Refine your communication skills and express yourself more clearly in an English-speaking environment.
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Helping Women Assert Themselves in Business
In today's global business landscape, refining how we assert our voice is crucial. For high-level non-native English speakers, the challenge isn't just about mastering vocabulary or grammar—it's about being heard, understood, and respected. Women, in particular, often...
Can You Really Eliminate a Foreign Accent?
How realistic is it to completely eliminate a foreign accent? The honest answer: it’s very unlikely. While it's possible to soften an accent and improve clarity, eliminating it entirely is an enormous challenge—even for highly trained actors. Why? Because accent...
How Emotion Shapes Learning
Whether you're refining your English skills as a professional or learning a new language from scratch, engaging your emotions can significantly enhance your progress. Why Emotion Matters in Language Learning Emotion affects attention, memory, motivation, and cognitive...
The Silent Struggle: How Language Gaps Impact Non-Native Speakers’ Confidence at Work
When a non-native English speaker lives and works in an English-speaking environment, even apparent fluency can mask significant challenges. Recognizing these nuances is crucial for HR professionals and workplace leaders to foster an inclusive and supportive...
T Between Vowels – Practice with the audio
Recently I made a post on how to pronounce T, entitled Pronouncing T – Practice the poem with the audio. The poem I posted helped you to practice the T which is at the beginning of a word or any stressed syllable. But in Toronto, and many other areas in North America,...
Pronouncing T – Practice the poem with the audio
Pronouncing T varies between languages. For example, where the tongue makes contact with the top of the mouth varies, as does the angle of the tongue and the air expelled. In this poem, the T sounds are primarily made at the beginning of the words. In this case, the T...
REFINING YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS: How to make home practice habitual
Accent modification is like ballroom dancing for the tongue A while back, when I was studying ballroom dancing, the teacher was saying to do this, do that, remember this, remember that, and I thought: learning to pronounce differently is like ballroom dancing for the...
The Dilemma – What is “Correct” English?
I am often asked, “Is that ‘correct’ English?” It is not a simple question to answer. I have thought about this often but recently I was reminded of it again as I listened to the audio version of Between the World and Me. Written and read by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the book...
Video Post on The Schwa: The Lazy Vowel – Part 5
If you’ve been watching my latest video series, you’ll understand that the schwa refers to the reduced vowel sound which English speakers use everywhere. But did you know that this reduction can also affect complete words that are not stressed in a sentence? As the...
Video Post on The Schwa: The Lazy Vowel – Part 4
Why is the schwa so important? As the most common vowel sound in the English language, the schwa can sometimes tell you if a word is a noun or a verb. Did you know RE-cord (the noun) is pronounced differently than re-CORD (the verb)? And there are many like that....
