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Image by Gerhard G. from Pixabay I vowed that I would never buy another book on sale at Audible.com, but here I was, once again, bought something just because of the discount. I knew I don’t like Emerson very much–his English is a little too archaic for my non-native ears–but … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #25 →

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay charade: an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance.“talk of unity was nothing more than a charade”From Terveen Gill’s blog here. jaggery: a coarse dark brown sugar made in India by evaporation of the sap of palm trees.From Terveen Gill’s blog … Continue reading New Word #64: Recently Learned →

Image by Maciej Cieslak from Pixabay This is a sequel to the previous story “Ida And Superstition” here. However there’s no need to read the previous story to follow the little plot here. Yik opens a new takeout restaurant in Edison, New Jersey. Expecting a slow start, he is prepared … Continue reading A Little Disturbance (Flash Fiction #68) →

Image by Roland Mey from Pixabay Years ago, I was baffled by the phrases the native speakers often use that I had never learned at all from textbooks or classes or any of my readings. When it is a cold weather, people often say “nippy”; when something is not affordable, … Continue reading New Word #63: Commonly Used S&P →

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay “Sixty years ago your grandfather studied abroad. He aspired to be an engineer before he went away, but coming back he’s bitten by the literary bug and was a man of literature. In his hometown on the island of Penang, off the coast of … Continue reading That’s Not What I Had In Mind (Flash Fiction #67) →

Image by Pexels from Pixabay Talking with an old friend, I suddenly felt the urge to find some quotes about friendship. These are several I found from books. I tried to find a quote by George Orwell, but he didn’t write about friendship much. Still reviewing several pages of his … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #24 →

Image by cocoparisienne from Pixabay Whenever Ivy meets Dan, she feels a pang of regret. Dan is a distant relative of Ivy on Ivy’s father’s side. If this were in Ivy’s hometown in Southeast Asia, Ivy wouldn’t even think about Dan since Ivy has dozens of relatives who are closer … Continue reading I Am Not Negative (Flash Fiction #66) →

Photo by Yan Ming on Unsplash Related with Three (Commonly Used) triad: a group or set of three connected people or things.trilogy: a group of three related novels, plays, films, operas, or albums.triple: consisting of or involving three parts, things, or peopletriplet: one of three children or animals born at … Continue reading New Word #62: All About “Three” →

Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay My memory is so bad that I start to lose self confidence. In order to boost my spirit, I decide to learn a new language, but this time I want to do it differently from what I did with English (as a non-native speaker). … Continue reading A New Approach To Language →

Yip and Yik are two brothers who used to run a restaurant together on Old Post Road in Edison Township, New Jersey. However after their father died, the two brothers split. Their wives didn’t get along for years and everybody said it was inevitable that the two owners would go … Continue reading Ida And Superstition (Flash Fiction #65) →

Image by Darkmoon_Art from Pixabay There are a lot of words to represent two in English. Here I will not list pair, double, couple, or twin since these are too often used and are well known. Other languages also have more than one word for two, but probably not as … Continue reading New Word #61: All About “Two” →

Image by Adina Voicu from Pixabay It takes me a long time to realize that other people’s time management strategies might not work for me–in order to better manage my blogs, I need to design something suitable for myself. The biggest issue for me is that I can’t map out … Continue reading Manage Blog Time →

Image by Digital Photo and Design DigiPD.com from Pixabay “Pan, this weekend when we meet Wendi, make sure you compliment her. You know her little surgery on the lips, eye corners, and upper arms cost a pretty penny. I think she’s a little hurt you didn’t say anything last time. … Continue reading Man And Woman (Flash Fiction #64) →

From WordPress Blogs gasconade: extravagant boasting.From Pooja’s post here. unruly: disorderly and disruptive and not amenable to discipline or control.From Terveen’s post here. rehash: Put (old ideas or material) into a new form without significant change or improvement.expound: present and explain (a theory or idea) systematically and in detail.From Heterodox … Continue reading New Word #60: Recently Learned →

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay “Look. That’s the cat I was talking about. She’s the head of the cat colony headquartered in the backyard here,” says Manak, a precocious girl of 13. “Tragedies follow the little feline like a shadow–her partners run away one after another, and half of … Continue reading The Open House (Flash Fiction #63) →

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay There are so many words and phrases related with time that I don’t know where to start. Here I only listed a few that I consider the most commonly and regularly used. If you have any words or phrases you’d like to add, please … Continue reading New Word #59: Related With Time →

Image by Manuel Alejandro Leon from Pixabay Let’s just suppose, for the sake of the story, the name of the Asian restaurant is “The Royal Garden” and the name of its owner is Jinmu, who is of indeterminable age, average height, slim, quick of steps, keen of mind. It’s a … Continue reading The Royal Garden (Flash Fiction #62) →

Alliteration means the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. There are so many occurrences of alliteration in English–brand names, slang, routine phrases, new phrases–that it is impossible to have an exhaustive list. Here I only list a few that I … Continue reading New Word #58: Alliteration →

Image by Willgard Krause from Pixabay I don’t agree with what H. L. Mencken says, but still what he says is very entertaining. His ideas of relationship between men and women are too exaggerated to be taken seriously, too caricatured to be considered real. Or probably because he’s from a … Continue reading Quote Of The Day #23 →

Image by Cindy Lever from Pixabay Tornado And Wind tornado: a mobile, destructive vortex of violently rotating winds having the appearance of a funnel-shaped cloud and advancing beneath a large storm system. tempest: a violent windy storm. blizzard: a severe snowstorm with high winds and low visibility. derecho: a widespread, … Continue reading New Word #57: Weather Related →