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Word of the Month: Potential

Shana Goodwin, August 1, 2022

What does the word “potential” mean? As an English teacher, I’m inspired every day by my students’ potential: they all have dreams and goals that they are working hard to fulfill, and I know they’ll go far!

Word of the Month: Lecture

Shana Goodwin, July 1, 2022

What does the word “lecture” mean? This word has a false cognate in Spanish: “lectura,” which means “reading,” so my students often use lecture incorrectly, when they mean to say “reading.” The words both come from Latin, but the Spanish translation of lecture is closer to “conferencia.”...

Word of the Month: Career

Shana Goodwin, June 1, 2022

What does the word “career” mean? The word career has a cognate in Spanish: “carrera.” However, this word is mostly used (at least here in Paraguay) to refer to one’s chosen university field of studies rather than one’s professional career. It’s important to note that in English, the word does not refer to...

Word of the Month: Free-for-all

Shana Goodwin, May 1, 2022

While May’s “Word of the Month” isn’t really a word you might find yourself using a lot, it’s a great example of a compound word. Compound words can be confusing...

Word of the Month: Majestic

Shana Goodwin, April 1, 2022

What does the word “majestic” mean? Recently, some of our staff members went on a camping trip to Iguazú Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina. We arrived at Iguaçu National Park quite early in the day, and hopped on a tour bus for the scenic drive down to the waterfall. On the way, we saw a small capybara ...

Word of the Month: Resource

Shana Goodwin, March 1, 2022

As ESL teachers, we are constantly adding to our resource library, or our supply of books, games, useful websites, and other material we can use for classes. Of course, our most important resource is our teaching staff, or our human resources. We couldn’t exist without them!

Word of the Month: Fresh (fresco)

Shana Goodwin, February 8, 2022

When I sat down to write this post, I thought of the word “fresh” immediately: the weather has been so wonderfully refreshing and cool this week after several weeks of super hot and humid weather!

Word of the Month: Habit (hábito)

Shana Goodwin, January 1, 2022

Happy New Year! We’re expecting great things to happen in 2022, and we’re especially excited about all that our students will achieve this year. One word we talk a lot about at the end of the year and the beginning of the new year is “resolution.” What is a resolution? Basically, it’s the decision to stop a bad habit and replace it with a good one...

Word of the Month: Christmas Vocab!

Shana Goodwin, December 1, 2021

As I mentioned in a previous post, I love Christmas, so I couldn’t decide on just one word for December. As a bonus this month, enjoy learning (or refreshing your memory with) the following list of Christmas vocab words!

Word of the Month: Patient

Shana Goodwin, November 1, 2021

What does “patient” mean? Patient is a good word for me in November because I love Christmas and I love birthdays, and both my birthday and Christmas are in December. I always get impatient...

Word of the Month: Heavy

Shana Goodwin, October 1, 2021

What does heavy mean? In reality, the word heavy has more than twenty definitions! I only included the most commonly used definitions in this post. In Asuncion in October, the balmy spring weather turns into hot and humid summer, and the air feels really heavy...

Word of the Month: Blossom

Shana Goodwin, September 16, 2021

What better word for September than “blossom”? In Asuncion in September, you can’t walk a block without stepping on Lapacho or Bougainvillea blossoms, or seeing them cascading over walls and doorways...

Word of the Month: pretty

Shana Goodwin, August 2, 2021

Pretty is a pretty common word in English, because it has an adjective, adverb, and verb form. You will most often hear it being used in its adverb form, where it means “moderately,” or “quite”...

Word of the Month: frozen

Shana Goodwin, July 1, 2021

Fro-zen Verb Past participle of freeze. Example: The lake was frozen last week, but […]

Word of the Month: tenacious

Shana Goodwin, June 1, 2021

What does the word "tenacious" mean? If you are tenacious in your English studies, that means you will not only complete your assigned homework each day, but also set aside time to practice speaking, listen to an English podcast...

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