Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 374. The title of today's lesson
is never say I was a high school. Okay. Yeah. Students of ESL sometimes do this.
Over the years, I've caught it a number of times. I think just in the past week
it may depend on the article I'm covering , but I had several students use
this. Either they said you know , when I was a high school or when I was an
elementary school. Where they should be saying ... we should be rephrasing it in
other ways or ... Let's look at the notes. Let's cover it . Sometimes students of ESL
will say I was a high school or an elementary school etc. In English a
person cannot be a school. It's that simple. So here are some examples with
the X. This is wrong. When I was a high school I had a lot of pressure or you
know, they probably had a lot of pressure with tests. Things like that. So with the
X. That's definitely wrong. With the check. We have a number of ways
you could rephrase it and say it. No problem. So you could say when I was in
high school, I had a lot of pressure. That's fine.
Because then you're not saying that you're a school. You're saying you were
in the school. So that's okay. When I was a high school student . Now you can be a
student. A person definitely is a student. So when I was a high school student, I
had a lot of pressure. Sure perfect no problem. When I was a
high schooler. Yeah. For high school , we do use high schooler. Be careful, we don't
say an elementaryer or a colleger But we do say a high schooler. Okay
So that's another way you could say it. So when I was a high schooler, I had a
lot of pressure. Or another one here, When I was a student
in high school. So you could rephrase it with the "in" later. That would be fine too.
Or you know, in high school in the u.s. we always you know, name the years. So you
could go that way too. You could say when I was a freshman in high school, I had a
lot of pressure or when I was a junior or all my years .. throughout all my years in
high school I had a lot of pressure. You could say it like that as well.
Okay, and here's an example where a student did it with elementary school as
well. When I was in elementary school, I liked to watch cartoons. Yes. So again. A
person cannot be a school. Okay. You, you have to be you know, you have to use the
word for a person. Okay. So the correct way of course you know here all of these
should have checks. When I was an elementary school student I liked to
watch cartoons. That would be fine. When I was a student in elementary school I
liked to watch cartoons. That would be good as well. Or again here you go back
to grades. You could say when I was in third grade you know, you can mention the
year. You can say I like to watch cartoons. All right. And this is another
one too. I did another video before if you you know, if you like this one you should go
check out that one too. Sometimes students say when I was in first grade of high
school. You can't say that. Or first grade of college. Remember we use the word
freshman, sophomore, junior, senior for those. So you'd never say that. Check out
that video or you might want to also check out my video on graduate
undergraduate. And you know postgraduate students. You might want to check out
those as well. if you're confused about some of these terms. All right. Anyway,
that's the last little bit of a note here. The same rule applies for grade
school. So you can't say you were a grade school. You can't say you're a primary school or
a middle school or a junior high school. Whichever term your school is using. You
can't use that as well. You always have to say you were a student in ... When I was
a student in grade school or when I was a student in primary school. All of those
would be okay. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it . I hope it was clear. Thank you for your time.
Bye-bye.