by Olivia Augustin | Sep 25, 2026 | Confidence & Fluency
In Austria, Kreuz means two things. A cross, the two perpendicular sticks. And your back, because that is where Jesus is assumed to have carried one. Which is why Austrians call back pain Kreuzweh. So when I moved to the Netherlands, I asked a Dutch friend whether...
by Olivia Augustin | Sep 1, 2026 | Confidence & Fluency
You passed C1. You run meetings in English. You write reports that nobody sends back with questions. So why did Tuesday’s call still go sideways?* Let me answer that with a story where the language wasn’t even English. I couldn’t make myself...
by Olivia Augustin | Aug 24, 2026 | Confidence & Fluency
Did you know that the word “language” comes from the French word for tongue? “A foreign tongue” still means “a foreign language” today. Turns out, people have always known that speaking clearly is basically the whole job....
by Olivia Augustin | Aug 14, 2026 | Technical English
I was taught proper German grammar at home. By the time I got to primary school in Tyrol, I knew some of the rules better than my teacher did. I corrected her. More than once. It annoyed her (also more than once). What I didn’t realise growing up was that...
by Olivia Augustin | Aug 10, 2026 | Technical English
Quick answer: skip the passive voice in technical English. It’s harder to interpret for non-native readers, and in engineering, a misread instruction isn’t just an awkward sentence. It’s a safety risk. You probably learned the opposite at school....
