Apr 2, 2017 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: palaver During my trip to Norilsk last week, I managed to squeeze in a day trip to Dudinka, a small port town situated on the mighty Yenisei River that’s mainly used to ship out the nickel which is found in such abundance in the area. We had a brief guided tour of the town and then […]
Mar 30, 2017 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: pots and kettles Going dutch and other negative traitsSo last week I was in the Netherlands and I was chatting with a group of teachers when someone asked why we have the phrase ‘’We can go Dutch’ in English. Actually, I personally don’t use this phrase very much myself, preferring to say instead ‘Shall we just split the bill’?, […]
Mar 29, 2017 Chunks, Phrase of the day Above and beyond the call of duty: phrase of the day: One of the delights of teaching foreign students in my home city of London is that I get to see the place through their eyes. My learners notice things about life here that I take for granted, things that I’m too close to to be able to see properly. For instance, they’ll ask why we […]
Mar 26, 2017 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: to all intents and purposes I was lucky enough to spend all of last week in Norilsk, the most northerly city in the world. I was running a course there, and as is always the case when I’m in Russia, I was struck by the enthusiasm, dedication and motivation of the local teachers of English. I was also struck by […]
Mar 21, 2017 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: vanilla These days, there’s no shame in looking online for a partner. Indeed, it’s all the rage in certain circles. The online dating scene has come a long way in a short period of time and there’s been an incredible diversification of products available, with users now able to access everything from Muslim dating to S&M […]
