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An EASY Way to Make Someone’s Day

To make someone’s day means to provide an experience to a person to uplevel an ordinary or dull day to a very memorable and exciting one!    What is a simple way to make someone’s day? Listen on… (transcript below video)…   Saying:    How are you? How are you today? How’s your day going so far? […]

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Cycling in Moab – ESL Video Vlog/Podcast

Cycling in Moab Welcome to our ESL Podcast Episode 2 of T-shirt Travel Tales Watch or listen to the video. To see bigger photos of the places and scenes seen in the video, scroll below. Below the video, feel free to follow along with the transcript. But, please try to do that only after you listen once. The […]

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Tour of St. George – ESL Podcast

We are all missing “normal life” – which means different things to different people. For many of us it probably doesn’t mean to #stayathome and work from home day in and out…. I thought to start a series talking about things I like to do outside of quarantine….all through the t-shirt collection I have amassed in our travels. In this first […]

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Pronounce the American R – Tips & Videos

Learning to pronounce the American R sound is difficult for many English as second language speakers, especially from India. Today I met an enthusiastic lady who is saying it absolutely right! Interestingly, as her and I were comparing American English and Malayalam sound patterns, we realized there were some similarities between the Malayalam ഴ sound (zh) and […]

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How are you holding up? – When to ask and how to answer

When times are stressful or life is challenging, especially during our #stayathome and lockdown times, people may ask each other “How are you holding up?” to start a conversation. Learn more about this question, how it compares to the small talk opener “How are you?” and how to answer it. [Transcript of the video follows.] […]

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Ways to Say Thank You or Acknowledge Someone

“You can never say thank you enough!” When anyone asks me what is the #1 tip they can apply today in communicating and relationship building with their US counterpart, this is my answer. Saying “Thank You” is important in American culture. Thank yous can be used when someone does something nice for you or simply […]

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Idioms for “Hurry and Finish” with Sample Sentences

Getting things done on time or before the deadline is one way to impress Americans. Therefore, you may hear US Americans use a lot of different idioms for “hurry and finish.” Let’s take a look at some of the idioms for “hurry and finish” along with synonyms of the phrase as well as sample sentences […]

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Negotiate Change Requests Persuasively

,When talking about negotiation on software teams, often we are referring to how to handle ‘change requests.’ Let’s look at a few strategies you could consider using when a client is asking to add a feature to a website or an app which was not in the original project scope. In the video below, Derek […]

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Spring Forward: Idioms, Conversation Starters, Scheduling Changes

What is Spring Forward? Spring forward is a phrase that refers to daylight saving time (DST) in the spring in the northern hemisphere. In the US and Canada, daylight saving time will happen every year, the second Sunday of March at 2am (2022- March 13, 2am local time).   During this time period, many local […]

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7 Ways to Start Conversations in American English

Some foreigners in the US learning English hesitate to start conversations with native US English speakers. If you can relate to this, this post is for you. I’d like to share some common questions you can ask your American colleagues, classmates or friends to start conversations.   7 Ways To Make Small Talk and Start […]

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