American English Language School

  Dining out in a new country is an exciting, but sometimes scary, experience. When coming to the U.S. to study, going out to eat with friends or family is a must. However, table manners differ across the world. You may come to the U.S. and find some things strange or even rude. Here are a couple of common behaviors to remember when going out to eat.     Utensils When you are eating your food with a fork or spoon, the utensil should be held with your right hand (or left hand if you are left-handed). However, when you need to use your knife to cut up your food, you move your fork to your left hand and hold your knife with your right hand. You can use your fork to hold your food with your left hand while cutting the food with your right hand. After you have cut up your food, put the knife down, and switch the fork back into your right hand. For most food, use your utensils, not your hands. However, there are exceptions with certain foods like chicken, unpeeled shrim...

Reading is a terrific way to improve your English. The more you read, the more you will improve your English reading skills.   It is good to challenge yourself, but if your book is too difficult, it can discourage you and set you up to fail. As we had talked about in previous blog posts, you need to set reachable goals to help motivate you. There are countless books to choose from, so you may wonder, where do I begin?   One way to start is to read bestsellers. These are the most popular books, and to be popular, they need to be entertaining and easy to understand to all readers. Reading best sellers will help build your vocabulary and help you to be able to discuss the books you read with others. Here is a list of well-known English books you can read to improve your English!   ●         Charlotte's Web by E.B. White Charlotte's Web is perfect to start with because it is a simple and well-known novel. It is about a pig n...

  As you are learning English, you will see many English phrases in your textbook. These phrases can help you improve your English and expand your vocabulary, but sometimes you find that when you use the phrases that you learned, native English speakers act surprised or confused. ­­Every language is always changing, so sometimes it may seem hard to follow, especially when learning a foreign language. If you want to make yourself sound like a native English speaker, here are some phrases that you should NEVER say.   1.        How do you do? Asking someone, "How do you do?" is outdated and extremely formal. People no longer use this greeting in casual conversations. Instead, try a "Hey, how are you?" or "How's it going?"   2.        It's raining cats and dogs This is an idiom that people use to express that it is raining very hard. When you are first learning what an idiom is, this is a common example...