What You Think is Your WORST English Performance May Just Turn Out to Be Your BEST One Ever!

Do you sometimes get the feeling that you’re a really crappy English speaker and that your English sucks? Well, I also get this feeling sometimes, and despite having dealt with my main fluency issues a long time ago there are days when it kind of feels as if it’s not even worth opening my mouth. There are occasions when I have to record a video for my YouTube channel, for example, but I just can’t stand the way I sound on that particular day, and I can’t get rid of the feeling that I should rather stay away from it and get back to it the following day. Do you think I do that and just keep my mouth shut? No way! I simply ignore the fact that I’m feeling bad about my ability to speak in English properly, and I proceed with recording the videos. More often than not the result is quite surprising – when I watch the video I can clearly see that my English speech is by far better than I thought it was! So here’s the simple conclusion I can draw: (more…)

English Idiomatic Expression: “Largely Due to The Fact”

6 Types of Foreign English Speakers: Which One Are YOU?

How to Sound More Native-like in English: Start Saying “Yeah” and “Nah”!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu4fY3L5h50

5 Trendy Words that are Dominating the English Language

Hi Guys! ;-) Today's article is brought to you by Dusty Fox from a website called Listen & Learn, and in this blog post she will look at some of the most popular English words having emerged or re-emerged in the mainstream society. You'll also find out about the background of those words - such as "hipster" or "locavore", so without a further ado, it's over to you - Dusty! * * * The English language is an evolving one with new words popping up year after year. It seems like pop culture, social media, and our need to be constantly plugged into an electronic and hyper-connected world is in overdrive. This means new words appear and spread like wild fire, reaching countries in every corner of the world in no time at all. Some words are instant classics, embraced by all and seamlessly blended into our everyday dialogue. Usually, we don't even realize the moment we adopt these words and phrases into our vocabulary, but nonetheless, they somehow work their way into conversations, posts, and tweets before we know it. There are plenty of words that are handy to know before striking up a conversation with an English speaker. Test your English level before trying out the new entries in the English vocabulary - here's a look at some of the trendiest English words that have made headlines over the last several years: (more…)

FGC Goal #1: American Phrase #11: GOT A THING FOR

How to Speak During a Job Interview If You’re a Non-Native English Speaker

The truth of the matter is that most foreign English speakers want to improve their English in order to improve their chances of getting a better job or getting that long-wanted promotion in their current company. So, the chances are quite high that you also cherish such dreams of improving the quality of your professional life, and I guess I wouldn’t be wrong in saying that you’d like to be prepared really, really well when going for your job interview! Also, if you’re competing against native English speakers for the position, you may want to make sure you don’t expose your weaknesses in terms of your overall English skills, and most importantly – you definitely want to make sure you’re able to showcase your personal profile, relevant qualifications and past experience without any hiccups during the job interview. Now, do you think you don’t stand a chance of getting that job you desire if: You sometimes get stuck for words when speaking in English; Using the right English tenses during a conversation sometimes presents problems for you; You don’t know how to sound professional during important events such as job interviews and meetings? Don’t worry! In this and the next few articles dedicated to job seeking for non-native English speakers I’m going to provide killer tips for you that will see to your job seeking goals and make sure you put on a great show during the job interview! ;-) (more…)

EH System for Mac Users Available NOW!

Best English Phrase Memorization Techniques for Those Who Want to Speak Fluent English

Hello my fellow English language fanatics! ;-) I’ve been publishing videos and articles on this blog for years on end, and if you’ve been following my website for some time you’ll know that my main focus is spoken English development because I write for those foreigners who are struggling to speak fluently while being quite good at other aspects of their English. One of the main aspects of oral fluency development is phraseology acquisition – or if put in simple terms – building your vocabulary of English word combinations and phrases (why am I not talking about individual English words? Read THIS article to find out why!). Spaced repetition is by far the most effective way of learning those phrases, and it’s based on the following simple principles: You repeat a phrase a number of times until it sticks with you and you can repeat it automatically; You review that phrase later on that day, then the following day, and then in a few days’ time. Simple as that! ;-) That’s what I’ve been doing to build my own English phraseology, and that’s what all my customers are doing when improving their English with help of the English Harmony System. One closely related subject that I haven’t touched upon on my blog, however, is different memorization techniques that you might use to memorize your English phraseology even faster and more efficiently, and that’s exactly what I’m going to look at in this article! SIDENOTE: please bear in mind that I’m not going to look at individual English word memorization techniques in this article because by far the best way to acquire new English vocab is by learning it in the CONTEXT which essentially means memorizing entire phrases and sentences is pretty much the only way forward! (more…)

FGC Goal #1: American Idiomatic Expression #14: IT STANDS TO REASON

English Idiom: “It’s Not to Be Sniffed At!”

30-day Vocabulary Acquisition Course- Day 14- Angry and Irritated?

30-Day Vocabulary Acquisition Course- Day 3- Traffic

You Can’t Listen Your Way to Fluency!

The State of “The Flow” and Its Importance When Improving Your English

Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it! Video Transcript Below Hi guys, hello boys and girls! Hello my dear fellow foreign English speakers and welcome back to Robby's English Harmony video blog! Today let's talk about THE FLOW. And I read about the concept of flow or should I say THE flow? Because it's a particular state of mind. And I read about that concept a while ago while I was doing a little bit of research into the subject of procrastination. We all – I suppose – have that quality to procrastinate sometimes. You know, it's a vice because it's a terrible feeling, you know? You know exactly what you've got to do but you just can't do it for whatever reasons. You just find yourself constantly getting distracted. For instance if I had a task of writing an article for instance I would find myself making cups of coffee every 15 minutes and checking my email and checking my website’s stats and whatever. And then 5 or 6 hours later the article still wouldn't be even started. I would have only 1 or 2 paragraphs. And so that's the typical case of procrastination. And I've been guilty of that at certain stages in my life. And I was doing a little bit of research into it and I found out that people who don't procrastinate they can achieve the state of mind whereby they are fully immersed into the activity at hand so their mind doesn't even wander. And that's the so-called state of THE FLOW. (more…)

You’re Not Fluent in English If You Can’t Construct a Subjected Indirect Object Locative Double Passive!

30-day Vocabulary Acquisition Course- Day 27- Take a rain check!

This article is part of the 30-day Vocabulary Acquisition Course. Sign up here to get every lesson in your inbox for free: (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//forms.aweber.com/form/28/1528169428.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, "script", "aweber-wjs-gh9mm2tmz")); Hello everybody out there, How are you doing today? By the way, did you practice yesterday’s expressions? I know you did, you are my good students and you practice daily. It is for this reason that I bring a new chapter every day about a topic and teach you new expressions with context and examples. Hence, I welcome back all my dear English learners once again to our “Free 30-day Vocabulary Acquisition Course”, and I know you don't like me beating around the bush, so without further ado, let’s get down to the business and see today’s context- Context Aaron: Hey Anthony, How are you doing? Anthony: I am doing well, thanks. How are you? Aaron: Can't complain! Anthony: I heard you are seeing Emma these days. Aaron: Yeah, we are great friends. I think we have so much in common. Anthony: Have you proposed to her? Aaron: No, not till now. I actually wanna spend some more time as it’s a very important matter. Anthony: Yeah, I agree. Aaron: Yeah man. By the way, where did you hear this from? Anthony: Jonathan told me about it. He saw you both together at the square bar yesterday. Aaron: Alright. By the way, do you wanna join us at dinner tonight? It will be so much fun. Anthony: I am really sorry Aaron, I have to complete the assignments that need to be submitted tomorrow, but I will take a rain check for dinner this Sunday. Is that okay with you? Aaron: No problem mate! I will see you later. Anthony: See you. Bye. Aaron: Bye-bye. Did you ever take a rain check for something when you were busy at the moment? Well, I have to do it quite often these days due to my busy schedule. Hopefully, you would have understood from the context what it means when someone says to “take a rain check”. Isn’t it? By the way, for those who are still confused, it is simply an expression indicating that one is refusing an offer or invitation but with the hope or promise that it can be postponed or accepted at a later date or time. Example: I am too tired after the practice session to go out. Can I take a rain check? How did you find today’s chapter? I hope it added some new vocabulary to your arsenal of active vocabulary which will be definitely useful in your daily life. Make sure you read this article thoroughly and practice it with your own examples so as they will become your second nature. See you tomorrow with some new topic and vocabulary. Till then keep learning and improving. Take care and? Bye-bye. This article is part of the 30-day Vocabulary Acquisition Course. Sign up here to get every lesson in your inbox for free: (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//forms.aweber.com/form/28/1528169428.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, "script", "aweber-wjs-gh9mm2tmz"));

Lower Your Standards if You Want to Improve Your English Successfully!

FGC Goal #1: American Idiom #21: FOR MY MONEY

Having English as the ONLY Language in the World Would Be a Disaster…

A while ago I published an article called It’d Be Great to Have English as the Only Language in the World in which I looked at a purely fictional scenario of a world where English would be the only language spoken. Now, in that particular article I looked at the positive aspects of such a scenario such as lower levels of discrimination and higher levels of integration. Today let’s look at why such a scenario would be a total disaster, so basically we’re going to look at the cons of having English as the only language in the world. And please bear in mind, in my scenario English hasn’t conquered other languages, we’re basically assuming that English has ALWAYS been spoken all over the world and nobody would even think of the possibility of speaking a different language because no-one would even know what it’s like. In other words, we’re assuming that since the dawn of time there’s been a uniform language development all around the world and this language happens to be English. So, without further ado, let’s start looking at the negative aspects of having English as the world’s language when compared to the actual situation when we’re having literally thousands of languages spoken on this planet! (more…)

English Idiomatic Expression: “Bear in mind”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANLgimJ8j6k Another day – another English idiomatic expression from Robby! Today’s phrase is used in just about any situation whenever someone tells you something important and they want you to pay particular attention to a specific detail. “Please, bear in mind that…” is the typical way you’ll be told that you shouldn't forget what follows this phrase, and if you want to find out more specific examples of this phrase in action – please watch the video above! Sample sentences I’m coming up with are sometimes funny because I’m always improvising in these videos, and I think it’s worth watching the above video even for that reason alone. Not that I consider myself being some sort of a comedian or anything, it’s just that I sometimes laugh at myself while editing my own videos and I would imagine I’m not the only one feeling that way! Chat soon, Robby ;-)

English Idiomatic Expression: “It Came to Light That…”

3 Situations When It Might Be Easier For You To Speak in English With Your Fellow Foreigners

Some time ago I published an article called “5 Reasons Why It’s Easier To Speak With Native English Speakers Than Other Foreigners”. In today’s article I’m going to look at reasons why on certain occasions it might be actually easier to speak in English with another foreigner :!: As I already pointed out in the first article – on most occasions it’s all a matter of perspective. All other things being equal – such as your level of English fluency, language comprehension etc. – you may feel more comfortable speaking with another foreigner simply because you’re not ashamed of saying something wrong (which inevitably happens during any conversation). Or it also could be that you spend most of your time working in an international team, and speaking with native English speakers is an exception rather than a rule. "It is mostly our OWN mental inhibitions that make us favor conversations with natives or foreigners!" And of course – it varies from person to person a great deal! While you mightn't have any problems chatting with your native English speaking work colleague, your supervisor might be giving you the creeps and you always stutter and find it difficult to explain yourself in his or her presence. Anyway, here are the 3 situations when you may find it easier to speak with your fellow foreign English speaker instead of a native speaker. Enjoy! ;-) (more…)

English Idiomatic Expression: “To The Best of My Knowledge”

What’s The Worst That Could Happen If You Make a Mistake When Speaking in English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH_E5ZE9mTE Hi my fellow foreigners – tonight is the Halloween night and I think it would be only fair if I gave you a fright! I’m going to use the biggest fear of all foreign English speakers, and I’ll do my best to scare the hell out of you! So what is this fear I’m so certain will have such an effect on you? Well… We all fear making mistakes when speaking English, don’t we? We fear it so much that we become very conscious of our speech thus making even more stupid mistakes. It’s a self-perpetuating mental state and personally I’ve gone through these issues countless times in the past and I know how depressing, annoying and scary it is. Are you ready? So here it goes – a list of 20 things that might possibly happen if you make a mistake when speaking English! You’d better brace yourself because as you’ll see it’s safer not to open your mouth at all than trying to say something in English and face the dire consequences… (more…)

English Idiomatic Expression: “It goes to show”

Watch This If You Have Total English Grammar Confusion!

Are You Spending Sufficient Amount of Time on Speaking?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypcr9LWwkjA Are you facing a situation where even after a longer period of time you’re not seeing any significant English fluency improvement? Are you doing everything imaginable in order to develop your English fluency but it just doesn’t seem to be happening? Are you: Watching TV series and documentaries Reading English newspapers and fiction Learning a lot of English idiomatic expressions Speaking in English with others for at least 1 hour a day… …only to discover you still run into all sorts of fluency related issues? RE-EVALUATE. Look at your fluency improvement routine and ask yourself a single question: (more…)

Recording Your English Speech is CRUCIAL!

If you check out my YouTube channel, you’ll see there’s hundreds of videos published over the course of a number of years. That’s countless hours spent practicing my spoken English in front of a camcorder. Now, I’ve always been talking about how important doing spoken English self-practice is, but up until now I haven’t touched upon the importance of RECORDING your speech on a camcorder :!: Well, I have mentioned it in passing a good few times, and I’ve also listed it on this article called “5 Ways to Practice Your Spoken English if You’re Desperate For English Conversations!”, but I haven’t explicitly told my blog readers that I attribute a lot of my personal fluency development to recording my speech on a camcorder. Here’s a few reasons as to why recording your spoken English does wonders to your English fluency and is more effective than just speaking out loud: It forces you to speak more fluently; It provides feedback; The camcorder lens acts as a real person listening to you! Want to find out more about it? Then read the rest of this article and I’ll reveal all my realizations to you! ;-) Just think about it – you’ll get to pick my brain and extract the very essence of my knowledge. Knowledge that I’ve acquired over the course of a long career of YouTube publishing as a foreign English speaker recording videos in English. It just doesn’t get better than that, so keep reading, my friend! (more…)

English Teacher Puts Skype Student on the Spot… It’s NOT Teaching!

How To Stop Getting Stuck When Speaking English

Are you having situations when your conversation with an English speaking person suddenly stops because you’re struggling to find the right words to say? Let’s say, for example, you’re having a chat with one of your colleagues during the launch break. He starts talking about last night’s soccer match and expects you to make some comments about it. You open your mouth to start telling something related to what he just said, but … nothing comes out! You’re very eager to say something so that you wouldn’t go down in your workmate’s estimation – but you just can’t utter more than a few sounds like – well… ehhh… ahh…. Or even worse – you might try to force yourself to speak something related to the subject. As a result, you can start mispronouncing words like – was the player really regle… relege…relegated… I know this feeling when you can’t speak at all although deep inside you know that you’re pretty good at writing, understanding, reading and also speaking English. It feels terrible! Especially because you don’t have a real explanation as to why such moments of very bad speech are happening. Well, on many occasions it is how the English fluency issue manifests itself. Countless foreign English speakers on the world are facing this issue on a daily basis and it’s all because of how English is traditionally taught. But it’s not always the case! (more…)

6 Reasons Why Mythbusters is the Best TV Program for Improving Your Spoken English

English Idiomatic Expression “To Happen To (Be)”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WvhDeao5LU Hello my fellow foreign English speakers! Have you ever heard anyone say things like: Thank God I HAPPENNED TO BE there – otherwise who knows how it all would have ended? You won’t believe me – I HAPPENNED TO BE in the same hotel as Justin Bieber! I don’t think it was a cosmic coincidence – he merely HAPPENNED TO have gone to the same college with her sister… … and you’ve been wondering why people use the English verb “to happen” in this particular context? Why don’t they just say: Thank God I was there… I was in the same hotel… He went to the same college…? (more…)

Shortcut to Complete English Fluency – Learn How to Produce Instant English Speech

FAQ: I’m Afraid My English Fluency Isn’t Coming Back!

Update From Robby: New Job, Fluency Star Finished, Spoken English Self-practice Still Going Strong!

Here’s how to improve your English listening skills when listening to my video: put the headphones on, playback the video and write it all down while listening to it! Hi Guys! Today I'm bringing you a quick update on what I've been up to this summer, and you wouldn't believe how busy I've been doing all the following: Finishing my IT certification; Organizing my work experience; Preparing for a job interview; Starting in a new job; ...and all the while keeping teaching my Fluency Star students at night! (more…)