✨ A bit of inspiration for the week✨

✨ Let the Universe handle the "how" and "when."
You just need to handle the "showing up."

This idea came from a mindset coach I’m currently working with as part of a training programme. It really stuck with me:

🔸 “Let the Universe decide how and when you'll get where you want to go. Your responsibility is to wake up and show up. That’s it.”

As someone who’s used to planning, structuring, and analyzing, I found this perspective both freeing and grounding.

You don’t need to control everything. You just need to stay present, take action, and trust that the bigger picture is unfolding—even if you can’t see it yet.

📩 Do you agree? What helps you keep showing up?

I’m reading When Cultures Collide by Richard D. Lewis—and I’m hooked. It’s all about how people from different countries think, communicate, and work.

One of the most fun parts? The author describes national character traits for pretty much every country.

🇮🇹 Italians, for example, are described as loquacious /ləˈkweɪ.ʃəs/. That’s a fancy word for very talkative.

If you're curious about synonyms, here are a few:
🔸Chatty – friendly and informal
🔸Talkative – the everyday neutral word
🔸Gabby – playful and informal
🔸Garrulous /ˈɡær.əl.əs/ – talkative in a long-winded or rambling way
🔸Verbose /vɜːˈbəʊs/ – using too many words, especially in writing

It made me wonder—how much truth is there in these cultural profiles?

🌍 Do you believe in national character?
Are stereotypes ever helpful—or just lazy generalisations?

✨Books on cross-cultural communication✨

Lately, I’ve been diving deep into the topic of intercultural communication.

Partly because I’ve been living outside of Russia for a while,
Partly because of my work—both as an English teacher and a coach who works with English-speaking clients,
And partly because we’re planning our next international move and want to choose our future country with care and awareness.

And here's a reading list. I am only starting to read those books, so if you have already done it, I'd love to hear your comments.

📘 Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business
by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner
A classic in the field that explores how cultural values influence business practices and leadership around the world.

📗 Bridging the Culture Gap: A Practical Guide to International Business Communication
by Penny Carté and Chris Fox
A hands-on book for professionals working across borders, with practical tools for navigating differences in communication, expectations, and etiquette.

📙 Diversity Competence: Cultures Don’t Meet, People Do
by Nicole K. Y. Remé
I’m starting with this one. It offers a person-centered approach to intercultural work, emphasizing emotional intelligence and real-life encounters over theory.

📕 How to Negotiate Anything with Anyone Anywhere Around the World
by Frank L. Acuff
A practical guide for adapting negotiation strategies to different cultural norms and values. Straightforward and actionable.

📘 When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures
by Richard D. Lewis
A must-read for anyone in global business or coaching. It provides a structured way to understand and predict cultural behaviors, with detailed country profiles.

🌍 I’m curious—have you read any of these?
What other books on intercultural communication would you recommend?
📩Drop your suggestions in the comments below.

🔸This book list was originally shared in a Telegram channel on cross-cultural communication that I follow: https://t.me/mezhkulturno. Highly recommend it if this topic interests you!

Sure! Here's a polished and engaging version of your post in English, with added author names and brief descriptions for each book, plus a friendly call to action:

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✨Books on cross-cultural communication✨

Lately, I’ve been diving deep into the topic of intercultural communication.

Partly because I’ve been living outside of Russia for a while,
Partly because of my work—both as an English teacher and a coach who works with English-speaking clients,
And partly because we’re planning our next international move and want to choose our future country with care and awareness.

To prepare, I’ve put together a reading list—and I’d love to share it with you. I am only starting to read them, so if you have already done it, I'd love to hear your comments.

📘 Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business
by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner
A classic in the field that explores how cultural values influence business practices and leadership around the world.

📗 Bridging the Culture Gap: A Practical Guide to International Business Communication
by Penny Carté and Chris Fox
A hands-on book for professionals working across borders, with practical tools for navigating differences in communication, expectations, and etiquette.

📙 Diversity Competence: Cultures Don’t Meet, People Do
by Nicole K. Y. Remé
I’m starting with this one. It offers a person-centered approach to intercultural work, emphasizing emotional intelligence and real-life encounters over theory.

📕 How to Negotiate Anything with Anyone Anywhere Around the World
by Frank L. Acuff
A practical guide for adapting negotiation strategies to different cultural norms and values. Straightforward and actionable.

📘 When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures
by Richard D. Lewis
A must-read for anyone in global business or coaching. It provides a structured way to understand and predict cultural behaviors, with detailed country profiles.

🌍 I’m curious—have you read any of these?
What other books on intercultural communication would you recommend?

📩Drop your suggestions in the comments below.

The other day in my speaking class, we discussed the phrases "means to an end" and "an end in itself", and I wanted to share the difference with you!

✨ "Means to an end" is when something is done to achieve a bigger goal.

For many professionals, learning English is a means to an end — they want to land a better job or communicate with international clients.

Practicing yoga can be a means to an end if your goal is to improve your health or flexibility.

✨ "An end in itself" is when the activity is valuable for its own sake.

For some people like ESL teachers and linguists, learning English is an end in itself — they simply enjoy the process of learning and speaking.

Running can be an end in itself for someone who loves the feeling of achievement and the joy of movement, not just for fitness.

Both perspectives can exist depending on the goal!

📩What about you? Is learning English a means to an end or an nd in itself for you?

Хотите улучшить английский?

Сейчас набор в группы закрыт (но можно присоединиться к разговорному клубу 😉). Следующий – в августе. Зато доступен индивидуальный формат обучения.

Чем могу помочь?

✅ Преодолеть языковой барьер и говорить уверенно
✅ Расширить словарный запас и улучшить аудирование
✅ Разобраться с грамматикой, чтобы речь стала четкой и корректной
✅ Найти мотивацию и полюбить английский ✨

Как я работаю?

🔹 Живое общение – обсуждения, дискуссии, разбор реальных кейсов
🔹 Лексический подход – учим фразы, а не отдельные слова
🔹 Структура и система – регулярная обратная связь и контроль прогресса
🔹 Коучинг – убираем языковые блоки и страх ошибок

❗️Приглашаю на бесплатную консультацию – 30 минут, чтобы определить уровень, познакомиться и обсудить цели.

📩 Напишите в личные сообщения, чтобы записаться!

✨Как увидеть результат в обучении? Часть 2✨

Сегодня провела 19-й урок с моей группой (A2-B1).
На прошлой неделе я индивидуально беседовала с каждым учеником, слушала их рассказы о собственном прогрессе.

А сегодня у нас было очередное свободное разговорное задание – и какая же это радость слышать, как уверенно они используют все настоящие времена, прошедшее время, почти уже не путают present perfect and past simple))

Они без подсказок применяют сравнительные степени прилагательных, а если допускают ошибки, то сами их замечают и исправляют. Conditional 1, time-clauses – был фокусом нашего занятия сегодня и как они стараются! Используют каждую возможность, чтобы ввернуть эти конструкции в речь. А различные способы выражения будущего времени теперь даются им без труда.

Все стараются выполнять домашние задания – ведь группа держит в тонусе!

🔸Это лишний раз доказывает, что постоянная практика, системный подход и поддержка внутри коллектива приносят отличные результаты.

❗️Почему я об этом рассказываю? Потому что важно замечать прогресс — свой и своих учеников. Важно говорить, что у учеников уже получается лучше, что раньше было сложным, а теперь дается легче.

✨Не забывайте хвалить себя за каждый шаг вперед! Это мощный мотиватор двигаться дальше.

✨Tracking Your Progress in English. Key Milestones to Watch✨

Learning a language is a journey, and progress doesn’t always feel linear. Last week, I held mid-term one-to-one meetings with my students to assess their movement and how they feel about it. Sometimes, students themselves are not clear on how to determine progress. So I’d like to share these milestones with a wider audience:

✅ A richer vocabulary—phrases you understand (receptive) and phrases you actively use (productive). I always keep a record of all the phrases my students come across in our course in a Google spreadsheet to ensure those phrases aren’t lost or forgotten. This helps with vocabulary revision and allows students to see how many words they’ve learned that were previously unfamiliar.

✅ A wider range of grammar structures, making your speech and writing more dynamic. So, if at the beginning of the course students only knew the present simple, past simple, and future simple, but now they’ve also mastered the present continuous, perfect, perfect continuous, and various ways to express the future— that’s definitely progress!

✅ Fewer mistakes in the areas they’ve already studied—proof that learning is sticking! And the key phrase here is "in the areas they’ve studied." Mistakes are inevitable when stepping beyond familiar territory into areas that haven’t been covered yet. So if you feel like you’re still making mistakes, pause before assuming there’s no progress. Those errors might simply be a sign that you’re exploring new ground—not that you’re stuck.

✅ The ability to speak for longer periods without stopping, with fewer pauses and hesitations.

✅ More confidence and, most importantly, more enjoyment in conversations.

✅ Improved comprehension—whether it’s understanding fast speech, accents, or complex texts.

Progress isn’t just about perfection; it’s about feeling more comfortable and capable over time. Keep pushing forward, and celebrate every small win!

How do you track your progress in English (or any language you’re learning)? Let’s share insights! 👇

#usefultip