Yes, all about the perfect 'th,' but only in your head 🧸

In reality, good pronunciation ≠ perfect accent. In reality, good pronunciation =

1. Effective intonation (voice going ↑ up and ↓ down in right places to convey meaning)
2. Stress on right syllables (BEAUtiful beauTIful)
3. Correct sounds (/ks/ in ‘aCCeptable’)

🐷 Quiz time — Check if you remember how to pronounce tricky words from S2S spring guide

🌸 Want to start using these kind of phrases in your speech and get personal feedback reports? Join S2S
Only 3 onboarding spots left this month! → [Book a Free Trial]

💒 Personality Traits & Language Success: Conscientiousness

Remember our post about "language talent & personality"? Last time we covered Openness to New Experiences. Today, we boost the #1 trait for learning success: Conscientiousness

What is "Conscientiousness"? It means

✔ Being organized (having a plan)
✔ Staying disciplined (doing the work consistently* even when you don’t want to)
✔ Focusing on goals (knowing why you’re learning)

Good news: As we age, this trait naturally grows stronger (unlike Openness, which fades).

Here’re 3 simple ways to speed up Conscientiousness

1. Schedule It or Forget It

If it’s not in your calendar, it won’t happen. Schedule activities in advance, don't wait to feel motivated. Example:
— Every Monday/Wednesday/Friday at 8 PM: "Shadow read for 15 mins"
— Every morning with coffee: "Review 5 S2S vocab posts"

Decide what micro steps to take today

2. The 25-Minute Magic Trick — Use the Pomodoro Technique

Study hard for 25 mins (no distractions!). Stop when the timer rings → no guilt for "not finishing everything", only progress

3. "If-Then" Habit Hacking

Link new habits to existing ones: "If I open my phone after lunch, then I do 3 mins of Quizlet flashcards first"

How S2S Forces You to Succeed (Nicely) We bake conscientiousness into our system:

🪴 Weekly speaking practice with a buddy (accountability*)
🪴 Daily vocab tips in this channel (tiny consistent steps)
🪴 Personal feedback reports (track progress = stay motivated)

We believe in you — even when you don’t

*Post Glossary

🫧Conscientious (adjective): Organized, responsible, hard-working
/ˌkɑːn.ʃiˈen.ʃəs/ or 'kon-she-en-shus'
🫧Accountable (adjective): Owning responsibility for your actions & results
🫧Consistently (adverb): Doing something regularly, not just sometimes

💙 Want the full S2S method? [Learn more here]

Top Voices in Language Learning 2025 | Active Educators | Olly Richard & Story Learning

Every week, we break down* one top language expert from the map to help you navigate the world of language learning with confidence. Today: Olly Richards (LinkedIn) — linguist, polyglot, and creator of StoryLearning, a method built on Steven Krashen’s language acquisition theory

⭐️Why Olly’s Storylearning approach matters for you (Especially at B levels)

🫧Context is king: Learn phrases inside stories. Ditch word lists
🫧No guilt for speaking lags*. Olly proves listening/reading come first — and that’s normal
🫧Shop smarter: Understand how methods work (so you pick the right tools for you)

💙 Key facts about Olly & his method

🫧Ditches* textbooks for suspenseful stories that teach grammar implicitly
🫧Shadowing technique: Repeat after native speakers in audio stories
🫧8 languages mastered himself — from Japanese to Arabic, using the storybased system

🐄Our fav Olly's resource

13 American Accents Ranked from easiest to hardest (24 min, YouTube)
Perfect for passive learning (during commute, chores, etc.)
Proves even polyglots struggle with accents

>> How S2S incorporates Olly’s ideas

🫧50% chunk-based learning (phrases > isolated words)
🫧Context-first drills: Every speaking plan includes a mini-text to anchor new vocabulary
🫧Shadowing audios: Practice “play-pause-repeat” with our audio recordings

But S2S goes further
> Real conversations with peers (not just passive reading)
> Expert feedback to correct mistakes before they stick

Your Turn! Tried shadowing yet?
If yes: Send this to someone who needs this technique, but doesn't know it yet ;)
If no: Grab our free Spring Speaking Plans sample and try it today. Play audio, pause, repeat. It's that simple, a no brainer for your speaking muscle

*Post Glossary

👁‍🗨to ditch To stop using something completely
👁‍🗨to break down (an expert) To explain a complex (expert) in simple parts
👁‍🗨a (speaking) lag When (speaking skills) develop slower than (other skills)

🍬 Stay tuned for another top voice next week & spread the language learning love

S2S Top 5 fav movies | Weekend recommendation

No brainer* movies help you to immerse yourself in language learning and soak in the target language in a fun way (just as Olly Richard and Steven Krasjen recommend)

Here is the list of top personal discoveries from S2S founder in 2025. Spoiler: most of the movies are old vintage. Links point you to "RottenTomatoes," world's probably most recognised source of movie reviews

🍅 "Gaslight," USA, 1944, Director: George Cukor, Psychological thriller, 89% on Tomatometer

> Why?
Highlights the importance of self-confidence and self-reliance

🍅 "The Nice Guys," USA, 2016, Director: Shane Black, Neo noir/Buddy action comedy, 91% on Tomatometer

> Why?
Blurrs the boundary between the good, the bad, and the ugly

🍅 "Fargo," USA/UK, 1995, Director: J Coen, Black comedy/Crime, 95% on Tomatometer

> Why?
Illustrates the 'Minnesota nice' stereotype — being 'nice' to the point of passive agressive

🍅 "The Inglorious* Bastards," USA/Germany, 2009, Director: Quentine Tarrantino, War, 100% on Tomatometer

> Why?
Overpowering action that takes your away in time and space — perfect for a spree of escapism

🍅 "The Baffalo Boy," Vietnam/France, 2004, Director: Nguyễn Võ Nghiêm Minh, Drama/Coming of age*, 100% on Tomatometer

> Why?
From Vietnam, about pre-war Vietnam — where S2S founder lives

*Post Glossary

🫧Inglorious (adjective) Something shameful
🫧No brainer (noun) Something very easy to decide or do
🫧Coming of age (noun) The time when someone becomes an adult

🍿What movies should we add to the weekend watchlist?

🌈 So cool we kick off summer & celebrate International Children's Day on the same date

Even though the author of this blog and S2S founder Yulia lives in Vietnam, enjoying summer 365 days per year, summer remains for her the season of free imagination, dreams and promise of a new life

I wish you to master self parenting, take care of your inner child and never > never < discount your dreams cause they're unrealistic

Why? Cause they're unrealistic only before you break them down into manageable doable pieces

🌷

Summer is the season of holidays and purchases you've been saving for

Do you make your purchases and booking based on online reviews? Do you trust them and do you leave them yourself?

This week S2S users discuss common attitudes towards leaving reviews, top reviewer behaviors, and soak in vocabular of polite and diplomatic reviews that firmly hold your ground.

😊 Fun fact: some business do not hide unreasonable negative reviews and even use them as a promo, to rally customer supprt. Just as Allamo Drafthouse did — enjoy their very American customer review in 1:40 min video

Video glossary
🫧to piss off To make someone very angry or annoyed (informal and rude)
"His rude comment really pissed me off"
🫧to treat your customers (well/poorly/like a piece of a shit) The way a business or person behaves toward their customers
"A good company always treats its customers with respect"
🫧I wasn't aware I didn’t know about something.
"I wasn’t aware the store was closed today"

Want to boost up your English to demand what you pay for in a firm and polite manner? Get started with S2S, book your level screening & starter call ▶️ here

It's mid week, which means S2S assessor have already reviewed quite a few reports of you guys discussing the Online Reviews topic

🔪And guess what, they think you need help! Please review the 3 butchered words of this week and expell the evil pronunciation spirit from your body

👁‍🗨Clogged /klogd/ not /klogid/
> Blocked so that water or air cannot pass through
> Example: The sink is clogged, and the water won’t go down

👁‍🗨To nudge /nʌdʒ/ not /nudg/
> To push a bit to do sth
The app gave me points as a nudge to leave a review

👁‍🗨To skew /skjuː/ not /skeu/
> To move more toward one side
> The reviews skew to very positive or very negative — not many are in the middle

📎Want to start using correct pronunciation and getting feedback on your performance? Learn more about S2S

🤓 Candid or Blunt? It's all in the eyes of the beholder

Cultural biases, preconceptions, stereotypes shape the way we see the world. It's not good or bad, just the way it is. By being politically correct and sweeping the issue under the rug, we do not contribute to stronger cross-border communication — better to be aware than frustrated ;)

I was born as a native speaker of Russian. Our culture is known for direct feedback, sharing what we think without holding back. We call this behaviour 'candid.' We also consider Americans who avoid telling even slightly negative things to your face and then letting you down behind your back as hypocritical, unreliable, insincere, and lots of other things. Cause we are 'candid,' we share what we feel candidly.

As for the other side, many nations see us as confrontational and 'blunt': direct to the point of rudeness or stupidity, lacking social skills.

1 behaviour, 2 words. Imagine hearing this feedback: 'Your spaghetti code needs to be reviewed back to back, there is no chance we can send this to client the way it is.' Only you chose what to call this: 'candid' or 'blunt,' the dictionary will not help. It's your decision.

🐄This post was inspired by a speaking session with an S2S user Maxim

❤️ Better be candid
👩‍💼 Blunt people are unprofessional, learn social skills

🍔 TGIF isn’t just the name of a burger chain — it’s the universal battle cry for Friday happy hours and corporate outings. (Fun fact: Google offices are legendary for their unlimited TGIF beer taps… Editorial team fact-checked this — dated one of their coding slaves)

🤪 Speaking of language quirks… When Yulia was living her best Moscow life teaching English, blissfully unaware she’d later be building startups from Asia, she asked her fellow American teachers: “What mistakes do Russian students make that annoy you the most?” Expecting rants about tenses or accents, she was shocked. The answer? “‘Thanks God’ instead of ‘Thank God.’ Drives me nuts!” Well, thank god she doesn’t work with them anymore.

Got cool weekend plans?

Here’s your 4-phrase chill kit (use them wisely):

🫧To bed rot —  to spend excessive time lying in bed, doing passive activities (scrolling, watching TV, napping), often as a form of self-care or avoidance
"I bed rotted all weekend and watched TikTok for 8 hours straight"
🫧To veg out — to relax lazily, often while doing nothing productive (like a vegetable)
"I vegged out all day playing video games"
🫧To wind down — To relax after stress or activity
"I need an hour to wind down before bed"
🫧To kick back — To relax, often in a comfortable way
"After work, I like to kick back and watch TV"

🪴Comment your plans (bonus points for using a new phrase!)
🪴Send this to a bed rotter who needs to see this post ;)

🇻🇳The author of @EnglishForImpact, Yulia, sends you 'hi' from Da Lat, Vietnam, and unplugs to enjoy her touristy Saturday

😒 If you chose the life of emmigration, especially in an ethnically different country, prep yourself for the kinda looks in the pic

This is totally ok for those though who have never felt truly at home back home

Jokes aside, the meme does have a grammar error... Will you correct it in comments?

Remember in May we were polling you on* your credit card number what you do?

Time to share the results! We're super proud to keep growing with the best tribe one can wish for: most motivated and inspired high level learners. We commit to keeping the bar high* and attracting the strongest readers, like you

Feel underrepresented*? Go take that poll👆

*Post glossary

🫧to keep the bar high — To maintain high standards or expectations
"Our manager always keeps the bar high — average work is never enough"
🫧underrepresented — Not having enough people from a particular group
"Women are still underrepresented in tech leadership roles"
🫧to poll smb on sth — To ask people for their opinions/facts about a specific topic
"We polled our users on the new app design, and most of them liked it"

🪴Thank you for choosing @EnglishForImpact (S2S + PitchUp)
🪴Know someone from our tribe who isn't here yet? Do them a favor & spread the word