What Actually Changes When We Switch Languages People who use more than one language sometimes describe a curious experience: “I am different when I speak English.” Or German. Or Spanish. Or the language they learned after childhood. They may say that they become more direct in one language, quieter in another, funnier in one, more […]
Tymur LevitinIf both expressions can describe the same payment, why does English have both? The answer is not simply “grammar.” It is about what the speaker chooses to foreground. You are standing at a checkout. The cashier tells you the total. You want to use your card. What do you say? Can I pay by card? […]
Tymur Levitin
Author’s Column by Tymur Levitin Language learners are usually taught that mistakes are grammatical. But one of the biggest shocks for adult students comes later — when they finally build a sentence that is grammatically correct, logically precise, understandable… and native speakers still react in a strange way. Not because they don’t understand. Because they […]
Tymur Levitin
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”Shakespeare understood what most textbooks don’t: we speak to play roles.And sometimes, saying the wrong line can cost you more than a grade — it can cost you your safety, your dignity, or even your life. I’m not here to dramatize. I’m here […]
Tymur Levitin
Author’s Column by Tymur Levitin — Language, Meaning & Cultural Reality “A teacher doesn’t always say what’s nice — he says what’s necessary.” 🔹 Introduction Once upon a time, a backroom boy was a figure of respect. He was the genius in the shadows — a quiet mind behind great inventions, the strategist no one […]
Tymur Levitin
From the series “The Language That Seems Not to Exist” Author: Tymur Levitin — Founder, Director, and Head Teacher at Levitin Language School / Start Language School by Tymur Levitin🎓 Teacher’s page → Tymur Levitin🌍 Choose your language 1) What we’re really talking about (and why it matters) The form you’ll meet varies by language: […]
Tymur Levitin
Choose your language TL;DR: Discourse = language in a real situation (who speaks, to whom, where, why, and with what effect).Discourse analysis = a practical way to unpack how meaning is created beyond words: intention, tone, roles, background knowledge, power, setting—everything that makes the same sentence mean different things. A one-minute story You tell a […]
Tymur Levitin
