This page is a bit about us. Below please find our why, our story and beginnings, and our aims and vision.
The Full Story
How we began ...
The idea started with an English teacher going from teaching high school students in class, to tutoring the Advanced CAE Cambridge exams to adults, online. From that experience, came the fascinating conversations that were had during 'lessons' with mature (shall we say) ladies (mostly) entering their second or third careers.
Ladies from Ukraine - whose lives had been shredded by war; from Poland - who wanted better job opportunities; from France - who wanted to join energetic corporate online meetings without feeling ashamed of their ability to communicate effectively with native English speakers and high powered business people. And the stories grew. Stories of resilience and the power of women to rise up.
These ladies are hungry. Hungry for knowledge to get them ahead in an online, corporate, dog-eat-dog world.
So, how do we make a place for them to come to? A landing place where knowledge and resources are laid out, professionally checked, correct for usage, a array of tools to help women develop their voices?
An English conversation was born.
Where to next?
The Journey
The first step was to build the website, and not make it too confusing at that. As someone with a creative, unfocused mind, and being, shall we say well, into my autumn years, I took the bull by the horns and set sail into the cyber sphere, armed only with a knowledge of English fixed expressions, paraphrasing skills, and a repertoire of C1 jargon. Please do not be deterred by the overloading of idioms above. Not to put too fine a point on it, I was blundering around in the dark.
On a more serious note, it occurred to me that by combining blogs and podcasts and creating English learning materials, we could reach a wide number of people, all keen to improve their English. So here we are, trying to create well-written content in a world being subsumed under the AI behemoth, Don't get me wrong, AI offers incredible assistance but give the good old, pure old human-engendered creative writing any day.
My husband David is a marvellous writer himself. Unlike me however, he has a retentive memory, deep insights, and an extraodinary breadth of knowledge on all sorts of topics. Before we knew it, he was lying awake at night, planning his blog posts and podcasts and embracing the project with his usual passion and excitement.
An English Conversation Podcast came like a lightning bolt out of the blue just as all these thoughts were swirling around. What if, we talk to all these ladies who want a real place in the world, be it at home, in the cut and thrust of corporate skyscrapers, as mentors, as survivors? As women who still want to go places! As women whose journeys are not ending, but only just beginning!
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And just for funsies ....
So I let AI have its way in this paragraph below.... not bad, I'll concede... although we did tone down so of the hyperbole it produced ....
Embark on a linguistic adventure with An English Conversation podcast. We are passionate about language (in particular the English language,) and join us as we explore the depths of communication. From humble beginnings to a friendly and positive community, we are dedicated to fostering understanding and connection through words. We all have stories, and many of you have extraordinary ones. Join us and embrace the power of an English conversation.
And of course, we can't do without some Immanuel Kant: "Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play."
Our Vision ....
We have come together with the idea of creating a site that people will want to keep on revisiting. Here is what the website has to offer.
At anenglishconversation.com we believe that we should never stop learning.
We love that the internet is full of information, and this website is built by thinkers; real people who love real life facts as well as possibilities.
We believe Knowledge shared is never diminished but, like a great sourdough mixture, feeds more people.
We use podcasts (we're still learning!) to widen our conversations and talk to other real people. The team includes the skills of a teacher, a chemist, a business director, a project manager, writers and bloggers, older folk who are not afraid of technology but embrace its new possibilities.
Explore intriguing topics for English speakers, history enthusiasts, and those interested in some of the challenges that the world of the 2020s bring.
We live in a unique age. Join a community that values individuals who want to keep discovering new knowledge, no matter our ages. Listen to engaging podcasts, read short blog posts, widen your horizons , join the conversations.
...and what better way to communicate than by harnessing podcasts, we thought.
George Bernard Shaw: "Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance."