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A Literary Journal for Language Teachers

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  • Archive
    • 2025 Vol. 1
      • Column – In Love With Language
      • Poetry 2025 Vol. 1
        • An Alphabetized Archive of Alliteration
        • Around a Word
        • At Home
        • Catapult
        • The Doorman
        • The Elephant In The Exam Hall
        • The Ellipsis
        • Game Of Words
        • Germany in the Nighttime
        • The Inconsiderate Nature of Poems
        • Language is not able to bind everything
        • Lit Crit
        • Mama
        • An Ode to a Young Lady Sitting for her O-Level Examinations
        • One Good Friend
        • Posting a letter to a student
        • ROTTELA PANDUGA, a festival of breads
        • Shade
        • Storming of the “Academie Francaise”
        • Two Poems by Ron Jevaltas
        • Two Poems by Stephen Bridge
      • Fiction 2025 Vol. 1
        • The Correction
        • Dark Safari
        • El Camino Real
        • The Toy Camel
      • Essay & Nonfiction 2025 Vol. 1
        • 1979, Hungary
        • Find Uniqueness
        • Teaching Terminology
        • A Letter from Manila December 9, 1941
      • Creative nonfiction 2025 Vol. 1
        • Banana Coconut Epiphanies: Adventures in Mandarin Martyrdom
        • Bon Voyage
        • Lesson in Jing’ an Park
        • Vending Machine
      • Authors 2025 Vol. 1
    • 2024 Vol. 2
      • Poetry 2024 Vol. 2
        • Apple Picking
        • April in Sibu
        • Chimeras
        • Composition
        • Crib Notes for an Asparagmental Poetics Intro Course
        • My Greatest Moment as a Teacher
        • Poetry Lesson: Grade 6
        • The Ranting Pen 
        • The Specter of Peer Review
        • Three Poems
        • Twelve Names for Sugar
        • VITO 
        • Zoom Class  
      • Fiction 2024 Vol. 2
        • As the Town Slept
        • Chaos in the Viral Panopticon
        • Contract Discombobulation
        • The Observer
        • The Senacchee 
        • Tutorials 
      • Essays & Nonfiction 2024 Vol. 2
        • The Encrypted Dictionary of the English Language
        • Pine needle tea in the home of a writer who disappeared
      • Creative Nonfiction 2024 Vol. 2
        • The Nicest Christian in South Korea
        • Unity Spiritual
      • Authors 2024 Vol. 2
    • 2024 Vol. 1
      • Column – In Love with Language 2024 Vol. 1
        • Whither POSSLQ?
      • Poetry 2024 Vol. 1
        • Accent
        • Banana: Yellow Outsider-White Inside
        • Calligraphy
        • Closure
        • I Know You Do Not Exist
        • Linguistic Limbo
        • The Lonely Side of the Lectern
        • The Making of a Teacher 
        • Ode to High School French
        • Questioning My Preschool Lesson Plan    
        • Ship Manifest
        • Three Poems by Ron Jevaltas
        • Turbulence
      • Essay & nonfiction 2024 Vol. 1
        • Accentuate the Positive, Accept the Negative:  An Introvert’s Guide to Language Teaching
        • Deaf Tables
        • Education: Rise
        • English and Life
        • Outside the Classroom
        • Student Cognition
      • Fiction 2024 Vol. 1
        • Chapter 6 : Dropping like Flies
        • From Seminars to Sailing: My Voyage from Professor to Sea Wife
        • The Italian Queen 
        • My English Will Shine
        • Nothing Anything
        • Saw, So, Sow
      • Creative nonfiction 2024 Vol. 1
        •  Loss of Innocence      
        • Smile: Absent
        • The Office Manager
      • Authors 2024 – Vol. 1
    • 2023 – Vol. 2
      • Column – In Love with Language
        • Fast and Furious
      • Fiction 2023 -Vol. 2
        • For Bread, Not Money
        • Momentum
        • The Novelist
        • The Polyglot
        • Sleeping Princes and Sozzled Kamikazes
        • You Don’t Just Get To Change Your Mind
      • Poetry 2023 -Vol. 2
        • Amy
        • Brushstrokes
        • Caramel Apple Cider
        • CLEANING OUT
        • The Family Tree
        • Learning
        • The Mind Code
        • Of Course I Think to Myself
        • Two Poems by Phil Huffy
        • Pesky Porcupine
        • Pondering Over a Tomato Soup
        • A Substitute Teacher Gets a Spanish Lesson from a Kindergartener
      • Essay & nonfiction 2023-Vol. 2
        • Deaf Interpreter
        • DENGLISCH
        • Mr. Pann
        • My Experience: Reading is an Intellectual Inebriation
        • Second Language Learning, Teaching, and Growing: My EFL Story
        • Who am I?
        • You Couldn’t Tell Who the Back Row Students Were
      • Authors 2023 – Vol. 2
    • 2023 – Vol. 1
      • Column – In Love with Language
        • Thinking in Pictures
      • Fiction 2023 Vol. 1
        • Boat to Heaven 
        • BUS STOP
        • Chapter 4: Dazed, Drenched and Confused
        • Dysfunctional Word Families
        • Embracing Ambiguity
        • Far From Home
        • Making Love in the Disco Room over Hirohito’s Dead Body
        • The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Learning
        • Word Games
      • Creative nonfiction 2023 Vol. 1
        • Behind the Iron Canon: Teaching Literary Theory in East Germany
        • Second Language
        • Tea in Taiwan 
        • Why (school)? 
      • Poetry 2023 Vol. 1
        • Gale Acuff Two Poems
        • Animal Kingdom
        • Brave Soul Wins Heart
        • Invisible Exile
        • Gerard Sarnat Three Poems
        • Martin Bennett Two Poems
        • Nolo Segundo Three Poems
        • Off the Wagon
        • Paul Hostovsky Two Poems
        • Pronunciation practice
        • Teachers
        • The Viewless Wings of Poesy
        • Vyacheslav Konoval, Voice from Ukraine
        • Without a Word
        • Yonsei
      • Essay & nonfiction
        • Foreign
        • Suckered Twice?
        • Turnabout is Fair Play—Wedding Speech
        • You don’t look native enough to teach English
      • Authors 2023 – Vol. 1
    • 2022 –Vol.2
      • Fiction 2022 Vol. 2
        • A. P. English
        • The Carpenter’s Hammer
        • Early spring
        • Ladders
        • An Unexpected Message
      • Creative Non-fiction 2022 – Vol. 2
        • Cultural Cricket
        • Chapter 3. Enter the Gladiators
        • True Story
      • Poetry
        • Running with David
        • LUDIC
        • Two Poems by James Mulhern
        • Three Poems by Gale Acuff
        • Editing
      • Essays & Nonfiction
        • ‘M’, Editing and A Vindication of the ‘Writes’ of (One) Woman
        • Asleep at The Oral Defense
        • The Language Teacher as Language Learner
        • An Opportunity
        • Stubborn: personal or public?   
      • Authors 2022 – Vol. 2
    • 2022 –Vol.1
      • Column – In Love with Language
        • A Brief Primer on Russian, Belorusian, and Ukrainian
      • Fiction 2022 – Vol. 1
        • Sewage, Sand and Sisyphus
        • “Mr. Beaumarchais”
        • The Farewell Song
        • A long winter
      • Creative Non-Fiction 2022 – Vol. 1
        • The English Teacher
        • Pride, Regret, and Rust-buckets
        • Stained
        • The Unexpected Professor
        • Gray Kimono
        • Monkey Want Banana
        • Anything You Want
        • “Do you play cricket?”
      • Poetry 2022 Vol. 1
        • The Rules
        • Language Barrier
        • Did you hear?
        • Education
        • The Alphabet Family
      • Essays 2022 – Vol. 1
        • Bagwis
        • Fish Tales and Tips: Hillel Wright’s Life, Stories, and Advice
        • A Note on Hyphens
        • Speaking English
        • What’s in a Name?
        • Before I Taught a Poem I’d Ask to Know
      • Authors 2022 – Vol. 1
    • 2021 – Vol. 2
      • Essays
        • De Zoet Does Japan
        • L’esprit de l’escalier: A Mancunian in Japan
        • Hybrid Identities: Teaching While Learning
        • The Joy of Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Japan
      • Poetry
        • Vespers, Hue 
        • chasing the rIsing sun
        • Perfect
        • Teaching is a Woman’s Job?
        • Early Lightning
        • Three Poems
        • Word of the Day
        • The Magic Words
      • Fiction
        • Traps
        • The Married Rocks
      • Creative Non-Fiction
        • Danny’s Revenge
        • That Moment in Montmartre
        • Déjà vu in Dammam
        • The Phone Company that won’t do Business on the Phone
        • Aisatsu – The Importance of being Seen and Noticed
      • Authors 2021, Vol. 2
    • 2021 – Vol.1
      • Column – In Love with Language
      • Creative Non-Fiction
        • I Feel Your Pain. Do You Feel Mine?
        • Shady Practice
        • Lamparilla
        • WOEFUL TOEFL
        • On Payette Lake
        • An Excellent Night of Theater
        • Achieving my English Learning Goal at all Costs: What Did I Sacrifice?
        • Snookered, or, Why the British Talk That Way
        • Distractions during Zoom Lessons
        • Overnight
        • From Hoeing the Cornfields to Teaching English
      • Fiction
        • Miss Representation
        • The Odyssey
        • How Many?
      • Poetry
        • Wedged Underneath a Heavy Desk
        • The Monster Manual
        • Heritage Language
        • The Sounds of English
        • Adverbity / So What Does a Poet Do? / Alchemy of Ink
      • Authors 2021 Vol.1
    • 2020 – Vol. 2
      • Creative Non-Fiction 2020 Vol.2
        • Line of Duty
        • Teaching Transcends Boundaries
        • Red Ants
        • The Language Dance
        • Weeding in Wakayama
      • Fiction 2020 Vol.2
        • The Uklak
        • Generation C
        • Hand to Mouth
      • Poetry 2020 Vol.2
        • One Nation, Under & Counting
        • On a Pickle, Very Very Very & “Figurative Language is Useless”
        • Enlightened Alphabet
        • The Eternal Thought, & The Day She Spoke
      • Essays 2020 Vol.2
        • Exactly Where I Should Be
        • A Quick Fix for English Teacher Burn-Out
        • Reclaiming Vedic Education
      • Authors 2020 Vol. 2
    • 2020 – Vol. 1
      • Fiction Vol. 1 – 2020
        • Outside
        • The Rotten Mikan
        • Daisy
        • Julia in the Desert
        • Cheating
        • Peppermint Candy
      • Non-Fiction Vol. 1 – 2020
        • Two for the Price of One
        • Teaching During the Corona Virus Shutdown
        • Context for my outrage—teaching and learning after graduation
      • Essays Vol. 1 – 2020
        • This I Believe
        • Teaching and the Art of Compassion
        • Escaping from Osaka on the Dreamy Sea Bream Train
      • Poetry Vol. 1 – 2020
        • Lament, and Things I would not like to forget
        • Simply Silly
        • A Language Learning Adventure with Wrecked Haiku
        • The Wow! signal, This is home now, and Gaps
        • Hell-box
        • Chinese Characters – 3 Poems/ Lessons
      • Column – In Love with Language
      • Authors 2020 – Vol. 1
    • 2019 – Vol.2
      • Column – In Love with Language
      • Fiction
        • Arab Spring
        • Blind in Darien
        • Save for a Rainy Day
        • Someone Cheated
      • Creative Non-Fiction
        • Hit from Behind
        • Total Physical Response in the University Prius
        • What to Say in a Knife Fight and other Regrettably Forgotten Lessons from High School German
      • Poetry
      • Essay
      • Interview – Steve Redford
      • Authors 2019 Vol. 2
    • 2019 – Vol. 1
      • Column – In Love with Language
      • Fiction
        • Contract
        • European II
        • Jambo
        • On the Road to Emmaus: A Wednesday before the Chalkface
        • The Case of the Purloined Cats
        • The Gem Polishing Unit
        • The Lesson
        • The Seminar
      • Poetry 2019 Vol. 1
        • On Finding the Right Words
        • On Magic, Illusions and Other Realities
        • On Sunday School (3)
      • Essays
        • Dental Floss
        • Francesca and Stevick
        • Teaching at Fifty-Six
        • The Roundabout Way
        • Unfunny
      • Non-Fiction
        • Creating a Tsunami Evacuation Path
        • MARTIN JOOS
        • My New Job as Translator
      • Author Bios 2019 Vol. 1
    • 2018 – Vol. 2
      • Creative Non-Fiction
        • If
        • Sorry Not Sorry 
        • The Blue-Eyed Japanese Speaker
        • The Moonshine
        • The Road Warriors: A Journey Back in Time
        • The Worst Tenth Grader
        • Tigress Strength
      • Fiction
        • Deconstructing Identities
        • On the Way Home
        • Plum Rains on Happy House
        • The Crazy Girls Club Detectives
      • Poetry 2018 Vol. 2
        • On the Poetic Impulse
        • On New Horizons and Home Shores
        • On Sunday School (2)
      • Essays
        • Is Free Education the Solution?
        • The Life of a Nepalese Teacher
        • The World We Are Sending Them Off To
      • Column – In Love with Language
        • Column – In Love with Language
      • Author Bios 2018 Vol. 2
    • 2018 – Vol. 1
      • Creative Non-Fiction 2018 Vol. 1
        • A Teacher’s Dilemma
        • Cheerfully Building and Rebuilding Despite Fire, War, and In-Laws
        • Crush
        • Laughs in Translation
        • Love In Any Language
        • My 12-Year Skype Call
        • Rights in the Matter
        • Saga of a Layman Turned Teacherman
        • Taro’s Gift
      • Fiction 2018 Vol. 1
        • Immortal Memory
        • Snapshots
        • The Acid Test
      • Poetry 2018 Vol. 1
        • On Language, Place and Culture
        • On the Workings of the Student Mind
      • Essays 2018 Vol. 1
        • From Chair to Instructor: Reflecting on a Transition
        • Practicing Spanish with Students in China
      • Column – In Love with Language
      • Author Bios 2018 Vol. 1
    • 2017 – Vol. 2
      • Creative Non-Fiction 2017 – Vol. 2
        • While I Stand
        • How Not to Speak English
        • A Real Job
        • Beginning
      • Fiction 2017 – Vol. 2
        • DMZ
        • The Gerbil
      • Poetry 2017 Vol. 2
        • On Inspiration
        • On Friendship
        • On Sunday School (1)
      • Essays 2017 – Vol. 2
        • Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Ukraine
        • The Price of Freedom: A Few Thoughts on Learner Autonomy
      • Author Bios: 2017 – Vol. 2
    • 2017 – Vol. 1
      • Creative Non-Fiction 2017 Vol. 1
        • End of Session
        • Finding Our Way
        • Making Up Names
        • An Unexpected Journey to Becoming Bilingual
        • Praying Hands
        • Language in the Round
        • Daisies, Pearls, and Mushrooms – Adventures in Language Learning
        • The 8 a.m. Class
      • Fiction 2017 Vol. 1
        • The Point
        • Too Many Photocopies
      • Poetry 2017 Vol. 1
        • On Boundaries
      • Author Bios 2017 Vol. 1
    • 2016 – Vol. 2
      • Creative Non-Fiction 2016 Vol. 2
        • A New Phrase for Brazil
        • A Question of Stress
        • A Term or Two
        • Gun Shy
        • My ESS Debacle – Or, How Tomoyuki Lost his Groove
        • The Awkward Letter
        • Why
      • Fiction 2016 Vol. 2
        • Teachers’ Meeting! (A ‘Morality’ Play)
        • Vine and Gall
      • Poetry 2016 Vol. 2
        • On Resignation
      • Interview 2016 Vol. 2
        • An Interview – Susan Laura Sullivan
      • Author Bios 2016 – Vol. 2
    • 2016 – Vol. 1
      • Creative Non-Fiction 2016 – Vol. 1
        • A Visit to Mod’s
        • Changing the Subject
        • Don’t Know Much About the French I Took
      • Fiction 2016 – Vol. 1
        • Four Days
        • Rubber Gloves
        • The Rain in Nagoya
        • Tiger Gate
      • Poetry 2016 Vol. 1
        • Thoughts on Poetry in the EFL Classroom
      • Essays 2016 – Vol. 1
        • Better Than the Browns
        • Wearing the Other Hat
      • Author Bios 2016 – Vol. 1
    • 2015 – Vol. 2
      • Fiction 2015 Vol.2
        • A Crash Course in Conditional Clauses, a Hanoi Story
        • Dear Sir
      • Creative Non-Fiction 2015 Vol. 2
        • Anyone Listening? I’m Home
        • Staring at Walls
      • Poetry 2015 Vol 2
        • On Classroom Conflict
      • Essays 2015 Vol. 2
        • Gourmet Teaching
        • What is holding us back from becoming better writers?
      • Author Bios: 2015 Vol. 2
    • 2015 – Vol. 1
      • Fiction 2015 Vol. 1
        • Where is Lion?
        • Hello Kitty
        • Reasons for Song
        • An Early Spring for Alex
      • Creative Non-Fiction 2015 Vol. 1
        • Meadow School: Teaching with Nature
        • Catching Breath in Nagano
        • The Writing is on the Whiteboard
        • The A to Z of an English Teacher in Hong Kong
      • Poetry 2015 Vol. 1
        • On Language Use
        • Making Rain
      • Essays 2015 Vol. 1
        • “What Should Adults Learn from Kids?”
        • English as a Second Life: Juggling Cultures in the Age of Globalization
      • Author Bios: 2015 – Vol. 1
    • 2014 – Vol. 2
      • Creative Non-Fiction 2014 Vol. 2
        • Enemy
        • Risk Taking
        • To Gunung-Gunung and Paths Unknown
      • Fiction 2014 Vol. 2
        • A New Appreciation for Mountain Climbers
      • Poetry 2014 – Vol. 2
        • On the Spoken Word
        • On Teachers
      • Essays 2014 Vol. 2
        • What It Is Like Here
        • The How and Why of Me Becoming a Teacher
        • Studying the Public and Private in France
        • Teaching English in Korea
      • Author Bios: 2014 – Vol. 2
    • 2014 – Vol. 1
      • Fiction
        • A Snapshot of Sad
        • Mr Chizuwa
        • Ji-
        • The Little Suicides
        • Reading the Signs in Seoul
        • Class Act
      • Poetry
        • On Teaching and Learning
        • On the Written Word
      • Creative Non-Fiction
        • A Good Thing
        • The Far Country
        • Snakes Nudity Brats – Day 1
        • The English Metamorphosis of ESL Students and Me
        • The Nosy Teacher
      • Interviews
        • From English Teacher to Art Curator
      • Essays and Reviews
        • Language Acquisition
        • Barack and A Hard Place
      • Author Bios: 2014 – Vol. 1
    • 2013 – Vol. 1
      • Fiction
        • The Barbarian
        • Harry Cherry Tomatoe
        • Toilet Slippers and Other Disasters
      • Poetry
      • Creative Non-fiction
        • The Battle of Mianzi
        • Counseling Mind
        • Just Like in the West
        • Native Language
        • Snow Angels
      • Essays and Reviews
        • English in China: A Miraculous & Conflicted Encounter
      • Author Bios: 2013 – Vol. 1
        • Visual Arts
    • Author Index
  • Submissions Pause
  • Current Issue: 2025 Vol. 2
    • 2025 Vol. 2: Poetry
      • A journey with no episodes
      • A Letter to Shakespeare
      • A Life Imitates a Character from Middlemarch
      • City – Shehar 
      • Columbia University 
      • Die Beiden
      • Fluency
      • Learning to Read 
      • Longing
      • My literary portrait
      • Organization Accreditation
      • Still Teaching
      • Strumming the Guitar by the Lakeside on a Summer Evening
      • The Ivory Tower
      • What Race Do You Speak?
    • 2025 Vol. 2: Essay & Nonfiction
      • On Domestic Student Privilege
      • The Little Silver Tray
    • 2025 Vol. 2: Fiction
      • An Arab Tune
      • Mrs. Jennings
      • The New Teacher
      • The Split Shift Memories
    • 2025 Vol. 2: Creative Nonfiction
      • Miss Stepney Green
      • Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand
    • 2025 Vol. 2: Authors List
  • Chalk Stubs
  • Editorial Committee
    • Contact / Newsletter

Essay & Nonfiction 2024 Vol. 2

Essays & Nonfiction 2024 Vol. 2

The Encrypted Dictionary of the English Language by David Sheskin

Pine Needle Tea in the Home of a Writer who Disappeared by Seán Carlson

 

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