Languagelab.com Blog

1. Grammar Girl was a journalist for several years before studying for her teaching qualification. When she got her first job in a small newspaper called ‘The News International,’ they put her on the entertainment beat. This meant she had to go to the theatre and film premiers and then run back to the office and write the article up so that it was ready to go to press the same day or in a few hours’ time. She wouldn’t get home until the article had gone into print, which meant living the life of a vampire: asleep during the day and working from dusk till dawn.

2. Grammar Girl once worked at Macdonald’s. She was studying for her teaching qualification in Frances King School in London in 2000 and was running short of money. For the whole length of the course,Girl had a long commute from Croydon to London which, in itself, cost a tidy sum of money. So she spent a month on the breakfast shift at Macdonalds, and didn’t enjoy a single minute of it.

3. She didn’t study up on grammar until she studied teaching. This is because we rarely think about grammar in our own language. We are born with it. We don’t know the names of structures or why they occur. Our mind and our environment does it for us. It is only until we start learning another language that we realise what it all means. So Grammar Girl picked up a students’ course book called ‘Headway’ and read the grammar rules at the back. We all have to start somewhere.

4. Grammar Girl is a bit of a nerd! Some people like reading books, other people like going to the cinema or even the gym. But she loves teaching grammar and thinking about grammar. She finds the idea of choice very important and rules less important. She believes that the learner of English should first decide or know what they want to say. Then they have the ability to decide how they should say it and through what structure.

5. When she was a child, she wanted to become a soldier. There was a garrison just down the road from her house and she walked past it every day. She was fascinated with the uniforms and the discipline. She also wanted to be like Indiana Jones so, I’m assuming, she saw herself as a fun-loving archaeologist in a uniform.

6. She salsas. No, not the spicy condiment from Mexico that you eat, but the music. She remembers listening to a Cuban band called Buena Vista Social Club, as a young girl. She learned how to salsa properly when she lived in Bangkok about 5 years ago. Here, in London, she tries to salsa almost every Friday. Most of the people she meets in London speak Spanish so she’s trying to learn Spanish. She understands how difficult it is to learn another language but, also, how easy it is when you really want to learn.

7. She’s passed her open water diving course and yet isn’t a strong swimmer. I think she cheated somewhere along the line.