Mar 29, 2017 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: above and beyond the call of duty One of the delights of teaching foreign students in my home city of London is that I get to see the place through their eyes. My learners notice things about life here that I take for granted, things that I’m too close to to be able to see properly. For instance, they’ll ask why we […]
Mar 26, 2017 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: to all intents and purposes I was lucky enough to spend all of last week in Norilsk, the most northerly city in the world. I was running a course there, and as is always the case when I’m in Russia, I was struck by the enthusiasm, dedication and motivation of the local teachers of English. I was also struck by […]
Mar 21, 2017 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: vanilla These days, there’s no shame in looking online for a partner. Indeed, it’s all the rage in certain circles. The online dating scene has come a long way in a short period of time and there’s been an incredible diversification of products available, with users now able to access everything from Muslim dating to S&M […]
Mar 19, 2017 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: get (back) in the swing of things I hate goodbyes. Always have done, and always will do. I’ve certainly never understood where there’s a good in goodbye, that’s for sure. Still, just as you need sad to understand what happy is, cold to understand hot, and so on, so I have come to accept the wisdom laid out in one my favourite-ever […]
Mar 16, 2017 Opinions, The state of our profession Teaching in troubled times: Trump, tackling tensions and resting easy! We live in troubled times. We’re living through an age in which immigrants are routinely scapegoated and blamed for all of society’s ills and the religious practices of millions of people are regularly conflated with the murderous impulses of a tiny handful, while the blood on our own hands, our occupations and human rights abuses […]
