Nov 6, 2017 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: faff Over the last few days, I’ve been in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, running a teacher development seminar for around 150 wonderful locals. In one particular session, we were looking at pronunciation, and I was talking about the way my own approach to dealing with pronunciation in class has changed over time. I mentioned that […]
Oct 31, 2017 Chunks, Intermediate word of the day Intermediate word of the day: allegation An allegation is a public statement saying that someone has done something wrong or illegal, even though this has not (yet) been proved. Allegations are often made against famous people or public officials, who might, for example, face allegations of fraud if someone publicly accuses them of getting money from someone by tricking them. Officials […]
Oct 29, 2017 Chunk of the day, Chunks Chunk of the day: famous last words As some of you may know, my father died recently after a relatively short battle with cancer. He was 87, so he had a good innings, and in many ways, he had the death he wanted: he died in his own home, surrounded by his family. Shortly before he died, we spent a long and […]
Oct 25, 2017 Chunks, Intermediate word of the day Intermediate word of the day: mortgage A mortgage is a special kind of loan – money we borrow from a bank from a bank – that we get to buy some property – a house or flat. Obviously, buying a house is expensive so you might get a £200,000 mortgage. We also say you take out a mortgage for £200,000. A […]
Oct 22, 2017 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: hardcore Last weekend, I was lucky enough to run a two-day teacher development course in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. One evening, a few of us went out for dinner and while we were chatting, one of the organisers of the event started telling me about a recent trip she’d made up to Valaam, an archipelago – a large […]
