ABA Journal The digital English academy

One fundamental skill to have in the world of business and other environments is certainly negotiation. In our global and intercultural world, considerable adaptation skills, diplomacy, conversational skills, and a good dose of cold blood ...

Translating idioms to english can be a great way to learn english and enrich your vocacbulary. Today we have a look at idioms from Finland.

When you’re alone, do you talk to yourself? I do. I will have whole conversations with myself while cooking, cleaning, or driving a car. I’m not embarassed about it, although I know I might look strange to other people who walk into the room (I try to do it only when nobody will hear or see me talking, but sometimes I get caught...).

I know I’m not the only one—it’s a funny habit, but it’s pretty common. For me, it helps me to think more clearly. If I think out loud, literally speaking my mind, then I can reason through a problem or situation more quickly and effectively. If I am silent, it’s a bit more difficult to think straight.

Even if you don’t have the same experience with talking out loud, it’s still a good idea to talk to yourself if you’re preparing for the TOEFL. That’s because a quarter of the test actually is talking to yourself. Well, technically, you speak into a microphone, but there is nobody listening as you talk, and nobody responds to you, so it’s very similar to talking to yourself. And in general, to improve your TOEFL scores, you will want to practice doing the tasks that the test requires of you.

At the ABA Book Club, each month we review and recommend a great book for you to practice reading in English.

Today, the ABA Book Club will be reviewing comedian Tina Fey's book Bossypants. It is, as you would expect from a comedian, very funny. Also, insightful and full of lessons learnt.

Tina Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. She has received many, many awards, including seven Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards.

With Halloween just around the corner it’s a great time to learn some vocabulary used during this fun day.

Imagine someone does something you do not like. Saying “I don’t like it” or “I don’t like this” can sound a little bit childish. So today we will learn a couple of ways to say ...

Check out the list of the most common student writing fails and tell us which one you are guilty of committing the most often! Keep scrolling down and you will find 6 ways to reduce ...

Welcome ABA Friend! Let’s look at something that many students get a bit confused with. First of all, read the following passage: Do you think we will ever get used to working or studying all the ...

“We love you more than you know” Such a great, uplifting song by Awolnation. Do you know what uplifting means? If you think about it, it is made up of the word “up” and “lift”, ...

Are you currently a student? Do you have to do any revising? If you answered “yes!”, then this lesson is for you! Today we are going to learn 12 tips to make revision a time to ...

Hello! Remember we wrote a post about autumn vocabulary? Well, here is a post dedicated to the beauty of spring! Spring Vocabulary Awakening – an act or moment of becoming suddenly aware of something. Barefoot ...

“If I spoke better English I could move to England, and if I won the lottery I would move to Thailand…” It’s nice to dream isn’t it? When we want to talk about an unreal ...

Ready to learn some English and put your dancing shoes on? Excellent! Eliza Doolittle has been on the ABA Blog before, with her song Skinny Genes, remember? And today we will be learning with a different ...

160 years ago today, on the 16th of October 1854, Oscar Wilde was born. So… Happy birthday, Oscar! Wilde was a writer and poet from Ireland. He became one of London’s most popular playwrights in ...

We use our senses on a daily basis, so it’s of great importance that we know how to use the verbs to describe them correctly in English. In today’s post, we are going to look ...

This is such a bizarre expression, don’t you think? “Throwing the baby out with the bath water” is a very old idiomatic expression that is used to suggest avoiding the error of discarding everything when ...