LESSON NOTES

Beginner S1 #4
What's Your Ethnicity?

CONTENTS
2 English
3 Vocabulary
4 Sample Sentences
4 Vocabulary Phrase Usage
5 Grammar

# 4
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 ENGLISH

1. VICKY: Hi, Mike! Whats up?

2. MIKE: Not much. How are you doing, Vicky?

3. VICKY: Never been better. Im waiting for my roommate.

4. MIKE: Oh, do you mean Oksana? She is Ukrainian, right?

5. VICKY: Yup. Are you Italian-American Mike?

6. MIKE: Im part Italian and part Irish.

7. VICKY: How interesting!

8. MIKE: How about you Vicky? I know youre Asian-American, but I dont
know which ethnicity.

9. VICKY: My parents are Korean, so Im Korean-American.

10. MIKE: Cool! I love kimchi.

11. VICKY: Umokay.

ENGLISH

1. VICKY: Hi, Mike! Whats up?

2. MIKE: Not much. How are you doing, Vicky?

3. VICKY: Never been better. Im waiting for my roommate.

CONT'D OVER

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4. MIKE: Oh, do you mean Oksana? She is Ukrainian, right?

5. VICKY: Yup. Are you Italian-American Mike?

6. MIKE: Im part Italian and part Irish.

7. VICKY: How interesting!

8. MIKE: How about you Vicky? I know youre Asian-American, but I dont
know which ethnicity.

9. VICKY: My parents are Korean, so Im Korean-American.

10. MIKE: Cool! I love kimchi.

11. VICKY: Umokay.

VOCABULARY

V oc abular y English C lass

What are you doing? / How

What's up? are you? phrase

nothing special, nothing

not much especially phrase

a person or thing from

Ukrainian Ukraine (an Eastern adjective
European country)

yup yes (casual) exclamation

an American person or thing

Italian-American with roots in Italy adjective

an American person or thing

Asian-American with roots in Asia adjective

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 condition of belonging to a
ethnicity noun
national or cultural group

a spicy, pickled side-dish

kimchi served with Korean food noun

SAMPLE SENTENCES

What's up? > Not much. Not much has happened since you left.

What's up? > Not much. I tried some delicious Ukrainian borscht at
the international expo.

Yup! I did it! Al Pacino is a famous Italian-American.

There are many Asian-American people My favorite ethnic food is Mexican.

living in Southern California.

I love kimchi and rice with Korean barbecue.

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE

In this lesson's dialogue, Mike asks Vicky, "What's up?" This is a common way for friends to
begin a conversation. The meaning is the same as, "What are you doing?" or "What is
happening now?" However, we often use it as an informal, simple greeting, such as "Hi." You
can answer the question by explaining what is new with you. However, the most common
answer is "Not much." "Not much," simply means that there is no special news to report. Also,
people often do not answer the question, "What's up," but instead respond with, "What's up?"
The next word we will look at today is "ethnicity." Ethnicity is the noun form of the word
"ethnic," as in "ethnic food." Something that is ethnic is associated with a national or cultural
group. For example, Italian food and Mexican food are considered ethnic foods by

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Americans. Ethnicity is the noun form, and we often use it to talk about a person's race. A
person may be from a different ethnicity than the country they were born or live in. In America,
there are many ethnicities, so it is fairly common to ask people about their ethnic background.
When you ask this question, you will hear many people say things such as, "I'm Italian-
American" or "I'm Chinese-American." But many people are from mixed backgrounds, so
you will also hear things such as "I'm part Italian." This means the person has some Italian in
their background, but also has some other ethnicity or ethnicities.

GRAMMAR

The Focus of This Lesson is Subject-Verb Agreement with "Be"

"She is Ukrainian, right?"

"Be" is one of the most common and important words in the English language. In this lesson,
we will look at how we use it as a copula and how we conjugate it. By copula, we mean that
we use it to link the subject with an adjective, another noun, or an expression of place. You can
think of "be" as being like an equal sign (=). The conjugation of "be" can be difficult, so let's
look carefully at how to do it using the simple present tense.

Conjugation

The basic sentence pattern using "be" as a copula in the simple present tense is like this:

subject + "be" + adjective/noun/expression of place

The conjugation for "be" depends on whether the subject is in the first (e.g., "I"), second (e.g.,
"you"), or third person (e.g., "he"), and whether the subject is singular (only one person) or
plural (more than one person). The conjugation also depends on the verb tense (for example,
past, present, future, etc.). But in this lesson, we will only consider the simple present tense.

Examples

1. "She is Ukrainian."

2. "You are tall."

Person Singular/Plural "Conjugation" "Example"

first singular "am" "I am"

first plural "are" "we are"

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second singular "are" "you are"

second plural "are" "you (all) are"

third singular "is" "he"/"she"/"it is"

third plural "are" "they are"

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