As a teacher, I’ve been struggling for years to find a way for students to stay in touch with the language once they are done with their courses. Sure, they can (should) read, listen to the French radio channels, watch films, yada yada…the ways to stay in touch with the language are many and unlike … More Making A Chatbot For Students Of French
I excelled at acronyms in school. During a creative writing workshop, organised by my school in 4th grade, one of the activities was imagining the full form of acronyms. I was the unbeaten champion in the exercise, coming up with ingenious versions. My penchant for the long and winding has, over the years, led to … More Pet Peeves #3 Abbreviations
My in-flight movie viewing tends to include at least one tear-jerker, so it had to be the case even this time. After a few relatively light views on the way out and in (should I reveal here that I shed a tear or two while watching “Murder on the Orient Express”?), I chose Goodbye Christopher … More Goodbye Christopher Robin
As a language teacher, I’m used to dealing with all kinds of badly framed sentences: incorrect tenses, missing articles, wrong prepositions and invisible (I really mean absent) punctuation marks. I know it infuriates my colleagues, but not me. I understand that my students ‘ work is just that – students’ work. It’s in a classroom … More Pet Peeves #2 Badly Composed Tweets
There are several ways to learn a language – the old-school method of joining a class, using text books and other traditional study material, through immersion and speaking to locals exclusively in their language, or the more modern method of apps, like DuoLingo. But how do you go beyond the textbook / app? And how … More FranceSay: The Chatbot
The urban animal population seems to have an affinity to me, invading my home and even classrooms with little regard for my feelings. We’ve always had a dog at home, and briefly welcomed turtles, fishes and even birds – all adopted by my brother. But we’ve also played host to many uninvited animal visitors: lizards, … More My Students And Other Animals
Once a student of English Literature, I tend to be a bit of a stickler for correct usage of grammar. As a language teacher, I have learnt to turn a blind eye to some common mistakes my students make. But there are some things that bother me too much to be shoved to the back … More Pet Peeves #1: The Usage of “Would” In Indian English
