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,…
Chunk of the day: on the wagon
This Friday I'll be meeting an old friend of mine called Jon. I'm looking forward to seeing him as it's been a while since we last met, but I'm also slightly worried as ever since we arranged to go out…
Chunk of the day: on an industrial scale
On Sunday evening, as I was getting dinner ready for my kids, I listened to a programme on BBC Radio 4 about money laundering – the process of hiding the origin of money that's been obtained from illegal activities by…
Chunk of the day: You’re best … -ing
I overheard an awkward conversation between a native speaker and some tourists this morning in the centre of London. It was one of those exchanges that, as an English language teacher, I often feel compelled to intervene in, although this…
Chunk of the day: go through a rough patch
According to some recent research I read, the number of divorces in the UK last year was highest among men and women aged 40 to 44. I mention this because this afternoon, I had one of those depressing kinds of…
Chunk of the day: dark horse
A week or so ago, I gave a talk at a conference for English language teachers in Liestal, in the north of Switzerland. While I was there, I bumped into an old friend of mine that I hadn't seen each…
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…
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…
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…
Chunk of the day: a spate of
In our most-viewed post of recent weeks, we reported on the fact that there had been a spate of incidents involving people dressed as ‘killer clowns’ and that people dressed as scary clowns had been terrorising innocent members of the…