In a 1994 interview in the Paris Review, Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe offered some great advice about having faith in your process as a writer based on his own experiences as an undergraduate. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
On our Facebook group, a member told the story of teaching English in Japan, where a student couldn’t remember the slang expression stud muffin, but came pretty close by substituting his own term, hunk waffle. This is part of a complete episode...
Howdy! Ever hear questions that are really veiled criticism, or apologies that are actually excuses? That, and more, in our latest episode: language for resolving personal conflict, in like Flynn, gradoo, Irish pennants, champing, and a silly rule...
Why do so many people begin their sentences with the word so? This sentence-initial so (as it’s known) can play lots of roles. We’ve talked about it before, too. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “So at the Beginning of Sentences”...
A woman whose mother is a native Spanish speaker learning English was bothered when her daughter used the phrase “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” taking offense at the idea that her daughter was calling her a dog. She might instead have used...
It’s hard enough to get a new word into the dictionary. But what happens when lawmakers get involved? New Jersey legislators passed a resolution as part of an anti-bullying campaign urging dictionary companies to adopt the word upstander. It means...