Archive for the ‘Language learning’ Category
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
My student smiled and said, "Your odor is nice today." She did not know that the word odor has a very negative meaning, like food rotting in a garbage can. Here are some words that always mean a bad smell:
Odor: There's an odor inside the refrigerator. Maybe some food has ...
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Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
I have heard that when a Japanese worker is laid off from his job, he might throw himself in front of a train. Suicide is crazy. No sane person would kill himself. Just because the world is crazy, doesn't mean we have to be crazy, too.
The news in the media ...
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Monday, May 4th, 2009
Someone sent me an e-mail that Sheryl Crow, the singer, got breast cancer from drinking bottled water that had been left in a car. The heat inside the car, the e-mail said, caused dioxin to leach out of the plastic bottle into the water she drank. Dioxin is one of ...
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Sunday, April 19th, 2009
Around the year 1640 AD in France, René Descartes noticed that he was thinking. From this he concluded: "I think, therefore I am." Descartes was a mathematician and a very important philosopher in the West.
Even though we are not philosophers, we are often asked to define our ...
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Monday, December 8th, 2008
One of my students was covered with bedbug bites from staying overnight in a youth hostel. Even five-star hotels have bedbugs these days. Bedbugs do not eat your food or make holes in your clothes. They hide during the day and come out at night to bite you when you're ...
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Saturday, August 30th, 2008
We live in crowded NYC, so where do we go for space? I used to go a garden, until a park guard scolded me for stepping too close to a flower.
The search for space can be very frustrating here in the city. Then, one gloriously sunny afternoon, I turned a ...
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Friday, August 29th, 2008
If a child is good in school, his parents think their child is showing great promise and is destined for a brilliant career. But here we are speaking of the expectations, wishes, and dreams of the parents, not promises made by children. If the parents are later disappointed, this ...
Posted in English lesson conversation topics, Language learning, Online learning | 16 Comments »
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
If you have too much to do, make a To Do list.
If you don't make such list, you may rush around like a maniac trying to get everything done in one day. You may become irritated, angry, and even violent with your loved ones. In this way, making a To ...
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Saturday, June 28th, 2008
Let me tell you about insiders and outsiders in New York City. There are many communities and groups here, not one main group to join. So it would be difficult to say where the "inside" is.
New York City attracts many creative people, like actors, actresses, performers, artists, and ...
Posted in English lesson conversation topics, Language learning, Online learning | 1,342 Comments »