ESL Basics

1. 75 New Names
(ESL Blog/General ESL Posts)

... you'll know that I'm not meeting students with names like "Taylor", "Michael", or "Jessica". Not at all. My students go by names like "Ayaka", "Adriana", "Lijuan", and "Baatarsaikhan". 75 unique individuals ...

2. Douro River Valley: Portugal
(ESL Blog/Andrea Backpacks Europe)

We're surrounded by the terraced vineyards of the Douro River Valley. For about 100 kilometers, these mountains pulse up and down Portugal's northern country. Every time I discover a beauty like this ...

3. Arrived in Chambery France
(ESL Blog/Andrea Backpacks Europe)

We arrived to Chambery, France last night and brought the mid-south rain with us. It's markedly French and surprisingly home for my brother and his wife. Its streets find bakeries squeezed on every corner, ...

4. "The Office" and ESL
(ESL Blog/General ESL Posts)

Tonight on "The Office", one of America's most popular and hilarious television shows, the main character Michael dated an ESL teacher. As she introduced herself as an ESL teacher, all my friends gasped ...

5. Small Talk
(ESL Blog/Business English)

Have you ever had a brief or short conversation about simple things like the weather or a TV show?  That is called "small talk" and everyone has small talk at some point in their life.  In a business setting, ...

6. Sarcasm
(TESOL Blog/General TESOL Posts)

My Grammar class and I have a running joke. For the first test of the semester, I quipped, "If you would like to see what it looks like for Ms. Michael to be angry, just lean over your neighbor's paper ...

7. Business Card Exchange
(ESL Blog/Business English)

I recently stumbled across a post by Michael Stout at Mr. Stout's Blog showing a video explaining the proper etiquette for exchanging business cards. Although I will discuss business cards more in depth ...

8. About ESL Basics
(About ESL Basics/About ESL Basics)

ESL Basics: How It Began It all happened up in the Rocky Mountains on a whim really. Our family always takes a vacation every year together, and in 2008 we were perched up in a mountain cabin in Estes ...

9. About Andrea
(About ESL Basics/About Andrea)

Andrea Giordano loves to teach. Having travelled to 5 continents, she is just as comfortable teaching in high-tech university classrooms as she is in the open-air huts of Central America. For some time, Andrea ...

10. About Josh
(About ESL Basics/About Josh)

Josh is co-founder of ESL Basics as well as Andrea's younger brother. He lives just outside of Nashville, TN with his wife Katherine and loves to think of new ideas to improve business practices. Although ...