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.

Hello everyone! Do you know what synchronicity is? It’s a word coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychologist, in the 1920’s. It is the experience of two or more events related in a way we ...

Hi! Last week we had a look at the difference between “start” and “begin”. You can read about it here. Another pair of verbs that are very similar in meaning but have a couple of ...

Greetings earthling! Remember what an earthling is? It’s a human being living on Earth. So, YOU! At ABA English, our motto is “always be learning”. Learning keeps the brain active and young. With our “Learn ...

Greetings earthling! Remember what an earthling is? It’s a human being living on Earth. So, YOU! At ABA English, our motto is “always be learning”. Learning keeps the brain active and young. With our “Learn ...

Goo day to you all, Let’s get started! Let’s begin! Do you know when we use “begin” and when we use “start”? Begin or Start? Most of the time, these two words can be used interchangeably. ...

Néih hóu ma? (that’s “How are you?” in Cantonese). If you’re an international student applying to the U.S., you’ve probably asked yourself this question: what TOEFL score do I need to get in? You might ...

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Hello everyone! It’s one of the questions our students ask us the most: “when do I use say and when do I use tell?” so we thought we’d remind you again of the differences between ...