🟢 The word built to catch French speakers out There's an everyday English word that seems engineered to trip up French speakers: clothes! It sits right at the intersection of two reasonable French instincts -both wrong for English: 1. Trust the spelling: French spelling has silent letters, but follows predictable rules. English offers no such deal: the same letters produce wildly different sounds depending on the word, with no pattern to rely on 100%. So when a word looks like it should have two syllables, as ‘clothes’ does, trusting that instinct seems reasonable - it's just that English betrays that trust here. 2. Use the nearest sound: The middle of clothes needs a voiced "th" (/ð/). French doesn't have this sound, so speakers substitute a hard /d/ or /z/. Combine both, and 'clothes' becomes clo-dez, clode-zis, or clo-ziz (adding a second syllable like houses). The hack: English gives you two accepted pronunciations: keeping the "th" (/kləʊðz/) OR dropping it entirely (/kləʊz/). For French speakers, /kləʊz/ is your best friend - it sounds identical to 'close' (as in 'close the door'). Say "CLOSE the door!", then say "I bought some new CLOTHES" using /kləʊz/. Same sound. If what comes out is closer to "clo-dez" or "clode-zis," now you know exactly why. It's not a knowledge gap, it's two reasonable instincts applied to the one English word that refuses to cooperate. 🕵️ Ready to catch the others? Book a trial lesson and we'll find out which sounds are quietly working against you. Hester

🟢 🟢 🟢 Mastering Idioms English loves its idioms. Imagine if it actually did rain cats and dogs. 🐱🐶 Out of all the idioms you've learned in English, which one sounds the absolute craziest if you take it literally? Comment below >>

🛑 Stop apologising for your English! How often do you find yourself saying, "I’m sorry, my English is bad"? When you apologise, you are telling your brain to focus on your mistakes instead of on your message. You are creating a mental block before you even finish your sentence. Why you should stop saying "Sorry" • It kills your confidence - It makes you feel ‘less than’ the person you’re talking to. • It creates stress - You become hyper-focused on grammar instead of the conversation. • You are learning another language. That’s a superpower, not a mistake! 💡 Try these Power Swaps instead: • ❌ Sorry for my bad English. • ✅ Thank you for your patience while I explain this. • ❌ I don't know the word, sorry. • ✅ How do you say [your idea] in English? I'm still learning that term. • ❌ Sorry, did you understand? • ✅ Did that make sense, or should I rephrase it? ________________________________________ 🚀 Ready to speak without the "Sorry"? In my sessions, we skip the boring textbooks and ‘perfection pressure’. We focus on natural, stress-free conversation that builds your confidence from the very first minute. 🟢 Check my calendar and book a trial session today #LearnEnglish #Confidence #LanguageLearning #SpeakEnglish #ReachFluency

The AI Giveaway: What Recruiters and Educators See That You Don’t What do an experienced interviewer, a senior lecturer, and a creative writing tutor have in common? They can spot AI-produced work a mile away. AI can be a great tool, but when you start letting it think for you, it can be obvious to those evaluating your work. AI sounds like...AI. It uses stock phrases and homogenises content. To experienced readers of CVs, essays, reviews, dissertations, research projects etc, it is obvious which have been produced largely/entirely by AI and which are the results of human endeavour. Authenticity shines through and that is what these people value over AI-produced ‘bland perfection’. There are situations in which your very HUMANNESS is the quality that will get you the job, or well-deserved success in your exams, or touch hearts by telling the unique stories that can only have come from you and your lived experience. I understand why some might be tempted to allow AI to think for them. However, the end result may be that they end up losing the elements that make them stand out from the crowd. I’m not saying don’t use AI, just use it wisely. It is an authentic YOU that organisations want to hire, not some pale Grok/Gemini/Claude version of you. It is an authentic YOU that will have to defend your thesis or research project. It is an authentic YOU that will touch people’s hearts and make connections. In a world increasingly filled with digital noise, your unique voice is your most valuable superpower. While AI can do wonderful things with words, only a human being can truly connect with others. A human teacher - me or one of the many great teachers on Italki - can help you find the words you need to keep your humanness and uniqueness at the heart of everything you do and make sure the authentic you stands out from the AI crowd.