Search from various English teachers...
Posts
Picking your nose during the holiday season
"To pick" can mean several things: to choose, to scratch with your fingernail (to pick at a pimple), and from there, to pick your nose (using your fingers to remove the contents of the nose - hmmm!). Here is a joke where the expression "to pick" is played with (clean ((nose)) and choose.....
Imagine Frosty, the snowman, standing beside the vegetables in the supermarket. On his face are several stones representing his eyes and his mouth. He leans over the carrots, and the title of this cartoon is "Frosty, picking his nose in the supermarket!"
While we are on the subject, snot is the contents of the nose. Here, the joke starts with a question and ends with the answer. The question: What is the difference between snot and broccoli?
The answer: Kids don't eat broccoli!
0
2
Watch out for apple pickers during the holidays!
Now, you might ask, who in London would see people picking fruit off a tree during the Christmas season? Can't be that common, and why the warning to all the distracted shoppers? Well, 'apple picking' is the act of stealing a mobile from someone's hand (usually by someone on a bike, travelling quickly), usually when they are not paying much attention. So, although it is a warning, there is a joke in there too. You 'get it', right? - the play is on the word 'apple'. I love it - obviously not the act, but the modern expression!
2
2
Oh, ho, the mistletoe....
You are celebrating with some workmates. And you have Christmas music on. The song "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" comes on, and just after the line "Oh, ho, the mistletoe, hung where you can see.." two happy revellers (revelers) chirp in loudly, "Well hung!". Unfortunately, English is not your first language, so something is missing. Can you figure out why they find this funny?
1
0
typing Mandarin
I am learning a little Mandarin with Duolingo. I seem to be remembering the characters, but I would like to be able to type them. I suspect you need to type the words in pinyin first for the computer. However, the pinyin words (I have to say) are often not like the real sounds. Also, I seem to go straight from the signs to the sounds in my brain without memorising the pinyin forms. I tried to make my computer type in Mandarin last year, but in the end I messed up the computer so that everything that I typed came out in Mandarin (even trying to type English), and I had to pay to get someone to fix it. Hence I am a bit reticent to try again! But I would like to do it. I am a person who learns languages through the writing (I know, but that is me). For instance, now I can read most French books without a dictionary. My Russian is terrible, but typing it is so easy. I'm hoping that there is a trick for Mandarin. Can you help me?
9
0
This content violates our Community Guidelines.December 12, 2018
2
1
Si je disais..
Par exemple, en racontant une histoire qui s'est passée dans le passé:
"Mais, il fallait que vous attendissiez." lesquelles seraient les pensées des autres en France, en entendant cette phrase?
4
1
¡Socorro!
Quiero escribir una carta a mi sobrino. Él aprende espagnol. ¿Puede corregir mi carta?
¡Hola, Isaac! ¿Como estas, hoy? Gracias por tu carta. Sé que disfrutarás Costa Rica. Estamos aún en Cayo Hueso en Florida con gallinas en la calle y iguanas en el jardin. Tu tendrás decir a mi todos los animales que verás en Costa Rica.
Hasta pronto,
Tio David
5
1
Another personal privilege that I have taken for granted
I have lived in a few countries in the world, and, apart from the bureaucratic mess involved in each transfer, I have got the entry into whatever country I chose.
Couple this with the fact that I work with people from the Philippines, Palestine, Poland, El Salvador, Ukraine, Pakistan, South Africa, Australia etc., and naively I have thought that a global village is not far off. Maybe somewhere between the moon and Mars!
From discussions read this morning I see that I have had an advantage that is not that common.
It's fun living in different countries. Actually, it's fun talking to people from different countries on italki too!
Thanks, everyone!
2
5
Быстро вопрос
С "давайте за.........."
Давайте за пять рублей это хорошо?
Мой вопрос который падеж "пять"?
Спасибо!
13
0
в прошлом году
Добрый день
Could someone help me here. I'm having difficulty with this phrase. Прошлое is a neuter noun. I was going to ask why it was being declined as an adjective, but now I see on one site that it just is. So now I understand that bit. OK, but I still am having problems with the году. I think I read something about that being the partitive case. Nooo! I just learned the locative case (as in в лесу), which was a bit odd for me, faced with all the other cases. Now I'm wondering what the partitive case is! So what is this partitive case?! :)
5
0
Show more
