Archive for September, 2019
Talking about learning in English Posted by carol on Sep 30, 2019
Hi guys! What have you been up to? Learning a foreign language requires constant practice and study. Keeping in touch with the language in some way is essential for developing listening, speaking, writing and reading skills. Whatever method you use, from being enrolled in a class to self-study, communication in a foreign language only works…
English Words in the News Posted by Gary Locke on Sep 27, 2019
If you’ve been following the news coming out of the US lately, you’ve no doubt heard some terms which don’t mean what you might think they mean. This is typical of the English language. We have a talent for creating metaphors, colloquialisms, and idioms to convey meaning. Some of these have been in usage for…
Shenandoah: An American Ballad Posted by Gary Locke on Sep 19, 2019
I was recently listening to a favorite radio station which played a recording of the classic American folk song, Shenandoah. The station host confessed that he didn’t know the exact story behind the song, but he believed that it was from the time of fur traders in the American west in the 18th century. Well…
The US Interstate System Posted by Gary Locke on Sep 11, 2019
“Are we there yet?” The United States is vast. The distance to drive from Portland, Maine to San Francisco, California is about 2725 miles or nearly 4400 kilometers. While the US has many different highway systems, including state, county, territorial, and secondary roads, the country is linked by one massive grid of highways known as…