How to Play Football Posted by Gabriele on Feb 3, 2012
With the Super Bowl (America’s national football championship) coming up this weekend I thought it would be a good idea to go over the rules of this game. The first thing I need to make clear is that when I say “football” I am not talking about soccer. Many people around the world refer to…
Knowledge is Light Idioms Posted by Gabriele on Feb 2, 2012
Idioms are expressions or phrases that have figurative* meaning that is different from the literal** meaning of the words that make up the expression or phrase. Generally idioms require some foundational information or experience within a culture to understand their meaning. Most of the time idioms are so culturally dependent that the same idioms do…
Young Ones Posted by heather on Feb 1, 2012
With all this cold and snowy weather that many places are having, it might seem like a strange time to be thinking about babies. Usually spring is the season for that. But just this weekend one of my friends had a new baby, so I thought it might be the perfect time to review the…
What is in a name? Posted by Gabriele on Jan 31, 2012
Yesterday I wrote a blog post about “the average Joe” and in that post I mentioned* how often the name ‘Joe’ is used in America to refer to an average or normal person or sometimes it is used to generically to refer to a person whose name you don’t know. I also mentioned that Joe…
An Average Joe Posted by Gabriele on Jan 30, 2012
“Average Joe” is an expression used in English to describe an average, typical, or normal American male. The expression “Average Jane” is sometimes used to describe the hypothetically average or normal American woman. We have other terms used to describe someone as average, normal, and like everybody else as well, for example: “Ordinary Joe”, “Joe…
Air Travel in the United States Posted by Gabriele on Jan 29, 2012
I recently left for a trip overseas, which means I spent some time in a few airports this past week. This of course had me thinking about airplane travel and how much of a hassle* this can be at times. Here is some good information to know about flying out of airports in the United…
Improve Your Writing by Not Using “And” Too Much Posted by heather on Jan 28, 2012
Many people want to improve their English writing. There are many things you can try to achieve this but one of the easiest tips is not to use the word “and” too much. When you use “and” a lot, your writing starts to become a bit boring. Instead try using some different words. For example…