📗 Welcome to Part 2 of our Lesson in which we look at difficult areas for many Russian students of English in particular. You may find it helpful to check 👉 Part 1 first to understand why we chose Henry James’ excellent novel, The Portrait of a Lady (1881), for this Lesson, as well as […]
Lesson #268 (Part 2): Mistakes Russian speakers tend to make in English Read More »
This month I am writing a series of Lesson posts covering the most common mistakes that students make. Today I am focusing on confusing English issues for native Russian speakers and hope very much it will help anyone who struggles with these areas. As I mentioned in my previous Lesson, there is no need to
Lesson #268 (Part 1): Mistakes Russian speakers tend to make in English Read More »
This is the second part of our Lesson, in which we look at some challenging points for French students studying English with the help of British author Frances Burney’s writings. 👉 If you haven’t read Part 1, please do read it first – everything will make more sense once you do! … 📝 #12 THE
Lesson #267 (Part 2): Common Issues French Speakers Struggle With In English Read More »
As someone who has been studying French for years and still make mistakes, I have become more aware of the kinds of pitfalls that native French speakers often experience while studying English. You might say I have a kind of ‘sympathy’ for their mistakes since those are often areas that native English speakers like me
Lesson #267 (Part 1): Common Issues French Speakers Struggle With In English Read More »
Whenever you learn a new language, there are always words that you find challenging in themselves but also difficult to translate into your own language (or vice versa). I searched recently for some such words in English, and then realised that one of the very first works of English literature that I ever read as
Lesson #266: Some English Words That Are Difficult To Translate In Other Languages Read More »
It has been a while since we turned to Charles Dickens for educational inspiration! On the other hand, I have just finished reading the last chapters of my favourite Dickens’ book, Little Dorrit (1857), and am paying tribute to it (acknowledging it respectfully) in today’s Lesson on homophones. You might be asking: what are homophones?
Lesson #265: ‘from Eton pears to Parliamentary pairs’: 10 English Homophones Read More »
Every now and then, English language students mention how they are confused by the difference between ‘such as’ and ‘as such’. Are they the same? 🤔 No. As I was reading through Charlotte Bronte’s psychologically deep novel, Villette, I realised some of its lines could help illustrate the difference between these two expressions. 📘 Villette
In this second part of our Lesson on vocabulary relating to textiles, we will continue with four more words that specifically describe richer types of material. They are not the kind of fabric that you would wear every day, but there is a chance that at some point in your life you will wear a
This wonderful novel by Elizabeth Gaskell is set in mid-19th century (c. 1850s) England, where the main character, a strong-minded girl called Margaret Hale, is forced together with her family to leave their lovely home in the sunny south of England and move to a smoky, industrial town further north (‘Milton’ – a fictional name
This Lesson’s feature image: George Herbert at Bemerton, Salisbury (1860), by painter William Dyce (1806-1864). Photo Credit: City of London Corporation (ArtUK.org) 📆 It is one year to the day – October 1st 2020 – since I started posting short Lessons on how to ‘learn English through literature’! A lot has changed since then, with
📜 ‘Home-Thoughts, From the Sea’ (1845) Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the North-West died away;Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay;Bluish ‘mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay;In the dimmest North-East distance, dawned Gibraltar grand and gray;“Here and here did England help me: how can I help England?”—say,Whoso turns as
📜’How to write a Letter’ Maria intended a letter to write,But could not begin (as she thought) to indite;So went to her mother with pencil and slate,Containing ‘Dear Sister’, and also a date. ‘With nothing to say, my dear girl, do not thinkOf wasting your time over paper and ink;But certainly this is an excellent
Lesson #260: Effective advice on ‘How to Write a Letter’, by Elizabeth Turner Read More »