IMPORTANT! Please grab a piece of paper and a pen before you start reading this article as you’ll be required to write down a few English words if you decide to participate in a small experiment!

In this article we’ll look at how important it is to acquire new vocabulary in context, and how much time you may be wasting learning new words seperately, just by learning meanings of new words or even worse – learning them through a translation in your native language. I’ve been discussing it on my blog and in my videos quite a lot, but I’ve never actually brought up certain examples to show you the effectiveness of learning new English words through context.

So, let’s do an experiment first.

It’s very important you participate in this because if you don’t, you won’t be able to feel the difference between learning new vocabulary with and without context, so please follow my instructions, all right?

Basically you’ll have to make effort to memorize a few quite sophisticated English adjectives but in case you know a few or even all of those words, please don’t be offended! I’m not trying to insult your intelligence by making assumptions about your English vocabulary; I’ll be doing my best to pick out a few English words that aren’t heard that often in normal daily conversations or in media.

Now, please read the following five English words with the corresponding explanations and try to do your best to memorize those words and their meanings:

Detrimental – causing damage, harm or injury.

Untenable – being such that defense or maintenance is impossible.

Precarious – dangerously lacking in security or stability.

Impertinent – rude, lacking good manners.

Adverse – opposite to one’s interests or welfare; harmful or unfavorable.

So, these were the five adjectives and I have to confess that I purposefully chose these words because they all describe something negative just to make it more difficult for you to memorize them!

But if you think it was unfair and I should have given you words describing different concepts so that you’d have a better chance of memorizing them, wait till you see how EASY it’s going to be for you to remember these new English words if you learn them contextually!

So now read the descriptions of those words and try to recall what the respective adjectives were. Write them down on a piece of paper and number them 1 to 5. And please don’t cheat – focus only on the paragraph below and don’t try to look down where the answer is written!

1. Rude, lacking good manners – …
2. Causing damage, harm or injury - …
3. Opposite to one’s interests or welfare; harmful or unfavorable - …
4. Being such that defence or maintenance is impossible - …
5. Dangerously lacking in security or stability - …

Now, please compare your answers with the list below and see how many of the adjectives you got right:

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1. Impertinent
2. Detrimental
3. Adverse
4. Untenable
5. Precarious

Well, how well did you do? I hope you got some of them right – and well done if you could remember all five adjectives despite my attempts to make if as difficult as possible!

Anyway, what I’m trying to prove here today is that it’s very important to acquire new English vocabulary in context, so I’d like you to think about how effectively you could use these five words in your English conversations, or in writing.

How likely do you think it is that you will start using these new English words when you speak with other English speakers?

Do you think you could easily blend them into sentences as you speak?

I hate to disappoint you, but personally I think you couldn’t, and I guess you’ve come to the same conclusion yourself, am I not right?

So where’s the problem? Why is that we, foreigners, when learning new English words the traditional way, struggle to use them in actual conversations? And why if we do use them, our speech is quite often very hesitant and we keep thinking of what would be the best fitting word to use when describing a certain concept, event, person or a thing?

The answer is quite simple, my friend! When you learn a meaning of a new English word just on its own, it’s very difficult for your mind to create a relationship between that word and other English words in your mind

There are probably dozens of very similar English words that you already know and most importantly – you’ve been using them in certain situations and certain context so it’s much easier for your mind to stick with what you already know than to use that new English word.

Also, you may find it hard to speak fluently when trying to use such new vocabulary words because you have to spend too much time analyzing if that particular word can be used in a certain context. You basically have to go back to that word’s description like a dictionary entry in your mind and see if it fits in the particular sentence.

And another huge problem is – how do we know that we use the particular word right? I guess you already know that we can’t use English words the same way we’d use the respective words in our native languages because every language has its own unique way of using certain words and if you just create word strings as a direct translation from your language, you may come up with silly things in English!

So the million dollar question is:

How can we memorize new English words effectively and then use them like native English speakers?

Before I answer this question, let me introduce you to a new concept.

Imagine that every word in the English language has little hooks attached to them and when you form a sentence, words are hooking up with each other. Now, imagine that certain words are more likely to hook up with each other and less with others, so, for instance, a word combination ‘keep in touch’ is what native English speakers would say because these three words are normally hooked up with each other. If you try to replace the word ‘keep’ with other words like ‘stay’, or ‘remain’, it would be understandable what you meant but it wouldn’t sound right.

So, now we can go back to the original question – how we can memorize new English words effectively and use them like native speakers do.

The trick is to memorize what other words your new word is usually hooked up with and that is going to make it an awful lot easier for you to memorize it! And you won’t have to refer back to that word’s description in your mind to use it in a sentence because you’ll already know what words it goes together with

So, let’s do our little experiment once more, but this time I’ll give you a word combination instead of a description and you’ll see how easy it is to memorize new English vocabulary if you go down this route:

• Detrimental effect – a negative effect.
• Adverse weather conditions – bad weather conditions.
• Precarious work – part-time, temporary and fixed term employment where there’s less certainty and stability for the employee.
• Untenable position – a position you can no longer hold.
• Impertinent behavior – rude behavior.

Now, what should have happened when you read these adjective and noun combinations is – new relations should have formed between the adjectives you weren’t familiar with and the nouns that are very well known to you. Of course, it would take more repetitions to make sure those word combinations or so called collocations get imprinted into your mind, but I hope you’ll feel the difference in terms of your ability to remember those specific adjectives before and NOW!

OK, now let’s do our memory test once more, and this time you have to write down the word combos I gave you a minute ago.

1. Negative effect – …
2. Bad weather conditions – …
3. Part-time, temporary and fixed term employment where there’s less certainty and stability for the employee – …
4. A position you can no longer hold – …
5. Rude behavior – …

And here’s the answers, please compare the collocations from below with the ones you wrote on your piece of paper:

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1. Detrimental effect
2. Adverse weather conditions
3. Precarious work
4. Untenable position
5. Impertinent behavior

How did you fare this time? Did you feel the difference between memorizing those words purely by their descriptions and now, when you memorized them contextually?

I bet you did, and that’s what you have to keep doing when learning new English words in future. Forget about hammering new words just on their own into your mind – the chances are, you won’t be able to use them as part of a fluent English speech. Your new approach has to involve memorizing any new English word you hear within context!

Remember about the hooks – every English word has a pair of hooks to hoop up with others and your aim as an English improver is to learn work combinations as opposed to single words

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

As you might remember, the original English Harmony System was nothing more than a simple eBook. Then I created a multimedia video course on three DVDs which took my customers’ experience to a whole new level.

Now I’ve taken it a step further once more.

An INSTANT DOWNLOAD version of the English Harmony System 2.0 is finally ready, and my sleepless nights spent on working on technical aspects of the download version are over

First of all, I had to figure out how to make the nearly 5 GB large files easy to download – after all, the System consists of Flash videos and they aren’t the smallest files around.

Secondly, I had to find a reliable and user-friendly piece of .exe complier software so that the files can be easily distributed and all users can be managed.

Thirdly, I had to set up the download software, integrate PayPal into it, and conduct countless tests to make sure everything works like clockwork!

I’ve been working on this download version since Christmas, and now I can take a deep breath because finally completed. It works, and it’s ready to be used by you, my dear impatient foreign English speaking friends who don’t want to wait till the physical package containing the 3 DVDs arrives at you doorstep.

Here’s a few facts about the downloadable version of the System:

• it consists of 3 .exe files – one for each of the 3 Modules – Speech Master, Confidence Mentor and Chat Assistant;
• it takes about 20 – 30 minutes to download all three files;
• the files are protected by unique registration codes e-mailed to you shortly after the purchase;
• constant Broadband Internet connection is required to run the System

What Exactly Is The English Harmony System 2.0?

Imagine a personal English fluency mentor you can use at any time you want. A mentor who’ll teach you real, natural spoken English – and make you STOP experiencing all those terrible English fluency issues …

Well, that’s what the first and the third Modules of the English Harmony System 2.0 are about – they’ll help you re-build your spoken English from the ground up! To put it simply – it’s all down to learning naturally occurring English phrases, collocations and word combinations. It’s how English fluency is being achieved by native English speakers – and we foreigners are no different.

Instead of hammering abstract English grammar rules into your brain and spending countless hours on writing and reading you’ll acquire spoken English the way it’s used in normal daily life

Leave advanced grammar studies to those who want to spend the rest of their lives studying behind closed doors. If you want to go out there and enjoy life – you need to SPEAK the English language instead of just writing and reading – don’t you agree?

Well, it’s where Speech Master and Chat Assistant – Modules 1 and 3 from the English Harmony System 2.0 – come in very handy!

But don’t worry – I haven’t forgotten the mental side of the English fluency issue. While it’s true that natural English fluency can only be acquired by repeating and learning most commonly used English phrases and word combinations, we can’t ignore the other side of the issue.

And this is where Module 2 – Confidence Mentor comes into play. Meditation lessons, affirmations, and self-programming for English fluency – I really don’t think you’ve seen it anywhere else!

So if you struggle with speaking English and none of the traditional English improving methods work for you – the solution is right here. It’s the English Harmony System 2.0 – a compilation of unique multimedia English fluency improving videos where you’re required to speak all the time… speak till you achieve the fluency you’ve always dreamt of!

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Are you one of those folks who thinks that in order to speak English fluently one needs to develop a near-native English pronunciation?

Then watch this interview with Antonio Banderas – even a small piece will do – and think about the initial question once more.

So, what do you think?

Would you describe his English as not being fluent? Has his distinct Spanish accent prevented him from becoming one of the most successful Hollywood actors?

Obviously not

So, why is ACCENT such a bid deal for so many people? Why so many other foreigners and native English speakers alike still hold the view that foreigners definitely need to reduce their accent if they want to come across as fluent English speakers?

Well… The answer lies within a stereotype of a struggling foreign English speaker who speaks in broken English AND has a distinct accent.

The reverse statement – anyone who has a distinct accent speaks broken English – isn’t always true, but it doesn’t prevent people from believing it. Why, we human beings are notorious to holding to wrong beliefs, and this is definitely not the only one out there!

How about the following:

• Antonio Banderas gets away with his accent because of his good looks;
• Spanish accent is cool and that’s why it’s OK for him to speak with thick Spanish pronunciation but NOT OK for you or me…

While there might be some truth in the above statements, it doesn’t explain HOW Antonio Banderas manages to be fluent YET retain his Spanish accent if fluency is always accompanied by perfect pronunciation…

Surely if at some stage an English learner inevitably starts to develop a more native-like (in this case it should be American) pronunciation, then how come that Antonio has never fully mastered it yet he’s totally fluent?

I think answer is quite obvious, my friends:

English Fluency and Accent Aren’t Directly Related!

I’ve received comments on my YouTube videos about my accent and the way I pronounce English words. I’ve been called by names I don’t want to repeat here in this article and all because I’m not trying to sound like an American or a Brit.

Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion; however, every time I hear this nonsense about me not being fluent just because you can tell of my East European origins by my speech, I get a bit angry.

First of all, I have a feeling that some of those naysayers upholding such high English language standards haven’t achieved much in the English fluency field and they’re trying to make themselves feel better by spotting shortcomings (or something that might look like a shortcoming!) in others.

Secondly, I think it’s quite obvious that two things are confused when we talk about foreign accents and English fluency.

Namely – pronunciation and fluency.

You see, those two language aspects represent two separate domains of the English language, and while the two partially overlap, by and large they’re not directly related.

Here’s another interview with Antonio Banderas – this time he’s teamed up with Salma Hayek – and you can listen how they both speak with quite strong Hispanic accents.

I don’t think that anyone of you will argue their English isn’t fluent

Well, there’s always something to improve upon, and no-one is denying that English improvement is a lifelong process.

I, however, define English fluency by how effectively you can speak about topics relevant to your occupation and personal life in English, not by how well you speak in terms of pronunciation.

I can quite realistically imagine a situation where someone has mastered a very American-sounding English pronunciation yet they still find it difficult to choose the right words when speaking. As a result, the verbal message mightn’t be as clear as that of someone else who speaks with a strong accent YET uses the right words and word combinations to convey the message.

Just watch the last interview with Mr. Banderas:

You can hear him use quite sophisticated language, very specific expressions: “I have a profound, deep admiration for people who do so…”

You can hear him speak quite fast (which isn’t a pre-requisite for English fluency, but hey – we have to give him credit for that!).

He answers the interviewer’s questions with little or no hesitation which just goes to show that he obviously thinks in English which is an indication of his English fluency.

I believe these facts are speaking for themselves and here’s what it means to you if you’re one of those foreign English speakers speaking with a strong foreign accent:

In your pursuit after English fluency, you have to focus on the essential aspects contributing into your ability to verbalize your thoughts into English such as learning natural speech patterns (collocations, idiomatic expressions, phrases etc.), fluency management and confidence.

Pronunciation, however vital, comes only second to the above factors and I hope Antonio just showed you that speaking English with a strong Hispanic accent doesn’t make him less fluent than Benicio Del Toro, for example, who’s also a bilingual Hollywood actor.

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

I’ve been blogging for what seems forever about the importance of learning English collocations.

I’ve been always saying that the basic components of English speech are word combinations and expressions rather than separate words.

And I’ve also been repeating myself ad nauseam that English fluency can be acquired much quicker if you mimic, repeat, memorize and use all those idiomatic expressions used by native English speakers in your own speech instead of sticking separate words together and applying grammar rules as you speak.

I’m even making effort to highlight idiomatic expressions in my blog posts in red so that you can clearly see which English word chunks are worth memorizing!

Today, I’m going to make it even easier for you.

I’ll start publishing on my Twitter account any English word combinations that are worth memorizing !

Basically here’s what you have to do:

1. Go to EnglishHarmony Twitter account;
2. Start following my tweets;
3. Every time you read a new word chunk, repeat it a few times and make the effort to memorize it;
4. Create a few English sentences containing that word combination so that you become comfortable using it;
5. When you have more time – just browse through the different English expressions I publish and try to make a conversation with yourself using as many of those word combos as possible!

Here’s an example.

Let’s say for instance, you’re looking at seemingly unrelated English idiomatic expressions:

can’t be otherwise;
hinder your performance;
is it such a big deal;
put too much thought into;
such and similar;
worst of all.

The whole point of this exercise is to realize that you don’t need fancy English grammar to sound fluent.

All you need is large enough vocabulary of different English expressions and eventually you’ll start speaking fluently!

You just need to practice regularly so that you learn how to produce automatic English speech and to make it happen your sentences don’t necessarily have to make an awful lot of sense all the time.

Is the task of putting all the above expressions in a few sentences too difficult? Not really!

Here’s what I can come up with (improvisation is the key!):

So, you’re afraid of public speaking? But is it such a big deal that such and similar problems hinder your performance? Worst of all, if you put too much thought into it, your problems may get even worse; it can’t be otherwise!

So, do you see what I meant? It’s possible to create quite meaningful and logical sentences using JUST the word combinations I’m posting on my Twitter account!

Of course, when you’re speaking with yourself and learning to use those expressions in a normal English speech, you’ll be adding on more content and that’s totally fine! After all, we both understand that you just can’t make a conversation that consists entirely of such ready-to-go word chunks because it’s always necessary to specify things, people involved in the events, action, time, place and many more details so that you can get the message across effectively.

The word chunks, or combinations, or idiomatic expressions – whichever description you prefer – are crucial, however, to form the blueprint for your conversation. They enable you to speak fluently and most importantly – whenever you get stuck and can’t think of the right word to say, you can use one of those short phrases that can be used on nearly any occasion – such as “at the end of the day”, “as a matter of fact” or similar.

So just follow my tweets because I’ll be posting these super-useful English words chunks regularly along with sample sentences so that you can clearly see what each individual expression means and in what context it can be used.

Any questions or suggestions – please post them in the comments section below!

Robby

Human is a creature of conditioning – the more often you find yourself in situations when your English fluency is compromised, the deeper your mind gets wired to make sure it happens when such conditions are met next time.

For example, if you’ve found it a bit harder to speak in English with a particular person on a couple of occasions, it’s highly likely that this person will cause the same English speech difficulties for you every time they’re around.

If you let it happen for long enough time, you get conditioned to stutter, mispronounce words and find it difficult to verbalize your thoughts whenever you speak to that person or even when speaking with someone else in that person’s presence.

Sometimes the English fluency issue manifests itself in so seemingly random situations that it may look like a totally out-of-hand problem. You may find yourself making plenty of mistakes when speaking in English having had very fluent conversations with other English speakers the day before, for instance, and there’s nothing you can think of that should trigger such behavior.

In order to overcome such issues I recommend different fluency management strategies – starting from speaking slower and pronouncing words clearly, and ending with such non-standard approaches as speaking with a harder accent.

There will be moments, however, when you find it quite difficult to get back to your normal English speech regardless of what strategy you apply.

You may have tried to speak in English in a number of different ways – slowly and fast, with a hard accent and without, but your mind just can’t seem to work properly!

If that is the case, there’s one more trick up my sleeve – reverse psychology!

What is Reverse Psychology and How It Works

To put it simply, reverse psychology is a phenomenon when humans achieve their desired result by not working against the will of others or their own inhibitions, fears and phobias but quite the opposite – going with them

The reverse psychology phenomenon in society can be observed more often when dealing with other people than in the field of self-improvement.

The easiest example I can think of is when you want little children to do something but they just wouldn’t listen. All you have to do is tell them to do the opposite, tell them to do exactly what you don’t want them to do. In their spiteful mood they will do the opposite thing again, which is what you actually want them to do!

Let’s say, you’re trying to make your kid to eat spinach and he’s refusing to do it and no amount of begging and cajoling is working.

The only thing that might work is to wait a couple minutes and then tell your child in a strict and commanding tone – “OK, this is it. You’ll never ever get to eat spinach in your whole life. I forbid it! From this moment and on you are not allowed to touch spinach!”

It mightn’t work and your child might just walk away having achieved what he wanted. If he likes acting up and disobeying what he’s told, however, he might go out of his way and eat some spinach just for the sake of doing what he’s forbidden.

In the adult world, reverse psychology is more subtle and masked by pretence and scheming.

We all can remember some action film where the main character is being trained very hard for a competition or in order to take revenge and his trainer is constantly criticizing him and pointing out his weaknesses.

Whether it’s a boxing championship or payback for a murdered friend, our hero emerges victorious in the end and it’s all thanks to the constant nagging which made him angry and drove him through the gruesome training drills, and it’s actually what his trainer wanted all along.

The trainer – usually an old man – was only pretending to criticize him because he knew that anger would be a much bigger driving force than contentment and happiness.

It is typical reverse psychology, and you can use it effectively when dealing with your own English fluency problems!

Reverse Psychology and Spoken English

As you may have already guessed, it works by actually forcing yourself to make mistakes, say nonsensical things and speak as fast as you can in English IF it’s exactly what you’re trying to avoid

You’re basically trying to trick yourself into speaking English properly by GOING WITH your inhibitions and hoping that your subconscious will behave like a spoiled child.

You’re saying to your mind – “OK, this is it! I don’t want to speak English fluently anymore! From now on I’m happy to make every mistake imaginable, I’m OK with stuttering and even mispronouncing words and not being able to say what I actually want to say doesn’t bother me at all. I want to make all such mistakes, yes, and that’s exactly how I’m going to speak!”

Ideally what should happen is the following.

You’re sending a signal to your subconscious that you just don’t care any more and that you’re not resisting. Obviously, with no action there’s no counteraction and your own mind should stop playing those nasty tricks on you.

Your stress levels should drop dramatically, and the inhibitions that are partially creation of your own imagination should collapse like a house of cards.

You should feel the inner tension subside and in a weird twisted way your English speech should flow more fluent and suddenly you shouldn’t have much difficulties thinking of the right words to say when saying something in English.

Is it really as simple as I just portrayed?

Well, not really, especially if you apply this reverse psychology trick while you’re having a conversation with someone.

You can do it much easier when you’re on your own, and the only inhibition you may need to overcome is awkwardness about speaking with yourself.

If you’re with someone, there’s still a great deal of fear you have to deal with, so let’s look at it before we wrap up today’s topic of reverse psychology!

Fear Is Strong Only If You Resist It!

I would suggest the reverse psychology strategy in dealing with your English fluency issues before you actually have to speak with someone because it’s going to make it easier for you.

You’ll still probably find it quite tricky to pull it off when you’re practicing with yourself, because it’s not so easy to find that sweet spot when you just CAN’T make a mistake when speaking in English.

But once you’ve got the hang of it, it might even become your second nature, and then there’s nothing to prevent you from using the same fearless, jump-into-cold-water strategy when communicating with real people.

There’s only one factor to overcome – FEAR.

Fear of making mistakes, fear of being humiliated in public, fear of sounding stupid.

Strangely enough, on most occasions it’s this FEAR that causes your fluency issues in the first place, so basically what I’m saying here is:

• you have to overcome fear in order to deal with English fluency issues;
• in order to deal with English fluency issues you can resort to reverse psychology;
• to apply the reverse psychology strategy you have to overcome fear…

Is it some sort of a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle?

Well… Yes, it is!

No matter how you look at it, fear keeps playing the lead role in your English fluency drama, and the only way to deal with it is…

… by using reverse psychology!

I hope I’m not driving you mad, and I also hope you’ll make sense of today’s blog post.

So let’s recap:

• to deal with a problem when you stutter, say stupid things, make grammar mistakes and can’t choose proper words when speaking in English you can use reverse psychology – force yourself to do all those things and go with the flow!
• to use this reverse psychology strategy successfully in public, you need to deal with fear of sounding stupid, being humiliated etc;
• to deal with all these fears, you need to use reverse psychology once more – force yourself to be afraid; just DO IT! Start speaking with that English speaking client in your company you’ve always been very nervous around, and tell yourself – “Now I’m so afraid of speaking with him, common, let’s feel the fear, yes, I REALLY want to be feeling afraid!”
• when there’s no resistance, your fear of speaking with that person and sounding stupid when you’ll be making all sorts of mistakes becomes smaller and eventually vanishes. Now you can use the reverse psychology on your English fluency issue and force yourself to speak like you’ve learnt the English language only yesterday…

… and you may very well discover that the issue is gone along with all your fears!

Try it, and share your experiences in the comments below!

I’d love to hear from you and also don’t hesitate to ask me any related questions – I’ll be glad to help!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Wrong reason # 1: English grammar is so simple – there aren’t any noun genders , very little declination of nouns and conjugation of verbs, and you only have to add ‘s’ or ‘es’ at the end of a third person singular noun, that’s all there is to it! Everybody’s gotta love this language for its simplicity, isn’t that right?

Well… how about Chinese grammar? Technically it’s even simpler than that of English – Chinese words can have one grammatical form only and all I’d have to do is just stick them together!

If I’m so in love with the English language because of its simplicity, why didn’t I start learning Chinese instead? Could it be that the simple grammar isn’t actually one of the true reasons I love the language?…

Wrong reason # 2: English is the modern lingua franca – it’s the official language in 54 countries and in organizations such as United Nations, NATO, European Union and it’s the international language of such global industries as aviation, science, entertainment and many more. In other words – I’d be fool not to love the English language because I might just consider it to be the universal language of our planet.

Hold on, hold on… Maybe I’m a little bit off on this subject?

While English is indeed the most widely spoken language on our planet, it’s actually only the third biggest language spoken by native speakers – after Chinese and Spanish.

There are large areas on our planet where knowing other languages such as Spanish, Arabic or Russian would help me get much further than English. Why don’t I love Spanish, for instance, which is spoken all over Latin America? By the way, some US states consist of 25% or more of Spanish speaking population, so why would I not change English for Spanish?…

Wrong reason #3: English has one of the largest vocabularies with more than a million words and counting. Historically it’s been influenced by many other languages – Latin, French, Germanic, Greek and others – which makes it so versatile that it enables to express myself easily and adds real depth to my thoughts when I express myself in English.

All right.

If I come to think of it, I use a minuscule portion of the million words in my daily conversations, and all that massive vocabulary doesn’t come into play at all!

Let’s look at my native language – Latvian – just for a comparison’s sake. I’m not really sure how many words there are in my language, but I’m pretty sure it’s safe to claim it’s nowhere near the million words in the English language!

Still, I can most definitely put my thoughts into the best fitting verbal concepts using my own native language.

If I was looking for sophistication, I shouldn’t be looking further than the language I’ve been speaking since I was a toddler…

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Wrong reason #101: Speaking fluent English is so cool and I feel so good about myself because no-one can look down on me for not being able to speak English! I love the language because it’s enabled me to find my unique way in life and I can always boast with my English knowledge and stand out from the crowd!

Wait Robby…

It’s rather hard to really stand out from the crowd by being a fluent English speaker, isn’t it? If it’s the “cool factor” I’m after, why not learn another, less common language? Let’s say, if I spoke Turkish or Arabic, I could derive so much satisfaction from being the only speaker of that language among my friends and work colleagues? I could always use it as an ice breaker in conversations, for example, and I’d have no difficulties entertaining people at parties. I’d be saying things like – “Do you know how’s “I’m having a good time” in Arabic?…”

So once there are more exotic languages to learn if it’s the coolness that makes me love a language, why am I in love with English?

As you can see, I skipped the bulk of the 101 reasons why I love the English language in order to spare your time spent on reading this article, but I assure you – you haven’t missed much.

Every single one of those seemingly valid reasons was eventually refuted leaving me with a pressing question to answer – “Why Do I REALLY LOVE the English Language???”

1 True Reason Why I LOVE the English Language –
I ENJOY My Life Through It!

When you love someone, it’s not for their good traits of character or good looks, or achievements.

When you love someone, you just feel good when you’re with that person, and you can enjoy yourself with him or her, isn’t that right? You can’t put your feelings into facts and numbers, and it’s the same with a language.

I don’t love English because of the number of words in its vocabulary, or lack of grammar inflection.

I don’t love it just because it’s an official language of a host of countries – to this day I’ve never been to another English speaking country except Ireland and actually why would it matter to me where it’s spoken if I don’t get to travel the world and interact with mass audiences anyway?

And I don’t love it because of its perceived grammatical simplicity either – no language is actually too hard to learn once you start using in as means of communication.

Why I truly love the English language is because I’M LIVING MY LIFE THROUGH ENGLISH

I go to work and speak English all day long with my work colleagues and customers.

I drive home from work and listen to the daily current affairs analysis in English.

I go to movies, watch TV, browse the Internet, enjoy my hobbies, read English fiction and also run this website using the English language, and I love it because it’s part of my life, simple as that!

You see, I think it’s our human nature to be emotionally attached to something that’s part of our identity and our daily lives. Our friends, our family, and our way of life – most of us love it all. Our language is no different, for that matter, and I can easily imagine that if I lived in a different country and spoke a different language, I’d come to love it as well.

Well, I have to admit that there’s something more to my affection for English that just practical necessity, but one thing is for sure – it’s got nothing to do with its technical aspects.

It’s rather the opportunities that moving to an English speaking country has opened up for me. It’s the sense of achievement that comes along with an ever improving fluency of the language. Most importantly – it’s the enjoyment of myself that speaking English has availed me of that makes me love it!

What about you?

Share your thoughts with me in your comments below!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

1. Native English speakers will judge your ability to speak English based on their experiences with you – not your true knowledge. Why? Simple – all they can see is your performance, they can’t get inside your head!

It’s just a fact of life – you’ll be judged based on how you respond to certain situations, and you’d better be prepared to face up to some challenges if you want to come across as a good English speaker!

Basically what I’ve learned is that it’s not necessarily about how well you ARE ABLE to speak in English; on most occasions it’s more important to be able to react fast, not get tongue-tied and ignore your own embarrassment (seriously, it’s not that hard. If it helps, tell yourself that even native English speakers get tongue-tied sometimes!).

Let me give you an example.

The other day a big customer of ours had arrived and we were all having a chat in our knitwear factory’s hall. A couple of Polish girls happened to walk by having just finished their shift and our man said something to one of them – just a friendly jest.

The Polish girl obviously didn’t get what he said to her, but instead of saying “Excuse me, can you say it again?” she just smiled awkwardly and walked away.

I know for a fact she has no problems speaking in English despite her language not being grammatically perfect – I’ve heard her speak with other foreigners.

Such and similar experiences, however, have given my Irish colleagues enough reason to believe her English is nearly non-existent. How can I be so sure of it? Well, I’ve heard quite a few comments made about it, and it saddens me to witness the Polish girl being spoken to as if her understanding of English was very, very basic.

Not standing up for herself in situations like this, however, is the main reason why it happens, so please bear in mind – regardless of how good your English is, you’ve got to make effort to get involved in conversations – even if you make a few mistakes here and there.

The latter ones might be even ignored, but the fact that you blushed and didn’t know what to say sends a completely wrong message to your native English speaking friends at work or college.

Not that you should be overly concerned with what others think about you – it’s just that you should be aware of the fact that native English speakers don’t realize how difficult it sometimes is for us, foreigners, to make out what they’re saying, for example.

Your task, therefore, is to be PROACTIVE and dissipate that impression by proving you’re capable of participating in a normal conversation.

Just brooding to yourself over how stupid everyone is not to see your true potential as an English speaker won’t make you better at speaking with people!

2. Your ability to understand what native English speakers say depend not so much on your academic knowledge than on your time spent among them!

All those years ago back in 2002 when I came to Ireland, there were a few of us, Latvian chaps, who stuck together to make our lives easier in the foreign country.

One of them was particularly good at English. To tell you the truth – he was much better than me in terms of fluency and pronunciation, and I was actually envious of his ability to speak with a near-native American pronunciation.

Sadly, that’s where his brilliant English communication skills often ended.

He was quite bad at understanding what the locals were saying to him and he found himself in all sorts of awkward situations. Of course, he could have made it much easier for himself had he just admitted he didn’t understand something. On most occasions, however, he was too proud to admit that someone with such a perfect American English pronunciation could not understand simple things that local Irish people were saying.

Another fellow who’d been living in a number of different countries all over the word including Australia and Sweden, on the other hand, was completely comfortable among Irish. His own English was far from perfect, but he had spent plenty of time among English speakers from different geographic backgrounds and that made him really good at understanding most of what others would tell him at work.

I actually remember this chap telling me how he and the other guy were having a chat with a couple of Irish truck drivers and they were telling a joke. When everyone broke out in laughter, the perfect American English speaker was looking at them perplexed, and later on he asked his fellow Latvian what the joke was about…

The whole point of me telling you this isn’t to prove that trying to speak with proper pronunciation is bad, or that you shouldn’t be striving for constant English improvement and just speak without caring about flaws in your English.

The bottom line here is the following – you may find that your understanding of native speakers differs greatly from your English understanding in terms of reading, for instance

Cure?

Maximum exposure!

And don’t you worry, I’ll reveal my personal little secret to you – I’ve personally never been particularly good at understanding native English speakers in real life, on TV etc.

I still have my moments when I get them wrong – especially when someone says something to me I don’t expect. For instance, one of the managers at my work said to me today as he walked by “You’re a devil tearing up cardboard!” because I was cutting up cardboard boxes at that moment.

What I heard was – “You’re given terrible cardboard!” – which didn’t make any sense to me. The reason why it happened is because I’d never heard something like that before and my mind was just trying to make up something. I did hear the “you’re a…” and “cardboard” parts, but the rest just didn’t come together until my colleague Will explained to me what the manager had actually said.

Make no mistake though, my English understanding is very good after so many years spent in the country, all I’m saying is that your ability to understand others may lag behind other aspects of your English language.

What you should do with this information?

Well, basically there are two things you have to bear in mind:

• always ask to repeat or say it in other words;
• comfort yourself with the knowledge that your listening skills will come along – there’s no way you won’t improve your English understanding over a longer period of time!

3. Many of your mistakes will pass unnoticed as far as you’re sociable, friendly and you speak fluently irrespective of those few imperfections.

IMPORTANT! This lesson is actually probably the most important thing you’ll learn about communication between foreign English speakers and foreigners

Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes.

This is one of the biggest fears so many foreign English speakers are facing – fear of making mistakes.

Its roots go deep inside your subconscious and at a primal level you actually fear of being rejected because you’re not able to speak the same way as the native speakers around you. Being part of a group is crucial for survival; it’s wired into us so this fear is good from the evolutionary point of view. At the same time this fear of being rejected makes some of us very bad at communicating in English with others.

It’s a self-perpetuating cycle:

• you’re dreading to make mistakes so you become super-conscious of your own speech;
• in that state of mind you start second-guessing yourself;
• it leads to making even more mistakes!

What I’ve realized over the years is that when native English speakers speak with a foreigner, they don’t necessarily watch out for mistakes and flaws.

It’s only our heightened awareness of our own mistakes that makes us believe everyone else is feeling the same way about our performance.

In fact, sometimes it couldn’t be further from the truth!

When a native English speaker is speaking with you as an equal and not being judgmental, their perception will often ignore imperfections of your speech and they’ll perceive your verbal message as a whole.

It happens to me on a regular basis when I’m having conversations with my work colleague Will – I catch myself making a small mistake, then I correct it, but if I ask Will if he’d noticed me making that mistake – the answer often is “No, I didn’t even notice you said that!”

It’s very important that you understand the full extent of this principle, my friend!

The moment you realize it’s NOT the eradication of mistakes you have to aim for, but rather natural fluency at the best of your ability – that’s when your confidence and ability to communicate with native English speakers reach new heights.

Your date with an English speaker will go down perfectly – as far as you’re confident he or she doesn’t notice your mistakes.

Your job interview will possibly land you that job you’ve been wanting badly – and all because your positive attitude creates an easy-going atmosphere and your interviewer doesn’t notice that clumsy choice of words when you describe your job duties in a meat processing factory.

Your meeting with a property agent will hopefully result in a great deal because you’re making a couple jokes and despite the wrong English grammar tense you just used the agent is actually laughing his head off and never notices the small mistake.

So, these are the three lessons that my 10 year long stay in Ireland among native English speakers has taught me, but I assure you they’re not the only ones.

Just stay tuned in and I promise you’ll find out more in the future!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

The other day one of my Irish workmates was telling me a joke. He started off speaking the way he normally does and I could easily make out what he was saying. After all – I’ve spent nearly ten years in Ireland and by now I’ve managed to understand different regional accents and also different types of speech – muffled, very fast, with word endings dropped and so on.

It’s not always possible, however, to understand native English speakers, especially when they throw in some slang words and expressions you haven’t heard being used before, and the indistinct speech makes it every harder to figure out what they’re saying

As you can imagine, I had to pretend that I got the joke my workmate Louis was telling me and I just gave a short laugh as a sign that his joke was really good…

Please, don’t blame me!

I know that it’s not quite right to pretend to understand what native English speakers tell you because you run the risk of making a fool of yourself.

In fact, you shouldn’t pretend regardless of the speaker’s national background. It should never be a problem to admit that you didn’t get what was being said, even if it’s another foreigner trying to explain you something!

You see, denial originates in fear of being perceived as a poor English speaker, but then you can get yourself in even more embarrassing situations trying to conceal the fact that you didn’t understand something.

Admitting the truth almost always pays and you should treat such moments very casually; don’t make a big deal out of them.

If you radiate confidence, few people will ever think of associating the fact that you asked them to repeat what they just said or to explain what they meant with bad language skills.

If, on the other hand, you’re trying to end the conversation quickly and avoid discussing the same topic, it might give an impression of someone who’s not very comfortable using the English language.

So how do you know when you should definitely tell your conversation partner to repeat what they just said or say it slower and when it’s OK to pretend you understood them?

You Can Annoy the Hell Out of Others
If You Just Smile and Agree!

When I just started all those years ago in Ireland, I worked in a large warehouse. It was a mixed nationality team – Russians, Romanians, Latvians and a few Irish to supervise us, hard working foreigners. To be completely honest with you, in those early days I spent more time learning conversational Romanian than speaking English, and it just goes to show how easy it is to pick up a language by speaking it.

Anyway, what I wanted to tell you about is that I noticed on many occasions that my Romanian friends just agreed with the supervisor (to be fair to them – he was a really mean dude so no wonder no-one wanted to get involved in lengthy conversations with him!) when he was giving them instructions.

On quite a few occasions I witnessed our supervisor make remarks like “Yeah, sure…” after asking if everything was clear to that worker and I started to suspect, quite rightly, that he was making general assumptions about all foreigners.

Could I blame him though, for doing it?

I mean – if he can’t be sure whether someone understands him when he talks to them, is it hard to imagine why that person would think you can’t speak proper English?

I’m not saying our supervisor was doing all he could to make his subordinates feel comfortable. Yes, he was pushing us very hard and most of the team were just too scared of him to admit they didn’t understand what they were told!

Nonetheless, I believe our supervisor would have appreciated honesty much more than compliance, and even I have to admit it can be irritating to face a nervous smile and a nod of approval while you see incomprehension in the person’s eyes…

So let me tell you this – keep agreeing to something you don’t understand if you want to:

• reinforce the notion your English is poor even though it might not be – and since you’re reading this blog, I have a feeling that it’s most likely not!
• face really embarrassing situations when your initial shyness to admit you didn’t understand something suddenly backfires on you!

Believe me, I know only too well that often it’s not the lack of English language skills that lead to these issues. Fast speech and specific way of pronouncing words are the most common reasons why foreign English speakers might find it harder to understand part of the message.

If you look at the bigger picture, however, it doesn’t really matter if you WOULD understand what you were told if the person slowed their speech down or you WOULDN’T.

By concealing the fact that you missed part of the communication and you’re not sure what the message was, you confuse your chat partner AND make the whole communication ineffective!

When it’s OK to Go With the Flow &
A Beautiful Method of Fixing
Potentially Disastrous Situations

Remember I told you I laughed about Louis’s joke without actually getting it?

Just think what would have happened if the scenario goes something like this:

Louis: “… he… (something unintelligible) and then he (something unintelligible followed by sincere laughter)!!!”
Me: “Sorry Louis, can you repeat the last part, do you mind? I just didn’t hear it properly!”
Louis (laughter dying down) “well, he … (and then he goes on to tell the joke once more).”

Can you see now why I preferred to pretend and laugh about the joke I didn’t understand?

Yes, I just didn’t want to kill the joke!

I realized that there would be no harm done if I helped Louis to feel as the best joke-teller in the world. On top of that, I knew him well enough to be sure that he’s not going to ask me if I got the joke.

So is it a big deal if I laughed without understanding what I laughed about?

I don’t think so – especially considering I already know that my English is good enough and that I’m not doing myself a disservice. I spend the whole day in an English speaking environment, and I understand 99.9999% of what’s being said to me; the rest accounts for new words and expressions I haven’t heard before and I always make the point to ask for their meaning if I can’t guess it from context.

Anyway, the only situations you can afford pretending you understood what was said to you are:

• when you’re told a joke and everyone gets it except you;
• you can clearly see that you’ll get away with pretending you understand on that particular occasion;
• you can infer meaning of the message from context, body language, reaction of others etc.

The best strategy of all, in my opinion, is admitting you didn’t understand and asking to say it again or to explain it using other words.

All you have to do is just master the art of letting it go, and you can also learn the method of averting disasters I mentioned in the subheading above.

It’s as simple as it’s genius – if you’re caught with agreeing with someone on something you didn’t have a clue about, just ADMIT IT ALL and MAKE A JOKE ABOUT IT!

If you’re asked – “You didn’t actually get it, did you?” – you can easily get out of the potentially embarrassing situation by saying “Yes, sorry, I actually didn’t quite get it but I didn’t want to sound rude and interrupt you!” – or something like that.

And even if you’re not told anything, but you can see that you just won’t get away with it, you can come clean and say “Hey guys, I was in a hurry and didn’t fully understand what you said to me, but hey – I’m too important to bother with such details!” (this is meant to be a joke – but of course you have to make sure you know those people well enough to predict such a joke will go down well with them!)

Remember – it’s not actually others who make you embarrassed; it’s up to you to control your own emotions

As far as you radiate confidence – you’re fine!

But of course – it’s best not to be lackadaisical when it comes to your spoken English improvement and you better not be ashamed of asking to explain something you don’t understand in the first place.

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Hi my fellow foreigners, it’s been another month at English Harmony and here I am again to deliver another monthly highlights report to those of you who didn’t get a chance or were too busy to read my blog posts regularly.

First of all, I’d like to tell you about a motivational poster I created on the New Year’s Day. Many of my mailing list subscribers and blog visitors have already printed it out and stuck it up on the wall, and you’re welcome to do the same. Just Click HERE to Open the Poster, and a large format image is going to open up so that you can conveniently send it to your printer.

The poster consists of the main premises of the English Harmony project such as – “Focus on what you CAN say instead what you CAN’T” and “Don’t mind your mistakes. Even native English speakers make plenty of them!” and many more; and the whole point of having the poster printed out is to keep yourself motivated to improve and maintain your English fluency throughout this year.

As you might have noticed, my approach towards English improvement is a bit different than you’d see elsewhere. I don’t preach grammar perfection and I don’t promote sophistication when it comes to speaking in English. Basically what I’m saying is – stop giving yourself a hard time, have an open mind and you’ll stand a much bigger chance to succeed as a foreign English speaker, and this poster is the essence of my English fluency philosophy.

A very important part of the whole English fluency improvement thing is acceptance of your mistakes made when speaking with others, and I want you to read this blog post to understand better what I mean by that.

In this article I’m sharing quite a funny yet very embarrassing personal experience with you, and I’m sure you’ll remember similar situations having happened to you in the past. This particular blog post adds to the traditional storyline of us, foreigners, making mistakes while speaking in English by highlighting the fact that even native English speakers can experience moments of confusion and inability to speak properly. As you can imagine, the whole point of this article is to make you realize that you’re not unique, and that such situations aren’t limited to foreign English speakers only.

It can happen to anyone, and the key in dealing with such embarrassing moments is in accepting them as part of our lives, and moving on instead of getting stuck in the moment and re-living the shameful experience all over again.

On a more entertaining note, I want you to read an article I wrote about one of my favorite TV shows – Mythbusters. Personally I don’t miss any new episodes when they’re released on the Discovery Channel, and in case you’re not a big fan of theirs, I want you to read this article and find out for yourself why watching Mythbusters is not only great fun, but also a way of passive English immersion and improving your English!

The five Mythbusters – Jamie, Adam, Tory, Grant and Kari – are covering a wide range of topics on their show and testing different widespread beliefs to see if they hold true, and it’s all done using quite a simple and easy to understand language so that the average foreign English speaker will find it fairly easy to enjoy the program without much difficulty.

You see, if you’ve followed my blog for some time, you’ll know that I’m in favor of enjoying life through the English language rather than using conventional language learning methods. Speaking as much as possible with others and with yourself, using English to enjoy your hobbies and also spending your free time doing things that involve the English language will be very beneficial to you as a foreign English speaker, and here’s another example – reading English newspapers.

When I just came over to Ireland 10 years ago, I made it my habit to read a newspaper every morning and build my English vocabulary, and it’s a decision I’ve never lived to regret. Phrasal verbs, expressions and simple English language used in tabloid newspapers is what you need to communicate effectively with people at work and on the street. On top of that, you’ll keep up-to-date on current affairs and other news which will serve you as source of conversation starter topics – in case you ever run out of things to talk about with your English speaking friends or if you don’t know how to start a conversation.

Making small-talk and discussing simple topics actually is often problematic to many foreign English speakers, because real life conversations require you to be able to improvise and produce speech instantly.

It’s something that I was struggling for a long time, and it took me years to realize that speaking is a completely different process from writing. You see, when you write, you can carefully pick the best fitting words, choose the most appropriate English Grammar Tenses and construct nice English sentences. When we speak, we can’t do it because we simply haven’t got time for it, so it’s hardly surprising that our English writing is much better that speech.

It’s normal, yet I keep seeing the question popping up regularly – “Isn’t it weird I can write better than speak?”

If you’ve been wandering the same thing please read this article I wrote in the beginning of January – it will shed light on the issue and give you a piece of mind in case it’s been troubling you lately.

The last blog post I want you to look at today is about how I use every available moment to practice my spoken English, and you can do the very same to get your English going. It’s called “How to improve spoken English while entering sales orders on a PC” and it’s yet another article dedicated to the topic of speaking English with yourself.

It’s how I keep myself immersed in the English language for long periods of time during the day, and you can do the same to drastically improve your English fluency!

These were the English Harmony Blog highlights of January 2012, and I hope you’ll find at least a few of my articles worth reading! I also hope that you’ll gain something for your own English fluency improvement in the process, and you’re welcome to post your feedback in the comments below!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

Let’s imagine you have to pick only one English learning and improving material to take with you to a remote island. What would it be? An English grammar book? A fiction book in English? An English workbook? Never mind them all! What you need is a bunch of newspapers and your English will come along nicely!

The reason why I value newspapers so highly – especially tabloids – is because their purpose is to provide normal, everyday people with easy-to-digest news and English used in them is very close to the spoken language heard on the street, at work, on TV and radio. You can read tabloids very easily and in the process you’ll acquire the same means of expression used in interpersonal communication.

While some academics might hold to a view that spoken English has low standards because of abundance of phrasal verbs and informal expressions, my experience tells me tabloid language will make your communication with other English speakers so much easier. After all, what kind of conversations are you involved on a regular basis – normal, everyday chatting or highly intellectual, academically inspired discussions?

I think that without a shadow of a doubt the former kind of communication is by far more necessary for the average foreign English speaker, so let’s look at the benefits of reading English newspapers and tabloids in a bigger detail. Also, you’ll find out how just by scanning tabloid headlines you can stay up-to-date with current affairs and offer your opinion on different topics when having a chat with your friends at a launch table!

Mark any expressions and word combinations
worth memorizing with a highlighter pen!

Whether you have a habit of grabbing the morning paper on the way to work and having a read on the bus or train, or you just occasionally read newspapers left behind on a canteen table, there’s no excuse for you not to have a pen or a highlighter on you!

When you come across phrases and expressions you haven’t heard before but you feel they’re worth memorizing, just highlight or underline them.

If you’re wondering HOW to determine if a certain expression is worth memorizing, please read another article of mine called How to Decide What New English Words to Learn

Next thing – don’t throw the newspaper away! Have it with you for the evening and next morning so that you can look up those highlighted expressions. Every time you do so, please make a point to speak them out loud and also put them in a couple of different sentences so that you add those expressions to your active English vocabulary!

IMPORTANT! Always learn new vocabulary in context – don’t highlight separate words and don’t translate them into your native language

But if you’re wandering why I insist you should speak them out loud – remember that your goal is to become capable of using those newly acquired phrases and expressions in your conversations! If you only read them, there’s less chance you’ll be able to do so because your mouth needs to be trained in order to speak fluently.

So it’s very important you combine the two – newspaper reading and speaking – for the biggest benefit to your spoken English improvement!

Use tabloid topics as conversation starters
with other English speakers!

They don’t write boring news in tabloids, full stop. Yes, some people will find certain topics more interesting than others, but generally speaking, you just can’t get it wrong if you strike up a conversation with someone touching on a subject mentioned in a tabloid newspaper.

Shocking crime stories, celebrity gossip, latest news in politics and showbiz updates – that’s what tabloid journalism is all about, and the very same topics dominate ordinary people’s conversations. If you want to blend within the society you live in – and I’m sure you do! – you’ll make it so much easier for yourself to integrate if you come across as a friendly person who knows just the right things to say at the right moments.

It’s especially relevant for you if you’re just starting out in an English speaking country, but even if you’ve been around English speakers for a good while, you may often find yourself being the quiet person sitting in the corner and not saying much.

So if you’re anything serious about your English fluency improvement, you’ve just got to speak, and finding inspiration in tabloid newspapers might just make all the difference for you when it comes to being able to participate in daily conversations and comment on things people find important.

And bear in mind, tabloid English is by no means some vulgar gibberish; I’d rather look at it this way – it is language for the people as opposed to a language used in very specific industries.

Here’s an excerpt from The Irish Sun, January 3, 2012: “Another year but already the gloom is deepening. 2012 started with citizens being hit with the household charge, VAT hikes and increased transport fares.”

Would you rather read the same news written in a very formal language – “We’ve just entered the New Year but already the effect of crisis is tangible. 2012 started with citizens facing the new household levy, VAT increase and rising commuting costs.” ?

Well, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you just have to know that in daily conversations the verb “to hit” can be used in that particular context, and it’s not something you’ll come across in an English textbook!

Yes, it’s only beneficial to your overall spoken English level if you can say things like “commuting costs are on the rise”. Yet it’s equally important to be able to speak using simple language, and frankly speaking there are occasions when foreign English speakers are overdoing their speech in terms of grammar constructs and vocabulary because we don’t want to look bad in front of others.

“Transport fares are going up” is totally fine to say, it’s not too simple, and that’s exactly how English speaking people speak in normal, day-to-day conversations!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!