Pop quiz:
You’re an ESL teacher at an accredited English language school in Boston’s posh Back Bay.
Where do you take your students for the final field trip of Session 8?
Obvious Answer:
First to bowling, then to a hot dog-eating contest, of course!
I’ve written a photo essay about Laos, but what follows is far classier: a photo essay documenting a hot dog-eating challenge!
To be frank (haha!) I think you’ll dig the tale’s shocking [...Read More!]
Today is my ONE YEAR anniversary of taking that first flight out of Boston into the 9-month journey that would ultimately span Japan, Southeast Asia, Ghana, Iberia… and a whole heck of a lot of learning and fun!
How to celebrate? By sharing with you my absolute FAVORITE building in Boston. I am panting a little as I write this, I love this structure so much. Please honor my love and read [...Read More!]
Article #10 in the ESL Student Life Story Project, by Faisal from Saudi Arabia, age 28
In July of 2009, I met President Obama.
The meeting was simple and very fast.
I simply introduced myself and asked Obama, “Could I sit in your chair in the Oval Office of the White House?”
Obama shook his head in humor, and, smiling, said, “OK!”
And then I was sitting in the chair of the President of the strongest [...Read More!]
I shall be brief, to-the-point, and righteously indignant. Here are the facts.
During the TBEX World Travel Blogger Conference last month, I was Vuvuzela-ed in the face. This is to say, I was brutally accosted by a Vuvuzela-wielding top travel blogger (pictured below). The experience was very loud. I still somewhat hear the (South African?) sea in one ear from the instrumental trauma.
That is fact one.
Fact two: This evening I was innocently attending a [...Read More!]
Article #1 in the ESL Student Life Stories Project, by Cho from Korea, age 30.
I seemed to fly to the sky and the moment was the best day in my life! All around me were fans in red tee-shirts, and the green field was so beautiful. I was actually in Fenway Park watching the Boston Red Sox play the New York Yankees!
But shockingly, this magic moment was cut short [...Read More!]
In Latin America, the word often used to mean “cool, man!” is: “chevere!” But Latin American Spanish ain’t Spain-y Spanish, baby. Therefore, you have to do your research before you bandy about your old slang in a new country.
Here’s what happened when I asked my lovely host family in Barcelona to explain the Spain-y Spanish version of “cool, man!”
“Do you know what means ‘chulo’?” asked Anna.
“No, please explain,” I said.
“It [...Read More!]
Look carefully at the icons illustrating the sign to the left, snapped on a rather chilly beach in Spain’s Barcelona.
Now ponder: How did the conversation go between the sign’s designers? Let us imagine.
“Hey, Julio, how do you figure we should represent the concept ‘Don’t party here all night?’ on this new sign we have to make?”
“I don’t know, Jorge, maybe some empty alcohol bottles and a stick figure vomiting?”
“That’s gross, [...Read More!]
An unexpected joy of touring Portugal: the forests and parks are stunning! Just how stunning are they? They are so magical that the official informational plaque outside Sintra’s Quinta da Regaleira gardens reads like something out of a torrid romance novel.
So slip on your velvet smoking jacket, light a toasty fire and your favorite old fashioned pipe, and let’s take a nice, long read of the actual text [...Read More!]
You liked Part One of Ghanaian Vocabulary Fun so much that you demanded a second installment. So without further ado, here is…
Entertaining and Surprising Ghanaian Phrases, Part Two!
1.) “I was running.” – This does not mean that the person was going for a healthy sprint to stay in shape. No– it means they had raging diarrhea!
Ex:“Sorry I couldn’t come to class… I was running and didn’t want to leave the washroom.” [...Read More!]
“We would like to present you with a gift,” said Madam Yvonne breathlessly over the phone, “to say thank you for teaching in our school these past three months! Please stop by our school anytime today.”
“Sounds great!” I said. So after our banku with palmnut soup lunch, and after hacking open coconuts with a machete to drink the water and scoop out the meat for dessert, Oliver and I [...Read More!]