Speak English like a Spy: Speak Natural & Confident English
What you'll learn
- Top-7 reasons you don't sound like a native.
- Pronunciation: linking, informal contractions & reduction.
- Circumlocution: a longer sentence is not a better sentence.
- Idioms: how many is too many?
- Articles: basic and not-so-basic ways we use a/an & the.
- Order of words: does it even matter?
- Denotation & connotation: what you should pay attention to when you're learning new words.
- Phrasal verbs: how common are they?
Requirements
- Prerequisite Vocabulary
Description
Is your spoken and written English good but not as good as you'd like it to be?
Can people easily tell that you're not a native speaker?
It may not bother you, but if it does, this course will tell you what you can do to sound more natural and native.
I'll outline the main reasons you don't sound native yet and tell you what you need to do to sound more natural.
In the course we’ll go over the following things:
1. Pronunciation.
You will be able to use linking, informal contractions, and reduction, which will make you sound a lot more like a native speaker.
2. Circumlocution
We’ll figure out why you may want to reconsider the way you phrase your thoughts. This will help you express your ideas in a clear and easy-to-follow way.
3. Number of idioms
I will give you examples of using idioms in a good and bad way. You will understand why this very popular among English learners approach to using idioms, which follows the “the more the better” principle, is often unnecessary, awkward, and unnatural.
4. Articles
You will learn basic and advanced ways of using definite (the) and indefinite (a/an) articles in your speech.
5. Order of words
By using examples I will show you why the order of words in English is inflexible and why it is important that you stick to it.
6. Denotation & connotation
You will learn that words can be neutral, positive, negative, offensive, sexual, etc., and why it is absolutely crucial for you to take this into account when you’re working on expanding your vocabulary.
7. Phrasal verbs
I will point out why phrasal verbs are a challenge worth accepting.
After this course, you will know what you should and what you shouldn't do to get closer to the level of English you've been dreaming about. :)
Who this course is for:
- Intermediate+ (Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate, Advanced) English learners
- Pre-Intermediate learners living in English-speaking countries
- Fluent English-speakers who want to sound natural & native
- NOT for beginners. Please watch the introduction to make sure you can follow my train of thought. :)
Featured review
![Zhang Wei](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64"%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=avatar}
Course content
- Preview03:02
- 01:07Pronunciation
- Preview03:26
- 02:15Pronunciation: Linking (2 out of 2)
- 01:28Pronunciation: Informal Contractions (1 out of 2)
- 02:57Pronunciation: Informal Contractions (2 out of 2)
- 02:28Pronunciation: Reduced Words in Connected Speech (1 out of 2)
- 01:54Pronunciation: Reduced Words in Connected Speech (2 out of 2)
- 02:17Circumlocution
- 01:58Number of idioms
- Preview02:33
- 02:44Articles: the definite article "the"
- 02:16Articles: the definite article "the" (with country names)
- 01:45Articles: indefinite articles "a/an"
- Preview02:10
- 01:45Word order
- 02:57Denotation & connotation
- 01:41Phrasal verbs
- 02:22Summary
Instructor
- 4.6 Instructor Rating
- 184 Reviews
- 12,635 Students
- 2 Courses
I started tutoring 9 years ago, and since then my interest for teaching has only intensified.
When I got a degree in English Education, I didn’t actually think that teaching was what I wanted to do. I tried a couple of different jobs, and decided to give teaching another try. Fortunately.
I took CELTA, learnt a bunch of useful techniques, but most importantly, I realized that I was enjoying every second spent in the classroom. I also loved going through tons of books while preparing, coming up with new strategies, and trying to foresee probable problems.
Since then I’ve taught English in the UAE, Georgia, China, Ukraine, Greece, and the USA.
I’ve always been moving a lot, which is why I have a lot of appreciation for convenience. One day I started learning French online. I realized how much better online learning is - there's no commute to class, there're a wider range of available teachers, and there's no need to smell a teacher's bad breath when they stand too close!
All these points got me thinking - why am I still not offering all these advantages to my students? Why am I leaving some of them behind when I move? So I started giving one-on-one English lessons online - and from here, it's taken off!