Smart alecks . . .

Finders keepers, losers weepers.

Childhood is really a rich time. It's when we build an important part of our cultural background, which is going to be quite useful in understanding many subtleties of the life in the community we belong to. I have been drawn into thinking about how much those cultural frameworks are important to the actual communication the other day. This led me to consider how deep it is interesting to dip into children's world when learning a new language.

As individuals, it is during the childhood that we are taught the language which is going to accompany us all our lives (usually). It seems reasonable therefore to consider peeking into how we teach children a language if one wants to learn about how we learn a (new) language. I was amazed, even though not really surprised, therefore to recognize some familiar ways of introducing vocabulary when I read a short story for children. *philosophical mode off*

I'll take the opportunity to do some anti-marketing here. Surprisingly enough, I'm not the only person blogging about english-learning on the web! Here's a nice blog I've just found, which has many interesting posts, and seems to be frequently updated: www.inglespraque.com (mainly writen in portuguese). I learned quite some new tricks in there, i.e.: that sure thing! may be used when one wants to express informally ready agreement: 'Could you give me a ride today?' 'Sure thing!' Frankly, that blog inspired me. I hope we can do here something nice like that!

There are some things left to say: smart alec(k), or smart ass is that person which always comes which an intelligent answer, usually intended to annoy people (a know-it-all). As for the 'saying', well it's something fit into grating category... referring to the 'belief' some people have that whoever finds something becomes it's owner, even if the actual owner happens to appear!

I'll stop here, this post is already too long. More later on!

A second thing

To begin with, I'd like to share a saying I've just seen:

Many a true word is spoken in jest.

To me, the first obstacle was the meaning of jest. Accordingly to Cambridge's online dictionary (http://www.dictionary.cambridge.org), jest is something which is said or done in order to amuse, (hence in jest means intended as a joke and not said seriously).
So... "many a true word is spoken in jest" refers to humorous remarks which contain serious or truthful statements (yet according to Cambridge's dic).

Ah, almost had let it go: CEO is the abbreviation of Chief Executive Officer, as someone asked me the other day.
That's it for today!

First things...

Hey everyone! At last this blog was created (you're all supposed to agree).
This blog is meant to be an open notebook with interesting English vocab people come across. Here's where the motivation comes from:
I think we learn best through teaching. And we teach by telling people things we're interested in, or discoveries we made which brought us amusement. The interaction involved in telling, trying to transmit something, adds to the post-it we stick to our memories a special taste, which helps us remembering it - and therefore learning it.
So this is the space to tell your eager fellows - students of English - what you have just learned. I'm eager to hear from you!
My farewell!