Archive for the ‘Online learning’ Category
Friday, July 9th, 2010
Instead of using pesticides to kill bedbugs, use heat. As Dr. David Williams wrote in his popular health newsletter Alternatives:
It takes only 113 degrees F to kill them, once it's determined that bed bugs are present. Researchers simply built a foam box around the furniture to be treated, using the ...
Posted in English lesson conversation topics, Language learning, Online learning | Comments Off
Friday, June 18th, 2010
When your boss calls you an idiot, he triggers your animal brain. You will react as if he had put a gun to your head. Brain-wise, social threats are as powerful as physical threats. You will go limbic. The limbic system is the part of the brain related to our ...
Posted in English lesson conversation topics, Language learning, Online learning | Comments Off
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
A sign said that Queen Anne gave some land in my neighborhood to a church in 1705. How was this land hers to give away? In 1705, Queen Anne lived 3,000 miles away in England, across the Atlantic Ocean.
The answer is that Dutch traders had purchased Manhattan Island from Native ...
Posted in English lesson conversation topics, Language learning, Online learning | Comments Off
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Say this whenever you do not understand English: ‘Please repeat that, using different words.’ Say using different words so they will not repeat the same sentence you did not understand.
The six usual reasons you cannot understand English are:
(1) English is always changing. In everyday life we use idiomatic expressions most ...
Posted in English lesson conversation topics, Language learning, Online learning | Comments Off
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
Hatred. We can hate places, foods -- just about anything.
Example: I hate the color called lime green. I don't care if it's the fashion color this year. I can't stand it and I won't wear it.
Hostility, rage, fury, resentment, indignation, anger, a fit of temper, a quick temper, angry:
...
Posted in English lesson conversation topics, Language learning, Online learning | Comments Off
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Electrons sometimes communicate with each other instantly even if they are billions of miles apart. It doesn't matter whether they are 10 inches or 10 billion miles apart. This was discovered in 1982 at the University of Paris by a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect. He discovered that ...
Posted in English lesson conversation topics, Language learning, Online learning | Comments Off
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
I notice that the sea level is rising. I notice wars and poverty. I notice that I need a haircut. Having good looking hair is a social necessity. It's like having pleasant manners and knowing when to say "Thank you." And when I'm having a bad hair day, that means ...
Posted in English lesson conversation topics, Language learning, Online learning | Comments Off
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
His name was Angelo. Angelo used to climb the stairs backwards on his buttocks to get to his apartment after work, because he was in pain and there's no elevator in this building. He worked for the bakery downstairs. Angelo was born in this building. His mother had been an ...
Posted in English lesson conversation topics, Language learning, Online learning | Comments Off
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
People talk about the danger of the spread of contagious diseases. What about the spread of contagious desires?
When I feel bad because you have something I don't have, that's called envy. Envy keeps the juices of modern commerce flowing.
When my co-worker has just bought a condo, while I'm still living ...
Posted in English lesson conversation topics, Language learning, Online learning | Comments Off
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 ...
Posted in English lesson conversation topics, Language learning, Online learning | Comments Off