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English learning tips, guides, and news from WELE

Learning Tips

Real Estate English: Contract Vocabulary and a Roadmap for Agents
Learning Tips

Real Estate English: Contract Vocabulary and a Roadmap for Agents

Agents can read a contract fine, but they miss it when a client haggles. Vocabulary split into four task groups, a three-stage roadmap, and curated self-study resources.

The Wallaby20 min read
Insurance English Vocabulary: A Roadmap to Reading Policy Wording
Learning Tips

Insurance English Vocabulary: A Roadmap to Reading Policy Wording

You can read the clauses but freeze up when a client describes an incident. Insurance vocabulary broken into four groups, a three-stage learning path, and curated self-study resources for people already in the industry.

The Wallaby19 min read
Chemistry English: Lab Vocabulary and a Self-Study Roadmap
Learning Tips

Chemistry English: Lab Vocabulary and a Self-Study Roadmap

You can read a COA and an SDS just fine, but you can't keep up when a supplier talks. Lab vocabulary in four groups, a three-stage roadmap, and hand-picked self-study resources.

The Wallaby20 min read
Spoken English: Why Memorizing a Thousand Sentences Still Won't Make You Speak
Learning Tips

Spoken English: Why Memorizing a Thousand Sentences Still Won't Make You Speak

Memorizing a thousand conversational sentences won't help you speak, because you don't control the other person's answer. Here's how to learn that the right way.

The Wallaby16 min read
Conversational English for Working Professionals: A Roadmap, Sample Sentences, and How to Choose Where to Study
Learning Tips

Conversational English for Working Professionals: A Roadmap, Sample Sentences, and How to Choose Where to Study

A working professional's thirty minutes come in scattered pieces, not one continuous block. Here's a roadmap that fits into those gaps, sample sentences for situations you face every week, and a straight answer to the self-study-or-course question.

The Wallaby20 min read
Silent Letters in English: The Complete Chart of Every Letter Group
Learning Tips

Silent Letters in English: The Complete Chart of Every Letter Group

The b in climb, the s in island, the gh in though. A complete table of every silent letter group with IPA and meaning, a brief history of why, and the part few people mention — how silent letters affect your listening.

The Wallaby17 min read
English Reflexes: Why You Understand Everything but Still Freeze Up
Learning Tips

English Reflexes: Why You Understand Everything but Still Freeze Up

Hear it once, you understand. Want to speak, it comes out. This piece dissects why memorizing grammar doesn't produce that, points out which half of you is weak, and gives four exercises plus a weekly schedule doable in fifteen minutes.

The Wallaby17 min read
English Birthday Wishes: Right Person, Right Channel, Right Tone
Learning Tips

English Birthday Wishes: Right Person, Right Channel, Right Tone

English birthday wishes written specifically for each person and each sending channel, with a tone note on every line, plus phrases that are easy to get wrong and wishes for other occasions.

The Wallaby15 min read
Daily English Listening: How to Build a Habit That Actually Sticks
Learning Tips

Daily English Listening: How to Build a Habit That Actually Sticks

A clearly structured fifteen-minute listening session holds up far better than a forty-minute session full of resolve that fizzles out halfway through. Here's how to build that session.

The Wallaby12 min read
What Is Small Talk—And Why It's Harder Than a Presentation
Learning Tips

What Is Small Talk—And Why It's Harder Than a Presentation

Small talk is the short exchange that opens the way to a conversation. Here are the safe topics, the topics to avoid, sample lines for the office and for events, and why it's hard to follow by ear.

The Wallaby15 min read
Does Passive English Listening Actually Work? The Honest Answer
Learning Tips

Does Passive English Listening Actually Work? The Honest Answer

Passive listening has its place, but it's narrower than you think: getting used to the rhythm, keeping the habit going, reviewing lessons you've already transcribed. Listening while asleep leaves almost nothing behind for your learning.

The Wallaby13 min read
Learning English Through Songs: What Music Can and Can't Teach You
Learning Tips

Learning English Through Songs: What Music Can and Can't Teach You

Music anchors vocabulary very well and teaches listening comprehension very poorly. A table of fifteen songs ranked by how easy they are to listen to, the common contracted forms found in lyrics, and five steps for turning a song into a verifiable lesson.

The Wallaby15 min read
What Are Idioms? 25 Common English Idioms Sorted by Situation
Learning Tips

What Are Idioms? 25 Common English Idioms Sorted by Situation

An idiom is a phrase whose overall meaning strays from the meaning of its individual words. Here's how to tell idioms apart from proverbs and phrasal verbs, 25 idioms you'll run into often, and why they're so hard to catch by ear.

The Wallaby15 min read
How to Introduce Yourself in English: Templates for 5 Real-Life Situations
Learning Tips

How to Introduce Yourself in English: Templates for 5 Real-Life Situations

Five sample self-introductions for five real situations, with sentence-by-sentence breakdowns, common mistakes Vietnamese speakers make, job-title pronunciation, and the part almost no one practices: listening back to the other person's name.

The Wallaby18 min read
English Grammar: Memorized on Paper, Lost When Natives Speak
Learning Tips

English Grammar: Memorized on Paper, Lost When Natives Speak

The grammar you've memorized on paper usually disappears when you hear native speakers talking fast, because most of it lives in unstressed sounds.

The Wallaby17 min read
Seasons in English: Fall vs. Autumn and the Idioms That Come With Them
Learning Tips

Seasons in English: Fall vs. Autumn and the Idioms That Come With Them

The four words are easy to memorize, but what surrounds them is what you actually use every day: fall vs. autumn, capitalization rules, and season-based idioms.

The Wallaby16 min read
How Native Speakers Actually Tell Time in English
Learning Tips

How Native Speakers Actually Tell Time in English

Two ways to tell time in English, a full trip around the clock with past and to, how to use a.m. and p.m., time markers throughout the day, and how to tell fifteen apart from fifty when listening.

The Wallaby16 min read
English Numbers: The Complete Chart, How to Say Money and Zero
Learning Tips

English Numbers: The Complete Chart, How to Say Money and Zero

A number chart from 0 to the billions with phonetic transcriptions, how to read zero, decimals, money, and phone numbers, plus a listening drill to tell thirteen and thirty apart by dictation.

The Wallaby14 min read
How to Write Dates in English: British vs. American Style
Learning Tips

How to Write Dates in English: British vs. American Style

The two date orders used in British and American English, how to write dates in formal emails, the ordinal numbers that go with dates, how to say dates and years out loud, plus three spots Vietnamese ears tend to miss.

The Wallaby15 min read
Ordinal Numbers in English: The 1st to 100th Chart and Common Mistakes
Learning Tips

Ordinal Numbers in English: The 1st to 100th Chart and Common Mistakes

The full ordinal number chart from 1st to 31st plus the round-ten landmarks up to 100th, with pronunciation, six common spelling mistakes, how to use them in dates, building floors, and fractions, and how to train your ear to catch the -th ending.

The Wallaby14 min read