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How to integrate what you learn into your active communication: The “MAKE IT YOUR OWN” Process
I’ve seen that many people obtain knowledge from our English training sessions (and other types of training as well) but not all integrate what was learned. The missing piece is making it your own! How to integrate what you learn into your daily communication To learn...
Learning Idioms from Honest Ed’s – 1948-2016
Most cities have their landmarks. In Toronto, we have one that was sold after the death of its owner, Ed Mirvish. A poor immigrant to Toronto in the 1920s, he built a discount store in 1948 that catered to immigrants and the working class, delighting passersby with...
Why do people come to Voice to Word and for what?
“Working in the C-suite obliged me to refine my speech and presentation skills.”“I knew that I needed to improve my English to further develop my career...”“I often experienced prejudice because of my accent, as if I were unsophisticated…”“He is too direct and speaks...
How Soft Skills & Cultural Conditioning Influence your Job Prospects
We learn our soft skills from the environments we grow up in and experience – family, culture, friends, school, etc.. Inappropriate or insufficient soft skills - ranging from not understanding culturally appropriate communication to not being able to express words...
CLEAR SPEECH – Do you want a promotion?
Have you been working in a job for years with no significant promotion? What might be the reason? While discrimination is always a potential factor, have you considered your skill at communicating clearly and effectively? Expectations regarding appropriate...
How our Language Influences our Perceptions
There is a word in German – umwelt – which refers to how different organisms and beings experience reality. Numerous conditions influence our perception of reality – faith, assumptions, education, culture, physical considerations, character traits, concepts we hold,...
Improve Your Fluency by Using Lexical Chunks
Only 3000 words make up 86% of the language we commonly use in speaking and writing (Longman Communication 3000). Most intermediate English-speakers already have this vocabulary; they also have learned the common grammatical structures (of which there are dozens.)...
Malapropisms, Eggcorns, Pet Peeves and Different Accents
Many of us have our pet peeves - minor annoyances that particularly irritate us, more so than would be normally expected. Well, one of my pet peeves is messing up an expression. Sometimes referred to as an “eggcorn,” the more technical word for this error is...
Idioms: Pluto the dog
Pluto the dog is a character that has become popular under Covid. I’ve always enjoyed the humour but this one – called "Losing your Marbles" - is wonderful for my line of work. He speaks in almost pure idioms throughout the 3-minute clip. Listen to it and see how many...
Assessing Pronunciation – Prosody, the Music of the Language
When I do a pronunciation assessment, I look at three key areas. The first two are the ones that come to mind when most people think about pronunciation. These are the individual sounds - also called “phonemes” or “segmentals” - the vowels and consonants. I wrote...
