Have you heard of Aesop’s Fables? These are short stories which teach us useful life lessons. The most famous one is about a hare and a tortoise who have a race. The hare is so confident he will win that he stops for a rest and falls asleep so the tortoise wins! I expect a lot of you will know this story so today I’m going to tell you another one of Aesop’s stories that’s less well known.
People often say "I want to speak like you" or “How can I speak English like a native speaker?” I’ve been thinking about how to answer that question and these are my thoughts on this topic.
Do you know what your level of English is? Why is it useful to know this? And how can you find out what your level is? That's what I'm going to help you with in this post.
I’ve been thinking recently about the differences between one-to-one lessons and group lessons, plus the advantages and disadvantages of each. I asked my Facebook followers which they thought was best and I was surprised by the answers!
Some people might read the title of this post and think “Why is Katie writing about this? Does she think we’re stupid? I already know how to use a dictionary!” Please keep reading and let me explain!
I think the second most common question I'm asked is how to improve listening skills. (The most common question is about speaking!) Some time ago I wrote this post about listening but today I have some more tips for you.
There are a lot of words in English! In fact, English has more words than most other languages, although there are languages with more, like Chinese and Arabic. This makes vocabulary learning quite challenging for English learners. But how many words are there in English and how many do you need to learn?
Do you think that people’s ideas about what’s polite and what’s not polite are the same all over the world or do you think that it depends which country you are in?
In today’s post, I’m going to tell you what I’ve discovered by working with international learners, living abroad and a bit of reading. I wouldn’t call myself an expert but I love learning from my students and followers! I’ve been having some interesting conversations on Facebook over the last few days about mistakes in English and who makes them. Do native speakers make mistakes when they speak English? And what about English teachers?!
Today’s post is another one in my series about confusing words. What words do YOU find confusing in English? Tell me in the comments and I’ll see if I can help you. I might even include your question in a future post.
Whenever I give advice on how to improve speaking skills, the most common response I get is “But I have nobody to talk to.” So what can you do if you're in this situation? In this post, I’m going to give you some possible solutions.
People ask me all the time how they can improve their English speaking skills. I’ve also noticed that some people think they are working on their speaking but actually, they are not doing the right things. That’s what today’s newsletter is all about.
In the classroom and on social media, I’ve been called Katie, Teacher, Teacher Katie, Miss Katie, Mrs Katie, Miss, Mrs, Madam, Ma’am, Sir, Mam, Mom, Mommy, Sister, Aunty, dear, honey, darling and many more!
I’m happy for my students and followers to call me “Katie”. I also accept most other names because I understand that there are cultural differences and I know that people want to be respectful. Some of the names in the above list are better than others and a few are unacceptable in the UK. I wonder if you can guess which ones! Keep reading to find out! My Facebook posts about confusing words continue to be popular so here are some more for you. If there are any words that you find confusing, you can write them in the comments and maybe I’ll include them in my next post!
I’ve had some interesting conversations on Facebook recently about accents, standard English and whether it is or isn’t OK to use “ain’t”! So today’s newsletter is all about what standard English is and what learners should learn and use.
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