Diana Ip

I am British born Chinese and grew up in a town in the east of England. My parents are native Chinese speakers, and despite their advanced English they still struggled with colloquial idioms. When I was young I used to be asked a lot of questions by not only my parents but some of the Chinese community around me, around the phrases they have heard or the words they can't seem to find in the dictionary. This gave me a valuable insight into how the English language has evolved and gave me experience helping non native speakers improve their conversational skills.

I have taught online for almost two years. I like to get to know my students and keep them talking about their interests and every day topics that are fun and engaging, like chatting to a friend. From there I go onto phrasal verbs, for example eliciting and going through the differences of the phrases - set up, set off and set back - all sounding similar but with different meanings.

I mix this up with idioms that you might hear but never fully grasp like 'whatever floats your boat, or we're in the same boat', diving into their origins and using them naturally.

I also teach informal British words and phrases, such as, 'I was absolutely gutted to hear you are leaving', or 'I am so chuffed I managed to make this roast dinner all by myself with no help'.

After a few lessons, I circle back to ensure that these words or phrases are fully understood and that the student can confidently weave these into their conversations.

The feedback I have had is that this approach builds fluency and gets you sounding like a natural in no time.