Don’t worry, I’m neither possessed nor schizophrenic and I haven’t lost my mind! It’s not the field that I hate, just the actual term itself. Why? Because the term “pronunciation”, as it is understood now by ESL specialists and schools, does not do justice to the actual concept of pronunciation. Ask an average ESL teacher […]
I know what you’re thinking. What does a blog about English learning have to do with terrorism, right? Well, just bear with me and keep on reading, you’ll find out. Anyone ever wondered how someone becomes a full-time terrorist? It’s amazing isn’t it? I mean those people do terror for a living. They are totally […]
I wrote the title so just to make it short, so do not think that I’m taking the piss out of Japanese people or anything like that. Japanese people are quite embarrassed about the fact that they cannot speak English and they (well, many of them I guess) have begun to realize that they’re a […]
Is that fair? Who cares? Life’s not fair in many ways, is it? You might have the most remarkable vocabulary and the most accurate grammar and still be wondering why you can’t get people to like hanging out with you or just have a conversation with you. No one likes robots. No one likes a […]
Did you guys miss me? I bet you did. Thank you so much for all your loyalty. It’s incredible how many emails I got from loyal followers just asking me when the website is going to be back up. Well, there it is. The website has been re-designed and now looks completely different. Parts of […]
I realize that may sound arrogant as it assumes that the land of opportunity has to be where English happens to be the first language but no one can argue that countries like the United States, Canada and Australia (and certainly some European countries) have been a common destination for the world’s immigrants over the […]
How to practice speaking English is a question that I have heard probably over a million times throughout my career. Now, I have 3 great tips for you but as just in case you don’t know, I’m not really a “sane” English teacher and my interest in teaching the language, specifically speaking, listening and pronunciation […]
Since we’re just a few days away from Christmas Eve, I thought I should tell you how to say it without sounding funny (in the negative way). It’s very unlikely that people won’t understand you when you greet them with “Merry Christmas” or “Happy New Year” because they are expecting it right? Let me show […]
Not a single day goes by without hearing this question “What is the best way to learn English…fast?”. Since you’re in such a hurry, I’ll indulge you!
Ever since I finished my TESOL degree and started teaching, my top obsession has been “how could I somehow enable the memory of an adult English learner to achieve what a child’s does. How could I somehow speed up the human processor, that is the brain, so that it could respond to the sounds and messages being transmitted to it quicker? Read on!