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Assistance in finding EFL teachers.

I’m planning to use this blog to help English language teachers find, well, other English language teachers in Italy. If you are an independent language teacher, like me, then you may well have come across the situation in which you have had to turn down work because you simply don’t have the resources to handle […]

Teachers and students.

Last night, an ex-student and friend of mine and I got together for a pint and a chat about our summer holidays and the three-week language course he did in Dublin. As he was feeling rather nostalgic about his Irish experience, we drank, yes, you guessed: Guinness. Between sips, it was very interesting to hear […]

Teaching by not teaching

While drifting around the www looking for information on flash photography I came across this quote: “The trick to education, is to teach people in such a way that they don’t realize they’re learning until it’s too late.” The person who uttered these wonderful words was the late Harold Eugene Edgerton, MIT professor and flash […]

Miffed, I am.

I got the ‘we want to do more speaking’ comment from my students today. Yet they make no attempt to try using English while working in pairs or groups as they do one of the activities I have set them. This is despite my repeatedly telling them that they need to speak in English. It’s […]

Saturday night’s all right for…….

….working!  Yes, that’s right.  I’m working.  Other half and little one have gone off down to Genova.  This means that I can get on with preparing for a meeting on Monday.   The meeting will be about a new course I’m cooking up with another guy.  This other guy is an expert on certain things financial […]

Italians and language learning.

I’ve heard this comment many times from my Italian students. It basically goes ‘Italians are not very good at/incapable of learning other languages’. Well, I have an appropriate response to this oft made comment: ‘bollocks’ (si equivala approssimante a ‘palle’ in italiano, credo). Sorry about the slight vulgarity, but sometimes it is one of the […]

Creative juices

In trying to design activities for teaching people how to use English in meetings and discussions situations, coming up with something original, enjoyable and effective is not at all easy. I’m thinking of using football as a theme in some way.  It’s difficult to find an Italian who does not like the game, so you […]

Cooling things down

We had a storm here in Milan and it took the edge of the incredible heat. I was melting, as usual and even started to do my ‘Rambo’ thing of taking the waistband from my bathrobe and wrapping it round my forehead in an attempt to find some way of soaking up the sweat which […]