-
Creating art with programming
I love playing with software to create interesting graphics and animations. I use a program called Processing (opens in new window) which is a software sketchpad and language for coding in the context of visual art. One of the topics I like exploring is randomness. I wrote a program which draws circles of random sizes…
-
You Raise Me Up (song)
You Raise Me Up is a song composed by the Norwegian-Irish duo Secret Garden. The music was written by Secret Garden’s Rolf Løvland, and the lyrics by Brendan Graham. It has been recorded by more than a hundred other artists including Josh Groban, Westlife, Aled Jones (my favourite version) and talented kids on American’s Got…
-
Slangs? Staffs? Softwares? Learn about collective nouns!
What is wrong with these words? furnitures, vocabularies, slangs, staffs, cutleries, softwares, advices and sceneries. They are all collective nouns and should be used in singular form even though they refer to more than one thing. Look at this graphic story and learn how to use these words correctly
-
Obsolete landline telephones
For the first twenty one years of my life the only telephone in my life was the “land line” phone in my home. This telephone looked something like the one shown above. The phone was usually in the lounge room and shared with my parents and brother. I had a phone number which was my…
-
Obsolete phone books
Each year our home received a delivery of the two volume White Pages and the single volume Yellow Pages. The White pages listed all the residences in Sydney as well as pages of important phone numbers such as recorded information, emergency numbers and directory assistance.
-
The obsolete library card catalogue
I am writing a series of posts about things which were an important part of my past but have been superseded by technology – telephone directories, encyclopedias, street directories , pocket calculator, rub-on lettering and the typewriter. I may write about things which are still in use but I rarely use – the landline telephone,…
-
Food or Foods?
What is the mistake in each of these sentences? I ate a lot of foods for iftar.She is looking at delicious foods on the table.My favourite foods are Japanese. In English it is usual to add the letter “s” to nouns to make them plural. Apple and Banana are examples of countable nouns so you…
-
10 Reasons I am learning Indonesian
Hello! My name is Charles and I live in Sydney Australia. I am currently learning Indonesian using books, YouTube and talking with Indonesian friends on language exchange apps. I started learning in June 2017 using a book titled Easy Indonesian (with audio files). Here are 10 reasons why I am learning Indonesian. Halo! Nama saya…
-
Introducing Sydney – my home town
I am starting a new series of articles about Sydney and Australia in response to the many questions I get from my students learning English and exploring life in Australia. This first article is about Sydney – the first city in Australia. The photo of Sydney skyline view was taken by me from the Manly ferry…
-
How not to answer an IELTS speaking test!
Some very humorous responses to the questions in the first part of the IELTS speaking test. Read on to watch the video and read the transcript.
The Blog of Charles
Charles in Sydney Australia
The Blog of Charles 