Every year, at the beginning of January, people make New Year’s resolutions. These are promises that we make to ourselves to be better. To eat better, to exercise more often, to have better relationships with the people around us, and to get better at skills that interest us. To successfully commit to a resolution, you must be motivated to improve and have the patience to stick with your plan, even when it feels difficult.

At Lingua East, our resolution is to provide every person who comes to us for in-person or web-based speech training with the best possible service. We resolve to help you get better at speaking and understanding English.

What is your New Year’s resolution?

Let’s have a great 2019. Make Lingua East a part of your plan for the new year.

Is speech training right for you? Click here to schedule a free consultation.

Ever read an email and come across a series of capital letters that made absolutely no sense? In English we like to make phrases shorter by creating these abbreviations from the first letter of each word. As typed language grew increasingly commonplace over the last twenty years, this list has grown.

Many of these acronyms are used in spoken language. While some of the items on this list (marked with *) are generally used and understood in spoken language, some of the acronyms – especially the ones created since the technological revolution – are only used in a stylized form of English by a subset of the population.

As you already know, internet language parallels spoken language in the real world, so there are levels of politeness on the internet. Therefore, some of the newer acronyms have versions with more profanity. (Stronger versions are noted in parentheses.) However, use of some acronyms containing swear words is considered more polite than actually saying the swear words, and use of these acronyms (especially those marked with ꙳) is allowed in moderately polite speech.

There are many more acronyms in English, and there are several other types of acronyms, including the following:

• The acronym is pronounced as a single word (GIF, FOMO)
• The acronym contains numbers, either
  • In its pronunciation only (NCAACP = N-C-double A-C-P) or
  • In the written acronym and its pronunciation (3M)

• Letters or numbers used in the written acronym sound like words (BBQ = barbecue, IOU = I owe you, B2B = business to business)

Are any of these acronyms new to you? You can learn how to use them by listening for them, doing an internet search for examples, and asking native English speakers.

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BTW (by the way)… did you know that Lingua East offers web-based speech training? Improve your pronunciation of American English from anywhere with a stable internet connection. Visit our Services Page to learn more about our methods and to sign up for a free web-based consultation to talk to a speech trainer about getting started.

Now you can experience the Lingua East method from ANYWHERE with web-based speech training services!

These services work just like in-person speech training. We use a videoconferencing platform for weekly sessions, and clients can access valuable notes from their sessions, along with practice materials and other resources from their personal speech training website.

With web-based services, you don’t have to worry about getting through traffic to make it to your appointment on time. All you need is an internet connection and the desire to take your English skills to the next level.

Now that geography isn’t an obstacle to speech training with Lingua East, are you ready to take your English to the next level?

Click here to learn more about our speech-training services.

Sign up for a web-based consultation below. During this conversation, we can determine if speech training is right for you while you learn more about the Lingua East method.

This is a question I am asked a lot. It seems strange that native English-speakers would be able to hear a difference between two sounds that seem exactly the same to someone speaking English as a second language. The answer goes back to early childhood, when we were learning our native language.

When babies are born, they can identify all the sounds of all the languages of the world. This is pretty remarkable, when you consider the wide range of languages there are, each with its own distinct pattern of sounds. But this ability does not last long.

As the baby grows and is exposed to just one or two languages in their home environment, their ability to hear and distinguish sounds is honed, so that instead of recognizing a wide array of sounds, they become experts at identifying the sounds of their native language(s).

In this process, similar sounds from foreign languages can become one individual sound, in what is often called category collapse. Therefore, a baby growing up in a Spanish-speaking household in Mexico may be able to identify the difference between the English words hot – hut – haute, but that distinction is not so clear for an adult monolingual Spanish speaker.

Do you hear the difference?

Words that are identical except for one sound are called minimal pairs. Can you hear the difference between these minimal pairs?

Share what you hear in the comments!

Yesterday I rode my bicycle past a vehicle with a sticker on its bumper emblazoned with one word, followed by a period:

PERSIST.

As I pedaled, I ruminated on the word’s meaning. To persist is to continue to do something, or try to do something, even though it may be difficult or challenging. To persist is to keep going when you’re tired, when a terrible thing has happened, and when you’ve been thrown off course.

We are all persistent, in some area of our lives. If you have developed a special skill, you have persisted in getting over the hurdles of learning that skill. If you have children, you are persistent in caring for them and providing them with the best life you can. If you have ever faced an obstacle and you overcame that obstacle, it took some persistence on your part to get through it.

Learning a language takes persistence. It is not as simple as reading a book and listening to a recording. There are many challenges in learning to communicate in a second language that can get in your way:

• Languages are complex systems of communication, with different patterns of grammar, speech sounds, intonation, and rules for interacting with other people
• With a new language comes an entirely new set of vocabulary to learn. Sure, there will be some cognates, but the most common words will be unique to that language.
• Fear of making mistakes.
• It takes time out of our busy schedules.

These challenges are all things that you can get through. Millions of people all over the world learn to communicate in a second language, and you can, too. You just need to be persistent.

Learning to communicate in a second language takes persistent patience and practice. A LOT of practice. At Lingua East, we’re here to help guide you through that practice if you’re ready to take your English skills to the next level. You’ve already persisted in many areas of your life, and all that persistence has made you the person you are today. What will you persist in today?

Learning to communicate well in a second language is a skill that opens you up to amazing opportunities, giving your life more quality, richness, and excitement. But getting to that point in a second language is not easy. I often tell clients, “If it were easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing.”

But more often than not, when we have the opportunity to learn, our fear gets the best of us. Maybe we know what we want to say, but we are unsure of how to say it. Our fear of saying it wrong pushes us into silence.

You have the marvelous opportunity to raise your voice in a second language, one that can reach more people in the world. Don’t you want to take advantage of that? Everyone has a multitude of stories to tell, and the world is a much better place when you communicate your story, however imperfect it may be when it comes out in words.

The most important part of communication is listening, and no one can listen to you if you don’t say anything.

You can improve your communication in a second language. To do that, you have to practice your second language. Take advantage of speaking opportunities when they arise. Find a speech trainer who can give you the help you need with the language. Read books and websites in that language to learn new vocabulary words. And try not to let the fear of what your listeners think keep you from raising your voice.

The most important part of communication is listening, and no one can listen to you if you don’t say anything. Good listeners will pay more attention to the message you are trying to communicate than to the way you say it. But they’ll never hear it if you don’t try. Open your mouth, raise your voice, and tell your story.