Tag: Learn English

Aiming for average

Written by Andrew Walkley on February 1, 2024. Posted in Opinions. No Comments on Aiming for average

An amazing feat, but that’s all I recently watched Nyad – a new film about the super-endurance swimmer Diane Nyad, who swam from Cuba to Florida. I like these kinds of stories, and the achievements they depict are often pretty amazing – but I’m turned off if they are presented as models of how to achieve things in life, which is exactly what happens at the end of Nyad. I buy these stories as entertainment, but I don’t buy into the lessons that are supposed to be learnt: “Look at me and learn how anything is possible if you just believe in yourself”, “Follow your dreams and give...

More fictional characters who appear in everyday English

Written by Hugh Dellar on December 20, 2023. Posted in Chunk of the day, Chunks. 1 Comment on More fictional characters who appear in everyday English

After the positive reception that my last post on literary figures in everyday speech got, I figured it made sense to write a follow-up exploring the way the names of some more fictional characters are used in daily conversation. Today, we’ll look at five famous characters and consider how they’ve passed into the language. First up is one of the most iconic detectives of all time – Sherlock Holmes. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes is famous for his powers of observation and deduction, his razor-sharp mind, and his logical reasoning. He’s also been portrayed countless...

Word of the day: Harry Pottered out

Written by Hugh Dellar on December 6, 2023. Posted in Chunks, Word of the day. No Comments on 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. The week had been based around the Harry Potter books, so kids had made their own costumes, acted out various scenes and so on. “By the end of the five days“, she said, “I was totally Harry Pottered out!” In other words, she’d had enough of Harry Potter....

From a trickle to a flood: water metaphors and their emotional pull

Written by Hugh Dellar on December 5, 2023. Posted in Chunk of the day, Chunks. No Comments on From a trickle to a flood: water metaphors and their emotional pull

One of the most depressing things about British politics right now – and trust me, there are plenty of things to get depressed about – is the fact that there aren’t really any mainstream politicians who’re willing to be honest about the fact that the country needs immigrants . . . and that without significant amounts of immigration, the economy in general and the NHS and the care sector in particular would be in grave danger of collapsing. Instead what we get is the worst possible people exploiting the suffering of those fleeing conflict or hardship abroad and demonising the...

One is most bemused: hedging and the strange function of ‘one’

Written by Hugh Dellar on November 10, 2023. Posted in Lexis, Opinions. 2 Comments on One is most bemused: hedging and the strange function of ‘one’

The original idea for this blog post came one afternoon when my wife saw my response to an email we’d both received from the school our son goes to. His new form tutor had written to us saying how well he was settling in and suggesting that he was a credit to us and that he must’ve had a great upbringing. My response to this slightly over-the-top praise? ‘Many thanks for this. Very pleased to hear he’s finding his feet OK. Not sure we can take that much credit for the way he’s turned out, to be honest, but one does what one can.’ It was this last turn...

Everyday English drawn from Greek mythology

Written by Hugh Dellar on October 13, 2023. Posted in Chunks, Phrase of the day. 4 Comments on Everyday English drawn from Greek mythology

A while back, I wrote a blog post about words and expressions that come from literature, but have passed into everyday use. Today, inspired by a recent conversation with my daughter, who’s currently obsessed with Greek mythology, I wanted to dig a bit deeper into the way the ideas from old myths and stories become embedded in the language and understood even by those unfamiliar with their origins. One morning, I was having breakfast with my kids and the news was on the radio. My daughter heard the newsreader claim that ‘the NHS (the National Health Service) will be the government’s...