Feeling at home with English - interview with Monika RozmiarekI'm here with Monika Rozmiarek today. Monika, where are you? Hi, so I'm calling from the UK, from England to be exact. I see. And you're not originally from the UK? No, hence probably you've got some troubles pronouncing my surname I'm originally from Poland. I'm Polish but I moved, I moved to the UK five years ago, about five years ago.And you're an English teacher? That's right. I am an English language teacher. I was teaching in Poland back when I was still there and I started doing the same when I arrived in the UK. Now, I can say that I finally teach full -time and I teach adults only. I work, I help expats improve their English so they can feel at home in the UK. That's so important.  Are you in the UK? No, I'm in Japan. Right. But originally? Yeah. I'm from the UK. Yeah, the West country. Where are you in the UK now? Oxfordshire, Bicester to be exact. I don't know if you know where that is. Yeah, vaguely near Oxford. Yeah, in the South. Yeah. Okay, so you're helping expats with their English. So important. Just Polish or any anyone?So I have my private students that I teach online and these are so far they've been Polish people only just because I know this environment, I know how to reach people and but I work college as well. I teach ESOL in college and there's a mixture of nationalities. So, it's teaching English using English only. It's interesting, exciting to some extent. So, do you find that people have studied English in school and then they come to UK and they're a bit shocked or a bit surprised how different school English is to real life English? Right, to be honest I was shocked and surprised myself when I came here even if I studied that language at the university. So I was already at a very advanced level but still understanding native speakers was really hard, not only about the accent but also the words they used. You know, there's a specific British slang that they use that it's not so familiar to people who come to the UK because this type of language is not being taught at schools. So, yeah, I've had many people with the same problems as me when I came here. Yes, so you understand the sort of surprise and what, yeah, what are people talking about? This is not like the books.Yes, yes, I understand the frustration as well, because even if your English is really good and you can speak, you communicate, and then you come here and you suddenly start thinking, I don't know anything. I don't know any English at all. And it is, you know, it is frustrating because you want to feel here at home as you decided to live here. So I try helping them as much as I can, understanding the British aspects of it as well. Yeah, exactly. Have you got any memorable moments from your teaching or students that sort of stand out in your mind for you? ]Many of them, you know. What changes usually, what I've noticed and what the students have told me. It's their feelings about their, well, their life and their English in general. What I mean is when they came here, they didn't know any English or they knew little English. They didn't have the confidence to open up, to speak and they just felt a bit lonely. And then after a few lessons or a few months lessons with me, they started feeling more confident. So, I that's

Why you need to celebrate your English lessonsDo you ever celebrate your English lessons? Sounds weird I know. But do you know what makes you want to keep learning English? What makes you enjoy learning English?Scientifically speaking it's dopamine. That's the hormone that makes you happy. Dopamine does a lot of jobs in your body, and making you happy is just one result.When you do something rewarding or pleasurable dopamine is released. Dopamine makes you feel good and you want more. So you do more of the pleasurable thing.Usually, people talk about eating delicious food,  listening to music, taking drugs or having sex as the pleasurable activities. But what about study? Not the same as food, roll and rock, drugs or sex, I know! But can studying cause a dopamine release?The answer is yes, but here's the trick to cause a dopamine release, and therefore feel happy about studying - you have to celebrate! So every time - after you finish studying or after you finish a lesson, celebrate! No, I don't mean crack open a bottle of champagne or feast on chocolate cake. A quick 'well done me' is enough. Feel good about what you achieved. Say it aloud! Yay me! Smile. Compare this feeling to one of finishing your English lesson in school. You feel exhausted, bored, maybe fed up that your English isn't improving. You go away with a sigh or relief that it's all over. No dopamine there. But if you try to see the good side, that you did speak, you understood, and celebrate that feeling - now how do you leave? Head up, smiling, dopamine passing through your body. A much better feeling.Your brain will come associate this feeling of happiness with study. You get a reward (a dopamine hit) after study. And over time you'll want to it more. So celebrate your English lessons, and you'll want to do more, and your English will improve, without you realising.Try it this week!If you're looking for innovative and creative English teachers to help you improve your English, and celebrate your English lessons with, check out the Elevate Directory of English language teachers. -

The Joy of English Pronunciation with Jennie ReedWelcome back to the Elevate blog. I'm here with Jennie Reed today. Hi Jennie. Hi Abbie, thanks for inviting me. No problem, where are you in the world? I am in Scotland in the UK. I see, have you lived there a long time? Where I live now, we've been here about four years, but I've been in Scotland for eight years now. How's that? You like Scotland? Yes, we love Scotland. It's so beautiful. The people are so friendly and welcoming. The weather is very changeable and the long days in the summer are lovely, short days in the winter not as nice, but they're all part and parcel of the experience of living in Scotland. That's right, and so you're an English teacher? Yes, that's right.And who do you help? I help lots of different people but mainly I work with English teachers so people who are non -native speakers who want to feel more confident with their pronunciation and also help their learners with pronunciation too So pronunciation's your main interest? Yes, I think it's fascinating. So honestly, up until 2018, I probably didn't consider pronunciation very much in my classes at all, other than to give direct corrections to my students. And that would just be if it was something that I really couldn't understand what they were saying, and it would just be correcting what they said and then in 2018 I started a diploma in teaching English as a second language and through that I learned so much about pronunciation and I started using it in my lessons at the time I was working in a language school in Edinburgh and the difference it made for my students I could just see their confidence increasing in their communication and from that point on, I just knew that it was not quite magic, but it was something that was a key part of speaking another language. And I think that's been really fun. And it has so many different possibilities and so many different ways that it can help people increase their confidence in their communication. And I think that's really important. I see. So, what changes do you see when you're helping your learners with pronunciation? I mean, maybe some people think, there's no way, nobody can help me with my pronunciation. What can you do to help them? There's two sides to this. Lots of people come to me initially saying, oh, my accent is too strong. And first of all I'd like to clarify that it's not about accent. Everyone has an accent and it doesn't matter whether that's a Scottish accent or an English accent or an Italian accent or a Spanish accent or a Japanese accent, as long as you can speak clearly enough for other people to understand what you're saying. accent isn't the problem as long as you're consistent with the sounds and this is where it's key because the consistency allows other people to understand what you're saying and so when I work with my clients it's about distinguishing sounds that are quite similar that can maybe cause confusion So this could be vowel sounds, for example, and some consonant sounds, although not so much because we're a bit more forgiving with the consonant sounds, but also thinking about the stress patterns. So some languages, the stress is very regular, but English, it changes depending on what the person is trying to say. And this can be very subjective and you have the same sentence said by five different

How to speak more EnglishThe number one question I am always asked is, how do I get fluent in speaking English? The only answer is speak more English! But how do you speak more English everyday? Here are my 5 top practical tips for speaking more English everyday so you get fluent faster. 1. Read out loudEspecially good if you have no idea what to say. Grab an English book near you, open it up and start to read. Out loud. Reading aloud will help you master tricky pronunciation combinations like the ‘th’ and ‘s’ in ‘six months old.’ You’ll also expose yourself to more vocabulary and grammar that you might not use yourself. Reading helps you to get fluent in speaking without having to think about what to say. You'll immediately speak more English!  2. Talk to yourself.If you have no one else to speak more English to, speak to yourself! You get the best answers, and the best jokes, that way! Look around you, what can you see? Describe where you are, what are people doing, what are you thinking about and planning to do next? Say these things aloud! Talk to yourself in the mirror to practice your pronunciation. Pretend you are a YouTuber or a famous chef and you’re describing the meal you’re making. Imagine you have to train someone to do your job, in English, what do you say? 3. Talk to your children, pets or plants.Your pets and plants will not care about mistakes you make and they’ll always be there for you! Tell them about your day, your feelings, sing songs to them! Speak more English to your children, and don’t be shy about your accent or mistakes. Children will have a lot of sources of English, you will not be the only input. So they won’t pick up your mistakes. If your children speak English fluently already, well, great, you’ve done a great job! Now get them to teach you! 4. Find a conversation partner.There are loads of websites to find a conversation partner, so go and find one. When you write your profile put a little bit of information about yourself, about your hobbies or interests, your job or your family so you’ll find someone who has similar interests. It’ll be much easier to talk about something you have in common. 5. Find a teacher.When you’re looking for a teacher check their information carefully, will they encourage you to talk? Are their lessons about speaking or something else? Tell them that you want to talk as much as possible, be clear that speaking English fluently is your goal. If they don’t encourage you to talk, or they focus on something that is not interesting to you don’t be afraid to change that teacher and find one that is focused on speaking. If you're learning English and looking for excellent teachers to help you on your journey check out the Elevate Directory of English language teachers.How do you feel about your English speaking? Let me know below! -

The human side of learning English - interview with Joann ColonWelcome back to the Elevate blog. I'm here with Joanne Colon. Where are you at the moment in the world? Right now I'm in Jacksonville, Florida And it's quite warm?Yes, I'm I'm I've been living here about, All together about five years within, several gaps in between, but now four years uninterrupted and I'm still not accustomed to the summers.So you're an English teacher. Can you tell me a bit about the people that you teach at the moment? So I focus on adults, though I'm starting to branch out to teenagers as well. And I basically help them speak English more confidently and just provide a safe, calm, fun environment for them to practice and improve their English. And I guess show that English can be fun without without ever expecting it. Do you find a lot of your learners are a bit, they've come from the school system and they know they need English? they not really in love with English? Some, Some do, especially the teenagers. They, they're going through the school system as we speak and they just want to, well, speak and so in my sessions this is when they have the space and the opportunity to speak of whatever they like. I usually have something planned but sometimes we go off topic and I tell them as long as it's in English we're good. Yeah, exactly. It's that safe space where you can just speak. Yeah, exactly. And same with adults as well. Do you find that they are happy to speak? Do they have particular wants with their English, the adults especially? Yes, some want to improve their grammar, and I don't offer grammar lessons. I feel that if they want to study grammar, they don't necessarily need me, but if they have a grammar question, I'll happily answer for them and give them examples. And then usually when they have a, "oh, OK," response then, OK, they got it. Yeah, that's satisfying, isn't it? Yeah. Have you got any moments or learners in particular that have made a, you know, a big breakthrough with you, or you can see their progress? Yes, I remember one in particular, a lady from Poland that, she did not like speaking English and with time she started to enjoy it and not only that but there was one time that during one of our sessions there was a very big thunderstorm. I heard the thunder like like it was right here I thought like oh my goodness this is very loud. And she was, and I felt very touched that she, she admitted to me that she is scared to death of thunderstorms. But she, she wanted to stay with me until our session was done or until the electricity went off, whichever came first. And, and, like, I told her that, if you want to get up that's okay I completely understand and she said no I I want you to stay with me please it's very scary. I was very very touched yeah That's really it's it's really important isn't it with your English because you make a plan like you're studying business English but then something like this comes along, you have to tell people how you're feeling. Yes, and fortunately we finished the entire session and by that time the storm had died down quite a bit. So, phew!You got through it. Yeah. So, so I feel that in a way this, this can, this can serve as a, as an analogy that I and other teachers I'm sure we're here to hold your hand if it's necessary. Yeah, sometimes it

The top six excuses for not practising your EnglishWhy are you learning English? I'm sure you get asked that a lot!  How about this question: what’s your excuse for not practising English today? Not such a common question, but a really common problem. Today? I’m too busy, I’m too tired. We all know the feeling. We all know we should do a little everyday, and practice makes perfect. But, life happens and suddenly you’re falling into bed at the end of the day and - oops I forgot to do some language study. Think about the excuses you used today and over the past week. Why didn’t you study? Write down ten excuses. Go on, write them down. I bet having no time was quite high on the list, wasn’t it? And no money? How about no motivation?I know, I’ve been there, I am there everyday with learning Japanese. Man, it’s hard!! I have all the excuses in my top pocket ready to go. Let’s beat these excuses. I know them, you know them, and really we all know they are rubbish, and with a bit of logic and application we can overcome them. Here are the top six excuses I use: I have no time. All-time number one excuse for not doing anything, isn’t it? Sure, some days are so busy there is barely time to scratch your head let alone concentrate on the finer points of English grammar. But everyday? If you honestly can’t find five minutes to study you really need to think about if learning English is a priority for you at the moment. And it’s okay to say right now I don’t have time, but next month I’m going to find five minutes a day to study. A way to make time is to link study to something you already do everyday. Brush your teeth, eat meals, watch TV, take a bus, drive a car, wash the dishes. What learning tools can you use at the same time? Do your flashcards on the bus, listen to a podcast in the car, conjugate verbs while you brush your teeth. If you try to connect a new habit with an old one, it’s much more likely to stick.  I don’t know where to start. I get it. There are so many materials out there, and so many tools, courses, apps and books you could use. But let’s start where we are, not where we want to be. First have a look at the books and apps and materials you already have. Some you’ve never really looked at, right? Go take another look at them and see if they fit your needs now. Secondly, what is it you really need to do right now with your language? Pass an exam? Give a presentation at work? Talk to a school teacher? Find the materials that will help you do that, and use them. And here’s a really great tip: find a resource you love and stick with it. Try to wring as much out of the material that you have chosen as you can. This is because a book or a course will progress, and a well designed course will help you progress more. You will progress if you stick with one thing and use it. If you keep switching, you might progress, but you might get lost starting over and over again.  I don’t know how to practiceAll the materials, courses, books and apps out there can be overwhelming, and you can spend a lot of time planning your study rather than studying. So, keep things simple, stick with a few chosen materials and then use them. Focus on what you need to do in this language, and think of the steps to do get there. For example I want to be better at speaking in Japanese, but I often don’t understand what people say to me

Holly Jensen tells us about her innovative and flexible English solutions, so you don't have to go to lessons everyday! I'm here with teacher Holly Jensen. Holly, where are you in the world? I'm actually living in California. In the United States.And you are an English teacher? Yes, ma 'am. Tell me more about the people that you teach. What kind of learners do you have? Well, it's interesting. Currently I'm working for several companies teaching, test prep and general English. But I'm also working to build a business and, this will focus more on, I'm Developing asynchronous, meaning lessons that don't focus so much on meeting with me live or if you do meet with me live, it's for a shorter time because one of the needs that I see is really busy people. People are busy and they need to work on their English, but they don't have much time. So, I want to meet that need, but I work with, gosh, in the companies, I work with adults of all ages. Yes, I have worked with students in their 70s and students in their 20s, early 20s or even 19 years old. So, I have a lot of experience. Tell me about your self -study course that you're developing. What's that about? Well, it's not exactly self -study. what it is, I'm developing a couple of things. So one of them is I have a challenge, it's an email challenge, and basically you can do different levels. You can do 20 days, you can do 40 days, or 60 days, and every other day you receive a question, and you need to respond to it inside of 48 hours in speaking or writing depending on what you want to work on and then I will respond to you with some corrections as well as encouragement. What are you doing well and what do you need to work on? And I even help you with resources because another problem that I see sometimes is that students don't know exactly what resources are good. Right, yes. So I help with that. And then on the days when you don't receive the questions, you receive tips. Helping you become a better student of English if you want to go with self -study, if not, it helps you get an idea of what working with me might be like. The other thing is that I have, I call them messenger lessons, so we use your favorite messenger. It be iMessage, could be Facebook Messenger, whatever you like, and I give you the lessons. I send you material or I send you, something, I send you material or I give you directions and you, uh, do the studying and then you give me your answers for feedback or you can ask me questions or if you just hear something in English that is really confusing, you can send me a question and that is unlimited for a monthly price. So it's like classes, but it does not depend on trying to make our schedules connect. That's great. It's so, I find in my everyday life, I'm in Japan and I'm learning Japanese. And yeah, as I go about life, I think, how do I say this in Japanese? And yeah, when you're not in the lesson at the time, it totally goes out of your head. Yeah this solves that problem. Yeah that sounds great. Because you can just shoot me a text and you know I might not get back to you the next second but you will get an answer. Yes yeah well yeah while your mind is on that how do I say this? Is this right? Yeah that's great. One of my students said, it's like, she says, it's like a dream come true. I take you with me wherever I go. Awesome. Yeah, a teacher in your

6 tips to teach your children EnglishYou've decided that you want to teach your children English, and use more English at home. But what will you actually teach them? Here are 3 things to teach, and 3 things you don't need to bother with1. Do teach with actionsAs babies learning language the first thing we do is watch and listen. So it makes sense that the first thing children learning English as another language do is to watch and listen. At home you can do this by saying an action and then doing the action. Your kids will join in. Say 'run' and run around. Say 'eat' and gesture eating. Say 'sneeze' and mime sneezing. It's so fun. Soon your children will be making suggestions too. Make it more complicated. For example 'jump like a kangaroo' is different to 'jump like a rabbit' or 'eat a hamburger' is different to 'eat spaghetti'. When your children know lots of actions then it's easy to add in grammar without teaching it. Make questions like 'Are you jumping?' or 'Did you swim yesterday?' can slowly introduce the idea of different tenses. Remember to do action first - then speak. 2. Do teach questions and answersSo much of any language is made up of set phrases - How are you? Fine, thank you. Ignore the Youtubers who say 'don't say this!' 90% of the time that's the right answer. You can think of phrases to use in everyday life around your house - here you are, thank you. Are you ready? Yes I am! Where are your socks? Over there! Where's your homework? I don't know!' Use these phrases around your home so it becomes a normal part of your home life. 3. Do teach phonicsLearning the sounds of letters in English is essential for reading and writing. Learning the sounds is different from learning the names of the letters. Phonics teaches the sounds of English - there are 46. It's the foundation for understanding how to read and write in English. Although there are a lot of exceptions to the rules in English, having this basic understanding of how sounds and letters work together in English is really important. I have been teaching English for over 14 years and I wish more adults had had a good foundation in phonics because they do not understand how to form English words - it's not that random! Learning phonics rules will help propel your little readers and encourage them to love reading and writing more! 1. Don't teach grammarThere are not many 5 year olds who say 'But Mummy I want to know how to conjugate the verb to be correctly.' For small kids grammar is not that important for communication. Learning the irregular past verbs is not really the best way to spend your time when you're 6. So instead of learning by rote, or memorising from a book, use the words in your everyday life. You could choose to practice something that you've noticed your kids getting wrong - for example the past of the verb to swim. So talk a lot about swimming, ask questions - have you ever swum in the sea? we swam yesterday didn't we? Do you swim at school? I swam in the ocean when I was 8. etc. It's really important that children notice the rules themselves in order to learn it fully. So instead of telling them this is the rule, let them discover it. 2. Don't teach ABCsKnowing the alphabet or the ABC song isn't actually very useful for speaking, reading or writing in English. It doesn't help with spelling or speaking or listening, and most kids end up saying ellymanypee, instead of LMNOP. So wh

6 Tips for finding an online English Teacher Are you searching for an online English teacher for yourself or your children? Here are 6 tips for a smooth experienceSearch for exactly what you need.If you google a general phrase like 'learn English' you're going to get a lot, like millions and millions, of results. How can you use that? Better to search for something specific like English for researchers, or English for TOEFL, an online conversation club or even online phonics for children. Get more specific to find the teachers that can help you.Discover what your ideal teacher looks like with this free online worksheet. It'll get you thinking about what you really like and need from your English lessons.How do you pay?Once you've searched, you'll need to check some details before you commit. Some platforms require you to pay for credits or points to book a lesson. Before you pay check if you can you pay with credit card, or e-money, or another way. Independent teachers might allow you to pay by bank transfer as well as card or e-money. Before you get excited about the lessons, do check you are able to pay!Do you need to download any apps or software, or buy books?Check if you need any software for video calls, apps for learning or messaging. Are they essential or optional, and if so what's the benefit? You might need a book, so check with the teacher what they recommend. Don't forget to include that in your budget for learning too.What's the cancellation policy?We hope it never happens but occasionally emergencies mean you cannot attend your lesson. It's wise to check when you book what the cancellation policy is. For example, you may be able to reschedule if you inform your teacher more than 24 hours before the lesson time. How about if the teacher has an emergency? Check what will happen for you with the teacher.Can you book a package, course or single lessons?While we often think of a course if you need to pass an exam, other types of learning are well suited to courses too. You might like to take single lessons occasionally, or when you need to be flexible with your schedule. Can you pay for 5 or 10 lessons in advance? What would suit you best? Check out this blog post for more about different types of lessonsWhat will you learn?Finally, probably the most important point: what are you going to learn? Think about exactly what you need. What is your aim for your lessons at this time? Will this teacher/course fulfil that? Can the teacher give you an idea of the outcome you should expect from their lessons or course.  How about the way you'll learn. Do you want to talk with a group, or self-study, or a mixture? Will you work from a book or e-course? If possible take a trial lesson to check if you are compatible with the teacher. Did you enjoy the lesson, did it meet your expectations? -

Addictive Business English I'm here with Liz Mackie today. Liz, where are you in the world, Liz? I'm in France, near Béziers. Let's put Béziers on the map. I don't know where that is, north? south?It's in the south, it's on the south. It's not on the coast, but it's very close. Do you know Montpellier? Yes. So it's Montpellier, it's west of Montpellier. Okay. We've got Montpellier, Béziers, Narbonne, Pépignan, Espagne. You're going into rugby country I think. Oh big time. Yeah. Yeah. My sport as well. Great. So you're helping business people and is there anything in particular that you help business people to achieve with their English? What's your focus? My focus is in -service adults, business professionals, and many of them are project managers or software developers who need to talk about abstract concepts quite often, and sales negotiators. They love their conditional sentences. The ultimate negotiators tool is the conditional sentence. And anyone involved in technical delivery or risk management, lawyers, European Union officials, dare I say, involved with regulation and compliance. But as you know, very often what they want is the pragmatic language and they will bring the technical language to the lesson themselves. Right, I see. So they just need, they have the main pieces and you need to provide... provide the sentence structure, preposition use, phrasal verbs, idiomatic language. That's they need that unpacked and they need to be able to practice that. Let's, let's talk about how, how, why I teach, why do I teach and how did I get there. Yeah. Well, a pretty, pretty strange transition, you might say career transition from being a project manager in various educational settings. So, applying planning management soft skills to mainly IT development projects. And I was working for the larger of the two universities that we have in Cambridge for many years in different HR and educational settings. And And just got to that difficult age that we ladies get to, when I decided that I wanted to try something different. So I enrolled on a CELTA course at Cambridge Regional College. And it was the first blended in -person plus online CELTA, which had its challenges. It was a bit of a rough road, not least because I didn't represent a typical CELTA candidate. That was interesting. But I loved teaching small groups and it was the interaction with the students that absolutely got me hooked. Yeah. That's the thing, isn't it? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's my story. And I've taught online since 2016. That was my plan because I'm, you know, way off retirement. I was way off retirement in 2016. So I had to find something to do, something where I could earn some money, but also be a useful member of French society. And online teaching was it. And bizarrely, the COVID, the dreadful time of COVID hit. And it was just at that, being in the right place at the right time, my teaching load just shot up. Yes, so that was just pure luck. And now at a ripe old age and thinking about retirement and thinking, do I really want to stop teaching online? I don't think I can. Yeah, it's kind of addictive, isn't it? It's, yeah, like you said, the students getting to know people. Yeah, that's why we keep doing it. It's so interesting as I talk to teachers, lots of teachers doing this, and it's, yeah, that's it. It'