Practice A>
1) Some TV programs may be educational because they have lots of information about the world.
2) People from abroad must be surprised at TV programs in Japan because there are so many variety shows.
3) There used to be many more music programs on TV, but there are only a few now.

<Practice B>
Yuki : This movie is very interesting, so you will enjoy watching it.
Brian : Aliens from Space? This is a science fiction movie. I'm not so interested.
Yuki : Four of the five videos are being rented.
Brian : It must be very popular.
Yuki : Yes, this is the last one. Someone may rent it soon.
Brian : OK. Let's take it.
Yuki : When I was a child, my father would often take me to science fiction movies.
That's why I'm a great fan of them.

------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks in advance.

Hirashin

 

[Wardibald]

First of all, I am not a native English speaker, so you may want to wait for a second opinion. I just thought I'd give this a shot.
No real mistakes seem to be in these sentences. However, some things could be expressed better.


You must be tired today after watching TV for so long.
This isn't wrong, but today sounds a bit silly. Leave it out, or replace with "now".

I used to watch baseball games on TV, but I don't now.
Not wrong, but "now" could be replaced by "anymore". You could use "right now" if you don't mean you changed the habit, but something at this time causes you not to watch.

 

[Grandpa Frank]

Technically , I think they are all correct.

I'm not sure if written textbook writing would ever sound natural like conversation. Not sure why , but written text always seems to make it sould like two language expert robots are talking.

Uncle Frank

 

[hirashin]

Thank you for your help, Wardibald and Uncle Frank.

Wardibald, what is your native language? Dutch? So most people in Belgium speak
two or three languages fluently?

Uncle Frank, I'd be glad if you'd point out which sentences sound as if a robot
were talking.

Hirashin

 

[Wardibald]

Belgium is a difficult country to explain to foreigners. Dutch, French and German are the official languages, but besides my mother tongue (Dutch) my French is not great and my German rather horrible. Many Dutch speaking people here can talk their way out of a lion's den in French, but I've never been a foreign language talent.
The Francophones, unfortunately, usually only speak French. To keep this short, that causes quite some friction
I guess English is the international language today, which most young people here pick up quickly. It is a Germanic language, just like Dutch, so it's not that hard.

As to what Uncle Frank probably means: these are textbook conversations. They're simplistic, that's the point of them. In real life, conversations like that just don't happen. I'm sure there are Japanese textbooks that are the same way.

 

[simanba]

Everything seems to be correct. But do you teach British english or American English? since there are some diffrences

 

[Grandpa Frank]

Uncle Frank, I'd be glad if you'd point out which sentences sound as if a robot
were talking.

Hirashin

All the sentences are OK. It seems that language teaching books all sound a bit unnatural. I have never seen a language book with sentences like "My monkey scratches it's balls , does your monkey?" or "WOW! Your farts sure stink."

Uncle Frank

 

[ClarkH]

They're all okay, especially in a conversational setting. I might make a few minor adjustments here or there to make a few of the sentences more natural, but they are already pretty good. Certainly the meaning is clear for every sentence, and I don't see any immediate grammatical errors.

 

[hirashin]

Thank you for your help, Frank and Clark.

Simanba, hello. Is your first language Dutch?

Hirashin

 

[simanba]

Yes it is, but I also speak English, German and a little bit Spanish. I'm trying to learn Japanese which is no easy task

 

[Guregori]

I'm an English teacher and have read many, many EFL textbooks. Generally, the lower the level, the more unnatural the English sounds, as the language has to be graded (simplified), which itself is unnatural.

The dialogues you have posted, however, are particularly bad, even by English textbook standards. Grammatically they're fine, but you won't find any native English speakers speaking like that. I suspect they've not been written by native speakers.

"Yuki : This movie is very interesting, so you will enjoy watching it."

 

[ClarkH]

"Yuki : This movie is very interesting, so you will enjoy watching it."

I think it's a well written sentence and pretty natural. Like I said in a previous post, I may make only minor adjustments to improve it:

This movie is very interesting, so you'll enjoy watching it.

Or simply:

This movie is very interesting, so you'll enjoy it.