A recent Vancouver Sun article, “Translating the language of texting“, seems to be written mostly for clueless parents who are trying to figure out all the acronym-filled text messages of their kids–note the big chunk of the list devoted to expressions like “POV” (parent over shoulder) and “KPC” (keeping parents clueless). And, while […]
more→March 2010

Leaving a TESOL conference several years ago with Tom Scovel, one of my esteemed professors from the M.A. TESOL program at San Francisco State University, I remember his words of advice: write down three things you learned from this conference, and connect them with concrete steps that you intend to take in your […]
more→Interesting piece on blogging in the New York Review of Books, entitled “Blogging, Now and Then“:
Whether exchanged orally in a café, scribbled on a scrap of paper, or combined as paragraphs in a newssheet, anecdotes operated as the primary unit in a system of communication. Many of them found their way […]
more→Written in Egypt in 2005.
Sous tes cheveux blancs
Avec toi, mon père !
Je me sens feuilleter une encyclopédie
Qui m’apprend tout sur la vie :
Les arts, les sciences et l’amour infini
En traversant tes cheveux blancs
Je découvre des expériences qui valent des millions
Des expériences acquises au fil des ans
Et au moment de […]

I was browsing the Huffington Post this morning, when the following story caught my eye on the home page: The Funniest Newspaper Corrections: Retracting The Ridiculous (PICTURES). One of the graphics is the following:
I couldn’t see what was so funny about it, so I clicked on the “Source” link, a site called more→
At last Friday’s FIT afternoon get-together, as usual, the conversation careened between topics serious and inane, from the origins of the dirty joke (with plenty of examples) to a quick primer on the term “hermeneutics”. But, like Mike said, there are few places even in Berkeley where one can sit down with a group of […]
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While working as a Macedonian language teacher with foreigners, I noticed peculiarities that are common for the English speaking students who have no or only little second language acquisition experience. Their name is Mr. Experts* and they come to Macedonia as experts in politics, economy, law, war, peace, and other serious matters. They all have […]
more→There’s an important word that katiebernie starts off with (albeit somewhat facetiously) in the post right before/above this one, and one that I’ve written facetiously myself to spam on one occasion, and in Japanese to my former instructor on another…but one that somehow escaped my mind and mouth when […]
more→For kicks, I just searched Google News for the term “dialect,” and found this letter to the Editor in the The Barbados Advocate. I am reproducing it in full, italics mine:
Classroom not the place for dialect
3/3/2010
I was somewhat dismayed to read the report of the address given by a University professor on the subject […]
more→In a recent radio segment, Rush Limbaugh made the following comment:
“Obama can turn on that black dialect when he wants to and turn it off.”
This particular comment is provoked by Obama’s pronunciation of the word “ask” during the President’s talk with state governors. Hendrik […]
more→Looking for inspiration on a Monday morning? Check out Words Without Borders’ March issue, on international poetry!
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