I should call this part 1, but I don’t really want to make that commitment. There are many grammar mistakes, and I don’t want to single out any that are particularly worse or bigger, or more common than others. I’m limiting myself to three here because you have to...
I’ve been asked for a blog post about how to prepare for the speaking portion of the IELTS test. I’ve been teaching long enough that the request - and the worry that it implied - didn’t exactly surprise me, but I’m always telling my students, and student colleagues...
I’ve been teaching for a long time now, and I have noticed some things that many people do that often turn out to be big mistakes. I’m not talking about vocabulary or grammar or the like. That’s a different post. Today I’m talking about some things that people do that...
We are in the 21st century now. I think that everyone knows that it’s important to learn English. But what if you're an adult beginner who didn't learn it in school, or you've forgotten everything? You might feel that starting now is impossible. However, remember two...
When I talk, I usually (though certainly not always) use words, as ya do. Somehow, it gets me in trouble with other Americans. This is why I avoid talking to them. Not that that is very hard to do; Americans don’t travel much, at least not outside of...
Considering how many years I have been living abroad, and how many countries I’ve lived in, it should come as no surprise that I have been acquainted with more than a few expat communities. No matter what country/city I’ve found myself in, there have been a fair few...
Do you find it hard to speak English in public? And every time you try to do something about it, you either get stuck or can’t even get started. Don’t worry, you are absolutely not alone. The comedian Jerry Seinfeld once famously pointed out that public speaking was...
I’ve just uploaded a new cartoon video to YouTube about a new booklet I’ve just released called The Skint Expat’s Key To English. Check out the video here if you like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8zOK9cEY1c Or else you can go into Amazon Kindle and find the...
I’ve just made a video for YouTube on how to book a trial lesson. I wrote pretty simple instructions on the Study English page, and Karol made a pretty good visual to illustrate that, but now there’s a video, it’s on YouTube, and it puts my face to the product....
《This is kind of an interesting post. I actually wrote it for another blog, one which is currently on hold, putting it as mildly as possible. I actually have a few posts from there that might be good here, both for language learning and for expat...
I have been an expat for more than 30 years now. I’m originally from the United States, though at this point that hardly matters. In that time, I’ve played music with bands and recorded and released solo music, I’ve been an English teacher for most of that time, and now I’m doing a blog about all of it.