I categorize English speakers into two groups—those who speak English good and those who speak well. Which are you? If you belong to the former, would you like to improve your English skill? Do you want to know how?
There are different ways to up your ESL proficiency. In this article, I will be sharing one convenient, effective, and quick way that is also practicable especially for travel bloggers and content creators like myself. That is to use this book:
“Don’t Speak Good. Speak Well! The Nosebleed Edition”
A Guide to Speaking English for Filipinos.
The reason why I recommend this book is apparent—I have already used it and I believe in its content. Let me discuss further below.
First, let’s begin by looking at“Don’t Speak Good. Speak Well! The Nosebleed Edition” more closely
For those who encounter this book for the first time, you may already have a hunch as to what this book is all about. English speaking, yes, and more.
This 115-page book published by American English Skills Development Center, Inc. is a guide to speaking English for Filipinos. It’s written to hone your English skills to keep up with the demands of fluent conversations at work and in daily life.
Who is this book for?
This book is intended for people who have a love-hate relationship with English.
“Don’t Speak Good. Speak Well! The Nosebleed Edition” is for:
1. Filipinos (and other non-native English speakers) who wish to improve their spoken English fluency.
2. ESL tutors/ English teachers who wish to improve their students’ learning by providing easy to learn grammar rules explanations and pronunciation guide.
3. Those who are required to use business English in their jobs.
4. Those who feel nervous/ awkward/ inadequate when they speak in English.
5. High school and college students who find themselves unsure of how to pronounce a word.
6. Anyone who finds himself/ herself stuck in an English conversation.
“Don’t Speak Good. Speak Well! The Nosebleed Edition” is NOT for:
1. Those who don’t feel the need to upgrade their English speaking skill.
2. Those who don’t want to take on the challenge of speaking English better.
Now let’s look at what’s inside “Don’t Speak Good. Speak Well! The Nosebleed Edition”
The book consists of 3 parts:
Part 1: The Rules of English Grammar
Part 2: Conversation Strategies and Expressions
Part 3: The Sounds of English
With 28 topics, accompanying audio files, tables and illustrations, THIS BOOK is promising.
BOOK STYLE
The book is deliberately designed to be portable, readable and effective.
Its paragraphs are not wordy. In fact, the explanations are concise and easy to understand.
Fonts used promote readability. Tables, illustrations and chart exercises optimized spaces without leaving a jarring effect to my eyes. [You can see from the photos I included in this post]
BOOK FEATURES
The book consists of these notable features:
1. Grammar Rules Review
The authors did a great job of making the grammar explanations simple and relevant. The first part of the book tackled the 8 parts of speech and grammar rules ‘focusing on the most common issues Filipinos have’ – prepositions, articles, verb tenses, etc..
2. Practice Exercises
After learning the principles, readers can practice with end-chapter exercises. The answer keys to these exercises are found at the final pages.
3. Better Expressions
The second part of the book provides practical phrases, expressions and sentences that readers can use in different situations – from ordering food to complaining a service to communicating with a colleague.
This part also touches on the strategies for starting and keeping a conversation especially with a foreigner.
My favorite part in this chapter is the list of better expressions for the overused ones and also the strategies to sound more natural when conversing.
4. Pronunciation Guides
The pronunciation guide in the third part of this book will not give you a headache. Entitled “the sound of English”, this part talks about the basics such as sounds of vowels and consonants, diphthongs, voiced and unvoiced sounds. It also talks about liaisons, word stress, inflection, and even pauses. It discusses all this in an interesting instead of an overwhelming way. Also, instructions on how to properly achieve the sound are listed. Like all other parts of the book, it is easy to understand and at the same time, easy to remember.
5. Access to e-learning Site
There are additional resources provided by this book. We can log on to the e-Learning site with the provided product key to gain access to the accompanying audio files I mentioned earlier. Because of this, we can practice pronunciation and accent hassle-free.
To learn more about the e-Learning site, you can check American English PH Facebook Page.
Parting Words
This book can be one of your chief treasures. At an introductory price of PHP 590, you can get plenty of material for English practice and learning. You could easily finish reading this book because of its engaging style, readability and useful content.
For this reason, I encourage travelers/bloggers (and non-native speakers) like me to check this witty, English speaking guide to improve spoken English command and fluency.
You can grab a copy of “Don’t Speak Good. Speak Well! The Nosebleed Edition” now and say goodbye to your ‘nose-bleeding moments’… It’s about time you stopped speaking English good and started speaking English well!
This post was originally posted in February, 2016. Like my all other contents, I update this whenever I find the need to.
