5 ways to take control of your fear of English grammar without a grammar book. “I fear my native-speaking clients will judge me because of my grammar mistakes.”   Whilst you are nervous when you present to an audience of international speakers of English, it’s nothing compared to your terror of presenting to native speakers of English.   The fear that, if you stumble over that grammar tense or use the wrong preposition, they might quietly laugh at you and overlook your expertise.   Your natural instinct is to dust down your English Grammar in Use book or sign up for a 20-we ..read more

Why your English isn’t a barrier to your professional success and what is instead. “I want to improve my English fluency skills and gain confidence in speaking in a professional context.”    So says every single international speaker of English like you.     Fluency is your ticket to demonstrating your expertise, being credible, feeling confident, and commanding respect and authority.   Fluency is your ticket to getting a promotion.   Fluency is your ticket to overcoming your anxiety about your English at work.       According to the Cambri ..read more

How to speak up with courage in your meetings: 3 tips.   SILENCE CAN BE A KILLER for you in an English meeting.   If you are silent, your fellow participants are wondering if you have understood and are wondering what you think. Silence really confuses and frustrates them and it can kill the conversation.    Silence can also leave you deeply frustrated about having missed an opportunity.   If you really want to make an impact and perform well in English, FIND THE COURAGE to start giving honest FEEDBACK about what you do and need help understanding.   There is a ..read more

9 ways to say “I agree” in English but who cares? Let’s see which are the 9.   1/ I agree 2/ I’m with you on this one. 3/ Totally/ Exactly/ Precisely. 4/ I am in agreement 5/ I couldn’t agree more 6/ You’re absolutely right 7/ You’re so right 8/ You took the words right out of my mouth 9/ My thoughts exactly   I had to think hard about this list because all I could think of were “I agree” and “yes”.   Why am I writing this?   Because a new client felt frustrated with himself that all he could think of to say in a meeting was  “I agree” and that was simply not good ..read more

6 strategies you need to stop going blank when presenting in English What do you struggle with the most when you communicate in English and why?   This is the response (in his words) my client gave. “Well, I struggle with my capacity to structure my ideas and share them. I am a designer, so, I have to articulate every design decision and explain it and defend it if it is necessary, but my lack of English fluency most of the time becomes in a big impediment to do it, the most of the times my mind goes blank, I start to sweat and all my ideas are gone, this is very terrifying and I want ..read more

13 mini phrases to get you talking in your meetings in English   You sit in silence in that meeting dreading the moment you may be asked to contribute an idea or participate in the conversation in English.  Your mind is racing and you’re sweating. In your mind and without real proof,  you tell yourself that you:   Won’t find your words Will pause mid-sentence trying desperately to remember that word you know you know but has disappeared Won’t be able to explain your idea clearly in under 2 minutes and will irritate the others Won’t be able to give a quick answer You t ..read more

Remember these 3 tips before your next meeting in English #1:  Speak to express NOT to impress    #2:  Be comfortable being imperfect    #3: Don’t be afraid to show you’re vulnerable   These 3 tips appeared in my LinkedIn newsfeed a while back. They came from a LinkedIn Influencer and were offered to anyone who wants to be a better leader and build greater influence at work.  These tips are not new. I bet you’ve attended plenty of leadership courses where they’ve been discussed. In fact, you’ve probably already applied them in your relationships with ..read more

1 winning strategy to describe your work clearly and confidently in YOUR English Describing what you do to someone who’s not in your industry is hard. The immediate response to the question “what do you do” is to give your job title.    Some job titles are easy to explain and to understand but others are mind-boggling.    “Employer Branding Senior Specialist”, “Chief People & Culture Officer”, “Global Utilities Business Area Leader “. (If any of you can explain these job titles to me in the comments, I’d be most grateful.)   And that’s the problem. Explaining yo ..read more

How to overcome the shame you feel about your English You feel shame When you can’t understand the question. When you feel yourself pausing too much. When you struggle to find the words to say what you mean. When your boss ‘helpfully’ paraphrases what you’ve just said.   In essence, you feel shame because you feel that your hesitation when communicating in English could be seen as a lack of expertise. You compare yourself to others, mainly native speakers and you despair. Everyone else is better, more eloquent, more confident, more professional.  To make matters worse, the more you ..read more

How to unlearn how you think about your English self We all have preconceptions… …about how someone is dressed, how they speak, how they walk into the room, how they look (fat, slim, tattooed, hair).   We have preconceptions about cultural and national groups which are often unconscious. We unquestioningly accept preconceived ideas about a group, a neighbourhood and so on.    We also have preconceived ideas about ourselves as international speakers of a language we speak. In your case, English.   As an international speaker of English, the preconceived ideas you have of y ..read more