After fighting another round of the Chinese New Year crowds/shoppers at Home Plus and not too keen on walking the two miles (give or take a couple hundred yards or so) back to my room in the freezing cold, I decide to grab a taxi outside Home Plus. “Jik-jin (go straight) chuseyo (please),” I tell [...]
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Go Dutch? Why not Go Greek or Go Italian?
English language learners, at least many of the students I have taught in Korea since I came here in 1990 are always looking for “English expressions/idioms” to spice up their language skills and “go native” as it were with colorful expressions. To be sure, whenever I have the chance I use these expressions in class [...]
Who’s the President of Chicago?
Kids say the darndest things—even when learning a foreign language It’s another sweltering and sticky summer in Korea and I am doing my best to stay dry and cool. Fortunately my teaching schedule has been a light one so I don’t have to be out in the heat and humidity too much. [...]
The Race is On (with apologies to George Jones)
It’s 10:45am and I’ve got my class of ten beginning language learners doing a speaking activity in pairs. It’s a dialogue between two people asking what they like to do in their free time; the students, once they’ve read through the dialogue are supposed to substitute various “free time” activities like “listening to music” “reading [...]
“November Rain” in April
This might not be what you expected (though it was raining here the other day) but there is a Guns N’ Roses connection. Trust me. Yesterday in one of my classes I was teaching the reduction of “and” in expressions like “cream and sugar”—“cream ‘n’ sugar” and “bread and butter” – “bread ‘n’ butter” from [...]
Top Ten Twisted Puns
1. Two vultures board an airplane, each carrying two dead raccoons. The flight attendant looks at them and says, “I’m sorry gentlemen, only one carrion allowed per passenger.” 2. Two boll weevils grew up in South Carolina. One went to Hollywood and became a famous actor. The other stayed behind in the cotton fields and [...]
“Hello, hello. How much?”
The last time I was in Vientiane, On and I saw this man selling hammocks around Nam Phou Place. He was pushing a bike piled with these hammocks—no doubt handmade—and as soon as he saw a foreigner, he would try to sell one of these hammocks. Except, when he made his pitch, it just needed [...]
Hey you guys, it’s “hump day”
Some things just don’t translate well at first. Take for example the expression “hump day,” which is sometimes used when greeting people—such as in “have a happy hump day’—on Wednesdays back in the States (or anywhere else people have a five-day work week). A few years ago that expression would be hard to explain to a [...]
How’s it going?
Today India made my day.No, not the country but one of my sophomore Beauty Design students nicknamed “India.” She’s one of 25 female students in my Monday/Wednesday sophomore English class. It’s been a bit of a challenge teaching English in a class which meets right after most of the students have studied Japanese for ninety [...]
What’s in a name?
It seems that the latest English craze in Korea is adopting English names for working in international companies as well as the services sectors like restaurants. What’s even more astounding is that there is even a Korean website, which helps people choose a proper English name. Gee, I hope they are not charging people for [...]
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