Making an entrance Originally uploaded by waɪ.tiː If you "make an entrance" it means you enter a place in some formal or special, eye catching, way. For example:- British comedian, Baron Cohen, made a real entrance posing as a gay Austrian fashionista and landing on Eminem's face at the MTV Movie Awards. Of course this […]

The writing's on the wall Originally uploaded by waɪ.tiː If the writing is on the wall for a person or an organization, it is clear that they will fail or be unable to continue. However this photo shows our hotel room in Strasbourg where the writing was literally on the wall, which is a bit […]

US web monitoring firm, Global Language Monitor, has declared the millionth Englith word to be "Web 2", which is a term used for the latest generation of web products. (They trawl the internet for new words and terms and once a word or phrase has been used at least 25,000 times, it accepts it. Seemingly […]

According to HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency), one in five UK academics is now aged 55 or over and the average age of university staff is increasing. The average age of academic staff in 2007-08 was almost 48 and the proportion of younger academics is gradually falling, with 25.2% currently aged 35 or younger. I […]

Millstone Round Your Neck Originally uploaded by waɪ.tiː If someone is a millstone round your neck, it means they are a burden to you. The idiom probably arises from the Bible: "And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about […]

By analysing emails using a Corpus program can you get an insight into how people are feeling?