--- title: "10 Reasons English is Hard to Teach Abroad" description: "Here are our top-ten homonyms. Teaching English abroad can be hard. But one of the hardest lessons involves homonyms. But they are funny." type: blog version: 2 version_id: "de659cad-091f-47db-8898-c780c485b2be" generated_at: "2026-06-07T19:29:32.719Z" author: "Randy LeGrant" language: en-us reading_time: "5 min" word_count: 845 keywords: ["10 Reasons English is Hard to Teach Abroad"] url: "https://culturalexchangeproject.org/blog/10-reasons-english-is-hard-to-teach-abroad" --- # 10 Reasons English is Hard to Teach Abroad > Here are our top-ten homonyms. Teaching English abroad can be hard. But one of the hardest lessons involves homonyms. But they are funny. ## Key Takeaways - But there are homonyms that drive new speakers of English right up the wall - If you're on our Teach in Thailand program or our Teach in Myanmar program and you begin this lesson, it isn't going to last an hour - I thought it might be fun in this post to list out my favorite homonyms that gave me the most trouble when I was a teacher 1 min read # 10 Reasons English is Hard to Teach Abroad [Randy LeGrant](https://culturalexchangeproject.org/blog/author/randy-legrant) : Updated on June 7, 2026 [Teach Abroad](https://culturalexchangeproject.org/blog/topic/teach-abroad) [Help Me Teach](https://culturalexchangeproject.org/blog/topic/help-me-teach) As if we needed to list our reasons ... we all know, even those of us who are native speakers, English is tough.  How many times have you heard your friends at school say, *"I don't know where I put it at."*  Or, *"I don't know where it's at."*  And of course, the proper way to say that is, ***"I don't know where it is."*** But there are homonyms that drive new speakers of English right up the wall.  A homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling *and* the same pronunciation but have different meanings.  A good example would be, "When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes." If you're on our [Teach in Thailand](/paid-teacher-thailand "Teach in Thailand") program or our [Teach in Myanmar](/blog/teaching-english-in-myanmar "Teach in Myanmar") program and you begin this lesson, it isn't going to last an hour.  If you can get through homonyms in a week, you'll be lucky. I thought it might be fun in this post to list out my favorite homonyms that gave me the most trouble when I was a teacher.  And that was so long ago, I think God was a baby at the time. - The farm was used to produce. - He could lead, if only he would get the lead out. - A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. - There was a row among the oarsmen on how to row. - They were too close to the door to close it. - A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. - The wind was too strong to wind the sail. - After a number of injections, my jaw got number. - Upon seeing a tear in the painting, I shed a tear. And then there is my all time favorite: - The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. There is no real easy way to teach someone homonyms ... and that goes for native speakers as well.  Since our teachers do read our Blog, and use some of the posts in their lesson plans, can someone take a minute and tell us in the Comment section below how they teach homonyms? - #### Butch Hill 7/10/2013, 2:29:46 PM Uh--aren't these homographs instead of homonyms? #### Randy LeGrant 7/10/2013, 6:31:54 PM Hey Butch. Thanks for the comment and the question. To get as factual an answer as possible, we went to https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/homonym-homophone-homograph/ to see what they had to say.  In short (for people who don't want to read the article we're referencing:  A homograph is a word that has the same spelling as another word but has a different sound and a different meaning. Ex: bass (low, deep sound)/bass (a type of fish)  A homophone is a word that has the same sound as another word but is spelled differently and has a different meaning. Ex: to/two/too.  In the strictest sense, a homonym must be both a homograph and a homophone. So say many dictionaries. However, other dictionaries allow that a homonym can be a homograph or a homophone.  So Butch, you raise a GREAT question, and you bring up again why learning English is hard. In all honesty, this one even went by me and I was an English teacher for 7 years. 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