Paying for Studies (Fees)

From Twitter

Talking about College (Choose the best answer):

Jon: What’s your ___ ?
Chulsu: You mean the fee–like how much?
Jon: Yes.
Chulsu: I’m confused.
Jon: Well, it has many parts: books, housing, activities– but we just say ”__.”
Chulsu: Oh.

a. class cost
b. tuition
c. tuition fee

Explanation:
It is true that tuition and tuition fee mean the same thing, but tuition is shorter and tuition fee is really only useful when we are talking about other fees along with it:

This month I had to pay tuition-, maintenance- and parking- fees! I’m going to a need a second job!

Conversation
Hikaru and Jim are two students in their first year of college at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.Hikaru is from Japan and Jom from Ohio. Getting used to life in New York City is exciting, but expensive. School of Visual Arts is an extremely expensive private art college, so the young men often worry about paying for it….

Hikaru and Jim are having lunch at Au Mon Pain, luncheon a chain:

Hikaru: Do you have to pay your tuition fee this month?
Jim: Yeah. No–wait–what do you mean, man?
Hikaru: Don’t you have to pay for your classes?
Jim: Sure, but, we don’t say ”tuition fee.” What else would tuition be if not a fee? In fact, a tuition fee sounds like an additional payment we must make… plus the tuition.
Hikaru: What do you mean?
Jim: Tuition is a fee. You don’t need to say “fee.” It’s like saying “fee” twice– like “automobile car”.
Hikaru: Really?
Jim: Really.

Care of/Take Care?/Care About?

From Twitter
Quiz (クイズ )
Choose the right phrase to complete the sentence:
(空欄に合う表現をお選びましょう)

__ one’s health is important for a long, good life. (1)
__ yourself; I’ll see you next year. (2)
__ the things you can change. (3)

a. Take care of
b. Care about/care for
c. Care of
d. Concerning about

Answers: c, a, b:
Care of one’s health is important for a long, good life. (1.)
Take care of yourself; I’ll see you next year. (2.)
Care about the things you can change. (3.)

Explanation:
1. ‘Care of’ is used in formal speech and writing (like in expository writing). Simply: We don’t use ‘Care of’ in everyday speech.

2. ‘Take care of’ is used with things and people we directly interact with. We take care of ourselves. Simply: ‘Take care of’ is active

3.Care about‘ is used with subjects as a whole and often for things and people we do not necessarily directly interact with. John is an auto mechanic, but cares about the space program. Simply: Care aboutit is abstract.

Examples;
The care of the soul is a subject of most religions. (1.)
I told my mom I would take care of cleaning my room before going out. (2.)
Mom cares about my play-time, but more about my room being clean. (3.)

[To] Find Hotel[s] And [A] School

6th Avenue Looking South from about 52nd Street, NYC

From Twitter
You’re going to NYCーthe greatest city in the world! Butーyou don’t know where the Kendo schools are or where to stay!

Fill in:

Yuniko: I need __ find __ hotel, and __ Kendo school.
Ken: I can help you find ____ schools and hotel_!

a. some
b. a
c. the
d. to
e. s

Answers:
Yuniko: I need _to_ find _a_ hotel, and _a_ Kendo school.
Ken: I can help you find __some__ schools and hotel_s_!

Explanation:
1. We need ‘to‘ in front of find, because it comes after need (a helping verb); in these situations we use infinitives (‘to‘ + the Verb). ‘Need’ is the verbーso after need we need a noun (as object of the verb); an infinitive is a noun form of a verb (but because we know it is the noun form of a verb implying action to be taken or done, we call it “a Verbal,” too).

Just remember:


Want + t0+ Verb

3. We need a in front of hotel and Kendo school to let the listener know that we are talking about a non-specific entity (someone or something the listener doesn’t know exactly about or hasn’t heard about yetーin the conversationーa new thing.

3. We use ‘some’ and ‘s’ together, because no ‘a’ comes before School and hotel (and there is no space for you to fill in those letters), so we know the speaker is talking about more than on school and more than one hotel.