Speaking in English Made Super Easy – Follow my Tweets and Just Stick Word Chunks Together!
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: (more…)
Reverse Psychology – Make Yourself Stutter, Hesitate and Get Tongue-tied in order… NOT TO!
101 Wrong Reasons (and 1 True Reason) Why I Love the English Language
3 Lessons Learned While Living Among Native English Speakers for 10 Years
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. (more…)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Here you can find answers to 99% of the most commonly asked questions about the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition. Please choose from one of the following questions and click on it to jump down right onto it: English Harmony System de Luxe Edition What exactly does the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition consist of? Are the lessons in the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition the same as your YouTube channel videos? What level of English is required to use the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition? Can even beginners with little English knowledge use it successfully? What's the total amount of time that I have to spend on using the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition? Am I really going to achieve complete English fluency after a month? Is the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition downloadable? Can I possibly memorize every single phrase contained in the System and then retain them all in my memory Purchasing the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition - Step by Step Instruction I’m interested in buying your fluency improving product, how can I do it? Improving Spoken English and Fluency What is English Harmony all about? Is this a website for English learners? How can I improve my English? How can I speak like a native English speaker? English Harmony System de Luxe Edition Q: What exactly does the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition consist of? A: At the moment there are 90 speech exercising lessons included in the System (every lesson is around 10 minutes long). They’re video lessons where a digital character speaks with you and you have to repeat and memorize different English phrases, idiomatic expressions, and sentences; after that, you have to use those phrases in a dialogue and it’s a great way to develop your spoken English! As far as I’m aware, EH System de Luxe Edition is the only software product focusing solely on getting you to speak the English language, and believe me – that’s exactly what you need after years spent studying English academically by writing and reading. All of those phrases, phrasal verbs, idioms and sentences included in the lessons have been purposefully selected by a native English speaker to provide the best mix in terms of relevance and usage in everyday conversations, etc. Every lesson is to be done twice over the course of 3 months; after that, you should repeat the whole set of 90 lessons again to revisit the phrases and make sure you imprint those natural speech patterns into your mind. What’s very important – it’s not only about memorizing the phrases; your mouth gets trained to produce English sentences INSTANTLY and you can easily REPLACE some words to create new sentences depending on the specific situation. All of a sudden speaking English becomes your second nature instead of racking your brain and trying to stick words together as you speak! Also, there’s a set of 10 meditation lessons included in the English Harmony System and they’re based on using affirmations and visualization to build one’s confidence. This is very, very important because most of my fellow foreigners who struggle with English fluency also experience confidence issues and are afraid of making mistakes while speaking, which in turn leads to all sorts of problems – getting tongue-tied, hesitation, and others. So as you can see, the English Harmony System is going to address ALL the different aspects of your spoken English – it’s going to re-build your active vocabulary according to natural speech patterns, it’s going to enable you to speak instantly and without thinking, and it’s going to make you into a confident speaker who’s not afraid of making mistakes BUT also speaks with confidence and can speak about any topic with anyone! Q: Are the lessons in the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition the same as your YouTube channel videos? A: No, the speech exercising and meditation lessons are completely different. They’re recorded by native English speakers – professional voice artists with impeccable English pronunciation – and all content has been created by a native English speaker, too. The speech exercising lessons are interactive, i.e. – you’re required to take action by clicking on active areas in the Flash videos to do the repetition and dialogues. My YouTube videos, on the other hand, are pure of an informative and motivational nature. Q: What level of English is required to use the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition? Can even beginners with little English knowledge use it successfully? A: This multimedia course is for those who have already spent a considerable amount of time studying English but still haven’t reached spoken English fluency. You need to understand the everyday spoken language used in the lessons to make it work for you. Of course, you might come across a few words and expressions that might require you to look them up online; however, all content has been created so that it’s as self-explanatory as possible. So even if some words and expressions might not be quite clear to you on their own, context will make it nearly impossible for you not to understand the meanings of phraseology and expressions used in the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition. Q: What’s the total amount of time that I have to spend on using the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition? Am I really going to achieve complete English fluency after a month? A: If you follow the standard study plan, you’ll be using the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition over a six month period. And yes, even within the first month you’ll notice a considerable improvement to your English fluency and you’ll build upon it during the next five months. There are also two accelerated study plans I’ve created for those who want to shorten the study time and improve their English fluency rapidly; they’re 3 months and 2 months long and will require more of your time so would be best suited for someone with more time on their hands. Q: Is the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition downloadable? A: No - there's no need to download anything! You gain immediate access to the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition after the payment has gone through - all you need is Internet access! Q: Can I possibly memorize every single phrase contained in the System and then retain them all in my memory? A: Here's how the EH System is supposed to work. You learn the phrases and sentences. In the process, you're forming a habit of speaking spontaneously and without much planning, and that's the main goal of the whole exercise! You won't be able to recall every single one of those sentences AT YOUR WILL upon the completion of the course; it's simply impossible. It's not even remotely possible in your own native language - for example, start listing words starting with a particular letter and see how long the list is going to be. After a while, you'll realize that you've run out of words to list while at the same time it's going to be obvious that there are thousands of more words starting with that letter! The same thing applies here - all that content you learn is going to be retained by your mind and while at certain times it will seem that you've forgotten most of what you've learned, nothing could actually be further from the truth! When the right opportunity arises, you will be able to say the right thing; the trick is NOT TO FORCE yourself to recall this or that particular phrase or word when speaking; you have to kind of allow your mouth to say what it naturally wants and to your surprise, you’ll see that on 90% of occasions you will say the right thing! Purchasing the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition Q: I’m interested in buying your fluency improving product, how can I do it? A: Please CLICK HERE to proceed to the signup page where you have to create a new account by choosing your username and password. After that, you’ll be taken to a payment page where you can choose to either pay with your PayPal account or your Credit Card if you don’t have a PayPal account. As soon as the payment is processed, you’ll be able to log into your account from your device and have an immediate access to all 4 English Harmony System’s Modules and the eBook Insider’s Secrets! Improving Spoken English and Fluency Q: What is English Harmony all about? Is this a website for English learners? A: English Harmony is a website for those foreign English speakers who don’t have much difficulties understanding, reading and writing in English but they’re struggling with speaking in English. Being very nervous and too embarrassed to speak, making all sorts of mistakes and not being able to say anything in front of other English speakers despite clearly knowing in your head what you want to say – they’re the kind of issues I’m dealing with here on English Harmony. In other words – if you can read my website and understand everything, but you’re aware of certain English fluency issues and limitations you may be having – clearly my website is for you! Q: How can I improve my English? A: I keep receiving this question all the time, and it’s so general that it’s kind of hard to give a short and thorough answer to it. I’ve written a blog post explaining the basic concept behind English improvement and what you should focus on, so please read that article here. It should give you the basic understanding of what English improvement entails, what you should stop doing, and what you should start doing on a regular basis to develop your English fluency. Q: How can I speak like a native English speaker? A: Well, first of all let me point out the obvious pitfall in this approach - if you're setting yourself up against native speakers, there's a big chance you'll keep running into fluency problems all the time simply because native speakers have been speaking English since they were toddlers, and we shouldn't aim to reach that level! While it's doable, it would require half your lifetime! It's better to stick to realistic goals, stop comparing yourself with others, developing your potential to its full and find comfort in the knowledge that your English is unique - it's YOURS, and it doesn't matter if you can't be as fluent as a native English speaker. So, I warmly suggest doing the following things, and you may just become as fluent as a native speaker: engage in as many English conversations as possible: if you haven't got opportunities for communication - make a habit to speak with yourself as often as possible in English; stop translating in your head while speaking and develop the habit of thinking in English; jot down any phrases, sayings and new words you may hear on a daily basis, repeat them, and make the point to use the in your spoken English practice; find yourself some hobby or some occupation to improve your fluency through those activities; buy the English Harmony System de Luxe Edition - it might just make all the difference between your fluency now and a couple of months down the line!
Is it OK to Pretend to Understand What an English Speaker Says When You Don’t?
English Harmony Highlights of January 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds1535dYPr0 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. (more…)
Why Reading an English Newspaper is 100 Times Better than Studying a Grammar Workbook
It’s OK to Feel Like an Idiot – Sometimes Even Native English Speakers Get Tongue-tied!
I thought I’d become immune to embarrassment because I’ve been following my own advice on using decent doses of ignorance whenever I encountered embarrassing situations. Last weekend, however, I realized that I’m not as emotionally tough as I thought because I got to experience immense embarrassment while I was doing my weekly grocery shopping in the local supermarket… To cut a long story short, I ran into one of my work colleagues – he’s a nice Irish fella – and somehow we both got completely tongue-tied when facing each other. To make the matters worse, he had his wife with him and obviously the whole situation became extremely awkward because I’d never spoken to her. Also considering the fact that I’ve rarely said anything more to him than “Hello!” and “See ya!” at work, I don’t think you’ll find it hard to imagine how two adult men may not find ANYTHING to say to each other. Well, to tell you the truth, the resulting situation was so embarrassing that I literally lost control over it and it started to resemble an accident scene unfolding before my eyes. Do you know the feeling when you’re witnessing something terrible happen but your body freezes up and you’re unable to do anything? I was experiencing something similar at that moment because I felt I was losing grip on reality. Clearly the totally confused red-faced person who just stood staring at the other two people with no ability to say something sensible in English wasn’t me; it was someone else having taken over my body! And the Irish fella wasn’t in a much better position – he was as tongue-tied as me unable to come up with anything reasonable to say to me. As you can imagine, the morale of this story is that it doesn’t matter who you are – a foreign or a native English speaker. Either one of you can get tongue-tied BECAUSE OF EMBARRASSMENT and the language actually plays a little role in it! (more…)
How to Improve Spoken English While Entering Sales Orders on a PC
Sometimes I find it hard to believe myself that I run this blog part-time. Yes, in case you didn’t know it yet, I have a full-time job and all the writing and video production I have to do for this website is done in evenings, at night, or early mornings. Anyway, I don’t regret any of it because I’m surrounded by English speakers while at work and it provides me with full English immersion. What better conditions can a foreign English speaker wish for in order to constantly improve and maintain English fluency? When I came to Ireland first, for instance, I had a warehouse job working with other foreigners and most of the time I was speaking with myself, so I really don’t think I should be complaining now! Even my current job, however, entails duties and responsibilities which see me spend a lot of time on my own – such as organizing and counting stock and entering data on a PC. Quite naturally, I’m not involved in any lengthy conversations with my colleagues when performing those duties and a few times a year there are periods of a few weeks straight when I’m sitting at the PC and entering new sales orders. Do I miss out on my full English immersion sessions when it happens? Not at all! I keep speaking English with myself even when entering new product specifications on the computer and it helps me greatly to constantly stay in the English speaking mindset. (more…)
Isn’t It Weird That I Can Write In English Better Than Speak?
Short answer – “No, it’s not weird at all! It’s actually completely normal for any English speaker – be it native or foreign – to be able to write in English better than speak!” However, having said this, the reverse isn’t always true and I’m not claiming that all English speakers are better writers than speakers. It’s just that it’s NOT WEIRD if you happen to be a better writer than a speaker. Now, would you like to get a bit more elaborate answer to this question? Well, it’s going to take me more than just a paragraph or two to say all I have to say in this regard, so I’d better settle down in front of my laptop with a mug of coffee because writing this article is going to take me a little while. There are many aspects to the curious problem of differences between writing and speaking in English and who else would be more qualified to answer the above question than me? After all, I live in an English speaking country and I spend the biggest part of my day at work communicating with native English speakers; most of my evenings are spent writing articles for my blog and answering e-mails. Years spent on analyzing English fluency related issues have left me with a very good understanding of how one’s writing skills influence one’s ability to speak and vice versa, so let my long answer begin! So, is it weird that you can write in English better than speak? NO, and the reason number one is… (more…)
6 Reasons Why Mythbusters is the Best TV Program for Improving Your Spoken English
Print This Poster to Motivate Yourself to Improve Your English Throughout 2012!
=== Click HERE to OPEN THE POSTER! === (Then print it out and stick it up on your wall!) :!: :grin: Happy New Year, my fellow foreign English speakers :grin: :!: The party is over, and now we have to go back to the grim reality… The holiday season is over, Christmas gifts have been unwrapped long ago, and now we have to go back to our daily routines. How depressing, isn’t it? Well, not everything is looking so gloomy! Despite the reality check we all undergo when the holidays are over, New Year is a time well known for the biggest aspirations and life-changing decisions! === Click HERE to OPEN THE POSTER! === (Then print it out and stick it up on your wall!) (more…)
English Harmony Blog Highlights of 2011
Don’t Put Up With ESL Industry’s Childish Treatment & Throw Unwanted Gifts Away!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCexyzonyYk :razz: Happy Christmas to all foreign English speakers around the world! :razz: I've done some research on the Internet about the latest English learning and improving methods, and it appears that all my work on this blog is good for nothing! :sad: In order to improve your English, apparently you don’t have to do anything else but listen and my focus on the spoken aspect of English is just a waste of your time! Forget about plenty of speaking practice, my friends foreign English speakers! Just go online, get one of those revolutionary pieces of English learning audio CDs, sit back, listen to those stories and let the English language seep into your mind automatically! And you know why it works? Results of countless researches have confirmed that children learn their native language by first listening for a good few months and then they start speaking it! So, quite a few English teaching professionals claim that you should take advantage of this fact and start harnessing the power of listening. Basically, you should adopt a position of a child and let the others fuss around you. You don’t have to take any action, and you’ll be able to start speaking fluent English when you’re ready and when all that audio content has settled into your mind. I know, I know my friends, you hate being treated like a child and I also know that deep down inside you are suspecting that such English learning and improving methods don’t work :!: If you’re anything like me, the first question you’d ask to those who came up with this passive immersion listening method would be – “Hold on, could it be that babies only listen during the first year because they’re simply unable to speak?” (more…)
The Illusion of Elsewhere – How to Clear Your Mind and Achieve Complete English Fluency in 4 Easy Steps
Why Being a Foreign English Speaker Gives Me an Edge Over ANY Native English School Teacher
Stop Preparing Speech In Your Head Beforehand!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqAgLOL0NYU Do you often catch yourself thinking of what exactly you’re going to say a few moments before you say the actual thing? Do you frequently make mistakes such as saying the wrong word or mixing up letters in words because you constantly think of a number of different ways to say the particular thing? If you recognize yourself from my description, don’t worry, you’re not unique. There are thousands of other foreign English speakers who speak following the same pattern – they prepare speech in their head beforehand and then try to say it out loud. As you already know, it creates all sorts of English fluency issues with the most noticeable being hesitation, stuttering and using wrong words or wrong grammar constructs. In other words, you sound very uncertain and your conversation partner may get the impression that you don’t really know what to say although in reality it’s quite the opposite… You know exactly what you want to say, and you know how to say it in five different ways, and all those sentences are right here, in your mind, it’s just that when you speak out loud you kind of want to say it all at once! :mad: I’ve been in the same boat, my friend. I know exactly how it feels and I also know what causes this problem. Would you like to understand the reasons behind this issue so that you can start dealing with it? Then stay with me for a few more minutes and I’ll explain everything to you! (more…)
English Fluency Monitoring & Management
If you’re anything serious about improving your spoken English - and I bet you are otherwise you wouldn’t be reading my blog! – your English fluency is inevitably experiencing growth over time, it just can’t be otherwise. Regardless of all ups and downs you may encounter while having conversations with other English speakers, your English fluency trend is always going up – even if you don’t notice it! Of course, your fluency trend may be steeper than that of someone else’s, and it’s only natural because not all foreigners are getting the same amount of passive and active English immersion. And it’s actually totally understandable because everyone has their own fluency requirements depending on how much they use the English language in everyday life. For many of us, foreigners, practical life determines if we’re going to develop our English fluency at a fast pace or stay on a plateau for years. Anyway, today’s article is about your English fluency management and it’s especially relevant to those who experience sharp drops in fluency resulting in the infamous English fluency issue. Getting tongue-tied and stopping in a middle of a sentence, getting a feeling as if your head is stuffed full with thousands of English words and you know EXACTLY what you want to say but you’re unable to say anything, making stupid mistakes… These are the typical symptoms of the English fluency issue and what’s really baffling is the fact that we, foreigners, often experience such terrible moments right after having been absolutely fluent. We’re hitting the heights of our English fluency graphs, our confidence is very high, we’re achieving a near-native level of spoken English, and then suddenly we experience a downturn in our ability to express ourselves! It may even become so bad that on certain situations we find it hard to say anything at all, and it can be very, very distressing indeed… So how do you manage these peaks of your English fluency trend? How do you prevent the drops from being so sharp? To find answers to these questions, please read the rest of today’s blog post! (more…)
Want To Seriously Improve Your Spoken English? Find a Hobby For Yourself!
Confidence Lesson From Kristen Stewart For All Foreign English Speakers
A while back I published a blog post where I analyzed Benicio Del Toro’s interview. I did it in order to prove to any of you that even native English speakers will hesitate, use simple, short sentences and sometimes even say complete non-sense when asked a question they haven’t had time to think about properly! So is it such a big deal if we, foreign English speakers, can’t say something straight away when we get stuck in a middle of a sentence or can’t wrap words around our thoughts? Of course it’s not! There are only two things that make us different from native English speakers – we hate when others make assumptions about our level of English and many of us are perfectionists trying to finish a sentence once we started it and also trying to make it perfect in terms of grammar and word choice. If you learn to ignore those two factors, however, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t give an interview just like Kristen Stewart from Twilight did - or even a better one! Now, watch the video below, listen carefully to the whole interview and then read the rest of this article. It just might make a big difference to your spoken English confidence, my friend! ;-) (more…)
Shortcut to Complete English Fluency – Learn How to Produce Instant English Speech
2 Dictionary Websites You’ll Ever Need To Improve Your English
I’ve been using the Internet to improve my English for a good number of years, especially when it comes to finding out meaning of new words and figuring out how to use them in context, what other words they collocate with, and what idioms there are containing those words. Sure, you can use Google and other search engines successfully to find relevant information; however, there are two websites that just can’t be beaten in terms of the sheer amount of information they provide when it comes to English vocabulary. Also, they are brilliant when explaining how that vocabulary is used in context, and you have to bear in mind that it is crucial for all foreign English speakers. Learning new English vocabulary out of context – just memorizing separate words – is going to do you little good simply because you won’t know that particular word is used by native English speakers. There’s so much more to speaking fluent English than just sticking separate words together, and these two websites will provide you with countless examples on how new words and expressions are used in the English language. Last but not least, those websites will explain you meaning of new English words through English language using dozens upon dozens of synonyms, and this is also of the utmost importance for us, dear fellow foreign English speakers! Why? It’s quite simple – you should build your English vocabulary ONLY through the English language to prevent you from translating from your native language in your mind which can have a terrible effect on your ability to produce fluent and coherent speech! Well, I guess I’ve piqued your interest with describing how good those websites are, so now let’s look at them so that you can start using them in your English improving routine! (more…)
Can You Speak Fluent English Without Learning Idioms?
How to Give Weight to Your Opinion? Use Smart English Phrases!
Is Google Any Good For Improving Your Spoken English?
Yes, it is! But in this blog post I'm not going to discuss the cool Google speech recognition functionality or some similar tool (I'm probably going to look at it in one of my future blog posts though). By saying that you can use Online Search Engines to improve your spoken English I'm referring to Google, Yahoo and other Online Search Engine search suggestions - simple as that :!: Performing search on certain words and search terms allows you to find out plenty of useful information about naturally occurring English word combinations, and if you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll know that I’m always emphasizing the importance of memorizing words that go together in natural spoken English - collocations, idioms, phrasal verbs. Why? Simply because it allows you to speak fluently; as you say the first word, the next ones are triggered automatically because your brain and mouth have been trained to pronounce certain words together :!: So if you’re interested in intricacies of Google, Yahoo or Bing search suggestions that allow you to learn patterns of real life English – keep reading this article and you’ll probably be in for a nice surprise on how instrumental Search Engines can be to a foreign English speaker! (more…)
Highlights of July 2011
The month of July has come to an end, so let’s look back at the most important blog posts – in case you didn't get a chance to read them all. I started the month with a blog post about changing your perspective on the way you conduct English conversations with people. If you often experience embarrassment when speaking in English with certain people in certain situations, in this article you’ll find valuable advice on how to lower your stress levels on such occasions. Of course, I can’t make miracles happen and make you into a super-confident foreign English speaker in five minutes while you’re reading the article. You have to work with yourself but what I can do through such and similar articles is – make you realize what EXACTLY you should be focusing on in order to deal with confidence and mindset issues when speaking English. Another blog post that comes highly recommended explains why I’m highlighting bits of my blog posts in red and it’s all about idiomatic expressions and collocations. This is very important stuff so if you’ve very little time, just read this blog post because it explains the essence of natural English fluency – using word combinations spoken by native English speakers! In another blog post about speaking English with hard foreign accent I’m touching the subject of foreign accent once more, only this time from another angle. Basically this article is about how you can deal with situations when you experience drops in English fluency by putting on much harder foreign accent than you normally would. Controversial? That’s just the way I am! (more…)
Learn English Irregular Verbs Through Collocations, Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
You Can Say Nearly Everything Using the Word “THING”!
We foreign English speakers often speak too complicated. Why go the extra mile every time you want to say something and explain the whole situation in the very detail? Compare the two sentences “So what do you think about our management trying to recoup some of the lost profits by cutting our wages?” and “So what do you think about the whole wage cuts thing?” The first sentence details the topic you’re discussing; the second one gets straight to the matter without wasting much time on explaining what’s already known to both people involved in the conversation. Also, it sounds more friendly and casual, and you can definitely ease any tension that’s present between you and the person you’re taking to :!: Say for instance, you find yourself sharing a launch break with someone you haven’t spoken a lot with, so you’re a bit uncomfortable with that person. Then he or she makes a casual comment about something going on in the company, it’s just small talk really. Now, if you respond with “Yes, the whole thing looks pretty bad all right!” it’s going to sound much better than “Yes, I agree, there’s not enough resources available to our management to complete the new building”. The first phrase is a very common way of confirming the other person’s opinion and sounds friendly enough. You really don’t need to repeat what the other person said to you, so a short phrase “The whole thing about…” is totally OK as a reply. Of course, if you’re having a formal conversation you wouldn’t risk being taken for a person with bad manners, so you would probably explain everything in more detail. If you’re chatting with a friend of yours, on the other hand, why beat around the bush? It’s so much more convenient to use the amazing English word “THING” to describe nearly everything you want! (more…)