Throwback Post Three years ago I was living on the Gold Coast of Australia and reflecting on the differences between life in Canada and life there. Despite Canada and Australia sharing similarities, the differences in language were an area that I noticed the most. Using Australian sla

Teaching Idioms, Learning Slang Teaching idioms (a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., raining cats and dogs, see the light ) (from Google) is one of the more difficult lessons to teach in English language tea

Everyday Spanish Words with a Peruvian Twist Spanish is spoken a little differently in each country, as I explain here. I have lived in Mexico and Spain, and travelled to various countries throughout Central and South America. Now I live in Peru and I have noticed that Peruvians use c

Using Comics for Language Learning Reading comic strips can be a really fun way to practice a new language. As with illustrated books and graphic novels, the visual stimulus of the pictures can help learners to understand the story even if they do not recognize all of the vocabulary.

Cats, grammar, and the internet as language playground I love my cat. Every day, I tell him how happy his paws and his fur and his ears make me. As I type this, he is sitting on my lap and occasionally nudging the edge of the computer with his head. I’m not alone in my love of all thi

Fun and Frustration with the Spanish Language Like other global languages, there are many different varieties of Spanish spoken throughout the world. While the general structure of the language doesn’t change too much from one country to the next, the accents and especially the

Have we innovated a new conjunction? Does anyone care if my cousin comes and visits slash stays with us Friday night? I spent all day in the UgLi [library] yesterday writing my French paper slash posting pictures of cats on my sister’s Facebook wall. I went to class slash caught up on