Cafetalk Tutor's Column

English expressions about time

It can be good to use idioms sometimes to make your English more natural and colourful. Here are so...

More Tree Sayings

English has lots of idioms and some of them are about trees and forests. Here is one which means a ...

Celebration in Scotland: haggis, Burns Night and Burns Suppers

Many people eat haggis in Scotland on 25 January for Burns Night. This is just a week away!Burns Ni...

Exploring the World of Books

One of the pleasures of learning a language is being able to read interesting books in it. It can b...

New Year in Scotland

New Year is a big celebration in Scotland, as it is in Japan. The day and especially the evening be...

An interesting detective story

This book The Body in the Library is a famous story by Agatha Christie, one of Britain's favourite ...

Tablet from Scotland

'Tablet' means many things but in Scotland, it is likely to refer to a sweet. It was written down i...

Absorbing reading – Riddle of the Sands

This exciting spy novel by Erskine Childers can be read anywhere – but it is especially suited to t...

Summer seasonal food in Britain - wild raspberries

The raspberry is my favourite British native fruit - strictly speaking, it is green on the bushes j...

British plants in bloom

Now that the weather is becoming milder, it is a good time to get out of doors and admire the diffe...

Sense and Sensibility

The book cover in this picture is of two sisters in Jane Austen's novel, Sense and Sensibility.In t...

Sherlock Holmes Stories

The Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle are famous the world over. And rightly so, becaus...

Persuasion

Persuasion is the title of a famous novel by Jane Austen, one of Britain's best-loved authors.Persu...

Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday.

Yesterday, 13 February, was Pancake Day in Britain! This comes from an old festival called Shrove T...

Row or row?

There are some words that are spelt the same, but have different meanings and pronunciation. You ca...

Picture description

I like looking at illustrations in old books. Pictures can be an important part of the book, and ad...

Pancakes, Easter Eggs and Chocolate Rabbits

Interesting ways to mark spring are customs. Today, 21 February, is Shrove Tuesday. In the past, pe...

Practical English

There are plenty of situations where we can say something that is grammatically correct, but, socia...

Reading books

Often people choose lessons where we read a book during the class. This can be a light book like Th...

Elizabeth Fry

It is too hard to choose a favourite historical person, because there are too many interesting peop...

More food Idioms

Have you ever heard anyone saying, "it's a dog's dinner"? This phrase means that something is a com...

Food Idioms

Please don't spill the bottle in this photo! There are many food idioms in English, and one common ...

Hens as pets

It is common to talk about being a "dog person" or a "cat person", but what about hens? Can you be ...

Idioms

By Gerd Leibrock - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15701840...

My favourite summer treat

By Ripe Raspberries by Anne Burgess, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1...

Lesson for June's Pride Campaign

Just a reminder that I have two new lessons for Cafetalk's Pride month campaign, an Introduction to...

British History

There is lots of colourful and eventful history in Britain, from the time of the Viking, all the wa...

Back to the past

By Oxford Castle and Mound, New Road, Oxford by Robin Sones, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedi...

Reading

One of the best ways to relax is to read a book. Some people can do this on their computers; I find...

Weather Sayings

English has many interesting weather sayings. One is that every cloud has its silver lining. This i...