12 Phrases to Read English Colleagues Between the Lines

Even though Anglo Saxons appear more polite and polished compared to many others, it doesn't mean they don't get annoyed or impatient. In the culture that doesn't encourage open expression of rudeness, it's important to learn to read the real intent behind the speech.

Especially common for communications with clients or higher ups, when you feel double constraints on genuine self-expression.

🫧I appreciate your concern - Your input is noted but I’m doing it my way. Translation: Stop bothering me

🫧Thank you for your patience - Sorry this took forever, but let’s pretend you agreed to wait. Often means: I know you’re annoyed

🫧Moving forward - Let’s forget that mess and never speak of it again. Subtext: That’s behind us now

🫧For clarity - You’re wrong and here’s why. Implies: Let me explain this since you clearly didn’t get it

🫧Gentle reminder - This is the third time I’m asking and I’m irritated. Means: Do this NOW

🫧I’m copying [name of the person CCed] for visibility - I need witnesses/backup or I want to make sure someone important sees this. Sometimes: Covering my ass

🫧Happy to discuss further - I’m done with this conversation but being polite.

🫧Thanks in advance - Do this, it’s not really optional. Implies: I expect compliance

🫧As stated previously - Can you not read? I already told you this. Subtext: I’m frustrated you’re making me repeat myself

🫧I’d love to hear your thoughts - Give me feedback but I’ve probably already decided. Sometimes genuine, often procedural

🫧Please advise - I need a decision/answer from you, or This is your problem now. Passive-aggressive way to push responsibility

🫧While I understand your urgency - Your panic is not my priority. Translation: Calm down, this isn’t that urgent​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

IG reference corporategags

⭐️ What phrase & interpretation won you over?

The Importance of Genuine Shout-outs ⭐️

When I find the motivation, courage, and strength to praise a person publically without expecting anything back, I always feel good after it. Sometimes I get tangible value back immidiately [as in the screenshot: gave a reco - received a reco], sometimes later, indirectly, sometimes it remains an energy boost.

3 pitfalls I've fallen into & the consequences

PITFALL 1: I gave a shout-out to someone I don't genuinely like cause I wanted to suck up to them.
📌Consequence: Lost self-respect for a bit and didn't win anyone over.

PITFALL 2: I gave a shout-out and asked that person to return the favor.
📌Consequence: the person feels pressured and the shout-out I received back felt contrived, not genuine.

PITFALL 3: I gave a shout-out to someone, didn't ask them to retun the favor, but felt bad cause she didn't do any promo back for me.
📌Consequence: I was trying to manipulate the person without realising it. If you expect a favor back, ask for it beforehand.

Luckily, I can reflect, learn, and change, at least a bit.

Shout-out Glossary
🫧a shout-out - a quick public thank-you or praise
🫧genuine - real, honest, not fake
🫧a deep appreciation for sth - a strong recognition of importance of sth
🫧a knack for - natural talent or skill for something
🫧persistent - not giving up; continuing even when it’s hard

🪴 Do you want to give a shout-out to a friend right now? Tell us about a person or project that inspires you and share a link to their social media page or website.
Don’t promote yourself;)

It'a all about people - The 21st Zoom Practice Happening RN

At the time when this message is released, @ybeymlina is in the Zoom meeting with the most committed and ambitious readers of this channel - summarising the S2S topic of the week, using 10 advanced phrases, building fluency and... network.

Now, it's time for a coming out.

Our 1st meeting took place on July, 9, 2025, as an experiment. There was no registration and everyone was pretty much invited to walk in. Things didn't run smoothly: guys connecting from noisy places, poor signal, pre-intermediate learners showing up for advanced practice cause they didn't read the denoscription.

😱 Amidst all that mess, there was another fear creeping in: what if no one shows up? Will there be enough interest to sustain the practice? After all, @englishforimpact doesn't dumb down the content which may present a challenge. "Shall we lower the bar?" - the existential question was looming big.

It took us 3 months and 12 meetings of tweaking the format and registration process, when the idea finally landed: it's not about quantity, it's about quality. And exclusivity :) That's when we relaxed and started enjoying the process. And people.

Yep, it's actually the people that make these Zoom meetings bright. Spmetimes there's 1 participant. Sometimes 10. Always, they add to the magic, the 3d essential component. The learning materials, the facilitator, and the people, making up 3 components.

At the time of the 21st meeting, we're are giving the shout-out to 7 people who stood out and whose presence made our Zoom practice meetings special. There're more of them than 7, but 7 is Yulia's lucky number, so sticking to 7 this time.

🫧@duran - a "500 Startups" founder, building Talk Labs – Voice AI Simulations for Training Customer-Facing Staff. What makes him a great participnat - always generous with emojis and emotionally expressive.
🫧@marjoriefmr - a traveler from 🇨🇱 Chile. Gives us great perspectives on discussed topics.
🫧@irina_han - the admin of @chasingwine. A rare person combining a knack for systems thinking (a business analyst) and a developped creative side.
🫧@inc2205 - another interdisiplinary guy, an architect AND a product manager. The most interesting ideas are born at the intersections, and I'm convinced this fellow will produce some serious shit.
🫧@ggodunov - a co-founder of an influencer marketing agency and an owner of an inspiring LinkedIn account
🫧@anasteisha1k - a member who's been with us since S2S's very conception, before this channel popped up. Committed, adaptable, fun - I wish I had had such a practice buddy back when I was learning English.
🫧@Zelsystem - a software engineer and a builder of his own app for English vocabulary learning. Welcome to share the link in the comments, Anton!

I thank you for your commitment and staying true to your English practice goals. You're going strong, keep up the good habit.

🪴 Want to join the lucky 7, boost your English, and, potentially, get featured in this growing channel? Text Wednesday to @ybeymlina to apply. Share with a friend who needs that magic kick to get started.

Why You Need Therapy or 3 Cases of Catenation

When spoken quickly and naturally, the phrases in this trannoscript undergo significant changes. Here’s a breakdown of the 3 cases of catenation at work.

Catenation, a.k.a. Linking
This is the smooth connection of the final sound of one word to the first sound of the next word.

1️⃣ "Hey, did_" -> "Heydid"
Vowel to consonant linking

2️⃣ "edit_it" -> "edidit"
Consonant to vowel linking

3️⃣"I_edited" -> "Iyedited"
This is also a form of intrusion: a new sound is inserted between 2 words as they're linked together, to make the transition from the first to the next a bit smoother. In this case, a slight /j/ ("y") sound is inserted between the /aɪ/ ("I") and the following vowel /ɛ/ ("e" in "edited"). This makes the transition less jarring.

Besides catenation, more things happen when you speak fast:
🫧elision (the disappearance of sounds)
🫧assimilation (sounds changing to become more like their neighbors)
🫧vowel reduction (unstressed vowels weaken and become a neutral "uh" sound, called a schwa /ə/)
🫧and some others.

This is quite a nerdy topic, that's why we don't speak about it. But if you think we should, please let us know.

IG reference notrudyayb

🪴 Send this to a future Eminem

4 TOP Popular Posts of November

Saying "Bye-bye, fall, hello, winter" feels weird from Viet Nam. We do honour the milestones, though. Let's review the posts you've enjoyed the most in November.

💓TOP by views
Vocab quiz: long-watered OR long-winded?
Great for vocabulary review. We only quiz you on vocabulary that was introduced in our posts throughout the week - pay attention & reap benifits.

💓TOP by shares
12 Phrases to Read English Colleagues Between the Lines
Great for understanding the mindset of your clients, colleages, investors around the world.

💓TOP by comments
The Importance of Genuine Shout-outs
Great for learning the practical value and vocabulary of mutual support.

💓TOP by reactions
"Humans of English for Impact" — Irina Khan
Great for getting inspired by one of the readers to submit your video self-presentation.

🪴 Thank you for choosing @EnglishForImpact
What kind of posts would you like to see more of in December?

December, the 1st in History: 5 notable events ranked from oldest to most recent

🇵🇹1640 - Portugal ended 59 years of union with Spain, acclaiming João IV as King [Wiki]

🇺🇸1865 - Shaw University, the first historically black university in the southern United States, was founded [Wiki]

🇺🇸1955 - Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger [Wiki]

🏳️1959 - The Antarctic Treaty was signed by 12 countries, making Antarctica a demilitarized zone reserved for scientific research [Wiki]

🇬🇧🇫🇷1990 - The Channel Tunnel connecting the United Kingdom and France was officially opened [Wiki]

🪴 Remember: you're making your personal history today. Keep going - it matters.

@GoGlobalWorld's Pitch Day Overview

Last week I attended a "Pitch Day" organised by GGW (“Go Global World”)

Before sharing my insights, let me give huge cheers to the host Alexandr Zlotnikov and judges Luis Martinez, Matviy K. They managed to keep a dynamic pace for 90 min so well that I manageed to stay 70% awake from 1 am to 2.30 am 💤

THE FORMAT

@DanilGGW opens and closes the ceremony. In between, the host and the judges remain on the stage, as founders come and go to share their decks and deliver their speeches. 3 min for the pitch, 2 min for Q&A.
You can see the timer widget in the upper right corner - it's very neat and makes cute little sounds for the 10 sec count-down. I loved the timer widget so much that I added looking into adding one to my backlog.

FOUNDERS

🫧 domain agnostic (=the industry doesn't matter)
🫧 mostly B2C
🫧 pre-revenue projects and with revenue traction
🫧 international founders: Greece, India, USA, and many other locations sharing the stage
🫧 50/50 ratio of male to female founders, approximately.
As far as I remember, I fell asleep at certain points - remember, 1AM-2.30AM ;)

TAKE-AWAYS

❓ Most of the Q&A questions concerned metrics: customer retention, time to get to $10M ARR, CAC, customer acquisition channels. Super practical, on point, down to earth.

🌎 The international vibe makes a difference. As much as I admire the work of Russian only pitching communities, if you want to go global and sell to international markets, you need to surround yourself with an international community. Go Global World is a great chance to do so.

⭐️ Energy matters! I caught myself making an impression of a founder during the first 10 sec. The remaining 2.50 sec I was tuning in for data to confirm my initial bias. Guys, your energy matters as a founder and you can learn to work with it, to an extent at first. And then, to even a greater extent ;)

Are you an active founder, product manager or looking to become one? Share what you're building or want to build in the comments 💓

Rules are rules, and everyone's equal. Just some people are more equal than others, aren't they 🐷

Truly hope this video, although an exaggeration, will help to dismantle the unconditional worship of native speakers. The skit IS realistic.

Glossary

🫧Midterm - The main exam or test in the middle of a school term or semester, not at the end.
🫧To bend the rules - To loosely interpret or slightly break minor rules, usually for convenience, without technically breaking them completely.
🫧Two grand - Two thousand.
🫧Unconditional worship - Extreme admiration or devotion given to someone no matter what they do, without any limits or requirements.
🫧To dismantle - to take apart, break into pieces.

IG reference helenlanguagelab
British Sitcom "Mind your Language"

🪴 Your turn
What accent is the most challenging for you to understand?
Are you happy with the accent you have or wanna modify it in any way?

👋 Sending a shout-out to Ivan Gan, an investement analyst at Deep Tech Origgin Ventures, for joining our "PitchUp Club" as a guest.

At "PitchUp", active founders and high potential wannabes gather every week for 90 min to break down a speech sample of a successful founder, construct our own ones, and exchange feedback. This allows the club members to share their ideas with confidence at demo days, product releases, and challenging Q&As.

Any fans of Khan Academy here? Did you watch Sal's Maths or History videos? Last meeting when Ivan joined us, we dived into Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn's Founder)'s interview with Sal Khan (Khan Academy's Founder). We broke down Sal's 5-min answer to "What drove you to create Khan Migo?"

Here's Sal Khan's 7 paragraph answer structure to: "What drove you to create Khan Migo?":

1. Personal take and importance: "It's pretty much all I think about these days"

2. Pre-history with Khan Academy & key USP - personalisation. "And what I really was trying to do was scale up what a tutor would do, scale up personalization"

3. Starting Khan Migo from a tech perspective

4. Taking the standpoint of his critics & showing transformation journey. Turning risks into features

5. Mitigating a specific risk - PG18

6. The measures taken at Khan Academy to ensure smooth operations

7. Wrap up the answer in a 1 sentence summary

RESOURCES
🫧Reid Hoffman & Sal Khan's Full Interview on YouTube. The answer to the question "What drove you to create Khan Migo?" starts at 8:30.

Ivan's background helped us to get an international take on storytelling, something that all of us appreciated. Even Valera the Duck started projecting light from his beak.

I admire you, PitchUp Club members, for taking 90 min from you busy schedule to invest in your long term growth. The words are a key to power and I'm rooting for you.

🪴 Want to join the PitchUp Club? DM @ybeymlina PitchUp to apply.

11 phrases you need to know to implement Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" in your life

Does December feel like a battle time to tie up the loose ends? Doesn't feel this way to me since I move to Asia. Wondering what it's like on your side: who feels like a warrior?

"The Art of War" is a 2,500-year-old military text written by Chinese general Sun Tzu, and somehow it's still more relevant to your Monday morning than half the business books published last year.

11 Phrases to Ignite Your Fight

1. Brute force: Using raw power or effort instead of intelligence or skill.
"I couldn't open the lock, so I used brute force and broke the door."

2. With the least amount of bloodshed: Achieving a goal while avoiding unnecessary conflict or harm.
"The manager resolved the team dispute with the least amount of bloodshed, keeping everyone happy."

3. Market awareness: Knowing what customers want and what competitors are doing.
"Our market awareness told us smartphones needed better batteries, so we made one."

4.Worth pursuing: Good enough to spend time and effort on.
"The lead from the conference seems worth pursuing; they're very interested."

5. Back people into a corner: To trap someone, leaving them with no good options.
"By taking away his funding and his team, they backed him into a corner."

6. Desperate: Willing to try anything because you are in a very bad situation.
"He was desperate for a job, so he applied everywhere."

7. To adjust your approach accordingly: To change your plan based on new information.
"It started raining, so we adjusted our approach accordingly and moved the picnic indoors."

8. To rigidly stick to: To refuse to change a plan or rule, even when you should.
"He rigidly stuck to the old recipe, even though no one liked it anymore."

9. Resource allocation: Deciding how to use your time, money, and people.
"Our resource allocation was poor; we spent all our money on ads and none on product development."

10. Mythical ancient wisdom: Supposedly perfect advice from the past, which is probably more legend than fact.
"The secret isn't some mythical ancient wisdom; it's just hard work and practice."

11. Competitive dynamics: How companies react to each other's moves in a market.
"When one airline lowers prices, the competitive dynamics force others to do the same."

💅 What phrase do you choose to incorporate into your speech first?

🪴 Want to get 60 meenutes of high quality focuse practice, meet English For Impact readers, and start using these phrases in your speech already this week?
Text "wednesday" to @ybeymlina to sign up for an open meeting on Wednesday, 6-7PM MSC time zone. You've got what it takes!

"Humans of English for Impact" #3 ⭐️ Bringing to you the stories of our readers, one at a time.

Meet Nick Nedelchuk, Founder & CEO at "Localie."

I LOVE projects with a mission to bring the world closer. "Localie" is one of them. It's a marketplace app bringing together travelers and locals ready to show you around. As a user of "Air B&B Experiences," definitely see value in this. Inclined to believe that "Localie" is way more authentic at this point.

Give ❤️ to Nick and check out his channel @localiehome.

For Russian speakers, check out Nick's fascinating story of quitting a corporate job, moving to the Netherlands, and building traveltech "Localie" during COVID despite all odds.

🪴 Want to share your story here? DM @ybeymlina “Humans of english for impact” and links to your projects

What was it like to run a "PitchUp Club"'s open session for @rezinkinaa 's MFS community.

⭐️General Impressions

I LOVED the founders!
Last Wednesday, I met 8 founders from Andrey's club. While they're from different industries and business development stages, there's one thing that unites them all - a solid foundation.
Another thing I appreciated is their focus and attention to details during the public speaking training. Attention is an expensive gift and it was rewarding to receive it from the "MFS" community.

A shout-out to the founder who made an especially lasting impression on me: Alexander Malandin from "SereneDB." First, I payed attention to his outstanding English. Then, learnt he's recently raised $2.1M in pre-seed. Is it a coincidence?* :)

You can read more about Alexander in Andrey's recent post.

Kudos to @rezinkinaa for building such a strong community that the founders respect and enjoy.

⭐️What we did at the "PitchUp Club" session for "MFS"

- Deconstructed Ali Ghodsi (Databricks's Co-founder, CEO, a16z's portfolio company) founder transformation journey: from academia to CEO [5:30-8:20min]. The 4 min speech sample was obtained from Ali's interview with Ben Horowitz;
- "MFS"'s founders prepared and shared their own's journeys, using Alis' framework;
- Exchanged feedback.

⭐️Key take-aways
- Sharing your personal story helps to build trust and credibility.
- Don't ramble*: choose up to 3 points and bring them home with clarity.
- Glue the speech together using the signposting language* such as "That's about you yourself. Now, for managing..." to indicate where you begin and end thought blocks.

*Glossary
🫧To ramble - to speak a lot without a clear direction
🫧A coincidence - when 2 events happen at the same time in a surprising way
🫧Signposting language - phrases that show how parts of your speech relate to each other

🪴Over to you

Know a community that will benefit from a "PitchUp" trial or simply want to get a sneak peek into "PitchUp" yourself? Comment and/or DM @ybeymlina "PitchUp" to apply

5 phrases Sam Altman would use in Bangkok

On my way back to Viet fresh with Bkk energy, asked Claude what SA would say about the place. Not disappointed with the results:

🫧“This floating market is basically decentralized commerce.”
Tries to explain to confused vendors why they’re actually web3 pioneers. They just want to sell him mangoes.

🫧”I’m very excited about the talent density in this co-working space”
There are three people there. One is napping.*

🫧“Incredible go-to-market strategy.”
Seeing the monks collecting alms.*

🫧“This is obviously the future of remote work infrastructure.”
Gestures vaguely at a beach bar with spotty WiFi* and plastic chairs.

🫧“We need to make this 10x better.”
About Thai iced tea. He’s not wrong, but also it’s already perfect and he’s ordered six.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

*GLOSSARY
🫧To nap - to have a short sleep
🫧To collect alms - to ask for money in the street
🫧Spotty wifi - unreliable wifi that keeps cutting in and out

What would Sam Altman say about your city?;)