Resources: Notes on Life and Language in the United States

Are you living in New York as an expat or planning to relocate there sometime soon? Are you struggling to improve your English so that you can communicate with the local people? Put your grammar textbook away! The real question is, do you speak New York City English? Every city has its own "insider" language. If you know the insider phrases, expressions and nicknames like other New Yorkers, you will have an easier time meeting people and connecting with them. So, today's post is your opportunity to find out if you really can speak New York City English. Check out today's video quiz below to learn ten key points that you must know to live like a local in New York.

Today we are excited to bring you an interview with Andrea Giordano. Andrea is an ESL teacher, traveler and speaker. She is the creator of ESL Basics and is the assistant director of ESL programs at Campbellsville University. Andrea has some fantastic ideas about how English language learners can improve by engaging in what interests them and by connecting with people, not by memorizing grammar rules from a textbook. To get some great advice and tips from Andrea on how you can improve your English, check out today's interview!

What risks have you taken in the last three months as an expatriate? How could your life in the United States be different if you took more risks? Would you learn more? Meet more people? Would you get closer to your goals of speaking English fluently? Would you have new career opportunities? I bet you would! I am not an expert on risk-taking and I won't pretend to be an expert. However, I know a few things about crossing cultures and lately I have been thinking more and more about how important risk-taking is for our success while we are living in a new country. So, I have teamed up with Norman at Everyday Expat Support Center to bring you a webinar on how to take more risks as an expat! The webinar will be held Wednesday May 16th at 3pm (Boston/New York time). Please join us!

What makes an English language lesson truly outstanding? Perhaps you have recently arrived in the United States and you are struggling with your English communication skills. Maybe you are in a large city like Boston and you rarely have a chance to practice your English and get feedback. Perhaps you have found an English class or private tutor to work with but you aren't sure about the quality of the lesson. How do you know if your English tutor is really giving you the highest quality instruction? In today's article, you will learn about 9 things to look for in your English lesson to find out if it is the right class for you.

Would you like to learn a few tips from one of our ESL teachers in New York about learning English and adjusting to life in the big city? Jane has been helping international professionals and students improve their English for five years. During that time, she has motivated many students to reach their goals and to feel comfortable learning English. Jane's students love her classes! She knows how to make students feel comfortable with conversation-based activities. In today's interview, I asked Jane to share some of her creative teaching methods. Keep reading to learn more!

I had an interesting conversation with a student yesterday and she gave me an important clue into a common source of stress for a lot of adult English language learners. She told me that when she speaks in English, her second language, she loses her identity in some ways. She can't express herself as she normally would in her first language and as a result, the people that she meets can't know the "real" her. The more I thought about what she said, the more I realized that she is completely right. Are you facing a similar challenge as you learn English as a second language? Perhaps you think that the new, English speaking you is clumsy with words, inarticulate and much quieter or self-conscious than the "real" you. If so, I would like to offer you a challenge. Instead of thinking of it as a problem or as a sense of being less than your "native language self" why not reframe this "problem" and make it more of a game?

When was the last time you felt fear while learning English? Did you fear speaking in a group of native speakers? Did you fear making a grammar mistake during a job interview? I hope you have felt fear recently. Why? Because fear is good for us! Fear tells us that we are challenging ourselves and moving out of our comfort zones, the only place where we will grow and learn anything. If you haven't felt fear lately in your English learning pursuits, you need to take a deeper look at how you can challenge yourself more. This article is for the rest of us, those of us who intimately know that paralyzing feeling of fear and encounter it every day. Sometimes it's a voice in our heads. It tells us we are not good enough and our speaking skills aren't fluent or fast enough to speak with native speakers. The voice asks how we will be judged by others if we don't pronounce a word perfectly. Heck, I am even feeling it now. I am wondering if this article will be creative enough or interesting enough to keep our readers engaged. The point is, we all feel fear. We feel it every day. Today I want to let you know that if you want to succeed at learning English, fear is ok. In fact, it is necessary. However, to reach a higher level of English fluency, you will need to turn fear into a tool. In today's article, I will show you how.

Can cultural awareness training be implemented online? In terms of logistics, of course it can. Many organizations are already doing it. The question is, can it be conducted online and deliver the results needed to help international professionals be more effective while working across cultures? In recent years, there has been an explosion of services in the online ESL industry to help professionals develop communication skills in English. English classes are often effective online but learning to communicate in English is not the same as learning to communicate in American culture. So, can international professionals develop cultural awareness online in the same way that they can develop verbal communication skills?

Have you ever met a connector? A connector is the kind of person who knows a lot of people and is always ready to introduce you to someone in his or her network.  Malcolm Gladwell argued in The Tipping Point that connectors are instrumental in facilitating the spread of a new idea. We know by now that the majority of job opportunities aren't claimed through job listings. Jobs and other career opportunities are found through connections and the connector is someone who helps others get what they need by making introductions. Of course, there are many benefits to being a connector, especially when you are living and working in a new country and in a big city like Boston or New York. What English vocabulary words and phrases do you need for connecting and introducing people in English? Keep reading to get the answers!

What does it take to build a successful career? What would you give up to have a career that really fulfills you? In the United States, we say, "Follow your passion, do what makes you happy and forget what other people say." But does this advice make sense in non-western cultures where one's commitment to the family or the group means more than his individual place in society? This week I watched a TEDx presentation by Larry Smith, a well-known Canadian professor and thought leader in the fields of Economics and Entrepreneurship. Larry talked about the many excuses that people give for not seeking out their passion and or for finding their passion but continuing to work at an unfulfilling job because it is safe or it provides stability for their family. At one point in the talk, Larry asked, "Why would you seek refuge in human relationships as an excuse not to find and pursue your passion?"  In Western countries, many people tend to agree with this message.  I wonder how his point would come across in other cultures around the world?