In preparation for the 2008 Olympics being hosted there, [tag]Beijing[/tag] officials have decided to eradicate bad English translations from public venues, including "Deformed Man" for handicapped restrooms and "Show Mercy to the Slender Grass," reports the Wall Street Journal.

For the next eight months, teams of linguistic monitors will scour the city’s nooks and crannies to eradicate bad English usages. (Can they come here next?)

Meanwhile, the site Engrish.com continues to run all manner of English flub-ups in pictorial display from all over Asia. It’s a fun read/view.

What American Accent Do I Have?

Am I Gooder at Grammar?

I’ve added a second personally written article to my English Resources section, this one dealing with how to focus your writing with a good [tag]thesis statement[/tag].  I’ll be following this up soon with tips on how to use the thesis statement to fill the body of your body in an organized and coherent (and persuasive) fashion.

I’ve added my first personally written article to my new section, English Resources, which is entitled “[tag]The Kitchen Sink Approach to Writing[/tag].”  I’ll be following this up with articles on thesis statements, topic sentences and the five-paragraph paradigm before moving into more creative types of writing.  Enjoy!

I found this site yesterday that mails out grammar lessons Monday through Friday and then a quiz on the topics covered on Saturday.  This is a nice way to tune up your [tag]English grammar understanding[/tag] and usage.  The lessons come via e-mail, and I received my first one today, which covered the very simplest basics of pronouns.

If this sounds interesting to you, it’s free and can be signed up for at Daily Grammar.

I’d love to run something similar, but I’m a one-person operation.  Maybe when I’m fully retired, I’ll offer my own version of this.  Meanwhile, enjoy!

You hear a lot of people say, “I googled it,” when referring to the process of finding something via Web search on [tag]Google[/tag].  This certainly works in the vernacular, but come on, google as a verb in a Notword of the first magnitude.  (That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised to find it in the dictionaries soon, if not already.)

The first equivalent usage to google as a verb that comes to mind is “to bork,” as in raking someone over the personal integrity coals as the Democrats did to Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.

What’s next, to iraq?  “We iraqqed that country,” meaning to invade and take over another nation and then get caught in a quagmire.

English Resources is a new feature that you can access through the navigation bar on the left.  There you’ll find articles on [tag]English writing, grammar, essay composition[/tag] and the like as I write, find and accumulate them.  Enjoy and check back frequently.

I was standing in a fast food restaurant at lunch the other day waiting for my to-go order when in walked two teenage girls with their iPods.  As soon as they got to where I was standing, one of them turned to me and said quite boldly, “Can I borrow a dollar?”

I laughed and enquired when and how she planned to pay me back, which I meant seriously since “borrow” means that the money should be returned someday.  She shrugged, and I forked over a dollar but had second thoughts immediately.  There was, after all, no “please” and no “thanks.”

Now, what lessons can one draw from this?

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It might be hard to see, but in my right-hand sidebar I’ve added a [tag]live chat[/tag] function.  So if you get here and want to find if anyone else is available, just open it up and see what happens.

Topics, which I can’t regulate obviously, should concern English in some way, and the tone should always be civil and profanity-free.  Enjoy!

Just to update you.  I’m now on my third template in one week due to various difficulties. The first template wasn’t Mac compatible, and the second one was subject to security risks.  Someone kept getting in and changing things, so here I am with this new theme.  Let’s hope I can stay with it for awhile.  It seems fairly stable and user friendly.