Tag Archives: extracurricular

Word Nerd: 4 Words inspired by comic book characters

30 Dec

via GIPHY English is a busy language. Every year, English dictionaries can add up to 1000+ words. The words can come from memes, movies and comics! The coinages of comics have a mass appeal and often slip into canon. So, here’s a list of four words that the comics gave us. 1. Milquetoast The word […]

Word Nerd: 5 Exciting Words You Must Know This December

30 Nov

Image via GIPHY Whether you’re thinking of writing Christmas wishes or just keen to learn more about the most festive season of this year – we’ve got you covered with this exciting list. From Christmas monsters to spongey desserts, this list has it all (and none of them is Santa’s famous laugh). 1. Krampus: Well, […]

Check out these four spooky podcasts for scary season

28 Oct

For Halloween, we bring you four podcasts that will help set the atmosphere for this season. You can get your fill of urban legends and ancient myth or find out the truth to historical legends without any of the gory images that accompany a televised adaptation. Enjoy! 1. Myths and Legends: Hands down one of […]

Are you a serious word nerd? Here are 7 signs that give it away

12 Aug

BrainGain Magazine started this Word Nerd series in March 2016. Since then we’ve written about Americanisms, the secrets to writing a good sentence, to best way to insult someone, accents, and other oddities of this common language we speak. For this edition, we thought about the series itself, and its name. We thought too about […]

Word Nerd: 5 important elements that your writing needs

29 Jul

Perhaps you’ve come across tips like, “Show don’t tell” or “No ideas but in things.” You’ve probably considered these tips were best used by those interested in writing poetry, features, or stories. It’s true that a poet needs to give “airy nothing” a “[l]ocal habitation and a name (Shakespeare).” But, say you’re a lawyer writing an important brief, you would do well to keep your senses in mind. Great writing is concrete. US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor advises lawyers in her memoir, “It is the particulars that make a story real.”

Word Nerd: Do you speak Latin? Yes, you do!

27 May

If I were to say to you, “She recruits students for the university on a pro bono basis,” would you realise that I’d spoken almost as much Latin as English? Although Latin’s use is itself limited, for instance to the Catholic Church, and certain military organisations, like the US Marine Corps, its influence on English […]

“I wouldn’t change my study abroad experience for any other”: The story of a German student in France

1 May

Anke Wright at a tour organized by her company. Anke Wright is a German whose life has an interesting French twist. She chose to learn French, and later study in France, when most of her classmates were choosing to learn English and flocking to Anglophone countries. Anke went on to marry a Frenchman and start […]

Changemakers: How a novice educator is taking The Lede in inspiring low income students to learn again

29 Mar

By Rayana Kalra Dedicated and supportive teachers have shaped my life. Now its my turn to spark that creativity in others. From my 4th grade English teacher, Mr. Ahuja who converted an apathetic pre-teen into a budding writer, to my 11th grade IB HL Drama teacher who has taught me to use my emotions to […]

Changemakers: Rethinking Sex Education in India with Reproductown

22 Mar

Tired of our teachers’ embarrassment, fed up of the birds and bees narrative, we decided to take matters in our own hands. Sex education is India’s Achilles heel.   In an education system that has always prioritized numerical investigation and engineering studies, public health has often been overlooked. Despite the importance of sex education, people […]

Changemakers: How one teen’s love for reading is starting a literary movement in Delhi

15 Mar

By Rajveer Sardana It struck me as unjust that these stories weren’t available in Hindi. That their magic was lost for some children because of the circumstances of their birth. Little faces stare up at me, bursting into cries and requests “One more story bhaiya! Please!”” I cannot resist them. I reach into my backpack […]