Do you know what a fen is? It’s “a low and marshy, or frequently flooded, area of land”. The ‘low’ bit is a shame, because I really need there to be a ‘high’ version. Not as part of some topographical experiment, but because I need a linguistic aid. I want to talk to you about hyphens. Not ‘low fens’ but ‘high fens’. Get it? Pronunciation…
When I settled in Germany at the beginning of 2017, I discovered that the Turkish, Italian and English languages allowed me to communicate with more or less everyone I met – in the kiosk, at the pizzeria or in town. But, after a few months, when it became clear that I would remain in North Rhine-Westphalia for some time, I decided to learn the German…
Every now and then an advertising campaign captures the public imagination and launches a catchphrase into the lexicon. ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’, ‘Just Do It’ and ‘Because I’m Worth It’ are just a few examples that are in regular use – even by those who have no idea that these were originally straplines from commercials by KFC, Nike and L’Oréal respectively. The most famous example of…
What mistakes do you usually make when learning a foreign language? I am a Cambridge certified English teacher. I have worked with many Czech students since I started my teaching career in 2000. In this blog post, I’d like to share some of my observations regarding the differences between Czech an English. I hope that my insights will help other teachers avoid possible lexical difficulties…
If you have ever travelled to the USA, you will probably be familiar with signs such as this. These are warnings to salesmen, hawkers or peddlers – anyone who might approach unannounced and try to sell something – to stay away. This is a constant source of amusement to anyone visiting from the UK because, over here, a Solicitor is an Attorney-at-Law. And when it…
What mistakes do you usually make when learning a foreign language? I am a Cambridge certified English teacher. Since 2000 I have worked with many Czech students. In this blog post, I’d like to share some of my observations regarding the differences between Czech and English. I hope that my insights will help other students avoid possible grammatical difficulties in their classroom. Grammatical relationships, gender,…
Are you a fellow fan of talk radio? If so, you are probably familiar with the concept outlined in the heading to this blog. You know thedrill. Someone comes on the airwaves and proclaims their ‘passion’ for a (usually particularly uninspiring) job or hobby. Wastedisposal management, maybe; or window cleaning; or collecting trafficcones. I drove past a tradesman’s van the other day which was emblazoned with the words…
When I was studying for my Master’s, I came across a definition of amanagement consultant as “Someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time. And then keeps the watch”. This tongue-in-cheek assessment may be a little harsh on an industrywhich conscientiously and consistently strives to improve businessefficiency, but it contains more than a kernel of truth – not least inrespect of a tendency to…
Why do we need to correct students? If we don’t correct student errors, they will continue to make them and this could become ingrained because they think they are right. This is known as a ‘fossilized error’. When do we correct students? If we correct every error during classroom time, it may take awaytime for what we have planned to achieve. The aim of the…
My grandmother was Czech. She always said that in the days of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy the Czechs adopted many German qualities. For example punctuality and the ability to farm economically. What they have not learned is how to keep things in order. The Czech Bohemian nature, she said, is easily attracted to new ideas, but also easily distracted. My mother was half Czech, half Russian. She combined the best…
Being an English lawyer living in Prague means being very busy at work. This also means having almost no time for oneself, let alone forlearning a foreign language. Howard is one of the students, however, whoshows us that even the impossible can be done! In short, where there’s a will there’s a way. We hit it off immediately when I started to teach him approximately ayear…
I have been teaching English for many years, but before that time I worked as an editor. I like both activities very much and do both as much as I can. I have always had a keen interest in English grammar and literature and I like to write stories and essays. In addition to these things, I enjoy researching things. I am always researching topics…
