Recently I was doing some research about learning and came across a term that I hadn’t heard before – the hierarchy of competence. It piqued my curiosity and I kept reading. The hierarchy of competence is often visualized as a pyramid with four stages of learning and the goal of the learner is to climb […]
Learning English with comprehensible input
“When the rubber meets the road” and other idioms
I’ve heard from some nonnative speakers that they are reluctant to use idioms at work as they think that such phrases are unprofessional. But the truth is that Americans use them everywhere, so don’t be afraid. Of course, if you are not sure if the situation is appropriate, you can always stay more on the formal […]
“To run out of steam” and other idioms
What to do when others comment on your accent
Confusing English pronunciation: voiceless stops
The other day I was watching an Instagram live of a well-known guy in the marketing field. He was sharing his business strategy and talking about how he pitched to clients. The only thing is, instead of “pitching” he was saying “bitching.” Now, pitching to clients and bitching to clients are two very different things […]
Top five posts of 2022
Enjoy the experience, don’t dwell on the goal
Do you feel your English is still not good enough?
The unpredictable word stress in English
I sometimes hear nonnative speakers of English with excellent levels of grammar and vocabulary still struggling with word stress. This is because some languages have fixed word stress, which makes pronunciation of words predictable. But in English this is not the case. That is, some words have their primary stress on the first syllable, while […]