Rock Your English! newsletter

You rock!

Hey, you gorgeous you! You rock! You more than rock! You…RAWK! Thank you so much for letting me slip into your inbox today and leave it with a few recipes to help keep your English fresh and fabulous!

NEWS

It happened. I was in the Volkskrant. Twice. Once on the left page and once on the right! Here’s the JPG of the article, and check out the Volkskrant link for an exclusive free lesson and a special discount on my course!

I was also a guest on the Ruud de Wild show on Radio 538. Check it hier! Our talk was one big slice of crazy pie!

YOU WANNA BE WHAT?!

As you may or may not know, although many of my private clients are very well known, and I love the view from the penthouse, I also love getting sweaty in the basement. That’s why I work at 3 schools a week. I’m very committed to education and dedicate half my week to the hundreds of students I’m lucky enough to teach every year. One of them at one of my music colleges said to me in our first lesson ‘I want to be famous’. Oh? I don’t want you to be famous. I want you to be successful, but my definition of successful might differ from yours. Here’s  a blog I wrote, with my 11 tips for being successful.

US or UK?

I get asked a lot about the difference between US and UK English. We are definitely two countries separated by a common language!

There are many differences, but I’ll just highlight 2 of them today.

Watch your spelling. This is British- colour, honour, labour. This is American – color, honor, labor. For more information on this, click hier.

One other difference is that a Brit might say ‘I’ve just called him’ (short for ‘I have just called him’) and an American might say ‘I just called him’. We use the Past Simple (chapter 3 in Rock Your English!) slightly more than in British English, where the Present Perfect (chapter 5) would be used. One is not better than the other just be aware that there are slight differences. For more information on why, click hier.

YOUR QUESTIONS, ANSWERED

‘Hey, Buffi, could you tell me why ‘I look forward to see you’ is wrong?’

Yes, I can! Thanks for asking! First off, you can say either ‘I look forward to…’, which is slightly more formal, or ‘I’m looking forward to…’, which is slightly more informal in style. Both are good. However, after the ‘to’, you always need the verb+ing. So ‘I look forward to seeing you’ is correct. I could tell you that this is because it’s a prepositional object, but that’s not very sexy. Just trust me. And if you say ‘I’m looking / I look forward to reading your next newsletter!’ that would make my day!

If you have a question you’d like answered in my next newsletter, feel free to ask (or share your favorite vegan recipe!) via Twitter or Facebook.

Sending you all a circus tent full of love-filled balloons, held by your favorite cheerleaders as they serve you your favorite cocktail….in my head,

Buffi

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