What do you think?
Rate this book
Relax, It's Just English
You don't get better at English by filling in blanks in grammar exercises. 'Business English' is just a marketing term. Books and dictionaries teach you words most people never use. 'If' is just a regular word with no special grammar.
Your English teacher and your grammar book are making your life too difficult. If you can read this description, you can speak and write like a native English speaker, and you don’t need to memorize ‘Business English’ phrases and do hundreds of grammar exercises to do it. Relax, It’s Just English will show you that you already know most of the vocabulary and grammar you need to speak and write better English. There are no exercises, and you won’t find hundreds of rules and exceptions. Over 28 chapters, you will learn shortcuts through some of the trickiest and most important parts of using English, all in a fun and easy-to-read style designed to take some of the pain out of learning the language.
Writing work emails, managing tenses, and using the word 'if' are all covered in a simpler, more realistic way than most students of English have heard before, and many other overlooked topics are given needed attention. Perhaps most importantly, you'll un learn some unnecessary rules you've been taught over the years. Less stress, more authentic language. Relax, it's just English.
About the Author
Brett Vanderburg was born in Fresno, California and has been teaching English as a Foreign Language in Hamburg, Germany since 2005.
Your English teacher and your grammar book are making your life too difficult. If you can read this description, you can speak and write like a native English speaker, and you don’t need to memorize ‘Business English’ phrases and do hundreds of grammar exercises to do it. Relax, It’s Just English will show you that you already know most of the vocabulary and grammar you need to speak and write better English. There are no exercises, and you won’t find hundreds of rules and exceptions. Over 28 chapters, you will learn shortcuts through some of the trickiest and most important parts of using English, all in a fun and easy-to-read style designed to take some of the pain out of learning the language.
Writing work emails, managing tenses, and using the word 'if' are all covered in a simpler, more realistic way than most students of English have heard before, and many other overlooked topics are given needed attention. Perhaps most importantly, you'll un learn some unnecessary rules you've been taught over the years. Less stress, more authentic language. Relax, it's just English.
About the Author
Brett Vanderburg was born in Fresno, California and has been teaching English as a Foreign Language in Hamburg, Germany since 2005.
189 pages, Paperback
Published February 3, 2023
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 22, 2023
This book is such a great read! I learned that I should probably lighten up a little bit on the teacher expectations and focus on the big picture. I am a teacher who has taught many EL students in the K-8 grade range, and I absolutely agree that we often forget the main purpose of learning a new language: it's to be able to COMMUNICATE. So if students are able to get a point across in English, when their first language is something else, then maybe we shouldn't harp on them for a little "less than perfect" word order, grammar, verb tenses, or.....
This book is spot on with some specific strategies and is sprinkled with humorous phrases and comments that you probably will identify with. (See what I did there?? I ended a sentence with a preposition! Yikes!)
"Practice Makes Permanent," not Perfect! Encouragement and Practice go together like cake and ice cream!
This book is spot on with some specific strategies and is sprinkled with humorous phrases and comments that you probably will identify with. (See what I did there?? I ended a sentence with a preposition! Yikes!)
"Practice Makes Permanent," not Perfect! Encouragement and Practice go together like cake and ice cream!
May 18, 2023
Loved the idea that our every day American English is much simpler than what we’ve learned in school. But really got annoyed by the way the author despises ESL teachers…
March 16, 2024
As a French ESL speaker, I must say I didn't learn much here. But this read was a much deserved refreshing course about what really matters when talking to a native English speaker. Now, I'll actually make a few motivation posters for my classroom out of some quotes from the book!
May 8, 2024
As an ESL student I highly recommend it. I am 44 years old and I started studying English formally approximately 4 years ago. I really wanted to read it because of comments I had read online, but my local library did not have it available. I asked them to buy it and they immediately accepted my request. I think it is a great book to have available in the ESL section of any public library. Many of the things he raises are very helpful for people like me who are facing the challenge of learning English (perhaps a little over the ideal age).
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews