by Heather Chetwynd | Jul 26, 2011 | Accent Modification
Learning to adjust your accent is a lot like learning to play an instrument. We need to fine tune listening skills, exercise muscles that aren’t used much, smooth out transitions between sounds, add dynamics, etc. And, very importantly, it takes focus, repetition and...
by Heather Chetwynd | Jun 23, 2011 | Voice to Word Post - Other
I was speaking with client of mine from Colombia a while back. Since Canada was signing a free trade agreement with Colombia at the time, I asked him what Canada exported to Colombia. “Weed,” he said. “I don’t think so,” I replied with a smile. “That’s what Colombia...
by Heather Chetwynd | May 24, 2011 | Culture and Values
Like the police officer who confused PASSED AWAY with PASSED OUT (see the joke “Idiom Danger” below,) many of us mix up English expressions. For example, we may blend two idioms, mix up the preposition in a phrasal verb, incorrectly hear the words in an expression or...
by Heather Chetwynd | May 10, 2011 | Voice to Word Post - Other
A friend of mine recently told me a story about a former student who had become a police officer. One day, he was attending a young man who had fainted. Since the young man was unconscious, the officer called an ambulance which whisked him away to the hospital. The...
by Heather Chetwynd | Nov 11, 2010 | Culture and Values
I was on the phone recently getting some tech support. As is often the case, I was talking with someone from India. I wanted to know whether I was doing something correctly and, after explaining it to the technician, I asked if I was doing it in the right way. “Of...
