Nov 11, 2020 Chunks, Phrase of the day What’s in a name? Almost as soon as I started teaching, I realised that there were plenty of countries out there that took names a bit more seriously than we do here in England. When meeting new classes, I’d often be told things like “I’m Haruko. My name means spring child“, or “My name’s Hakim, which means wise in […]
Oct 30, 2020 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: cancel culture Over recent years, we’ve seen the push for greater equality come in many shapes and forms – there have been the calls from Black Lives Matter protesters for an end to police brutality and racially-motivated violence against black people, the #MeToo movement has been campaigning against sexual abuse and harassment and has outed the worst […]
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 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 […]
