Word of the day: Harry Pottered out

I spent last Friday and Saturday in Bologna, Italy, where I was talking at an excellent conference for English-language teachers. In one of the talks that I saw, a teacher was describing a one-week summer school course for kids that she'd helped organise.…

Read more

Word of the day: big cheese

At a party last week I was introduced to a foreign businessman who was visiting London. We got talking and started chatting about what we both did. I told him about my work and when I asked what he did, he responded - in…

Read more

Word of the day: whitewash

By the 18th of June 1984 – thirty-seven years ago today – miners in England had been on strike for three months. In what has been called "the most bitter industrial dispute in British history", the National Union of Mineworkers…

Read more

Word of the day: Blimey!

I have to begin with a bit of a confession: I'm quite a nosy person! Sometimes I can probably be a bit too interested in what other people are doing and I always want to find out more about them!…

Read more

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…

Read more

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…

Read more

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…

Read more

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…

Read more

Word of the day: (the) MSM

MSM sounds like an unfortunate disease that someone might suffer from - a cancer that's spreading and eating away at your insides, for instance. Maybe that similarity is deliberate, because what we are talking about here is the mainstream media,…

Read more

Word of the day: prescribe

If you're ill and go to the doctor’s, once the doctor has examined you and discussed your symptoms, they'll usually prescribe some medicine to help you get better. The doctor usually writes a prescription which you then take to the…

Read more