💬 From my own experience: In hotel incident reports, we always wrote 'The bottle was broken' rather than 'Tom broke the bottle.' That passive form is not evasion — it focuses attention on the event,…
My first mentor at Merivale said: "You should taste before you pour. You had better know your list. And you ought to remember every regular." Three modal verbs, one shift. I learned all three that…
When I arrived in Sydney in 2005, my English was, in my own words, horrible. A customer once asked me, "Have you ever worked in hospitality?" I said, "Yes, I worked." Wrong. I should have…
🎙 From the classroom: Working at The Ivy in Sydney, I learned that small talk wasn't small. It built the relationship before the transaction. A guest who felt genuinely noticed would order a better bottle,…
🎙 From the classroom: Over eighteen years in hospitality, I wrote hundreds of emails to VIP guests, suppliers, and managers. The best emails I ever received — and sent — all had one thing in…
🎙 From the classroom: When I submitted my first written assignment on the teacher training course in France, my observer wrote three words: 'one idea only.' I had put four ideas in one paragraph. In…
🎙 From the classroom: My most successful speaking task in Brittany was simple: I printed two versions of a map of Réunion. Student A had the beach. Student B had the volcano. Neither could see…
🎙 From the classroom: For years in hospitality, I had to listen to VIP guests and understand their needs instantly — often in a language I was still learning. The trick I discovered: prediction. If…
🎙 From the classroom: Before I taught reading, I gave students a text and asked them to 'read and answer the questions'. They panicked, re-read every sentence, and ran out of time. One change fixed…
🎙 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…
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Sourov Deb EI · SIRET 106 764 061 00011 · Saint-Pierre, La Réunion