Need to improve your English skills?

Start with a conversation.

In my 15 years of helping business professionals improve their English, I’ve discovered the biggest barrier is fear.

Fear of speaking English at work.

And fear of writing emails, presentations and documents.

Many non-native English speakers with an intermediate to advanced level are so worried about making a mistake in front of colleagues, suppliers or customers, they don’t speak.

Even those with an advanced level can lack confidence in the language, especially when writing. They rely on tools such as Google translate, DeepL, Reverso and ChatGPT to translate or write for them.

There are three problems with taking this approach:

1. You won’t improve your English level.

2. Your translation / AI tool will make mistakes and you won’t know what the mistakes are.

3. You may not be able to get the job you want if your English level doesn’t improve.

Learning English by speaking

To overcome this barrier, and improve your level, you need to start speaking to people without worrying about making mistakes.

My advice is to start having conversations with a skilled English coach – someone who can guide you, correct you in supportive way, and help you build your confidence.

It’s important to get talking about things that interest you. Not just work-related topics. And don’t worry about making grammar mistakes, using the wrong word or mispronouncing something. The mistakes you make will actually help your English coach identify where you need the most help.

The important thing is to start talking – and writing – without fear.

Focus on what interests you

The job of an English coach is to fill gaps in your knowledge. A great way to do this is through real conversations about day-to-day life, tasks, challenges and successes.

When I provide online English training for individuals and teams around the world, I don’t start by saying, ‘today, we are going to learn about a new grammar form’. Instead, I say, ‘how are you today?’ or ‘what are you working on at the moment?’ and the conversation begins.

I help my learners feel comfortable. Then I move onto developing their language skills and building their confidence. We might talk about typical tasks such as meetings, projects, emails and presentations, and I give you the language you need. Or we might talk about something completely different, listen to a short podcast, read an article, or watch a video, before discussing it.

We have a conversation, I give feedback, I correct mistakes in a supportive way, and I identify areas to work on in the next training session. And if you need to write something in English, we work on it together.

Losing the fear

With this conversation-based approach, you are free to talk in an uninhibited way with an expert who is there to support and correct you.

You learn and practice better ways of saying things, or writing things. Step by step, you will become more fluent and confident using the language, and ultimately, achieve your goals.

If you want to improve your English skills for work, let’s have a chat.