Author Blog

  • Dispatch from Spain – Pepsi or Pesi?

    Published on 2nd March, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    Here’s a commercial that is running on Spanish television recently. It features the Spanish football (soccer) player Fernando Torres – currently a star striker with Liverpool.

    What’s interesting about this advertisement is how it shows Torres, who is Spanish, getting irritated by the director’s attempts to correct his pronunciation. Finally he more…

  • Dispatch from Ireland – Amazing books, buildings and beer

    Published on 24th February, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    “We have sold the myth of Dublin as a sexy place incredibly well; because it is a dreary little dump most of the time.” Well, this rather nasty quote from Irish author Roddy Doyle is NOT really one I would agree with. This was my second visit to Dublin, and more…

  • Dispatch from the UK – ESOL, EFL, ESL… what’s the difference?

    Published on 18th February, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    Most teachers will be aware of what the three basic acronyms above stand for in our field, but in case you aren’t here they are again:
    - English for Speakers of Other Languages
    - English as a Foreign Language
    - English as a Second Language
    In the UK the first two, and especially ESOL, more…

  • Launch!

    Published on 11th February, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    Books, like ships, are often given a launch after publication to wish them on their way. Last week saw the official “launch” of Global in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Macmillan had events in Bournemouth, Oxford, London and Dublin. They had decided to launch the book at museums, which led more…

  • Dispatch from Canada: In praise of English Central Bookshop

    Published on 9th February, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    I wanted to take a moment here to sing the praises of one of my favourite industry bookshops in Canada, the English Central Bookshop in Toronto. Run by former teachers Nicole Graham Tyson Seburn and Tania Iveson, English Central is a hub of ELT activity. They run regular professional development more…

  • Dispatch from Canada: Rules for teachers 1872

    Published on 2nd February, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    I was in Canada this past Christmas and I came across the following list of rules for Canadian schoolteachers from 1872. Now I’ve often been guilty of having a good old moan about teaching and how things are getting worse than in the past. Until now.
    Rules for Teachers in more…

  • One-bag packing

    Published on 26th January, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    Right! This is my first foray into the world of vlogging, or video blogging. This post was inspired by two other (non video) things I discovered on the web. I first heard the expression the “road warrior” from The Consultants-E (www.theconsultants-e.com), an English language teaching consultancy run by two very more…

  • Congratulations!

    Published on 20th January, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    I’m happy to announce the winner of the contest that was run at this site over the past months. Martin Baker is a teacher in Peru who is … wait a minute, it’s probably better for him to tell us in his own words. Over to you Martin:
    I’m from the more…

  • The art of carry-on bags

    Published on 20th January, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    There are two types of regular travellers: those who try to live out of one bag and those who have given up trying. I’m still in the former camp. I have to travel a lot for work and I’m constantly frightened of losing my bags in transit and ending up more…

  • Second dispatch: The ground rules

    Published on 14th January, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    I thought I would just clarify a few ground rules about my entries on this blog. Just so you know.
    1. I am not being paid by Macmillan or anybody else to blog here. I’m not being “forced” to do this. It is my choice.
    2. I’ll be blogging about two of more…

  • First dispatch: a new blog project

    Published on 4th January, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    It’s actually more than a project, it’s a mission! Let me explain.
    Last autumn I had a meeting with the sales and marketing people at Macmillan. My new course, Global, was coming out soon and they wanted to talk about promotion around the world. We chatted about upcoming conferences and possible more…