Great American Cities – San Francisco Posted by sasha on Mar 19, 2015
After visiting a handful of east coast cities (Washington D.C., New York, Philadelphia, and Boston), our journey around the great cities of America moves out west to the Golden State – California. Today, we pay a visit to San Francisco. Name: The name San Francisco is Spanish for “Saint Francis.” This is because the city…
A look at some Irish English for St. Patrick’s Day Posted by Gabriele on Mar 17, 2015
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all and may the luck of the Irish be with you! Today, Saint Patrick’s Day, is a holiday celebrated in various ways around the world, such as with parades, wearing the color green, and drinking beer! As you may know the Saint Patrick’s Day holiday originates in the country of…
Ward off bad luck on Friday the 13th Posted by Gabriele on Mar 10, 2015
In the Western world, Friday the thirteenth, is considered an unlucky day. The reasons vary for why people think that a Friday that falls on the 13th day of the month is bad luck, but it is fair to say, that if you are superstitious, you will take extra care this Friday. So, let’s take…
English idioms about the human body Posted by Gabriele on Mar 3, 2015
Let’s look at some idioms in English that go from head to toe. Here is our first one! “From head to toe” is an idiom that means ‘from the top to the bottom’ or ‘the entirety of something.’ To have a little fun with this I want you to try and guess which body parts…
Walking the Freedom Trail in Boston Posted by sasha on Feb 26, 2015
Join us for a short video tour of the Freedom Trail in Boston – home to 16 historic sites and one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city. “In Boston, you can walk the 2.5 mile-long Freedom Trail across downtown and visit 16 historic sites. Start in Boston Common, the oldest city park…
The Redwoods: Old trees filled with wonder Posted by Gabriele on Feb 24, 2015
There are perhaps no trees more amazing than the redwood trees. There certainly are few trees older than the redwood trees, which makes them special, and definitely worth your time to read about today. In this post I am going to introduce you to these amazing trees and one place where they are being preserved…
Deconstructing the Grammar of the Present Perfect Using Classic Songs Posted by Transparent Language on Feb 23, 2015
As any student (or teacher) of English can verify, the present perfect tense can be a rather tricky and frustrating topic in English grammar. There are a couple reasons why this is the case. First, semantically, the present perfect tense overlaps significantly with the simple past and simple present tenses, and thus it’s easy to…