http://annehodgson.de Learning English Online with Anne Hodgson Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:57:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Looking for sitcom scenes for a grammar exercise on reported speech (yeah, really), I wound up spending the morning watching selections from "Two and a Half Men". Didn’t find a scene that works perfectly for that purpose, perhaps because they’re all so good it’s hard to cut them short. The ... http://annehodgson.de/2010/03/10/room-full-of-testosterone/ The Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker won best picture on Sunday at the Oscars, and Kathryn Bigelow won best director. Kathryn Bigelow on filming her character studies: "Hurt Locker's about humanity. It's about friendship and comeraderie in an absolutely hellish environment, and I think that's universal, that's not necessarily ... http://annehodgson.de/2010/03/08/kathryn-bigelow/ I hate renovating, and try to avoid it every year. So both of these options are nothing I'd look forward to. But they might be necessary. Which one uses correct grammar? If we were to renovate our flat, I'd have to take a week off. If we would renovate our ... http://annehodgson.de/2010/03/06/grammar-guru-ugh-renovation/ The new OK Go video doesn't have them dancing. Instead, it's all a fantastic machine of falling dominoes and rolling marbles and levers moving handles to open latches, tipping seesaws that release springs to shoot balls into the air that, falling, trigger further chain reactions, like water running through tubes ... http://annehodgson.de/2010/03/05/ok-go-this-too-shall-pass/ Joan sent me a presentation with quotes from German second graders. Most of them are mondegreens that won't work in English, but I've translated some of the others into English for fun: Garden gnomes have red hats so they don't get mowed down. Men can't get married to men because then who ... http://annehodgson.de/2010/03/04/second-graders/ Joni Mitchell: Night ride home Once in a while In a big blue moon There comes a night like this Like some surrealist Invented this 4th of July Night ride home Hula girls And caterpillar tractors in the sand The ukulele man The fireworks This 4th of July Night ride home I love the man beside me We love the open road No phones till ... http://annehodgson.de/2010/03/03/joni-mitchell-night-ride-home/ Nonsense rules! http://annehodgson.de/2010/03/02/the-onion-radio-rules-grammar-change/