Describing Places: The Language of Home and Belonging
⏱ 5 Minutes · A2/B1 📖 From Experience I have called four places home: Chittagong, Sydney, Plessis-Trévise near Paris, and Réunion. Each one needed its own…
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False Friends Between English and French
⏱ 5 Minutes · B1/B2 📖 From Experience When I was reaching French C1 level, English kept ambushing me. I told my neighbour I was embarrassed…
ReadWork and Career Vocabulary: The Words You Need in an Interview
⏱ 5 Minutes · B1/B2 📖 From Experience I have had job interviews on three continents — in English, in French, once in broken Creole in…
ReadWords for Feelings: Beyond Happy and Sad
⏱ 5 Minutes · A2/B2 📖 From Experience When I arrived in Sydney in 2005, I could say I was ‘happy’ or ‘sad’. That was it.…
ReadWine and Drinks Vocabulary: From Bitters to Barolo
⏱ 5 Minutes · B1 📖 From Experience I trained as a sommelier at Uccello and Establishment — two of Merivale’s restaurants in Sydney CBD. The…
ReadGerunds and Infinitives: Stop to Think vs Stop Thinking
⏱ 5 Minutes · B1/B2 📖 From Experience When I was learning French as an adult — working towards C1 — I realised I had stopped…
ReadQuestion Tags: Checking, Confirming, Connecting
⏱ 5 Minutes · B1 📖 From Experience The hardest part of English small talk, for me, was the question tag. At the casino, regulars would…
ReadWish and If Only: The Grammar of ‘I Should Have’
⏱ 5 Minutes · B2 📖 From Experience I sometimes lie awake and think: I wish I had written that down. If only I had kept…
ReadCountable vs Uncountable Nouns: The Rule Behind the Rule
⏱ 5 Minutes · A2/B1 📖 From Experience “I need an information.” I said this. In a job interview. The interviewer smiled kindly and said nothing.…
ReadNarrative Tenses: Telling a Story in the Past
⏱ 5 Minutes · B1/B2 📖 From Experience My first year in Sydney, 2005: I had been walking for three hours when I finally found a…
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