That was the year that was!

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English for speakers of other languages

Exactly a year ago today I said I would provide a series of weekly posts which looked at contemporary English in a rather unusual way. If you have been reading Never a cross word, you will know that cryptic crossword clues have served as a catalyst for providing a whole range of different talking points – a teaching methodology for ESL students which may be unique. That series has now concluded after 50 posts which are all still accessible in the archive.  If you are interested, there is plenty there to read.

I do hope, wherever you are in the world, that you found this experiment enjoyable and educational.  Good luck with your English studies.

Patently English launches today!

I am pleased to announce that the website Patently English was launched today.  This is the ‘face’ of my business, Patently English Ltd, which provides specialist coaching in legal, business, or technical English.  Please visit the site to see what is on offer.

This blog site is intended to accompany the website but is also a stand-alone resource which Speakers of Other Languages at a fairly advanced level may find valuable.  Stealing shamelessly from (but with a respectful hat tip to) my former boss, Dan, it will aim to feature each week a ‘Friday Post’, slowly building into a series. 

This, as I will explain on Friday (in English, when speaking, we might choose to say ‘this coming Friday’) is intended to look at the contemporary usage of English words but in a way that is somewhat different to the norm.  My method may be a ‘crackpot idea’ (something a little crazy) and ‘counter-intuitive’ (an expression used a lot in business to mean non-obvious), but I’ll give it a go (try it) and you can see what you think.

Please return on Friday and I’ll explain.

In the meantime, you might like to make a note of the phrases in bold.  Please note that this blog is not about English as you might find it in an old-fashioned textbook: it is about authentic English as it is spoken or written today.  Many other websites or blogs aim to do this and many do it outstandingly, for example the BBC Learning English website (recently updated).  In future posts I will refer you to them.  But another voice and another way of looking at things cannot, I hope, do any harm.  I am optimistic (always a good thing to be) that you will find these posts educational and helpful.

Bill Tyrrell