我喜歡諸事八卦的學生，這種人對周邊的事物充滿好奇心，並喜歡探討及在當中學習。We can learn a great deal just by observing. 學生問，究竟" What about you? " 跟 " How about you? " 的分別是什麼？
每次遇到這種容易混淆的詞彙或句子，又或者不能用固定的grammar rules（文法定律）來解釋的時候，我喜歡鼓勵學生作句，舉例說明。
"How about writing some examples to illustrate the difference between these two phrases? "
" How about taking the tour bus today? "
這兩個" How about ..." 帶出一個廣泛的話題給對方思考或探索。在這個情況下，" What about ..." 也適用。
"I see you made lots of careless mistakes in your recent test. What about those spelling mistakes you made in the test? "
"We shall go for our epic hike tomorrow."
"Sure. But what about the weather? Isn't it going to be a stormy day?"
這兩個" What about ..."帶出一個相對狹窄的話題或有反對、負面意思問題。如果用" How about ..."便會比較奇怪。
再舉兩個例子：
"How are you doing? I am awesome, how about you? "
這個" how about you? "用來問別人的感受。
"How many books did you borrow ? Ten, what about you? "
句子描述自己借了10本書，好像期望對方在回答時也說應該借了那個指定數量的書籍。
順帶提一提句子結構，"How about ... "及"What about..."後面也可以採用Gerunds（動名詞）或Pronouns（代名詞）或Nouns（名詞）。
其實我也是一個諸事八卦的老師。I am always observing my students and hearing stories about things around them. It turns out to be helpful as a teacher.
Miss Carol
大專院校語文講師、企業培訓講師及國際英文公開試主考官。
