Although I rabbit on a lot about writing, social media and my dog, I don’t mention my day job very often on my blog. So for those of you who may not know, I fill my days being an adult EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher. That is, teaching adults how to use English for professional …
When Does an Immigrant Feel Part of Their New Country? Some of the most intriguing questions which have come up in recent years are to do with immigration and the assimilation of immigrants into new countries and new cultures. Now that it is relatively easy to live in other countries we have Australians living in …
For some, playing with the English language may not be your cup of tea, but I love it. One of my favourite parts of speech is the difference of meaning between gerunds and infinitive verb forms. While some verbs change meaning completely, others remain more or less the same. But knowing which ones change and …
It may come as a surprise to learn that the English language contains some complexity. We are always told that it is a rather simple language as it has no masculine, feminine or neuter to worry about. Neither does it have special grammatical structures such as the subjunctive in French or the accusative and dative …
After a relatively long period of navel gazing, procrastinating, idle daydreaming and just plain laziness, I have decided to return to my designated profession as a ‘chalkie’. For those who haven’t heard this label before, it means teacher. And worse still, an English teacher. One could say that I have been afflicted with the absence …
My recent post gave you a small example of what is expected of an advanced learner of English. So today I thought I would up the difficulty level by giving you a sample of the expectations of the proficiency level. So have fun seeing how good your English really is. For questions 1-15, read the …
One of my favourite Cambridge examination components was key word transformation . It truly was a test of a student’s knowledge of English at both First Certificate and Advanced levels. However it is also a great exercise for accomplished writers. I still love doing them as it fine tunes my writing skills by having to …
I came across this interesting article on sentence variety for writers. Thought it was worth sharing with you. Hints on Variety Try an occasional question, exclamation, or command. A question can be especially useful at the beginning of a paragraph where you want to summarise quickly what preceded and then launch into what will now …
When teaching English writing, one of the most common mistakes I came across was the use of the comma. On asking my students why they had placed a comma in a certain position, they often justified it by saying that it was for a pause for breath. Well when we read we don’t need to …
Did you K-now that the silent K in words like K-nee and K-nickK-nack was actually pronounced in Old English. For some reason however, people could not get the K-nack of pronouncing the K as well as the N. So the K sound got K-nocked off. People got all K-notted up and tongue tied when they …
There are many forms of English, but one that really takes some learning is true ‘Aussie’ English. I found this wonderful tongue in cheek test for new Australians in my old teaching file. How much of this can you understand? Australian Citizenship Test 1. Do you understand the meaning, but are unable to explain the …
It’s fun learning a new language. But sometimes trying to use direct word for word translation can result in some very funny expressions! Private school: NO TRESPASSING WITHOUT PERMISSION. Hotel bedroom, Japan: GUESTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE OR DO OTHER DISGUSTING BEHAVIOURS IN BED. Doctor’s surgery, Rome: SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES. …
