Tag Archives: languages

The Best Idea That I’ve Ever Copied

Posted on March 14, 2017 by Barb Knowles

The Best Idea That I’ve Ever Copied Non-Award goes to Gabe at (Almost) Unsalvageable. It isn’t an award, it’s me giving him credit where credit is due because I totally related to his post I am so sorry for myself, I no … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blogging, college, embarrassing situations, foreign language, google translate, Humor, languages, Monolingual, multilingual, Romance Languages, Spanish, TEACHING, world language | 29 Comments

Remembering Why I Love Teaching, Or Do I?

Posted on February 27, 2016 by Barb Knowles

This is a good day to reflect on why I love to teach. Especially because the last couple of weeks have sucked. Let me rephrase that…..my lessons haven’t worked. At all. So back to the drawing board. For all of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Education, grammar, high school, idiomatic expressions, languages, literature, reading, slang, students, teachers, TEACHING, thomas hardy | 36 Comments

BICS is okay, but CALP? Forget it.

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Barb Knowles

Wait, what? I uttered this in our office the other day and everyone laughed. To help you understand why this could remotely be funny while not putting you to sleep instantly, here’s a quick, so-don’t-stop-reading, crash course on learning a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged BICS and CALP, bilingual, culture, ecuador, ell, ENL, esl, high school, kichwa, language learning, languages, Spanish | 11 Comments

Ya Gotta Love American English

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Barb Knowles

I’m kinda goin’ out on a limb here, but I’d say all English-speaking countries have their regional dialects and idiomatic expressions that are peculiar to a certain part of the country. For anyone out there who has ever taught English … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged American, dialects, english, Humor, idiomatic expressions, languages, opinion, pronunciation, Segovia, spain | 60 Comments

What Does “Plus-Sized” Really Mean?

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Barb Knowles

According to Webster’s Dictionary, plus-size, or plus-sized, means extra large. But what does it really, really mean? What are the connotations? Plus-sized men can shop in a store for “Big and Tall” men. That must be cool for a guy. … Continue reading →

Posted in humor, Uncategorized | Tagged blogs, books, bookstores, classics, dreams, Humor, languages, library, lifestyle, mysteries, personal, publishing, romance, science and technology | 9 Comments