Nov 10, 2023 Lexis, Opinions One is most bemused: hedging and the strange function of ‘one’ The original idea for this blog post came one afternoon when my wife saw my response to an email we’d both received from the school our son goes to. His new form tutor had written to us saying how well he was settling in and suggesting that he was a credit to us and that […]
Oct 13, 2023 Chunks, Phrase of the day Everyday English drawn from Greek mythology A while back, I wrote a blog post about words and expressions that come from literature, but have passed into everyday use. Today, inspired by a recent conversation with my daughter, who’s currently obsessed with Greek mythology, I wanted to dig a bit deeper into the way the ideas from old myths and stories become […]
Jan 18, 2023 Chunks, Phrase of the day Literary figures in everyday speech In one of my recent classes, we were discussing the way in which the use of social media inside authoritarian countries like Russia, China and Iran is almost always monitored, and how posting something that’s deemed to be subversive or in opposition to the state can land you in hot water. Share an anti-government meme […]
May 3, 2022 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: big cheese At a party last week I was introduced to a foreign businessman who was visiting London. We got talking and started chatting about what we both did. I told him about my work and when I asked what he did, he responded – in excellent English – by saying: “I guess you could say I’m a big cheese in […]
Mar 6, 2022 Opinions, The state of our profession Teaching through the tears: creating cross-border classes in a time of conflict I first went to Russia in December 1999 to visit a friend of mine who’d just taken a teaching job there. Little did I know then what a central part in my life the country would come to play over the next twenty-plus years. Since the turn of the century, I’ve visited Russia more times […]
