Present Simple: Talking About Habits and Routines (A1)
🎙 From the classroom: When I arrived in La Réunion and started teaching, my first lesson was Present Simple. I used my own morning as the context: I wake up at 5am. I drink black…
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Writing Learning Aims — What Makes a Good Lesson Objective?
🎙 From the classroom: My lesson plan from week two of teacher training had this aim: 'To improve speaking skills.' My observer handed it back. 'What will they be able to do by the end?'…
Error Correction — When to Speak and When to Stay Quiet
🎙 From the classroom: At The Ivy in Sydney, I managed a team of twelve. When someone made a mistake with a VIP guest, I didn't interrupt mid-sentence. I waited. I debriefed after. Constant mid-sentence…
Eliciting — Stop Telling, Start Asking
🎙 From the classroom: I once watched a tutor walk into a classroom, write a word on the board, and spend twelve minutes explaining it. Then she asked if anyone had questions. They didn't —…
Student Talking Time: Who Should Speak More in Your Classroom?
🎙 From the classroom: When I was observed teaching in Brittany, my observer timed every minute. I was talking for sixty-three percent of a forty-minute lesson. I thought I was helping. I was blocking practice.…
Stop Asking ‘Do You Understand?’ — Use CCQs Instead
🎙 From the classroom: My first week in the classroom in Landerneau, Brittany, I asked 'Does everyone understand?' about twenty times. A row of nodding heads. Then the task collapsed. One good concept-check question would…
Identity in English: How Language Shapes Who You Are
I am a different person in Bengali than I am in English. In Bengali I am the eldest son, formal, respectful, quieter. In English — the English I learned in Sydney on kerbs and in…
Neighbours and Community: Social English in a New Place
My neighbour in Strathfield was a Greek-Australian woman in her seventies. She knocked on my door three days after I arrived with a plate of spanakopita. She said, 'You look thin. Eat.' I didn't know…
Writing to Authorities: Formal English for Official Letters
In Australia and then in France, I wrote dozens of letters to immigration, housing, tax authorities. Every time, the language had to be right — not just grammatically, but in tone. Too casual: dismissed. Too…
Asking for Help: Polite English When You Don’t Understand
For the first two years in Sydney I nodded at things I didn't understand. I was ashamed to ask. I would nod, walk away, and then try to figure it out alone. One day my…
Colours All Around: English for Young Learners New to a Country
My daughter is learning two languages at the same time — French from her mother, English from me, and Créole from the island she was born on. She points at things and we both name…
Culture Shock: Talking About Feelings in a New Country
Nobody warned me about the loneliness. Not the dramatic kind you see in films — the quiet kind. Sitting in a laundromat in Strathfield on a Sunday, watching your clothes go round, and realising there…
Understanding Australian English: Accents and Slang
My English teacher in Dhaka taught me British English. When I landed in Sydney, I heard: 'G'day mate, how ya going?' I understood zero words. Not zero — I understood 'how'. Australians shorten everything. 'Afternoon'…
Making New Friends: How to Start a Conversation
The first friend I made in Sydney — really made, not just a colleague — came from a misunderstanding. I was trying to buy a bus ticket and pressing all the wrong buttons. A young…
Finding a Place to Live: Renting English for New Countries
Finding my first room in Strathfield, Sydney, took me two weeks of reading listings I didn't fully understand. 'Util incl' meant utilities are included — I didn't know that. 'No pets, no smokers' — I…
At the Airport: Survival English for New Arrivals
When I landed in Sydney in 2005, I sat on a kerb outside the terminal for three hours. I had the address of someone I knew but no phone, no idea how to get a…
Teamwork in a Busy Kitchen: Communication Under Pressure
On a Saturday night at Star Casino with 300 covers, everything communicates faster than words. 'Corner!' means someone is about to walk around a blind corner carrying hot food. 'Behind!' means don't step back. These…
Writing a Menu: How to Describe Food in English
At Popolo in Sydney, I helped rewrite part of the menu. The chef's original line said: 'Pasta with tomato sauce and herbs.' I changed it to: 'House-made fettuccine, slow-cooked San Marzano tomato, fresh basil.' Same…
Kitchen Vocabulary: The Food Words Every Learner Needs
Growing up in Bangladesh, I helped my mother cook rice on a clay stove every evening. We called it chul. In Sydney, the first kitchen I worked in had six different types of pan and…
Body Language at Work: What English Doesn’t Say
In twelve years of hospitality, I learned to read a table before I reached it. A couple sitting back with arms crossed — give them space. A family leaning forward, pointing at menus — they…