Do you fear speaking in English because you worry your friends will make fun of you?
Do you fear speaking in English because you worry about what others would say on your mistakes?
Do you fear speaking in English in presence of others because yours is not as good as theirs?
If yes, read on. In this post, I’ll try to deal with this topic at a fundamental level.
All of us read something or the other every day. Can we make use of a small part of that reading to improve our English language skills – mainly written English, but to some extent spoken English as well – at a much faster rate than we currently are?
Yes, we can. (The similarity of this sentence to Mr. Obama’s 2008 election slogan is purely coincidental.)
Through reading slowly and attentively, crawling in other words. If you can make crawling a regular habit, you’ll improve your English language skills at a much faster clip than your peers.
Non-native speakers mispronounce by the dozen every day. Even fluent speakers. Even those working in high-paying white-collar jobs.
Why can’t they correct these pronunciation mistakes? Why have they been repeating these mistakes for years, even decades.
The answer is this question: will they take corrective steps when they don’t even know they’re mispronouncing?
In this post, I’ll list correct pronunciation of more than 250 commonly-mispronounced words in English. And places. And brands.
Not thanking people where you ought to is considered rude.
But why some don’t thank?
You can’t escape introductions.
When you attend a conference, you introduce yourself to new faces you meet.
When you attend a social function, you introduce yourself.
When you attend an in-house training, you introduce yourself to your colleagues from other offices.
When you attend college, you introduce yourself to new friends.
The first impression you create through your introduction can sometimes have far-reaching impact on your personal and professional life. People can take first impression as the last. And even if they don’t, your introduction may not excite them to carry the discussion further. Imagine, a crucial business lead losing interest because you faltered in your intro pitch, especially when many others were vying for the same pot of gold.
There are four kinds of skills in any language – reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Reading and listening are passive skills in which you absorb the input (text or voice) passively. Writing and speaking, on the other hand, are active skills in which you produce the output, and therefore are more challenging to master.
Little wonder, most people are looking to learn speaking and writing when they express desire to improve their English. In this post, I’ll cover how to improve speaking and writing for people at two different levels:
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