The Edinburgh Experience

Translation used to be the go to way to learn a second language, until the communicative method came along and it was deemed out of date and ineffective. Like with most changes in education, instead of keeping the good stuff about the grammar translation method, all of it was chucked out the window and translation became a DIRTY WORD in language learning. And this is absolutely not true. Learning a second language requires translation. Anyone who tells you otherwise is bananas. The key is to do it responsibly, and not to over rely on it. Some of my favourite exercises I do with my students involve translation and they are really effective. I also think watching things in English with subtitles in your language is a great learning resource - or even better, watch something in your language with subtitles in English! Honestly, you learn so much. Translation is a powerful learning tool and one that you should be using. So let me know in the comments - how do you use translation?

Well shucks - thank you to my lovely student Sali for her kind words. I have limited availability for my online CPE course and only one space available for my 1-2-1 packages, so get in touch asap if you'd like to work with me online!

I'm back guys! And here's what I've been up to. Most importantly, head over to and give my new account a follow :)

After a very busy few weeks, I am taking a looong social media break. See you all in January2024, and thank you for being part of my 2023 😊

My final fireside chat is with the lovely Ivana from . I connected with Ivana when I realised we were posting the exact same message for English learners. She is the queen of reels and infinitely more talented than me 🤣 Ivana creates individualised courses for her students to tap into their unique needs, and I can't wait to hear her Christmas message!

On Monday I am chatting with Jennie from all about her approach to boosting her students' self-esteem and confidence in English through pronunciation coaching. Pronunciation is an issue that comes up again and again with my students too, and it can have so many complex emotional issues surrounding it, so I can't wait to hear what she has to say!

Thursday's Fireside Chat is with Sukhi from .language.everyday . Sukhi is an English language coach and teacher, and is passionate about bringing a much needed emotional awareness to the language learning process. If you are hard on yourself when it comes to learning English, then you don't want to miss this chat!

This week's first fireside chat kicks off with Cheryl from con Cheryl . Cheryl has created an amazing course for students looking to FINALLY pass that bloody C1 CAE Cambridge exam, and her results speak for themselves. Her approach to exam English is unique, and if 2024 is the year you plan to smash your exam, then you can't miss it!

This week's last fireside chat is with Ruth from . I connected with Ruth over on LinkedIn a few months ago after realising we both worked with cultural immersion. There aren't many other people doing what we do, especially in Scotland, so I thought reaching out would be a good idea, and I was right! Ruth specialises in teaching English to people working in creative industries and believes for language learning to be successful, you have to enjoy it. I can't wait to hear her Christmas message!

I feel a lot of my students get frustrated when they don't know the word for something. But what they often fail to consider is how important that word is in the first place. We don't need to hold the knowledge of every word in English in our head. You don't do this in your first language, so why would you do it in a second one? There is a core of frequently used words which are most definitely worth developing and working with. But for others, especially ones that require specialist knowledge, you can use one of the amazing and free learning tools we now have at our disposal.
Google translate has now improved vastly from how it started. Word Reference is also a good call (although is more limited with the languages it has). Both of these model pronunciation for you too.
Do you feel pressured to learn more and more vocabulary? Let me know in the comments!

Are you ready to join the rebel alliance? Let me know!

YOU have permission to use English. You don't have to use idiomatic expressions if you don't want to. You don't have to have an RP accent. "Native speakers" can't own a language when they are the minority speakers of it. And "native English speakers" definitely don't get to have it both ways. If you want English to be used as the international language of communication, you can't demand that billions of people speak it in one particular way. Do you feel like English belongs to you? Leave me a comment with your thoughts!

Those are some big words I have thrown out there, and they can sound really scary. But if we look at the wider history of English, of who are considered the people who can teach it, and what kinds of English are considered the right ones, I think it’s clear that they are the right words to use.
If you take any kind of international English exam, they are going to be testing you on
>White, middle to upper class British English
>White, middle to upper class American English
And that’s it. Sure, sometimes you’ll get an Australian accent thrown into a listening test to mix things up. Very occasionally you might get an L2 speaker. But there are a lot of variations of English which you never hear. And they are ones which belong to poor communities, or people of colour. But these are not considered valid kinds of English, or the right kinds. And it's a prejudice that then gets passed onto L2 speakers as well.
If we want to see meaningful and systemic change in the world, we need to start speaking out. How has prejudice within the English teaching and learning world affected you?

I love teaching my 1-2-1 courses and working with the very specific and individual needs of my clients. BUT while learning individually can be extremely beneficial, it can also sometimes be lonely. Learning from your classmates is one of the best ways to learn. Not only that, but reaching your language goals isn't only about learning more language. For real, lasting change, you also need to examine the emotional process that language learning entails.

This is why I am now incorporating a monthly group language coaching session for all my 1-2-1s. It's a space to celebrate our wins, to support each other and find accountability, and to make real progress.

Have you ever tried language coaching? Leave me your thoughts in the comments!

And if you are interested in a 1-2-1 course with me, get in touch! I am currently fully booked but my waiting list is open ☺️

After taking a break of around a year, I am excited to be starting some group classes again! My Online Cambridge Proficiency exam preparation course starts next week and I'm really looking forward to it. We have a lovely mix of learners, and teaching proficiency is just so awesome! I can't get enough of showing proficient users how incredible their English is, and helping them smash their goals. I have only THREE spaces left, so DM as soon as possible if you would like one of the last spots.

As always, grammar will be important in some scenarios, especially if you need to pass an international exam like Cambridge. These exams still rely heavily on you not making “grammar” errors. Grammar is much more of an issue if you are mainly writing in English as written communication is different. However even in these scenarios, “grammar” is the wrong word to use. Because we are simply talking about LANGUAGE. Separating language into vocabulary and grammar is not helpful. We start to think some things are more important than others, and we create an artificial form of a language too.

Why does this distinction exist? Well, it’s much easier to write textbooks, create tests, and “measure” progress using grammar. We can put it into a neat little box, grade its difficulty level per unit, use this as a way to decide if you are a B2 or C1 English user. The entire EFL (English as a Foreign Language) industry has been built on this model. It’s also easy to teach. As I have discussed in previous newsletters and posts, EFL qualifications create teachers with very little training (probably deliberately). Teaching “grammar” is easy. It doesn’t require you to understand language, you are just repeating rules. The problem is, language is gloriously chaotic, so when those “rules” don’t work, students get stressed out.

A lot of my clients tell me they need more grammar, or that they can’t use it correctly. But when we do a session, this just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Yes, there may be a few errors in there, but they don’t impede communication. Very often, what holds people back more is finding words to express how they feel, not how to construct a sentence.

Grammar can also be a crutch for you. It’s often our first contact with English, so as you advance you use grammar as your guide and support system. But as I mentioned, language is chaotic. When you meet something which can’t be explained by that grammar rule you live with, it can be a huge setback to your progress and confidence.

EMBRACE THE CHAOS.

How much does grammar matter to you? Let me know in the comments.

Do you know about my YouTube channel where you can find my vlog series Real English? I take you around Edinburgh, tell you about its incredible history, and you learn some great language in context. I am FINALLY finishing editing parts 2 and 3 of the incredible Marie de Guise, but you can catch up with part 1 here!
Let me know what you think about her story in the comments! (Spoiler - she is AWESOME).



https://www.theedinburghexperience.com/marie-de-guise-part-1/

It's been a loooong time since I've explained who I am and what I do, so here we go! We can also add book lover, food fanatic, castle nerd, mum, dancer, and fantasy fan to all of this too (who spotted the Star Wars reference?).

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FOOD PHOTO DUMP - Two things you need to know about me. 1) I am half Spanish and 2) I LOVE food. I grew up in Scotland but after university I moved to Spain and lived there for almost 10 years. Most people think what I miss most is the weather. It's not, I can't handle heat very well. But oh my God, I miss the food. The quality of the products, the culture, how affordable eating well is, how getting a take away coffee is the worst thing in the world.

Scotland has some amazing produce and great restaurants, but eating well and having an exciting food experience is reserved for people who can pay. I think that is bullsh*t. We should all have the right to eat well and celebrate food.

If I visit another country, the first thing I do is discover what I should be eating. It's a huge part of our cultural heritage. It exists in Scotland too, but it can be harder to find!

What's your view on food? Is it culture in your opinion? Leave me a comment!

Book number 3 is our most challenging read, but it looks like a good one. There have been a lot of women writers re-telling the Greek myths from a female perspective and I have to say I find them fascinating. We read one in my Culture Club and it was a big hit. This one deals with the topic of war, but instead of looking at it from the perspective of the glorious hero, it’s from the women who have to deal with the fall out of it.

If you are a confident reader, I really encourage you to give this a try. It can seem a bit difficult at the beginning, but you will see how you can do it! A lot of my students have been nervous to try reading Classics or more complex books in English but when they give it go, they really surprise themselves. When you manage to do it, you will be so proud of yourself! Here is a summary for you -

“Troy has fallen and the Greek victors are primed to return home, loaded with spoils. All they need is a good wind to lift their sails.
But the wind does not come. The gods are offended - the body of Priam lies desecrated, unburied - and so the victors remain in uneasy limbo, camped in the shadow of the city they destroyed. The coalition that held them together begins to fray, as old feuds resurface and new suspicions fester.
Largely unnoticed by her squabbling captors, erstwhile queen Briseis remains in the Greek encampment. She forges alliances where she can - with young, rebellious Amina, with defiant, aged Hecuba, with Calchus, the disgraced priest - and she begins to see the path to revenge...2

Remember you can join the summer reading challenge by clicking the link below and joining the Telegram channel. Oh, and it’s 100% free!
https://lnkd.in/esrngt94

Book number 2 is a great choice if you feel good about reading but are nervous about taking on too big a challenge. Hear No Evil, See No Evil has been nominated for a crime writing award, and is there any better kind of book to read while you relax beside the pool than a mystery novel? It’s also based on a real historical event, and mixes crime writing with the historical novel. Quite frankly, it doesn’t get much better than that! The Kindle edition is only 99p at the moment on the UK Amazon shop, so even more of a reason to get it! Here’s a description for you -

“In the burgeoning industrial city of Glasgow in 1817 Jean Campbell - a young, Deaf woman - is witnessed throwing a child into the River Clyde from the Old Bridge.
No evidence is yielded from the river. Unable to communicate with their silent prisoner, the authorities move Jean to the decaying Edinburgh Tolbooth in order to prise the story from her. The High Court calls in Robert Kinniburgh, a talented teacher from the Deaf & Dumb Institution, in the hope that he will interpret for them and determine if Jean is fit for trial. If found guilty she faces one of two fates; death by hanging or incarceration in an insane asylum.

Through a process of trial and error, Robert and Jean manage to find a rudimentary way of communicating with each other. As Robert gains her trust, Jean confides in him, and Robert begins to uncover the truth, moving uneasily from interpreter to investigator, determined to clear her name before it is too late.

Based on a landmark case in Scottish legal history Hear No Evil is a richly atmospheric exploration of nineteenth-century Edinburgh and Glasgow at a time when progress was only on the horizon. A time that for some who were silenced could mean paying the greatest price.”

Remember you can join the summer reading challenge by clicking the link below and joining the Telegram channel. Oh, and it’s 100% free!
https://lnkd.in/esrngt94

Book 1 is a novella, that means it’s shorter than a full novel. Novellas and short stories are a fantastic way to start doing extensive reading because you don’t have the scary commitment of a long novel. If you are not a very confident reader, this is the best book to start with on the reading challenge. Here is a summary of the book for you -

“A battle lost. A daring escape. A long walk into obscurity. The ultimate failure….
In the aftermath of the disastrous Battle of Culloden, a lonely figure takes flight with a small band of companions through the islands and mountains of the Hebrides. His name is Charles Edward Stuart: better known today as Bonnie Prince Charlie. He had come to the country to take the throne. Now he is leaving in exile and abject defeat.
In prose that is by turns poetic, comic, macabre, haunting and humane, multi- award-winning author Alan Warner traces the frantic last journey through Scotland of a man who history will come to define for his failure.”

Remember you can join the summer reading challenge by clicking the link below and joining the Telegram channel. Oh, and it’s 100% free!
https://lnkd.in/esrngt94

Why should you do the summer reading challenge? ➡Reading in a foreign language presents a double challenge, as it takes significantly more effort than reading in your first language. BUT, if you are looking for a way to work on your English without even realising it, and raising your confidence while you do it, then extensive reading is a great option for you.

What’s extensive reading? ➡Extensive reading just means reading for pleasure, not for a school assignment, or university, or because your teacher told you. And when we do extensive reading, some amazing things happen. You improve all aspects of your English, you become a better learner and a stronger communicator, you boost your confidence, and you get to read some awesome books!

So what are you waiting for? Join the Telegram group today! Just click the link to join
https://t.me/+H_77X3-tbMI3NDE0

I decided to join Threads, not entirely sure why, but I fancied a space to just talk about witches and history. Give me a follow if you are on the app, we can nerd out together! (Because let's face it, there is no way in hell I am doing TikTok). Find me on

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I've been extremely quiet on here due to a family member dying. It came completely out of the blue and has floored us all. I am now starting to get back into a routine and catching up with things, but socials have definitely taken a back seat.

I do however have something fun coming up which I am excited to share with everyone, hopefully next week. And I am busy prepping behind the scenes for two cultural immersion courses I have coming up in September.

Apart from that, some tours are keeping me busy, but I am also busy reading some awesome books. It's nice to be back on the platform though ☺️

What's keeping you busy this month? Let's compare notes in the comments!

People have been asking if I am feeling depressed about turning 40, and the answer is absolutely not! Sadly, I know too many people who never had the chance to turn 40. Reaching this goal is a privilege and a joy. If the reason you are holding yourself back from taking that job, going on that trip, speaking to that person, or whatever else it may be is fear of mistakes, you need to let go of that. There are very few occasions when confusing a preposition will have life changing consequences. Just go for it.