How do you picture a month?

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learner@juno.com - 05 Dec 2003 21:52 GMT

Hi,

I have an admittedly strange question.

In my native country, when a month of the year was mentioned, I could
immediately get a mental picture of where it fell in the year. I could
even quickly form associations between this month and the school year or
the seasonal peculiarities (such as trees being in bloom, etc.).

I have lost this ability in the U.S. When one mentions, let's say,
November, there is no immediate sense of understanding where in the year
this month falls nor any association with common events happening in
this month.

How do you native speakers make this association? How do you teachers
teach it to your students? I tried to think of the year as a square with
each side being a season; it didn't help much. I tried thinking of a
clock with every hour representing a month (1 for Jan., 2 for Feb.,
etc.); this didn't help either.

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Einde O'Callaghan - 05 Dec 2003 22:41 GMT

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> clock with every hour representing a month (1 for Jan., 2 for Feb.,
> etc.); this didn't help either.

Native speakers will associate particular months with particular
seasonal weather and holiday or festicvals that occur during this month.
However, these associations will vary according to where you've been
brought up. Obviously an australian will have different associations
with January from those of a Californian, whose ideas will again differ
from those of a New Yorker or a person from the Pacific North West of
florida. These again will be radically different from those of Irish or
English people.

For me October is associated with fog and November is associated with
wet stormy weather although the weather where I live in germany doesn't
follow this pattern at all. This is because my formative years were
spent in Ireland. However, i can also tell you what the weather is
typically like where I live, but this for me is "German weather" and not
the weather as it really should be! ;-)

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

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Mark Chandler - 06 Dec 2003 17:55 GMT

If you look through the links on the following page you will see the images
that I associate with each month - taken from nature and events in the UK:
http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Ideas/Events.htm

Regards

Mark
UK Student Life: http://www.ukstudentlife.com

> > Hi,
> >
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
>
> Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

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Wes Groleau - 09 Dec 2003 03:12 GMT

I am a native speaker, but sometimes I have to think
about what the name of a month means. I mean, I can
recite them in order and backwards, and quickly tell
you before or after, but they don't have any particular
"images" for me.

Signature

Wes Groleau
"Ideas are more powerful than guns,
We would not let our enemies have guns;
why should we let them have ideas?"
-- Jozef Stalin

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Enrico C - 27 Dec 2003 02:42 GMT

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>
> Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

Well, you can always count :)

September, October, November and December were months number 7
("septem ab imbre", "the seventh after the snow" in Latin), 8 (octo),
9 (novem) and 10 (decem) in the ancient Roman lunar calendar.

In old times, the Roman year had ten months, and those were the last
months. Later on, Romans added two more months, January and February.

Signature

Enrico C ~ No native speaker

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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / December 2003

How do you picture a month?