An inevitable part of doing business is responding to unhappy customers or clients. In many cases, formal language is required in both speaking and writing situations. Do you have the English skills to handle customer complaints? English for Responding to Customer Complaints Language of Apology First, you must apologize for the problem. I (sincerely) apologize...
Many international students consider attending a baseball game to be a “must” while studying English in California, and we agree that this is indeed an activity that students should try! If you are a student at CISL San Diego or CISL San Francisco, you have many options for attending a classic American baseball game: San...
Californians are known as being outdoor and sports-loving people, so while you are studying at CISL San Diego or San Francisco, you can expect to have plenty of opportunities to break a sweat! The love of sports continues long after the game, however: English is full of sports idioms! Do you know some of these...
Do you love California as much as we do? It’s hard not to love this incredible state, and apparently, musicians feel the same: there are countless songs about the state of California! We are celebrating California with one of the most famous songs about The Golden State: “Hotel California” by The Eagles. Many have heard the...
The verbs WIN, EARN, and GAIN are often confused by English learners, and for good reason: they have very similar meanings! They are also incredibly important words for Business English, and CISL teachers are often asked to clarify the words and their meanings. To test your knowledge of the differences between these words, take a look...
The smartphone is like a lifeline for international students: it allows you access to an English dictionary when you are shopping and don’t know an important word; it allows you to take photos of your incredible time in San Diego or San Francisco; it provides you with the opportunity to text friends for your next...
The most basic of English verbs: BE, MAKE, DO, GIVE, etc. are all irregular, which means that they have a different form: they do not follow the “-ED” ending when we use the Simple Past or Past Participle. This can be confusing for English learners, even those at higher levels of English! How can you improve...
In a previous article, we looked at the types of questions that students can encounter in the TOEFL Reading Section 1. Today we are applying this information to a practice test on an article about the history of one of the most famous California icons: The Hollywood Sign. This practice test contains all of the...
Section 1 of the TOEFL Reading test is designed to rate your comprehension of academic-style writing. Students are expected to quickly read a large portion of text and then answer questions regarding the content. Students are not expected to understand everything that they read, as they are not given enough time to thoroughly read the...
Every language has words that are difficult to pronounce, and depending on your mother tongue, some sounds and letters might be more difficult to say than others. But there are some words in the English language that many learners have difficulty with regardless of their linguistic background. Do you know how to pronounce these words? Click...
