June 16th is Bloomsday, a day of celebration of the works and life of James Joyce, the great Irish writer. The novel Ulysses takes place on one day, June 16th, in Dublin, and the hero is named Leopold Bloom hence the name Bloomsday.
There is an annual Bloomsday run in Dublin and a bike rally, as well as more serious events like lectures and seminars about his works, or readings from Ulysses. On the day itself, you can wake up and have Leopold Bloom’s breakfast–the same as he had in the …Continue

College Intention lets you know what Americans go through to get into university. It’s the blog of a high-school student on his journey to get into college. And it’s a good resource for how the college admissions process works, what colleges look for, tips on getting in, and reassurance that someone else is going through the same things you are.
I especially liked the post, Dear college: Please Send Sleeping Pills In Your Guidebooks, Thanks on psychiatric counseling for families to deal with the stress of university admissions. I cannot …Continue

This is a list of some expressions that befuddled my students in recent classes. All of them are tied together by the fact that they are idiomatic and that they are all humorous, or have a degree of sarcasm or irony attached to them.
Note that most of these phrases are slightly informal. You might use them with colleagues or friends, or in an informal meeting but not in a formal setting.
Ass-backwards means to do something in the wrong order, to do the logical first step second as in:“They’re spending money …Continue

Another post in my series on American holidays, which started (late) with Valentine’s Day.This time I’m looking at the upcoming Saint Patrick’s Day, which is almost always held on March 17th. This year though, it has been moved to March 15th (because the 17th is part of Holy Week–the build up to Easter). That may or may not influence the secular authorities–probably it will since the 15th is a Saturday!
As you may have realized, originally St. Patrick’s Day was purely a religious holiday celebrating Saint Patrick who converted Ireland to …Continue

Another great post from Rate Your Students on how not to write to your professors, or why good English is important for foreign students and for Americans alike:
hi mrs. thomas, i know this is irresponsible but wud it be okay if u gave me the add code number. the one that i signed up for at the end of the class
Read more to see the professor’s response.

Every now and then, I want to post about some of the most common mistakes I hear by English learners. Which probably means these are some of the hardest things about learning English.
I thought I would start with a mistake that is a bit subtle but very important. The other day, I went to the office and my boss asked me,“Haven’t you seen Aizhan?” I said, “No,” a bit annoyed She asked, “Don’t you know when Aizhan is coming today?”I said, “No,” this time very upset.I couldn’t believe her …Continue

After the last post, I got a burst of nostalgia for Arlo Gutherie, so I googled a place where you can download the song Alice’s Restaurant for free.*
It’s an American classic for Thanksgiving, especially among long-hair liberal hippe types and probably the only Thanksgiving Day song we have. Can you think of any others? Alice’s Restaurant is a story-song and I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s really funny and very clever. And some radio stations make a point of playing it on Thanksgiving, so you might check that …Continue

If you read a lot of professor blogs–and check my blogroll in the next couple of days since I am working to add my favorite prof blogs to it–you will see a level of frustration at the student-as-consumer model which is being adopted by many universities. In this model, students (or their parents) pay money to a university which is a service-provider. Customer satisfaction is therefore the most important goal. Why do professors resist this? Or in some cases rage against it? Because customer satisfaction seems to imply in the …Continue

I recently came across an article in ETS’ TOEFL Access Newsletter, featuring a typical schedule in the day of the life of an American undergraduate university student entitled Everyday Life. It certainly was one take on American university life and may give you some idea of the rhythm of universities here. However for a counterpoint, I thought I would present my typical day at school and I would love to hear from you gentle readers. What is your typical day at school like? It would be great to hear from …Continue

Although I assumed this blog would be read mainly by students from Kazakhstan and the former Soviet republics, in fact my biggest readers are from the US, Malaysia and India (in that order). So it might be interesting for you guys to read about life around these here parts. It’s definitely an interesting part of the world: former USSR, nomadic history, culturally Muslim but not religious. If you want to see what this country looks like through the eyes of a genius Brit living here in Astana, check out Kazakhstan …Continue

Will Black People Bother Me?
This was asked me by a worried student before she went off to study in the US. Obviously she had seen a few too many action movies or rap videos on MTV. While race relations in the US are a very touchy subject, they are also an important one, and something that international students often have misconceptions about. This article is entirely my own opinion and on a subject so controversial you will find hundreds of other opinions. If you get anything out of this, I …Continue

A good portion of the questions I get from students are about how to act in the US, how people greet each other and interact. Often such conversations start with misconceptions–Do Americans really do that??? and I thought it would be useful to sketch out some basic manners and customs in the US. I’d love to hear your stories, corrections and questions in the comments section.

Greeting People: Americans usually shake hands when they first meet someone. It is common to give your name and offer your right hand when you …Continue

It is a common belief in many parts of the world that there is one true, correct and pure English and that that is British English. It is not uncommon in Kazakhstan to refer to American English as ‘American language’ “Ты говоришь по американский, да? (You speak Americanese, right?)” one person asked me. Further it is assumed that because Britain is the home of the English language, that British English must be true and proper English. This belief may come from the days when the Russian language was imposed on …Continue