Some people have a natural knack for learning languages, but for others learning a new language can be a daunting task. The best way to learn a new language varies depending on your particular learning style. Students are typically taught…
Topic: Learning English (28 articles)
The Pleasure of Reading in a Foreign Language
Apart from English fluency practice, the area most students want to concentrate on when they are with me on an intensive course is improving and expanding their English vocabulary. The activities we normally do together vary from collocations, idiomatic expressions,…
10 Fun Facts About The English Alphabet
Today we’d like to share with you 10 fun facts about the English alphabet to impress your friends, teachers and colleagues. Ready? Let’s go! 1.The English word alphabet comes (via Latin) from the names of the first two letters of the…
American Culture: The Imperfect Hero
Movie Logic In American television and film culture, or put another way, movie logic, we encounter, with overwhelming frequency, the flawed, imperfect action hero. The flaws in this hero are usually obvious. They are easy to see, and easy to…
English: Precedented vs. Unprecedented
With Precedent? Without Precedent? “Precedent” A precedent is an action that is used as a later example, or standard, by which future actions may be judged. Therefore, the precedent precedes (comes before, comes prior to) the action the precedent is…
Famous Quotes and Where They Come From
History Influencing Modern Culture I want this to be the first article of several detailing the role that history plays in modern culture through the handing down of famous quotations. In this case, we will begin with “I have not…
American Culture: The American Civil War
Still Impacting American Culture Today It’s probably very difficult for non-Americans to appreciate how the American Civil War still has a great impact on American culture. I might even call this a defining impact that helps define Americans’ identity of…
On Friendship, Benevolence… And Strategy
A More Modern Version Instead of quoting Sun Tzu or Nietzsche, let me start with a version actually coined by my own father, one Eric Bourque: You should make your friends not want to be your enemies, and you should…
Pride vs. Narcissism
I suddenly had a flash of inspiration and felt compelled to write – well, blog – about the issue of pride vs. narcissism. Both seem similar, yet they are different in a way that I find to be critically important. Individual Pride & Narcissism…
Conversation Is Not An Act Of War
Click for Audio Version Let’s get this out of the way: the following is strictly my personal opinion as Jeremiah Bourque. In a conversation, anything that is not a fact is, by extension, the opinion of the speaker. It is…
How To Greet People In 3 Easy Steps
How To Greet People In 3 Easy Steps by Jeremiah Bourque (Click on link for audio version) Hello, how do you do? My name is Jeremiah Bourque. It’s a pleasure to meet you. In three sentences, I have just given…