Random Quote
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
---- George Orwell
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
---- Jack Lynch
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
---- Isaac Newton
Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?"
---- Kelvin Throop III
To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
Drink coffee! Do stupid things faster!
---- unknown
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
---- Gail Godwin
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
---- Arnold Toynbee
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
---- Terry Pratchett
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar
A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats.
---- anonymous
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
This may be the most interesting blog theme I've ever seen. http://eflgeek.com/index.php Definitely in my top 5 at least.
---- Steve Dembo
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
---- Thomas A. Edison
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
---- Albert Einstein
it's probably not a good idea to underestimate my ability to make an ass out of myself—just when I seem to have it under control, I'll turn around and surprise you.
---- Tenser said the Tensor
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
---- Pablo Picasso
I speak no English
update
added another funnier video in the extended entry
While surfing I came across A Geek in Korea and specifically a comment on this entry which led me to search YouTube for this clip. Hope you enjoy it.





Graham Stanley wrote 60 words on Friday Apr 21, 2006 at 07:30 AM
Hilarious! I’ve actually seen another sketch that uses the same premise for the joke - I think it was taken from the Fast show, a BBC series and involved two men chatting to a woman on a bicycle.
On another point, I didn’t realise that this kind of thing was legal to upload to YouTube, but I guess it is.
Graham Stanley wrote 28 words on Friday Apr 21, 2006 at 05:30 PM
I’ve just added this to the new wiki I’ve started up to collect lesson plans / ideas for website use in class : Website of the Week wiki
Sean. wrote 92 words on Friday Apr 21, 2006 at 05:49 PM
Graham,
It’s interesting that you are starting a wiki for EFL/ESL teaching materials as I am planning one myself. I’m just waiting for the latest version of Expression Engine to be released, sometime this month theoretically, which will include an integrated wiki module. This way readers of my site will have one login for commenting, using the forums (which no one does), and the wiki.
If you would like to chat about a possible collaboration please let me know and I’ll send you my skype id as well as my MSN id.
Graham Stanley wrote 100 words on Friday Apr 21, 2006 at 05:56 PM
That sounds great ESL geek - I just started one up recently at pbwiki as an experiment, and because part of my job as ICT co-ordinator means that I regularly send an email outr to teachers where I work about websites they can use, with ideas of how to use them - these were just getting lost, so I decided to set up a wiki to collect them.
I’d be happy to work with you on something more ambitious - let’s skype each other, as you suggest, and see what we can come up with. Here’s my skype ID: bonavista99
Jamie Hall wrote 11 words on Friday Apr 21, 2006 at 06:42 PM
Very good and maybe something that could be used in class.
gordsellar wrote 44 words on Saturday Apr 22, 2006 at 04:57 PM
Yes, I’m vaguely thinking of showing it to my public speaking courses from now on, early in the term, just to drive home how useless it is to memorize a speech. If I had conversation courses, I’d be showing it on the first day.
Sean. wrote 29 words on Saturday Apr 22, 2006 at 06:04 PM
Gord I found a downloadable copy. If you want that let me know and I’ll send it to you - good just in case this gets pulled from youtube.
gordsellar wrote 9 words on Saturday Apr 22, 2006 at 06:34 PM
Yes please, what’s the url on the downloadable copy?
Sean. wrote 13 words on Monday Apr 24, 2006 at 05:00 PM
just added another video to this entry - I think it’s even funnier.
Lesley wrote 16 words on Monday Apr 24, 2006 at 05:35 PM
Didn’t understand a word of either of those videos. Could you provide a translation into English?
gordsellar wrote 17 words on Tuesday Apr 25, 2006 at 01:15 AM
Damn. I can’t figure what the last commenter wrote. It’s in English, and I can’t read English.
Sean. wrote 16 words on Tuesday Apr 25, 2006 at 07:02 AM
Damn you all - stop writing English, I’m getting a headache because I don’t understand it.