Learning to speak 'merican

Learning to speak ‘merican is like trying to: catch the rain, nail jello to the wall, shoot pool with a rope, fold the New York Times in a high wind, leave New Orleans when a hurricane is coming, change the course of the Niagara Falls with a bucket… However, one of the fun things about […]

Many thanks to Sabrina and Chris for their lovely observations of how we say goodbye. They have reminded me of something curious. We have an expression in British English which doesn’t seem to exist in ‘merican: ‘saying our goodbyes’ (plural). In ‘merican it would be ‘saying goodbye’ and of course we can say that in BrE […]

When I’m presented with two alternatives, ‘I don’t mind’ seems like a logical response to me. You: ‘Coffee or tea?’ Me: ‘I don’t mind’. It sounds amenable – indicates a pleasant, easy-going sort of attitude and says ‘I don’t want to impose my wishes on you. I’ll go with the flow’. An AmE equivalent could be ‘I don’t care’, […]

Ken Wilson – English Teaching Theatre, Mister Monday songs – has been sharing his story of how his career started. (If you haven’t read it yet, forget about this and get over there now). Ken has a delightful account of trainees screwing up in ‘teaching practice’ sessions and a great memory for details. By contrast, […]