How to make up new words...

Click HERE to watch a brilliant TED talk!

Ugly words...

To do:

1. Find appropriate adjectives to describe non-standard fruit and vegetables !
2. As your contribution to 2014: European Year against food waste, design a great POSTER to encourage your schoolmates to WASTE NOT WANT NOT at your school canteen!
3. Do you agree that it is not "politically correct" to use pejorative terms to describe non-standard foods?

A good egg

Click HERE to learn a few eggy idioms!

To do/questions:

1. Describe what happened next (cf. the above poster)!
2. List English expressions and idioms to do with eggs (for example: “easy over or sunny-side up?”)!
3. Design your own poster for World Egg Day (second Friday of October) using an "egg" idiom!
4. What is the etymology of the word "egg"?
5. Who do you know who is "a good egg" and who do you know who is "a bad egg"?
6. Which famous nursery rhyme has an egg-shaped character in it (here's a clue: look on the other side of the mirror!)?

Expression of approval...

> TED talk on the overuse of the word awesome" !

> French wiktionary definition of "awesome"

> What does "awe" mean?

> What does "some" mean?

> Guardian article on how British English is succumbing to American influence...

Questions & things to do:

1. What does the TED speaker list as not awesome?
2. What does she list as truly awesome?
3. What would you add to her list of awesome places, people, things or events?
4. What point is the speaker making?
5. What does "awesome" actually mean?
6. List and learn words that use the prefix "awe-" and the suffix "-some".
7. List and learn other words that are used a lot to express approval (which words did your parents and your grandparents tend to use?).
8. What words of approval do you tend to overuse?
9. Do you think Americans are "too positive" in the way they express themselves?
10. Do you think your teachers should be more positive in their appraisal of pupils' work?

Short essay:

Young people are incapable of describing their experiences because their linguistic skills are inadequate and their vocabulary insufficient (that is why they overuse expressions like “awesome”). Is this the result of our conformist and unimaginative education system? Is it due to our consumerist, apathetic and shallow culture?

Homework assignment:

Spend the week trying to make popular among your friends a word or interjection (of your choosing or invention) you will use to express approval !

The medium is the message

Article on a 101 year old message in a bottle!

The medium is the message?

Video of The Police song