About MyOvient
Contact UsLet me tell you a secret. You can learn English without a textbook or a teacher! You can learn from the English that is around you every day. All you need to do is look for it.
Think about all of the “teachers” you have:
People you can talk to: friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, waiters and waitresses, cashiers, taxi and bus drivers, flight attendants, sales people, landlords, hair stylists, the person sitting next to you at a party
Things you see every day: supermarket signs, traffic signs, maps, social media posts, brochures, newspapers, advertisements, billboards, email, junk mail, books, magazines, websites, blogs, food packaging, menus, instruction manuals
Sounds you hear every day: radio, TV, announcements, music, podcasts, the noisy people sitting next to you at a cafe
These are your teachers, and they’re (mostly) free to interact with!
If you interact with the people and things around you, your English will improve naturally. "Interaction" means thinking about what you hear and read, replying to people who speak to you, and writing down notes about things you notice.
- Read the paper, and look up words you don’t know.
- Listen to how cashiers and flight attendants talk to you.
- Listen for different styles of language.
- Read the back of your cereal box.
- Watch TV sitcoms to learn slang.
- Pay attention to signs more often.
Write your observations in a notebook, and if you are taking an English class, ask your teacher questions about what you saw or heard.
Let the English that is around you be your teacher. (If you’re not living in an English-speaking community, you’ll have to try a little harder and be more creative, but it’s possible to find many of these things if you have access to the Internet.)
Go on, look. English is all around you!
Do you get nervous when you think about giving a presentation? Most of us do. Do you get nervous when telling a story to a friend? Most of us think this isn’t so difficult. Giving a presentation can be as easy as telling a story.
Rules for THE
ARTICLE QUIZ
This is a lesson plan for practicing canceling and rescheduling meetings. First, read the key phrases and tips. Practice saying them aloud. 
If you are going to be late to a meeting, you should send an email, text, or call to let the others know when you'll arrive. If you have to leave a message, you should, but it’s a good idea to try to talk to someone who can pass along your message. (This could be an administrative assistant or someone else attending the meeting.)
If you want to substitute a new word for one that you have used too much, simply look the word up in a thesaurus and find alternatives. 
This page is a reading comprehension exercise that guides you as you study a news story about a current event. 
An elevator pitch is a quick introduction about your business. 
This lesson presents scripts for two different styles that can be used when you introduce yourself and/or your company. The style that you use will depend on the context you are in: whether you are giving a formal speech or talking with someone informally. Be prepared for both of these situations by creating in advance your own self-introductions following the examples on this page. 
LISTENING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
When you attend a networking event such as a conference, trade show, panel discussion, or lecture, do you feel uncomfortable starting conversations with the strangers around you? It's not an easy thing to do, but talking to people is an important business skill. Meeting new people and making connections helps you grow your personal and professional network. A bigger network means more business opportunities.
The prepositions in, on, and at can be confusing! If you make mistakes and use the wrong preposition, you will probably be understood, but if you want to make sure you speak and write like a professional, you should use these correctly. 
July 4th – Independence Day
An idiom is an expression, sometimes colorful, that conveys an idea that is different from its literal word-for-word meaning. Idioms are insider phrases that native speakers use and understand, often without even realizing that the phrases are idioms. Because idioms come so naturally to native speakers, non-native speakers are sometimes inadvertently “left in the dark” (an idiom meaning “excluded from understanding”) when an idiom is used. The non-native speakers may then ask themselves, “We know what was said, but what did it actually mean?” To illustrate the confusion that idioms can cause, consider the following paragraph full of idioms (in italics) that might be difficult for a non-native speaker to understand:
