This Wednesday — a welcome tweet about the crisis in Afghanistan, fear of chickens, and an “ill wind”… — Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you will have heard about the dire political situation in Afghanistan. Whatever you may think of the politics of the situation, the wider economic rammifications of companies like Airbnb and how they operate, this tweet was a…

Using opera to learn English pronunciation and the importance of physical exercises. Just two interesting tweets for a lazy Summer 2021… — Many years ago, I thought about becoming an opera singer, as I had a knack for singing and was informed I could become a professional. Since that day, I’ve always wondered what would have happened if I had chosen that path. So I was interested to see this tweet…

A few months ago, the town of Bangor in Wales, UK, elected its first non-binary mayor. What’s it like for them? — Level: Intermediate Duration: 15 mins Theme: English, gender Tasks: Comprehension questions, video, exercise on pronouns Teacher/Student Answers: Here. (May need request from englishclassesforthemasses@gmail.com) Exercise 1 What do you know about the acronym LGBTQIA+? What does non-binary mean?

Crash! Bang! Wallop! — this week onomatopoeia, football racism, and taking the biscuit… — I really like a little onomatopoeia. The French language, for instance, is choc-full of words that sound as they are written. So is English in fact. I was pleased to see the above tweet from @EnglishTips4U (with a linked article). …

A rather focused round-up for the new week, about a single topic: Differences between US and UK English… — It often seems to be one of Twitter’s most persistent conversations — the differences between US and UK English (with other English types jumping in)… Some US accounts are baffled by the UK way to pronounce “ts”:

A short round-up for this week, after a week off. It’s so hot! So le’s talk about some useful phrasal verbs… — This is the month where things start to slow down. Working becomes hard. English Classes for the Masses had a little break. However, we’ve just been back on Twitter to see what interesting English tweets have appeared over the last week. First out of the gate: It’s one of…

This week’s round-up features one tweet and a reply on an important language topic — “it” and “they”… — So… There’s a pronoun that’s often badly taught by English teachers, and that pronoun is “they.” It’s clear that saying “he/she” is inelegant, and could be offensive by not being exact. But don’t worry, “they” is to the rescue. Take this sentence: I don’t know who “they”…

A lesson concerning useless inventions — featuring some of the strange and impractical inventions of Matt Benedetto and introduces some new adjectives. — Level: Advanced Duration: 15 mins Theme: English, technology Tasks: Comprehension exercises, video, vocabulary builder Teacher/Student Answers: Here. Exercise 1 Discuss these questions with a teacher or fellow student, or answer them yourself. What does “invaluable” mean? (is it something very useful, or totally useless?) …

Bombs, manias, and teachers about to quit — here’s our weekly round-up… — English, like a lot of languages, can have words that have vastly different meanings, depending on how you use them. “Bomb” is one such word. If something is “the bomb” then we mean, as @RealEvilEnglish points out, something really…