Dec 6, 2023 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: Harry Pottered out I spent last Friday and Saturday in Bologna, Italy, where I was talking at an excellent conference for English-language teachers. In one of the talks that I saw, a teacher was describing a one-week summer school course for kids that she’d helped organise. The week had been based around the Harry Potter books, so kids had made their own costumes, acted […]
Dec 5, 2023 Chunk of the day, Chunks From a trickle to a flood: water metaphors and their emotional pull One of the most depressing things about British politics right now – and trust me, there are plenty of things to get depressed about – is the fact that there aren’t really any mainstream politicians who’re willing to be honest about the fact that the country needs immigrants . . . and that without significant […]
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 […]
