I had been in Poland for a week or two, and my Polish consisted of several sentences when a guy I’d met at a party invited me to see a movie. It was supposed to be the best Polish movie of that year and everyone was talking about it. Of course, because it was shown […]
New Year’s resolutions
As the New Year approaches, this is the time when many people make their New Year’s resolutions. But do resolutions really work? According to the article Reasons Why We Don’t Achieve New Year’s Resolutions published in Forbes, 80% of people give up on their New Year’s resolutions by mid-February. The reasons are picking non-realistic goals, […]
Enjoy the experience, don’t dwell on the goal
English modals: must not vs. don’t have to
I recently saw someone saying “teachers don’t have to make mistakes” while he meant “teachers must not make mistakes.” Although I don’t agree with this statement, I’d like to clarify the difference between must not and don’t have to. Must is one of the modals in the English language. The word “modal” comes from the […]
The power of community – a weekend in NYC
What is the best way to learn English?
10 commonly confusing English phrasal verbs
Prepositions give many nonnative speakers of English a very hard time. And when they are used to form phrasal verbs, they seem even harder. Oftentimes it is challenging to remember what preposition follows a certain verb in order to communicate a particular meaning. According to the Oxford dictionary, a phrasal verb is a verb that […]
10 mistakes Spanish speakers make in English
How I started my career as a pronunciation coach
The confusing meaning of double negatives
You have probably heard that double negatives in English are not grammatically correct. A double negative is when you use two negative words in a phrase or a sentence. For example, ✘ “I don’t like nothing” is grammatically incorrect. The correct way to say this sentence in English is ✔ “I don’t like anything” or ✔ “I like nothing.” But there is another […]