When I was taking ESL classes many years ago, one of my Colombian classmates asked me: “Do you know New York?” “Of course,” I replied, “who doesn’t?” But what I thought he’d asked was if I knew ABOUT New York. Later I found out that he actually wanted to ask me if I had ever […]
Commonly confused English words
When I was in college, one day during my math class the teacher was explaining an equation. One of my classmates, an Arabic speaker, raised his hand and asked a question referring to the remainder in the equation as a “reminder.” This slight mispronunciation made our teacher smile and she told him that he was […]
Common mistakes Slavic speakers make in English
All languages have unique words and phrases that, if translated literally into English, can cause confusion and even sound comical. For example, the literal translation of “thank you upfront” from Polish to English – “thank you from the mountain” 😂 – is a common joke among Polish speakers. Although this is just a joke and […]
How to start thinking in English
“You nailed it” and other idioms
A while ago I heard a nonnative speaker complaining that he had totally misunderstood his boss because of a phrase the latter had used. The situation was the following: the nonnative speaker presented something at work and after the presentation he asked his boss for feedback. “You killed it,” his boss said. The presenter was […]
The power of simple words
How to memorize words
What do you do when you get stuck in English?
Unproductiveness of productive procrastination
The other day I heard about productive procrastination and the term sparked my curiosity. It is the act of being busy while still procrastinating. Whaaat??? I hear you; I was confused too. This is the less obvious sister of the procrastination we all are painfully familiar with. But while we are aware that we procrastinate […]