English language | English language
Jan.15.2013
Really is a word we really use really a lot. Really. In fact, every few sentences, really. I am not really sure why. Now, really! There is no need to get uppity about this. It's really just a case of trying to understand the reason for the popularity of this...
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Jan.05.2013
I arrived at the border between India and Pakistan on a sweltering May day in 1977. I had spent the past year traveling through Europe and the Middle East, had wintered in Jordan and made my way across Iran by train. After a month hitchhiking through Afghanistan, I was finally arriving in...
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Nov.12.2012
We all have pet peeves and I can personally attest to having many. Fingernail biting, loud chewing, public nose blowing, bad manners—the list is long. However, preeminent among these are people who are slowly and haphazardly destroying the English Language. Their strategy is born...
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Apr.26.2012
English is a democratic language. Vox populi, vox linguae. As soon as 51% of people say something in a particular way, then it becomes correct.
Incorrect English usage. Now there is a minefield. Do not even venture there. "Incorrect" implies that there is...
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Mar.11.2012
Ambrose Bierce last produced a version of his masterwork, “The Devil’s Dictionary,” a century ago. That compendium of satirical, cynical, and ridiculous definitions exposed the harsh, hidden truths behind the commonplace, genteel...
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Mar.24.2011
In the two posts, World Crises And The Fiction Writer ~ Can They Help Humanity? and Two Post Mashup + A Video ~ Writers’ Responsibilities, various ideas of the writer’s responsibilities to society were explored.
One of the comments, from a man who has taught English for over 40 years, was...
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Mar.20.2011
Reprinted from: http://nfaa.wordpress.com/
Very pleased to have Shalon with us today :-) Let’s get this interview moving…
Shalon, where are you from and how old are you?
I am from Canada and I am 33–the magic age where you begin to question “WHAT am I doing with my life?” and more importantly...
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Feb.05.2011
The last post in this blog generated more comments than any yet in its short life.
One of them was so unique and so valuable that I’m taking the liberty of freeing it from its public presence in the comments to give it prominence in a more public presence in this post. {alliteration, anyone?}...
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Oct.29.2010
"No, Tinchy Stryder's argot is carefully acquired from a mixture of West Indian dialects and the black gangsta slang of the United States."
It ain't what you say. . . As the Untouchables of India plan to open a temple to honour the English language, Christopher Howse looks at how its...
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Jun.09.2010
THE IMMEDIATE VERBS
This morning, pulling into the school’s parking lot, I caught the tail-end of the news round up. I always have the radio on, even though the speakers are broken and I can only hear it during that brief space of time between shutting off the engine and taking the key out of...
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