English Bite — I Have Worked in Four Countries: The Present Perfect
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
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English Bite — The /θ/ Sound: The One Nobody Gets Right
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
English Bite — Small Talk That Works: Starting a Conversation
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
English Bite — Travel English: At the Airport
You give this to the person at the gate before you get on the plane:
English Bite — I Used to Live in Sydney: Talking About the Past
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
English Bite — My Daily Routine in La Réunion
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
English Bite — Numbers 1–20: At the Restaurant
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
English Bite — My Family: Family Words in English
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
English Bite — At the Market: Food Words in English
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
English Bite — Animals I’ve Seen: From Sydney to La Réunion
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
English Bite — My Daughter Taught Me: Colours in English
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
Four Languages in One Head: What Multilingualism Teaches You About English
Code-switching is the natural alternation between languages in a multilingual speaker. It is sophisticated — not lazy or confused.
Register and Style: The Four Englishes of One Working Day
As a restaurant manager in Sydney, I used four different Englishes in one shift. With kitchen staff: 'Check if the lamb's ready.' With a VIP guest: 'I understand the table wasn't quite to your satisfaction…
Mixed Conditionals: When the Past Changes the Present
If I had not left Bangladesh in 2005, I would not be sitting in Réunion writing this lesson right now. That single sentence mixes a past condition with a present result. It is not a…
Orwell’s Rules: Why Short Words Win in English
I rewrote my professional biography four times. Each draft was shorter than the last. The fourth draft — eleven lines, no adjectives I couldn't justify — was the one that landed me two callbacks in…
Nominalisation: Why Formal English Loves Nouns
Immigration paperwork taught me nominalisation before I knew the word for it. On every form: 'the application' (not 'I applied'). 'The investigation is ongoing' (not 'they are investigating'). 'Upon the arrival of' (not 'when someone…
Inversion for Emphasis: Never Have I Felt So English
The most dramatic sentence I ever said in English came without planning. I was explaining my career to someone at a conference in Réunion: 'Never have I worked somewhere where I felt truly seen as…
Circumlocution: Talking Around the Words You Don’t Know
My first year of French in Paris, I didn't know the word for 'dishwasher'. So I said: 'la machine qui lave les assiettes' — the machine that washes the plates inside your kitchen. My colleague…
Modal Perfects: The Grammar of Regret and Past Possibility
On a long flight from Paris to Réunion, I sat with nothing but my thoughts. 'Could I have done anything differently?' 'Should I have stayed in Sydney?' 'Would things have been different if I had…
Speaking Fluently: Fillers, Pausing, and Buying Time in English
In my IELTS Speaking exam, the examiner asked: 'What would you change about where you live?' I had the answer — I needed two seconds to organise it. I said: 'That's a good question —…