The 7Cs of Effective Communication

I am a big fan of themes! If you have been reading my blog and newsletters for a while now, you will notice that I like to use acronyms, abbreviations, and cute ways to remember things. This is due to my need and dare I say ability to take detailed information from various sources and […]

Toronto Communication Workshop – This Sat. Feb. 24th!

brasiMPACT: Communication Skills Refinement; Impact and Influence An intensive, hands-on communications training workshop designed to help individuals maximize their potential for team work and leadership. Training includes practical work in the classroom on accent improvement, presentation & public speaking skills, understanding body language, and other applied communication skills. This is ideal for immigrants working or […]

R-E-O Improves Your Active Listening Skills

Active listening skills are important to utilize in your everyday life, in the workplace and at home. Passively listening while multi-tasking several things can give the impression that you are not paying attention, and could cause people to avoid you or maybe even resent you. Recently I met a senior manager at a global financial […]

Accent Reduction – Top 10 Tips

1 – Imitate the desired accent and expressions of the people around you e.g. co-workers, T.V. and film characters, teachers, etc. 2 – Record yourself and check your progress continuously. 3 – Memorize useful North American slang, current idioms and expressions, etc. and integrate it whenever possible. 4 – Buy a pronunciation book. Check for […]

Become an Expert Listener

As a Communication Coach I get asked all the time “How can I improve my communication skills?” by accountants and engineers, by ESL students, by immigrants, by counsellors. I always start with the same response: “Become a great listener!” When they ask me how they can do that, I then start to break it down. […]

Accents & Emails

Did you know that a person’s email style is often as culturally-specific as their accent? Some times we come to think of English as a standardized tool that everyone is using for business, travel, pleasure etc. and we forget that it is a living, evolving stylized language. We obviously can see this (rather “hear this”) […]