• Use Present Simple Tense – In Turkish, you tend to use the “Present Continuous Tense” equivalent (Şimdiki Zaman) more often than we do in English. Don’t be afraid to go with the Present Simple Tense form of the verb more often than you’re used to.

• Use So – “So” is one of those words that native English speakers use a lot. Bad news first: we use it in a number of different situations for different purposes. The good news: it’s what I call a “low risk” word, meaning its less likely to confuse people when used incorrectly because people can usually still catch the meaning of your sentence. Even if you do confuse someone by using it incorrectly, it’s not a word that is likely to offend someone when used incorrectly. So… (see what I did there?) just go for it.

• Modals – Correctly using modals like “would” and “could” is often one of the factors that set Advanced English speakers apart from Intermediate/Upper Intermediate speakers. If you want a “deeper dive” lesson on modals, check out our lesson focused entirely on Modals here. 

• Use Well – Every language has its “filler words” or words that fill the gap when we either need to think for a second or we want to soften what we’re about to say to make it sound nicer. “Well” is at the top of this list for most native English speakers.

• Shadowing Exercises – One of the biggest downsides to learning English in Turkey is that you’re not surrounded by English speakers. But shadowing exercises help “level the playing field” and make it possible to get lots of practice mirroring a native speaker’s pace, pronunciation, and intonation without ever setting foot in a native English speaking country. Try one of these shadowing exercises from our YouTube channel:

At the Airport Part 1: https://youtu.be/_B9mQeHiqE4      

Pre-meeting: https://youtu.be/cfxLHwqzEn8