Tag Archives: Language

The Most Illuminating Lantern from New Zealand

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Daniela is the Lantern Keeper in New Zealand.

On her WordPress blog, Lantern Post, she explained why she called her blog the Lantern Post: “…in a memory of a dreamy street lanterns I walked under in year 1980 and others, through cobbled streets of old Zagreb, reading poetry (V. Majer; ‘Plinska lanterna na Gricu’/ ‘Gas lantern on Gric’) and holding my heart just a tiny fraction above the abyss … on most days.”

Generosity from New Zealand

On Aug 3, Daniela wrote an illuminating post, Some Helpful Books For Writers. It’s inspiring. One of the books Daniela recommended was The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

Later Daniela received some books of Steven Pressfield as gifts. She gave them all away for FREE. I’m one of her lucky recipients. Daniela is in New Zealand. I’m in England.  Continue reading →

Turning your blog posts into beautiful Word Clouds

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In my last post, 5 Easy Steps to Create Stunning Word Clouds, I recommended using the web tool Tagxedo to create your stunning Word Cloud.

You can create a personalised stunning Word Cloud in just 5 minutes.

I hope you have some success with your creation. If you haven’t tried it yet, why not try it today?

Today I created 3 word clouds with 3  favourite WordPress blog posts.

1) The creative and warm-hearted Tilly Bud, creator of The Laughing Housewife. Blog Post: Let the Games Begin.

Tilly Bud’s The Laughing Housewife: Let the Games Begin

Continue reading →

5 Easy Steps to Create Stunning Word Clouds

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What’s a Word Cloud?

Word Cloud is an image with words. You turn words into stunning images, like this:

Beautiful Word Cloud on Tagxedo

I use Word Clouds regularly for teaching and learning new vocabulary. If you’re a visual learner like me, Word Cloud is a powerful tool. Recently, I’ve learnt some new words about tea tasting and tea culture, so I’ve turned some tasters’ jargon into images.

Today, I’m going to show you 5 easy steps to create your own stunning Word Cloud with a magnificent web tool called Tagxedo. Tagxedo is my favourite as it supports European languages and exotic languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic.

Tutorial: Turning words into a stunning Word Cloud:

1) Go to Tagxedo, click on the word Create – You’ll find ‘Create’ is on the left and on the top of the page.

1) Click on the word ‘Create’

Continue reading →

5 changes of a Chinese wife in England: on Language

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English is such a fascinating language. It’s common that people do not always say what they mean, or do not mean what they say. Below is a list of 5 things that I’ve learnt:

1) A Cream Tea is not a cup of tea with cream:

On our honeymoon in Jersey back in 1999, my husband asked if I fancied some Cream Tea. I said yes as I was thirsty after a long walk.

He later gave me a plate with a fat, boring looking bun (I later learnt it was called a scone) with jam and cream next to it. I sat and waited patiently for my tea. “Where’s my tea?”  I asked. Hugh pointed at the fat, boring looking bun and said ‘You said you wanted some Cream Tea.’

Cream Tea means a scone.

2) There’s something called a Tea Towel: 

A Tea Towel is a piece of cloth you use to dry dishes and cutlery. Why is it called a Tea Towel? I’m wondering if ‘tea’ means a drink or a meal?

I’ve also learnt that the tea towel is a minor British Institution.

3) What is lunch, tea and dinner really?  Continue reading →

What’s in a Dragon?

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Today is St. George’s day and it is all about dragons.

My son joined the scout parade yesterday in town, as St. George is also the patron saint of scouting.

Google's image today for St. George's Day

Dragons, my son told me, in the west, are always evil. “They breathe fire, Mum!” They are monstrous. They are to be defeated.

Painting by Pere Nisart

Painting by Pere Nisart (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I told him, however, in China, dragons carry a completely different concept. For a start, they don’t breathe fire. Continue reading →