In today’s Edition: Helpful Advice for Your English Resume.

It doesn’t matter what kind of job or position you hold in a company, there is always the chance that you may find yourself in search of a new job. That need to be looking for a job could come from outside forces – you unfortunately get fired or downsized, or it could come from you. Maybe you’ve decided that you’d like to try something different. In either case, an English resume will be an important part of your search for new employment. Here are some ideas to help you make your resume ROCK!

What I took from it:

1. Become better at identifying ‘business goals.’ Could this be an important leap for us? We’re not just here to ‘teach English.’ And, by the way, what does that really mean? To teach English? Perhaps we should look at it as ‘we help other people communicate effectively in English.’ Perhaps we should add: ‘We help our students meet their communicative goals.’

As Moore points out: you can’t help students meet those goals if you don’t know what they are in the first place. So…big question I have started really paying attention to for all of my classes: ‘What are my student’s main objectives (personal/professional) goals for learning English?

There’s an important shift there. It’s not just my objectives. It’s not the course book’s objectives. Students have objectives too. Do you know what they are?

Hint: ‘My goal is to improve my English fluency’ – a phrase that would have me retired last week if I had gotten paid a peso every time I have heard it, is NOT a learning objective that you can work with. It’s not specific enough, and it’s not really measurable. (How will you and your students know when ‘fluency’ has improved? What does that look like? What does that sound like? )

More probing and question asking needs to happen here ON YOUR PART.

1. Improving Fluency: questions to create concrete objectives – Ask your students: 1. What does ‘improved fluency’ really mean to you? What specific things do you want to be able to do that you CAN’T do well now?  2. What do you want to be able to say or communicate that you have trouble with right now? Be specific. Write it down. Be narrow – ‘I want to be able to explain the company’s investment strategy for 2012 in English ‘ is likely too much to chew on.  Help your student narrow this big objective down to: “I want to be able to explain the projected Inflation and Exchange rates for the first quarter of 2012.” That’s far more workable.

Ask them: How do you want to be able to explain this? What words are important for you to dominate as you explain this? Do you need to communicate this in writing or speaking? (Can you think of better or other questions for this?) When do you need to be able to explain this?

This specific information will give you ‘success indicators.’ You’ll know that you’ve reached your teaching objectives when Johnny can: ‘X’ and can “X” like this…. .  The more specific behavior oriented information you can glean from your student, the more planning fodder you have for your class prep. And the more solid and measurable your objective, the easier it will be for both you and your students to know if you both have succeeded.

2. Planning: what activities and practice sessions can you develop with your students that will help them specifically develop skills around meeting their objective?  How can you get your hands on specific material that is directly related to what their objective is? (Likely won’t be in your course book.)  And another question to ponder: how do you do this in a group where there are people with different production needs in English?

I’m asking you this, because I’d love to know how you would deal with it. How would you develop classes that are more focused on specific objectives like these if you had a group of five people from different areas?

Have you already been doing this? How has it been working for you?

Photo: By visualpanic

“Coaching requires direct observation and, based on that, developing  two or three specific suggestions regarding what the other person could do better.  It is skill- and task-focused.  It requires preparation and thought on the part of the coach and discussion of specific actions which the subject could try to address the deficiencies.” (Are You a Coach?  Robert S. Kaplan — emphasis mine.)

There’s a lot of good stuff just from that paragraph that has me thinking about HOW I would like to develop my teaching practice this year. Here’s what I’m thinking:

1. Pay more attention to what the student is producing. -  Fuel for your fire. What are your students able to do now? How well are they doing it? I think the idea I want to catch for myself and pass on to you is this: slow down.  Are you really noticing what your students are doing as they interact with you and their classmates in your classes?

It’s tempting to focus only on the ‘doing’ and ‘finishing’ of classroom activities. I know I often find myself there – working hard to meet testing deadlines by month end etc. While it’s vital to finish what we start on time, it’s equally or more important to pay attention to what is happening as a result of what you’re doing with your students in class.

Noticing what is happening – the production of your students – is what will help you become an effective teacher/coach.

2. Are you Skill and Task oriented? Again I need to remind myself to stay on target: skill and task based classroom work is vital. (And if I need to remind myself, maybe you could use some reminding too…) Part of being sure your classes are skill and task oriented comes in at the planning stage. Notice what your class objectives are. Are they actually things that you can watch or listen to in your class? Example: By end of class, students will be able to explain one of their processes to a new hire in English. That’s observable. It’s something you can see and hear, and best of all – it’s practical – it will help your student when they walk out of your classroom.

How NOT to be task oriented:  The course book activity, and nothing but.  Do it, finish it…and move on to the next one. The course book is not the enemy – how you use your course book is.  If you just move through it without ‘extracting it’ to practical (this activity is important because it will help you to… )

3. Give specific feedback on your student’s task or skill production: powered up improvement will happen when your student does something ‘real’ and then you offer specific feedback for them.  Here’s what I mean: What would happen if your students had to give a formal presentation (power point and all) in your class, and you record them? (Video or audio.) Then as a feedback session, you review the presentation with them. Ask things like: what did you notice about your presentation? What would you like to change? What did you like? (And then after you’ve thought about their performance, offer them your specific feedback about how they did. )

Wouldn’t you agree that this sort of feedback is more effective than if you just review a course book activity: “What did you get for #5? Yes! That’s right….or hmmm..not exactly..try again.”

So to up your game in 2012, why not consider how you could become more skill and task based in your classes. Notice what your students are able to do, and offer specific feedback on how they could improve those specific skills. (And don’t get lost in your course book!)

And over to you….how will you up your game in 2012?

(Photo by jonwick04)

In today’s edition:

Planning. (Thinking And Acting about the Future.)

Reading Challenge: Your Agenda – by Seth Godin

The future. How often do you think about it? More importantly: how often do you plan for it, and then actually take action to make that future happen?

If you work in a company, you likely spend a lot of time working on the future of your company. But what about yours?

Have you noticed that it’s already November 14th? (Likely 15th by the time many of you read this.) That’s amazing to me! NOVEMBER already! Before we know it, we’ll be celebrating Christmas, and then the start of 2012. A whole new year.

These last few weeks I’ve been doing some classes about Time Management with a few of my private students. We’ve been listening to a well known speaker named John Maxwell as he gives a conference about how to manage time – or rather, how to have and manage priorities so that your time is used as effectively as possible. (It’s on Itunes if you are interested.)

But Maxwell talks about something that has been bothering me lately, but bothering me in a good way. What? Why? I’ll tell you.  One of the points Maxwell makes in his presentation is this: “People who use time wisely, do things that help them accomplish their purpose in life.”

Why has this been bothering me? Well, in short: I find it hard to stay on target sometimes. Do you know what I mean? Like maybe on Monday you set out goals or objectives for your work, your life, etc. But on Friday, do you still remember what those goals/objectives were? Are you still working towards them – or have those goals, which were important to you on Monday, somehow vanished or disappeared in all the different activities you got involved in during the week?

Maybe a week is too short a time. Maybe you’re good at managing your priorities and keeping focussed for a week. But what about a month? A quarter? A year?

I seem to have a really hard time staying focussed and on target past a few weeks. This is true when it comes to my company’s goals, and personal goals too.

It’s not that I stop caring about those objectives. They are still important. But what happens is that I seem to get my focus switched on me. Instead of continued work towards what I felt to be important/vital/strategic for me, my family, my company etc,  I feel like I get pushed or pulled off in other directions. Maybe it’s a problem that my company is dealing with. Maybe it’s a client who needs something from me. Maybe it’s family member getting sick or having trouble at school. Maybe it’s a large wave of new clients, or the opposite: a loss of an important one – whatever it is, I sometimes find myself a few weeks or months later, wondering what happened to the goals I had set a few weeks or months ago.

An even bigger problem is this: What about your own goals? If you have a family, what about your goals with them? Do you have them? Are you working towards making them a reality? Or have you been pushed off target? And as you can read in the ‘Reading Challenge’ – are you working on your company’s goals so much and for so long that maybe you’ve forgotten that you should have some too?

Have any of these things ever happened to you?  How do you deal with it? Have you found solutions that help you stay on target? Why don’t you take a minute and share them with us in the comment section below?  I think many people struggle with this, and maybe your ideas or questions can be helpful.

I challenge you to take a few minutes to read this article. It’s short, but very interesting: Your Agenda – by Seth Godin.

Today there will be no questions other than this: What are you going to do about what you just read?

Have a great week, and please let me know if  there’s anything we can do to help you with your English.

(Photo by orangeacid)

In today’s issue: A Reading Challenge for you:  ”Change Your Story, Change Your Life.“

I loved this post because it has so many applications. There are the obvious applications for our lives, which is what Hyatt was mainly talking about, right? But there are also big applications to how you learn English. I’ve written about this before: Caution, You Are What You Think About but I wonder….have you been thinking about what you’ve been thinking about lately?

Your challenge, and mine: take a week and keep a journal about what you tend to think about yourself. What messages do you hear about you  think about you each day? When you’re about to make that important presentation? When you need to make a sales call? When you need to speak with your boss to defend an idea you have? And what about this: what do you think about when you need to speak in English?

Let’s work on this together. Look at what you discovered about yourself after you’ve kept your journal for a few days. Do you see messages that repeat? Stories that you keep saying to yourself? Now: Are those stories good for you, or bad for you?

If you’ve noticed that they are good, GREAT! Amplify those ideas. If they are bad for you, what could you do to change what you’re thinking about, and therefore change your story?

What do you think? Can what you think about REALLY impact your life?

(Photo by pasukaru76)

In this issue: How to survive a conversation in English.

I have really bad luck when I need to meet people, let me tell you why:  I’m normally shy, which means it is hard for me to meet new people. It’s also hard for me to start and keep a conversation going with someone I don’t know. My bad luck? I seem to have a natural ability to attract other people who are shy. Can you imagine how hard a conversation is between two shy people? It feels like playing a gave of tennis all by yourself. You ask a question, hoping for a good answer back – and all you get is a ‘Uh-huh.’ Or worse: “No” or “Yes.” Nothing more for you to work with. The pressure falls back on you, and you have to work on keeping the conversation going.

I once heard someone say that you should master the art of helping people to talk about themselves. Keep the conversation focussed on them and they will think you are the most interesting person in the world to talk to. That’s pretty neat!

So here are some ideas to help you out if you have a difficult time with conversations in English.

1. Never use simple questions which have a “Yes” or “No” answer. Here are a few examples: “Are you working here?” (A shy person can simply respond with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer, which will kill your conversation fast. Remember, you want to ask questions that will invite the other person to give you MORE than a YES/NO answer. (We’ll talk about that in a second…)

So, be careful to avoid using questions witch use a form of the verb ‘to be.’ It’s not that it’s bad or incorrect. If you are talking with an extrovert – someone who LOVES talk and meet people, these questions are perfect, and likely won’t give you any trouble.

Or how about an innocent question like this:  ”Do you like to eat tacos/chicken/mole/pazole ——–? ” Again, you’re stepping into dangerous territory with a person who is shy. They could just give you a ‘Yes/No’ answer and leave you with the responsibility of the conversation again. Bad news.

So be careful about using questions with a form of ‘Do.’  For example: “Do you like to travel?”  - Again, if you’re trying to start a conversation with someone, this is a very risky question to use because the other person can simply respond with a “Yes” or a “No.” Or, they can give you a very simple answer and you’re back with all the pressure of trying to decide what to say or ask next. Example: “Yes, I do like to travel.”

“Great!” you think. “Now what do I ask?” – See? It’s not a safe idea for you to go with questions that have ‘Do’ in them.  I’m not saying you can’t. I just saying you should be careful if you’re not very good at the art of conversations.

Questions that are GREAT! Think like a good reporter or journalist. You should use the 5W’s. Try and ask questions that start with: Who, What, When, Where, or Why. Why? Well, try and see if you can reply with a simple Yes / No. It might be possible, but it sure is more difficult to, and that’s good for you if you don’t feel very good at starting and keeping a conversation going.

Good question: What kind of food do you like?  Vs. Do you like ____________.  The ‘What kind of food…’ question will open the door for the person you are talking with to tell you MORE THAN ONE kind of food they like. That means they are the ones doing the talking, and all you need to do is listen and understand what they are saying.

Good question: Where have you been in Mexico so far? Where do you think you’d like to go?  Bad question: Did you go to Acapulco yet?

Good question: Why did you decide to come to Mexico? Why did you decide to work here? Bad question: Do you like Mexico? Do you like working here?

See? Work on your questions so that they invite the other person to give you more information. It will make your job much easier!

Cheat: Do you have an important visitor coming who only speaks English?  Start working on your ‘reporter’ questions now! Grab a paper, or make a note on your Black Berry or whatever you like to write with. Write out a few questions that invite the other person to respond with more than just a yes/no answer.

Practice! Try your questions on friends or coworkers who speak English, and make sure they can’t just give you a one word response. Remember: you’re looking for your audience to tell you a small story about THEM. If it works on your friends and coworkers, I bet it will work just fine on your English speaking visitor.

Over to you: how have you learned how to master the art of conversations in English? Any tips you’d like to share with our readers?

Have a great week!

(Photo by *clairity*)

In today’s issue: Something Completely Different: What Do You Think About Power Point?

How do presentations usually look like in your company? Think about it.

What adjectives would you use?

Adjectives describe how something is.

Challenge: Take out a piece of paper. Write down every word that you would say about the last power point presentation you saw.

Would you use words like: exciting? Inspiring? Convincing? Accurate? Fun? Informative? Memorable?

Or would you use words like: Boring? Uninspiring? Unconvincing? Average?

Next challenge: What made that presentation boring or exciting? What made that presentation memorable, or totally easy to forget?  Try writing it down.

Today I would like to invite you to think differently about power point presentations for a while. If you do a lot of presentations, and many of you do, you should invest some serious time in thinking about how you do them.

Here are some presentations that I think will help you to…

1. How to Talk about Numbers: Look carefully at  this old Steve Jobs presentation about one of the first IPhones. Pay careful  attention to the  slides when he talks about numbers. What do you notice about them?  Do you see a lot of charts and graphics?  And what do you notice about the font size of the text/numbers? Are they small or large?  And finally, how many numbers do you notice on the screen at the same time?

Now think: Did you like how Jobs presented the numbers? Was it memorable? Entertaining? Boring?  Maybe you hate technology, and maybe you’re not a Mac fan. But you can sure learn something from how numbers and data are presented here. What do you think?

2. Story Telling – This is a long one, but it might just make you say: “Wow!” Just try watching a few minutes. Don’t worry too much about understanding what the presenter is talking about. Pay attention to the construction of his presentation. What role do you see Power Point playing here? How does he use pictures and words?

(Hint: pictures and words are used to reinforce what he’s talking about.)

Do you see any ideas here that you would like to try?

3. Be funny, and TELL a story.

Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

Please Read this: Top Ten Slide Tips by Garr Reynolds, a leading expert on effective Power Point presentations.

So what’s my point? You likely use Power Point a lot, but are you being effective? Or are you just doing what everyone else always does with their presentation?

3 Ways You Can Improve Your Presenting Skills.

• Watch how other people do it. If you think someone’s presentation was effective, see what you can do to copy their style. Be yourself, but learn what was effective about the other person’s presentation. Do it in your next one, and see if it had the same results. Did you like it? Did your audience like it? Why or why not? Adjust accordingly.
• Use pictures. A lot. This could be your secret weapon if you have to present in English. Have you ever heard the expression: ‘A picture is worth a thousand words?’ It’s really true, and finding the right picture can help you express yourself far more quickly and effectively when you need to use English. There are really great pictures here: http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/  – Be sure to select photos that you can use commercially, and be sure to give credit!
• Read. Don’t just do power point like everyone else does it. Learn about it. The internet is filled with great articles and links to books that can help you think critically about your slide design, and how you present your information. I suggest you start reading here: Top Ten Slide Tips by Garr Reynolds, Really Bad Power Point by Seth Godin, and The 10/20/30 Rule of Power Point. by Guy Kawasaki.  (And this interesting commentary about Kawasaki’s article: Six Minutes )

Over to you. What do you think about your Power Point slides? What do you find difficult to do when you need to present in Spanish? In English?

I’d love to hear from you! Send me a comment or an e-mail. Yes, I do read them, and I do respond! So fire away!

Have a great week.

Photo Credits:

Camel: by Untitled blue

Death by Power Point

In this edition:

• Caution: You Are What you Think About – Can your thinking help or work against you as you learn English?
• Reading Challenge: Something To Think About, by Zig Ziglar.

Have you ever heard the expression: “You are what you eat?” It means that if you eat foods that are bad for your body, your body will eventually start showing the results. (You’ll get fatter, you’ll feel weaker, you won’t have enough energy, and you may even get sick.)

Question: Do you think that is true? (That you are what you eat?) If you’re not sure, I would like to challenge you to go to your nearest video store and see if you can find this movie: “Super Size Me.” (Watch the trailer here.)  When I saw this movie, I decided to never again go to McDonald’s. But we always seem to look at the negative side of ‘You are what you eat.’  We are aware that if we eat fatty or greasy foods, we’re damaging our body. But the opposite is also true. The positive side of this then is, ‘If I eat foods that are nutritious, my body will become stronger. I will feel happier, and I will have more energy.’

Do you agree with that idea? If I feed myself bad food, my body will pay for it. But if I feed my body nutritious foods, my body will be happy because of it. Right? Right!

So what does good nutrition have to do with learning English??

That’s a great question, and here’s an idea for you to think about today: You are what you think about. All of us tell ourselves things about ourselves. Have you ever noticed that? If you are having a great day, and things are going great – maybe you just aced a presentation or sold a product to a customer, you’re likely telling yourself great things like: “I rock!!” “I’m so excited about my life right now!” “I did a really, really good job on that!”  I don’t know what you tell yourself when things are going well for you, but chances are, it’s something positive.

And what happens as you send yourself those positive messages? They make you feel even better, right? And you actually begin to believe that those messages are true. And then what happens to your actions as a result? Do you find that you begin to feel bolder? That you could deal with any problem that comes your way?

I know that’s how I feel. When things are going right, and my ‘internal message service’ is sending me positive ideas, I believe them, and I feel a lot more confident.

But what happens when your internal messages are NEGATIVE?

Maybe you’re having a bad day. Or worse: a bad week, or worser still: a bad month. It happens to all of us. When things aren’t going well, it’s not that easy to keep a positive attitude, is it? And harder still: have your internal messaging service send you positive messages. Usually it doesn’t happen. In fact, it’s usually just the opposite, right? You’re feeling frustrated, sad, depressed, or worried about what’s going on in your life right now, and your ‘self talk’ is totally joining in with negative messages of its own.

Have you ever heard yourself say: “Sometimes I really hate myself!” “I can’t do anything right!” “This is never going to work.” “What’s the point in trying, I’m never going to succeed at _____________.”

And have you ever followed what happens after you think those negative thoughts about yourself? Do you find that you feel happy? Excited about your future? Ready to take any problem that comes your way? I know I don’t. I feel just the opposite! I feel like if I have one more problem this week, I’ll fall apart. I feel like avoiding those issues instead of dealing with them immediately. (Mainly because I feel like I CAN’T deal with them.)

And now the English application part….

Situation: You just opened your e-mail inbox to find an invitation to a telephone conference with your company’s head office. You notice that most of the people on the call will be native English speakers. “Great.” You think. “The call will be in English.”

Go ahead and think about it. What would be your immediate reaction? What thoughts are going through your mind? Are you panicing? Are you looking for a way to avoid that call? Are you hoping that a giant hole will open up under your seat and swallow you hole?  If you’re thinking like this, your ‘internal message service’ is likely sending you ideas like this: “I can’t do this!” “I’m going to make so many mistakes, I’ll look and sound like an idiot!” “I can’t. I can’t. I can’t!”

The result: Very likely EXACTLY what you’ve been thinking about. You won’t be able to speak in English when it’s your turn. You’ll remain safely silent in the back of the room, trying your best NOT to be noticed. If you do need to speak, you’ll likely make so many mistakes that you’ll look and feel like an idiot. Right?

Here’s what you should do…

1. Keep a journal. For the next week, I challenge you to write some of your internal ‘self talk.’ What are you normally telling yourself about yourself? Is it normally positive, or is it normally negative?  Pay careful attention to this. It’s VERY important. Take a careful look at how you think about your English speaking skills too. What do you tell yourself about how you speak?

2. Edit your messaging service. When you notice negative self talk, replace it with something positive. If you’re constantly telling yourself something like: “I can never speak English right. I suck at this.” Rewrite it to this: “I can speak English. I’m not perfect, but I’m working on it.” Or something like this: “I’m getting better at English each day because I’m practicing.”

3. Memorize, and Meditate. If you want to change something in your life, start by changing how you think about it. Every time you hear your ‘inner voice’ saying something negative about your English speaking skills, STOP IT. Stop it IMMEDIATELY, and then say your new message to yourself. Repeat as many times as necessary.

Maybe this sounds silly or weird to you, but I promise you it works. It may take time, but it works.

What’s your opinion? Do you think that your thoughts can help you or work against you? Any stories you’d like to tell? Send me a comment, I’d love to hear from you.

No questions this week. Just read, enjoy, and most importantly: try and APPLY what this article is talking about: Something To Think About.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of English Tools. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you with your English today!

(Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography)

“…remediation—going over and over something that you really ought to already know—is less embarrassing when you can do it privately, with no one watching. ” -How Khan Academy is Changing the Rules of Education. Clive Thompson.

Now that’s something to think about. I wonder how it applies to an ESL classroom. Any thoughts?

• What would happen if lessons were recorded for students?
• What would happen if  your lessons were pre recorded the night before, or the week before, just like the Khan Academy and then played for your students at their leisure? (Perhaps delivered via rss or dropbox.) Students pick and choose the lessons they want.
• Classroom role of teacher shifts away from ‘teacher’ and over to ‘coach.’

Would it work? What’s your take?  What if you read the article – warning: it’s long. Then started engaging with the comments. Now that will boggle your mind, and I’d love to know how…

The Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org )

Photo by woodleywonderworks

In this edition:

• Do You Know when to use Know?
• Reading Challenge: Would you Fire a Problem Client?

Situation: Imagine that on the weekend you went to Isla Mujeres for a small vacation. At work today, your friends asked you, “What did you do on the weekend.”  You answer: “I went to Isla Mujeres.“

Your friend looks at you with a look of ‘I have no idea where that is’ on his face.

Would it be correct for you to respond:  ”Do you know Isla Mujeres?”  Think about it for a second. Do you think that would be the right way to use ‘know?’

Situation: People from your head office are visiting you for the week. Your boss asked you to introduce the visitors to the people in the Operations area. You take them over to Juan in Operations and say: “Juan do you know Mark?”

Is that the correct way to use ‘know?’

The Rules: Use ‘Know’ to talk about knowledge. It’s correct to use ‘know’ when you want to talk about things that you have learned. For example:

• “I know how to fix the hard drive on my computer.”
• “I know what your name is.”
• “I know where their office is.”

Use ‘Know’ to talk about people that you have or haven’t met. The following sentences are all correct:

• ‘I have known Marco for twelve years. He’s one of my best friends.’
• ‘Hey, I know you! We met at the actuary conference last month, remember?’
• ‘ Lilliana, do you know Hillary, she’s the assistant to the Director.’

Never use ‘know’ to talk about a place you have been to. It’s tempting to say: “Do you know Isla Mujeres?” because that’s how you would translate from Spanish to English.  ”Quiero ir a conocer Isla Mujeres.”  Direct, but not correct translation: “I want to go and know Isla Mujeres.”

Don’t do this! What do you think you should say instead of ‘know?’

I’ll give you a clue: the word you’re looking for starts with ‘V.’ Do you know the answer? (Did you notice that I just used ‘know’ to refer to something that you can learn?)

What you should say is: I want to visit Isla Mujeres. To ask someone if they have been to a place, you need to say: “Have you visited Isla Mujeres?” Or, “Have you been to Isla Mujeres?” NEVER “Do you know Isla Mujeres?” (That would be direct translation again, and it’s not right. Ok?

Now you try: Take a sheet of paper and write 5 things that you know how to do. Write it like this: I know how to…….

Now write a few sentences about people you know. Example: I know the Director of marketing at Met Life.

And finally, try writing about a few places that you love to visit. Example: I love to visit Acapulco. Have you visited Acapulco before?

Go ahead and give it a try!

Take a moment and read this article. (If you deal with clients, you might find these ideas challenging!)

Questions:

1. Look at the first line: The article says that every small business has them. (Has what?)

2. What are some of the symptoms or signs of a bad client?  (Can you find the four signs mentioned in the article?)

3. Look carefully at the five possible solutions offered by the article. Can you rewrite each solution in one sentence?  Example: Solution 5 could be rewritten like this: Tell your difficult client that as of next month, your prices are going to double.

Finally: what do you think about the author’s message? Would you ever ‘fire’ a difficult client? Have you or your company ever done this? Tell us what happened by leaving a comment. We’d love to hear from you.

Thank you for reading another edition of English Tools. Do you like what you are reading? Can I do something to help you in the next edition? Please leave a comment below, or just reply to this e-mail with your comments or suggestions. I’d love to hear from you!

Have a great week!

(Photo by striatic)