Mar 24, 2020 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: lockdown So after weeks of umming and ahing, it’s finally happened: the UK has been placed on lockdown. It’s strange to find myself describing daily life here using a phrase I used to mainly associate with prisons: if there has been trouble in a prison – for example, some prisoners have attacked staff – then the […]
Mar 20, 2020 Classroom Activities, Coursebooks, Grammar, Lexis, Opinions, Pronunciation Back to school Part 2: TomAYto TomARto In my last post, I described two basic routes to learning language as a means of communication. At this point, I should reiterate that what I am talking about here are not routes to any real kind of fully-functional fluency. One of the most profound realisations you have when you start learning a new language […]
Mar 16, 2020 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: woke Burger King have recently launched their first plant-based burger – the Rebel Whopper – a move that you might imagine would please many vegetarians and vegans. However, the new offering has caused controversy for two reasons. Firstly, there’s the fact that it’s actually cooked on the same grill as meat burgers, and then there’s the […]
Mar 5, 2020 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: pandemic Wherever you are in the world, the news over the last few weeks has almost certainly been dominated by one story – the ongoing efforts to stop – or at least contain – the spread of Covid-19, a disease better known by the rather misleading name coronavirus. In fact, coronoviruses are a large family of […]
Feb 11, 2020 Chunk of the day, Chunks Chunk of the day: room for improvement This afternoon I interviewed someone who’s applied to do one of our language courses this summer. We like to Skype people who are coming to study with us because it helps us get a feel for their level of English, it puts a face to the name and it allows us to get to know […]
