You are not ‘bad at English’. What does ‘bad at English’ mean? Maybe your listening or reading comprehension skills are not as good as you want them to be. Practise with easy material and hard material. The easy material is a warm up and the hard material is work. I didn’t say you have to … [Read more…]
To talk about movies and books looks easy but is difficult for a lot of English learners. In this post, I will teach you how to talk about films and novels. Normally, we talk about genre, characters, setting and plot (or story). Genre Some genres are the same for films and books: science fiction, sci-fi … [Read more…]
Here is today’s podcast about nationalities. I’m British and English. My son is both British and Japanese. If you need to know more about a nationality, search Wikipedia. Subscribe to the podcast manually here or at the iTunes Store. 7 -Nationalities
If you want to order food, use “I’d like”, not “I want”.
Sometimes there are colours you want to describe but don’t know how to. It is even difficult for native speakers to describe colours exactly. Instead, we describe difficult colours by comparing the colour to another thing. For example, imagine you have a rug that is a very light brown, but not exactly beige. “My rug … [Read more…]
When you are writing, there are times you consider what is the correct way to say something. It is at this time that a style guide is necessary. They are essential for professional writers and useful for everyone else. The Economist has a free online style guide. The Guardian newspaper also has one.
You can tell stories easily by using four parts: beginning, main point, reaction and ending. Remember that stories usually stick to the past tense. Beginning It is common to use a past-continuous clause (was/were ~ing) and ‘when‘, followed by a past-tense clause (simple or continuous) for a detail to link to the main point. “I … [Read more…]
YouTube is an excellent way to learn English in small clips from popular movies. Here are a couple of examples. Don’t be afraid to repeat the clips over and over. High Fidelity – “I haven’t seen Evil Dead 2 yet.” Present perfect and the adverb ‘yet’. Speed – “There’s a bomb on a bus.” Practice … [Read more…]
You can shop online using your own language but sometimes you want to buy something that is only on sale from an English website. It isn’t difficult to shop online in English but it is sometimes tricky to understand what to do. Remember only to use websites you trust. Choose the item Choose the item … [Read more…]
I’m writing this in reply to a Twitter conversation. When you listen to a video or a CD and don’t understand, how many times should you repeat it or replay it? As many times as it takes. However, are you taking notes? Can you check words in a dictionary. Can you repeat what the speaker … [Read more…]