THE FEELING may be recognizable: you are invited as a keynote speaker at a congress in English, but you do not feel at ease in the English language. Fear not: Janny’s help is underway. She has taught English fluency before and likes to do it again. It may be an opportunity to brush up your English with the help of a certified Anglophile. Please bear this in mind: there is no such thing as a crash course in English without the effort put in learning the language properly. Priority and motivation are the names of the game!Please contact her about the opportunity to take lessons online or face to face via +31104196291, +31653438620 or e-mail info@jannykok.nl
Janny’s translation of this poem by Derek Otte is like this:
It’s where the rippling waters murmur/Where everything is neatly situated/Where strong shoulders carry heavy burdens/In between arrivals and departures.
Laughing is granted, but hard labour must be done//How bittersweet, the objects/Where cranes squeak/The vessels navigate/While the seagulls sing.
Between constructions of steel/Storage and distribution/Pallets and containers/Where in every language of the world/Business is done.
The Janny Kok approach explained: Firstly, this speech coach explores the existing knowledge of the student during the first session. Can he/she understand what has been written and what has been told? Is it possible for the student to tell something about his/her work? What is really needed to be taught for proper use of English in the working environment?
The speech coach needs some input for that, such as:
Some examples of emails or letters sent in general.
A written paper, a business presentation or something similar, business-related.
An example (e.g. in PowerPoint) of a presentation for use at an international congress.
A company presentation in English.
The lessons will be given according to the students’ need to know about the use of English in their daily practice. That is done with the help of the examples mentioned above. The speech coach does not provide textbooks, simply because she believes in a practical approach to teaching and learning. Here are some examples to start with improving pronunciation and proper understanding of the language:
https://youtu.be/QONzSMqxzWU Basic speech
https://youtu.be/T91p6pTPpSY copy English speech
https://youtu.be/YUlNbVLJTJo daily life in Oxford
https://youtu.be/kdddjwcVguA Erasmus University Rotterdam opportunities
https://youtu.be/_5w3tLKEZNU shopping idiom
Bear this in mind when focusing on writing and speaking English:
Reading, listening, and speaking are the most important aspects of any language. The same is true for English. However, speaking is the only requirement to be fluent. It is normal for babies and children to learn to speak first, become fluent, then start reading, then writing. So the natural order is listening, speaking, reading, and then writing.
When you want to create an English sentence, do not translate the words from your Mother’s tongue. The order of words is probably completely different and you will be both slow and incorrect by doing this. Instead, learn phrases and sentences so you don’t have to think about the words you are saying. It should be automatic.
Homework in between lessons can be done easily, simply by trying to find your own way in what YouTube has on offer. It could be pronunciation lessons, but also funny movies and TV series. Here are two examples: https://youtu.be/izAqFoLtzKM misunderstanding of a Spanish waiter and a hotel manager and his guests. https://youtu.be/5035TY5RSpg Spanish Manuel practices his English.