Yesterday, this phrase came up in conversation and my coworker remarked, “Wait, why is below par a bad thing?” In golf, you win with a low score, so you want to be below par. But, what is par? In golf it is the expected score. But the meaning has changed over time. The golfing definition … Read More
The Story Sometimes I talk to much and sometimes I don’t say the right thing. I think that is something a lot of people can relate to. In English, we call this putting your foot in your mouth. In today’s story you will learn how I dropped the ball while talking to our new director. … Read More
I’m a unicorn. On Saturday, I received my second dose of the covid vaccine (Moderna). I was a little ill on Saturday night with chills and a short fever. On Sunday I was okay, but a little tired and light-headed. By Monday, I had developed a covid arm. Have you heard about covid arms? It … Read More
While marking essays this week, I found myself suggesting that the writer take out certain words to make their sentence structure. This is an example of less is more. In particular, I suggested removing unnecessary intensifiers and redundant words. The most common intensifier is ‘very’. It is a useful word, but it is overused. A … Read More
I am always happy to see a new supply of laminating paper come into our office. I use it fairly regularly, but it always seems to be used up. For a while, I was the only one ordering it, but Danny recently bought a lot. Laminating paper is the plastic layer you can put on … Read More
Belteshazzar Recently, my friend, David, sent me a message about writing on the wall. He had recently seen an article on Rembrandt’s Belshazzar’s Feast (1635 – 1638). It reminded him of a biblical story from his youth. The story is about the writing on the wall. The story starts with King Belshazzar having a great … Read More
Things change quickly in Korea. Businesses are constantly changing, especially cafes and convenience stores. I remember one day when I lived in Pyeongtaek. I passed by two convince stores on my walk to work. One of them was on my block. When I went to work, it was one convenience store chain and when I … Read More
This past week, I got the short end of the stick at work again. I had to correct essays for an online program. There were 20 essays and it takes me about an hour to give feedback on each one. I like to give thorough feedback to help the writers learn rather than just give … Read More
My first co-teacher used to give another teacher a ride to work sometimes but she would always sit in the back seat. It was a strange thing to me. A person of higher social status should sit in the rear passenger seat. The second most important person sits in the seat behind the driver. Finally, … Read More
This is one of those funny things about language. The way that a word is used is not always the way you think. This morning, the director of my institute came in to our office to greet us. We mentioned that we will be putting up Halloween decorations this morning and she responded, “I’m expecting.” … Read More
