Live and Learn English with Jean Lee

Halloween is one of the most popular days to celebrate for Americans and many other countries today, but it was originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. The Christians designated November 1 as All Hallows’ Day, meaning all saints’day. Thus the evening of October 31 was called All Hollows’ Eve, which has become Halloween. I would not like to discuss hagiography here, but rather talk about how Halloween is celebrated in many western countries. Halloween has become more secular rather than religious as a more community-oriented activity. On the evening of Halloween, children (and/or their parents as well) have fun in disguise of their favorite TV, movie, or animation characters and get around the town knocking on door to door for candies. Have you ever made Jack-o’-Lanterns for Halloween? People vis...

The face of demography in North America has been dramatically changing as millions of refugees and legal immigrants have found their way into the U.S. and Canada. Although these people who have come to someone else’s countries started their new life in pursuit of freedom and the American dream , they are imposed multifaceted burdens or challenges upon them. These social situations and contexts interact with one another affecting the adult immigrants’ learning of second language, which is English. And oftentimes, English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instructors are considered one of the first people available to help refugees and other immigrants survive a new cultural and linguistic environment (Adkins and Sample, 1999). Since the adult immigrants have various educational backgrounds in their native countries, there can be a huge gap between their academic ability and the ways of instructions in their new world even if the ESL classes provide generally admitted effective teaching ...

What’s the biggest obstacle in your journey of exploring English? It could be grammar, pronunciation, or huge amount of vocabulary that seems to be endless. Above all, idiomatic expressions that have hidden, figurative meanings. Without understanding the cultural background or conventional usage of idioms, one can hardly imagine what those words are supposed to mean. Using the given list of idioms and your imagination, try to choose a proper expression to fill in the blank of each sentence below. a. (to be) amped about something       b. beat c. (to be/get) busted d. geek    e. (to be) hooked (on something) f. looker g. to be in h. (to be) ripped         i. baller      j. wheels 1. Mom:  What’s with those huge eye glasses? You look like a nerd.     Son: Mom, hipster glasses are _____________ today. They look chic! 2. Jane’...

Your life is full of people. Some of them nurture your life, while some others torture yours. What makes people attractive or unappealing? Do you love the ones who are frolicsome ? Or are you rather enchanted by sobersides ? This week, we would like to work on the English expressions to describe personality or characteristic features of people. It is hard to precisely classify human’s personality, but here’s a list of words that are normally used with positive and negative connotation.    Expression : frolicsome : (adjective) lively and playful sobersides : (noun that is used as a singular) humorless and serious person   Try to fill in the following blanks using the clues below the questions.   1.    Ted is such a dreamer, and everybody calls him Walter Mitty. Sometimes he becomes way too ___________________, and I keep telling him to wake up and get real.   2.     Maurice is dating a girl who is very __________...

We have not been ever more nervous or anxious about sudden attacks or terrors occurring throughout the world than today. It is devastating to know that there’s no such thing as a perfectly safe zone in anywhere in the world, and violence has even become a norm. Sometimes it even feels as if we were being deceived or tricked by thimblerigs among power nations. Although it is difficult to ascertain all different kinds of hidden agenda behind terrors and random brutal attacks, let us share tips/ guides on how to keep your family 'safe from terrorism'. May God watch over us all and let there not be any kind of life-threatening atrocity on earth. (source from http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/809648/manchester-bombing-how-to-stay-safe-terrorism-attack-threat-UK-critical ) *Expressions thimblerig : (noun) a swindling trick in which a small ball or pea is quickly shifted from under one to another of three small cups to fool the spectator guessing its location 1. Invent a ...