This Is Nice Today I taught a boy from Syria in a one-to-one lesson. It was the first time I have met him and I wanted to find out as much as I could about him. His level of English is pre-intermediate. I read through his homework and noted that the only describing word he had used was 'nice'. This is not really description at all, apart from telling the reader that something is being viewed in a positive light. It made me realise how frustrating it is when we don't know the word, or language, to describe what we have in our heads. It can be hard to voice what our opinions are, but the more vocabulary we have, the more accurate we can be in how we put across our ideas and experience of the world. I am looking forward to teaching this bright young student, and at the end of his course, I hope he tells me that it was 'interesting' and 'helpful' and 'educational', rather than 'nice'. Though of course, 'nice' is better than 'awful', 'boring' or 'dull'.... I will keep you posted.