“Keeping a Journal”
If you are someone who is inclined to write, you may enjoy keeping a journal. A journal is a record of one’s thoughts and experiences. Keeping a journal can help you deal with difficult emotions. If you are having an internal debate about something, writing down your thoughts in a journal might help settle the matter.
If you don’t keep a journal, but would like to start, be sure to buy a notebook that is comfortable to write in. Writing with a nice pen will help, too. Find a time of day that works for you, and be purposeful about writing in it everyday. After awhile, you might find that journaling will help your growth and development as a person.
Andy wants to know if keeping a diary is the same thing as keeping a journal. Listen as he and Romeo try to settle this debate in today’s English lesson.
Andy_H: All right, Romeo. I think it’s time that we here at Ebaby! settle the debate once and for all. Diary…
Romeo: Let’s do it.
Andy_H: ... or journal? What do men do? I mean, this is…the science on this is out.
Romeo: Hmmm. Yeah, I don’t want to necessarily be gender specific…
Andy_H: It doesn’t have to be.
Romeo: ... but I do feel like men are more inclined to refer to it as a journal. And women refer to what they record and write down, you know, for whatever their experiences were for the day, as a diary.
Andy_H: Diary! That’s been my experience. And you’re doing the same thing! You’re writing down your thoughts in a book or on your computer, and I think it’s purposeful. I mean, when I go back and read through my journal, I get to know myself. I mean, my subconscious can be really crazy. But it’s really important for my development to go back and just see where I was at… see what I was doing. I don’t care what word I throw at it. I think that it’s really important.
Romeo: Did you… did you have to do that when you were in grade school? Like, write a journal as homework?
Andy_H: Everyday. Well, for, you know, when I was in the third grade…
Romeo: English or writing class, whatever it was.
Andy_H: Mm-hm. I was tracking all of my, you know, I went to school today. I ate peanut butter and jelly. And looking back on it now, it’s really cool to see, you know.
Andy tells Romeo that it’s time to settle the debate once and for all. Do men keep a journal or a diary? Romeo says he doesn’t want to be gender specific, but he thinks men are more inclined to keep a journal. Women keep a diary.
Andy agrees. He points out that keeping a journal and keeping a diary are the same thing. Andy enjoys keeping a journal. His subconscious can get pretty crazy. Going back and reading his journal is important for his development.
Do you keep a journal? Has it helped you work through a difficult time?
Count and Noncount Nouns
Andy is talking to Romeo about keeping a journal. He says, “All right, Romeo. I think it’s time that we here at Ebaby! settle the debate once and for all. Diary or journal?” He is using count nouns.
Count nouns are nouns you can count. They are individual units, and they can be cut into parts. Some examples of count nouns include tree, house, boy, girl, country, city, or idea.
Count nouns can be pluralized. We can have three trees, two girls, or many ideas. It is possible to use the articles a and an with count nouns, when there is only one of them. For example, “I met a cute boy today,” or “That’s an interesting idea.”
Noncount nouns are nouns that can’t be counted or broken into parts. These nouns cannot be pluralized. They have no plural form. Liquids such as coffee or water, concepts such as love or peace, and collective nouns such as furniture or luggage are all examples of noncount nouns.
Noncount nouns cannot be used with the articles a or an. To show the quantity of a noncount noun, we use expressions like some, much, less, a lot of, a little of, etc. For example, “I have a lot of furniture in my house,” or “This guidebook doesn’t have much information about French culture.”
Which is correct, “There was a lot of dirt on the floor,” or “There were ten dirts on the floor”?