Category Archives: Life in the United States

Seedfolks, a book by Paul Fleischman, was always a hit (very popular) with my adult ESL students. Here’s how the publisher describes it: A vacant lot (empty property), rat-infested (full of rats) and filled with garbage, looked like no place … Continue reading →

In the late ’90s, there was a popular comedy show host who would ask his celebrity (famous) guests (people invited to appear on the show) five questions at the end of his show. The questions were usually funny or related … Continue reading →

A few weeks ago Jeff asked “What does it mean to be happy?” Today I’d like to ask a related question – what makes us happy? – and find an answer in an unusual source. Seventy-five years ago, in 1938, … Continue reading →

Every city has people selling things on the street. After all, where can you find more foot traffic (people walking by) than on a city’s sidewalks? New York City would be a very different place if it didn’t have its … Continue reading →

When you are invited to someone’s house, let’s say for dinner, is it the custom (common practice) in your country to take a gift? In the U.S. it’s considered the polite thing to do. They’re called host or hostess gifts … Continue reading →

A man or a woman asks you out on a date. You have coffee, lunch, or dinner together. You find out more about each other. You fall in love and you live happily ever after (forever), right? Well, things aren’t … Continue reading →

There is an old saying, “You are what you eat,” which means that if you eat good food, you’ll be healthy, and if you don’t, you won’t. But do we really know what we’re eating? In the past year or … Continue reading →

Aristotle said that the goal of every human being is (or should be) happiness. The ancient Greeks had their own definitions of what happiness was, and nearly every important philosopher since that time has tried to give a definition of … Continue reading →