🎙 From the classroom: I've been interviewed in English in Australia, and interviewed over fifty people for front-of-house positions in Sydney restaurants. The candidates who stood out didn't have the best CVs. They had the…
🎙 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: 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: If I were still managing restaurants in Sydney, I would never have become a teacher. That sentence is my whole career change in one grammar structure. The Second Conditional is the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
At Ivy in Sydney I noticed that the best waiters didn't just take orders — they noticed things. 'Did you just come from the theatre?' 'Is this a special occasion?' One question. A real answer.…
I've presented in French, English, and Bengali. The difference between a presentation that lands and one that falls flat is usually not the content — it's the signposting.
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Sourov Deb EI · SIRET 106 764 061 00011 · Saint-Pierre, La Réunion