One of the things that our students often comment on when they come to London is the fact that they often see things here that seem strange or that would cause upset or offence in their own country, but people…
Author Archive
Phrase of the day: go with the flow
My preferred way of getting around London is by bike. I usually cycle in and out of town, and on my way home, I often go past the offices of Age UK, which is a charity that campaigns for old people and…
Phrase of the day: making a rod for your own back
I had dinner round at a neighbour's place the other week. Our kids go to the same school, which is how we know each other, and while we were eating and drinking wine, the kids played happily upstairs. Well, actually,…
Word of the day: R&R
R and R stands for rest and relaxation, rather than rock and roll. So if you are having a bit of R&R, you are having a break or a holiday where you are doing very little other than lying around…
Chunk of the day: the last-chance saloon
As part of our Lexical Lab summer school, we offer a full and varied social and cultural programme, but most Sundays, students are free to go off wherever they please. Last weekend, a couple of people went on a day-trip…
Phrase of the day: How long is a piece of string?
As a coursebook writer, there’s one question about my work I dread more than all others. I’ll sometimes be at a conference, standing around on the publisher’s stand - the display space they have where they show all their books…
Chunk of the day: baptism of fire
If you've been following the series of blog posts I did about the World Cup, you'll know that I love football. Now that the World Cup has finished, I'm suffering withdrawal symptoms. Like a lot of other fellow sufferers, I'm…
Word of the day: goal fest
It's fair to say that it'd been quite a while since we had a classic World Cup final. In 2006, Italy won a fairly dull match on penalties; in 2010, Spain beat the Dutch one-nil and Germany won by the…
Chunk of the day: high drama
And then there were four! So we've now had the quarter-finals of this year's World Cup, and we know who the semi-finalists are: France, Belgium, England and Croatia. Incredibly, this is now the first World Cup ever in which not…
Word of the day: déjà vu
The second round of the World Cup is often when the tournament really starts coming to life. When you're in a do-or-die situation, and it's either you or your opponents who'll be going home at the end of the game,…