🎙 From the classroom: When I arrived in Sydney with textbook English, I couldn't understand people in the casino. They didn't say 'I am going to finish'. They said 'I'm gonna finish'. My textbook English…
🎙 From the classroom: My Bengali students in Brittany pronounced 'worked' as 'work-ED', adding a full syllable. My Korean student said 'wok'. My French student said 'workt'. All three had learned the same spelling. None…
🎙 From the classroom: No one taught me the schwa in Bangladesh. I spoke each syllable clearly and equally — like reading out loud. In Sydney, people couldn't understand me. Not because I didn't know…
🎙 From the classroom: When I was learning French, I kept stressing the wrong syllable: CAfé instead of caFÉ. French has near-flat stress; English does not. In English, the wrong stress in a word can…
🎙 From the classroom: Réunion Island is one of the most visually extraordinary places I've ever lived. The volcano — Piton de la Fournaise — is active. The lagoon is turquoise. The mountains are brutal.…
🎙 From the classroom: The day I stood in front of my first class of twelve adults in France, I was — in English — 'nervous'. But nervous doesn't capture it. I was terrified, excited,…
🎙 From the classroom: My life has been a series of journeys: Chittagong to Sydney (plane, 13 hours, two suitcases, age 19). Sydney to Paris (plane, 23 hours, with Vanessa). Paris to Saint-Pierre, Réunion (plane…
🎙 From the classroom: I spent years as a sommelier and barista in Sydney — The Ivy, Establishment, Uccello. Wine vocabulary was my second language before French. The fastest way I found to teach food…
🎙 From the classroom: I've been a hotel manager, a sommelier, a barista, a hospitality trainer, and now a language teacher. Every job has its own English. Learning vocabulary through real jobs makes it stick…
🎙 From the classroom: The best advice I ever received in a kitchen: 'You should taste before you season.' Twenty years later I still hear it. Modal verbs of advice are the grammar of good…
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Sourov Deb EI · SIRET 106 764 061 00011 · Saint-Pierre, La Réunion