While traveling in England, Chris in Hollywood, Florida, picked up a favorite word from his British friends: faff. The expression faffing about means “procrastinating, idling, dawdling” or “acting ineffectually.” Ultimately...
How do you transform ancient Chinese script for use in the modern age? English uses a keyboard with just 26 letters, but the first Chinese typewriter looked like a small table under a huge disk with more than 4,000 characters. A new book chronicles...
In Japanese, sakura means “cherry blossom.” When the spring wind blows through the blooming trees, you have a sakura-fubuki ζ‘εΉιͺ or “cherry blossom snowstorm.” This is part of a complete episode.
High school students in Alabama share some favorite slang terms. If someone tells you to touch grass, they’re telling you to get a reality check β but the last thing you’d actually want to touch is dog water! Also, the history of the...
A custard wind may sound delicious, but it’s actually a type of cold easterly wind along the northeast coast of England. This expression is likely an adaptation of coastward wind. This is part of a complete episode.
What happens in a classroom of refugee and immigrant youngsters learning English? Their fresh approach to language can result in remarkable poetry β some of which is collected in the anthology England: Poems from a School. Also, new language among...