LKL's Blog

Just about everyone I know collects something. I collect silver jewelry with people motifs and pretty much anything purple. I also have a thing for multi-colored pens and Fiestaware stick-handled cups. What about you?

This isn’t the kind of thing I would normally blog about, but I’m just so happy. For about 8 months, I’ve been trying to get my site into the top spot in Google for the phrase learn French, and today I’m finally there. It may not last, but it feels great right now!

Another common problem I see with (Windows) computers is that most people don’t update them. Microsoft has an online tool called Windows Updates which automatically determines which updates your computer needs and downloads/installs them for you. All you have to do is go to the site regularly (at least once a month), follow the on-screen [...]

I will never understand how anyone can think there is no value in learning a second language. While speaking several languages is obviously more useful for some people than others (e.g., people who travel a lot, or work for a multinational company), it’s not as if speaking a second language is a total waste if [...]

I still reread my favorite kids’ books from time to time, and I still have some of the original copies from when I was a kid. My favorites: The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle The Dunkard, by George Selden The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C. [...]

What is comfort food? The best description I can come up with is warm, soft, and easy to prepare, but that doesn’t work for everyone. My comfort foods are mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese, both of which I crave when I’m sick or depressed. What are your comfort foods and when do you eat [...]

Among my friends and family, I’m considered something of a computer whiz. There are tons of people who know a lot more than I, but since I used computers daily long before they became a household word (my father was a computer programmer), I’m much more knowledgeable about and comfortable with them than many people [...]

When I decided to start a site on English, I had no idea what I was getting into. The lessons on English difficulties are fairly easy – I just write down what I know, double-check in the dictionary, and voilà. What turned out to be much harder is writing the ESL lessons. I thought I’d [...]

I’m a voracious reader, though not for what some might call “good” literature, meaning the classics or anything intellectual. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think there’s anything bad about reading light, fluffy fiction that does nothing more than entertain and pass the time, but I’ve been told that I’m mistaken. Anyway, I love [...]

The other night my husband was in the kitchen cutting a lime for a gin and tonic, and as I was a bit stuck on the Spanish lesson I was writing (on the perfect infinitive), I decided to take a little break from work and pick his brain at the same time (his Spanish is [...]