🎙 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 arrived in Sydney in 2005 with two suitcases and what I can only describe as horrible English. My first month, I spoke in gestures more than words. The Past Simple…
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…
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…
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…
On my second day in a Sydney restaurant, I gave a customer the wrong change. Not because I couldn't count — I could. The problem was the English. 'Out of twenty' meant he gave me…
My first job in Sydney was taking orders at a small Italian restaurant in Strathfield. I was so nervous. I kept writing the wrong thing. One evening a chef said to me: 'Repeat the order…
My first week at a Sydney café, a customer asked for a 'flat white'. I nodded. Then I stared at the machine for a full minute with no idea what to do. The other barista…
Bengali has no articles. Moving to Australia, I had to learn them in real time. Every mistake taught me something. Here's the shortcut.
I grew up reading Dostoevsky in secret. Stories saved me. Here's how every great story is built — and how you can write yours.
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Sourov Deb EI · SIRET 106 764 061 00011 · Saint-Pierre, La Réunion